My mind still reeled as the fight commentator called out my name. I made my way out of the makeshift dressing room. The events of the day had my head in a spin, and I knew I needed to shake it off to focus on this fight.

But what the fuck? Bridget had somehow convinced Vixen to put on a magical bracelet, and none of us even knew? It couldn’t have been for any good reason either, or else why cloak it and erase the memories?

No, I had a pretty strong feeling it had something to do with Vixen’s powers being iced. Hopefully Caleb could track that slippery bitch down and work out what the fuck we did next because if I got my hands on her...

“You ready, brother?” Vali asked quietly, clapping me on the shoulder as he walked with me through the noisy crowd to reach the octagon.

I gave him a snarl, and he smirked back at me. He knew I was telling him not to fucking call me “brother;” we weren’t there yet. Not by a long shot.

“Just remember,” Vali continued, brushing off my unspoken warning. “We’re here to gain their trust, not to kill them all.”

“I remember,” I mutter under my breath. “I’m not a fucking moron. But it also needs to be believable.”

Vali gusted out a long breath, but we’d almost reached the octagon and he had no time to give me a lecture on acceptable levels of bodily harm. Besides, he’d already gone over it about a million times on our way to this fight, so it just wasn’t necessary to hear it again.

“Fine,” he clapped me on the shoulder. “Just keep them alive long enough to talk later, all right?”

I gave him a short head bob of acknowledgement, then ducked through the low cage door and into the fight ring. Vali disappeared back into the crowd, but I knew he’d be watching closely while maintaining his image.

It had been his money and connections that had gotten us an introduction to this club, and an easy matter of showing off an eye shift to gain admission into this secret circle. The fighting event was what we’d begun tracking in Mexico—an underground shifter fight club, and by the looks of the crowd... they weren’t too concerned with keeping their existence quiet anymore.

My opponent was already in the ring, whooping and hollering to whip the crowd up into a frenzy. I didn’t get it. Who gave a shit what the crowd thought, so long as you won? Seemed like a big waste of energy as far as I was concerned.

Whatever. I shrugged to myself. Just makes it easier for me to kick this poser’s ass.

Prowling a little closer to the excited fool, I took a sniff of his odor to get a handle on what I was up against. Not that it mattered, seeing as I could probably beat him without my dragon strength, but he had that wet cat kind of smell about him which indicated some form of feline. It was a smell I’d grown well accustomed to, having Tyson around so much.

My lip curled, and I let out a rumbling snarl at the kitty shifter who was to be my opponent. Dragons weren’t overly fond of cats in general, or so I’d found. Like chalk and cheese. The only reason Vali and I tolerated Tyson was because Vixen liked him so much. Otherwise... Bengal tiger shish kebabs would have been on the menu weeks ago.

“What the fuck are you?” the bouncy feline demanded with all the arrogance I couldn’t wait to knock clean out of him. He took a sniff in my direction and only looked more confused. Guess he’d never encountered a dragon before.

“A bunny rabbit,” I replied with a snicker. “You scared now, pussycat?”

The guy narrowed his eyes at me in confusion, and I just shrugged. Fuck him, I won’t even need to shift for this crap, so no sense in showing my cards, right?

The commentator started rattling off shit that I wasn’t listening to. Instead I eyed up the little punk I was brought here to fight. He was all movement, bouncing up and down on his toes to the point he was starting to look a little twitchy.

I heard the bell chime, and that was all the encouragement I needed to begin the fight. Vali had asked me to make it at least seem like an entertaining match, so I really had to pull my first punch in order to not knock this kid’s head off with that first hit.

Still, it sent him flying, and his back smashed into the cage wall while the crowd went mental. Bloodthirsty motherfuckers, they made me sick. Every last one of them. How anyone could enjoy watching two people beat the shit out of one another, I would never understand.

Regardless of having fought professionally for several years, I’d never done it for love of the sport. It was simply all I had known then.

My opponent recovered quickly and shifted forms as he pushed off the cage and flew at me with claws extended. Judging by the flash of sandy-colored fur, I’d say he was a cougar or some sort of mountain cat. Whatever he was, he took my fist across the snout all the same.

Drool flew in an arc across the space as the big cat’s head snapped to the side, and I snarled at the little nick his tooth had opened across my knuckles. Rookie error on my part; I should have scaled my fists before hitting a shifter cat in the mouth, but I’ll blame that on the lack of a How to Dragon handbook.

I shot a quick glance into the crowd and found Vali. He gave me a hand signal that clearly told me to keep it going for a little longer, to which I groaned. This was straight up boring. I’d had more challenging fights from humans, for fuck’s sake.

The cat leapt back at me, and I let him connect, dropping me to the ground. Then I flipped him over and grabbed him in a choke hold. Big animals really weren’t that different from humans, so long as you kept watch for claws and teeth.

He thrashed in my grip, but I tightened my arm across his throat. Soon his huge form sagged into dead weight on top of me as he passed out. Oops.

I heaved him off me and stood up casually as the stunned commentator announced me the winner of the fight. The crowd was still going wild, but I barely stayed long enough to give them a quick nod before exiting the ring and making my way back to the dressing rooms where a furious looking Vali was waiting for me.

“What?” I demanded, seeing his scowl.

“This,” he said, repeating the hand gesture he’d given me, “means keep going. Not end it, you fucking idiot.”

“I know,” I snapped, dragging off my tank top and pulling on a clean black T-shirt.

Vali made an exasperated noise. “If you know, then why did you choke the cat out all of two seconds later?”

“Because you said not to kill anyone,” I reminded him. “Besides, it was boring as shit and probably a waste of our time. We should just snatch up whoever is in charge and beat the info out of him... or her.” I wasn’t one to discriminate. Dupree had proven all too well that women could be just as evil and despicable as men.

“And if this method doesn’t work soon, we will do that. But I’m interested to see if we can get further by infiltrating their operation first.” Vali rubbed a tired hand over his face. “At least there can’t be any doubts about you being a shifter after how easily you took a cougar down.”

“Ah,” I nodded. “I guessed cougar. Cats all look alike, don’t they?”

My older brother snickered. “Don’t let Tyson hear you say that; he’s not all cuddles and playfulness.”

I cracked a grin, agreeing. “He is Austin’s familiar after all. Moody bastard. Have to admit, though, since Austin and Vixen worked their shit out, he’s been a hell of a lot easier to be around.”

“Wesley told me he was pretty bad when you all first met Kit?” Vali quirked an eyebrow at me. “Something about his ex?”

“Yep,” I grunted. “Nasty piece of work that girl is. I still don’t know what the fuck she was doing at the gala—whether she was involved with Gray or if that was just a weird coincidence.”

“The twins have enough to worry about,” Vali pondered aloud while pacing the changing room. I had changed back into black jeans and was doing up my boots. “Maybe we can look into it if this fight club shit doesn’t take too long.”

“Agreed,” I said, standing up and buckling my heavy belt. “And if it turns out she was involved with Vixen being tortured...” I trailed off with a growl.

“We’ll rip her fucking head off,” Vali finished for me. “Let’s get back out there and see who wants to tell us anything interesting.”

Smiling at the thought of ripping Peyton’s head off, I found myself in a considerably better mood as I followed my brother. I liked to feel like I was helping, even if it was just going to make Austin’s life easier to know that bitch had been dealt with.

“Nice game face, bro,” Vali snickered as he pushed the door open and waited for me to precede him. This time I let the name slide. I just wanted to get the info we came here for, which was where the next level of this insane shifter club was being held—then get the fuck out. Vixen would be landing in Ireland soon, and I was anxious to know she was okay.