Page 83 of Shaken Knot Stirred

Moxie. My stomach dropped through the floor. All Nico did was shrug, but I knew better. I could feel guilt and misery. The alpha in the cage behind me roared again. I knew Beg used rut boosters in fights. But he wouldn’t…

Beg spat on the ground and wiped his mouth. He signaled for the mics to be turned back on. He took a slow spin with his arms wide to encourage the crowd. I hugged my elbows when I really wanted to cover my ears.

“Well, seems we’re out of a challenge fight tonight.” Beg had to wait for the audience to quiet enough to speak again. “Unless, Nolan,”—he spun and shot finger guns at the big alpha in the VIP section—“you want to bring your little bitch Owen up here and teach him what going behind your pack lead’s back is like?”

The VIP section exploded into chaos. Owen climbed over Port Haven’s 1% to make a break for it. Nolan gave chase, throwing bodies out of his way. All while Beg cackled.

“Security, get the two of them and haul them up here.”

The whole stage shook again. That alpha was definitely in rut, thanks to Beg’s medicine cabinet. He shot his arm through a gap in the fencing, reaching menacingly with that chain with an open cuff on one end, dangling like a promise.

“The people still want a challenge fight, Beg. Let’s give them what they want.” Nico stood in the middle of the ring, his shoulders loose, fingers casually laced in front of him.

Beg took a second, just a second, to gauge the reaction of the crowd. I felt fear, and it wasn’t coming from me. Or from Nico.

I wasn’t sure how it all worked. But I knew you had to say the words, the actual words - “I challenge for pack lead.” It had to be accepted. There had to be witnesses. Moxie could probably explain it to me.

Beg slapped his knee and hooted like that was the funniest thing you’d ever heard. Nothing changed in Nico. He stood there, seeming like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“No. But we will all enjoy me beating the shit out of you.”

“How about I challenge you for your whole goddamn pack?”

Star stepped into the ring and pulled back the hood. He unzipped the security hoodie and let it fall from his shoulders.

“Ohhh,” Beg laughed in delight, “I’m going to enjoy beating the shit out of you, little brother. But first, insurance.”

Beg was on me with alpha speed, his fingers crushing my throat, pushing me back into the fencing. The alpha behind me snarled and clawed at the wisps of my hair that stuck through the fence.

“Just remember, beta,” Beg’s nails dug into my neck, “if I die, or if Nico dies, pack bonds break and you’ll lose your little scent match. And she smells so fucking good.”

“Moxie,” I said in a horrified whisper.

He knew.

Beg knew about the scent match. Fear froze every cell in my body. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think; I barely heard the metal clicks of the handcuffs snapping around my wrist.

In another flash of movement, Beg tore off his jacket and crashed into Nico. I screamed as the rutting alpha yanked on the chain that connected us now and tried to pull me through the fence.

Chapter 47

Moxie

No.

I kicked a scrawny little beta in the shins so I could steal his seat. I was too damn short. Star, Nico, and Lana—my whole pack, my whole world—were locked in a cage with Beg.

When I could see again over the writhing crowd, the alpha in the cage was trying to pull Lana right through the fence. Star had an arm wrapped around her waist. Nico was on the ground.

I hopped off the chair and fought through the crowd. People were flowing out of the makeshift arena. Others were surging forward to get a better look at the circus.

A space opened up, and I darted forward. Something caught on my skirt. I just ripped it free, feeling the fabric tear right to my hip. A line of security was pushing people back with their bodies and billy clubs. I ducked under an outstretched arm and stopped dead at the top of a little flight of stairs. I covered my head as a broken chair sailed into the ring. The floor was littered with cups, broken wood, and a metal chain.

Nico was coughing up blood from Beg’s repeated kicks to the side. But that wasn’t what terrified me. He was doing something with his aura that I had never seen before. I’d seen alphas dominate others, pack leads snapping their subordinates in line. They pushed out their auras. It filled the space, wrapping around their victims. Beg’s aura was going through Nico’s, poking holes in it, shredding it. Nico wasn’t losing a fight, a pack lead challenge fight; he was losing his aura.

Lana’s scream shook me to the core. She had lost a shoe and was bracing herself with a foot on the fence separating her from an alpha in full rut. Star was smashing the alpha’s forearm with his own to force him to let go.

I sprang to Lana, grabbing her around the waist.

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