“So you… Did you see everything?”

  He snorted, folding his arms. “Of course not. But I saw enough when I finally caught up to you. I saw him holding you in his lap. Only one reason a male holds a female like that. He has fallen for you.” His eyes narrowed. “Have you fallen for him?”

  “No,” she answered quickly, though she wasn’t sure. She did have some kind of feelings for him. Mainly attraction and friendship and now that she knew about his childhood, a kind of protectiveness. “But we were wrong about the Brolins.”

  “How so?” he asked sarcastically. Her brother could be handsome if he wasn’t so twisted by his rage all the time, so obsessed with vengeance.

  “We have to change the plan.”

  “No,” he said. “I’m not letting them off the hook because you want to fuck one.”

  “Don’t talk like that with me,” she said sharply. “I’m still your sister. We’re all the other has. Don’t ruin that now.”

  He walked closer, a dark look on his face, his rage barely contained in his body as he fairly vibrated. “Don’t ruin it? Me? You’re the one who’s going to ruin it by tripping on the finish line. We’ve been waiting for this our whole life.” He pointed a finger at her. “This is your fault. You insisted on meeting him. Training him. I told you not to get close to him. I had heard of the Brolin brothers’ effect on females.”

  “Stop it,” she said. “You’re wrong. That’s not it. They were abused by their dad, too. Hurting them won’t help anything, and it won’t be fair.”

  She saw her brother pause, as shocked by this news as she was. Or was he?

  “Did you know that?”

  “What difference does it make?” he asked.

  “All the difference,” she said, taking a step back and feeling her back hit the door. She knew her brother wouldn’t hurt her, but she didn’t like him right now, the way he was being.

  He needed to get himself under control.

  The plan could still happen. It just needed to change. They needed to make sure to only go after John Brolin. Originally, since no one knew where he’d gone, the plan had been to come investigate the Brolins by putting her in a position to be close to them, figure out which of his sons was the worst, and kill that one.

  That was the way the wolf world worked. Someone ended the life of one of your pack members, you ended one of theirs. She’d never questioned it, especially with the way her father had died, in lies and ignominy, with no one knowing the truth.

  That John Brolin had killed him.

  “We can’t just kill innocents,” she said. “They hate him as much as we do. He hurt them, Lance. Really hurt them.”

  “No,” Lance said. “I won’t feel bad for them. They got everything. They own an entire town—”

  “Ryland is a dire bear,” Lea blurted out

  Lance finally stopped as that fact hit him. “What?” His eyes widened.

  She nodded. “It was that bad.”

  “No,” Lance spat, whirling around. “No, I’m not feeling bad for him. His father did what he did, but he deserves vengeance.”

  “No, only John Brolin,” she said.

  “But no one knows where he is!” Lance shouted, bringing his hand down on the table, making it shudder.

  “Give me time. I can find out from Ryland. He trusts me,” she said.

  “But he hasn’t told you yet. I assume you already asked him.” His eyes were expectant.

  She nodded. “He hasn’t told me yet. There’s something painful there. I don’t know what. But I know he’ll tell me. Give it time.”

  Lance slammed his hand down again. “Why will he tell you? He’s protecting that scum!”

  “Because I’m his mate,” she said, bracing herself for her brother’s wrath.

  He stared at her, gaping, his lips moving wordlessly. “You are not mating a Brolin.”

  “It isn’t up to you,” she said. “The world isn’t black and white like we always thought it was, Lance. It’s full of gray and storm clouds, and I’m going to stay in that gray, with Ryland.”

  He blinked. “So you’ll betray me. So I’m on my own, then.”

  “No,” she said, suddenly panicking at what he might do if he was desperate. “Just give me time. If I don’t have the info in a couple of days, I’ll tell you. We’ll regroup. Give me time.” Surely Ryland would tell her eventually. He didn’t want to keep secrets from her. He’d said that.

  Eventually, he’d open up. And hopefully soon, given how fast things were going between them.

