She stared at him, heart aching as fear and anger collided inside her, despair mingling with them to make her feel as if she was being torn apart. Her gaze fell to the thick metal collar around his neck, one designed to prevent him from shifting, to keep him in line. All it would take was a press of a button and he would be drugged, knocked out and left vulnerable. She had done that to him. She had put that collar back on him, one he had always hated, one they had never bothered to place on the weaker females like her. She should be wearing that collar, not him. He didn’t deserve this. This was all her fault.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, despair quick to fill her, together with self-loathing.
The black slashes of his eyebrows furrowed and he shifted his left hand to her face, cupping her cheek as he stroked his thumb over it. “Hey now. It’s fine. Everything is going to be fine.”
His grey eyes softened.
“I’ll keep my promise, Bronwyn. Nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing is going to happen to me. I’ll win this fight.”
She wished she could believe him.
The ache in her chest worsened as she thought about him being locked in the cage with that polar bear, forced to face the same terrible trial as Rune. Rune had failed and Grace had paid the ultimate price.
And Bronwyn feared that was about to happen to her.
Chapter 14
Maverick tried to tamp down the fear and contain the rush of adrenaline that the thought of facing Klaus in the cage had running through him. He brushed his palm across Winnie’s cheek, focusing on her, surrendering to his need to take care of her. Her brother had dealt her a serious blow, one that was going to have a lasting effect on her. It was going to take her a long time to overcome what Andrew had done, but Maverick would be there for her every single second of every single day.
Presuming he survived the cage.
He stared at her, determination building inside him as she gazed at him, fear and affection in her honey-coloured eyes.
And hope.
He wouldn’t fail her. He would best the bear who had killed Grace and he would free Bronwyn, even if it killed him. He wouldn’t let her go through what Grace had. He wasn’t sure how he was going to free her, but he would find a way.
First, he had to kill Klaus.
Defeating him wasn’t enough.
The polar bear had to die. It was what Rune would want and it was what Maverick would do for his friend.
Fear for Rune and his other friends at Black Ridge was swift to run through him as he thought about what the huntress had said. They were preparing to go there to capture the rest of his pride. He couldn’t let that happen either.
Somehow, he needed to win this fight, save Bronwyn and escape this hell, and then save his pride.
One step at a time.
He ached when Bronwyn leaned into his touch, her eyes slipping closed, causing tears to tumble down her cheeks. Her pain echoed inside him and he wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know how to take her pain away. It wasn’t just what Andrew had done causing her hurt. It was what she had done.
He stroked her face and murmured, “Don’t blame yourself. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to help you. We’ll get out of this.”
Her eyes opened and locked with his, the flicker of hope in them slowly fading.
So he smiled for her.
Lined up all the things he wanted to tell her, things he knew would make her feel better and give her hope, a reason to keep looking to the future and believing in him.
“Up,” someone growled, and Maverick jerked and twitched as a burst of electricity hit the back of his neck thanks to his collar.
He swung a black look at the dark-haired hunter standing at the door of his cell.
The male waggled the device he held. “Up or the next blast will be enough to fry her brain too.”
Maverick snarled but lumbered onto his feet, shaking off the effects of being hit with a few thousand volts. His hand slipped from Winnie’s face and he looked down at her, wishing he had more time.
“Move it.” The hunter unlocked the cage and Maverick flashed fangs at him, warning the male to back off and give him a second.
He had to tell Winnie something.
The hunter hit the button again, sending another few thousand volts shooting down Maverick’s spine and spiderwebbing over his skull. Bronwyn launched to her feet, snarling through her fangs at the hunter as her eyes flashed with fire. The anger in her eyes turned to fear as she shifted her gaze to him, her brow furrowing as she clung to the bars that separated them.
There was more than fear in those bewitching honey irises.
There was love too.
He stared at her, hoping she could see how deeply he loved her too.
Maverick backed away from her, heading for the cell door, holding her gaze until the last possible moment. The second he was clear of the door, the hunter shoved him in his back, forcing him away from her.
Giving him another reason to survive the coming fight.
He would tell her the things he had wanted to say then. He would tell her that she was his fated one and that he was in love with her, and that he would never regret anything about how they had come to be together. Not even this.
Maverick strode along the corridor between the rows of empty cells, his shoulders tipped back and head held high.
He breathed through the fear and the doubts, focused his mind as he followed the directions of the human behind him, keeping his gaze locked ahead of him as they navigated a maze of corridors. Always ahead of him. The fight lay there and if he didn’t focus on it, didn’t hone his mind and his body, preparing himself, he would lose it.
He couldn’t lose this fight.
A door ahead of him buzzed and swung open, and he swallowed hard at the sight of the holding room. It resembled the one he used to find himself in every other night. Crisp white walls. Plain concrete floor. A table bolted to the middle of it.
A burn lit up his blood at the sight of that cold steel table.
“Get in and strip. You know the drill.” The hunter shoved him in his back and Maverick growled at him, turned to strike the male but the door closed in his face.
He exhaled hard, trying to shake off the spike in aggression, calming his mind again. It was hard as he pivoted on his heel and found himself staring at the table, seeing flashes of females bared on one just like it, begging him for more.
