by R. E. Butler
The limo crawled forward on the street. Paparazzi lined the curbs and the red carpet leading up to the front gate.
“This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said.
“There hasn’t been anything like this in Belle Terra before,” Gabe said. “There are a lot of local bigwigs here, in the human and shifter communities. Plus, you’re here on behalf of the kiss. Everyone is always interested in what the sister of the master of the city is up to.”
“I’m really just a girl.”
Lance snorted. “Hardly. You’re gorgeous and sexy as hell. Plus, you run the supernatural hotel and are friends with all the shifter leaders. Even without Caleb being the master of the city, you’d be a big deal on your own.”
She didn’t really think that was true, but she knew that there were people who believed she had a lot more power and influence over her brother than she actually did. They were simply siblings who loved each other dearly and happened to work together. She sometimes had a hard time remembering that the master of the city was her brother, who, when they were young, had once frozen shaving cream and told her it was ice cream.
The limo stopped in front of the red carpet. A wolf from the front passenger seat got out and opened her door. Lance exited quickly and held out his hand to Aubrey. Cameras clicked rapidly as the paparazzi took pictures of her as she emerged from the limo. Questions were shouted at her, ranging from what designer she was wearing to why her brother wasn’t with her. She ignored the questions, anxious to get inside the arena and away from the prying eyes of the media. Lance and Gabe surrounded her, walking her swiftly through the gates.
“Miss Aubrey, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” a tall, lanky man said after looking over the invitation that Gabe handed him. “My name is Krel, and I’m Alpha Black’s assistant. He’s waiting for you in the staging area.”
As Krel turned to lead them, she saw that the tips of his ears were pointed, and she suspected he was a fairy of some kind. Inside the gate was a line of stands selling NWFA merchandise. They moved to the right, and Krel pressed a badge against a security panel next to a steel door, and a lock clicked. He held open the door, and then led them down a long hallway.
“Alpha Black will give you a tour of the staging area, and then you’ll join him in the owner’s suite for the fights. Have you ever been to anything like this before?”
“No,” she said. “I hadn’t heard of this sort of thing.”
“We’re unique. Our fights are sanctioned by the governing council of shifters, and there are strict rules. No one can be forced to fight, and the fights are not to the death.”
She was glad about that. She didn’t want to watch someone die.
Two guards stood in front of a set of steel doors. As they approached, the guards opened the doors, and they followed Krel through. A man wearing an impeccably tailored suit strode forward.
“Aubrey Night, it’s a pleasure,” he said, bowing over her hand and kissing the top. “I’m Jonathon Black.”
“Thank you for the invitation. These are my guards and friends, Gabe and Lance.”
“From the local pack,” Jonathon said. “Welcome to the NWFA. We have openings if either of you are interested in fighting.”
“We’ll stick to our jobs tonight, thanks,” Gabe said dryly.
“There are other VIPs waiting. We’re going to tour the staging area first. The fighters wait for their matches in their groups.” He offered her his elbow, and she took it. “You look lovely, by the way.”
“Thank you,” she said.
They passed through an archway and into a sprawling area where small groups of males appeared to be waiting for their fights. The males wore linen shorts and nothing else. A group of well-dressed men and women were waiting nearby, and they stopped long enough for Jonathon to introduce Aubrey to them.
“We’ve made many improvements to the arena since we came here, to make it more hospitable for our fighters. Training facilities are underground and open twenty-four hours a day. This is our inaugural night. Beginning next weekend, our fighters will be battling on Fridays and Saturdays. We’ll stay here for a few months and then move on to another location.”
Gabe walked next to Aubrey with Lance close behind. The other VIPs chatted about the fighters. Aubrey wasn’t sure if it was really all on the up-and-up, but the fighters seemed to be content, and no one was chained or caged up.
“Be honest,” Jonathon said, “you thought they would be in cages.”
She smiled at him. “It’s hard to imagine someone wanting to do this.”
“It’s no different than what the human MMA fighters do. Weres aren’t allowed in human fighting leagues, so we make our own.”
“I’m not judging. People should do what makes them happy.”
“Or who makes them happy,” Gabe said under his breath.
Aubrey blushed and elbowed him, and he laughed, tucking her hand over his biceps.
“There aren’t a lot of women here,” Aubrey said, trying to change the subject.
“Some females will fight, but those fights aren’t as popular as the males.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe humans don’t like seeing women fight.”
“Supes do?”
“Under the right circumstances, definitely.”
A furious roar split the air, and her heart stopped for a brief moment. She felt something click inside her, and she couldn’t explain it, but she had to see who had roared.
She scanned the room and found one of the small groups struggling to hold back a male, but before she could move to see who roared, Jonathon and her guards hustled her from the arena. They flew up a flight of stairs and into the owner’s box, where cushy blue seats sat in rows and overlooked the dirt floor of the arena.
“Who was that?” Aubrey asked, pressing her hand to her chest. Her heart was pounding, and she had a strong urge to go back down the stairs.
Jonathon opened his mouth, but the door to the suite opened and a beautiful blonde in a sparkly blue gown stood in the doorway.
