Leo, the announcer, watched Grayson with an uneasy look on his face. This was going to go bad if he won. And by the look of his hard, muscular body and calm demeanor, he was.
“Fighters approach,” Leo bellowed into the mic. The crowd cheered and looked on in excitement. This might be a better show than normal. They were all waiting for Brad to get his due.
Dakota bit her fingernails nervously as Walter whispered to the gorilla shifter next to him. The rhino shifter and logging company boss never took his intense eyes off of Grayson.
“First round,” Leo continued. The two fighters approached the mic, staring at each other. Brad was bouncing around and taunting Grayson, who was standing as still as a tree. “Human forms only.”
“He doesn’t look like he’s going to play nice,” Luke said, beside Dakota.
“No he certainly doesn’t,” she said, biting her nails again.
“The rules,” Leo hollered through the crappy speakers. “A fighter taps out you stop. A fighter goes limp you stop. That’s it. You got all that new kid?”
Grayson nodded, never taking his eyes off his opponent.
“Touch paws and make it official,” Leo said.
Grayson put his fists out to touch. Brad laughed and stuck his middle finger in Grayson’s face.
They backed up to opposite sides of the cage as Leo rushed through the cage door. He locked it with a padlock and then rang the large bell as he climbed down the stairs.
The bar cheered and the men rushed around the cage, elbowing and pushing to get a better look. Dakota climbed onto the bar and stood up, watching over everybody’s heads.
Grayson strolled forward with his fists in the air as Brad rushed to meet him with his hands held too low. Dakota bit her nails as she watched. Nobody ever really hit Brad so he never had to defend himself. He didn’t cover his chin up with his arms and was leaving himself wide open.
Dakota had seen enough of these fights to know how this was going to go. She glanced at Brad’s father, Walter. He was watching with an intense stare. She gulped.
“Lose, lose,” she whispered to herself as the two fighters circled.
Brad was a showboat. He was doing karate kicks in the air like Bruce Lee and trying to impress the crowd with acrobatic moves. He didn’t realize that the whole bar hated him.
Grayson was watching unimpressed, his face stoic and stern. Brad rushed him, throwing a wild overhand right that would have landed on anyone else, because they would’ve let it, but Grayson ducked easily out of the way.
Grayson launched a knee into Brad’s ribs and Dakota could feel the impact and hear the crack of his ribs from all the way at the bar.
Brad dropped to his hands and knees. His eyes were wide and panicky. He had never been hit that hard before.
Grayson circled him, letting him catch his breath and stand back up. There were no rules and he could’ve stomped him out right there but he let him back up.
Brad pushed back up to his feet, clutching a rib. He rushed him again with a wild punch. Grayson countered with a jab to his jaw. The crack sounded like a baseball player hitting a home run.
This time Grayson didn’t let up. He pounced on him with a flurry of fists hitting Brad four or five more times as he fell to the canvas.
“He’s limp,” Leo yelled, jumping up. “Fight is over.”
All eyes were on the rhino shifter Walter. He was sitting calmly but breathing heavily as he stared at the new guy who just knocked out his son.
Grayson climbed out of the cage as the two goons from Walter’s table rushed into the cage and dragged out Brad. He was waking up, mumbling something incoherent as he rolled his head from side to side.
Grayson pulled his jeans on and slipped his shirt over his head. Ah damn. People were staring at him in awe as he strolled through the tables back to his bar stool.
Leo turned the lights off. He kept giving quick, nervous glances to Walter. Dakota knew what he was thinking. He didn’t want his bar getting fucked up in another brawl.
The two goons placed Brad on his seat and he was finally able to hold his head up, but his eyes were still rolling around and looking dazed.
“Are you going to stand up there all night?” Luke asked. “The fight is over.”
“Right,” Dakota said, climbing down from the bar.
Grayson was waving her over. She swallowed hard and then went to meet him. “Impressive,” she said, leaning over the bar that was cruelly between them, keeping them apart. “You didn’t hear my little warning?”
“I knew I could take him,” he said, taking the last sip of his beer.
“I could take him,” she hissed. “That’s the son of the town boss. There’s an unwritten rule here. You don’t beat Brad Cash.”
“I was never one to follow rules,” he said.
“Oh please,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Spare me the after school special, tough guy speech. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
He ran his hand over his shaved head. “Can you send him over a beer?” he asked, gently. “And one for me too please?”
“Yes for him,” Dakota said, “No for you. You should leave before they get any drunker.”
She pushed off the bar, pissed off. She grabbed a beer out of the fridge and slammed it closed. Why are guys so stupid? she asked herself as she ripped the bottle cap off the beer. And why are they so hot?
Dakota walked over to Walter’s table and placed the beer bottle in front of Brad. He was fully alert, sitting with his shoulders slumped and sulking.
“You looked good up there,” she said, trying to help the situation. “This is from your opponent.”
Brad grabbed the beer as he stared at the table. He stretched his arm out and tilted the bottle, pouring the entire beer on the floor.
“Now clean it up,” he said, never taking his eyes off the table.
