“So you think I could go up with you just for the morning?” Francis asked Ryland.

  “We insist,” Ana said. “Look, we’ll go up to the camp. It’s isolated up there except for a couple of employees we trust. Rock and Riker didn’t say you had to stay glued to us at all times.”

  “Even if it was sort of implied,” Ryland muttered. He stood and stretched. “Well, if you want to come with me, I’m headed up now. Mainly to do a little training.”

  Mainly to check on his mate.

  “I’m coming,” Francis said, making up his mind and throwing on a black fleece jacket over his blue flannel shirt and jeans.

  Ryland was wearing gray training sweats, as was usual lately. He saw no reason to get dressed up when he needed to stay functional.

  “Okay,” Ryland said, giving Ana and Ros quick, casual side hugs. “You two be careful. You have our numbers. I’ll text you when I bring Francis back.”

  Ana giggled. “Sounds funny. You escorting him.”

  “Hm, maybe you’ve found companionship after all,” Ros teased, watching Francis’s confused face.

  When he got the joke, his brow lowered. “Not funny.”

  Ryland had to laugh at the other man’s disgruntled demeanor. “Don’t worry, Francis. You’re not my type.”

  “Hey, why not? You should be so lucky,” Francis muttered, following him out into the sunshine.

  Ryland’s mouth turned up into a grin at the corners, and he shrugged his shoulders as he walked to the car, trying to stay loose.

  Hopefully he could feel this relaxed once he and Francis were up at the Brawl, watching men beat each other to a pulp right in front of his mate.

  Lea had a queasy feeling as she watched the match in front of her.

  She couldn’t be sure, but she had a feeling the shifter who was winning had used a performance-enhancing drug.

  Most shifters still weren’t aware they existed. Typically made from alpha wolf shifter blood, they gave temporary alpha powers to the person injected with it.

  But the effects were subtle, and the producers were smart enough not to use alpha powers that would be obvious. Instead, they used subtle ones, like increased strength and rapid healing. Things like that.

  As someone who had trained all types of shifters, including wolf shifters with actual alpha powers, she knew how to see the signs. That’s what made her perfect for the job.

  Of course, when her brother had called the Brolins, asking what measures were in place to make sure no one was using unfair performance-enhancing drugs, she hadn’t actually thought any bears were.

  It was just a way to make the Brolins aware that someone could be.

  Which gave her, as the only one who could do what she did, an in.

  She was only here to gather info and put her own plan in motion, but she also had to keep up the pretense of doing the job she was hired for, and that meant calling the bastard in front of her on his unfair tactics.

  But during or after the fight?

  As he (an abnormally large black bear) landed a heavy blow on his partner, she looked closely and saw a vague purple light around his paw.

  Yup. It was time to stop things.

  She motioned for Riker’s attention and yelled at him to stop the fight. He looked confused for a moment, and she knew he’d been absorbed in what was happening. But he waved a hand, and Rock jumped off the platform and ran to the ring.

  He opened the cage and skidded to a halt between the two fighters, forcing them to stop.

  Damn, did the man have no fear?

  He put out a hand in either direction, and both men shifted back to human form, picking up their clothes and pulling them on.

  She let out a sigh of relief that the fight was over without more trouble and then squinted as she saw Rock talking to them. The blond man who had shifted into the black bear was waving his hands and gesturing as Rock pointed up at the platform where she was standing.

  He motioned for the man to follow him as they left the ring. The man who had been losing stared after them as the crowd let out murmurs of dissent and confusion.

  It was a beautiful day, the bright sun defying the cold weather and stinging mountain breeze that signaled the coming of winter. The Brawl had been held a little early this year, before the canyon could close, due to circumstances the year before with a human accidentally wandering in and being unable to leave.

  Though, it had ended okay, with Riker mating the woman in question.

  She felt eyes on her as Rock and the fighter approached and looked up to see Ryland standing at the edge of the woods in jogging clothing, next to Francis, who looked confused.

