Chapter 16

It had taken Tanner and Bryce almost two hours to get Spencer to calm down, and by then, Spencer’s wrist was mangled and bloody. If he were human, losing his hand would have been a forgone conclusion, but he barely seemed to notice it. The craziest part of the whole thing was no one else in the small room had freaked out. Perhaps they had experience with shifters before. More likely, their spirits were so crushed that caring about anything was impossible.

“We’re going to figure a way out of this,” Tanner told Spencer. The other hybrid sat huddled on the floor beside him, his arms wrapped around his knees, his eyes staring at nothing. “I have no doubt Zarina has already called the organization we work for. They’ll be here soon. In the meantime, we’re going to find Lillie and get her out of here. I swear it on my life.”

Maybe Spencer heard him, maybe he didn’t, but Tanner kept talking, hoping to snap him out of the nearly catatonic state he was in. Tanner didn’t know what the hell was going to happen next in this place, but when they had a chance to move, he needed Spencer to be ready.

“This is all my fault,” Spencer whispered.

At least he was talking now. That had to be a good thing, even if his words didn’t make a lot of sense. Tanner glanced at Bryce to see if he knew what Spencer was referring to, but the younger hybrid only shrugged.

“What do you mean?” Tanner asked Spencer. “None of this is your fault. There’s no way you could have seen this coming.”

Spencer looked at him, his eyes full of regret. “I’ve already hurt Lillie once. No matter how much I love her, I knew if we stayed together, it would only be a matter of time before I hurt her again. She got kidnapped because she was with me.”

Shit. Tanner suddenly had a vivid sensation of what it must be like for Zarina when he took responsibility for every bad thing that happened in the world. Was it as frustrating for her as it was for him right now? Probably.

Tanner was seriously considering using one of Zarina’s lines on Spencer and telling him Lillie was an adult who made her own decisions when the door opened. Ryan, Emilio, and Anton strode in, followed by three big Asian guys.

Even though he knew he had to stay calm, Tanner’s heart beat faster. They were almost certainly here to take someone upstairs to fight. This might be their chance to make their move. Tanner didn’t like the odds, though. Three hybrids chained to the floor against six trained men with weapons wasn’t the most ideal situation. If they uncuffed more than one of them, that might improve their chances.

Ryan had clearly learned his lesson last time, because he didn’t come anywhere near Tanner. He regarded Spencer for a moment before turning to Bryce. He gave the men with him a nod, then motioned to Josh and a few of the men along the far wall.

“Bring the woman, too,” Ryan said. “For whatever reason, people love seeing a woman in the cage. Hopefully sending the freak out there with them will give us a better fight than the last group gave us. The betting barely started before they all got thrashed.”

The three Asian men moved in to unchain the people Ryan had selected, while Emilio and Anton focused on Bryce.

“You don’t have to do this, Ryan,” Tanner said, his gums tingling as the hybrid inside tried to make an appearance. “It’s not too late to fix this.”

Ryan’s lip curled. “Damn, Tanner. Do you ever give it a rest? Stop trying to save my soul. The army burned it out a long time ago.”

“Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep through the night?” Tanner demanded. “That the army’s to blame for all this?”

Ryan chuckled and stepped closer but still well out of reach. Tanner gave Bryce a quick look, then glanced at Emilio, still unlocking the manacle, hoping the hybrid got what he was trying to tell him. Bryce nodded slightly in understanding.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Tanner,” Ryan said, dragging his attention back to him. “I sleep just fine at night.”

Bryce made his move the moment Emilio unchained him. One moment, he was sitting on the floor docilely; the next, he was sinking his fangs into the man’s shoulder.

Tanner lunged for Ryan at the same time, but his old friend quickly backpedaled, and Tanner’s outstretched claws missed the man’s neck by inches. Tanner slammed to the floor in frustration just as a gun went off. Cursing, he jerked his head up, trying to figure out where the gunshots had come from, only to see Bryce tumble to the floor, dragging Emilio down with him. The man immediately rolled away and jumped to his feet. His shoulder was bleeding badly, but otherwise, he was uninjured. He reached under his jacket and pulled out his weapon, quickly pointing it at Bryce, but the move was unnecessary. Bryce was already down, and judging from the two dark stains spreading over his shirtfront, he wasn’t getting up anytime soon. That son of a bitch Anton had shot him in the stomach.

“What the fuck did you do that for?” Ryan shouted. “He was going to earn us a million dollars in bets tonight. Mr. Nguyen is going to go ballistic.”

