~

 

Dane grumbled another growl as his long legs closed the distance between them. He caught her up, wrapped an arm around her waist, and lifted her from the floor as he spun her around in the other direction. Now he was carrying her like a mannequin tucked under his arm.

“I will hurt you,” Rayner bit out.

“I’d say give it your best shot — but I know what you’re capable of,” Dane chuckled.

“Fine, I won’t challenge the idiot, just yet,” Rayner grumbled, as she tried to release her mate’s grip from around her. It was useless.

“You won’t challenge anyone until you can get your bear’s head on straight,” Dane growled at the thought.

Rayner’s beast was still so new within her that she still didn’t have most aspects of control when it came to shifting.

“I didn’t know it was crooked,” Rayner bit out.

“All you’re doing is getting your bear hyped up,” Dane grumbled.

“It doesn’t need any help from me,” Rayner shot back. “But if you don’t put me down then you’ll be holding my damn bear — oh, and, good luck with that.”

“Please don’t tell me you are busy and need me to come back at another time — that would be inconvenient,” Colt said as he came up the road behind them.

Rayner’s beast growled in annoyance. The bear wanted out, and it clawed within her to be set free.

“I’m going to put you down and you’re going to the cabin,” Dane informed her.

“Over his dead body,” Rayner bit back. The moment that her feet touch the ground she turned and glared at Colt.

“I thought you were the alpha?” Colt said with a small, deep chuckle, flicking his gaze towards Dane before turning it back on Rayner.

“Don’t confuse caring about my mate with being soft,” Dane growled a warning at the man. “There might be rules of engagement between you and my brother, but that only goes so far.”

“So, let me get this straight — you want me to fight you, then your brother, then your mate?” Colt sneered.

“Don’t push it,” Dane growled.

Her mate’s hard warning growl set Rayner’s beast on alert. Her bear growled to, and Colt flicked a curious look at her.

“She wouldn’t be a newly bitten shifter, now would she?” Colt demanded.

They both knew the answer to that one. Rayner felt a flash of guilt within her — she didn’t want to get Dane, Bowie, or her clan into trouble with the authorities — she certainly didn’t want to be taken into custody herself, and that would happen if Colt went shooting his mouth off.

“So, what are the rules of engagement when dealing with a really big threat to the whole clan?” Rayner asked.

“All bets are off,” Dane informed her, but he was looking at Colt at the time.

“Colt,” Bowie growled from behind Dane as he stalked down the driveway toward the man.

“To the death, Bowie?” Colt growled back.

“That’s not going to happen,” Rayner bit out.

“Rayner, stay out of this,” Bowie growled.

He knew that his clan sister was only trying to help, but rules were rules, and if Colt wanted the challenge to be to the death then it would be. Bowie would just have to make sure that he won this time.

He was prepared for that.

“Yeah, stay out of this,” Colt offered her a sneer of disdain.

“Rayner,” Dane warned.

“Now the way I see it is,” Rayner said as she offered Dane a look that asked him to trust her.

“Rayner…” Bowie growled, but she cut him off.

“There’s been a new development since the challenge,” Rayner turned her attention toward Colt. “He could fight to the death, and maybe he would win the challenge — but then we’d have to kill him anyway because he knows about the bite.”

Rayner didn’t need to put in the inconvenient truth that Bowie would already be dead and he was the one who had bitten her. In truth, that wouldn’t matter to her plight, she would still be taken into custody.

“Your point?” Bowie growled. He was still thinking about the part where he’d be dead, Mitzi would be alone, and he didn’t like that part.

“Why don’t we cut out the middleman and kill him now anyway?” Rayner shrugged her shoulders as she turned a smug look on Colt.

“I should have learned that any clan with Bowie in it had no honour,” Colt said.

“You talk to me about honour,” Bowie growled at the man.

His beast was more than agitated within him, the bear wanted to burst free and rip his head off just so he could hand it back to him before his body hit the ground.

“That was a long time ago,” Colt growled.

He knew what he’d done. He still carried around some of the shame from that night. Shifting into his bear in mid-flight and going tits up crazy on Bowie wasn’t his finest moment.

He wasn’t that man anymore. He’d fight to protect what was his, but he’d learned to control his bear.

“You have no honour,” Bowie growled back.

“Don’t tell me that you’re beast has never got away from you,” Colt growled back. “I can see it in you now.”

“I guess it takes one to know one,” Rayner offered the man an accusing glare as his top lip twitched with annoyance. “So?”

“The challenge stands,” Colt growled.

“Sounds good,” Bowie growled.

“And I’m going to enjoy handing you your ass.” Colt wasn’t entirely sure that was true.

He’d spent the whole damn night thinking on the events of the past, reliving them in every detail that he could remember from the red haze that had descended on him. He hated Bowie for that.

“But not to the death,” Rayner said.

Colt took a long moment to chew on that one.

Until he’d turned up today he hadn’t considered issuing the demand for a death match, figured he owed Bowie a little something for the past. But there was something about seeing him in person — maybe it was having his own shame reflected right there on Bowie’s face — perhaps if he ended Bowie then he would never have to think on that night again.

That was a damned tempting prospect and one that Colt didn’t want to pass up on.