by Cecilia Lane
No sooner had the man stomped back through the double doors and slammed them shut behind him, a whimper across the row turned into a full wail. The sound of a scared child tore at Becca’s heart. Howls sounded in response, which just made the child cry even louder.
Becca pressed as close to the bars as she dared. There were three figures in the far shadows. A woman sat on the floor with a toddler in her lap. Evidence of tears left clean streaks down the dirty face of a young girl.
The girl was not too tall, with cheeks still chubby with childhood. Puberty looked years away. Becca shivered. She could have been her own daughter. She looked about the right age.
Her fox whined and pain slashed at her middle. She couldn’t think about what could have been. She didn’t even know if she had a tomorrow.
“Mara capture you, too?” Disgust laced her tone. Fighters were one thing, but stealing away children was a depth of evil she couldn’t comprehend.
“She saved us,” the woman whispered. Her arms tightened around the toddler. “She’s protecting us.”
“How?” Nolan asked. “What’s your name?”
“Kate. I’m Kate.” The name sounded unsure at first, and stronger on the second repetition. “This is Joy and Jack. We’re real. We deserve to be remembered.” Kate shut her eyes for a split second, then continued. “My mate,” she stumbled over the word, then changed it. “Mara’s brother. He was killed. They were going to throw the children into the ring for bait to fire up the fighters and the crowd. Mara stopped them. Made them a deal to help track down more fighters if we were left alone.”
Well, that was a surprise. Becca tightened her fists. She would not connect with the woman who sold her and Nolan for a bit of protection.
“Is that why so many are here tonight? She’s collected this many?”
Kate shook her head. “There’s a fight planned tomorrow. All the invited hunters are bringing in their prizes. They’ve been arriving all week. It’s why they’re doubling up.”
Becca figured it would make the fights more brutal, too. Even her fox was riled up with so many predators in close proximity, and she was of the run-and-hide variety of shifter. Given the option, she’d snake through the swiped claws of the bigger creatures and dash for freedom while they tore each other apart.
If she were alone.
“At least we won’t have long to wait,” Nolan said softly behind her.
She’d left someone behind before and it cost him his entire pack. Nolan was more than another victim of shitty circumstance. He was the man who made her heart beat. If the cages swung open and a chance to run was blocked by a wall of wicked teeth and vicious claws, she’d lock her legs and fight.
She turned and found him seated against the back wall.
“It’s safe. I can feel the electrical current. There’s no digging out of here or knocking down the wall, but we can at least sit.” He pat the ground between his thighs. No sooner had she taken a seat than he’d wrapped his arms around her stomach and rested his chin on her shoulder. “I’m going to get you out of here, sweetheart. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to see you free.”
That was the invitation her body needed to react to the terror all around her. She felt cold. Frozen. The shaking started with her hands and moved all the way through her. Her voice was thick, but she spoke a single, defiant word. “Pass.”
He pulled back enough to give her a look that said she was mad. Becca ignored it and sank further into his embrace. He warmed and soothed her. Not enough to push back the demons, but she could lean on his strength. “You don’t get to abandon me that easy again. We’re both walking out of here.”
The doors at the end of the row swung open again and let out a group of people. Humans, all of them, and entirely focused on the woman at the center. She carried herself like a rope tied around her neck hauled her upright and didn’t wobble in the sky-high heels. She was dressed much more businesslike than even the flashiest dressed man around her.
“Peace, gentlemen. Peace. Our doors will be opening tomorrow. You wouldn’t want to miss getting your bets in, would you?” she purred.
The group passed, but one man stopped and stared. He shook a finger in her direction. “I know this one.”
The woman made a dismissive gesture without even stopping. “You’ve probably seen her fight before, Slim. You know how many have traveled here.”
Slim shook his head. “That’s not it. She was involved in the hiccup in Virginia around the beginning of the year, Ronnie. I’m claiming her. The big one in there with her, too. They look like a pair. Make them go at each other. Those fights start slow but end with the most blood.”
