Chapter 14
chapter
fourteen
If Alexander wasn’t in survival mode, he would be deeply annoyed by all the cheering dullards in the stands. Most of them were even humans, so they had no excuse for their behavior.
But he was being stared down by a fully shifted werewolf in the middle of an inescapable arena. Annoyance fell far down his list of priorities.
Tobias—the wolf that was once Tobias—growled, his eyes huge and glowing gold. There was nothing of the dubiously sweet wolf Alexander had encountered in his apartment, only bloodlust.
Alexander gripped his jawbone knife tighter and glanced at the uppermost seats. Muzzle was taking his place, smoking a cigar and stroking his amulet with an eager expression Alexander would like to slice off his face.
But that wasn’t what Alexander was worried about. He was much more concerned about Josh, who was at the front of the lower stands and looked as if he would like to melt into the concrete.
Tobias took a threatening step forward. His paw was the size of Alexander’s head. For such an obvious threat, Alexander could not help but remember Tobias during his natural transformation, oddly joyous and playful.
“Don’t make me do this,” he told Tobias. He meant to sound commanding, but it came out thin and desperate instead.
Tobias growled louder.
“Shit,” Alexander whispered. He dug a hand into his other pocket, grabbing the explosive he had wrestled from Josh when he was being led into the arena.
He had overpowered Josh so quickly it made him think that Muzzle instructed Josh to bring him down so Alexander could hurt him.
But then another pack member had arrived to shove Alexander into the arena properly, and Alexander had hidden the explosive until the doors slammed closed.
He had the explosive and the trigger. Now he just needed to click them together and find some way to use it to get them out of here.
Get me out of here, Alexander corrected. Tobias is lost. Even if he wasn’t, his soul is dust. It would be nonsensical to die for him.
It didn’t feel convincing, even with Tobias feral and snarling in front of him. The idea of leaving Tobias to suffer the punishments of his alpha sounded almost as awful as killing him himself. Soul or no soul.
Tobias crouched, ready to spring. The crowd’s cheering swelled.
“I don’t want to do this,” Alexander confessed. He pulled the explosive out, hiding it from the crowd with his hand. “But I…I will do this.”
Tobias lunged at him.
Alexander swore and attempted to shove the red trigger into the explosive. But before he could click it into place, Tobias collided with him and slammed him into the ground.
He kept hold of the explosive and even his knife. But the trigger clattered to the concrete, rolling out of reach.
“Shit,” Alexander yelled. He swung his knife up. Not toward the throat, as his training instructed. But along Tobias’s shoulder, making the wolf reel back with a yelp.
You even swapped out a stab wound for a slash, Alexander thought, appalled. It’s like you’re not even trying to survive!
He sprinted for the trigger. It was the only piece of color in the gray arena, and thankfully easy to spot as it rolled to a stop next to the rear wall.
But Tobias was faster.
Alexander bent down to reach for the trigger, only for a giant paw to slam into his back and pin him to the concrete.
The crowd cheered louder. Alexander let his spite for them fuel him as he reached desperately for the trigger with one hand and twisted his knife up with the other, ready to strike.
Tobias’s other paw thumped down on Alexander’s knife hand, crushing his blade to the ground.
Alexander cried out in frustration. He stretched further toward the trigger, his fingertips brushing the plastic. It wasn’t far enough. He was going to be devoured, cut down during a failed hunt, he was going to let his family down a final time in death.
He refused to close his eyes as Tobias’s hot breath clouded over his head. He would die a true hunter, brave and defiant to the end.
But the further he stretched, the more he realized something strange:
He was still alive.
He twisted to stare at Tobias.
A wolf stared back at him. Its snarl was fading, but slowly, as if it could not decide whether it wanted to keep showing its teeth. A flicker of familiar brown flickered deep in its golden eyes.
Alexander swallowed. He had pulled his knife attack, despite all his instincts. Was it possible that Tobias was doing the same? Had that strange mid-transformation smell ritual worked?
