~

 

Dane caught Bowie’s scent on the air, but that scent wasn’t the only thing that he found. Another shifter — he’d taken Colt’s scent back at the man’s bolthole and he instantly recognised it.

The thought of Bowie and Colt going head to head got Dane’s bear more than agitated, his beast was baying to be released. For one thing they needed Colt alive to collect on the debt and stop Rayner going after stupid targets, and for another, Dane had to wonder if his brother was good enough to take on Colt.

That wasn’t saying anything bad about Bowie or his beast, they were formidable, but there was history there that could cloud Bowie’s judgement, raise his anger level to the point where all he saw was red and not the big picture. Fighting blind and on emotion alone never worked out well for most people.

Dane sped up, he was tracking that scent in the air, and when he came out of the woods and into a large clearing, there they were, the two big shifters facing off against each other as if the only thing that mattered was ripping each other apart.

“You’re on clan land…” Dane started, but Colt shot him a dark glare before turning his gaze back on Bowie.

“Yeah, well you came after me first,” Colt tossed back.

“Maybe you should pay your damn bills,” Bowie said. The irony of his words were lost on him in his anger for the man.

“And maybe I should just rip your damn head off this time,” Colt tossed back.

Dane knew that things could only go from bad to worse from that point on. They needed Colt alive, they needed his money so that Rayner could pay the clan’s debt to Bute, and then she wouldn’t need to work for the man anymore.

That was what Dane wanted. He didn’t want her on the front line against crazy shifters or humans any more. He wanted her safe. He wanted her home with him instead of worrying about crazy ass bears like his brother.

“If it’s not us coming to collect it then it would be somebody else.” Dane was trying his best to defuse the situation.

In a way; he wanted Bowie to have a damn rematch against the guy, just for his own honour, and to put that particular demon to bed. But there was so much more at stake now that both his pride and honour would have to wait for another day.

“You can’t shift against a human,” Bowie sneered. “And we both know that your power lies within your beast.”

That had been how it was in the past, and Bowie couldn’t see it being any different now. They’d fought toe to toe as man on man, but then Colt had released his beast, and that beast had been wild with rage.

Now that he had a wild beast of his own and he wasn’t afraid to shift into it, Bowie could practically taste that fight between them on his tongue.

“You want to fight for that money, Bowie?” Colt growled.

Somewhere inside of him, Colt still felt a sense of shame and guilt over the idea that he fought Bowie the way that he had. He’d lost control of his bear and shifted. That was the day that he realised just how little control he had over his beast — the bear had gone wild, laying into Bowie and tearing him up real bad.

That day was a turning point in Colt’s life. Not only did he realise the power of his beast, but he realised that he needed to learn to control it, rein it in, and never let that happen again.

That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t go head-to-head with Bowie again. He had his pride, and if he was challenged then he would rise to that challenge and win by whatever means necessary.

“That sounds like a plan,” Bowie said.

Dane didn’t like the sound of that. Both men were crazy bear’s, and things would get out of hand.

“You want to go at it now, or do you want to get your affairs in order first?” Colt growled, poking Bowie’s bear. He had some things of his own that he needed to do, but if Bowie did want to satisfy that challenge now then he was all in.

“Now hold on…” Dane growled.

“Any time you’re ready,” Bowie tossed back.

His beast was ready, more than ready to fight Colt — even if a part of the beast did pine for their mate. That set Bowie thinking about never seeing Mitzi again, and that thought hurt his heart and felt like a rock was wedged inside his stomach.

“This is clan land — I’m the alpha — my rules,” Dane growled out.

A challenge had been issued and accepted. There were some rules that Dane couldn’t get around, but still there were ways of doing things that could delay the inevitable and get Bowie’s head on straight for the flight.

“You wanna take this off clan land?” Colt demanded.

“I want to rip your damn head off and hand it back to you,” Bowie growled.

“You’re welcome to try,” Colt tossed back.

“Fine,” Dane growled out. “You two want to do this, then we do it my way.”

“You wanna tell me what that is, alpha?” Colt growled out.

He wasn’t sure that he trusted Bowie’s brother as far as he could throw him. There was nothing to say that he wouldn’t fight Bowie and defeat him only for his brother to step in and try to take him down.

He didn’t want to be fighting the whole clan. That certainly wasn’t on his to-do list, but if it came to that then he’d take on all challengers.

“One on one, you can bring a second to the fight if you want. You will also bring a cash check for the money you owe Bute,” Dane issued terms, and if Colt deviated from them, or found them unacceptable then the fight would not go ahead.

Dane didn’t like the idea of Bowie fighting outright for the money. Not only could his brother lose the fight, but other things could go wrong, and Rayner needed this win.

There wasn’t a lot that he could do about it now. Challenge given and accepted — unless one of them pulled out then the fight would go ahead.

“Sounds good,” Colt said with a flick of a look toward the alpha to see if he could spot any deceit. “Say when.”

“Tomorrow, just as the sun is going down,” Bowie growled. “Although, you’ll miss the sunset.”

 

~

~

~

 

“He what!?” Rayner growled out in disbelief as she pushed up from the log she’d been perched on and snapped a look at Bowie who was standing in the shadows not far from the fire pit.

“There wasn’t a whole hell of a lot I could do about it,” Dane growled.

His mate was more than miffed, he could practically feel the fur under her skin as she glared at Bowie in disbelief that was mixed with a whole lot of anger.

“And if Bowie doesn’t win?” Rayner said tossing up a hand in frustration. She’d just about had it with the males in the clan, it seemed as if they were doing everything possible to sabotage what she was desperately trying to achieve.

“Tell me it’s not a fight to the death?” Roland growled.

“It had better not be,” Mitzi said, pushing up to her feet, and handing Joshua back to Maggie.

“A what?” Maggie said, telling herself that she’d misheard her mate’s words, but from Mitzi’s reaction she doubted that she had.

“Well, my protest against the damn fight just became moot,” Rayner growled. “There is no way in hell that I’m letting this fight go ahead on my account.”

“So, what, you have a death wish now?” Mitzi demanded of her mate, and Bowie grunted in annoyance.

His beast protested within him. The bear had known of Bowie’s original plans, but what it didn’t know was if the man had changed his mind.

Bowie wanted Rayner to have the money so that she could stop trying to chase asshole’s like him down to pay off his debt to Bute, and yet, he still wanted his mate to be free of him.

Bowie knew that he had a decision to make. He just didn’t know how to make it.