“What are you doing here, Lia?”
“I came for her,” she said, pointing at Aubrey.
“Me?”
Nodding, Lia walked gracefully into the suite. She took both of Aubrey’s hands and squeezed lightly. “My name is Lia, and that roar you heard downstairs belongs to my brother, Alaric. He’s a saber shifter.”
Gabe and Lance made surprised noises but said nothing. Aubrey glanced at them and then at Lia. “I’m Aubrey Night. Did you say saber as in saber-tooth tiger?”
“Yep. Alaric, my brothers, and I are the last saber tigers in existence.”
Aubrey looked down at their hands. She could feel a connection to this woman, and even though she didn’t understand it, she knew that the roar belonged to a man she needed to be with and that Lia could take Aubrey to him.
“Is Alaric all right? He roared.”
Gabe snorted. “He’s the happiest mother fucker on the planet right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You and that saber are truemates. No more playing on the full moon with the pack for you.”
Lia growled angrily and jerked Aubrey behind her back. Aubrey stumbled and the heel on her favorite pair of heels broke. “Keep your paws off my sister,” Lia said, her voice low and threatening.
“They’re my guards,” Aubrey pointed out. “And no one is putting anything on me right now until I figure everything out. Except maybe some new shoes.” She slipped off her heels. “Did you say sister?”
Jonathon cleared his throat. “I need to do my welcome speech and settle the humans. Aubrey, do you want me to send Lia out of here? If you’re uncomfortable, I’ll remove her.”
Lia snarled and claws sprouted from her fingertips. “You can try.”
Aubrey put her hand on Lia’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Jonathon. I don’t want anyone to get in trouble. I’m fine. I’m just a little confused.”
> “Lia will tell you what you need to know,” he said. Smoothing his hands down the front of his jacket, he glanced at Gabe and Lance and then strode from the room.
Lia relaxed only fractionally. “You two need to back off,” she said. “You’re too close to my sister.”
“We’re guarding her under her brother’s authority,” Lance said, his eyes flashing to the amber of his beast. “He’s the master vampire of the city.”
Lia turned to face Aubrey. She scented the air and shook her head. “You’re human, but your brother is a vampire?”
Aubrey nodded. “His name is Caleb.”
Lia took the heels from Aubrey’s hand and looked at the broken heel. “I’m sorry about that. My cat is very protective of my family.”
“It’s okay. They’re just shoes. My favorite ones, mind you, but shoes all the same.”
“I have some you can borrow. Maybe these can be repaired. Come and sit down, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“I want to know everything,” Aubrey said as she sat in the front row and Lia joined her.
“Good.”
* * * * *
Aubrey was vaguely aware of Jonathon using a microphone to welcome everyone to the NWFA fights and the introduction of the first fighters, but she was entirely focused on what Lia said. Sabers couldn’t be with just anyone. They were unable to conceive children unless they were with their truemates, and they weren’t able to find their truemates until they began to have mating dreams.
“You’re saying that Alaric has been having sex dreams about me for the last year?” She was both embarrassed and aroused. Just how detailed were the dreams? “I didn’t.”
Lia shrugged. “It’s the way of our kind. The dreams are only for the saber and help us to know when we’re close to our mates. The nearer we are to him or her, the more vivid and frequent the dreams become. We were in California when the dreams began for him, and he had maybe one every few weeks. We went to Nevada, and the frequency didn’t increase. It’s hard for our people to move from state to state, so we joined with Jonathon who was coming east on his tour. We’ve been here for a few days, and the dreams have been every night so we knew you were here somewhere.”
“That’s weird and cool at the same time,” Aubrey said.
“Are you upset?” Lia asked.
“Why would I be upset?”
She shrugged and looked out toward the arena where fighters were kicking each other’s asses and the crowd was roaring its approval. “Humans sometimes don’t understand supes.”
Leaning back in the plush seat, Aubrey said, “My brother is the master of the city, and my best friend is a wolf. Plus, there’s Heckle and Jeckle back there, who are my friends. I’m the manager of the city’s supernatural hotel. So yeah, I’m used to weird. It just feels strange to be talking to you about your brother, who you believe is my truemate, without actually talking to him first.”
“If he sees you again, he won’t be able to fight,” Gabe said from where he stood looking down at the arena.
“What do you mean?” Aubrey asked.
“His beast is going to be thinking about only two things – fucking you and protecting you. It’s why Alpha Black rushed you from the room. Every shifter in that room knew exactly what that roar meant,” he said.
She mulled over Gabe’s words.
“It’s Alaric’s fight,” Lia said.
Aubrey couldn’t stop herself from standing and moving to the half-wall of the suite to watch. They were several stories up, but she felt as though she was right there on the dirt. She didn’t have to be told which guy was Alaric; she felt a strange connection to the biggest of the two men. He was tall and broad, with short, dark hair. He stared up at her, and she felt a connection bloom between them. Her heart clenched tightly, and she turned, determined to go down to the dirt and see him.
Lia put her hand on Aubrey’s arm and stopped her. “You have to let him fight. When he’s finished for the night, I’ll take you to him.”
