I preen a little under the praise, standing straighter.
Soren narrows his eyes before he rumbles out, “Why would you allow your mate to risk her neck time and time again? You don’t care that she could die?”
There are several menacing sounds around me as the men in the crowd wait to see what Kahl will do at the blatant disrespect. It wasn’t a challenge, but it was an insult for damn sure.
Kahl strums his fingers on my shoulder. “First off, gross. She’s my sister. Second, it makes her happy,” he states, not sounding annoyed in the slightest like I expected. “And watching the men vying for her attention get crushed beneath her feet makesmehappy. Win-win scenario.”
I still, because I have never once heard one of my brothers mention anything about the men running in the races with me were trying to get on my radar. I start to relax as I realize it doesn’t matter, because they’ve obviously done a piss poor job of it if I couldn’t even tell you half of their names or noticed them missing from town afterward.
“I take it you’re the leader around here?” Caius asks, changing the subject before things can escalate.
Kahl scoffs. “Fuck no. Ezra just can’t go five minutes without getting into trouble and a buddy of mine called when he saw mountain man here touching her on the camera feed. Care to explain what was up with that?”
Soren awkwardly clears his throat. “I thought she might be hurt. Weren’t you watching the race?”
Kahl ruffles the top of my hair and I bat his hand away in annoyance. “Nah, I had work to finish up. Not like I didn’t know she’d win.”
I shove his shoulder in annoyance, but he doesn’t budge. Instead, it puts me a step closer towards Caius, and Kahl wastes no time wrapping a hand around my wrist and tugging me back, plastering my back to his front. He wraps an arm across my collar bone and rests his chin on the top of my head while I huff in annoyance.
“Dick. You missed my amazing leap of certain death. It was badass to behold.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, I’m sure you looked like a wheezing monkey,” he counters instantly. “We’ll catch it on the replay later just so I can see your face when you see I’m right.”
Caius starts to walk away, but Soren hesitates before following. “See you around, Ezra.”
Kahl’s arm tightens imperceptibly on my collar. “Plan on staying long, losers?” he asks lightly.
Caius stops to wait for Soren. “Moved here a few days ago. No better way to get a feel for a town than a run through the Gauntlet.”
I try to suppress my shudder of excitement at the prospect. “You’re frequent fliers?”
Most of them quit after the first maiming if they don’t end up dead. There are only a handful of men around here that run nearly every race with me, and even then, they’ve never won since I started; just survived.
Caius shrugs a single shoulder. “Suppose so. Though with you in the running, what’s the point of signing up for the next?” he points out like the wise man he is.
I try to fight the grin that wants to take over my face at the prospect of running against them again. I’m saved from answering when Kaiden shows up, looking ten shades of pissed off.
“Fuck you two assholes doing, touching my sister?” he spits, coming to stand beside Kahl and I.
Caius rolls his eyes and walks away, Soren shooting frequent looks over his shoulder as he follows his friend. “Nice to meet you, Ezra.”
I wave. “Pleasure kicking your ass, Soren. Caius.” I tip my imaginary hat to them.
My brothers get all huffy and drag me off, the crowd parting respectfully. My brothers aren’t leaders, but they’re the ‘protectors’ of the area’s only female until I pick my mates. Honestly, if Soren and Caius had tried anything, anyone in the crowd would have intervened on principle. Not that they would have had the need, because I wasn’t joking about kicking their asses.
Only one person in my entire life had the balls to not understand no meant no, and I made sure it was a lesson he would never forget. When my brothers found out though, they had far less mercy than I did, tearing the asshole apart and spitting on his corpse. The crowd praised the triplets for weeks.
That was when I started running the gauntlets, some part of me needing to prove to these strangers whose opinions don’t truly matter that I didn’t need protecting. I mean fuck, they don’t even get their powers unless they mate. What sane man wouldn’t fear a chick that has bigger balls than they do, when hers are made of fire?
