Chapter 12
Showtime
Mads
Omegas. Alphas.
Do they not realize I’m just a beta?
Aurora asked me if I felt a pull to her. Just like Locke asked me all those days ago.
I lied to both of them.
You’d think after everything I experienced, I’d be more open-minded to their magical thinking. But it still is so unreal. I can’t lean into this shit. It’ll undo me.
But she’s not wrong. When I was dragged into that gambling hall and saw her rise out of her throne-like chair and walk towards me, I felt it then.
Like a buzzing bee in my stomach. A tightening of my chest. Like all the blood ran out of my limbs.
I want to play with her long, pin-straight, black hair.
I want to get lost in her honey-brown eyes.
She has a prominent nose and a gap in her two front teeth that I could look at for hours while she tells me all her stories.
The way everyone around here treats her as if they share a secret is curious.
She’s an omega, though. Classic omega. Bratty, selfish, needy, and emotional. All things I’m extremely attracted to, if I’m being honest with myself.
I resist the urge to grab onto her wrist and hold her close as we go back into the fighting arena. All the men, betas and alphas, give us a lot of space. Maybe it’s being escorted by Aurora, my collar, or my bond mark. Whatever the reason, I appreciate the space.
My cane clicks on the ground as we get to her seat. The blood on my arm from her bite has dried, and it’s left lines all up and down.
The Soto alphas have been very clear about our pack boundaries: Acadia dictates how this works. If she had told me to break up with “Cadi,” the girlfriend I had that was wholly separate from Acadia, Locke’s scent match, then I would have had to. They warned me that omegas are greedy.
I bonded with them, so I can’t be entertaining another omega, no matter how silly and cute she is. Even if she looks up at me with her big, round eyes and says things like, “I’ve never been with a man before.”
I would never hurt Acadia.
Aurora takes her seat, and this time doesn’t demand I sit on the ground next to her feet. I take my place behind her, next to Padrick. This guy gives me the creeps. He sees the bite on my arm and stares at it for a long time before looking away.
Down in the fighting cage, Locke is brought out. There’s blood on the ground, and the air is dense with smoke and the smell of sweat. Aurora crosses her legs and leans back. Unfazed.
I have no idea what’s going to happen. Maybe they will have him fight a few guys. He doesn’t strike me as a fighter. I guess they got him up against some guy named Tiger, which sounds menacing.
I can’t believe this place was Locke’s entire world until Kol and Oscar got him out.
Aurora folds her hands in her lap. She’s holding them tightly together.
My thoughts spin wildly around her. No one is coming to take her away. She’s trying to get herself out.
No one bit her and made a deal with her dad to get her out.
Oscar and Kol saw Aurora here, in this hellscape, and called her shallow and a brat. They said she was coddled and privileged.
It dawns on me that they saw her exactly as her father painted her to be—his little princess.
And she’s been playing into that persona, for what?
Probably to survive. I look around at the depravity that is happening.
The exchange of money for flesh and drugs.
The violence. The involuntary servitude. I’m not the only collared person here.
What was she supposed to do?
And despite Kol and Oscar taking Locke, she told us she was trying to save him. Even though no one tried to save her. No, they villainized her.
Oh my god.
Aurora…my heart suddenly hurts as I imagine what she’s been through and the sacrifices she made.
Locke looks right at me, then tips his head with a question. I think he can feel whatever emotions I’m feeling. That makes sense. I’m having a crisis over here.
Aurora also turns to look at me. One eyebrow raised.
I want to say something, like to ask her how things have been here for her, if she resents the Soto Pack, how she’s managed, but a quiet hush enters the arena. Hundreds of people, drunk or otherwise afflicted, all quiet down. I lean over the edge and see something absolutely terrifying.
Legs O’Bannon walks beside a massive Bengal tiger below us.
A crowd of people part for the pair. The tiger doesn’t have a collar, and Legs has nothing on him but a cigarillo and his audacity.
