He froze under me, in the process of beginning to attempt to free himself. “What?”

“I can’t ask it again.” I pressed my elbow into the side of his neck. Where I could easily break it with the tiniest shove. “I need an answer.”

He lay under me for a full minute. Silent. Smart. Fucking powerful enough to rival the Queen’s power, just unlucky in this fight. “But…you’ve…”

And also a f**king hybrid.

Shifter and some type of Elemental I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But it was there in his blood, which still lingered on my tongue. He understood I knew this. He was also confused as shit.

“Yes, I know,” I whispered. “I told you before that you don’t know my views of the Law.” Louder, I stated, “Now answer my damn question.”

He paused, then stated, “Yes. I want to stop.”

Still, I held him down. Just because he said he wanted to stop, it didn’t mean I had to. He had instigated this challenge. But ultimately it was up to me after he decided to back off. In the barest breath I whispered against his ear, “Did you know about the beasts?”

Instant. “No.”

Truth.

“Would you ever create one?”

Instant. “No.” A pause. “I’ve taken care of the possibility of that occurring.”

Truth and truth.

My wolf growled in approval. “We never had this discussion.”

“What discussion?”

I let his thumbs go and removed my elbow from his neck. “Don’t ever challenge me again.”

He grunted, not really an answer, but I heard his wolf growl low with respect.

“Your name?”

“John Smith.”

I chuckled, getting to my feet, before yelling for the medic to see to his injuries. “Creativity isn’t your strong suit, Mr Smith.”

Dark eyes stared up at me, since he was unable to stand because of his broken leg. “I believe I could be creative enough for you.”

I laughed outright. “From killing to f**king?” I shook my head, holding my injured wrist. “Not interested.”

Eyes traveling up and down my frame from his f**king prone, broken position, he shrugged, pure cockiness, sand shifting under him. “Yeah, me neither, but it was natural to ask.”

I shook my head in exasperation, moving back as the medic arrived. “If that’s your idea of reasonable foreplay, you’re out of your damn mind.”

He grunted as the medic began working on him. “You’re right. It was a bit much.”

Hearing his bones snap back into place, I muttered, “Just a bit.”

He groaned, “Okay, more than a bit.”

King Kincaid, Elder Merrick, and Elder Talus walked behind me as we traveled back to the fighting/movie arena after the Mage had fixed my arm, I very much feeling the injury that time. King Kincaid was silent. Elder Merrick had thumped me once on the back, but was silent after that. Elder Talus was still shaking his head.

“That was the weirdest challenge I’ve ever seen,” he mumbled. Another shake of his head.

“He wanted to walk.” I ran my fingers through my hair, getting out the tangles and sand. “I let him.”

“Huh,” he murmured, giving me the distinct impression he probably wouldn’t have.

I shrugged, and shoved forward into the arena, not wanting to answer any more questions. Now that the challenges were over, I felt queasy with the remembrance of the first one. All I wanted to do was sit. My head was spinning a smidge, the memory of taking her life not as easily forgotten for me as it might be for other Shifter Rulers who had seen it happen many times.

Moving through the Mysticals who were still conversing merrily, my heart ached. It was part of my life now, but that didn’t make it any easier. I stumbled past a few couches and stopped in my tracks. Jack and Pearl were talking quietly on our reserved couch, laughing about something mundane. My gaze dropped, and I sighed heavily as I rubbed my forehead. I didn’t want to tell them. I didn’t want to ruin their good spirits, which had only recently become more commonplace. Too much shit had happened to pull them down.

Rolling my shoulders, I shook my hands out and took a calming breath, preparing myself to…I stilled, sniffing the air. My head snapped to the side as I felt something heavy land inside my cargos pocket. Ezra was standing directly next to me. He took a drag of a cigarette, attention toward Jack and Pearl, not looking at me. My hand immediately went into my pocket, staring at him as he continued to watch them. My breath caught at the gold flask I held, and I instantly unscrewed the top, chugging one large gulp after another of the smooth whiskey, the icy cold quickly transitioning to a fiery burn.

“Not too fast,” he said softly. “We wouldn’t want you puking again in front of everyone.”

A half hysterical laugh burst forth, the burn of the liquor slowly becoming a steady warmth. “Where did you get this?” I studied the flask. It was solid — as in probably real gold — and overly fancy with engraved designs, one of which was his initial.

He shrugged. “My dad gave it to me as a gift one year. I had it in my closet.”

“And the liquor?” It went down a lot smoother than the shit from the bar.

His lips twitched around his cigarette, still not glancing my way. “Let’s just say you’re guzzling some of the finest whiskey ever made.”

I blinked from him to the flask. “It’s the original stuff he gave you?”

He hummed while blowing smoke up into the air.

“Thank you.” My eyes lowered as I rubbed my forehead, my gaze catching on his boots. “Ezra?”

“Hmm?”

“Where else did you go besides your room?”

His chuckle was more of a rumble as he bent, breathing at my ear, “You lied to me.”

Staring at the sand on his black boots, I took another sip from the flask. “You shouldn’t have been there.”

“I wouldn’t have interfered,” he whispered.

Nostrils flared, my eyebrows rose at the lie.

His own rose, still bending, our faces level.

Ah, a lie for a lie.

Barely above a breath, I hissed, “You cannot ever interfere with a challenge.”

He hummed. “I didn’t.” Truth. “You didn’t need my help.” Truth. His head cocked. “Although, I would love to know what made you stop at the end of the second one.”

My lips lifted. “The world will never know.” It wasn’t my secret to tell.




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