“The hell you are.” Another man shoved forward, and the whole group settled back in front of the cage. “My pet brought her in with the big one. They’re mine.”
Behind her, Nolan’s chest vibrated with a low, threatening growl. Without the silver holding back his bear, his fingers started popping with the start of a shift. The group ignored him. The electricity jolting through the cage was their protection from a bear intent on keeping his mate safe.
Slim poked the other man in the chest. “Do you know how long it took to track down the missing assets? She’s mine. Put her on my roster.”
“I remember that hunt. Didn’t go according to plan, did it? You folks in the east don’t know what you’re doing.” Ronnie smoothed down her skirt to the chuckles of hunters. “I’ll make you both a deal. She goes on the roster tomorrow in a hunt. Same rules as ever, full run of the property. I’ll double the winnings if either of you take her down.”
No matter how much she pressed back against Nolan, nothing could keep her terror at bay. She needed to get out of the cage before her nightmares became real again.
Chapter 23
Nolan didn’t sleep the entire night. The sounds of predators around him, around Becca, kept his bear crawling through his mind. If it weren’t for his mate resting in his arms, he’d have shifted a thousand times before the sun rose.
As soon as the lights died, the threats began. Fresh meat, he and Becca were called. The children across the row weren’t free of the whispered promises, either. Anytime they made a noise, the focus fell on them. Some agreed to quiet the young through violence. Others made sure their more disgusting desires were known.
No one was free from harassment. Five fights in the stuffed cages ended with the deadly scent of blood coloring the air. Only jolts of electricity powerful enough to knock the combatants flat on their asses kept the other fighters alive.
The next day wasn’t any better.
The day passed with tension thick in the air. He kept his arms locked around Becca for as long as she would allow. When she grew too agitated for that, he made himself small to give her room to pace. And when that, too, became too little, he didn’t tell her to ignore the horrible words shouted in their direction. He shouted insults right back with her.
Handlers periodically made their way through the barn. Shifts ended and started, guards descending from the second floor and replaced by fresh eyes. The humans were armed to the teeth. They had to be, to keep their shifter prisoners in line. Each guard carried a rifle and a handgun. He couldn’t tell if the rounds were tranquilizers or silver. Each guess was just as likely. Tranquilizers would keep their goods from being injured before the main event, but hunters wouldn’t put stock in ending a life or jamming a shifter full of silver. Cattle prods and knives hung from belts. They were armored, too, with thick boots and padded chests.
Nolan watched everything. Trouble was, he was no closer to finding a way to freedom. He couldn’t give up. He had to get Becca to safety.
As twilight descended, the barn grew quiet. Silent anticipation replaced the noisy challenges shouted at one another. The seasoned fighters knew what was coming and the fresh faces picked up on their bloodlust.
Even Nolan had a hard time shaking off the desire to bleed someone. His bear paced in his head and raked claws through his insides. A figh
t was coming, a fight that they needed to win.
For Becca.
His mate’s calming touches couldn’t soothe the beast under his skin. The high-pitched whine of electrical currents and the snarls of other beasts shredded his control. His nails hardened and sharpened before retracting back to his human hands. His muscles tensed and pulsed with the desire to shift completely.
With the eerie silence filling the barn, it was easy to hear more vehicles arriving in the distance and a crowd growing in another space. The dull throb of voices sounded loud in the deathly still barn.
The howls started again when the barn doors opened and the first shifters were pulled from their cages. Three total were taken by the time Mara stalked down the middle of the barn with two human enforcers at her sides.
She kept her eyes straight ahead until she stopped in front of the cage that held him and Becca. She turned on her heel and flicked a glance over Becca. They hardened, then jerked up to Nolan’s face.
His bear roared in his head and a growl snaked out of his chest. He didn’t need a mirror to know his eyes had gone an inhuman green. His jaw throbbed with the pain of fangs pushing through his gums. He wanted to taste blood.
