Page 3 of Bait Wolf
No. If she was in the maze of tunnels down here, I would never find her. Best to wait until tomorrow, to have this fight with Lambert. If she was in the middle of the crowd, nothing could be done to her.
Gritting my teeth, I went up the stairs, all the way to the back exit, and emerged into the evening light.
Lunar City was full of back alleys like these. Dark and dank, the opposite of what the beautiful skyline and shining lights would have you believe.
Once upon a time I’d been part of the bottom drudges. To rise to the top, I’d nearly gotten myself killed in the ring and nearly killed my opponents as well.
I’d done it all for Asha. I rubbed shoulders with the upper crust of society, the Lunar City aristocrats, and I’d bought us a big house on the outskirts with a big yard for her to play in.
Now I wondered if any of it was worth it.
I would survive the day without Asha, lose that fight, and then everything would go back to normal.
ChapterTwo
Ember
My body rattled from the cold. I was so thin now that I didn’t doubt that the clinking of bones was audible through the thin layers of my skin.
No muscle or fat remained to warm me or offer any comfort from the icy cement of the cell I had called home for too long.
The cold was worse than the pain. In the end, it was harder to adjust to. The sharp sting of broken bones, scrapes, cuts, and deep gouges—all of it was so familiar it was almost a comfort to me now. If I remained still, the sharpness of fresh pain dulled and slowly faded.
Being a shifter meant I healed faster than a regular human or wolf did, but I couldn’t help but notice that, over the months that had passed, my healing had slowed down as my body had become ever frailer and weaker.
At first, I’d fought tooth and claw for freedom. Then I’d accepted this fate... Now, I knew that had been a mistake.
There would never be an end to this suffering, except with my death.
I had thought that if I gave in, I would be treated better. That hadn’t happened. Instead, I’d lay down and allowed my life to dwindle to its near end.
Any day now, I would be brought into another fight. I wouldn’t survive the next one; of that, I was sure.
I twisted on the hard, damp floor, naked in my human form, too weak to shift into my wolf for the small bit of relief that my fur would offer. My gaze landed on the grate above.
It led onto a street, maybe a back alley. I wasn’t sure, except that trucks often passed overhead, blocking out the light of day and the streetlights at night. On occasion, I heard people talking, but if they heard my shouts for the first endless months I’d been here, they didn’t care to respond.
Not surprising, really. Lunar City was like that. It was a big, bustling city, packed with the supernatural. Wolf shifters ran the place. Growing up on the streets had taught me a long time ago that I’d rather take my chances with actual wild animals than the scum that lived here.
I’d been so confident back then. Thought I knew the ways of the streets like the backs of my hands. I’d seen kids go missing on more than one occasion. I assumed the worst. Still, I never once thought thatIwould be taken. Even though I knew about the fight league, I’d never even considered that I would end up being a bait wolf for it.
A rattle of chains drew me from my thoughts. I looked over at the door as it opened, revealing a sight that drew my interest enough that I attempted to sit up. It took two tries and a hiss of pain, but I was upright by the time my visitors entered. One was my usual guard, a frail man who never made eye contact when he brought small bits of food or water to my cell. I couldn’t help thinking he felt guilty. That didn’t mean he was going to quit though. He probably did this as a job to make ends meet, surely earning a pathetic excuse of a wage.
The other two large alphas who entered were far more interesting. Abram Adair himself, creator of the Lunar City Fight League. He was the showrunner, the man on the absolute top. He looked it too, with silky blond hair, large white teeth, and cruel eyes. What was he doing here?
The man he led in after him, I didn’t recognize, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t read power when I saw it, and it had nothing to do with the perfect cut of his expensive suit or the way he sneered down at me. It was in the very way he carried himself.
“This is the last one,” Abram said to the man. His assessing gaze never moved from me where I crouched in the corner in rags. Finally, he shook his head, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and covering his nose at my stench. “It won’t do. He’s not good enough. I’ll find you a fresh omega, one worth fighting over.”
Anger I didn’t know I was even capable of feeling again lanced through me, so sharply that I began to shake.
“Wait.”
The other man bent down, still far enough back that I couldn’t quickly reach him—as though I had the strength to attack anyone right now.
His gaze seemed to peer straight through me. Finally, he straightened, nodding thoughtfully.
“This is the one.”