  Where had they come from?

  When she hadn’t seen Ryland at the morning fights, she’d assumed he wasn’t going to show up today. Now he was here with Francis alongside him. Wasn’t he supposed to stay down with the girls?

  She snapped her eyes back to Rock, who was standing beneath them, gesturing for her to come down.

  The rage in the dark eyes of the blond contestant made her shudder, but she remembered she’d met countless cheaters like him.

  She would handle him.

  “This is Cole,” Rock said, introducing him. “Cole, this is Lea.”

  Cole just glared at her. “What is it? Why did you feel the need to stop my fight?”

  She pulled a syringe out of her pocket and pulled off the cap, reaching for his arm. “I’ll need a sample of your blood. If it’s clean, you can resume.”

  He jerked backward. “What the hell? I don’t have to give you anything. And who says I want to fight again after you interrupted?”

  She sighed. “The rules are clear. Drugs aren’t allowed, and we can randomly test at any time.”

  Cole’s lips curled in a snarl. “This is what happens when you bring wolves to a bear show. This is just supposed to be a raw, fun beat down in the mountains. Now it’s turning into organized fighting.”

  She folded her arms. “I think you’re the one bringing wolves into this, if you know what I mean.”

  An angry flush lit Cole’s face, and he took a step forward, but Rock put out a large hand, forcing him to stop.

  “You follow her rules or you’re out of here,” Rock said. “I don’t care who you are.”

  “Not if I was your brother,” Cole said. “Have you tested him?”

  “Here.” Ryland had caught up to them and extended his arm, sleeve rolled up. “I’ll let you test me anytime.”

  Francis was with him, and both were glowering down at Cole as if he were a particularly stinky piece of garbage.

  Cole backed away from the group as a whole, looking cornered. “Everyone’s against me.”

  She held up the syringe. “Just let me test you.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Just you. I don’t want everyone around me while I’m getting stuck with a needle.”

  Ryland stepped forward to protest, but she put up a hand. “Fine. I don’t care.”

  “Don’t go to him,” Ryland said. “I forbid it.”

  Everyone in the group turned to look at him. She let out a long-suffering sigh. “As if you get to decide what I do,” she retorted.

  His handsome face tightened in frustration, and she could see the powerful billionaire was used to getting his way. But right now, she just needed to get a blood test, and if her patient didn’t want to be cornered, that was his prerogative.

  Cole had stepped back even more so he was a couple yards from the group, and she walked toward him, unfazed.

  Riker and Rock watched with folded arms, and she heard a muttered curse from Ryland and reassurance from Francis.

  “He can’t do anything to her with us right here,” Francis insisted. “He wouldn’t.”

  She wasn’t sure about that. In fact, she was pretty sure this was a trap.

  But it was time to show the overprotective males just how well she could take care of herself, and an unrepentant, attacking cheater was just the person to do it with.

  She shoved the syringe in her pocket and walked over. Just as she’d predicted, when she reached him, she saw him draw back a fist. She had time to look up and see the rage in his eyes as he swung toward her.

  Everything happened in slow motion. She felt the men rush toward them, felt the ground rumble, saw spittle fly from Cole’s mouth, a slight grin on his lips in anticipation of punishing the person who’d come between him and winning.

  She left it to the last possible millisecond and then aimed her punch perfectly, ducking under his arm and striking upward into his face with a hard crunch that sent shocks rippling through her body.

  She heard it connect, heard facial bones shatter, and then the force of her punch sent him flying backward, arms flailing as he fell back and skidded over the dirt until he was about twenty feet away from them.

  Dead silence fell around them, from the spectators, from the Brolins, all except for Ryland, who was paused in mid-punch, having just lunged desperately toward them to protect her.

  He was breathing hard and dropped his hand, looking at her with bald shock.

  “Did she kill him?” Rock asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind.