“You’re up.” Mara held up two lengths of chain. “Stick your hands out.”
“No!” Becca shoved to her feet. She growled low in her throat, a clear warning to the cat on the other side of the cage. “You’re not taking him anywhere.”
The enforcers behind Mara shifted on their feet. Hands went to their weapons.
Nolan gently tugged Becca behind him. She’d already been shocked into a shift once. He wouldn’t have her go through that again. Not if he could help it. There was still time. The depraved fox hunt wasn’t scheduled to begin until after all the other fights were finished.
He could still save her.
He would save her.
There would be no surviving without her. Not again.
He cupped her cheeks and kissed her lightly. He’d be damned if it was the last taste he had of her. “Need to, sweetheart. Can’t trust this one to give us an idea of what’s outside.”
Her pupils blown and her breath coming fast, she shook her head. “No. You can’t leave me here.”
“Becks, I’ll be fine. You think I’ll let any of these fuckers win?”
“Come on. The customers are waiting.”
He glared death at Mara while she snapped one silver shackle around his wrist, strung the chain through the bars, then snapped his other wrist.
“Feet, too.”
“This is such fucking bullshit,” Becca muttered darkly from behind him.
Mara shrugged. “We can’t have you trying to run off.” Done caging Nolan’s bear, Mara arched a brow at Becca before signaling for the power on the cage to be cut. “Don’t try anything. These two won’t hesitate to put silver in you. You want to have a chance later, don’t you?”
Becca’s muttered curses didn’t stop until he stepped out of the cage. With the thud and clink of a locking mechanism, she rushed forward. “Come back. Do you hear me?”
His mouth hitched up at the corner. He’d give her a smile even if he wanted to snarl at the dread that filled him. Fuck everything about the barn and the hunters and Mara in particular. “I promise.”
Becca sidestepped to keep him in her vision for as long as possible. “I’m holding you to that. I’ll bring you back from the dead just to rip your heart out if you break it.”
“I wouldn’t have anything less,” he called over his shoulder.
Nolan inhaled sharply as soon as he was prodded into the night. Gas and diesel hung heavy and swirled with the scents of too many unknown individuals. A tiny breeze blew through and cleared the stink of people away for a split second. He looked up into the night sky. Stars twinkled down at him. They wouldn’t be his last glimpse. He made a promise he intended to keep.
A sharp poke in the small of his back started him forward again. There was no doubt where they were heading. Windows on the other large barn spilled light into the darkness and a crowd milled outside the multiple exits. He couldn’t see the engines that still rolled up, but they sounded like they parked on the other side of the building. The yard between buildings was clear of anything he might use to defend himself, but trees grew thick just beyond.
The chains around his feet were long enough to take an extra large step. No running, that was what Mara said. And with the silver working to keep his bear to a dull sensation in the back of his head, she was right.
There was no escape, even if he could manage it. He had to find his way back to Becca. The night would only end in blood.
“It’s a blitz,” Mara said behind him. Quiet enough that the human enforcers didn’t hear her. “You’re the newest and haven’t been tested, so you’re going in first. You’ll have the lowest ranked fighters thrown at you, probably more than one round. Knocking them out without shifting is preferred since it shows you have control. You’ll rank better, draw in more bets. No one will bat an eye if you kill. When your cell opens, you step into the ring.”
Nolan’s jaw tightened. Shifter fighting wasn’t unknown. It paid good money in certain circles. Even the rules were similar. Shifting meant the animal won over the human and gave an unfair advantage, plus it could expose their world if the crowd wasn’t vetted. Not that that was a concern any longer. Fucking hunters had to steal their rules along with their bodies.
“If I refuse?”
“Then the handlers force you in and you will suffer. They’re armed with silver and cattle prods. The crowd likes to see a shifter beg for the punishment to end. And the fight still happens. So, are you going to fight on your feet or on your back?”