The tiger is not like a dog, walking obediently beside its master, looking up at him for its next command.
No, the massive wild animal saunters forward, moving its head back and forth, looking for a weakness to exploit.
Legs places his hand on the beast’s back, trying to direct him where he wants him to go, but the tiger leads him to the right, straight into a clump of people who are being told to remain still by the lord of the house.
His voice is loud as he tells everyone how in control he is of the cat.
It doesn’t look like he’s in control at all.
The tiger turns suddenly on Legs, who acts as though he is being affectionate. Legs scratches the tiger’s scruff and jostles his head around, but the tiger raises up and puts his forearms on Legs’s shoulder, nearly knocking him down. His cigarillo goes flying.
My mouth hangs open.
Are we going to see someone get eaten by a tiger? This place is an actual nightmare.
In what can only be described as pure luck, and something no one should try to repeat, Legs manages to walk the tiger up the ramp and to a holding pen within the fighting cage.
Aurora’s insufferable father gets handed a microphone. The lights fade even darker. The cage lights up.
I steal a small moment in the dark to touch Aurora’s shoulder. Just a little stroke with the side of my thumb. It’s to comfort me just as much as my attempt to comfort her.
“Locke O’Bannon,” Legs says loud and long into the mic. The name echoes around the arena. “You’ve been a bad boy, haven’t you? You ran away from home. Your family has missed you so much. Your omega has been distraught at your absence. So distraught, she’s not wanted any alpha but you. Her mate.”
Legs makes his speech while climbing down the steps of the arena, and then finally he enters the cage along with Locke. The crowd is whisper-silent. We all want to know what will happen next.
“But you betrayed her. You’re a cheater. You bonded an omega before yours came of age. I think we need,” he pauses for dramatic effect, “to,” his veneers glitter in the spotlight, “provide you a way to redeem yourself.”
He stands there, and every last person is quiet, waiting for the next thing he’ll say.
“Kill Maximus. Or die trying. If you defeat my tiger, consider yourself redeemed. Die trying, and I will consider your debt paid.”
Locke is going to fight a fucking tiger!
“What is happening?” I ask Aurora. She’s reached out and holds on to my arm.
“He needs to redeem himself,” she answers soberly.
Legs circles Locke, who stands still in the center.
“Do you want to take my offer?”
Locke looks up at me. I’m leaning into the chair, and she reaches out, placing her hand on my arm, almost absentmindedly.
“No matter what happens tonight, everything will be settled.”
My heart thumps wildly in my chest. Locke might die. Die. Die. Die.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes, from your pretty, stern face.
That’s ok, I’d prefer you not say anything.
Everyone would prefer you say nothing!” The crowd cheers, but it is clear they don’t know why.
Aurora sighs softly. She’s relieved. “Now, you will fight until you defeat Maximus in the fighting cage.”
Legs lowers the mic and leans into Locke’s ear to whisper something. It’s a long something. He keeps talking. And talking. And talking. Locke is white as a ghost.
“It’s going to be ok,” Aurora assures me. My head whips to her. I’m in disbelief. There is no way that’s true. “He’s doing really well. Things are going to work out.”
I’m absolutely dumbfounded by her faith in the alpha. Fuck it. I kiss her on the lips. It’s quick. But I have to do it.
She wants to ask me why I did that, but a spotlight shines on her. Her mask slips on effortlessly, and she turns to her father. Her hand releases my arm, and she stands up. I’m in shadow, and she’s brightly lit.
“Aurora, my Little Bear. Why don’t you wish your champion luck?”
A smile spreads across her face.
Padrick hands her a microphone.
“Good luck, Maximus! Make him pay!”
Locke is visibly shaking. She blows him a kiss.
The next few moments happen while my mind is racing, trying to decide if I can do anything at all about this situation. The next thing I know, Legs is back in his seat on the other side, the tiger is out of its pen, and Locke is alone with it in a fighting ring.
I glance between him and Aurora.
My hand grips the vulture handle of my cane.
This can only end badly.