  Her wrist was slightly sore, but it’d be fine soon. “No. Watch.”

  Slowly, Cole let out a groan and tried to roll over. He made it halfway and then gave up and lay on his back in the dust. Maybe unconscious.

  “Damn,” Riker said. “You’re a genius.”

  “Or something,” Francis said, looking almost afraid of her as she shook out her fingers.

  “That should send a message,” she said, uncapping her syringe and walking toward Cole.

  She still needed to take that sample.

  8

  Ryland slowly silenced his inner bear as he watched Lea walk to the fallen Cole, kneel beside him, jab him with the syringe, and draw his blood.

  All with not a peep from her patient.

  The crowd from the fight was slowly dispersing, and a few fighters were congratulating the new winner, who would take the match by default since Cole was almost certainly disqualified.

  Ryland jogged up to Lea, unable to resist finding out what she was looking for in his blood. “What do you think he was using?” he asked.

  “Performance enhancers,” she said simply, pulling out a bag and slipping the capped syringe into it.

  “How did you know?”

  She shrugged. “I was hired for my ability to do that.” She sighed as they walked back to the group of guys, all of whom were watching with uncertain stances, as if they didn’t know what to expect.

  “Look,” he said. “I’m not even here to see the fights, but that was dangerous. We should have some sort of protocol, some way to—”

  “To protect me?” she asked. “I already told you, Ryland. I don’t need protecting. And now that the other contestants have seen how I deal with flagrant misbehavior, I don’t think they’ll try anything.”

  Ryland scratched the back of his head. He had to agree with that. Her punch had been insane. Cole had flown back like a rag doll, and he wasn’t a small shifter.

  When she’d trained with him, she’d been adept and good at demonstrating. But she’d clearly held back her true strength. She rolled up her sleeves (she was wearing a windbreaker today over a casual sweater and jeans) and examined her palms for any bruises.

  He looked as well.

  “How did you do that?” he asked. “Do you have an alpha power?”

  He knew what they were because they occasionally had a wolf enter the Brawl, and they weren’t allowed to use their powers. Not all wolves had them, only alphas. Only strong alphas.

  She shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows?”

  He grabbed her arm lightly. “You know.”

  She gave him a dark, intense glare. “Right. And if I wanted to tell you, you’d know, too.”

  He had to admire her as she stepped away from him, her short, curvy figure belying her incredible strength and speed. It wasn’t that females couldn’t be strong. It was just that she seemed so small, so… vulnerable at times. Her dark hair was back in a ponytail, barely ruffled by her short fight.

  A fight that shouldn’t have happened. He should have been there on time. He should have stopped it. He should have… Should he have done anything?

  She was his mate, and the bear in him had nearly torn out of him when he’d seen Cole start his punch.

  But he’d somehow stayed collected, as if part of him knew she was going to handle it.

  He frowned. There was still a lot more to figure out. Lea was hiding more mysteries than he’d even thought.

  When they reached Rock and Riker, both men shook their heads. Then they seemed to remember Francis was there.

  “Where are our mates?” Rock asked, brow crumpling.

  “They wanted to go up to the camp,” Ryland said, defending his friend. “They practically banished Francis.”

  “Or you just wanted to see the fights,” Riker said.

  Francis grinned guiltily.

  “Well, it’s fine,” Riker said. “In fact, it’s good to have you up here. Just because the girls are staying down in the canyon doesn’t mean you always have to be there. Especially when they’re at camp.”

  “And Rosalyn can be a pretty fierce bear when she wants to,” Rock said. His eyes flicked to Lea. “Um… nothing like that, though.”

  “That?” Lea laughed. “Now I’m a thing?”

  Rock rubbed his chin. “Yes. A very interesting thing.”

  “What, you’ve never seen a grown woman punch a bear shifter before?” she asked, clearly gloating.

  Riker cleared his throat. “Um, not like that, no. Though, he deserved it, and we’re glad you did.”