“You’re going to pay for this,” he promised. “You have no idea the hell that’s coming for you.”
Her eyes were dead when she met his. “You don’t think I’m already there?”
“Why us?”
“You weren’t supposed to be there. It was just Becca I wanted.” Mara sighed. “She fit a profile I was given. She was miserable. Lonely. Her only attachment was her sister, and that was a relationship easily strained. She spent time outside of the enclave before, so it wouldn’t have been unusual if she decided to leave again. Those were the ones I picked. The loners, the ones that wouldn’t be missed. It was them or my family.”
“Is that why you shot her? To give her a reason to leave?”
“I tried to take away her safety and her home. But I didn’t count on you tethering her back.”
“Murderer,” Nolan muttered. “Traitor to your own fucking kind.”
“I tried to stop it. I wanted to get caught. All those fires and none of you saw it was me. I even hung around the scene at Becca’s home!”
His jaw tightened. He remembered her there. His bear rode him hard and he’d played dirty tricks to get Becca under his protection. He should have paid more attention to the faces in the crowd. Hell, they all should have. It might have prevented death. “And killed Ephraim Strathorn in the process.”
“That wasn’t me.” Mara shook her head hard. “That was my handler. A message to stop fucking around.”
“Easy to blame others when you’re on the other side of the cage.”
“It’s the truth! I was being watched. Right now, they know where I’m at.” She fingered a spot just behind her ear. It was the same place where Becca was scarred. “If I walked into a police station, they’d put bullets in Joy’s and Jack’s heads. But if the police picked me up, that wasn’t my fault. They stood a chance of living and I wouldn’t be giving others up to their fates.”
“To their deaths, you mean,” he snarled. How much blood was on her hands? How many others had she thrown to the feet of humans who wanted to kill someone stronger than themselves?
“I messed up. My handler caught me. Set the other fire. Then there was the fae crone. She said things she couldn’t know. So she was either another warning or truly saw the future. My family is dead if I don’t give them what
they want.”
“And here we are.”
A tiny group parted before them, jeering as they passed. Mara waited until they were out of earshot before she tried defending herself again. “They have my family. Can you tell me you wouldn’t do the same for Becca? You wouldn’t burn the world to the ground to keep her safe?”
“I’d rather die than bring someone into this.” Wood floors protested under his steps, but she led him down a tight corridor. Another turn put him right in front of another cage door.
“I would, too. But they’re dead if I die. They’re dead if I don’t comply.”
Nolan kicked at the wall. “Then turn the table over and reset the fucking game.”
Mara’s enforcers, quiet until then, reached for the cattle prods. He bared his teeth at them.
The outer door rolled up, and she nudged him inside. As soon as he stepped in, the door closed. The roar of the crowd amped up at some unseen sign of the fights beginning.
Mara shook her head sadly. “How do we turn this table over? Everything has been welded down. Give me your feet.”
She knelt down and worked the silver around his feet loose. It took everything he had not to lash out right then. But he’d still be behind bars and she’d be on the outside. Too much could go wrong with that one impulsive action. Becca could be used against him. He could be thrown into the ring without the ability to shift. It wasn’t worth the flash of anger.
Was that how Mara lived her life since making her deal with the devil? He snarled rather than feel sympathy for the creature.
Mara stepped back as soon as his wrists were free. “Good luck,” she said from the shadows.
No other options, Nolan turned and faced the side of the cage that led into the ring. He craned his neck and tried to see as much as possible. A dirt floor waited on the other side. More cages, though he couldn’t see inside and the crowd made it difficult to pick out scents to gauge how many shifters were near.
“Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for the greatest show on earth!” Thunderous applause mixed with jeers met Ronnie’s introduction. “Tonight, we gather our finest prizes, our wickedest beasts, our strongest fighters. To-night! We see just what these monsters are made of.”