Gray

He watched Jacen sail down the stairs, hitting the third from last one and rolling onto the front lawn. Without a care he leapt after him. It was petty to beat up on him, he knew that. But the long-haired, long-bearded fellow was in dire need of being taught a lesson on manners. Gray hadn’t done anything to deserve such a hostile reception, and he took offense to being treated rudely when he didn’t deserve it.

The other shifter had rolled to his feet by the time Gray landed on the ground, his feet sinking several inches into the soft sod upon landing. The two charged forward and locked arms, trying to overpower one another in a contest of sheer strength. It became clear almost immediately that Gray was stronger, and his opponent disengaged, showing a quickness that would help soften some of the difference in power between them. Even though Gray was stronger, it was a mere technicality. The difference wasn’t enough to let him overwhelm his opponent.

“You don’t belong here,” the other man snapped.

“Funny,” Gray replied. “I was going to say the same thing about you.”

The other shifter snarled and darted in at him, ducking below Gray’s blows and tackling him to the ground. The speed of it caught him unaware and Gray fell back, slamming his head into the bottom of the stairs. The blow was hard enough to make him see stars. Instinct made him kick out, and he took Jacen in the stomach as the other shifter tried to get into a better position to rain down blows on him.

The move bought him enough time to regain his feet before Jacen came at him again. Gray acted like he was going to strike a blow, his hands up by his face, ready to turn aside any incoming punches. At the last second though, he darted forward, latched onto Jacen’s arm, pivoted on his foot, and yanked hard enough to turn the forward stumble of his enemy into a toss.

Jacen flew forward and slammed into the outer wall of the unit, leaving a six-inch-deep dent in the shape of his body.

“I’m going to kill you,” he promised, and came at Gray again.

This time he stayed on his feet, launching a flurry of fists that spoke of some advanced training, boxing perhaps, or something else. Gray was trained as well, and could hold his own again most military-trained opponents. But Jacen had more than that. His attack was quick, well thought out, and relentless. Gray fell back, taking most of the blows off his upraised arms as he looked for an opening. Jacen didn’t give him one.

Eventually a punch got through, and Jacen’s knuckle opened a cut above his eye. Then another on his opposite cheek. Then he split his lip open. Gray was pushing back and back, over the front lawn, across the gravel roadway, and onto the lawn of the other unit facing Kelly’s.

He thought he saw an opening, and his right fist shot forward, right for Jacen’s head. But the shifter wasn’t there. He bobbed to his left, and then drove a rock-hard fist into Gray’s ribs. Something cracked and pain flashed through him. He stumbled back from the blow, trying to keep up his breathing pattern through the pain.

Definitely a broken rib.

Gray needed to do something and do it soon, or he was going to lose the fight in a bad way. Jacen was much more formidable than he’d thought. Gray had underestimated him. His opponent came on, long hair flying and bouncing around as he avoided Gray’s blows and delivered more of his own.

“I told you I was going to kill you,” Jacen said, the words less of a taunt and more of a promise at that point.

He started to reply, but as he stepped back to avoid another blow, his foot came down on uneven ground. His weight was already shifting, and there was nothing he could do. The ankle and then the knee wrenched painfully and Gray collapsed as his left leg could no longer support his weight.

Jacen came after him almost immediately, like a snake ready to devour its meal, wrapping his limbs around Gray and beginning to tighten an arm around Gray’s neck. It should have been a victory for Jacen. He had his man dead to rights, arm-bar locked in and crushing his windpipe. If it were a formal match, Gray would be forced to tap out, and the referee would stop the fight.

He grinned. But this wasn’t a formal match. Gray reached behind him, grabbed a handful of Jacen’s sensitive parts, and did a combination twist and squeeze.

The scream that ripped from Jacen’s throat made Gray wince. Not from the sound, though it was right next to his ear, but from the sheer primal agony contained within it. He didn’t like what he’d done, but sometimes playing dirty was the only way to win.

Jacen tried to hold on, but Gray just squeezed tighter, until the pressure lessened from around this throat. The instant it was gone he rolled onto his side, pulled his elbow up, and then drove it down into Jacen’s stomach with every ounce of strength he could summon.

The other shifter vomited instantly. Gray scrambled out of the way, brushing a mixture of rainwater and blood from his eyes. Then he hauled back and delivered several savage blows to Jacen, his massive fist raising and descending like a club, battering the other man’s face before he could recover.