  Lance walked past her to the door, yanking it open. “He better. You fix this. You figure it out, or it’s your head.” He jabbed a finger at her, and she’d never felt more threatened.

  Then he was gone, disappearing into the night. Back to blend in with the other contestants.

  She stumbled down the stairs into the barely risen moonlight and fell to her knees. Somehow, she wanted to follow him and to run from him.

  Where was the brother she’d known, the one she’d stuck close to growing up? Her partner.

  Had she really betrayed him?

  She was still sitting in the dirt, silently crying, when she felt arms around her. She looked up to see Ryland’s storm-gray eyes looking down at her in concern.

  He helped her to her feet, lifting her easily. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she said, swiping at her tears.

  Not believing her, he lifted her into his arms and carried her back to his cabin. He shifted her to one side so he could open the door and then carried her into the light, well-furnished living room and set her on the couch. “Should I go lock your door?” he asked.

  “No,” she snapped. “It’s fine.” She didn’t want him scenting her brother, another male, there and wondering what had happened. “I think I just want to go to bed.”

  “I need to know what’s wrong first.”

  “Why?” she asked, rubbing the last traces of tears from her eyes.

  “So I can go beat the shit out of whoever made you feel like this,” he said.

  “I’d rather you didn’t,” she said. “Because it’s my brother.”

  “He called?”

  Not wanting to explain further and knowing Ryland would pry if she didn’t give him some reason for the tears, she nodded. “But I just want to go to bed.”

  “Okay. Fine by me,” he said. “After all, I have a fight tomorrow, and with you as my lucky charm, I’m sure I’ll do better.”

  She grinned and let him carry her up to the bedroom. He handed her one of his tee shirts to sleep in, and she changed and got under the covers, her mind still racing.

  Somehow she needed to get Ryland to give her the location of John Brolin.

  Ryland wasn’t nervous at all for the fight about to happen. His opponent, who’d faced off against a much easier bear in the preliminaries, wasn’t anywhere near his skill level.

  Thus, it’d be over that much faster, and he could spend the rest of the day with Lea.

  Once she was done watching fights, that was.

  He was beginning to understand there were a lot of difficult things going on with her. Seeing her tears the other night after talking with her brother had shaken him, but he knew from experience that sometimes you just didn’t want to talk about things like that.

  Too painful.

  There had been a lot he couldn’t control over the past few days, and finally he was facing something he could.

  His opponent had stark red hair, a carroty-orange color, and green eyes with yellow streaks. He was pale with freckles, massively tall but lean.

  He snarled at Ryland, pacing around the edge of the caged arena, raising his arms to elicit cheers from the watching shifters.

  Of course the other shifters roared in support, happy to see someone wasn’t afraid of the Brolin brothers and probably hoping someone could take him down.

  But what he didn’t understand was why this competitor, who was almost certainly far below him in fighting ability, looked so damn confident?

  Had someone told him Ryland couldn’t or wouldn’t shift?

  Or was it something else?

  Ryland rolled his shoulders and swung his arms as part of his warmup. He wasn’t interested in working the spectators into a frenzy. There was only one opinion he cared about, and he knew Lea wouldn’t think differently of him no matter how he fought.

  She knew him already that way, far better than anyone else, as his trainer.

  The bell dinged, and Ryland shot into action, lunging with a hard left toward Randy. He skidded to a halt as Randy disappeared from his vision and turned around just in time to see Randy sending a punishing jab to his head.

  Ryland ducked, but the hit grazed him, oddly hard. Ryland jumped back, rubbing his jaw, and studied the man in front of him. Randy should not have been able to move like that. Ryland had studied for the express purpose of being faster than other bears.

  Randy just grinned with slightly yellow, jagged teeth. Canines that were filed to points. Ryland grimaced.

  He bounced on his feet, circling with Randy around the edge of the cage.

  He stepped forward with a quick jab and saw Randy dodge once again. No, not dodge. It was almost as if he blurred and just appeared out of reach; that was how fast it was.

