Fifteen
FIFTEEN
Mia
NAUSEA FLOODED MY gut as the huge alpha slammed a vicious punch into Emiel’s jaw, staggering him. The crowd around us roared with excitement and bloodlust as flecks of red sprayed from Emiel’s mouth.
My knuckles ground together painfully beneath the force of Luca’s grip on my hand. He was shaking... violent, full-body tremors that transmitted to me through the contact.
In the cage, Emiel got his feet under him, setting himself in a fighting stance only to get hit again—this time with a punishing body blow that doubled him over. Clammy panic rushed through my veins, as abrupt and shocking as a plunge into icy water. What was I doing in this place, surrounded by rough alphas and betas working themselves into a frenzy over a display of mindless violence?
Why in god’s name had Luca thought that us being here would be safe, or remotely sane ?
I knew the answer, though. He was here because he was frightened for Emiel, and I was here because he hadn’t felt like there was anyone else he could ask.
I was frightened for Emiel, too—and I’d barely met the man. He was getting beaten to a pulp, staggering around the cage with a dead-eyed expression. I couldn’t tell if he wasn’t landing any blows of his own because he was overmatched and disoriented, or because he wasn’t trying .
What the hell was going on with this crazy pack I’d stumbled into?
I grabbed Luca’s tightly clenched hand between both of mine, crowding close against him in a subconscious need for physical comfort as my omega instincts screamed that this place was dangerous ... that we needed to somehow get Emiel and get away before something terrible happened.
My head swam beneath the force of the churning pheromone cocktail around us. I felt like I might throw up.
In the cage, Emiel blocked a punch only to go down beneath a brutal kick to the side of the knee, and my heart skipped a beat. Luca flinched as though he’d physically felt the blow.
Rather than take advantage of his opponent’s fall, the massive alpha turned to play to the crowd—letting out a roar and thumping his fists against his chest, muscles bulging and slick with sweat. Emiel rolled to his feet. Blood spattered his temple and chin. His left eye looked swollen and red.
But something had changed. His blank, dead expression had shifted into something more focused. There was anger in the set of his jaw... in the glint of his dark gaze.
His opponent strutted around the cage perimeter until they were facing each other once more. Emiel’s lips pulled back in a sharp, predatory grin as the other alpha sneered at him, arrogantly gesturing at him to attack.
Emiel just stood there, not moving even as the crowd howled its displeasure at the lull in the fight. His opponent’s sneer turned to a look of irritation. With that same unlikely speed as before, he lunged forward and caught Emiel in the ribs, taking a jab to the jaw in the process. I was pretty sure it was the first real hit Emiel had managed.
Again and again, the big alpha came after Emiel, dealing punches and kicks while taking minimal damage in return.
I was shaking as badly as Luca. How much punishment could Emiel absorb before he went down and stayed down? The memory of the unconscious loser from the first fight being dragged out of the cage made me shudder with dread. Were there medics here? Would ambulances even come to a place like this if someone called 911?
Beside me, Luca drew in a sharp breath. I forced myself to refocus on what was happening in the cage. Emiel’s opponent had gone for him again, but his movements had grown noticeably slower than before.
Emiel dodged the kick and spun past the other alpha, managing to land a punch to his kidney before putting distance between them. His opponent snarled and followed him, trying to trap Emiel in the corner.
I hadn’t imagined things. The larger alpha was slowing down, his movements growing cumbersome as Emiel lured him into lunge after lunge. Bruises were blooming across Emiel’s torso and face, but he was landing more blows as his opponent tired.
Enraged, the huge alpha bellowed like a bull and charged, shoulder down. I gasped as both of them crashed to the mat, with Emiel pinned on the bottom. His opponent continued to roar out his anger, driving blows into Emiel’s head and chest.
I was shouting now, too—wordless cries of denial as the punches rained down.
Emiel heaved and twisted. It was too fast for me to see exactly how he did it, but suddenly his legs were tangled around the larger alpha’s thigh and torso, and instead of being pinned beneath him, Emiel was snaking around his upper body.
Luca made a sharp noise of surprise, our fingernails digging into each other’s hands. Emiel got fully behind his opponent and flung a muscular arm around his neck, bracing his forearm against his opposite bicep to lock the chokehold in place. The larger alpha howled, slapping ineffectually behind himself with both hands—trying to dislodge Emiel from his back.
