Rise of the Gryphon (Belador #4)(61)

He stopped with a couple of feet left between them, heaving deep breaths, when she knew he wasn’t winded. “You really thought I’d let you go there alone?”

“Let me? It’s not your choice.”

“You want to do this, then I’m fighting. Not you. Besides, you need me to go in.”

Pointing to her arm, she said, “I don’t need you. I can get in with the armband and not fight.” She hoped.

“You don’t understand how these fights work, particularly this one, since it’s all about Alterants. You might know if you hadn’t lied to me and waited for us to drive here together.”

She flinched at the “lied to me” but stood her ground. “I tried to tell you I didn’t want you here.”

“And that makes coming here alone okay when you knew I wouldn’t stand by and do nothing?”

Her gaze drifted to where the helicopter sat with its blades turning slowly. “I’m sorry you did whatever you did to get here, and I know you’re angry—”

“Angry? You think that’s what this is all about?” He came straight for her until she had to whip her dagger out of the way or stab him.

He yanked her into his arms so fast that she barely caught a breath before he kissed her. Not a sweet kiss, but one born of raging emotions. Desire. Hunger.

More than all of it, she felt Storm’s need. Nothing else would have gotten through to her as quickly as that. She needed him, too, but not to fight. She shook, fighting the bone’s influence. She’d been calm on the whole trip here. Just have to hold on a little longer.

Using kinetics, she let the blade slide down to her boot, then wrapped her arms around his neck. She loved kissing this man. Had missed him every minute they’d been apart today. But this time, she wouldn’t let the Volonte take over her emotions.

She wanted Storm to know this time it was her kissing him.

His strong arms banded her back, holding her tight against him for the long moments it took to ease the energy flowing between them.

He finally broke the kiss and murmured, “I wasn’t angry. I chartered a jet helicopter because I was terrified that you’d get inside the ABC before I could find you.”

He did all that in the last few hours? Who was this man that he could command a helicopter at the snap of his fingers?

That didn’t change her mind. “I won’t take you in as my fighter.”

When she leaned back, Storm lifted his hands to hold her face between them. He kissed her softly on the lips, then said, “This is how it works. If you enter as an Alterant with a sponsor, you have to fight. If you enter as an unsponsored Alterant, you still have to fight. The only way you can get inside there without declaring yourself an Alterant—and shifting to fight in beast form—is by being my sponsor.”

That was not going to happen. “What if I want to use the bone to go in as an attendee just to watch?”

“Those are usually by invitation only and sell out quickly.”

But that didn’t mean they were all gone or that the host wouldn’t be willing to trade for a Volonte, especially a finger bone. “You can be my sponsor.”

“No. Even if I would agree, which isn’t possible, I’d have to be willing to make a trade with the Medb if you survived all three matches. Think I’m going to do that? And if you go in solo and fight, then you would have to deal with the Medb.”

“I can refuse to accept their offer.” When he started to speak, she cut him off. “Can’t I refuse their offer?”

He grumbled out some strange language she was pretty sure was a curse by its toxic sound. “Yes. You can, but you’re not fighting.”

“Then I’ll get in another way.”

“There is no other way. And you know I’d be in pain if I wasn’t telling the truth. We might as well get moving and do this, because I’m not leaving here without you.”

Time was spinning out of her grasp. “Maybe I could—”

He put a finger on her lips. “It’s on. When we walk over to that dock, we’re back to sponsor and fighter. Playing our parts in the Achilles Beast Championship means far more than it did at the Beast Club in the mountains. This place has immunity and is hosted by someone powerful. One of us makes a wrong move and raises the host’s suspicions, no one will ever find our bodies.”

How could she agree to this when she couldn’t elude Storm?

He hugged her to him and whispered, “You can’t call in Tzader and Quinn. You don’t want to leave Tristan and all those Alterants in Medb hands. And the number one reason we have to do this? You can’t go back empty-handed to Macha. This is the only way. Trust me. I can handle the fights.”

Her throat felt like she’d swallowed a fist. Squeezing enough air out to talk hurt. I will not lose you. She made up her mind to do the only thing she could and deceive him one more time.

She had a plan, but it would take playing along with Storm as if she agreed with him until the last moment. “I hate this.”

His face relaxed with a look of victory. “Welcome to my world.”

She had to get going. “Okay. A troll—”

“—calls in the boats. I had a team scouting all the docks while I was getting here.”

Storm had found her in a jungle in South America when no one else could, and he’d managed that in record time by private jet. Then showing up in this helicopter tonight. She didn’t know as much as she thought she did about him, but she knew what mattered.