Maverick closed his eyes and focused on Bronwyn. Would they bring her to the cage to watch the fight? There would be an observation room with a one-way mirror if they had set things up like the other arenas. Her brother would probably move her there, forcing her to watch him fight and keeping her on hand for him to shove into the cage if Maverick failed.
He wasn’t going to fail.
He kept telling himself that as he stripped off his clothing, folded it neatly and set it on the end of the table. He grabbed the pair of plain black shorts someone had left for him, ones that were snug and reached to mid-thigh, and pulled them on. Gods, it was all so sickeningly familiar.
Maverick went to the other door in the room, one off to his right, and stood facing it. He breathed slowly, pulling air in through his nose as he stared at the steel panel, and went through the same stretches he had always completed before a match, limbering up as he mentally prepared himself.
Klaus was bigger than him, but slower. He could use that to his advantage.
He had seen the male fight too, had studied his moves even though he had known they wouldn’t be pitted against each other. The hunters had preferred to keep their prized fighters away from each other. It hadn’t stopped Maverick from studying every single male in the compound, putting to memory things like which foot or fist he favoured, and any tell they might have.
Maverick flexed his fingers and curled them into fists as he blew out his breath, still struggling to get his nerves under control. Rune hadn’t been able to beat Klaus and that had been when he was at the height of hi
s prowess in the cage. Maverick was sorely out of practice and he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to best Klaus.
He shut down those thoughts, purging them from his mind. He could do this. He had to do this. If he didn’t win, then Bronwyn would face the same fate Grace had.
His beautiful black bear wouldn’t stand a chance.
She was at least four hundred pounds lighter than Klaus in her bear form, and a good two hundred pounds lighter in her human one, and she wasn’t a fighter. All it would take was one well-aimed blow and Klaus would kill her.
Maverick pressed his palms to the door and leaned against it, breathed through the panic that tried to grip him as he thought about her in the cage. It wasn’t going to happen. He was going to beat Klaus.
He set his jaw and stared at the door, his eyes narrowing as he repeated that in his head.
He was going to beat Klaus.
He was going to win.
The door buzzed and opened, and he caught himself before he tipped forwards with it. He growled and rolled his shoulders as he straightened his spine, as he tipped his head up and drew down a deep breath. His gaze locked on the narrow corridor ahead of him, one that was dark.
It carried the scent of humans. Lots of them.
On a feral snarl, Maverick stalked forwards into the gloom, each step he took cranking him tighter as the faint buzz of conversation and the scent of excitement coming from the crowd swirled around him. Adrenaline surged, made him twitch as he got swept up in the sounds and scents, in the thought of the arena that waited ahead of him. It all transported him back in time, had him feeling as if he had never left, as if his life in Black Ridge had been some dream and now he was awake.
Lights flashed across the end of the tunnel and the crowd grew more agitated, sending up whoops as the volume increased, and the scent of spilled beer and adrenaline fired him up.
He strode from the tunnel onto the raised floor of the twenty-foot-wide circular cage, scanned the room beyond the two rows of reinforced bars that contained him. It was dark, the lights turned low, but he could make out the hundred or so hunters lurking in the shadows at tables and a bar, all of their eyes on him.
Maverick roared at them, and relished the way they fell silent as fear spiked the scents in the air and then erupted into a cheer.
Gods, it was addictive.
Like coming home.
He shook that thought away and reminded himself that home was a long way from here, back at Black Ridge, and he needed to get back there. It was hard to deny the high of the cage though, the anticipation and excitement that collided with the fear in him, had him restless as he waited for the other door to open, his eyes fixed on it as the one behind him closed.
Spotlights swung towards it, leaving him and giving his sensitive eyes a reprieve that allowed him to see the room around the cage more clearly. As predicted, there was a one-way mirror in a wall off to his right, between the two tunnels that ran from the cage at an angle and would have formed a triangle with the wall had it not been for the circle of steel bars that intersected the point where the tunnels would have met.
Maverick moved to stand at that point, right in the centre of the hard floor someone had painted with a bullseye.
He glared at the door as it opened, at the seven-foot platinum blond male who had to stoop to exit it without banging his head.
Klaus straightened and raised his fists in the air.
“And the crowd goes wild,” Maverick muttered as everyone cheered.
He backed off towards his door, raked a gaze over the male to assess him and spot any changes to his physique that might indicate a weakness.
The big bastard looked just as packed with muscle as he had been all those years ago.
Klaus grinned at him, flashing a missing fang, the scar on the right side of his jaw pulling tight. His Nordic accent was strong as he growled, “Still screwing that black bear?”
Maverick flipped him off. “If you get your kicks thinking about me and Rune going at it, then you do you… just keep it to yourself.”
Klaus rolled thickly hewn shoulders and grunted, “Will be a shame to kill you.”
“To the death then?” Maverick subtly flexed his fingers, anticipation curling through him as he waited for the go signal.
Klaus nodded.
Maverick’s collar clicked open and he kicked off, leaving it to tumble to the floor as he launched at Klaus.
