Chapter Four

 

Kate knew she was in over her head, but she didn’t care. She’d spent a good portion of her life being in over her head in one way or another, and nothing had ever been as important as this moment right now. This was the moment that she would show Otto that she was a force to be reckoned with. This was the moment she would show him that she was not going to stand by and let the resistance fighters act fainthearted any longer.

She could not completely beat him in a one-on-one match like this. She knew better than to be that foolish. But she could show him that she was at least capable of putting up a good fight. And she could show him that she was here in Gilt Hollow to stay. She’d seen his eyes when he first saw her standing next to Loki. There’d been a mixture of shock, then disbelief, then anger. He probably thought she had turned into some sort of traitor, and had come here to Gilt Hollow to ruin the resistance.

Far from it. She’d come here to save the resistance.

“Well, well, well,” Otto said in a low voice, when she had finally made it close enough for him to talk to her without shouting. “Welcome to hell. You really are a devil, then? I can’t see any other reason for you to actually volunteer to be here. Or is Loki making this up? Did he force you to come, too?”

“No one forced me. I came of my own accord. And I’m no devil, but I’m happy to act like a demon when you’re around, if that’s really what you want from me.”

She said these words with a hint of flirtation, and then immediately hated herself for that. She wasn’t here to flirt with him. She was here to put him in his place. But damn it if it wasn’t hard not to be a little bit saucy when a man as handsome as Otto Thorne was standing right in front of you. He had good looks going for him, at least, even if he was a fool when it came to trying to lead a group of rebels.

Now, he was rolling his eyes at her. “You understand that if you go through with this fight, I’m going to have to hurt you? I don’t enjoy hurting women. I don’t enjoy hurting any shifter, actually, but you’ve put me in a difficult position. I can’t refuse an order from Loki.”

Kate rolled her eyes right back at him. “I understand.”

“Do you understand that it will probably hurt? And there will be blood? Have you ever seen blood before? You’re not going to faint on me, are you?”

Kate’s anger flared. “Look, you pompous ass: I’ve seen plenty of blood and pain in my lifetime. You have no idea who I really am or what I’ve been through. I suggest you stop with your condescending words and get this fight going.”

Kate saw anger flaring in Otto’s eyes as well.

“Fine,” he said, clenching his fists. “Here are the rules. I nod to Loki to let him know we’re ready. He’ll count to three, and on three we’re allowed to start shifting. The goal of the sparring match is to pin your opponent down, proving that you’re stronger. You are not allowed to deliver any fatal wounds or death blows, but other than that, anything goes. When Loki has decided that one shifter is the clear winner, he’ll call the match.”

“Cool. Let’s fight.”

Otto let out a long sigh, then took a few steps back. He looked up at Loki and nodded, and a split-second later, the count to three had begun. Those three seconds turned out to be the longest three seconds of Kate’s life.

She knew she could not turn back now. Really, from the moment she had approached the Seversons’ guards and demanded to speak to Loki, it had been too late to turn back. Once she volunteered for the Games, she was in it for the long haul. But knowing that in your mind and actually standing here about to fight were two different things. Kate did her best to appear confident, but her heart was pounding.

She’d fought plenty of times in her life. At least, she’d done plenty of mock fights. Her father had made sure she knew how to hold her own in a physical fight, because he was constantly worried—with good reason—that Kate might one day have to save her own life against a Gilt Hollow citizen attack.

Her father had probably never dreamed that Kate would be facing down another shifter in a Shifter Games training match. Women had never been forced into the ring, precisely because they were unlikely to actually win matches. But Loki had been easy enough to convince, and so here Kate was: enduring the longest three seconds of her life before her first “real” fight began.

She felt a pang of guilt when she thought of her father. She hadn’t said goodbye to him, and she wasn’t sure when she would see him again. She’d left a note for her parents, vaguely explaining why she had gone and what she was doing. They would be furious with her, she knew. But by the time they had seen the note, it would have been too late. Kate would have already been inside the Severson estate, subject to Loki’s whims.

Kate had never thought of herself as particularly brave. Sassy, yes. Stubborn, of course. Smart, well…the Strouse family was known for its intelligence. But brave? Courageous? Kate hadn’t ever attributed those characteristics to herself, but here she was. Doing something unquestionably brave.

“Three!” Loki’s voice rang out across the Arena, and Kate had no more time to think. Time to see how well her fighting skills worked out in a real match. With a loud roar, she began to shift into panther form. Across from her, Otto rapidly transformed into a wolf. The two of them both lost their human skin and replaced it with the thicker, fur-covered skin of their inner beasts. Hands and feet morphed into paws which ended in fearsome claws, and teeth lengthened and became razor sharp.

Kate loved her panther form. So much of her life was spent feeling powerless, but when she was a panther, she felt powerful. She felt invincible, and unstoppable. The blood rushing through her veins seemed to be more alive, and all of her senses were heightened. Some shifters loathed their animal forms, fearing that being in animal form made them too “different.” But not Kate. Back in Bear Hollow, Kate had spent hours as a panther, running through the forest and practicing all sorts of stealth and attack moves. And now, she was going to test those moves out in a high stress situation: a fight with Otto Thorne, whose wolf form had turned out to be larger than any wolf she’d ever seen.

She felt her heart flip-flopping in her chest from a mixture of fear and admiration. The beast standing in front of her was magnificent, yes. But now she had to fight him. Taking a deep breath and filling her panther lungs with air, she began to run forward. No sense in hesitating. She wanted to show Otto that even though she might be female, and not as physically strong as him, that didn’t mean anyone could just write her off in the Arena. She would show Otto her bravery, and her speed. If there’s one advantage she had as a panther, it was her lightning fast speed. She could move so quickly and with such stealth that her opponent had a hard time keeping up.

