Page 5 of Rising Reign

The problem was, he hadn’t been foolish enough to make any promises since. I’d gotten one cup of water between bouts today and had been forced to sleep in the pit again. But he wouldn’t break me.

When I summoned one of the guys in my mind again, it was Ender this time, his hard expression telling me I was better than this. His words lashed out, demanding that I finish the asshole. I called on his strength and cunning.

I ducked impossibly low as the enforcer’s leg struck out in a snap kick. When he reached the height of his kick, I rushed in. Lightning-fast, I grabbed his foot and forced him to his back. He landed with a thud, mud flying everywhere.

I didn’t lose my momentum. I moved in and wrapped my arms and legs around him in a triangle choke. His fingers lengthened to claws—a dirty move since shifting was prohibited in these matches—and he raked them down my sides and legs.

I couldn’t help but cry out as someone in the crowd booed and another cheered. But I held on through it all. The enforcer’s face grew redder, and I felt him fading. Another one, two, three, and the man collapsed on me altogether.

I shoved him off the moment he did and clambered to my feet. My chest heaved, each inhale making my sides scream in pain where the deepest gouges were. I tried to mentally assess my energy stores to see if I had enough to heal myself, but I wasn’t sure I did. Especially not if Bastian planned to send me into another fight.

The only sign of anger in Bastian’s face was the slight twitch of muscle next to his mouth. “Is my pack truly this pathetic? No one can best my submissive bitch of a hybrid daughter? She’s an abomination!”

None of his words hit like they had as a child. Because I now knew them for the lies they were.

A mountain of a man stepped forward. I didn’t recognize him from my childhood, meaning he must be new to the pack and chose to become part of Red River. Which meant he liked the darkness residing here.

“I will best her, Alpha. I will honor you,” the man growled. He had to weigh three times what I did, and I swore the ground trembled as he stepped forward.

A smile curved Bastian’s mouth. “I knew I could count on you, Rex.”

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea, Bastian,” a new voice said. It was smoky but with a hint of warmth. I couldn’t see the woman’s face because she wore a cape with a hood that covered her head.

A few growls and snarls lit the air, but Bastian held up a hand to silence them. “Speak, healer.”

The woman slowly pushed back her cowl and revealed beautiful, strawberry-blond hair and stunning, pale-green eyes. Her skin was like porcelain, dusted with freckles across her nose. No part of her looked like she belonged here.

The woman smiled, and I swore the tension swirling in the air eased a fraction. “Thank you, Alpha. If you wish your daughter to carry any young, you must not put her through these trials. If you keep putting this type of stress on her, her wolf will never allow her heat to come.”

I stilled, no longer feeling peace at the woman’s presence. I wanted to rip her throat out. A female wolf’s heat came once a year, but if a wolf were starved or in some extreme distress, it wouldn’t come upon her at all. I was glad as hell for that fact currently.

Bastian’s eyes narrowed on me. I was sure he was taking in my shabby state and more than just the mud covering most of me. I had a black eye, a split lip, and was now bleeding everywhere, thanks to the enforcer’s claws.

“Lilli, clean her up,” Bastian ordered. “Then I want the healer to examine her.”

Bastian’s pet cast angry eyes up at him. “But, Bas⁠—”

He slapped her so hard that she flew off the dais and landed in the mud. “You will show me respect.”

The woman trembled, her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry, Alpha.”

“Do as I said,” he barked.

I wasn’t sure what would’ve been worse: being escorted by Lilli or Marcelle. But given that a shower was likely, I’d take Lilli every time.

The she-wolf pushed to her feet, stalked over to me, and grabbed my arm, letting her claws out so they pierced my muscle. I swallowed back a cry, refusing to let her win.

Lilli dragged me toward the house as Bastian called for two more fighters, his bloodlust evidently not satiated by my bouts. “You’re going to pay for that, bitch.”

I kept my thoughts and words to myself, not missing that the healer followed quietly behind us. Lilli hauled me up the stairs and into the room I’d stayed in the night before—the one that had been mine in my early childhood.

There was a mural on the wall of a wolf in a field of wildflowers and a canopy bed fit for the princess Bastian had hoped I’d be until he found out about my submissive nature. It was too much on top of my tainted blood.

Lilli shoved me, making me stumble. “Clean yourself up, bitch.”

As she stalked off, the caped woman stepped inside the bedroom and closed the door behind her. I bared my teeth. “You even think about doing some hocus pocus to make my heat come on, and I will rip out your throat.”

The woman smiled at me as if she felt genuine joy from my words. “Good.” Then she slipped a hand into her pocket. She fished out a tiny drawstring bag and emptied what looked like a powder into her hand.