The polar bear’s collar dropped away and he swung his right fist at Maverick. Maverick slid under it and twisted, threw a punch that nailed Klaus in the back near his kidney. Klaus pivoted and grabbed Maverick, and hurled him.
He grunted as he hit the bars, the back of his head cracking off the cold steel, and snarled as the crowd jeered. He pushed off, launching back at Klaus, leaped right when the polar bear swung at him and came around behind him.
Maverick kicked him in the back of his knee and slammed his fist into the back of his head as he went down. The male grunted as he hit the deck and struggled to shake off the blow. Maverick grinned. Payback was a bitch.
He levelled a hard kick at Klaus’s stomach and then another, forcing the bear onto his side. Klaus caught his foot when he made the mistake of going for a third kick and twisted it hard. Pain tore up his leg and he cried out as it felt as if his knee was about to dislocate. He twisted with it, stopping Klaus from hobbling him, and lost his balance.
Hit the floor.
Damn it.
He rolled before Klaus could pin him, narrowly evading the male, and came up on his feet on the other side of the cage. Klaus barrelled towards him, rage lighting his blue eyes, and white fur rippled over his bare skin. Maverick braced himself, even when he knew the male wouldn’t shift. It was the unspoken rule of the ring.
Everyone who had come through the ranks in the arena had done so without resorting to using their animal forms, denying the hunters the thrill of seeing them shift.
Maverick took the hit, grunted as Klaus’s shoulder struck him hard in his chest and his back slammed into the side of the cage with enough force to rattle the bars. He gripped the polar bear’s shoulders and brought his knee up, striking him in the stomach, hitting him over and over again as Klaus punched him in his side. The coppery tang of blood flooded his mouth as he breathed and he shoved Klaus off him, breaking free of him before he could deal any more damage.
Klaus breathed hard as he backed away, his stomach reddened by Maverick’s blows, and then rushed him again.
Maverick was ready for him, swept around to his right to evade him and leaped backwards, keeping the space between them steady. Klaus growled as he pivoted, turning on a pinhead, and stormed towards him. This time, Maverick charged him, the hunger to strike the male too strong to deny.
They collided hard, drawing another cheer from the crowd, one that was like a drug to Maverick. He craved that sweet high. The chanting of his name. The feel of his fist striking bone. The taste of blood on his tongue.
It hit him as hard as Klaus did, his fist slamming into Maverick’s jaw to knock his head to one side. Rather than grunting in pain, he growled in pleasure. Gripped Klaus by his nape and headbutted him. Klaus recoiled and Maverick dragged his head down and brought his knee up, smashed it into his face and released him as he staggered backwards.
A dark veil descended, the need for violence swallowing him, making him forget everything else. There was only the high. It was everything he needed. Everything he craved. He took another hard hit and tried to counter, but Klaus saw it coming. The big polar bear hit him with a one-two punch, knocking his head side to side, rattling his brain in his skull, and a different sort of darkness encroached.
Panic surged through him, the thought that he might lose this fight a shot of adrenaline he badly needed as his body ached from the blows Klaus had delivered. He grappled with the male again, kicking and punching as best he could at such close quarters, growing aware that he wasn’t strong enough to take him down as it stood. Klaus was tiring, but Mave
rick was tiring faster.
He grunted as Klaus threw him across the ring, as he crashed into the door to one of the tunnels and hit the floor. Blood burst from his lips, the acrid tang of it strong on his tongue, and he struggled for air as he tried to muster the strength to get up.
He had to turn the tables somehow or it was game over.
The crowd seemed to think it was already over, were chanting Klaus’s name as the male stalked towards Maverick, a cold look in his eyes as he cracked his bloodied knuckles.
Maverick bared fangs at him.
It didn’t end here.
Like this.
It couldn’t.
Klaus slid a look at the one-way mirror, a cruel smile twisting his lips, a light entering his eyes. “I hear a little female is my next opponent. Maybe I’ll treat her nicely… fuck her right here in the middle of the ring before I kill her.”
The crowd cheered.
Maverick snapped.
He shot to his feet, snagging the open collar from the floor, and roared as he ran at Klaus.
The male turned his head to look at Maverick.
Too late.
Maverick smashed the end of the steel collar into the side of his head, wielding it like a weapon. Blood trickled down Klaus’s temple as he pitched to his right and Maverick didn’t give him a chance to recover. He snarled and bared fangs as he slammed the collar into his head again.
Klaus blocked his next blow, but it didn’t stop Maverick. Rage stole control of him, the thought of this male treating Winnie like that ripping another vicious roar from him. Fur swept over his arms as he gripped the collar in both hands and swung hard, striking Klaus in the face with it. The male lost his footing and fell.
Maverick leaped on top of him, smashed the collar into his head over and over again, caught up in the anger that poured like hot acid through his veins, unable to deny his primal need to protect his fated female.
When his arms ached and shook too fiercely for him to keep going, he sagged and let the collar fall from his grip.
Stared at what he had done.
Blood covered the floor beneath Klaus’s body, slowly spreading outwards.
Awakened by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 5) Page 13