“The asshole was going to kill Emilio,” Anton said, his weapon still pointed at Bryce, curled up on the floor with his hands cradling his stomach. “He had his teeth buried in Emilio’s damn shoulder!”

Ryan didn’t seem to give a shit about that. He completely ignored Emilio as the man peeled back the collar of his shirt and checked the damage, muttering something about turning into one of those damn freaks. Instead, Ryan shoved a hand through his hair and cursed, his eyes darting back and forth between Bryce and Spencer, who was still sitting there staring at something only he could see.

“What the hell are we going to do now?” Ryan muttered. “The crowd up there is frothing at the mouth for the big fight we promised them.”

“Drag him up there,” Anton said, gesturing with the gun at Spencer.

Tanner tensed. Spencer was still out of it. If they tossed him into a fight right now, there was no telling what would happen.

Ryan frowned. “I don’t know. I think Mr. Nguyen has other plans for him.”

“I’ll do it,” Tanner said before Ryan could change his mind. Or suggest that his men drag Bryce up to the ring to fend for himself. A hybrid could take a lot of punishment, and Tanner hoped Bryce survived long enough for him to figure a way out of this, but the man was in too much pain to fight.

Ryan gave Tanner an appraising look. “Mr. Nguyen has something special planned for you, too, and as much as I’d love to see you get your ass whooped, I can’t have anyone damaging our star attraction before the main event.”

Tanner shifted just enough to make his eyes glow red, grinning as Ryan took a quick step back. “You seriously think anything you have waiting up in that cage is going to damage me?”

Ryan gazed at him for a moment longer, then turned to Anton. “Take off his chains. He’ll go up in place of the other one.”

Anton stepped forward but then hesitated.

Ryan laughed. “Emilio, stop whining about that boo-boo on your shoulder and point your weapon at the freak staring at nothing over there.”

Emilio did as he was told, though he didn’t look too happy about it. He was obviously in pain and getting paler by the minute.

Ryan turned his attention on Tanner, pinning him with a look. “Here’s the deal. Emilio is going to stay down here with his gun pointed at the head of your freaky friend. If you try anything when Anton releases you, he’ll shoot your freaky friend in the head. If you try anything when we get upstairs, like decide not to fight, he’ll shoot your freaky friend in the head. And just in case you think it might help to take me out first, if I don’t call him every two minutes and let him know everything is going peachy, he’ll shoot your freaky friend in the head. Is there any part of that that doesn’t make sense to you?”

It was then Tanner realized he was actually looking forward to killing his old friend. He told himself it was his hybrid half putting those thoughts in his head, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was his subconscious trying to get him to accept there wasn’t much chance of this working out any other way.

Anton holstered his automatic and nervously unlocked the manacle around Tanner’s wrist, his eyes focused on him the entire time. When he was done, he quickly stepped back and pulled his weapon again as Tanner got to his feet.

“I know you, Tanner,” Ryan said as he led the way out of the room and headed down a brightly lit corridor that had been neatly carved from the very bedrock of the club’s foundation. Smaller tunnels branched off on either side of them, and Tanner could smell stale air coming from them. “You’re probably already trying to come up with some daring scheme to rescue yourself and your friends. I’m telling you now you can forget it. Between the club level and the cage level, I have more than twenty heavily armed security people. Anything you try will only get you and all your friends killed.”

“You have heavily armed security people?” Tanner asked as they approached a set of broad, smooth stone steps. “Or does Mr. Nguyen have them?”

Ryan glanced over his shoulder as he started up the steps, mouth twitching. “Does it really matter? You’ll be dead regardless.”

Tanner ignored him, focusing on the pair of heavy metal doors at the top of the stairs. He could already hear the muted cheering and applause coming from the other side. The sound by itself was enough to make his gums ache again. Behind him, Josh’s heart was beating like a drum along with the other two captives. The two men and the woman were terrified.

When they reached the landing, Ryan turned to look at him. “Before we go in there, let me give you some more advice, Ranger to Ranger. Don’t embarrass yourself. The moment we walk through those doors, every guard in the place is going to have eyes on you. You need to get into that ring and put on a good show for the crowd. And please, when you start getting your ass kicked, don’t expect me to step in and save you.”

Tanner glared at him. “Don’t worry. I no longer have any expectations when it comes to you. You’ve already shown me exactly what kind of dirtbag you really are.”

