Chapter Sixteen
It was Reuben who moved like a predator, circling Taurus with calculated expertise. Gone was the gentleman who’d kissed me. He was replaced by someone I barely recognized. His eyes held no mercy, no acknowledgment that his opponent was anything more than an obstacle to his next victory.
Taurus bellowed with fear, then charged, his massive hooves beneath his tree-trunk legs thundering against the canvas.
But Reuben was already gone, dancing away with fluid grace.
The crowd roared their approval as he landed a brutal combination to the bull’s ribs.
I could hear Taurus’ labored breathing, the soft whimpers he tried to suppress.
But Taurus wasn’t going down easily. Even bloodied, he fought back with desperate fury, his massive fists connecting with sickening thuds. The crowd screamed their approval. This was what they’d paid to see.
Then it happened. Taurus caught Reuben off guard, his horn tearing through Reuben’s shoulder with a wet, brutal sound. Blood sprayed across the canvas as Reuben staggered, his face going white with shock and pain.
My breath caught, my heart thundering in my ears.
My emotions were so scrambled, I didn’t know how to think, react or feel.
Reuben had been kind to me, had given me shelter and hidden me from Adam.
He’d saved me from men who’d been about to do the unthinkable to me.
But this man, this fighter, he wasn’t the Reuben I knew.
So why did the crowd recognize him and his violence, his sadistic need to hurt and injure someone—something—else? It seemed he truly was a fighter, a champion, a man who’d do anything to win no matter who or what he hurt.
Taurus paused. Instead of pressing his advantage, instead of finishing what the crowd demanded, his eyes met Reuben’s and something passed between them. Understanding, maybe even regret. Carefully, almost gently, Taurus pulled back, his horn sliding free.
He retreated to the opposite corner, his two hooves clattering, leaving Reuben wounded but alive.
I looked around frantically. Had no one else noticed Taurus’ mercy? The crowd was still roaring, but if they’d seen Taurus’ compassionate humanity, they took it as weakness. Another flaw to exploit. Another reason to cheer when he inevitably fell.
My lip curled in disgust. What was I doing here? I didn’t belong among these people who mistook empathy for weakness, who turned suffering into entertainment.
“Come on, Chief,” someone screamed behind me. “Break the freak!”
The words hit me like a physical blow. That was what I’d been called too, by the very scientists who’d created me.
Reuben ignored his wound, ignored his opponent’s obvious kindness, and stalked toward him before landing another vicious hit.
I squeezed my eyes shut as Taurus’ pain became my pain, the word freak echoing in my ears.
And suddenly I wasn’t in the arena anymore, I was somewhere else entirely.
I was back in my cell at the facility, the antiseptic smell of medical supplies strong in my nostrils, my skin still screaming from where they’d shocked me with live electricity.
Testing my pain threshold, they’d called it.
Measuring my healing rate via nasty electrical burns.
Adam’s hands had been so careful as he’d cleaned the wounds, his jaw tight with barely controlled rage. “They won’t do this to you again,” he’d whispered, his voice rough. “I won't let them.”
But he had let them. Just like Reuben was letting this violence happen now.
The crowd’s bloodthirsty cheers snapped me back to the present just as Reuben delivered a devastating uppercut to Taurus’ unprotected jaw. Taurus crashed to the canvas, that keening sound rising to a wail that made my heart shatter.
I was moving before I realized it, pushing past Seymour’s startled protests before racing down the stairs and climbing through the ropes.
The crowd fell silent as I dropped to my knees beside Taurus, gathering his massive head in my lap.
His bull eyes rolled up to meet mine, and I saw the intelligence there, the gratitude, the relief that someone finally saw him as more than a monster.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, stroking the tufts of his curling dark hair. “I see you.”
When I looked up, Reuben was staring at me with eyes I’d never seen before. Cold. Calculating. The crowd's champion who’d just been robbed of his moment of glory.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded in a fierce undertone.
A woman in the front row threw her pink, lacy thong onto the canvas, her flushed face and wild eyes promising things that made my stomach churn.
