Chapter 16 Octavius
IDIDN'T LIKE THIS. Not a single part of it.
From the moment the cards hit the table to the way Hugo smirked like the outcome was already decided in his favor, I felt myself teetering on the edge, waiting for the exact moment everything would go wrong.
I stood just behind Kara, close enough to reach her if I needed to, but far enough that I wasn’t distracting her or hovering. My gaze stayed fixed on the table as the game unfolded, tracking every movement, every shift of her hands, and every flicker of expression that crossed Hugo’s face.
Hand after hand was dealt, and the chips Hugo had produced sat stacked neatly between them, their soft clink the only sound breaking through the suffocating quiet that had settled over the cottage.
Hugo was a shark shifter, and I knew he had magic. I let my awareness stretch outward, instinctively searching for it, for any trace that he might be cheating. But I felt nothing. No pull, no distortion—nothing that suggested interference.
I wanted to believe that meant the game was fair, but it didn’t ease the tension building inside me. Because if he wasn’t using magic, and his stack was as high as it was, then he was good. And that meant I had to hope Kara was better.
My gaze flicked to her, and everything about her was calm. Her fingers moved easily over the cards, and despite everything on the line, her posture wasn’t tense at all. In fact, she looked relaxed.
Well, that made one of us, because I couldn’t help but pace behind her, catching brief glimpses of her face each time I passed, and even that was so composed, like she was completely unbothered.
I realized I had only ever seen her this calm after the touch of my tentacles, and why she wasn’t unraveling the way I was, I couldn't understand. Because this was dangerous. This was blood magic, binding and final, and if she lost, there would be nothing I could do to stop Hugo from taking her back to Zavier, though that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
I forced myself to trust her. She had been the one to propose this deal, after all, meaning she believed in her ability to win, and I couldn’t let my fear, my anger, or my constant instinct to protect her interfere with that.
Another hand passed, and Hugo leaned back slightly, a satisfied look flickering across his face as he slid his chips forward.
Kara didn’t react. She didn’t even flinch, giving him nothing, and a quiet surge of pride moved through me at that.
She wasn’t the same person who had walked into that gambling den all those years ago.
She was stronger now, smarter too, and she was going to be fine. I had to believe that.
Hand after hand passed, and the chips kept sliding in Hugo’s direction as the stack in front of Kara steadily shrank.
Hugo leaned back again, rolling a chip between his fingers. “You’re slipping,” he said casually. “I expected more of a fight.”
Kara didn’t rise to the bait. She barely even looked at him as she folded once more. “I am fighting,” she said evenly. “You’re just not seeing it.”
Hugo let out a dismissive laugh. “That’s because there’s nothing to see.”
Another hand went out, and this time I shifted slightly behind her, my gaze dropping to the cards in her hand just before she slid them forward and folded again.
Confusion tugged at me, because even though I wasn’t an expert at the game, from where I stood, I could tell she had a strong hand—one that likely could’ve beaten his. And yet, she let it go.
Unless...
I stilled, watching more closely as the next hand was dealt.
The flop came out, then the turn, then the river, and I had to suppress a smile.
She had a strong hand this round, no question about it.
And still, she folded. This one was even better than the last—easily within the top ranks from what I remembered.
That was when it clicked.
She wasn’t losing. She was feeding him those hands, letting him build confidence, letting him believe he was the one in control.
Bluffing.
That was what she was doing. She had taught me this exact technique when we played, explaining that it wasn’t always about the cards. Sometimes, it was about the story you told. And right now, she was telling him exactly what he wanted to hear.
Hugo leaned forward, pushing more chips into the center, his confidence practically radiating off him. “You know, for someone who challenged Zavier himself, this is sort of underwhelming.”
“Maybe I’m just rusty,” she replied with a small, careless shrug.
“Or maybe you were never that good to begin with.”
“Guess we’ll find out,” she said simply.
From the outside, it looked bad. Really bad. If I hadn’t seen the strength of the hands she was folding, I would have stopped this already and ended it before it could go any further. Because she was getting dangerously close to nothing now, still, I had to believe she had a plan.
It seemed as though she was setting him up, feeding his ego and stroking his pride.
The problem was how much she had already given him to build that confidence.