Ryan’s only answer was to laugh and shove open the heavy double doors.

Loud music and shouting slapped Tanner in the face, along with the acrid scents of sweat and blood and an almost tangible wave of excitement. His fangs elongated in response, and he felt the first twisting and tearing of muscles that came before a shift.

Shit.

He’d thought after being with Zarina, he’d made a breakthrough of sorts. Yeah, the tingling gums and fingernails had still been there, and he’d shifted out of pure instinct a couple of times, but it had been nothing like this. He’d thought he’d be able to stay calmer than this. He’d obviously been wrong.

Tanner was so busy trying to hold off his hybrid half that he almost missed what Ryan was saying. Some crap about these fights being transmitted to a hundred places around the world all without anyone knowing where they were going down. He was only dimly aware of the huge open-air space around them and the crowd of people dressed in designer clothes, sipping fancy drinks, as he followed Ryan up to the big octagonal fighting cage.

As they got closer to the ring, the stone ceiling above him ended, revealing a second viewing area enclosed in lightly tinted glass. A part of him vaguely wondered what the hell a space like that was doing in what had probably been a sawmill at one time. It was like he was in a frigging football stadium. Although he guessed a gladiatorial ring would be more appropriate. Multiple tunnels exited the big room, and he instinctively picked up on which ones led toward the fresh air upstairs and which ones held nothing but dank air.

Tanner quickly lost interest in the sheer scale of the underground stadium as his inner beast continued to try and push its way out. He couldn’t let that happen. Not here in front of all these people. He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax as he envisioned the same door he’d constructed a thousand times in his mind before tonight. Opening the imaginary door, he nudged his hybrid half into the room and closed the door on that part of himself, believing with everything he had that he could control the monster within. The animal let itself be locked away with hardly any fight at all. Almost as if it knew there’d be time to get free later.

Tanner slowly backed away from the hybrid edge, silently congratulating himself on getting past the worst of the inner battle. Then he looked up and saw the cage. His inner beast woke up and slammed against the door, wanting back out.

He ignored the animal and forced himself to take in every detail of the cage, knowing he might need the information later. It was positioned on a platform five feet high with heavy-gauge fencing fully enclosing the sides and the top. There were two entrances, one on either side, both guarded by beefy guys with weapons openly displayed on their hips.

Five large, muscular men stood inside the cage. Shirtless, they wore black military-style cargo pants and combat boots. Each man weighed in at two hundred and twenty pounds minimum. One looked closer to three hundred. All of them held aluminum bats that were stained with dark-red blood.

Anton nudged Tanner toward the entrance closest to them even as the crowd began to cheer louder. Off to the side, Ryan raised his hands with a grin, urging them on.

“Remember to put on a good show for me unless you want Emilio to get bored down there and start shooting people,” Ryan said as one of the guards opened the gate.

Before Tanner could reply, a hand on his back shoved him into the cage. Someone else did the same to Josh, then the other two captives. A moment later, one of the stocky guards wrapped a heavy chain around the gate and the nearest fencing post, locking them in.

The cheering became deafening as Tanner turned to the five men Ryan expected him, Josh, and the others to fight. Over an intercom system, he could barely make out a voice calling out numbers he assumed were some kind of betting line. Based on the way the people in the crowd were tapping away at the screens on their phones, Tanner guessed all the betting was done online. Wasn’t that convenient?

Tanner turned away from the five men to take in the view of the stadium from inside the cage. He saw at least four individual cameras and wondered if there were others he couldn’t see. There were at least a hundred and fifty people on the main floor, with easily fifty or so behind the glass in the enclosed luxury seats above. In one of them, Ryan took a seat beside Nguyen and smiled at Tanner.

What an asshole.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the five men spread out. Two of them, including the big guy, looked like they intended to deal with him, while the other three moved to handle Josh and the others.

“What do we do?” Josh said nervously from behind him, his slurred words barely audible over the screaming crowd. The jackasses were stomping their feet now like they were at a frigging sporting event.

“Stay behind me in a tight group against the fence and protect each other,” he said firmly. “I’ll take care of these assholes.”

The men with the baseball bats chuckled at that, but Tanner didn’t care. If these men wanted a fight, he’d give them exactly what they were asking for.

Gaze locked on them, he let his body shift a little. Bones popped and muscles tore as they took on his hybrid form. The urge to completely let go and let the beast out was overwhelming. Part of him didn’t care if everyone saw what he was and thought him a monster. Because he knew while he might be the one with fangs and claws, he wasn’t the real monster. They were up in the luxury seats and out there in the crowd.

