I swallowed, choking on my saliva. I coughed.
Liam stepped in front of me, face tipped down toward mine. “Ness?”
“No.” The world lurched out of me like a bullet. “I don’t forfeit.”
Liam’s gaze cut through me like a knife. “What are you doing?”
“But I want to fight in wolf form because I don’t stand a chance in human form.” I prayed Evelyn’s captor wouldn’t figure out the true reason I wanted to fight in wolf form.
“You’re a cheat, Ness,” Lucas hissed. He stood next to Matt. Matt who’d once looked at me with kindness. There was no more kindness in his green eyes. “If you win this, I will never answer to you.”
Matt lowered his gaze and then he turned and stalked away, his big body graying in the shadows of the warehouse
Frank glanced around him. After the other elders nodded, he said, “We agree to your terms.”
“I don’t agree to them,” Liam blurted out.
“You’d rather fight in skin than fur?” I asked him.
His temper flared. “I’m not fighting you.”
“Please.”
“Please?” He scraped his hands over his face. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. But something’s obviously wrong with you if you don’t fight for what you want.”
“I amfighting for what I want.”
That splintered my heart. My lids fluttered closed a moment. Be strong. Be strong. When I opened them, my resolve was back. “Should we shift, Mr. McNamara?”
“You may proceed. But remember, conceding will no longer be allowed after this.”
I nodded, then kicked off my shoes and yanked off my tank top.
Liam stepped in front of me, blocking the sight of my body with his. He radiated anger. His taut muscles pulsed with it. “Ness, this is crazy.”
I unbuttoned my shorts and let them fall to the floor. I didn’t bother taking off my bra or underwear. I’d never get them back anyway.
The dead had no use for undergarments. Or any garments for that matter.
Before my teeth turned into fangs, I whispered, “Don’t make me wait too long.”
And then I dropped on all fours.
Come on, I begged, but all he would hear was a whimper.
As wolves, we understood human speech.
As humans, we didn’t understand wolf speech.
I pawed at the sawdust, impatient for him to be able to hear my last confession.
My last apology.
Liam shouted something at Frank that I didn’t try to understand. I was too busy looking around me to see if someone else would shift.
No one shed clothes. No one transformed. Most were too busy gaping between me and Liam.
Sawdust puffed beneath me as a black t-shirt hit the floor. I craned my neck up as Liam kicked off his jeans, swearing beneath his breath.
In seconds, he became a black beast with gleaming eyes
Don’t react at what I’m about to tell you, I said.
His nostrils flared.
I’m being blackmailed. Someone took Evelyn, and they said they would kill her if I didn’t go through with the last trial.
He turned so still I bared my fangs and lashed at him, nipping his neck.
Fight me or they’ll know I’m talking. I dug the tips of my fangs into his skin. Damn it, Liam, figh-
He released a blood-curdling snarl and then tossed me off him with a hard shrug. I yelped as I landed on my haunches, a pale cloud rising around me like smoke.
He advanced toward me.
They sent me a message saying, I see you. So they’re here. Or they’re watching me somehow.
When he started to turn his head-a dead giveaway I was talking-I launched myself on his back like an arrow. He wrung his massive body, and I tumbled off, falling hard on my spine. He stepped over me, pinning me to the ground.
What now? he growled. ‘Cause I sure as hell won’t kill you.
Yes, you will.
A deep, guttural sound rose out of him and made my fur stand on end. The fuck I am!
You will once you know…once I tell you what I did.
He became as still as an ebony carving. What did you do?
I shut my lids so I wouldn’t see his reaction. I…I killed your father. Nothing happened for so long that I peeked through my lashes at him. I am the reason he’s dead.
His pupils turned pin-sized. What are you talking about?
The crowd tightened around us, but still no one transformed.
I started working at the escort agency to land a meeting with Heath. I knew he wouldn’t let me into his house and listen to me otherwise. I wanted to see him to speak my piece. I slipped him three pills-I swallowed, but my throat felt wadded up with cotton-that made it impossible for him to shift. And then I told him that I knew what he’d done to Becca Howard…to my mother.