“He needs to shift to mend the bone, but he’ll be disqualified if he does,” her father explained, fascination making his eyes gleam. Ignoring the pain, the contestant attempted to continue.
It was all so cruel, so vicious. She started to turn away but her father jerked her back around.
“They’re spilling their blood for you. You can have the decency to watch.”
Decency? Nothing about this was decent.
The winners were declared a short time later and the final six paired off. She tried to calm down, to accept the inevitable. She was a Therian wolf. Her mate needed to be strong and capable. That’s all this was, a demonstration of his strength and…savagery! Blood marred their features and cruel ambition twisted their expressions. They weren’t allowed to shift and still they looked more animal than man.
This might be “an honored tradition” but she found it revolting.
Disgust and fear gave way to desperate purpose. She would not be the prize in this vicious competition. She would not submit to the brutality of men!
Drawing energy deep into her chest, she shut out everything but the hot tingle. All around her men cheered and shouted, calling suggestions to the ones slugging it out in the center. She tuned out the sounds and focused inward. Ever since she transformed six years ago, she’d been able to sense her inner self. She’d tried countless times to transform again but the stakes had never been this high before. If she stayed here she would die, perhaps not physically, but part of her soul would be consumed by the indignities they had planned for her.
Energy coalesced in her abdomen, spinning and twisting into a concentrated ball. Her skin felt tight, painfully confining, and her joints began to ache. Invigorated by her progress, Heather slowly opened her eyes.
Lexxie was the only one not engrossed in the fighting.
Heather felt her eyes burn as the shift took hold deep inside. Yes! It was working.
Lexxie’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “Don’t.” Her lips formed the word but the sound was swallowed up by the roar of the crowd.
Heather was beyond caution, beyond caring if this made her look weak or embarrassed her father. She would not spend the rest of her life with the winner of this horrendous contest. Her Therian nature had saved her once before. When Carlos threatened her life, it was as if her ancestors rose up and triggered her transformation. This wasn’t a typical shift. This was more elemental, a Therian equivalent of fight or flight.
She surrendered to instinct and allowed her Therian nature to take over. Her wolf tossed her head, anxious and ready to escape. She closed her eyes again as her wolf thrust through her human form. Blinding pain flashed through her being as the shift hit her fast and hard. Nate cried out and grabbed a handful of fur but the rest of her slipped away. Heather spun on her back legs then leapt between two stunned onlookers.
“Stop her!” Nate screamed. “If you catch her you keep her. And claim her any way you like.”
Her father’s horrible words followed her into the surrounding forest. She wasn’t sure where she was going or how she’d survive without her pack. All she knew was her life here was over and she couldn’t look back.
* * * * *
“Give me your keys or I’ll put you in a cab. Either way, you’re not driving home.” Jake Parlain held out his hand expectantly. The inebriated frat boy glared and his girlfriend giggled. The downside of owning a bar was dealing with drunks. Long ago Jake had accepted the reality. He couldn’t stop every irresponsible customer but he would never turn a blind eye to those he noticed. “How much have you had to drink?” he asked the girlfriend.
“I don’t drink. Alcohol makes me sleepy.” She scrunched up her surgically perfected nose and smoothed down the ultra-short skirt of her clingy dress. “Besides, it’s fattening.”
“Are you headed to the same place? I don’t want you to reach your place then let him take over behind the wheel.”
“We live together but he doesn’t trust me with his Porsche,” the pretty brunette told him in a conspirator’s whisper.
“He should have thought about that before he started slamming whiskey shots,” Jake returned with a wink.
“I’m a better driver drunk than she is sober,” the young man grumbled.
“Maybe, but we’re not going to find out tonight.” Jake snatched the keys out of the young man’s hands and tossed them to the girlfriend. “Be careful. You don’t want to come between a man and his sports car.”
“Unless you’re bent over the hood.” The drunk laughed loudly and slapped his leg.
“Let’s go, Gary. You’ve embarrassed yourself enough for one night.”