Ripper (Hunter #1)(117)

One down, two to go. The crowd seemed to finally understand this wouldn’t be an easy kill for the alpha. I wouldn’t go easy.

Hell, I thought looking at Castle as he managed to pull himself off the spike, I wasn’t going down at all. He was going down.

The second beta howled his displeasure at his friend’s death. He lost his discipline and came after me with no thought but to get his jaw wrapped around my neck. Castle barked and I knew instinctively he was trying to order the beta to stop. He needed a moment to heal the wound in his shoulder. He wanted to face me two to one, but the beta was so far gone in his rage that he didn’t listen. He pounced, his weight shoving me down into the sand. His claws sank into my shoulders. The pain was blistering.

“Forget it,” the voice said. The pain didn’t matter. I could deal with it later.

The pain receded and I used my legs to roll the wolf off and over me. My feet sank in the sand as I ran for the other side of the arena. The wolf nipped at my heels. I sped up, knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I reached the side of the arena where silver chains hung. The wolf was too close. I turned and he was coming at me. I reared my fist back and hit him straight in his snout. He whimpered as he went down. His big body hit the sand.

When I looked at the other side of the arena, Castle was changing. He took human form again. It would help him heal quicker.

“I am going to kill you, bitch!” Castle screamed across the arena.

I picked up the chain in my free hand. “That’s what your son said.” I couldn’t help it. I really can be a bitch.

Castle’s scream might have curled a lesser woman’s toes, but I had other things to do. His wound was healing before my eyes and that beta was already getting up. I hefted the heavy rope and slung it at the downed beta before he could rise. The chain was thick and heavy, but I lifted it easily. I caught him across the legs. The flesh immediately started to smoke and the wolf howled. He tried to move, but the chain weighed a ton and the silver sapped his strength. The crowd roared as Castle changed again. Magic filled the air and knew I had very little time before he reached me. I didn’t need much.

I shoved my bladed hand across the wolf’s throat and punched into it. I dragged it through his flesh with strength and will. The cestus on my hand didn’t bother me anymore. I’d worn it many times before. In my mind, I thought about all the battles I’d fought and won, the cestus cutting through my opponents’ flesh. My memories were meshing with Marcus’s, but it gave me a confidence I wouldn’t have had. It filled me with experience. I pulled my hand out of the beta’s throat, but Castle was already on me.

The force of Castle’s big body shoved me against the arena wall and my head slammed against the big silver hook. I saw stars for a minute and went on my knees. My peripheral vision started to get hazy.

“Kelsey!” I heard my brother yelling. Nathan was throwing one leg over the railing and I was glad to see Scott stopped him. He couldn’t do anything…

“Get up,” Marcus barked the order in my head and my legs didn’t dare refuse. “Turn.”

I spun around as Castle bore down on me. Despite the throbbing pain in my head, my right arm came up instinctively to block his gnashing teeth. The blades on the cestus cut into Castle’s jaw and he jumped back. It gave me enough time to shake the cobwebs out. Castle’s next attack went straight for my thigh. I jumped, but he managed to catch my left side and sink his powerful jaws into the meat of my leg right above my knee. The teeth burned as he sank them in and I knew if I didn’t throw him off, he could break my femur and then I would go down. I didn’t heal the way he did. If I couldn’t run, I couldn’t fight. I went for the softest part of him I could reach.

I shoved a blade into his eye.

He immediately let go and before I could blink, he’d changed forms. His left eye was a bloody, mangled mess. He stared at the blood pouring onto his hands then with a growl, he reared back and punched me straight in the face. I hit the side of the arena again, this time the back of my head smacking into the wood.

Castle pressed his advantage. He used his powerful fists in a way he hadn’t been able to use his claws. He punched me in the face, the stomach, the chest. I felt like a body bag. I might have fallen over, but Castle kept me upright with the force of his blows. Pain as I’d never imagined ripped through my body. As I absorbed the agony from one blow, another landed. It seemed to never end. The crowd was chanting, screaming something, but it was a distant thing. Marcus was trying to tell me something, but even his voice was far away. I felt his panic. There wasn’t a lot I could do about it.

Castle finally decided to let me hit the ground. I tumbled to my knees and I realized my right eye must be swollen because I couldn’t see out of it anymore. My left shoulder screamed and was kind of stuck at a weird angle. It must have separated at some point. My whole body was on fire. The pain was so bad I started to hope Castle got this thing done soon.

I pitched forward and felt the sand against my swollen face. Marcus was pleading with me and the wolf inside was howling for me to get my ass up, but I thought about Gray. He was going to be sad when he found out. I wondered if he would blame himself. I wished I’d never gone after those class rolls. If I’d done what Gray had asked, I would be planning the menu for our reception. I would be arguing with Gray over fish or chicken, and when we got sick of fighting, he would take me to bed. If I’d chosen him over my stubborn instincts, I wouldn’t be dying in this terrible place.