  “What the hell?”

  Ryland spun, looking for Randy, who was still moving in a blur around him. When Randy stopped, he caught Ryland in the stomach with a punch that sent him flying back into the wire of the cage, bending it out of shape with a loud clang.

  Ryland got to his feet quickly, jumping out of the way of a follow-up kick from Randy. As he ducked, he swung upward with a hook kick and managed to catch Randy hard on the ear before he could dodge.

  Randy might have super speed, but he still didn’t have the best reflexes or fighting skills.

  Still, as Randy disappeared again and appeared behind Ryland, landing a punishing hit on the back of his head, Ryland thought super speed might just be enough.

  Ryland fell to his knees and looked up at Lea, who was staring down in concern, one hand covering her mouth, her brow furrowed.

  Was she seeing evidence of cheating? Would she stop the match? He knew she’d have to consider it carefully, since anyone stopping a match against a Brolin could be seen as biased toward the brothers.

  He took a deep breath and leapt out of the way of a hard punch Randy had been about to land on him. Randy punched the ground, leaving a serious indent.

  “Why don’t you shift?” Ryland taunted. At least then, being a bear might slow him down just slightly.

  “Because I hear you aren’t going to,” Randy said. “And I want this to be a fair fight.” He swung heavily at Ryland again, and he dodged, but Randy appeared at this side in an instant and caught him in the side, shattering a rib. Ryland actually felt it break.

  He’d been beaten up enough as a kid to know exactly what damage felt like.

  He put a hand over his ribs and extended his arm over his head to block Randy’s punishing punches that were trying to take advantage of his momentary, breathless pain.

  Ryland took a deep breath and shot out with a punch to Randy’s gut that sent him shooting backward into the wire. Randy’s eyes were wide, as if he never expected Ryland to land a single punch.

  Fair fight my ass, Ryland thought. He’s cheating. I just don’t know how.

  It took an extra special kind of asshole to cheat while taking care to make it look as if they were playing fair, and Ryland wanted to punish him.

  But as Randy quickly recovered and appeared behind Ryland again with a hard jab to the back of his neck, Ryland knew it might not be possible.

  Not without shifting.

  He felt a low growl inside him but wasn’t going to listen to it. He couldn’t afford to show his form. Not now. Lea was up there. He wanted her to be safe.

  He lunged at Randy again and again, but Randy was focused on using his speed, not allowing Ryland even one more hit. And every time Randy would dodge, he’d land another one of his amateurish, badly trained punches on Ryland’s sensitive spots. His kidneys, his ribs, his head. Always from behind.

  Until one massive punch hit Ryland in the eye, preceded by an evil fucking smile from Randy.

  Ryland roared as he stumbled backward, holding his eye, and when he removed his hand, he saw blood.

  The fucker had cut him.

  Ryland felt fire moving through him, the beast in him begging to burst out of his body. He clenched his hands into fists, trying to fight the evil aura that felt like it was emanating at skin level. He could practically feel the reek of the bear coming off of him.

  Even Randy seemed to be realizing something was wrong, and he took a fast, hesitant step backward.

  “Get out of here,” Ryland growled, feeling his eyes change. Dammit, he hadn’t thought he’d be provoked into a shift at all, let alone this early. But someone was cheating, and the shifter in him wasn’t going to let him die.

  If he died, he couldn’t see Lea. And if he lost this match, he died.

  He felt claws extend from his hands, long and sharp, and flexed his fingers, trying to maintain control. A red aura emanated from him now, and he knew his eyes were glowing with the presence of the inner monster.

  “Now,” he growled.

  Randy looked slightly afraid but just sneered. “That’s all you’ve got? Trying to scare me out of here? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you can’t even hit me.”

  Ryland was on him in a second, holding him up by the throat, something unleashed inside him that was more brutal and primitive than anything normal shifters had to offer.

