Page 1 of Bait Wolf
ChapterOne
Coal
If you want your little sister back, you know what to do.
The words echoed in my mind like a record on repeat. Asha was more like a daughter to me than a little sister. She was twenty years younger, an accidental child from one of the whores in the red-light district.
Father should have known better, but I’d never actually blamed him for this particular mistake because the moment Asha was left on our doorstep, I had fallen utterly in love with her. I knew that she would be mine to care for, to love, and to keep safe, and I had done everything in my power to do just that.
Until now.
If you want your little sister back, you know what to do.
I lunged forward as those painful words continued to echo in my mind. I bypassed the gangsters that Harvey had gotten me involved with and went straight for the small man himself.
Harvey squeaked, throwing himself back but not fast enough. I caught him against the cold, damp wall and lifted him by the neck.
I was a monstrous being, in wolf and man form both; my stature, build, and ferocity had earned me the nickname the Redwood. I was thought to be huge and infallible. That was what they said about me whenever I entered the Lunar City Fight ring.
Although he was a wolf shifter too, my manager Harvey had always reminded me more of a rat. Always sniffing around for the next way to use me to make a few bucks. Normally I didn’t give a fuck because it always paid out, but if my family was involved, that changed everything.
“What have you done?” I snarled.
Harvey whimpered and choked.
He couldn’t answer because my grip was too tight. I was barely able to restrain myself. Oh, how easy it would be to snap that small frail neck.
For a moment, I saw red. My grip tightened. Harvey’s face turned purple, his eyes bugging out.
A chuckle broke through the tension, and suddenly I remembered that we weren’t alone.
I dropped Harvey like a rag, ignoring the coughing heap of a man, and turned to face the gangsters, the ones who had just told me they had taken Asha.
My fiery gaze landed on the two of them.
Brothers Alek and Kai Belkin were notorious in Lunar City, but they hadn’t yet been caught or, at least, they had connections with the police that kept them free.
They were both big alphas. Not quite in my league, but there were two of them.
Alek, the older brother, shook his head.
“Calm down, okay? She’s fine. Last I checked, she was eating pizza with her babysitter and watchingMy Little Pony.”
The description of my little sister tugged at my heart. She loved that annoying show. I would literally give my right arm to be sitting with her, watching it, my big arm around her small shoulders. To get her back, I would do anything they asked.
I felt my shoulders sag at the realization, and a look of glee passed over the brothers’ faces.
“What do you want from me?” I growled.
The edge of threat in my voice was useless; they already knew they had won.
“You know what we want,” Kai said. “Lose the fight. Simple as that.”
“How do I know I’ll get her back?”
“She’ll be there.”
“At the fight?” I asked, heart racing. “To see melose?”
