Yeah, I liked vampires. Give me fangs and bloodlust, and I was golden.
Then again, there was only one set of fangs I wanted near me.
I bit my lip, glancing sideways at Damian as we stepped toward the mass of werewolves.
“Move,” he said to them. His voice was calm, but he stopped and waited for them to obey.
There was something in his tone that warned them not to ignore him.
One of them glanced over, and his face went white when he saw us. Whispers and yelps rolled through the hallway as the crowd parted immediately.
“It shouldn’t turn me on that they’re so afraid of you,” I murmured to Damian, as we resumed walking and made our way down the hall.
“Why not?” He lifted an eyebrow at me, and though he didn’t smile, I saw the humor in his eyes.
We made our way through multiple hallways before we finally stepped into what had to have been the largest room I’d ever seen.
My eyes met Curtis’s partway across the room—and he looked furious.
“Don’t let him see you flinch,” Damian said, slowly lifting our intertwined hands so he could kiss the back of my palm.
My gaze left Curt’s for a moment, and when I looked back at the werewolf, I saw the fury in his face and movements.
He’d been watching us. That was why Damian kissed my hand.
“Is riling him up really a good idea?” I asked.
“The more furious he is, the more erratic his movements will be, and Porter is anything but erratic in his current condition.”
“He didn’t seem all that calm and collected in the hallway.”
“You’ll see. He won’t lose.” Damian sounded more sure of that than I felt, so I nodded.
A simple metal fence had been set up in the center of the monstrous room, creating a cage of sorts that separated Porter and Curtis from the rest of us. There was a guy standing between them with a microphone in his hand, but he was covering the top as he yelled something to someone behind him.
Porter didn’t look in our direction when we found our place just outside the cage, stopping between Bane and Talon.
Our group of vampires was right behind us, with Izzy tucked probably uncomfortably between them.
Bleachers rose around the room, but I tried to ignore the insane noise of the pack of werewolves throughout it.
“Did you arrange this?” Bane called out, looking at me and Damian.
“We would never even consider that,” Damian lied, his lips curving upward wickedly.
Bane laughed, and when I looked to my other side, Talon was grinning too.
None of them would be disappointed when Curtis was gone.
…assuming Porter didn’t lose.
“Is Kai in the fae realm right now?” Damian asked.
“Yep. He’s going to be annoyed he missed this,” Bane yelled back.
A few more minutes passed as wolves poured into the room.
“This is the ballroom,” Damian said into my ear. “I throw a party here with all the other leaders every year, masquerade-style.”