But he resisted the urge. He couldn’t reveal what he and the other hybrids and shifters of the world were. While he, Spencer, and Bryce might be in terrible danger at the moment, it was nothing compared to the danger their kind would be in if their secret slipped out. He’d have to do this without fangs and claws.

The smaller of the two men grinned smugly as he cocked his bat over his right shoulder and came in swinging. Tanner immediately closed the distance and caught the aluminum club in his hand just before it connected with his temple. Then he lunged forward and drove his fist into the man’s face. There was a crunch, some of which probably came from the bones in his own hand breaking. But the minor pain was worth it to see blood spatter from the man’s nose as he collapsed with a thud on the floor of the cage.

While he’d been occupied with the first man, the bigger guy had used the distraction as an opportunity to attack, the bat in his hand nearly forgotten as he charged in like a bull. The animal inside Tanner surged at the challenge, and he let go a little more, growling out loud as he launched himself at the man.

They came together with a crash, neither giving ground, and Tanner felt the pain as muscles and bones in his shoulders and chest popped. His hybrid half growled louder in pleasure at the opportunity to take on someone it felt worthy of its attention.

The giant dropped the bat and came up swinging. Tanner avoided the blow easily, letting the momentum of the attack spin the man around in a half circle. The guy’s momentarily exposed back presented too good a target to ignore, and Tanner lashed out instinctively, punching the man in the right kidney as hard as he could. The shout of pain the big guy let out was easy to hear even over the roar of the crowd.

Before the big man could fall, Tanner grabbed him by the back of the neck and his belt, yanking him off his feet and tossing him toward one of the three men who’d been slowly working toward Josh and the others. A three-hundred-pound bag of anything hurt when it hit a person, and the unsuspecting man let out a grunt as he was crushed to the floor. He’d probably be getting up again, but not for a bit.

Tanner turned slowly, a growl rumbling from his throat as he regarded the remaining two men. They regarded him uncertainly now, clearly realizing this fight wasn’t going to go the way they thought. One of them frantically motioned at the guard closest to the gate on his side of the octagon, like he wanted out. That earned the man a frown from the guard and a round of boos from the crowd.

Knowing he wasn’t getting out of the ring before this was over, the man turned and looked at his remaining partner, nodding his head. The other guy seemed to agree with the wordless communication, and both men rushed Tanner at the same time.

They split wide at the last second, coming at him from two sides at once. Tanner ducked the first bat swung at his head and kicked out, knocking that man back all the way to the cage fencing. The move left him open to the second guy coming in, and he got an arm up just in time to keep from getting his face caved in.

The thud of the aluminum club against his forearm cracked something hard enough for him to feel it, and the beast slipped out a little more as the pain overrode Tanner’s control. He tried to stop it, but his fangs slid out, and he roared in the guy’s face, fangs and all. To say the man was stunned was an understatement. Bastard just about shit himself. Guess Ryan never bothered to tell the men what they were up against.

The guy tried to swing at him again, but Tanner was too close for it to do much damage, and the weak blow bounced off his left shoulder. With a snarl, Tanner wrapped a hand around the man’s throat and shoved him across the ring to the far section of fencing, pinning him there as the beast inside howled for blood. Tanner fought against the urge as much as he could, and that hesitation cost him. The man slammed his knee into Tanner’s groin.

The pain was intense, but Tanner refused to release his grip on the man. Clenching his jaw, he brought his foot down on the guy’s leg. The man’s knee buckled as ligaments and tendons tore, and he screamed in pain as the will to fight anymore fled. Tanner’s hybrid wasn’t done yet, though. Lifting the man off his feet, he headbutted the guy, knocking him out cold.

Now his hybrid half was done with the man.

Tanner spun to face the last guy, only to get knocked backward by a three-hundred-pound giant running at full speed. The air exploded out of his lungs as the man drove him across the cage and slammed him into one of the support poles for the cage. The impact hurt like a son of a bitch and shredded his control that much more. Clasping his hands together, he brought his bunched fists down hard into the center of the big man’s back with a roar, stunning the collective crowd to silence.

You could have heard a pin drop as the big man fell to the floor, and a part of Tanner agonized over the thought that he’d almost certainly paralyzed the guy. Another part of him didn’t care. His hybrid half was getting closer and closer to the surface with every passing second. Much more of this, and he didn’t think he’d be able to stop the animal from completely taking over.

