meet in the heats, or if they’d both survive to the finals, like Reed and Ember.
Ember’s eyes glistened as she glanced at them and then me. Now she understood the shadows in my soul, the darkness into which I’d fallen, and brought my brothers down with me. Yes, death was a part of our lives here, but with every one of these fights more of my soul was consumed. Flashbacks of the dead being piled at the edge of the arena hit me. I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed repeatedly. I’d even seen dead bodies being carted down from the entertainment rooms, praying to the Mother that none of them was Charlie. I curled my lip. The way those poor souls had met their end was likely worse than fighting for your life in the ring.
I rubbed my arms and studied my soulmate. My jaw tightened at her too pale face and her stiff movements. Even though the wound to her abdomen had been a straight and clean cut, there was only so much I could do. Her body had to do the rest.
Reed and Myles hadn’t joined us yet and I’d be damned if I would disturb them. I only wished they had longer together. My mind recoiled, and I rubbed the ache from my chest, but I knew who needed to win tomorrow.
I’d held Ember close to me all night last night and I wouldn’t leave her side this morning. I couldn’t. She flatly refused to let me stay in my cell with her when my brothers needed me. When I’d refused to leave, she’d dressed in the clean clothes I’d found for her and walked out of the cell, knowing that I would follow. Hell, I’d follow her anywhere, even to the gates of hell itself if it meant I could be by her side.
Seeing her naked in that ring, bared to everyone and ready to fight for her life, I’d wanted to kill the warden and Doherty so badly I could taste it. But it had been the look on Santa’s face that had enraged me. Yeah, the sick bastard had wanted her, but it had been his lust for pain and suffering that had terrified me more. The warden had sensed my wolf surface and frozen me to the spot. I’d been unable to look away from their fight and gods damn it, if her cunning hadn’t just made me love her more. She’d been clever enough to hide her fighting talents from all of us, including me. I recognised that method of combat had been learned from the fae. I’d seen them fight, and fought them myself, in the shadows of London. It was clear my Firecracker had held back in the training rings.
I held her distraught gaze, but shook my head, unable to muster even the semblance of a reassuring smile. And no matter how much I wished it was otherwise, I couldn’t reassure my brothers. One of them would die, if not today then tomorrow. Owen and Lionel had survived their kill rounds and would fight in the final. Drake would fight tomorrow in the same group as Shannon. Myles, Kawan and I were not fighting, but the only wing alpha not picked to fight was Shane. He had proved solid, and had joined me everyday to help control the prison and watch my back while my brothers fought. We hadn’t spoken much, mainly because it was impossible to find anything civil in me to say. I dealt with any discontent or violence with crushing power. While my brothers and my mate killed people in the ring, I ended lives or doled out punishment outside it. I glanced at the few shifters who congregated in the hall, aware that I needed to do a round through the prison. “You up for a patrol with me?” I asked Ember, sliding my hand over her clenched fist which lay on the table in front of us. Her uneaten porridge sat congealing in front of her. My brow furrowed. She needed to eat or she wouldn’t heal and be strong enough to survive tomorrow.
Sighing, I stood and walked over to the counter. Picking up a bowl, I got her some more porridge and dumped plenty of sugar in it.
“Wow. You’ve developed a sweet tooth, big boy.” Shannon patted my flat stomach, earning a scowl from Stone who watched her every move. “This won’t stay so sexy if you keep that up.”
I huffed, trying not