Something brushed past him, something that smelled sweet and good, and of mate.
“Stop!” he heard Maria shout. “Stop the fight!”
Ellison blinked. The lights were still fuzzy around the edges, but he saw Maria clearly, inside the ring, between him and Broderick. The refs were coming for her, shock on their faces.
A big rule of the fight club was that no one, no one, stopped a fight once it started. The only stopping was when an opponent yielded, or the refs thought one of them too far gone and needed to be contained.
No one watching was allowed to touch the fighters, and certainly not to enter the ring. Especially a human. Especially a human female.
The two refs, big Felines, were heading to grab Maria and drag her out. Ellison put his wolf body between her and them, growling hard.
Outside the ring, Connor said, “Maria, you can’t do that.”
Tiger stepped over the barrier. Ellison noticed no one tried to stop him. “Don’t touch her,” Tiger said clearly.
The refs halted. Broderick shifted into his human form and put his hands on his hips. Goddess, the man stank.
“You can’t stop the Challenge,” Broderick said to Maria. “Or he forfeits.” He grinned at her. “You don’t want that, now do you?”
“He was already hurt before he walked in,” Maria said angrily. “You knew that. You should have put it off.”
“Hey, he picked the time and place.”
Ellison leaned back against Maria, a fine place to be, and she put her arms around his neck. “Do it some other time. You can stop this.”
Ellison’s body decided to shift. He didn’t want to—he felt stronger as wolf—but Maria with her arms around him made him change form back to human male. He ended up with Maria’s arms still around him, pulling him close.
“Hey, love,” he said, his voice barely working. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
“I’m taking you home,” Maria said. “I don’t want to see you hurting anymore.”
Around them, the crowd stopped screaming and booing and moved closer to listen. Shifters could never mind their own business.
“Let me finish this first,” Ellison said, the words rasping. “A mate always answers a Challenge.”
“Doesn’t matter. Even if Broderick wins, I’ll refuse him, and come back to you anyway.”
Some of Ellison’s tension left him, and his breath became less labored. His ribs started to feel better too. The healing touch of the mate. He hadn’t quite believed in such a power before—especially when the mate was human—but he did now.
Ellison leaned to her, his forehead against hers. “Look around you. All these males here would want you as mate. They call you fair game, but you’re the one who does the choosing. Anyone you want, for the taking.”
“I already chose.”
Her words poured strength into Ellison’s body. Enough strength for him to rise up and kick Broderick’s sorry behind? Well, maybe not.
Maria was speaking again, her words flowing, but his heart only heard the peace of her voice. “You told me I should stop surviving and start living. You should too, Ellison. Stop just getting by, and show me how to live. Live life with me.”
Ellison felt the smile spread over his face. “Oh, sweetheart. You’ve done it now.”