Her Broken Alpha - Isoellen Page 0,74

in blood, Naya reminded herself. She had accepted him. She'd deal with this. Maybe she’d throw up a little when he wasn't looking, but she would find a way.

Dressed in a weird patchwork outfit with a bright red tie around his neck, the male who directed things introduced Monster and his first challenger to the crowd.

"And now we have the Mad Monster of the tower, come to defend his throne. He has challenged Berendal, Slumlord and Master of the North Pit. Berendal offers a champion in his stead!"

Monster set Naya down in his corner. As she skimmed the crowd behind them, she saw Alreck and what she assumed was another of Monster's men on patrol.

Monster met her eyes, and though he said nothing, she felt and envisioned a hundred beautiful things through their bond all at once. The flood of love was so pure and overwhelming that she almost collapsed under its weight.

Then Monster was roaring, a great, resounding sound as he moved to the center of the ring.

It was bigger inside than it looked from outside. Its fluid-stained floor had an odd bounce and give under her feet. It was not what she would’ve called soft, but it wasn't concrete either.

In contrast, the unforgiving bars of the construct were wrapped with jagged wire, and she had to be careful not to press back against them.

"Keep your eyes on our alpha, Lady," Alreck shouted from somewhere behind her in the crowd

Though her heart was beating in her throat and her stomach was rolling, Naya focused on her bond and her alpha. She wouldn't lower herself by distracting him with waves of overwhelming emotion.

The sweaty musk of breed pheromones scented the air, a pollution of feral male emotion causing her eyes to tear. This place, this event, and these people were so far beyond her experience she could not process them. But for her husband-mate, Naya would try.

Monster was not playing games. There was no preening or grandstanding. He wanted these challenges resolved.

Berendal's champion rolled into the cage, an ugly, smashed-faced alpha with a bulging upper body and comparably thin legs. Half a foot shorter than Monster with bloodshot brown eyes glazed over by drugs, he sneered at her Alpha. He answered Monster's roar with one of his own, flashing the dangerous points of incisors.

His left hand was clenched in a fist and Naya thought she saw something there, pointed and prickly.

She didn't know what the rules of the cage were. Was that a weapon? Monster was on the other man in a flash, taking advantage his distraction with the cheering spectators above.

Berendal's man was a fool. He should never have taken his eyes off the predator before him.

The stranger jerked back just in time to avoid the beastly slash of claws to his jugular, but he couldn't defend against the sweep of Monsters leg that followed.

He fell with a jarring thud that reverberated through Naya’s body. The floor shook when his two-hundred-plus pounds collided with it.

Monster moved like lightening, following the alpha down. All she could see was her alpha's body hunched over his opponent.

Bloodcurdling screams echoed from the floor as her mate tore away from the now-unmoving body. When he turned to look her way, the blood of his kill painted his face.

She closed her eyes and drew on the bond for strength. Gulping down the bile in her throat, she swayed for a different reason.

Biologically programmed to be attracted to the strongest alpha, arousal bloomed like fire in her belly. Monster had fought for them, and he’d won.

Her Monster kicked the lump of flesh that had been a man and roared, "Berendal!"

The crowd took it up, chanting the name in a deafening barrage.

The man's champion had failed. Now the monster wanted the man himself.

There was scuffling outside the cage, bodies pushing and shoving. The crowd continued its raucous call. "Berendal! Berendal!"

Two alphas dragged a fat older one into the cage, most obviously against his will. Naya had never seen an overweight alpha. She couldn't imagine the amount of dissolute living it had taken for him to become so overblown.

She could smell his fear, this male that had dared resist her mate. It was pungent and foul. He feared for his life.

They dragged him to the center of the pit and dropped him in a pathetic heap.

"I concede! I concede!" Berendal was shouting. "They told me you were weak. That your insanity ruled you. I yield. Please!"

Monster bent over the blubbering male, whose fearful protests increased. He tried to