Page 26 of Butterfly Assassin
Isaac pulled into the traffic on the main road, and Sam turned to face Aaron and Harry. Sensing some awkward questions coming their way, Aaron sank into the seat a little.
“Tell me more about these fights, and how you bet on them.” Sam’s gaze flicked between the two of them, intense, focused, and looking as though he expected nothing but the absolute truth.
“What do you want to know?” Aaron felt Harry stiffen next to him.
“Everything. How you heard about them, how you got involved in fighting, how you knew where to go.” He raised an eyebrow. “What you did with your winnings. Because I’m assuming you won a lot and didn’t do it for free.”
Aaron sighed. “No, I didn’t do it for free.” But he didn’t keep the money either.
“I suspect Detective Archer has something in mind that none of us will like, but you especially, Aaron, considering how he hasn’t addressed the possible charges he keeps dangling in front of you. So in the meantime, I want to know everything there is to know about this illegal fighting and who runs it so we know what to expect when we tell them you aren’t fighting anymore.”
Sam using ‘we’filled Aaron with warmth. There was nothing quite like knowing your alpha had your back one hundred per cent.
And for that, Sam deserved nothing but the honest truth. With a deep breath, Aaron started talking.
“I had my first fight at the end of November. I was so nervous about not outing myself as a shifter, I lost. That fight went eight rounds, and I was in a bit of a state afterwards.” He gestured to his face and hands. “I had cuts and bruises all over, but at the start, I wasn’t too good at delaying the healing process.” Both Isaac and Sam raised their eyebrows at that, but he carried on, ignoring them. “Everything healed so quickly, I was lucky I got out of there without anyone seeing me. I didn’t go anywhere other than pack property for over two weeks.”
Sam sighed. “But why did you start fighting?”
Aaron went to answer, but Harry’s hand on his arm stopped him. “A friend of mine from one of our cafés took me to a fight after work one Friday night.”
“One of our pack?” Sam asked.
“No, not a shifter. He asked if I fancied it, said I didn’t have to bet on anything, I could just watch.” Harry fidgeted with the zip on his hoodie. “I think he wanted me as backup more than anything. There’s some rough types that go to these things.”
Isaac snorted. “You don’t say.”
Harry blushed a little. “Anyway, I liked this guy. I didn’t mind going with him if it made him feel safer, and I was intrigued.”
“If you’d been around for the pack wars, you’d have seen enough violence to last you a lifetime,” Sam added softly. Isaac hummed in agreement. On occasions like this, when members of their pack referred to the pack wars or a time before they had the alpha council, Aaron always felt a little like an outsider. Neither he nor Harry had been pack during that time, and it was like he was missing some integral part of their pack history.
But there was nothing he could do about that.
He nudged Harry with his knee, a silent show of support in case Harry felt the same.
“Anyway,” Harry continued, “I went with him. As you know, they don’t let shifters fight—” He shot a glance at Aaron. “—not knowingly anyway, but they didn’t seem to care about them watching or betting on the fights. I guess money’s money.”
Sam frowned and looked at Aaron. “There’s other shifters watching you? How do you know they won’t reveal what you are?”
He was embarrassed to say he hadn’t even thought about it until he’d entered the ring and caught the odd scent. And by then it was way too late to do anything about it. “When no one outed me after that first fight, I figured they weren’t going to. None of us should’ve been there after all.”
“That’s a pretty big assumption to make, Aaron. I’m not sure every alpha has the same views on gambling that I do. Illegal or not.”
“Yeah, I realise that now.” In fact, he was beginning to realise just how lucky he’d been.
Turning to Harry, Sam apologised. “Sorry for interrupting, please carry on.”
Harry cleared his throat. “I didn’t bet that first night, hadn’t taken much money with me, and although they had guys working the crowd who were more than willing to extend credit, I knew better than that.” Harry blushed again when he realised what he’d said. “Well, I did then, anyway.” He fiddled with his zip again. “I went back the following week with him, and this time I bet on a couple of the fights. They were rough, nothing like the boxing you see on the TV, but they were raw, sort of primal, and my—”
“Your wolf liked it.” Sam finished for him.
“Yeah,” Harry whispered, not meeting Sam’s gaze, and Aaron sensed the shame rolling off him.
“Harry.” Sam reached into the back and tilted Harry’s chin back up. “I understand. Your wolf thrives on animal instinct. Watching two men fight each other to see who’s the strongest is going to appeal to him on a base level. I also understand how easy it is to give in to that feeling, to bask in the exhilaration that comes from letting your wolf rise to the surface, if not all the way free. But as much as we’d like to, it’s not always something that’s appropriate or wise to do because it colours our judgement, and we handle situations differently than we might have if we’d been thinking clearly.”As a human.
Sam focused on Aaron then, and he suddenly understood Harry’s need to fidget. Their alpha’s intense gaze was unnerving. “Is that what happened with you?”
“Maybe? I hadn’t really thought about it in those terms before.” It made sense though. The thrill of the fight went deeper than just bettering an opponent and boxing. “When I finally got out of Harry where he disappeared to most Friday nights, I was worried.”
