who was unconscious on the floor. He met Merrell’s stunned gaze as he stood on trembling legs. “What the hell is he?”
Shaking his head, Merrell put more distance between Batur and them. “He’s an effing War Hauk and the last of the Winged Baturs. Crazy lineages.”
“Have you ever seen anyone take that much with a stun blast?”
The guards hesitantly nudged Batur’s body with their booted feet. “I unloaded three full charges into him, dead on.”
With fear in his eyes, Merrell swallowed hard. “Don’t stand there! Get him out of here before he wakes up.”
“Yes, sir. Where do you want us to take him?”
Merrell locked gazes with Jullien. “You’re the tahrs. What’s your command?”
“He’s assaulted two members of the royal family and would have hit me had he been able to. Smacks of treason. Throw him in with the lifers and make sure you tell them they have a celebrity in their midst.”
Laughing, Merrell wiped the blood from his lips. “I can’t wait to see which one of them makes the Iron Hammer his bitch first.”
Talyn came awake to the worst feeling of his life. And given how many times he’d had the crap beaten out of him inside a Ring, that said a lot. His head throbbing, he opened his eyes to find himself inside a pit, surrounded by males who didn’t appear to be friendly.
They were, however, huge bastards.
Awesome.
He suddenly felt like a kid again, attending temple on holy days of obligation. An unwanted specimen of vermin that had found its way onto the top of their shiny new shoes. In spite of his pain and nausea, Talyn rose to his feet to face them. While he’d been unconscious, someone had removed his uniform jacket and boots, and left him with his pants and undershirt only.
A massively muscled male approached him with that familiar smirk that said the two of them were about to dance.
Name the tune…
Without flinching, Talyn met his gaze.
“You really Iron Hammer?”
“I am.”
Another male approached at his back and spat on the ground. “Vested piece of shit.” He moved to shove Talyn’s shoulder.
Talyn caught him and knocked him unconscious with one blow. He caught his next attacker, then two more, and quickly dispatched them.
Not even breathing heavy yet, he faced the first one who’d approached him. “I might fight in the Vested league now, but I held the title in all three Open league divisions first, and longer than anyone before or after me. Anyone else want to find out why?”
The male in front of him laughed. “Gutter rat?”
Talyn nodded. “My father’s an Outcast.”
A loud whoop went through them at that.
“Batur’s one of us!”
Talyn stepped back, even more trepidatious now than he’d been before they attacked him. What was going on?
The male in front of him inclined his head. “I’m Maren. When they dumped you in, we assumed you were one of them.” Maren jerked Talyn’s jacket off a much smaller male who must have stolen it. He handed it back. “Whichever one of you assholes took the Hammer’s shoes, return them. Now!”
They came flying out of the crowd to land near Talyn.
“Thanks,” he said, reaching for them.
The males laughed as they befriended him.
“So why were you arrested?” Maren asked while Talyn pulled his boots back on.
“I was unconscious at the time of my arrest, so I don’t know the exact charges.”
Maren scowled. “Were you drunk?”
“No. I was, however, beating the shit out of two tizirani and their guards when I was stunned.”
A laughing roar of approval went through the other prisoners.
“What about you?” Talyn stood and pulled on his jacket.
“I accidentally met Merrell Anatole’s gaze while I was fixing his bathroom sink.”
Before Talyn could say anything else, the monitor over their heads came on to show the face of a palace guard. His stare went straight to Talyn.
“I just received word from Commander ezul Nykyrian himself. Any prisoner or prisoners who defeat or kill Talyn Batur will be instantly released.”
Talyn’s stomach hit the dirt as he heard those words. Words that sucked out every bit of camaraderie from his fellow inmates. He looked to Maren, who gave him a sad smile.
“Sorry, champ. We’d kill our own mothers to get out of here.”
Talyn cursed as he mentally calculated the number of males around him.
It was bad. But not as bad as the number of males he knew were here beyond them that he couldn’t see.
So this is how I die.
Just like he’d lived every day since he’d been forced out of his mother’s womb.