Dakota’s heart was pounding. Her bear surged forward at the insult and she was only just barely able to hold her back. She had to resist every urge to drag this fucker by his hair back into the cage for round two.
“I’ll get Luke to clean it up,” she said through a clenched jaw.
Brad’s eyes went wide as they shot up to the stocky bartender making his way over. Even Brad was scared of Luke.
“I’m going to turn you upside down and use your hair as a fucking mop,” Luke hissed, glaring at him.
The goons at the table jumped up, ready to go.
Leo rushed over. “Get back behind the bar,” he yelled at Luke. Luke wasn’t moving.
“Sorry about this Walter,” Luke said. “Let me bring a round on the house.”
Walter pushed his chair back and stood up, the chair taking a breath of relief to have the huge shifter off of it.
“We’re leaving,” he said. He tossed a thick wad of money onto the table and snapped his fingers. The two goons and his son Brad followed him like little fish following a killer whale.
The entire bar was watching as they passed Grayson. Dakota was biting her nails.
Walter stopped and turned to the sexy bear shifter that just knocked out his son. “Nice fight,” he grunted. Grayson nodded his head.
Walter straightened the jacket on his enormous suit and continued to the door. The goons followed with Brad in the rear. “You cheated,” he hissed at Grayson as he passed.
Grayson winked at him. Brad nearly lunged at him but held himself back and left with his Daddy instead. Probably didn’t want to get knocked unconscious again.
Luke hit the music back on and the whole bar breathed a sigh of relief. They all turned back to their tables to discuss what just happened.
“Can I get that beer now?” Grayson asked as Dakota strutted over.
She smiled. Things could have gone much worse. The only casualty was the beer that Brad had poured out on the floor.
Dakota grabbed a beer from the back of the fridge where they were slightly cool, opened it and slapped it in front of him. “This one’s on me,” she said.
“So you’re not mad at me?” he asked with a smirk.
“I wish you didn’t do that but I’m so glad that you did. I’ve been wanting to see that twerp get slapped for years.”
“Well then cheers to that,” he said, raising the bottle before taking a sip.
“Where did you learn to fight like that?” she asked, admiring his chest as he took a drink.
“They don’t like shifters where I come from,” he said.
“They don’t like shifters anywhere,” she said.
“Can I take you out one night?” he asked.
She smiled shyly, feeling her neck flush red. “Where are you going to take me?” she asked. “You have to take a Cessna to the closest restaurant.”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said. “All I need from you is a yes.”
She glanced over her shoulder at Luke. He was drying a glass, pretending not to listen.
Why not? It had been so long since she had been on a date.
“Alright,” she said. “You can take me on a date. But it better be good.”
“It will be the best,” he said, grinning. “It will be so good that it will be our grandkids’ favorite story and they’ll love to hear you tell it.”
“Easy there Muhammad Ali,” she said, raising a hand but smiling. “Let’s see if you can pick me up on time first.”
They set the date for her night off in two days.
Grayson walked out into the cool autumn night. The breeze was brisk and it chilled his hot skin. He walked to his old pickup truck with a smile on his face.
That was a good night. He won a fight, drank some beer and got a date with the hot cowgirl behind the bar. Laughlin City was turning out pretty good.
He froze in the parking lot as he felt vibrations in the ground. He spun on his heels. Brad was walking towards him holding a baseball bat. And that wasn’t the worst part. There was a gorilla and a polar bear standing behind him.
Oh shit.
Grayson was a good fighter but even he couldn’t match up to three shifters.
He slipped his keys into his pocket and stepped one foot back into his fighting stance.
“One beating wasn’t enough for you?” Grayson asked.
“You cheated,” Brad said, tapping the baseball bat in his hand. “And you embarrassed me.”
“You embarrassed yourself,” Grayson said, glancing around, sizing up his options. He wasn’t one to run from a fight but he wasn’t one to race into a situation that he couldn’t handle either. “Maybe you should try another activity like table tennis or origami.”
His grizzly bear grumbled inside him, ready to go. Stay close buddy I might need you.
Grayson glanced at the gorilla. He was huge. He bared his teeth flashing his long, yellow fangs. Grayson gulped. He had never fought a gorilla before. They were fast, vicious and way more agile than bears. He had seen gorillas fight before and he wasn’t about to try fighting one while also dealing with a polar bear and a shifter with a baseball bat.
Brad stepped forward with a smirk on his face that made Grayson ignore every survival instinct in him begging him to run. He had to stay and wipe that smirk off Brad’s face.
The whole parking lot rumbled and shook. Two car alarms went off as Grayson glanced down at the cement. Earthquake.
But he was wrong.
He saw a gray flash over his shoulder as a force hit him and thrust him off his feet. It felt like a Mack truck slammed into his back. A Mack truck with a spear on its grill.
“Gahh,” Grayson grunted as a white ivory horn speared through his body. The horn as thick as a watermelon sliced through his back and ripped out the front of his stomach turning his six pack into a three pack.
His teeth clenched so hard that they almost cracked. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hide the image of the white horn covered in his blood, tearing through his stomach. He took quick, raspy breaths as the rhino shook his head, sending him flying from side to side and ripping the massive wound open.