“Chief! You magnificent bastard!” She was practically panting, caught up in the intoxicating mix of violence and victory. “Forget about her. I’m all yours!”
I looked away. All I could see was the creature bleeding in my arms, and the man I thought I knew standing over us both like a conqueror.
Seymour leaned his upper body through the ropes, Reuben’s fight robe in his hands. He looked up at Reuben, and even through the crowds cheering and hollering I heard him explain. “I tried to stop her—“
Reuben put a hand up, cutting off his words. Then stalking toward him, he snatched his robe back and pulled it over his bloodied, sweat-sheened body.
A tiny man with a surprisingly booming voice jumped into the ring, his diminutive size a sharp contrast to the massive competitors. “And the winner is,” he grabbed Reuben’s arm, hoisting it high, “Chief!”
I blocked out the noise, the pomp and ceremony, my stomach curdling with disgust. This was worse than the facility. At least there, they’d pretended it was science. Here, people openly preyed on inhuman differences for profit and sport.
Reuben turned to the crowd, a trophy pressed into one hand before he raised both arms. For a moment he forgot about me entirely, soaking up the adulation and praise from the crowd, many of whom had won big thanks to his victory.
Then his eyes softened and he bent down, his roughened hand on my shoulder. “Come on, I’m taking you away from here. This clearly isn’t your scene.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving Taurus.”
Reuben sighed, obviously annoyed by what he saw as weakness and by the fact other women would be throwing themselves at him by now. “He’ll be taken care of by his benefactor...his master.”
I swallowed hard. Master. That was what I used to call Adam. Whoever bought us automatically became our master—or mistress—it was what we’d been brainwashed into believing, and clearly what Taurus still believed. Humans would always be the master, GMs the asset.
Reuben’s gaze softened as he added, “He’s worth a fortune. Believe me, he’ll be fine.”
Reuben pulled me away, and I reluctantly allowed it, but I felt Taurus’ eyes on me as I slipped through the ropes. He had nothing on the woman who coveted Reuben. She glared a hole in my back as the announcer retrieved her thong and handed it back to her with dark laughter from the crowd.
Then I was following Reuben back through the tunnels, the scent of decay and blood making my stomach churn. I glanced up at his stony-face. “How many others like Taurus have you fought?”
“Does it matter?” His voice was cold. “That creature isn’t human, it’s a miscreation. You showed it compassion when you should have shown it disgust.” He shoved open the door and I stepped past him with revulsion crawling through my veins.
I spun around to face him, the lights from inside the tunnels illuminating Reuben’s grim face. I glared. “That man showed you compassion when he could have finished you. He is more human than you’ll ever be.”
Reuben’s face darkened. “Did I not show you compassion when I stopped those men in the alleyway from raping you—half of whom are still missing without a trace? Did I not show compassion by offering you shelter, by feeding and clothing you?”
His black SUV pulled up, the driver jumping out to open the back door.
Reuben held his trophy in one hand as he put his free arm across the opening, stopping me from getting inside the vehicle.
That was when I noticed the deep puncture in his shoulder that leaked with blood, the wound Taurus had given him in self-defense.
Concern for a moment pushed aside all other emotion. “You really need to take care of that,” I said, nodding toward his bloodied puncture. He was only human, after all, and not infallible to injuries.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve survived a lot worse.”
I shook my head. “Why would you—“
“You make me feel like shit for fighting, for winning, for creating a life for myself.” His nostrils flared. “But there are far worse out there than me.” He chuckled darkly. “Did you know Adam is not only an investor, but one of the head scientists who created fucked-up creatures just like Taurus?”
The world tilted around me. Of course I knew. Though Adam was too young to have created me, it hadn’t stopped him from creating others just like me, or from deciding I was his GM—his asset—one he’d admired so much he’d paid top dollar to take me from the facility to his home.
It’d been just another prison. That I’d also considered it my first real home—if only I’d had the choice to stay there—still lingered like a shadow in the back of my mind.