Aubrey chewed on her bottom lip. “Promise?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” She relaxed but only fractionally and didn’t take her seat; instead, she watched intently. As Alaric and the other guy fought, she mulled over what Lia had told her. Mate. The word was foreign to her but also felt completely right. Humans didn’t have mates – they found someone they thought was cute, went on a few dates, and maybe got married. Mates, as she understood it, were something far deeper than a human couple experienced.
Alaric and the fighter tumbled and howled together, but Alaric was clearly a better fighter. Stronger. Faster. Alaric put the other fighter in what looked like a painful headlock, and the fighter tapped out. Alaric stood slowly and stared at Aubrey, and everything inside her quieted as he pointed at her and roared. The sound was deep, full of possession and desire, and it filled her with an answering passion that she couldn’t explain.
That man was her mate. She didn’t fully understand what it meant, but she didn’t care. The only thing she knew for sure was that Alaric was hers, and that’s all that mattered.
Chapter 4
Alaric’s body ached, but not from the many bruises and scratches that marred his skin. The ache was bone-deep and came from the mating connection. He paced in a small training room, waiting for Lia to bring his mate to him. He wanted to shift and hunt down the petite brunette, but he knew if he stormed out of the room as a saber, Jonathon would have a fit. Not that he cared, actually, because Jonathon wasn’t his alpha, but the humans would freak out. Humans seemed to only like shifters in an abstract sense, when they were still human and not threatening looking.
Galen and Slade watched him warily as they stood blocking the doors. He wasn’t going to attack his brothers, but his beast didn’t mind that they were concerned he might. There was a sharp knock on the door, and Alaric scented the air, growling in annoyance when it was only Jonathon on the other side and not his mate.
Galen opened the door, and Jonathon and Krel stepped inside.
“How are you feeling?” Jonathon asked. Neither male drew close to him, and that was just fine with him and his beast.
He grunted, unable to articulate the need that was clawing at him from the inside.
“He’ll be a lot fucking better when the girl gets here. Where is she?” Slade asked.
“She’s coming. Lia was arguing with her guards about their need to stay away.”
Galen shook his head. “He needs to see her soon, or we’re going to have a pissed off saber in this room, and I, for one, am not interested in being a chew toy today.”
Jonathon looked at Alaric and said nothing for a long moment.
Alaric stopped pacing and faced the wolf. “What?”
“When you’ve mated with your female, we need to talk about your oath.”
Alaric gnashed his teeth, annoyance filling him.
“It would be better if you left,” Slade said. “Now is definitely not the time.”
Jonathon sniffed, looking like a fussy stuffed suit and not like an alpha wolf, and nodded at Krel, who extracted three envelopes from his interior jacket pocket. “Well done tonight,” Krel said, smiling tightly. “The humans were very pleased.”
Slade growled sharply, and Krel gasped, stepping back. Even though the male had been Jonathon’s assistant for many years, he still seemed worried that a were would kill him at some point.
Galen opened the door. “We’ll be in touch before the fights next week.”
“See that you are,” Jonathon said.
The door shut, and Slade said, “What’s his angle?”
“He’s probably bummed that Alaric found his mate at the first fight here and will quit. We only swore an oath to fight for him until we found our mates. He has three sabers fighting now, but it shouldn’t be an issue for us to go down to two. There’s no way in hell Alaric would want his mate around all these unmated males.”
Alaric agreed. Among the millions of thoughts zinging around h
is brain, the top was his desire to get his mate away from this place.
His beast snarled suddenly, and he knew his mate was close. He could feel a pull to her, and the beast clawed to go to her. Galen and Slade threw themselves at him, pinning his arms to the far wall as the doors opened and Lia stepped through, followed by his mate.
He growled, snapping his teeth at his brothers. As the eldest, he was bigger and stronger than they were, but the two together were keeping him back.
“Fucking calm down. You’re going to scare her,” Galen cautioned, gritting his teeth as he let loose of his beast to enhance his strength.
Alaric didn’t want to scare his mate, but he couldn’t get a handle on his beast, who wanted to be with her.
“It’s okay. I’m not afraid,” his mate said, her voice a soothing balm to his beast.
For about two seconds. She moved closer, away from Lia, and her scent hit him full force. Sweet like cream and honey. He roared, the sound spilling from the depths of his soul.
She blinked and chewed on her bottom lip, uncertainty on her face as she looked at his brothers and then at Lia. His sister, thankfully, smiled and said, “This is Aubrey Night, sister of the master vampire of Belle Terra. Aubrey, this is my brother, Alaric Carmichael.”
“You can let him go,” Aubrey said.
He saw his brothers hesitate, so he growled and they slowly released their hold on him. In a heartbeat, he had scooped his mate up in his arms and rushed her as far from his brothers as he could, pushing her gently into the corner of the room and baring his teeth at them.
“Out.”
“Are you okay, Aubrey? We can stay,” Lia said.
Her hands touched his bare back, and the beast receded, thoughts of mating with her filling his mind and pushing away the anger at the unmated males. Even if they were his brothers, they were too close to his sweet-smelling mate who wasn’t wearing his marks and saturated in his scent.