by Kim Fox
Jax circled the much bigger shifter, keeping his fists in front of his bruised face. His round shoulders were hunched forward, his abs flexed, as he moved silently on his bare toes. His long brown hair was drenched with sweat and sticking to his bloody forehead.
“Come on, Alexander!” his brother Julius called out from the other side of the circle. “I got five hundred bucks riding on your flabby ass. Put this pussy cat to sleep!”
Alexander clenched his thick jaw, staring down at the lion shifter with a crazed look in his brown eyes.
“Shit,” Ashton cursed under his breath. If he hadn’t been late, it could have been him in there with Alexander, proving how skilled of a fighter he was. Next time I’ll challenge him.
“Go, Jax!” Gunner shouted, encouraging his friend. He was standing with the rest of the firehouse shifters who were taunting and jeering Julius.
Alexander rushed forward like a tank, swinging his cinder block fists in the air. Jax was fast, moving and ducking out of the way while countering with a couple of jabs to Alexander’s ribs.
The tough polar bear didn’t even seem to notice the fists slamming into his body. He just kept advancing on the lion shifter until he was close enough to inflict some serious damage. He missed with two punches but the third one connected like a meteor slamming into the earth.
“Oooohhh!” the crowd cheered as the Vega brother’s fist smashed into Jax’s chin with a loud crack. Ashton cringed as he felt the hit in his chest.
Lights out.
It was over. Jax’s eyes were rolling in the back of his head as his legs gave out and he tumbled down. His eyelids were closed before his limp body smashed into the ground in a defeated heap of sweaty skin and bruised muscle.
“Oh, yes!” Julius cried out, grabbing the money out of the hands of the firehouse shifters. “How many fires did you have to put out for this?” he asked, laughing as he waved himself with his new fan made out of money. “Better get the trucks ready,” he said, pulling out a wad of cash from his pocket, “because I’m on fire tonight!”
Alexander walked over to his brother, holding his big palm out. “Do I get a cut?”
Julius made the wad of cash quickly disappear back into his pocket. “Now is not a good time,” Julius said with a grimace. “I have diapers to buy and lots of baby food. Do you know how much a baby bear shifter eats and poops? A fucking lot!”
Alexander just shook his head and walked away, cursing at the cheapness of his brother. As soon as his older brother was gone, Julius pulled out his money and began taunting the firehouse shifters once again.
“Who’s up next?” Ashton asked Slate. “I want in.”
Slate was about to respond but was interrupted by the sounds of sirens blaring through the night. Red and blue lights lit up the dark night sky outside as every shifter in the barn turned to see what the commotion was.
“Hey, Stets,” Slate called out to the big bear shifter across the room. “I thought you talked to the Sheriff?”
Stetson was married to the Sheriff, Kylee.
“I did!” Stetson said with a shrug. “She’s home sleeping.”
“Police, bitches!” one of the cops yelled, strutting in and waving a gun over his head like he was in a rap video.
“Not these fucking guys,” Slate whispered, shaking his head.
Ashton had seen them around. Nathan and Emry. They were friends with Rhett. Skin shifters who also doubled as cops for the increasing amount of shifters that were flocking to Colwood, Montana every week.
Nathan walked in first with his brother Emry following behind.
“I’m up next!” Nathan hollered as he walked through the parting crowd to the circle in the middle where Jax was only now starting to wake up on the floor. “Who wants to get fucked by the long dick of the law?”
Nathan yanked off his shirt and handed his gun to his brother Emry. He danced around the circle flexing his big arms and taunting the crowd.
“I’ll take him on,” Ashton said to Slate, gritting his teeth as he stared at the cocky skin shifter who was bouncing around.
“No,” Slate said, shaking his head. “It’s Thorn’s birthday. He should be the one to shut this clown up.”
The twin stood on his toes and looked at his alpha who was standing quietly across the room. “Thorn-a-do, Thorn-a-do,” he started chanting.
Ashton smiled as everyone joined in, chanting the birthday shifter’s name until Thorn was forced to step into the circle for the fight.
“I’ve never knocked out a cop,” Thorn said, grinning at Nathan. “Wait, actually, I have.”
“This is going to be great,” Slate said with a wide smile. “Thorn hardly ever fights.”
The fight didn’t last long. Two punches from Thorn and the skin shifter was on the floor asking what the hell just happened.
“You got hit by a Thornado,” Royal said, talking shit to the dazed cop. “That’s what happened!”
After a few more fights, it was finally Ashton’s turn. He was up against Khan Vega, the oldest of the Vega brothers.
Ashton rolled his shoulders as they faced off in the circle. Khan looked intimidating with his big stocky body and scarred cheek but Ashton wasn’t intimidated. He may not have had the size that Khan had, but he definitely had the skill to back it up.
And skill always beat power.
“Fight,” the referee, Draven Park, shouted and just like that, the fight was on.
Ashton bounced forward, staying light on his toes, jerking his head from side to side just like his trainers had taught him growing up.
Khan was an amateur at best. He relied too much on his strength and power while ignoring the technique. He telegraphed his punches and they were coming out way too slow. Ashton easily ducked out of the way of his fists, not even bothering to counter. It was all too easy.