The look on Emiel’s face was frightening in its single-minded, vicious intensity. Something about that expression of righteous vengeance burrowed into my gut, calling to deeply buried instincts that dreamed of punishing every person who had ever wronged me.
I physically staggered back a step in reaction, bumping into the people pressed up behind me and drawing a curse and an irritable shove. By the time I’d recovered myself, steadying my legs, Emiel’s opponent had gone limp in his grasp. The crowd went wild as the bell clanged, marking the end of the fight, and several people clambered into the cage.
They descended on Emiel as though they expected to have to pull him off the other man by force, but he’d already let go and was rising to unsteady feet.
The announcer’s voice cut across the crowd’s cheering and booing. “ And the winner—still undefeated—is... Hamilton! ”
One of the men in white shirts who’d hurried in to make sure Emiel didn’t kill his opponent grabbed his wrist instead, raising his arm over his head in victory. Emiel’s expression was already sliding back into blankness as the man held his arm aloft...but then his listless gaze slid over Luca and me and stuck there. Shocked surprise colored his bruised and battered features.
“Time to go,” Luca said, speaking directly into my ear to be heard over the noise. He still sounded shaky, but his grip on my hand was firm as he tugged me deeper into the crowd, heading back the way we’d come in.
I felt like I was experiencing emotional whiplash. We weren’t going to stay and make sure Emiel was all right? Because he sure as hell hadn’t looked all right.
The jostling was twice as bad as when we’d first arrived and pushed ourselves to the front of the crowd so we could see. From the snippets of conversation I caught around us, a lot of people weren’t happy that they’d bet on the big guy and lost all their money.
The crowd thinned out at the edges, the noise gradually dying down as we reached the derelict factory floor with its abandoned, rusting machinery.
“He can’t keep doing this,” Luca was muttering, as though to himself. “ Jesus fuck , he’s going to get himself killed .”
I was hopelessly disoriented in the confusing space, still mired in the stale remnants of the adrenaline dump from the fight, but I vaguely recognized the dingy corridor we turned into as the one leading to the entrance.
We’d just turned another corner when two alphas stepped away from the walls, blocking our progress. Luca jolted to a halt, his scent spiking with an unpleasant miasma of fear. He whirled around as though to retreat, tugging me with him—but two more men had stepped out to block our way, hemming us in.
My pulse galloped into triple-time as Luca froze, paralyzed into immobility. One of the alphas stepped forward, grabbing him by the chin. The man was tall, dark haired, and olive skinned, with a cruel hook of a nose and a scar running down his cheek. The scent of diesel and hot steel rolled off of him, sharp and choking.
“So, it is you,” the alpha said. “Thought I recognized you, you good-for-nothing little whore.”
“ Don’t touch me .” Luca jerked backward, breaking the contact and retreating until his back hit the mildewed concrete wall. I followed, instinctively wanting as much distance separating us from these people as possible. Of course, all we accomplished was to trap ourselves further as they gathered around us in a half circle.
The alpha snorted, and a couple of the others laughed. Luca steeled himself and took a step forward, herding me behind him so his body was between me and the four men. Heart pounding, I jammed my hands in the front pocket of my hoodie and huddled against the wall, tense and watchful.
“Aww, don’t be like that, baby.” The alpha mock-pouted at him. Then his expression hardened. “Blaze still wants you back, you know.”
“Blaze can go fuck himself,” Luca spat, the vicious words doing nothing to hide the terror leaking into his sweet, summer-meadow scent.
“Getting away from your crew isn’t as easy as you seem to think it is, cunt .” Abruptly, all the mock gentleness left the alpha’s voice. He grabbed for Luca’s arm.
With panic clawing at my throat, I pulled out the pepper spray I’d been holding hidden in my pocket and ducked out from behind Luca, spraying it directly in the alpha’s eyes.
He let out an angry shout, stumbling back and wiping frantically at his face. The stinging nip of capsaicin in the air prickled at my nose and lips, but the other three men were already lunging for us. Frantically, I whipped the little canister around toward the closest one and thumbed the trigger.
It sputtered, refusing to spray—a few weak droplets of the virulent orange liquid splattering onto the floor before the nozzle clogged completely. Luca shouted something, trying once again to get me behind him—even as heavy hands landed on both of us.