Chapter Twenty
That asshole Joshua hadn’t even waited twenty-four hours after his and Ken’s conversation to file an official challenge. Joshua would make a terrible beta. No formal education, no patience, and no tact. How did he think he could assist Ryota in running the pack? If anything, Ryota would kill him to be rid of the problem.
Ken didn’t like killing, but tonight he might have a change of heart. He needed a secure position in the pack to make a solid claim for Betty. She needed more time to learn to shift. As a strong beta, he could push for this. Otherwise, they’d be chased out of the city.
In the distance, the shifter challenge arena loomed over his car as they drew closer.
Every shifter group in New Port, be it a wolf pack or cat pride or bear sleuth, paid a tithe to the challenge arena for maintenance. There were no ticket sales. All people were welcome to bear witness. Ken had convinced the shifter community to sell food during challenges to help lower costs and create part-time jobs for some college kids.
The parking lot was full. A high-level fight like this would fill the place, but there was a crowd surrounding the building. More people than any challenge he’d seen.
Betty’s head swiveled back and forth. “I’ve never seen this place so crowded.”
“You’ve come to challenges before?” He and she had come so close to meeting and always he’d somehow missed finding her.
“Of course, but I avoided the pack ones. Too close to my heart, but the last tiger one was amazing. The way Nora flipped Cheta against the cage wall, bending the poles. That was full of awesome sauce.”
“You’re a tiger fan?” He chuckled. Of course, his fierce little wolf would be.
“Dude, I have an autograph book that I started as a kid.” She blew on her nails and shined them on her shirt. “I have Nora’s.”
The knot of tension in his gut loosened as he laughed.
Her smile faded a little as if she fought to hide her worry. “You can sign it once you win.” She gripped his hand, fear a shadow in her eyes.
He kissed her hand. “I will win. I’ve fought this hunter before. He hasn’t a chance.”
“Why would he challenge you again?”
“Hard head. His father was the old beta and he thinks it’s his birthright.” Ken shrugged. Even though Ryota had officially adopted him, some of the pack still saw him as an orphan.
He parked the car in the spot held for challengers and they exited the car. Strolling toward the crowd with Betty on his arm, he took a minute to enjoy the feel of her body against his. Once this was finished, he would take her home and make her his. No more interruptions.
The crowd parted, letting them pass, and voices grew hushed. He didn’t recognize most of these people, though they smelled like wolf. What the fuck? He knew everyone in New Port pack.
“Standing room only.” A vendor shouted at the entrance. “New Port shifters have priority seating.”
Betty and he exchanged looks. That was unheard of. He spun a slow circle, trying to see a familiar face.
She pointed over the crowd. “The press is here. You’re going to be a popular guy tomorrow.”
Or seriously unpopular if he lost. This felt wrong. Who the hell was he fighting?
“What is the news doing here?” Betty’s whisper sounded urgent. She was right though. This match didn’t warrant a news report. If he was challenging Ryota for the pack, that would draw attention. Betty half-heartedly waved at someone in the crowd, eyes wide and her steps uncertain. “A lot of Riverbend Pack is here. What the fuck?” She echoed his earlier thought.
He scratched his head. “Is it possible my challenger has ties to your old pack?” He couldn’t recall Joshua talking about Riverbend family, but he didn’t always listen to the hunter.
“Anything is possible. I don’t keep in contact with anyone but my dad and we don’t discuss pack things.”
“It’s not against policy if you did.” He pulled Betty behind and through the front doors of the arena.
“I know, I just don’t want to. Old wounds and all.” She had to shout so he could hear her.
Inside the venue, a thousand voices spoke at the same time. The hum was so loud they didn’t bother continuing the conversation. He pulled her through a staff-only door. At the end of the long cement hall, Ryota leaned against the wall, waiting.
He straightened and smoothed his suit jacket. “About time.” He opened the door to the prep room and let them inside. From here, Ken had access to the fighting cage.
“Ryota, let me introduce my soulmate, Betty Newman.”
Ken noted how his father’s eyes narrowed when he called her his soulmate. The alpha had had Ken’s whole life planned from the day he adopted him. Betty wasn’t a part of that plan.
His alpha acknowledged her with a sharp nod. “I’ve heard of Ms. Newman.”
She swallowed visibly. “Nice to meet you, alpha.”
At first sight, Ryota seemed like a slim, Asian business man, then his gaze captured yours and you wanted to sit at his feet. Ken had actually seen shifters do that.
Betty didn’t, but he scented her nervousness.
The alpha assessed her head to toe. “Who did that to your face?”
“The white dragon.” She cleared her throat.
Ryota’s eyes widened as his gaze darted to Ken’s. “Angie fought you?”
“It’s more like she beat—”
“Yes,” he interrupted Betty. She didn’t know Ryota’s history with Angie, and Betty might not understand not to show weakness in front of dominant wolves. It made her appear like prey. Her father was a low-level hunter.
Betty and he had probably been raised very differently.
“What’s with all the spectators?” he changed the sensitive subject as he undressed.
As alpha, Ryota always stood on the sidelines during pack challenges. It wasn’t unusual for him to be here, but the sharp scent of tension was unexpected.
The alpha circled Betty as if trying to puzzle her out. “You do smell like shifter,” he whispered.
Ken changed shape to his beast form and stretched his hamstrings. “There wasn’t such a big crowd the last time I fought Joshua. What’s going on?”
Ryota jerked as if startled. “Why do you think it’s Joshua?”
Ken halted mid-stretch. “Who then?”
“Chris Jenkins.” Betty pointed across the fighting cage where an unfamiliar shifter in beast form glared death in Ken’s direction.
“The alpha of Riverbend?” He spun to face Ryota. “Explain.” His father wouldn’t sanction a challenge like this unless there was a good reason. “Why would he fight for a beta position?”
