Ripper (Hunter #1)(115)

I breathed and felt his chest rise. His heart beat and mine found his rhythm. Slow and steady as the sun. I let everything slip from me but the feel and smell of him, the sight and sound of him.

“I want you to accept the beast that lives inside you. Clear your mind of everything except the coming fight.” His hands moved up to cup my face, but mine stayed where he’d lain them. “Relax, cara mia. Let me in. I will be with you the whole time. You will not be alone for an instant.”

Magic, soft and warm, was inside my head before I had a chance to defend against it. I wouldn’t have. Marcus’s magic was too seductive to throw a wall up against. He spoke to me with his eyes. I have no idea how long we stood there with him whispering in my head, making a place for himself deep within my brain, but a bond formed in those moments and I knew Marcus had become important to me. Necessary. He was a source of strength to tap into, a place to calm myself. I merely had to hold the thread that bound us together and he would be there.

“Is she ready?” The king’s voice interrupted us.

Marcus leaned over and his lips brushed my forehead. “She is.”

“Then take your place, Marcus,” the king said. “I’ll walk her out.”

“I will be in the stands, cara mia,” Marcus promised. “You’ll be able to see me and I will join you immediately after you defeat Castle. When you are out there, relax. Let me and your wolf take control. We won’t steer you wrong.”

Even through the calm, I began to panic because it was all getting too real. The crowd was chanting, eager to get this started. The gloves on my hands felt wrong. “But I don’t even know how to use these things. I…I’ve never fought like this.”

“But I have,” Marcus replied calmly. “Who do you think those belonged to? I fought many times using them. At one time, they were so familiar to me I felt naked without them.”

“You were a gladiator?” Donovan asked, his eyes lifting in surprise.

“I wasn’t always an academic,” Marcus said with a small smile. “In life, I was a warrior. Well, I was a criminal because of my religion. I became a gladiator because I had no choice. I was much like you, Kelsey. And like you, I was terrified the first time I was tossed into the ring. But I won, as you will. I will tell you everything, Kelsey, all my stories if you allow me to help you.”

“Your Highness.” The big wolf, McKenzie, strode up to us. “We have to begin. Castle is accusing her of running. My people are getting riled.”

Marcus gave me one final look and walked out to the stands. McKenzie followed him and then the king’s hand was on my back, nudging me forward.

“Kelsey, I know you won’t believe me, but I’m sorry it’s come to this,” the king was saying. “I never meant for this to happen to you. I only meant to find you and train you.”

I doubted that. No matter how well-meaning he was, he was always a king and that meant he would always have an agenda. I simply nodded because I knew railing at him would do nothing but bring shame on Marcus. Somehow, in those moments, I’d truly become his student and he my mentor. There was a pact between us and I meant to honor it.

Even though I wanted to tell Donovan to stuff it.

We marched to the end of the walkway where the concrete met sand. The crowd saw me and began to howl. I could see three men pacing at the other end of the arena. I noticed all three men were naked, ready to change. Castle’s head came up when he scented me.

The king stared at the wolf with distaste. “Kelsey, when you kill the alpha, take his heart. Carve it out if you have to. It’s tradition. If they force us to follow their rituals, they can handle it when we cut out their hearts.”

The king leapt up gracefully, holding onto the railing and pulling himself into the stands. I glanced behind my back and saw him taking his place on a raised throne. The queen sat to one side and Quinn on the other. The dark-haired faery leaned over to talk to the king, the duo always whispering, always plotting as though they were two halves of a whole. Jamie sat with Zack, both paler than normal. I took it all in, some voice inside telling me to look so I didn’t get distracted later.

The arena was smaller than I’d imagined, roughly half the length of a football field. The sides of the arena were made from wood and there were various things sticking out. They looked like something you would find in a dungeon. I supposed the vampires used them for training purposes. There were wooden spikes in two places at the front and back of the arena, and on the sides there were places with hooks and long, probably silver chains attached to them.

There were, perhaps, two hundred people crowding the stands, most of them werewolves, but I recognized others. Nathan stood beside Liv, their bodies pressed to the railing. Liv had been crying, her face puffy, but she wasn’t hiding it and she hadn’t cared to reapply her makeup. Scott had managed to skip his Hooter’s night. He sat back, watching with hooded eyes. He’d probably be happy to see me lose. The rest of the people were sitting except two.

I glanced into the stands and Helen Taylor calmly stood up, holding hands with her remaining child. After the briefest of moments, the party around her stood and I knew I was looking at the deer herd. They stood and stared down at me, calmly requesting I finish the job I’d been hired to do.

“Yes, cara,” Marcus’s voice said in my head. “You’re their only chance at justice. If you die, no one will care about them. They’re prey animals with no one to defend them. You are their champion.”