Gray looked down, saw that the other shifter was still moving, but not much. He stepped back, struggling visibly to remove the curtain of red that had descended over his vision. Whoever this man was, he meant something to Kelly, and he needed to keep that in mind. Even if she had been cheating on him, it wasn’t Gray’s place to kill the guy she’d been with. His beast wanted it—the animal chained up inside of him clamored for him to end it, to shift into his bear and rip the man’s throat out.

But Gray the human couldn’t do that, no matter how much he wanted to. It was the inner struggle he dealt with. It wasn’t an everyday thing; when his bear was calm, it was fine. But the moment it got worked up, Gray had a hard time shutting down the bloodlust that was unleashed within him. It was a powerful force that beckoned to him with the allure of thousands of years of ingrained desire. The call was always a struggle to ignore, the thrill of the hunt and the pride in a kill.

But he knew better. He knew what came next. The realization, the shock, the horror at what he’d become when he gave in. That wasn’t the person Gray wanted to be, and he’d worked hard to overcome it. Andrew had recognized the demon he dealt with, and had helped him learn to control it even further.

It was still there though, and he’d come perilously close to unleashing it. He stumbled back, taking several deep breaths to calm himself, to slow the flow of blood through his system.

He closed his eyes and wiped his hands over his face to clear away more rain and blood from the beating he’d taken at the start of the fight.

Pain exploded in his knee and he fell to the ground as Jacen lashed out at him.

The red haze descended once more, and Gray went for the kill, his eyes opening with deadly intensity as he prepared to snap Jacen’s neck. Fire sang through his blood as his beast heralded the killing blow, eager to assert its dominance once more.

But by the time he opened his eyes and lunged forward, Jacen had already scrambled backward and was getting to his feet. Gray tried to follow, but the knee must have been more hurt than he thought. It wouldn’t support his weight, and he was forced to stay on the ground, using his good knee to support himself.

“If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you,” Jacen spat, and then he ran off into the night, unwilling to tangle with Gray again, even though he only had one working leg.

“Yeah, you’d better run,” Gray said, speaking through a stream of blood as the rain picked up some more, soaking him and turning his shirt red as it cleaned his face.

He tried to stand on his injured knee.

“Ow.”

Kelly came rushing down the stairs just as he got himself to his feet. Her hands were outstretched as she approached, obviously wanting to help him.

Gray shied away from her touch. “No,” he said, fury still filling him, still guiding him. “Stay away from me. You’ve already done enough damage.”

Kelly wilted at his words, but he didn’t care. Turning, Gray limped off into the night, trying his best to put as little weight as possible down on his injured knee. It would heal in a few hours, but until then he’d be really, really sore.

***

The walk back to the embassy left him nearly in agony, the constant use of his knee preventing it from healing, and in fact making it worse. He shouldered his way in through the front door loud enough to draw attention. Hector was standing duty at the entry desk, but one fierce glare from Gray was enough to get him to back off.

He didn’t want to talk to anyone just then. Not Hector, not Kelly, and definitely not Andrew. But the gryphon shifter came anyway, looking worried for his friend.

“What the hell happened to you?” he asked, concerned.

“What the fuck does it look like?” Gray snarled back, not in any mood to be razzed or teased. “I got the shit beat out of me.”

Then he pushed past Andrew and headed for the stairs, gratefully sagging some of his weight off his uninjured leg as he used the banister to support himself while he hobbled up the stairs toward his room. The embassy was an old motel, and it had two wings of rooms on both the upper and lower floors, leading out to the left and right of the lobby. Gray’s room was one of the closest on the top floor, thanks in large part to his permanent position as a guard in Cloud Lake.

Thus he only had to hobble a dozen steps or so to reach his door. Once there he let himself in, moving right to the bathroom. He doffed his clothing on the ground in a pile, uncaring of how messy it was, and ran the water in the shower as hot as he could stand it.

Then he pulled himself in, sank to the floor, and let the anger, frustration, and sadness of all that had happened that night simply pour out of him as he ignored the rest of the world at large.

It would still be there in the morning. He could deal with it then. With Jacen, whoever he was, with the mystery shifter he’d chased across the park, and with Kelly, who had obviously been lying to him.

That hurt the worst. He’d been convinced this whole time that she was his mate, that she was the one for him, the only woman he’d ever be interested in again. But clearly she hadn’t been feeling the same way for him.

Gray slumped back against the shower wall, and tried his best not to cry.