“Tobias,” he whispered disbelievingly.
Tobias cocked his head. A low, confused growl echoed through his chest.
Alexander’s fingertips closed around the trigger, painstakingly dragging it into his hand where the explosive was waiting.
The brown in Tobias’s eyes flickered and died, the gold overtaking it. His lip curled. His growl turned into a feral snarl.
Alexander plunged the trigger into the explosive and threw it as far away as he could.
The arena wall exploded. Gray dust clouded into the stands above, making the crowds erupt in shock and uproar.
Alexander covered his face with his one free arm as dust rained over him. Sharp pins of concrete stabbed into his exposed skin. The weight of Tobias was lifted from him, the wolf letting out a yelp as a blur of concrete caught him in the side.
Alexander heaved himself up, his ears ringing, and stumbled toward the ragged hole in the arena. He’d blown a hole into the same empty barracks he had snuck through with Tobias that first night.
He paused to glance back at the ruined arena. Josh was covered in dust, bent over and coughing with everyone else.
Alexander looked up. For once, Muzzle looked surprised. But it only lasted a moment before his face hardened, his hand bulging around his cigar, fur sprouting over his palm.
“Shit,” Alexander blurted.
He turned back to the barracks. But before he could take one last look toward where Tobias had been thrown, a furry blur slammed into him and yanked him up by the front of his shirt.
Alexander yelped. He adjusted his grip on his knife, but Tobias didn’t stop to throw him on the ground and sink his teeth into his throat, like Alexander had expected.
Instead, he kept his teeth tight in Alexander’s shirt as he charged through the barracks, snarling at the few pack members who were covered in dust and gaping at them.
I guess this is happening, Alexander thought, dazed.
He grabbed Tobias around the neck, clinging with all his strength as Tobias cleared the barracks and ran up the stairs leading to the sports goods parking lot.
The stairway wasn’t big enough for a wolf, but that did not stop Tobias, who shoved himself forward with an angry growl until he burst out the door and emerged into the dark parking lot.
Shocked yells echoed up the stairwell. They were still being chased.
Alexander lowered one leg and his boot skimmed the asphalt. But Tobias had no plans to let him go yet.
He took off across the parking lot, Alexander still clinging to his neck.
Several dimly lit blocks later, Tobias ran under a stranger’s porch and curled around Alexander tightly.
Alexander stiffened. He was surrounded on all sides, with Tobias’s head in his lap.
Part of him wanted to believe Tobias had dragged him somewhere private to eat him.
But there was nothing hungry in Tobias’s huge wolf eyes.
The brown had returned, making his eyes almost endearing as they gazed up at him.
Alexander allowed himself a moment to lie there, taking stock.
They were hiding under a cramped, dusty porch, spiderwebs clogging Alexander’s clothes and Tobias’s fur.
They were both injured—Alexander’s wounds from the explosion were superficial, a few cuts and bruises at most. But Tobias had at least one slash wound from Alexander’s knife, and Alexander hadn’t checked how he was faring after the explosion.
Tobias whined, butting his nose into Alexander’s hand.
Alexander sighed. “I suppose you want a thank you.”
Tobias made no notion that he understood. He licked a cut on Alexander’s arm, whining louder.
Alexander shushed him, but Tobias only made more noise. So he cautiously sunk a hand into Tobias’s fur, and gently stroked.
Tobias made a satisfied sound and nuzzled deeper into Alexander’s stomach.
Alexander stared at those big brown eyes, a strange, icy feeling churning in his gut. It was getting harder and harder to remind himself that Tobias had no soul. He was worried that he would forget, like he did with the vampires who got him exiled.
The thought was enough to spur him into action. He started to lift Tobias’s heavy head off his lap.
Tobias looked up with an offended whimper. Then he thumped his head back into Alexander’s lap, curling around him so tight it forced the breath from Alexander’s lungs.
“Fine,” Alexander whispered. “Five more minutes. Then I need to steal a car.”