Chapter 6
Six
Neil
Frozen in place, I simply stare at the alpha— my alpha, apparently. He holds my gaze, something like hope flickering behind his eyes—there and gone again just as quickly—as the initial stage of the fated mate bond clicks into place and realigns everything I thought I knew.
The world around me fades away until all that’s left is the driving need to go to him, to be at his side, to—
“Neil!” Raquel’s voice breaks me out of the weird trance-like state locking me in place, and I jolt. Her fingers dig into my upper arm as she steps up next to me. “What the hell are you doing?”
I cough and rub my knuckles against my sternum, using the slight pain to distract myself from that instinctual pull toward the alpha. As much as crossing the ring and curling up with him would appease my wolf and my screaming instincts, now is definitely not the time.
And, as it stands, I don’t know if it ever will be the time. Chances are, neither one of us will leave this ring alive, and I don’t see a happy ending for us. Not now. Not like this.
Isn’t this just my luck?
My life so far hasn’t exactly been spectacular, but I never thought fate could be so cruel as to lead me to my fated mate just in time for both of us to die.
Raquel gently shakes my arm, her voice softer. “Neil? What’s going on? You’re scaring me.”
“Do any of those fanfics you read talk about fated mates?” I ask, giving her a wan smile.
“Um, yeah?” She swivels her head, glancing from the alpha to me and back again. “Are you saying…?”
“Yup,” I say, letting out a wry chuckle as her eyes meet mine. “It turns out the poor beast getting his ass kicked over there is my fated mate.”
Her breath hitches. “But… does that mean if he dies, you do too?”
“No,” I say. “It doesn’t work like that. At least not when the bond hasn’t been completed.”
And, given the current situation, this alpha and I will never have that chance to do that.
A sudden grief overwhelms me and my wolf whines, mourning the loss of something I’ll never have, a kind of peace and happiness I’ll never know.
For all that finding my fated mate was the last thing I ever expected to happen—much less under these circumstances—losing that potential future feels like having my heart ripped out.
The speaker system crackles to life again. “Sorry, folks. It seems our champion isn’t having a good day, but Alpha Doyle’s thought up a way to make things a little more interesting for you all.”
Of course he has.
“In case your hearing isn’t as good as the mics in the ring, we’ve had an interesting new development,” says Doyle’s voice over the speaker, the words sending a shiver of apprehension down my spine.
“In a completely unexpected turn of events, it seems our champion has found his fated mate in the cowardly beta who hasn’t yet seen fit to join in on the fight. ”
Horror washes over me, my entire body going cold. I didn’t consider the idea that anyone outside the ring might hear me, and now Doyle has even more ammunition against both me and the alpha. There aren’t many ways this situation can get worse, but I’m sure Doyle will manage.
Around half the crowd goes silent—likely the shifters who have a better idea of what’s going on—and the other half breaks out into confused whispers.
“For our guests who may not understand the implications of that, let’s just say it’s going to be in the mongrel’s best interests to actually put up a fight.
” The last few words are laced with a poorly hidden rage.
“To that end, I’m going to add a special twist in honor of the happy couple.
” He chuckles, the sound more malicious than amused.
“The fighter who kills the human will be granted one request, be it money, power, or simply to spare the life of his fated mate.”
Well, that’s certainly creative. And a little ingenious. The new rule paints a target on Raquel and forces me to fight, possibly against my own fated mate, if I want to protect her.
“Shit,” mutters Raquel.
“My thoughts exactly.” I swallow. “No more standing back and waiting to see how things play out. It’s time to go on the offensive.”
I strip off my suit jacket and toss it to the ground, but before I can get my shirt off, all hell breaks loose.
As if a switch has flipped, the previously placid alpha charges the larger gray wolf and smashes him into the wall.
The impact is accompanied by a painful-sounding crack and the beta yelps, collapsing to the ground and panting heavily—injured but alive.
The second beta isn’t so lucky.
The alpha slams into the smaller wolf, knocking him to the ground, then pounces and wraps his jaws around the beta’s unprotected neck.
Without pause, the alpha shakes his head, ripping into the beta’s throat.
The brown wolf gurgles and blood arcs into the air, spraying across the concrete and splattering on the wall of the ring.
The alpha pauses there for a beat, sides heaving, gore dripping from his teeth and his snout covered with blood, then he slowly turns his head to stare at me.
A chill runs down my spine.
The alpha’s eyes are blank and empty, the earlier sadness gone, along with, it seems, any personality at all. He may have come across as a little feral before, but now I’m seeing what that word truly means. And it’s more than a little terrifying.