A pitiful cry from behind made him whirl around. The last of the five guys was over by one of the gates, the woman pinned against his body like a shield, his bat pulled up tight to her throat with both hands. Josh and the other male captive were writhing on the floor in pain.

The crowd remained silent as Tanner strode across the ring.

“Stay the fuck back!” the man warned, yanking the bat against the woman’s throat, making her gag. “I’ll kill her if you don’t!”

Tanner didn’t slow. The man would likely kill her no matter what he did. The guards weren’t going to open the gate until this was done, one way or the other.

The woman’s eyes bulged as Tanner got closer, but the look of trust in their depths stunned him. Reaching out, he caught one of the man’s hands in a crushing grip. Bones snapped as he wrenched the bat aside. The woman collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath.

Tanner jerked the guy to the side and punched him in the center of the chest as hard as he could. Air exploded out of the man’s lungs in a whoosh as he hit the gate behind him. The force of the blow cracked ribs and sternum and bent the gate all to hell. Tanner thought for sure he’d killed the man, but then he heard the thumping of the guy’s heart. The part of Tanner that didn’t want to kill anymore was relieved even as he realized that emotion was likely to be short lived. None of them were out of this yet.

Taking a deep breath, Tanner slowly turned around to see Josh helping the woman off the floor and leading her over to the side of the octagon. He might have just saved all of them, but that didn’t stop the kid from looking at him in terror. Tanner couldn’t blame the kid. What he’d done probably didn’t look a whole hell of a lot different than what the men did who’d beaten Josh up when he’d first been captured and forced to fight.

Around him, the crowd stamped their feet and cheered again, though Tanner wasn’t sure whether it was because they’d enjoyed the fight or were hoping Tanner would finish off the last men he’d beaten.

Tanner glanced up at the luxury boxes and realized Ryan wasn’t in the suite with Nguyen anymore. Was it too much to hope that he’d bet against Tanner and was even now drinking himself into a stupor over losing?

The gate on the far side of the cage opened, and Tanner turned to see Ryan standing there with a dozen guards. Eight of them kept their weapons pointed at Tanner while the rest led Josh and the other two captives out of the cage and herded them toward the door that led down to the cell. The moment they were out of the cage, four guards came in to haul out the injured and unconscious men Tanner had bested, unconcerned by their grunts of pain or the blood they left behind on the floor.

Tanner assumed they’d take him out next, but the remaining guards kept their weapons trained on him.

“You didn’t really think I’d let you leave already, did you, old buddy?” Ryan sneered. “Your night is just getting started, and something tells me this next matchup is going to be a bit more of a challenge for you.”

Smiling smugly, Ryan glanced over his shoulder at something behind him. Tanner’s gut clenched at the sight of Anton forcing Spencer down the aisle, the barrel of his weapon pressed against the hybrid’s back. If the crowd was concerned about the fact that a man was actually going to be forced to fight at gunpoint, they didn’t show it. If anything, they cheered louder.

At first, Tanner was relieved Spencer seemed to finally be fully aware of his surroundings, but then he noticed the hybrid’s eyes were glowing red, and the tips of two upper fangs were already visible as he breathed deep in an opened-mouth pant.

Shit.

Ryan must have seen the look on Tanner’s face, because he grinned. “Yeah, I think this fight is going to be so much better than the first one.” Gaze still on Tanner, he stepped aside to let Spencer enter the octagon. “Don’t you agree, Tanner?”

“You’re never going to be able to make us fight. You know that, right?” Tanner asked, praying he was right as Anton led Spencer into the center of the cage and removed the manacles from his wrists.

Ryan laughed. “Of course I will. If you don’t fight, I’m going to have Emilio put a bullet in the heads of those three people you just worked so hard to protect.”

Still smiling, Ryan took Spencer’s arm and turned him around until he was facing toward the luxury box where Ryan had been sitting earlier. Tanner cursed at the sight of a terrified Lillie standing there beside Nguyen, his gun pressed to her temple. Even from here, Tanner could see the tears in her eyes.

“And if your friend here doesn’t fight,” Ryan continued, “Mr. Nguyen will shoot that sweet girl in the head, and you can both watch her brains spatter all over the glass.”

Before Tanner could say anything, Ryan turned and walked out of the cage. On the other side of the octagon, Spencer growled long and low at Tanner, his fangs and claws fully extended.

Oh shit. This was going to be bad.