13
COOPER
Get off my ass, you little shit.
Or big shit, more like.
Swerving my bike, I zigzag, trying to shrug off the bloody brute.
I knew the possessive psychopath would be an issue when I decided to attempt to bond The Bonding Games Champion, but there’s now no other option.
Can’t he see that?
Or maybe he can, and he simply doesn’t fucking care.
Much more likely.
It’s not like Ezla Zerfron was my first choice to bond, despite what she’s unknowingly done for me, but desperate times call for desperate measures and all that.
Glancing at the glowing digital clock on the viewing box the pretentious asshats sit in, I curse lowly.
14:55
In less than fifteen minutes, if I’m not a Bonded, I’ll be signing my own death sentence.
And Ezla is the only Exot in this entire bloody arena who’s alive and unbonded right now. So I might as well attempt the impossible.
“She’s mine, you disgusting prick!”
The roar is accompanied by a dark green throwing star racing for my back.
For fuck’s sake, I don’t have time for this.
“Fuck off, asshole!” I lob over my shoulder, eyes jabbing daggers into Player 4’s crazed face.
“She’s my girl!”
Internally, I groan. I need to do something, but how do I disrupt a one-track mind?
Then it slaps me in the face.
“Okay! She’s your fucking girl! But she won’t be for long if you don’t pay any bloody attention!” Jabbing a finger to my left, I gesture at where three other unbonded Evots are racing for Ezla, evidently having come to the same conclusion I have about becoming a Bonded.
Is it shitty of me to sic the raging bull behind me on those three who I’ve seen for myself are good people both throughout the past week and during this Game? Possibly. Do I care? Yes, actually, I do.
Some people may think I’m an asshole, and Alby—whose name I only know because Tiger belts it out to the high heavens every time he speaks to him along with his own and his brother’s—definitely seemed to think so when he was watching me on the climbing rope that first day.
But at heart, I don’t think I am. I just find it harder to keep my shitty mood in than others.
And I think you’ll find that when a person who hates violence is forced into it every day, they have a permanently crappy mood.
An animalistic sound leaves Player 4’s mouth, and he doesn’t even hesitate. Yanking his tribike around in a rough jerking motion, he turns the full force of his wrath on the Gold brothers and their new friend.
Fuck. What have I done?