The closest I’ve ever come to a feral shifter is when I fought my dad, and he was more drunk than anything else, his reflexes slower and his actions easier to predict. The alpha here in the ring is something completely different.
He’s almost beautiful in his savagery, his movements fluid as he leans down and grips the dead beta’s foreleg, then whips his head, tossing the body into the chain-link dome above. A shower of sparks cascade from the point of impact and the body jerks in a horrific parody of life.
And the audience loves it, cheering as the sickly smell of burning fur spreads through the air.
The alpha turns his rage on the crowd and snarls, jumping and lunging toward the chain link without touching it. The people closest to the dome jerk backward, a few of them putting on affronted expressions as if shocked the alpha would dare to be so uncivilized as to attack the audience.
As if the blood and death weren’t solely for their entertainment.
The surviving beta takes advantage of the alpha’s distraction and heads toward me and Raquel, teeth bared. He doesn’t make it far.
The alpha whirls around, lets out a low, rumbling growl, then runs at the beta, his head lowered as he crashes into the gray wolf’s side, sending him careening into the wall again. The beta manages to keep his feet this time, but the alpha bats at him with one large paw and slams him to the ground.
The gray wolf lets out a whine. A plea for mercy, maybe, or a show of submission?
Either way, it doesn’t matter. The alpha drags his claws down the other wolf’s belly and a wet pile of things I don’t really want to identify spills out onto the concrete.
It still takes another swipe of claws for the beta to go still.
The alpha nudges the body with his nose as if checking to make sure it’s dead before turning that dark gaze on me.
My heart races in my chest and sweat beads at my brows as a kind of animal fear comes over me.
That bloody, ragged wolf might be my fated mate, but I have no idea how much of the human side of him is left behind those empty eyes.
Between fight, flight, and freeze, my body has picked the latter, my legs locking in place as if encased in a block of cement.
I’m not exactly scared of him, but I’m certainly wary.
Very wary.
“What do we do?” asks Raquel in a low whisper, biting at her lower lip nervously.
“Honestly?” I let out a shaky, half-hysterical laugh. “I have no clue. It isn’t like I’ve ever been in this position before. I’d try appealing to his human side if I thought there was even a minuscule chance that the wolf isn’t in complete control right now.”
“What if you shifted? Would that, I don’t know, calm him down?”
“Maybe?” I shrug. “But shifting could also make everything worse. He’ll scent me as an omega instantly, and I have no idea what kind of instincts that might bring out when he’s in this state. I mean, my dad tried to kill me when he found out I’m an omega.”
“I think that was more about your dad being an asshole.”
“True, but it’s not really a risk I’m willing to take right now. Let’s just wait and see what he does and we’ll figure something out from there.”
The alpha takes a step toward us, and I widen my stance, holding my arms out to try to block Raquel.
It’s not very effective. I’m not that much bigger than my friend, and if the alpha wants to go through me, he’ll have no problem doing it.
I’ll just have to hope somewhere in his mind he understands I’m not his enemy, but I’m not going to let him hurt my friend.
Raquel inhales shakily, her hands digging into my shoulders. I take a slow step backward, moving us so her back is once again pressed flat against the wall.
The alpha continues forward, his eyes riveted on me with an intense, single-minded focus. He has a slight limp in his step from where the beta hamstringed him earlier, but thanks to shifter healing, the injury is nearly gone and he’s able to bear weight on the leg.
As he draws closer, I realize he’s even bigger than I thought, his head about chest level with me in his wolf form.
Under the blood on his snout, I can make out more crisscrossing scars, and his ribs are way more visible than they should be for an animal his size.
“Champion” or not, it’s clear he’s suffered years of abuse, whether inside the ring or out.
He stops mere feet from me, sitting back on his haunches and cocking his head to the side as if asking permission to come closer.
That’s a good sign at least, right?
I offer up a small smile and hold my hand out.
On a normal day, inviting a blood-covered alpha wolf who just killed two people to come closer would be a bad idea.
But today… what’s the worst that could happen?
He either going to back down or he’s going to kill me trying to get to Raquel.
There’s not going to be any in-between, and I think it’s worth the risk.
He meets my gaze and the blank look in his eyes retreats a bit, replaced with that deep sadness from earlier.
My wolf keens at the sight of his despair, his hopelessness.
This is my fated mate, broken and bloody as he is, and I hate that I haven’t been there to protect him from all the pain the world has put on his shoulders.
The alpha stays seated, but leans forward, inching closer to my outstretched hand. He sniffs at the tips of my trembling fingers, then closes his eyes and pushes his head into my palm as if asking for pets. Which I guess he kind of is.
“Good boy,” I say softly, running my palm over his filthy fur.