“Girl!” someone in the crowd shouted.
“Booooooooo!” the rest of the shifters answered. There were no girls allowed during the fights.
Khan and Ashton never took their eyes off of each other, still fighting despite the distraction behind them.
A familiar scent hit Ashton’s nose, nearly knocking him to his knees. A mix of vanilla and caramel. He whipped his head to the source of the smell and froze to the spot when he saw who the intruding girl was.
“How?” he gasped when he saw her terrified face.
It was the girl from earlier in the afternoon, the one who he had been obsessed with. Her gorgeous brown eyes were so wide that they looked like they were going to pop out of her head as she struggled to get free from the shifter who was holding her wrist.
“Who brought her here?” the shifter asked, looking pissed off. Ashton didn’t recognize him but that still wouldn’t stop him from ripping his head off if he didn’t release his grip on the girl.
Ashton stepped towards her, trying to get to her side when Khan lunged out of nowhere. His big meaty fist smashed into Ashton’s temple, sending pain and stars jolting through his head. He stumbled backward, bouncing off the wall of the crowd.
Someone pushed him back in and he flew forward, catching a glimpse of the panicked girl just as Khan connected with another devastating punch that dropped him to a knee. He shook his pounding head, trying to clear out the cobwebs as his eyes watered and his nose dripped blood.
Khan was advancing fast but Ashton couldn’t take his focus off of the girl. Other shifters were starting to circle around her, demanding to know how she got there. She just closed her eyes as her chin trembled, looking like she was wishing that she was anywhere but stuck there.
Khan rushed forward, planted his right foot on the ground, and swung his left foot into Ashton’s ribs with a kick that had every shifter in the barn cringe.
Ashton flew backward, his ribs burning in pain as his back hit the wet floor. The light on the ceiling was burning his eyes as he heard Khan rushing over to finish him off.
Get up. End this.
Who knows what would happen to the girl if
he got knocked out right now? The Vega brothers and the Clawed Squad were good guys but who knew about the others? She could be in real danger.
Ashton dug down deep and pushed himself up to his knees as Khan came racing in. His stomach was open. Unguarded and an easy target.
The Boston Brawler threw a hard jab, sinking it into Khan’s stomach and bending the larger bear shifter in half.
Ashton jumped to his feet and launched a haymaker that would have sent Khan to the moon if the big man was any lighter. His fist connected with Khan’s chin in a devastating uppercut that sent the bear shifter sailing off his feet.
Ashton was pushing through the crowd to get to the girl even before Khan landed on the ground, completely unconscious.
“Move!” he warned, pushing shifter after shifter out of the way to get to her. Her face was so pale as she jerked her head from side to side, blinking rapidly.
“Who brought her here?” the shifter holding her wrist yelled out again.
The girl reached into her purse and yanked something out. She swung it around, pointing it like it was a loaded gun. “Get away from me!” she screamed, waving it around violently.
Ashton jerked his head back in confusion when he saw what was in her hand: an avocado.
What the hell?
“Stay back!” she screamed in a panic. “I’m warning you! I’ll fucking use it!”
“Use it to what?” Slate asked, looking at her funny. “Cover us in guacamole?”
Her face dropped when she realized that nobody was afraid of her exotic fruit.
Ashton pushed out of the crowd and stepped up to them with his heart pounding in his chest. He stepped right up to the shifter who was holding her and stared into his eyes in the most challenging way.
“I brought her here,” he said through gritted teeth. “She’s my mate.”
four
Lauren gulped as the sexy boxer marched up to her and grabbed her arm, yanking her towards him. He looked so dangerously protective the way that he was holding her close to his warm body and daring any of the terrifying men to come and try to take her away. She had no idea if leaving with him was safer than staying here, but her gut was telling her to leave with the bear shifter so she inched a little closer to his hard body.
“She’s your mate, Ashton?” one of the shirtless men asked him.
Ashton. She had his name.
“She is,” he said, pulling her a little closer. “She was supposed to wait in the truck,” he said, looking at her with a tight smile. “What happened, honey?”
“I found her hiding in the back of a pickup truck,” the horrible guy who picked her up out of the truck said. Lauren had tried to punch and kick him to get away but almost broke her hand on his hard chest. He just easily carried her inside and demanded who brought her there.
Lauren would have screamed when he dragged her into the barn if she hadn’t been so terrified. The barn was full of aggressive fighting men who all looked big enough to be shifters. They were cheering as they beat each other to a pulp and all that she could do was squeeze her eyes shut as her mind leaped to the worst possible outcomes.
“I’ll bring her home,” Ashton said, stepping back towards the exit.
Lauren swallowed hard, hoping that they would let them leave.
“Wait,” a good looking blonde man said, stepping forward out of the crowd.
A small whimper escaped Lauren’s throat as Ashton squeezed her wrist a little too hard as he watched the man approach.
“You knocked out my brother,” the man said as he arrived within swinging distance.
Ashton looked over the man’s shoulder to the big guy in the middle of the circle with the scar on his cheek. He was trying to stand on wobbly legs that couldn’t seem to remember how to support him.