For a while, it seemed that Kate’s tactics were working. She would zoom by Otto, launch a quick attack on his shoulders or side, and then run back almost before he could get a grip on where she was. But Otto turned out to be a quick learner. After a few minutes of this, he got better at figuring out where Kate was heading, even though she tried to keep her attacks haphazard and unpredictable. He began to head her off when she rushed toward him, swatting her down with one of his strong front paws before she could reach him. Kate felt the sting of sharp claws cutting into her skin, but she would not let herself roar out in pain. She would not show Otto any signs of weakness.

Fine. If I can’t get to him, let him come to me.

She crouched down low, making herself look like an easy target. Otto took the bait and lunged toward her, she scooted just out of the way a split-second before he reached her, and then lunged at his neck. The tactic worked beautifully, and she felt him wince as her sharp teeth sank into the vulnerable skin. But then, Otto roared and shook her off, and lunged toward her again faster than she could have imagined. He caught her on the side of her right shoulder, and she couldn’t help but yelp in pain as she felt skin and fur tearing away, followed by the warm, wet rush of her own blood.

Still, she was not giving up. Otto had the upper hand in the fight from that moment on, but Kate gave him a run for his money. She dodged his attacks and then rolled forward, doing her best to get her teeth and claws on him. She made contact several times, and even though none of the cuts and scrapes she caused him were as serious as the wound he’d made in her shoulder, she did manage to get some pretty decent hits in. At least she was keeping him on his toes.

He made a few good hits on her, too, but Kate could tell that, even though he was clearly winning this duel, he was frustrated. His eyes betrayed his emotions, and many of his attempts to swipe his paws in her direction seemed to come more from a rush of aggravated passion than from the cool, calculated efforts you’d expect from an Arena champion. Kate turned her panther lips up in a smile, hoping he would see and be even more unnerved. But if her snide look agitated him, he didn’t let her see that. His wolf face glared back at her with rigid determination as he did his best to make her tumble to the dusty Arena floor.

Despite his strength, and the fact that he was quite fast for a giant wolf, Kate kept Otto at bay for quite some time. In the end, though, he managed to get one of his giant paws under her back left paw, and she went tumbling to the ground. The fall made Kate land directly on her right shoulder, where he had inflicted a deep wound earlier in the fight, and Kate couldn’t keep herself from yelping out in pain.

She braced herself for another blow, but Otto stepped back and growled. Kate looked up at him and saw that he was looking up at Loki, as if questioning whether this ridiculous match could finally be over. Kate desperately hoped that Loki would agree. She’d had enough sparring for one day, although she would never admit that to Otto.

“Bravo, bravo!” Loki said, rising to his feet and clapping loudly. “Otto wins this match, but you both fought well. You should be proud of yourself, Kate. It isn’t easy to hold your own against a champion wolf for as long as you did. Especially with no formal training in fighting.”

Kate did have formal training. Her father could fight better than almost any of the shifters in Bear Hollow, and he had taught her well. But Kate wasn’t about to tell Loki that. The last thing she needed was Loki deciding to force the old man into the Arena, just to see how impressive the older panther’s fighting skills truly were. Besides, if Loki was happy with her, that was a good thing. She wasn’t going to do anything to undermine that. The more Loki liked her, the easier it would be for her to fly under the radar and do the other things she wanted to do. The things that were her real reason for coming to Gilt Hollow.

Kate struggled to her feet, trying not to wince as the pain rattled her body. She was covered in a mixture of blood, sweat, and dirt from the Arena floor. Her hair was coming loose from the tight bun she’d pulled it into, and she had never felt quite so much like a hot mess. She saw Loki eyeing her up and down, taking in her nakedness with eyes she could only describe as leering. She shivered, and tried to casually take a few steps backward so that there was a bit more distance between Loki and her.

Kate was used to being naked in front of people. Growing up in Bear Hollow, Kate had seen her fair share of naked shifters, since shifters lost their clothes whenever they shifted into their animal form. But no one in Bear Hollow leered. There, nakedness was a normal part of life. Here, apparently, Loki didn’t know how to act appropriately around a female body. He had seen naked shifters before, of course, since his family was so involved in the Shifter Games. But all of the shifters he’d trained had been male. Kate awkwardly stared at her feet, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole so that Loki couldn’t look at her anymore.

To Kate’s surprise, Otto saved the day.

“I’ll take Kate to the medical wing,” Otto said, grabbing her arm and starting to pull her toward one of the exit doors. “She did fight well, but you don’t want those wounds festering.”

Loki did not protest, and neither did any of the other shifter trainers. Kate found herself being rapidly pulled down a long hallway in the back of the Arena and then toward a big set of doors that led outside.

“There’s a medical wing inside the Arena, but the one back in the Seversons’ house is more comfortable. Plus you’ll be closer to your room, so you can just head up and rest as soon as all your little scrapes are cleaned up.” Otto’s voice was gruff as he spoke, and he did not look at Kate. Even though she could only see the side of his face, she could see the anger etched into his expression.

“Thank you,” she said in a meek tone. “I’m definitely ready for some rest.”

Otto only grunted, and picked up his pace. Kate struggled to keep up, but she didn’t dare complain right now. She didn’t want him to think she was complaining because she was weak and soft, and couldn’t handle the Arena.

She could handle it, and she would. She would also handle Otto. She had come here to show him that the resistance needed to step up its efforts. No matter how gruff he acted with her, she was going to make sure he listened to her. She was not going to give him a reason to write her off.

She was going to move the resistance forward, whether he liked it or not.