I pushed past Reuben’s arm and climbed into the car, wondering if I’d ever trust another man again in my life. Reuben followed me, settling into the plush leather seat as the driver got in and started the engine.
Reuben opened a compartment in the back and popped open a bottle of champagne, the cork flying with a celebratory pop that made my stomach turn. He poured the golden liquid into his trophy, then took a long drink before offering it to me.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said, leaning away. “I can’t celebrate what you did.”
“You’re being dramatic.” He took another sip from the trophy, his eyes flinty. “You’ll learn the real world doesn’t work on fairy tale morals. That thing back there is a commodity, nothing more. And frankly, watching you coddle it was pathetic.”
I inhaled sharply, shocked to the core by his lack of empathy, his careless cruelty. I thought I’d grown immune to barbed comments, but clearly not when it came from a man I liked. I looked away, to the darkness outside the window, to the shadowy shapes of broken down machinery and aged buildings.
He sighed heavily. “Look, I didn’t mean that how it sounded.” He put down the trophy and leaned closer, watching me carefully as I turned slowly back to face him. “You’re not like other women, I get that. It’s one of the things I admire most about you.”
A hot flush swept through me, followed immediately by coldness. If he had any idea of the wings I hid, of the DNA I had, he wouldn’t be looking at me for forgiveness, he’d look at me with the same disgust he’d reserved for Taurus.
“Taurus mattered,” I said fiercely.
Reuben blinked, then said, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ve been blinded to the truth for so long I can’t see through the veil anymore.” He sent me a strained smile. “Maybe you’re taking off my rose-colored glasses.”
I frowned. I had no idea what he meant. But something about the way he said it felt rehearsed, like he’d used similar lines before. My fingers curled into fists on my lap. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, I just wish I could pinpoint exactly what that was.
He paused, seeming to gather himself before continuing, as if what he was about to say was difficult to admit. “I’ve been living on the streets for so long, gotten so street tough and fight-hardened, somewhere along the way I guess I’ve forgotten how to be compassionate.”
He looked down at his hands, the picture of a man confronting hard truths about himself.
“It’s even worse inside the ring. My survival instincts along with the noise and adrenaline, it’s like a shot of insanity straight to the brain.
” He pushed a hand through his already spiked hair.
“Honestly, you’re the only woman I’ve known who makes me want to be different. ”
He sounded genuine, regretful. But I’d seen him in the fight ring.
The way he’d looked at Taurus with such cold dismissal, the ease with which he’d switched from tender to brutal.
It made it hard to believe anything he said now, made me question absolutely everything.
Yet part of me still wanted to believe this version of him was real.
“You’re not just saying what I want to hear? ”
He inhaled sharply. “Do I look like a man with a silver tongue?” He snorted. “I’ve never had to talk my way into someone’s life before, I’ve never needed to.”
My stomach clenched as I recalled the woman who’d thrown her thong into the ring. Little wonder Reuben used women for physical release, they were literally clamoring to get underneath him.
His piercing blue eyes turned to me, holding my gaze with an intensity that made it hard to look away. “You do believe me, don’t you? Bella, please say you’ll forgive me.”
The way he said it made me feel like the wrong answer would break something fragile between us.
I wanted to push back doubts, to find excuses for what I’d seen.
He was a fighter, a man of the streets who’d learned to survive using his fists and his body.
Of course he’d do whatever was necessary to get to the top, including fighting people who weren’t ordinary.
And though the explanations felt thin, I needed them to be true. I couldn’t handle another betrayal. It was bad enough Adam had broken me in ways I’d yet to understand. I nodded slowly. “I guess I do.” The words tasted uncertain on my tongue.
“You guess?” He exhaled. “Looks like I’m going to have to work hard to rebuild your trust.”
“I’m not going to lie—you really will. I don’t trust easily.”
He reached out and clutched my hand. “I’ll do whatever is needed to regain it.”
Something inside me melted just a little and I managed a smile before looking out at the bright lights, the taller, straighter buildings. “Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you to a luxury hotel.” A satisfied smile flashed across his face. “Where you’ll be hidden in plain sight.”