Page 2 of Bait Wolf
The brothers shrugged.
“And as soon as you do, you can take her home,” Alek said. “Butonlyif it looks believable.”
“We wouldn’t do anything in front of such a big crowd, would we?”
I looked at each of them in turn, even turning to give Harvey a disgusted glare. He was still a simpering lump on the floor, his cheap suit dirtied by the mold on the wall.
I didn’t trust any of them, not one bit, but I didn’t have a choice, did I?
I’d never lost a fight in my career yet. When the gates opened and I faced my opponents, something came over me. The true wild nature of my wolf completely took control. Then again, that was the whole point, wasn’t it? When wolves lost it, the bloody display was all the entertainment one could ask for.
“So, do we have a deal?”
Alek came forward, offering his hand.
For a minute, I didn’t move. I didn’t know if I could control myself when it came down to it. Then again, Ihadto.
I didn’t want Asha to see me getting torn apart whether it was agreed upon or not, but there was no other way.
I reached forward and took the offered hand in an iron grip.
“Bring her to the fight.”
“She’ll be there.” Alek grinned.
Dropping the slimy grip from my own, barely able to contain the rage of twisting emotions, I shouldered past them to the door, pausing to turn and look back at them.
“Pull any strokes and I’ll annihilate Lambert and come after each of you personally.”
Harvey and Kai paled and, if I wasn’t mistaken, a twitch of apprehension ran over even Alek’s face.
I slammed the thick metal door behind me and took off, marching through the dank corridors.
The fight league had become my savior in many ways, taking me beyond the limits of the life I’d known. By now, I was familiar with every part of this dirty business. Normally I chose to look at the good and turn my cheek to the bad. Well, that was hard to do right now.
I was currently in the Lunar City Fight League’s underbelly, a system of damp cement corridors and rooms that hid all sorts of unpleasantness from the rest of society. Above was the stadium, an enclosed fight ring with thousands of seats rising on all sides.
The semi-legal fights were a national sensation that drew crowds unlike any other sport. And off the blood of pack shifters, a lucky few made a killing. It was a true display of the depravity of wolves, and down here, where the true dregs of society ran business, I was normally one of the star players. After all, I was the current favorite. Thirty professional wins, zero losses.
That was why they wanted me to lose. Throw the fight so they could make millions on their bet… How much was Harvey getting out of this arrangement, I wondered.
Somewhere in the distance, a shout of fear echoed through the passages from some unknown location. How many people were being wronged, tortured, maybe even murdered down here?
A flash of familiar guilt hit me then, but as always, I pushed the feeling down, allowing anger to overtake it.
I needed a way to provide for my sister. Without an education or status, this was what I’d come up with: using my strengths, and I was a fighter through and through.
Normally, omegas were the key. They were brought in to use as bait wolves, to stoke the flames of competition between the fighters, but I didn’t need them. In the moment, when another alpha ran for the omega, yeah, it felt wrong, like I should be the one winning them, but even without an omega’s presence, I could still rip the head off any wolf out there.
After the fights, I’d known winners and losers both who sometimes obsessed over the omega they’d nearly had. Sometimes they were even sold to fighters for the right price. Often, they were too badly mangled during the event to even survive.
The fact that people were being trafficked for this sport didn’t seem to bother anyone, but I couldn’t help glancing down the halls now, wondering where all the stolen omegas were being kept.
A life in a cell was not one worth living anyway. Maybe death was a relief.
Maybe Asha is down here.
The thought made my step falter, nearly sending me back down the stairs just as I started to ascend them, ready to go on a rampage looking for her.