Grayson held onto the horn and tried to pull himself up but his arms had no energy. He was lightheaded and fading fast. This was it.
This is how you’re going to die. In a parking lot of a shitty bar.
It was fitting.
Dakota flashed in his mind and he felt regret. Regret that he would miss their date.
The rhino jerked his head to the side with one sharp yank and Grayson flew off the horn and landed on the pavement fifteen yards away. He could fit his fist through the hole in his stomach. He healed fast with his shifter healing but this was asking for too much. He already lost way too much blood.
The world was fading around him and the last thing he saw was Brad walking toward him dragging the baseball bat on the pavement. The sound of the wood on cement was horrible. It sounded like death.
Brad lifted the baseball bat over his shoulder but Grayson was already unconscious as it connected with his skull.
three
Dakota rushed out into the parking lot with the sound of her heartbeat thrashing in her ears. Her pulse was working overtime.
Cliff had returned after leaving and told them what he had seen when he was walking to his car: the new guy dead in a lake of blood.
Dakota ran to the still body. His cheek was on the pavement, lying in the thick red blood. It cast a perfect reflection of his calm, beautiful face.
She dropped to her knees and checked for a pulse. It was as weak as a pulse could be without being dead. She pushed his arm over and looked at the wound. Fucking Walter. Only a rhino horn could leave a wound like that. A rhino horn or a flagpole.
I’ll kill Walter myself if he dies.
The edges of the wound had been healing but it looked like it had stopped. He was dying. The nearest hospital was a four hour plane ride. Shifters usually didn’t need hospitals.
Dakota scooped him up in her arms and lifted him out of the puddle of blood. His head rolled back on her arms and his jaw fell open, his mouth slack. His eyes, which had been a mesmerizing dark brown, were cloudy and vacant. If he was going to die it wasn’t going to be on the pavement of a cold parking lot.
“What are you doing D?” Luke whispered behind her. She hadn’t heard him creep up. “He’s not going to make it.”
She glanced back over her shoulder. The drunks were pouring out to see the show. Dakota was determined not to let his last moments be a drunken spectacle. He would die in peace. In a bed.
“Just close up the bar will you?” she asked, a tremble snaking through her chin.
Luke looked at her with soft eyes. He nodded.
Dakota carried him around the building to the steep wooden steps that led up to the small loft over the bar. She rented it out from Leo for one hundred and fifty dollars a month.
She carried him up the stairs, her eyes beginning to fill with tears.
“Everyone back inside,” Luke hollered to the crowd below her.
Dakota opened the door and placed him on her bed. The blood would soak through the sheets and ruin the mattress but she didn’t care. She would sleep on the floor from now on. He was going to die in a bed. That’s the least that she could do.
Grayson’s eyes were closed. Little beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and his body shook with feverish shivers.
Dakota sat beside him, stroking his shaved head and watching his sleeping face. He looked so angelic. She wiped the tears from her wet eyes, leaned down and kissed his still lips. They were still warm.
When she sat back up and looked at him a force hit her like a stun gun. She couldn’t move her eyes. They were locked on him.
Her bedroom began to fade away, turning black as night. She felt a pull to the dying shifter who was in full, vivid color against the black backdrop that used to be her room. Her bear was bonding to him. This Grayson was her mate.
Her head jerked back as the force released her. Her vision cleared and the floral bedspread stained with blood and the light blue walls came back into focus.
Dakota be
gan to weep. Why? She hissed to her bear. Why would you bond to a dying man?
She peeled the soaking red t-shirt up his stomach. The wound was closing. Her trembling hand flew to her mouth and she began laughing of all things. Her shoulders shook as tears poured down her laughing cheeks.
His breathing was getting stronger and more steady. The bleeding had more or less stopped. He looked like he was going to be okay.
Her mate was going to be okay.
Grayson opened his eyes and groaned. His mouth was dry and his head was pounding like a jackhammer. His vision was blurry as he looked around.
“Shhh,” a girl’s voice said as she stroked his forehead, guiding his head back to the pillow. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and winced as he sat up. His whole torso was on fire.
“Where am I?” he asked, opening his eyes.
The girl with the cowboy hat from the bar, Dakota, was at his side.
“You’re in my bed,” she whispered.
“I thought I’d have to buy you dinner first,” he said, clutching his ribs and grimacing as he chuckled.
“Normally it takes a few dates,” she said, “but the gaping hole in your stomach let you have a pass.”
He glanced down and winced. Every movement hurt. There was a pink circle on his stomach fucking up his nice abs. “What the fuck happened? Did I get shot with a cannonball?”
“You got speared by a rhino,” she said, trying to get him to lie back down.
He resisted the temptation to lie back down on the comfy pillow. Incomplete flashes of getting jerked around in the air like a piñata ran through his mind. That fucker had came from behind. Cowards.
Grayson swung his leg off the bed. His legs were weak. He wasn’t sure if he could stand up yet.
“What are you doing?” she asked in panic.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He had never felt so weak before. “I have to start work in…” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Four hours.” Shit.
“You can’t go to work like this,” Dakota said, looking worried.
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