CHAPTER 19
MATHIS
Another day. Another fight.
But today was different. Today, they had a plan.
Mathis just hoped it didn’t end as badly as their last one.
He glanced up at the window to the viewing room, squinting through the spotlights. He couldn’t see Chloe, but for the first time, he could sense her presence up there.
His skin prickled. You’re treading a fine line there. One step closer to a point you’ll never come back from.
Or maybe he’d already passed it.
He’d been so careful, resisting the mate bond’s pull. One moment of weakness, and all that work was undone.
He felt stronger than before. Being close to Chloe without touching her had been a constant ache, but now that he’d touched her lips with his and held her soft body against his own again, felt her tremble as he claimed her—the mate bond burnt like wildfire through his veins. Chloe was his mate. He would do anything for her.
And it terrified him.
Harper was using his mate as bait for a reason, and that reason couldn’t just be to keep him in line. The man was too sadistic for that. Mathis was just figuring out what he thought Harper’s real game was, and it chilled him to the bone.
Focus.
The sound of metal grating on metal pulled him from his thoughts. Chloe’s presence in the room above still tugged at his senses, but he moved his focus to the ring.
Mathis rolled his shoulders back as Sven, the wolf shifter, entered the ring through the opposite door. Something pulled in his left shoulder and he winced. The mate bond made him stronger, healing his surface wounds, but even it couldn’t pull his healing abilities back from the brink.
*Sven.*
*Mathis.*
Sven cocked his head, his eyes narrowing as he looked Mathis up in down. *Shit. You broke, didn’t you?*
Inside Mathis, his lion snarled, mane puffing out in defensive anger. *That’s none of your business.*
A buzzer sounded. Mathis exchanged a look with Sven, and shifted.
His body protested. Shifting while he was injured always hurt, but with injury layered over injury it was excruciating. Mathis stood on all fours, panting as he waited for his head to stop spinning.
*It’s all of our business, Mathis.* Sven’s voice was grim. *I hope you haven’t slept with her—*
*Jesus, Sven!*
Sven pulled his teeth back over his fangs, stalking around the ring with his belly close to the ground. Mathis set pace with him. Circling. Falling into the rhythm of the fight.
*I’m serious, kid. I thought I made it clear. You need to stay away from that girl, for all of our sakes.*
*What the hell are you talking about?*
*You. Her. I’ve seen this happen before.*
*What aren’t you telling me, Sven?* Mathis growled. *You were cryptic enough last time. Same as everyone else on this bullshit island. Stop playing games!* He was half listening to Sven, and half paying attention to the window above them. He needed to be alert the moment Chloe made her move.
*Fine. You want the truth?* Sven’s psychic voice was completely flat. *You remember the ibex shifter, Aisha, right? The crazy girl? Well, you and Chloe together, that’s step one in Harper’s game plan. And whoever’s left afterwards, that’s step two. Like Aisha.*
Mathis froze. *He’s going to kill her.*
*Or you. Probably her, though. A lion shifter who’s lost his mind with grief is gonna provide more fun in the ring than a human, that’s for sure.*
*No!*
Mathis forgot Sven. He spun towards the window. He had to tell Chloe. She couldn’t go ahead with the plan. It was too dangerous. She couldn’t—
Sven hit him in the side, locking his jaws onto Mathis’ injured shoulder. Mathis roared.
*What the fuck, Sven?*
The wolf shifter leapt back, circling around Mathis so quickly he almost stumbled over his own paws keeping up with him.
*You think Harper wants to watch us stand here yapping? You want to hold off step two as much as I do, then we both need to give him a show. Same as every night.*
Mathis’ head was thudding in time with the pain throbbing in his shoulder, and Chloe’s presence was a constant light in the back of his mind. But he caught on to Sven’s words.
*What do you mean, ‘as much as you do’?*
Sven didn’t smile. Wolves couldn’t. But his psychic voice was heavy with black, grim humor.
*You think any of us want to face up to a crazy lion, kid?*
Movement in the viewing room caught Mathis’ eye. And he wasn’t the only one. Sven leapt back and quirked his head, glancing up at the window.
*Something’s happening up there.*
Even in Mathis’ head, Sven’s voice was cagy, and he moved quickly to the far end of the circular room. Mathis rolled his eyes to follow the wolf’s path, and then focused on the window again.
He understood Sven’s wariness. He figures something’s happened to Chloe, and doesn’t want to be stuck in here with a lion enraged by seeing his mate in danger.
I don’t blame him.
From the ring, Mathis could just see what was happening in the viewing room. Chloe was bent over, supporting herself on the back of a sofa while Harper yelled out someone out of sight.
*Chloe!* Mathis let his psychic shout broadcast to all the shifters in “hearing” distance. He didn’t need to fake the concern in his telepathic voice. His fur itched as Chloe retched again. He knew it was all an act, but that didn’t matter to his instincts. *CHLOE!*
He paced up and down the center of the ring, eyes fixed on his mate. She looked sick. Surely she couldn’t fake how pale her face was?
Mathis gritted his teeth. You said you trusted her. So trust her.
Chloe staggered as Harper grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her away, towards the door. He pointed and shouted something and she crept away, one hand over her mouth and the other clutching her stomach.
It’s working. Mathis turned his sigh of relief into an angry snarl. Then his heart sank as Harper snapped his fingers and pointed after Chloe. One of the servers peeled away from their station at the edge of the room and trailed after her.
Shit. This isn’t going to work if she has a babysitter.
Mathis braced himself, mind whirring. He had to cause a distraction. His eyes flickered sideways and met Sven’s wary gaze.
Time for some of that mated shifter rage.
Mathis breathed deeply, gathering his energy, and sprang.
He hit the wall opposite the window three feet above Sven’s head, ignoring the wolf’s yelp as he darted out of the way. Muscles screaming, Mathis twisted as soon as his paws hit the wall, keeping momentum as he pushed off and hurled himself at the window.
He hit the window shoulder-first, whipping one fore-leg around to scratch at the glass with his claws. The window shuddered in its frame, and then gravity caught hold, dragging Mathis back down to the ground.
Blood thundering in his ears Mathis pounded across the concrete floor and leapt up again, smashing into the window with all his weight. Glass screamed against metal as the window shuddered in its frame. This time when he fell to the ground, flakes of concrete fell with him.
Harper wasn’t interested in Chloe anymore. The server he’d ordered to tail her fled to the back of the room out of Mathis’ sight—but not out the door. Not after Chloe.
It’s up to her now.
Mathis crouched. The snarl that tore from his throat this time was pure fury. He didn’t need to pretend he was enraged by his mate’s distress. All the anger and frustration of the past month poured through him like liquid fire.
Distraction? He’d cause a distraction, all right. And if his distraction took out the window and Harper and his bastard dragon lap-dog at the same time, all the better.