I shoved my bladed hand across the wolf’s throat and punched into it. I dragged it through his flesh with strength and will. The cestus on my hand didn’t bother me anymore. I’d worn it many times before. In my mind, I thought about all the battles I’d fought and won, the cestus cutting through my opponents’ flesh. My memories were meshing with Marcus’s, but it gave me a confidence I wouldn’t have had. It filled me with experience. I pulled my hand out of the beta’s throat, but Castle was already on me.
The force of Castle’s big body shoved me against the arena wall and my head slammed against the big silver hook. I saw stars for a minute and went on my knees. My peripheral vision started to get hazy.
“Kelsey!” I heard my brother yelling. Nathan was throwing one leg over the railing and I was glad to see Scott stopped him. He couldn’t do anything…
“Get up,” Marcus barked the order in my head and my legs didn’t dare refuse. “Turn.”
I spun around as Castle bore down on me. Despite the throbbing pain in my head, my right arm came up instinctively to block his gnashing teeth. The blades on the cestus cut into Castle’s jaw and he jumped back. It gave me enough time to shake the cobwebs out. Castle’s next attack went straight for my thigh. I jumped, but he managed to catch my left side and sink his powerful jaws into the meat of my leg right above my knee. The teeth burned as he sank them in and I knew if I didn’t throw him off, he could break my femur and then I would go down. I didn’t heal the way he did. If I couldn’t run, I couldn’t fight. I went for the softest part of him I could reach.
I shoved a blade into his eye.
He immediately let go and before I could blink, he’d changed forms. His left eye was a bloody, mangled mess. He stared at the blood pouring onto his hands then with a growl, he reared back and punched me straight in the face. I hit the side of the arena again, this time the back of my head smacking into the wood.
Castle pressed his advantage. He used his powerful fists in a way he hadn’t been able to use his claws. He punched me in the face, the stomach, the chest. I felt like a body bag. I might have fallen over, but Castle kept me upright with the force of his blows. Pain as I’d never imagined ripped through my body. As I absorbed the agony from one blow, another landed. It seemed to never end. The crowd was chanting, screaming something, but it was a distant thing. Marcus was trying to tell me something, but even his voice was far away. I felt his panic. There wasn’t a lot I could do about it.
Castle finally decided to let me hit the ground. I tumbled to my knees and I realized my right eye must be swollen because I couldn’t see out of it anymore. My left shoulder screamed and was kind of stuck at a weird angle. It must have separated at some point. My whole body was on fire. The pain was so bad I started to hope Castle got this thing done soon.
I pitched forward and felt the sand against my swollen face. Marcus was pleading with me and the wolf inside was howling for me to get my ass up, but I thought about Gray. He was going to be sad when he found out. I wondered if he would blame himself. I wished I’d never gone after those class rolls. If I’d done what Gray had asked, I would be planning the menu for our reception. I would be arguing with Gray over fish or chicken, and when we got sick of fighting, he would take me to bed. If I’d chosen him over my stubborn instincts, I wouldn’t be dying in this terrible place.
Castle was enjoying his fans. He kicked me a couple of times, but I hurt too much to even grunt. I’ve heard that when pain gets to be too much, the body shuts down and a blissful numbness takes over. I didn’t get that. I got misery that seemed to never end.
Finally, he kneeled down and lifted my head up by the hair. From my angle, I could make out the queen weeping openly and pleading with her husband. Donovan looked like a man who wished he’d never put a freaking crown on. Zack and Jamie were moving toward the front of the crowd.
Castle leaned down. “I think I’m going to like killing you most of all, little girl. Do you know what I’m going to do when you’re dead? I’ll give it a month or so, but I’ll kill every single bitch who works in those clubs and I’ll pin it on a vamp. I’ll have my war, you understand? You changed nothing.”
He dropped my head and reared back to change. He would kill me in his wolf form. It was traditional. He took his wolf form and howled before he pounced, his teeth going for my throat.
I used every bit of energy I had left to flip my body over, ball my good hand into a fist and shove my right hand up. I saw the look on Castle’s face when he realized what was going to happen. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t change course and his own heavy weight helped me. My claws sunk deeply into his chest. I fought to shove them in further even as his big body fell onto me, forcing my arm to go into an odd angle. He landed on top of me and he snarled as my claw found his heart. Even as the light went out in his face, he growled at me.