Ripper (Hunter #1)(116)

I was, I realized as I turned to face the man who had killed Joanne Taylor because she’d had the audacity to stand up to him. He’d killed women to further his plot against the king. They’d been pawns to be used and discarded as he saw fit. He didn’t care that they’d had dreams and plans. A righteous anger began to burn through me and I felt that beast rise. I didn’t fight her this time. I melded with her, letting her rage mate with mine until we were one. My need for justice meshed neatly with her thirst for revenge.

I heard the king speaking, explaining the argument between us. McKenzie was there as well. This was a fight between Vampire and the Packs, he stated, and when the fight was over, the side that lost would accept the outcome. The beast inside me wanted to argue with that statement. This had nothing to do with Vampire. This was an internal quarrel. The beast inside me was a wolf and she craved acknowledgment. She would howl and fight and kill until those bastards acknowledged her dominance. The wolf understood only strength and I had that in spades.

The king asked the wolves if they were ready. Castle howled, the sound filling the arena with the promise of his will. My wolf responded with a surge of adrenaline. Inside me she paced and twitched, but I stood my ground, my feet sinking into the warmth of the sand. McKenzie asked if Vampire was ready and I did as the voice in my head urged. Marcus calmly explained what was expected of me. I was a gladiator, thrown to the wolves as Marcus had been thrown to the lions. I saw it in my head, the image as clear as day. My connection with Marcus was so much stronger when I opened my mind to him that I could read his thoughts as easily as he read mine. He was thinking about his introduction to the arena. He’d been thrown to the lions, but the predator inside him had risen that day and the lions hadn’t had a chance.

“The wolves have no chance, either.” Marcus chuckled in my head. “You are more wolf than any of them have met, cara mia. Prove it to them.”

I held the cestus over my head as Marcus had when he’d fought as a full-fledged gladiator. It was the sign of a professional, cool and prepared. It made Castle stop his preening for a moment. He sneered at me across the sand that separated us and all was silent for a moment. The king gave the order and chaos broke loose.

The crowd screamed as the three wolves changed forms. The two betas knelt in the sand, their limbs flowing around them, changing shape in easy movements. They were just the preview though. Castle didn’t need to kneel and think about his form. He began to run toward me. He started on two feet, running with powerful strides toward his prey. His change was so quick, so effortless, that one moment he was a man and the next he leapt through the air, a powerful pitch-black wolf coming for me. I stood my ground, waiting for the right moment. He came toward me, snarling through the air, my neck in his sights.

“Wait,” the patient voice said in my head. “Wait,” it said even as I could feel the heat from his body and see the spit in his mouth as he opened his powerful jaw. “Move!”

I leapt into action, rolling under the wolf and kicking up at the same time. The motion sent the big wolf scrambling as he hit the sharp wooden stake and it impaled him through the shoulder. I glanced up and knew it wouldn’t take Castle long to get himself off that stake. He’d heal fast. I needed to move quickly if I wanted to gain the advantage.

It would be easier to fight Castle if I took out the betas first. I wanted to be able to focus all of my attention on Castle. While Castle writhed on the pike, the betas began to circle me. I had rolled to the center of the arena and the smaller wolves began to work in tandem. Smaller, I thought, didn’t mean small. They were simply smaller than the enormous wolf Castle became. They snarled and growled around me, enjoying the play. They twitched their tails and snapped their sharp teeth toward me. I tried to keep them both in my sights, but it was impossible. They surrounded me and Castle was almost off the spike. I was running out of time.

“Shh,” the voice said. Marcus’s voice was starting to mingle with my own inner voice. “Calm yourself. You have them right where you want them. Stop trying to follow them with your eyes and open your other senses.”

Breathing deeply, I let the instincts flow across me. I let the wolf inside take over completely. She was triumphant as she took hold of our body. I felt her will, her joy in this fight. I tracked the wolf in front of me with my eyes, but I knew where the other one was, too. I sensed him behind me and I felt the moment he decided to attack. Time seemed to slow as I moved into place. He leapt toward me and I turned at the last second, powering up to catch him in the gut. I felt the claws on my cestus sink into the soft underbelly of the wolf, and I drove forward like I was pulling a lever. That lever opened the wolf’s belly and I felt the blood gush as I rolled away, yanking my hand out of the eviscerated abdomen.

The beta hit the ground with a thud and I knew he was dead before the sand had settled around him. The claws on the cesti were pure silver. It was why Zack had handled them with the greatest care. The silver would burn the flesh. It would damage the wolf’s flesh so terribly that it died before the wolf’s natural healing powers could kick in. He could, eventually, heal a cut to his arm, but I sank those claws deep into his belly. I had cut through flesh and into his organs. He hadn’t stood a chance. The silver on my hands was coated in blood and I was perfectly satisfied with the metallic smell floating on the air. I felt Marcus’s approval from across the arena. The vampire’s dark eyes never left me. While the rest of the crowd sat on the edge of their seats or screamed their preference, Marcus was still, all of his energy, his will, poured into me.