Page 7 of Soul Bound

“My alpha wouldn’t allow underground fighting.” I shrug nonchalantly, still trying to not come across like a threat.

“What? Your daddy won’t let you fight?” the large one mocks.

“It’s not my dad I’m worried about.”

If Pruitt knew I was driving up to Canada once a week to fight, she would beat my ass. And everyone knows that she-wolf could take me down in a matter of seconds. She was strong before she officially shifted, but now that her wolf isn’t bound, she is stronger than anyone in the pack. Ryker works out twice as much to be able to keep up with her.

“It doesn’t matter why he’s here,” one of the men who has been quiet the whole time, snaps at his friends. “It only matters that he knows he’s no longer welcome back.”

“I don’t take orders from you idiots, if Ivan has a problem with me being here then I’ll leave.” I subtly plant my feet and brace myself for their assault. “But Dean can bet his ass I will be here next week to break his nose again.”

They all charge at once. I’m able to fend off the first few blows, but there are four of them and only one of me. There’s only so much I can do before I’m falling to my knees in the dirt. Someone slams something into the back of my head and I can’t help but fall forward, my chest to the ground.

I turn my head in time to catch the swing in my peripheral right before it slams into my head again. I was right—he was holding a fucking baseball bat behind his back. The last thing I hear before I lose consciousness is the sound of them laughing as they walk away, leaving me in the dirt of the parking lot.

* * *

I almost regret regaining consciousness,because the first thing I see is a set of very angry green eyes. My wolf whimpers knowing that we are indeepshit. Honestly, I would rather have woken up to find my mom or dad’s glare than hers. At least theirs doesn’t make me want to tuck tail and run for the hills.

“Werewolf fight club?” Pruitt screeches from where she stands above where I sit on the ground. “Have youcompletelylost it?”

“Pru…” I start but am quickly cut off by the angry she-wolf.

“I’m talking.” She silences me with a single look. “At what point did you think it was going to be okay to drive your happy little ass up to Canada and start fighting other shifters? Seriously, Ranger, what is going on with you?”

“Nothing is going on with me.” I push her hand away when she tries to touch the healing gash on my temple. “I just wanted to blow off some steam.” I shrug nonchalantly.

I’m not an idiot, I knew I wasn’t doing the right thing when I started coming up here to fight. I knew I was making a mistake by hiding it from my family and pack. I just never thought anyone was going to find out since I’m over an hour away from home.

“Then go for ajog, do some fuckingyoga, but you don’t start fighting other shifters for money.” Pru pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. “Jesus, Ranger, you scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you or anyone. It’s not a big deal, I just took a blow to the head—”

“With a baseball bat!” she reiterates, gesturing wildly to my bloodied head. The metal baseball bat still lays in the dirt off to the side, splattered with my blood. Lovely.

“How did you even know I was up here?”

“Some dude named Ethan or Erik or something called me and told me you were knocked out and bleeding in the parking lot. He said you probably would be able to drive yourself home.” She gestures at a red pickup truck I recognize as Ivan’s.He must have come back…“He was worried about you, so he called me and told me what was going on. When he confirmed that you were still breathing, I told him to leave your dumbass in the parking lot andI’dcome deal with you. He agreed easily. I think he was afraid of being on my shit list.”

Bingo.

Ever since it got out that Pruitt isthewhite wolf from the long told White Wolf Prophecy, you know the one that goes‘When the white wolf walks this earth once more and finds her mate, so will the rest of us,’ shifters tend to be leery of her. And for good reason, Pru is arguably the strongest wolf shifter of our time. People are still having a hard time coming to grips with the whole prophecy thing too. The prophecy wasn’t supposed to be real. It was supposed to be a folktale that shifter parents told their kids, but it turns out it was very much based on a true curse.

No, I’m serious, a curse.

The first witch put a curse on the shifter race when her son fell in love with a white wolf shifter. She was all about protecting the sanctity of a pure bloodline and didn’t want her family’s powerful witch blood tainted with a shifter’s. For a thousand years, wolf shifters could only mate with a fellow wolf shifter. And since true mates are hard to come by, the shifter birthrate was really low. We were only a couple of hundred years away from being extinct at the rate we were going.

Esme, our local witch high priestess, found the original book that the prophecy was written in. She learned the curse could only be broken when the bloodline of the original cursed white wolf was remade. By some miracle, the bloodline was recreated when Pruitt was born. And then by her mating with my brother Ryker, the curse was broken. So now shifters and other beings like vampires and witches are free to mate with each other.

I know it sounds like I’m making this shit up, but I’m being one hundred percent honest. All I can say is, it’s been aninterestingpast couple of months.

“Did you bring him with you?” I ask her, looking up at her from where I still sit on the ground.

Pru thrusts her hand down, offering to haul my ass up out of the dirt. “Ryker?Hellno.” She shakes her head. “I didn’t want him tokillyou.”

“So, she brought me instead,” a voice from our left calls. I turn to find my sister, Remington, sitting in the driver’s seat of Pru’s white Jeep. “And the verdict is still out on whether or notI’mgoing to kill you.”

“You should have brought Ryker,” I tell Pru as I dust the dirt off of my pants. “He would have made it quick. Remi is going to make me suffer.”

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