Chapter 44

Sarah POV

I handed over five business cards and ate a bite of spiced ahi tuna from my poke bowl.

Zane frowned at them. “What are these?”

I chewed and swallowed. “Alpha she-wolves who want you to be with them during their next heat.”

Zane laughed, drawing a few looks from our fellow diners. Many had left the convention center for lunch, but they’d reserved a table for me, Zane, and other speakers at the summit in one of the larger conference rooms they’d set up with a caterer. My poke was delicious, and I was wondering if Zane might think it was a come-on if I asked to try a bite of his chimichurri steak.

He tossed the cards on the table. “I should have warned you, my bad. Just tell them in future I have no intention of siring a pup I’m not going to stay to raise.”

I smiled at him pleasantly to hide the real smile I wanted to make, the one that reflected the warmth in my stomach and the flush threatening to rise on my cheeks.

I wanted to talk about his speech, so with some hidden annoyance I looked up when yet another alpha she-wolf stepped up to our table.

At least she looked different from the beauty queens and sweet sixteens who’d been approaching me all day. She was tall and strong-looking with long black hair in a braid over her shoulder, a small nose ring, and biceps that looked like they could crack walnuts.

Then I realized she wasn’t looking at me.

“Alpha Zane Cavendish,” she said and bowed. As she straightened, her face was smug and determined.

Zane set his fork down, stood, and bowed back. He said, “Alpha Marin Grofts.”

“In two hours?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She nodded and turned around. A half-dozen wolves followed her, talking excitedly.

Zane sat and picked his fork back up to take a bite.

“What, uh, was that?” I asked.

Zane shrugged. “She challenged me. I’ve agreed to meet her on the field in two hours. Whoever lives gets the other’s territory.”

“What?” I asked, certain he was joking.

He wasn’t.

Two hours later, we were standing on the field in the Crypto.com Arena with seats for 20,000 people (mostly unpopulated, thank the goddess) and waiting for Alpha Marin.

Zane had explained to me, more calmly than I liked, that the keynote speaker at the summit was typically challenged in this manner, and more than a few had fallen from power in this way. The fight itself wasn’t technically to the death, but more than a few had ended that way. And if he died—

“Stop right there,” I said, standing in the middle of a ridiculously large space surrounded by a bunch of bloodthirsty werewolves and generally quite pissed off. “You will not be doing any dying today. Do you hear me?”

Zane looked at me with a stone-like face I hated.

“I will do what I have to do, Sarah,” he said. Then he looked over my shoulder. “Here she comes.”

I turned to look at the alpha she-wolf as she came onto the field again surrounded by other wolves. I realized two of them must be her alpha tween-aged children, and the others were beta assistants and, oddly enough, a gamma holding an oversized sword.

Alpha Marin was magnificent, actually. She was well over six feet tall, and her outfit of brown leather and white fur showed off a body that did real labor, not just time at the gym.

She stopped, and her entourage stopped with her, then she nodded and continued on alone until she was standing in front of Zane. Without a word, she began to strip, tossing her clothes on the stadium turf.

Zane nodded and took off his Tom Ford suit jacket, which he handed to me. Alpha Marin made a little smile-snort and motioned with her right hand. A man with a Bluetooth headset in his ear ran up and gathered her clothes from the ground and then accepted the next garment with a nod.

Zane’s tie, shirt, shoes, pants, socks, and bower-briefs went next. Naked in the domed lighting, they were two warriors in their prime. If the stakes hadn’t been what they were, I might have enjoyed the spectacle, particularly the naked Zane part.

I was filled with dread instead, walking to the sidelines with a pile of men’s clothes in my arms while people made room for me.

Few were actually seated in the stands, and those were mostly children. With the fighting area of a standard seven yards in diameter, almost everyone was there on the field, hundreds of wolves I heard making bets not just on who would win but also on who would use certain moves and who would have to transform to save themselves.

The last gave me hope this wouldn’t actually be a fight to the death, but then I heard someone betting on what mortuary would be called in.

I didn’t pick on the signal that started the fight, but I watched as they bowed slightly and then transformed.

Oh my. Zane was a magnificent wolf. Jet-black with sapphire eyes, he was tall and trim with thick, silky-looking fur I wanted to sink my hands into.

Oh dear. I realized I was sensually attracted to a wolf. But the wolf was Zane. Thinking about the whole thing too much was going to drive me out of my mind.

Alpha Marin charged, a streak of almost pure white fur, teeth, and claws, and Zane stepped aside, but not quickly enough, and his right flank and arm were suddenly bloody with long gashes that almost reached down to his front paw. Zane growled in pain and anger and turned to face her. She’d drawn first blood.

The crowd cheered and booed and made a lot of other noise I seriously didn’t appreciate.

Zane ignored the blood on his flank and feinted to the left before charging Marin to the right. Marin was the slow one this time and took a blow to her mussel that made blood spurt from her nose.

In the seconds it took Marin to recover, Zane had come back around and leapt at her, grabbed her by the neck, and brought up his feet to rake his claws down Marin’s stomach. She howled in pain as her belly grew bloody, and she tried to roll them over. Zane only held on tighter.

Then Marin turned her head and sank her long canines into Zane’s paw. As Zane jerked away, spurting blood, she trotted around the fighting area to howl in rage and triumph.

As terrified as I was, I found I admired her spirit. What was wrong with me?

Zane shook himself, splashing blood and not seeming to care. I knew the rules of engagement said neither of them could transform in any way to dull or lessen their injuries, and I cursed them.

Now they were circling each other, both bleeding bright red blood on the Astroturf. Breathlessly, the crowd watched as Marin bent down as Zane leaped up. They grappled in mid-air, but then Zane landed on top, his jaw locked on Marin’s neck in a vicious death hold.

Marin shuddered and flailed, but she was soon limp in his jaws. Zane let her go, tossed his head to indicate her defeat, and then transformed, standing there with his body covered in blood but no longer wounded.

“Do you yield?” he demanded. “Or do I actually have to kill you?”

Marin shuddered, and in a moment she was in human-like form again.

Then with a quiet dignity I felt down to my bones, she said, “I yield.”

I almost fainted in relief.