  Even a shifter cheating with alpha wolf blood. His claws dug into Randy’s neck as he dangled, and Ryland felt his heart hammering inside him, making him feel hollow, at the mercy of his beast.

  Out of control. A feeling he hated. He was going to shift at any moment. Would this man be dead?

  He didn’t want to kill again. He didn’t want Lea to see it, and he didn’t want to be that kind of man for her.

  He’d tried so hard not to be that kind of man, and then this cheater…

  The rage in him threatened to boil over, and he looked up at her, desperate. He wasn’t sure what she could do about it, but he looked to her for help.

  Or maybe it was an apology for what he was about to do in front of her. He didn’t know. He just knew he had seconds before the shift, and then everyone would be in danger.

  Things were about to get dire.

  12

  Lea gasped as she saw Ryland’s face when he looked up at her. Terror.

  But not terror of dying. Terror of what he was about to do. Terror of having to kill.

  She’d been watching, rapt with everyone else, as the unfair fight had unfolded. If possible, she hadn’t wanted to interfere even with the obvious cheating, because she didn’t want Ryland to be undermined in his match.

  And if she intervened, everyone would just claim even more that he was cheating and it was biased.

  But she’d clearly waited too long. The wolf had landed too many hits, and she’d misjudged the power of Ryland’s dire bear.

  She could see all the signs of what was coming, and while she was proud of Ryland for being able to hold back, she couldn’t wait any longer.

  She hopped off the platform and raced for the cage, avoiding Rock’s lightning-fast arm as he tried to grab for her. She cleared the spectators easily and climbed up the cage to jump over the top of it, landing with a thud behind Ryland as he held Randy.

  “Let him go,” she said in a calm voice, waiting. Ryland turned to her slowly, and the fear in his eyes intensified.

  “No, get away from me,” he said.

  Rock and Riker had made it down to the cage and were about to come after her, but she put up a hand. “No, I got this,” she said. “Stop.”

  She looked up at Randy, who was struggling to breathe. Served him right, the cheater. “Put him down. Ryland, I know you’re still in there.”

  Ryland shook his bloodshot eyes, pupils dilated. “You know nothing. Get out of here.”

  “No,” she said, taking a step forward. “I’m not leaving you. Put him down, or I’m going to make you.”

  “You can’t,” choked Ryland, releasing Randy, who fell to the ground with a thud and scrambled out of the ring as Ryland turned to face her, hands fisted at his sides, blood dripping from where his partially shifted claws were biting into him. “Rock. Riker. Get her away.”

  “No,” she said. “He’ll never learn if I run now.” She took a step forward. Then another. Ryland backed up against the cage, terrified. She saw fur start to form, bursting out of his face and shoulders. She rushed forward and caught him in her arms.

  “You’re safe now,” she murmured. “I know you’re only trying to protect yourself. You’re safe.”

  The fur stopped growing, and Ryland relaxed in her arms. She felt the heat, the red aura, slowly receding and stayed with him until he was in human form, badly bruised and bloody. Then she lowered him to the ground and called for a medic.

  Rock and Riker burst into the arena. “You did it. How did you do that?”

  “Ryland is going to kill us for letting you do that.”

  “You didn’t let me,” she said. “I knew what I was doing. I know… because I’m like him.” She stroked his face.

  “Like him how?”

  She didn’t answer, just watched his face. “He needs medical care. And we need to do a blood test on his opponent, ASAP. That was clear cheating.”

  “Right,” Rock said. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out, though, since it looked like Ryland was cheating.”

  “There is nothing in the rules against fighting with a dire mutation. Most shifters just don’t know about them. And bears are so solitary that they wouldn’t ever meet in big enough concentrations to know they exist. Wolves, on the other hand, made fighting an art form long ago. We know everything that exists that is unfair.”

  “Which is why we hired you.”

  “Right,” she said. “But I’m only here to enforce your rules. Not make new ones.”

  Rock nodded slowly. “Okay, so we get him to a medic and we do the blood test.”