  “Fighting is my life,” she said. “If I wasn’t capable at it, do you think anyone would let me train them?”

  “Did you know she could do that?” Riker asked Ryland, who shrugged.

  “Not really. But I mean, as long as she could teach me to fight, I wasn’t worried about exactly how much she could pack into a punch.”

  “So you think she could take you?” Rock asked.

  Ryland snorted. “No.”

  She bristled. “You sure about that?”

  Ryland studied her for a moment. She was strong; she’d proved that with Cole. But he didn’t believe anyone here could take him. Not with his dire bear.

  One thing he knew for certain. He never wanted to face her. Because in a pinch, his dire bear would come out, no matter what Ryland wanted.

  It wouldn’t let him die. It would commit murder first.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not sure. Just in case, I’ll never fight you.”

  Her smile quirked up. “Sounds good.”

  He reached out a hand and she shook it, and he wondered if he’d done it just for the excuse to touch her.

  Electricity raced through him at being close to her, and he took a step back.

  He realized a part of him was fired up by how badass she’d been. The urge to claim her was even stronger. Her beautiful dark eyes glowed up at him, sparkling, and he turned on his heel.

  “Well, I guess I’ll leave the rest of the matches to all of you and go train.” He didn’t feel like hanging out with his brothers long enough for them to catch on to the raging boner he had for their ethics advisor.

  He heard laughter behind him and approaching footsteps and looked over his shoulder to see Lea following him.

  “We’re done with matches for the day,” she said. “That was the last one.”

  “Wow,” Ryland said. “They went fast.” He allowed her to tag along as he walked into the woods behind the fighter cabins, over a small footpath that led to a lake he liked to visit.

  After a few minutes, when it came into view, he let out a deep breath and heard her gasp audibly behind him.

  “This is beautiful,” she said. “I didn’t know it was here.”

  He walked forward and sat on a log. “I don’t think many people do. But I like it. It’s quiet.” He leaned back, crossing his legs over one another. “I think it’s interesting how people can be in a place and always stay within boundaries, never go exploring to see what might be outside their little lines.”

  “You mean like cheaters?”

  “No,” he said. “I mean it literally. All these fighters up here in these beautiful mountains, and they can’t go outside the small campground where they think they’re supposed to be.” At least usually. A small group had found him here last year and tried to attack Riker’s mate.

  Something that had resulted in a shifting that had almost been disastrous.

  Would have been without a syringe full of tranquilizer and Rock’s willingness to jump on a rabid bear’s back.

  “What are you thinking about?” she asked, joining him on the log.

  He tried not to be aware of her closeness. Her scent.

  After his fight, he wanted to fuck her. After her fight, he wanted to fuck her. When he woke up in the morning, he wanted to fuck her. When he went to bed—

  “So I impressed you?” she asked, wrinkling her pert nose as if his opinion mattered to her.

  Did it?

  “Should I be impressed?”

  “I think so,” she said, picking up a rock and expertly skipping it across the water.

  He watched it plink, leaving ripples on the lake, which was surrounded by trees and high, green grasses.

  It was still so beautiful here, with winter coming late.

  “Then I’m impressed,” he said. Maybe he’d been impressed from the moment he’d met her. Maybe it had been building all the way until they made love. Maybe it kept growing every day, even as she pushed him aside and told him it couldn’t happen.

  But when was she going to join him in this tortured cycle?

  Her hand rested on the log between them, so close that if he just moved his fingers over, he could touch her.

  “So I’ve never asked you about your family,” she asked. “I mean, I’ve met your brothers, but what was it like growing up here?”

  He felt his expression shutter. He hated questions about his childhood. “Not great.”

  “Why not?” she asked, gesturing around them. “You were surrounded by all this beauty. You got to watch the Brawl every year. Your dad was epic and rich. A legend who ran the Brawl and the town. Who left you all the property people here live on. Who—”