“I did,” Ashton said, glaring at the guy. “You want to do something about it, Julius?”
“I do,” Julius said, reaching into his back pocket. He pulled out a big wad of cash and stripped off a couple of bills. “This is for you,” he said, stuffing them into Ashton’s free hand. “That guy gave me so many wedgies over the years. I’ve been waiting for ages for someone to do that to him.”
Ashton laughed. “Glad I could help,” he said, stuffing the bills into the pocket of his faded jeans.
Lauren gulped as Julius turned his stunning green eyes onto her. He looked down at her hand and pointed at the avocado that she was still squeezing with a death grip. “Are you going to eat that?”
She exhaled in relief and tossed him the avocado. “It’s all yours.”
“Thanks,” he said, biting into it like an apple before turning back to the crowd and pushing his way back into the action.
The men all turned away from them as two more fighters stepped into the circle to go at it. Lauren’s stomach was rolling with nerves as she looked up at Ashton’s eyes.
“Outside,” he hissed through a tight jaw. “Now.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. They hurried out of the barn and Lauren took a deep breath of the crisp night air, more thankful than ever to be able to leave a place.
Ashton never left her side, still holding her arm tightly as he hurried to the pickup truck. “Get in,” he said as he opened the door for her.
“Ashton!” an angry voice called out, sounding like a growl.
It was the large blonde guy that she had seen on the Wilde Ranch when they had first arrived. The hot naked one.
Ashton rolled his eyes when he saw him. “I don’t have time for this, Gunner,” he said. “I have to get her out of here.”
Gunner ignored him, marching right up to him with challenging eyes. Gunner was thicker and about a foot taller than Ashton, but Lauren had seen Ashton fight and would have put her money on him any day.
“What is going on?” Gunner demanded, not even looking at Lauren once. “She’s not your mate.”
“So?” Ashton said, pulling Lauren behind him protectively. “You could feel all of that adrenaline in there. Things were about to get out of hand.”
The blonde man’s face hardened. “That’s not your problem. You should have stayed out of it.”
“You should stay out of this,” Ashton warned. “Or we’re going to have a problem.”
Lauren gulped as the two men stared each other down with heated glares.
Gunner was the first to break. “I just worry about you,” he said with a sigh. “Us Wilde Crew have a knack for bringing shit down on us.”
“She was scared,” Ashton said, his tense body relaxing a bit. “I’m just trying to help her out.”
Gunner nodded. “Get home safe, okay?”
He tapped Ashton’s shoulder before turning and heading back into the barn.
Lauren gulped when Ashton turned around and faced her. “Thanks for-”
“Get in,” he hissed, interrupting her.
She jumped in as quick as she could, barely getting her foot inside before he slammed the door shut.
He was so fast the way he moved around the truck, got inside, and started it, all before she found where the buckle of the seat belt was.
She clipped herself in as he slammed on the gas, sending them flying out of the ranch with a cloud of dust billowing out behind them.
“Explain,” he said, staring out the windshield. He was squeezing the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were white.
Lauren was so nervous that she could barely talk. “I-I-is that a rhinoceros?” she asked, whipping her head around as they barreled through the ranch.
She could have sworn that she saw a rhinoceros eating the bushes back there. Ashton didn’t look like he cared.
“Why did you follow me?” he asked, ignoring her.
“I didn’t,” she said defensively.
He whipped his head towards her and gave her an incredulous look. “You just happened to take a walk and ended up in the middle of the Clawed Ranch?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I was hiding in the back of your truck when
you left.” She explained how she got in there, hiding from what she thought was a grizzly bear when the truck just started moving.
Ashton swallowed hard, looking a little uneasy as he stared straight ahead. “Did you see anything else?”
“Like what?” she asked, her hand sliding towards the door handle in case she had to jump out. “The bear changing into you?”
“Shit,” he cursed, shaking his head as he glanced at her. “Are you one of those annoying Shifter Chasers?”
“No,” she said, quickly. But I will be now. She was going to be all over that website, buying every t-shirt and shifter spotting course that she could find.
The intensity of her adrenaline was starting to fade and Lauren suddenly realized that she was driving down dark secluded roads with a stranger. She didn’t know where she was, but more importantly, neither did any of her friends. He could do whatever he wanted with her and nobody would ever know.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, nervous to hear the answer.
His dark eyes softened as he looked at her. “Back to the inn,” he said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
For some reason, she believed him. “Thank you.”
He just nodded, watching the dark road ahead of him.
“And thanks for saving me back there,” she said, shivering when she remembered how scared she had been.
He laughed. “What was with the avocado?”
“It’s shifter repellent,” she said with a smile. “Everybody knows that.”
The sound of his laugh relaxed her and made her insides warm up. She was starting to feel much safer. “I’ve heard a lot in my day, but that’s a new one.”
“I was just about to show everyone how it worked when you came to the rescue,” she said with a smirk.
“Good thing I spared everyone the devastating effect of your super weapon,” he said with a laugh.
“Were all of those guys in there shifters?” Lauren asked. She knew she shouldn’t be prying and that it wasn’t any of her business but she felt strangely comfortable around him.