“It’s not about hierarchy.” Ryota stared at Betty. “It’s about her.”
Betty’s heart skipped a beat. Now she understood why her old pack was in the crowd.
Ryota tapped her jaw closed. “Your alpha showed up on my doorstep three hours ago. I couldn’t talk him out of the challenge, my dear.”
“He’s not my alpha!” She stepped forward. “He’s never been or will be.”
She couldn’t believe he’d just said that. What an asshole. She didn’t care if he was Ken’s father. He hadn’t any right to suggest that she was part of the Riverbend Pack.
Ryota tilted his inhumanly beautiful head and caught her gaze. He drilled into her with his alpha power as if examining her soul.
She turned away, not wanting to be looked at as if she were some strange bug.
Ken stood rock-still by the entrance to the fighting arena. His glare an arrow across the challenge cage. He stepped forward, claws extended, lips pulled back, and exposing sharp teeth.
His alpha caught him with one arm. “Not yet, son.”
“He can’t have her. I’m going to tear his heart out and eat it.” Ken’s chest heaved as if he couldn’t catch his breath.
“Don’t bother. According to Chris, Betty already did that.” Ryota’s icy glare never left her and grew arctic hard.
Sweat trickled down her spine. “I don’t understand.” How could she? Her heart beat so hard, she felt dizzy. She leaned her hand against the wall.
“Chris is challenging Ken for you.” Ryota didn’t have to say the word since his tone said it all. A half-breed.
“I’m not some cow for trade on the market.” She grabbed Ken by the hand. “Fuck him. Chris doesn’t own me. I pick who I want.”
Ken didn’t budge. His focus centered on her ex-boyfriend who hadn’t once reached out to her since she’d been exiled from her old pack. Had Chris lost his mind?
Ryota kept his attention on her.
“What?” she shouted at her future father-in-law, who could rip her head off with one hand. “What do you want from me? How is this my fault? Chris and I dated for a few months before I was termed human. He had a bigger, better future without me and I didn’t want anything to do with shifters. I had the fucking right to leave. Nobody owns me. Not even Ken.”
Ken’s ears were laid back. She wasn’t sure if he heard her. Most humans thought challenges barbaric, but they didn’t understand. Shifters weren’t humans who could change shape. They were those animals that could look human.
Their needs were not the same. They felt things and acted different.
“And Ken, if I took him away from you?” Ryota asked, still holding back her soulmate from rushing across the fighting arena with one arm.
Before she could think, she snarled and threw herself at New Port’s alpha.
The crowd roared.
Ryota held her gently by the throat. Now holding both her and Ken. What a pair they made.
Howling, she shook her head clear and retreated. “My apologies, alpha.”
Always best practice not to antagonize the biggest monster in the room. Yet Ken belonged to her and Ryota had threatened to take him away. She couldn’t be held completely responsible.
“Accepted.” Ryota stroked Ken’s muzzle. “I approve of your choice.” He slapped him playfully on the cheek. “Go win your mate.” The alpha signaled someone in the control booth and the cage doors opened simultaneously.
Ken threw himself forward, running on all fours and clashed with Chris in the center.
“No!” She raced after him. The cage doors closed and locked. She slammed into it, arms extended through the bars. They wouldn’t open again until there was a victor.
Ryota pulled her away, half carrying her off the stage. “Stop this,” he hissed in her ear.
She twisted in his arms. “I can’t.”
He gave her a little shake as if admonishing a pup for bad behavior. “You think I want to lose my only child?” Only then did she catch the hint of fear in his scent. “If I don’t agree to this challenge, they’ll only find each other on the streets. How much damage would they do then?” He plopped her onto a chair next to him. “At least here, I can control them from killing each other.”
She squirmed in her chair, hands gripping the edge of her seat so she wouldn’t charge the cage again. “Why now? I’ve been in New Port for years. Why is Chris trying to claim me? It makes no sense.”
Betty hadn’t been with Ken long enough to know if he had any weaknesses, but Chris’ left knee had always given him trouble, ever since he’d broken it as a cub. He hid it well but the joint had never healed right.
Ryota sat with his legs crossed and arms resting on the chair. Suit immaculate and midnight dark hair perfectly combed. He didn’t look like he’d just restrained both her and Ken a couple minutes ago. “It makes perfect sense.” He tossed her a quick glance, as if afraid to miss a second of action in the cage. “Think about it.”
Like she could think while her mate fought her ex-boyfriend. She dropped her head in her hands.
“Don’t do that.” Ryota snapped. “You’re Ken’s mate. Act it. The whole stadium is watching you.”
She jerked her head up and forced her tense muscles to relax. It felt like wrestling a group of squirrels, but eventually her body molded to the chair.
“Better. What’s changed recently?” the alpha asked.
She blinked. “Ken claimed me as a soulmate.”
“The Holy Grail of all shifters’ dreams.” He almost sounded wistful. That or the noise from the crowd affected her hearing. “And?”
There wasn’t enough oxygen in the stadium. Why weren’t people passing out? Because she was on the verge. “Only shifters have soulmates.” She blinked again. “Chris has accepted me as a shifter.”
“And, like it or not, you have a birth pack. As your alpha, he has first rights.”
“Bullshit.” The arm rest she gripped squealed under the strain of her hold. She consciously loosened her grip.
“It’s within our rights, soulmates or not.” He leveled his intense gaze at her. “But none of that will matter unless you change shape. Otherwise, they’re just fighting over a corpse.”
“You would kill me?”
“No, I love my son too much. But other packs will. They’d risk crossing my territory to kill you so whatever is blocking you, fix it.”
Sure thing. Like she just hadn’t let a dragon beat her to solve the problem. She’d snap her fingers and get unblocked, alpha.