If she miscalculated, if she pushed even a step too far, there would be nothing left for her to recover with, all while Hugo sat there wearing that smug look on his face.
I was so fucking done with him.
I had already imagined killing him more than once as I stood there watching, the image playing out in my mind with disturbing clarity.
I could see it—my tentacles tightening around his throat, crushing the life out of him before he ever had the chance to speak her name again.
Dragging his body somewhere far from here, somewhere no one would ever find him.
But the moment that thought took hold, so did the problem. If I interfered or stopped the game, it wouldn’t count as a win. And I didn’t know what that would mean for the contract.
Would it default back to Zavier? Would it still bind her? Would it make things even worse?
The uncertainty was enough to hold me in place, even as every instinct in me screamed to act. So instead, I forced those murderous thoughts to remain exactly that—thoughts, and nothing more.
Hugo was practically glowing with confidence now, his grin widening as he leaned back in his chair like he owned the damn place. “You’re running out,” he said casually, gesturing to her dwindling stack. “Last chance to make this interesting.”
Kara glanced down at her cards, then at her chips, before looking back at him. Her expression shifted into something uncertain, almost worried. But beneath it, I felt it—a steady, unshakable calm.
And without hesitation, she pushed everything forward.
“All in. Winner takes all, and this will be the last hand to determine the result of the contract,” she said, her voice cracked with just enough uncertainty to sell it.
But I could feel her. I could feel the truth beneath the performance, and it was anything but fear.
Even with that quiet confidence pulsing through her, I readied myself.
If this ended badly, I knew I would have to act, and I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to promise it would be controlled.
So I could only hope the confidence radiating from her paid off.
“There it is,” Hugo practically squealed, his eyes sharpening with interest. “About time you stopped playing games.”
He shoved the rest of his chips forward. “All in.”
Kara didn’t respond right away. She gave a small, almost absent nod, her expression slipping back into that unreadable calm.
“Call,” Hugo said, almost eagerly, before flipping his cards onto the table.
A full house.
The sight of the cards made my stomach drop as I tried to recall the rankings, my gaze flicking to the cards still in Kara’s hand.
Hugo leaned back in his chair, satisfaction written all over him. “Told you,” he started, his voice carrying that same cocky tone. “Game—”
Before he could finish, Kara carefully laid her cards down on the table, and as I looked at them, my mind scrambled through the hierarchy of what beat what. As the order finally surfaced and I took in her hand once more, relief flooded through me.
A straight flush.
She won. She actually won.
Hugo stared at the table like it had personally betrayed him, his expression twisting as disbelief set in. “That’s not—” he started, his voice rising. “No. That’s not possible.”
Kara leaned back in her chair, calm as ever. “Maybe you’re just not as good as you think you are.”
“You cheated!”
She laughed softly. “Did I? Or did you just get outplayed?”
His hands slammed against the table, chips and cards scattering everywhere as he surged to his feet, yanking the contract from his pocket. “You little—”
I didn’t give him the chance to finish as I stepped between them in an instant, my patience finally snapping as I blocked his path, ready to kill this motherfucker if he didn’t cooperate.
“Give her the contract,” I demanded, leaving no room for argument. “She beat you fair and square, and the contract is null and void now. That was the deal, if you recall. Signed in blood.”
Hugo hesitated, and I saw the exact moment it hit him—the realization that he’d lost, that he’d gambled and come up short, and with that loss, the contract meant nothing anymore.
He had no claim left, and I was sure he was already imagining all the trouble he was about to be in with Zavier, and honestly, fucking good!
His grip loosened just enough for Kara to snatch the contract from his fingers, and before he could react, she tore it in half, then again, and again, until it was nothing more than scattered pieces at her feet.
“I belong only to myself now, and you can go tell Zavier that you’re the one who failed.” A smirk tugged at her lips. “I don’t belong to him anymore. He doesn’t get to touch me and he doesn’t get to control me.” Her gaze hardened. “He doesn’t get me at all. Now get the hell out of my house.”
I stood there, ready to tear him apart if he so much as moved wrong, every violent instinct in me straining to be unleashed. But beneath all of that anger, there was something stronger.
Pride.
Because she had survived this. She had won. And she had done it on her own, in her own way.
And damn... I didn’t think it was possible to fall for her any harder than I already had.