The Arena Wars

  Chapter Seven

  When Jax returned, breakfast was ready. Everybody ate in silence, and I noticed that Quinten avoided so much as even looking in my general direction. Was he embarrassed about last night? I didn’t blame him if he was, but he had to realize that nothing was ever going to change the fact that we were best friends.

  “Alright,” Jax said, taking a seat on the couch. “We seriously need a game plan.”

  “Jax, you don’t have to be a part of this. Roger’s threat was only against Ilene, Quinten, and dad.”

  Jax looked offended. “You don’t really think that I’d run out on my family when they need me, do you?”

  I smiled. “No, I guess not. I was just offering.”

  “What if we move?” Jax asked. “The farther away from here we get, the less influence Roger will have, right? If we move to like Australia or something, he can’t possibly hurt you there. I mean, Quinten would have to come too, but he might just give up and find another potential mate.”

  Ray shook his head. “We have ties in this community. Ilene has school, Quinten’s grandmother resides in the area, and…Carmen is buried here. I don’t think any of us can leave. Moving should be our last option.”

  Jax nodded. “Alright, so moving is out of the question, at least for now. What about a fight with him? Ray, do you think that you could take Roger in a fight? If we were there to help?”

  Ray sighed. “I don’t know. He’s old and powerful, and he used to hunt vampires for a living. He’s not going to be easy to take down. It might be dangerous. I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

  “So we can’t run and we can’t fight,” I said, shaking my head. “We’re screwed. There’s nothing to do except say yes to his offer. If I become his mate, he’ll leave you all alone.”

  “Alanna, don’t you even think about it!” Ray said, glaring at me. “We’ll think of something.”

  I highly doubted that. We were trapped and it was all my fault. There was nothing I could do to help protect the people that I loved. Would things really be better if I just gave myself over to Roger?

  I got up and headed to the kitchen for something to drink. The phone rang and I picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, Love.”

  I almost dropped the phone.

  “Love, are you there?”

  “Yes,” I whispered, turning away from the living room. “What do you want Roger?”

  “You know what I want, Love. Have you thought about my offer any? It would be a shame to lose two such fine werewolves as your father and sister. Not to mention that incredibly tall and charming cousin of yours. Plus, I’m sure you would miss that human boy too, wouldn’t you?”

  “You’re a monster.”

  “I’ll make you a deal right now. Accept my offer and I’ll spare them. I’ll even let you continue to see your father, sister, and cousin from time to time. You won’t be completely isolated.”

  “But not Quinten, right?”

  He sniffed. “Of course not. You’ll be a mated woman. You can’t go running around with single men. What would people say?”

  I clenched the phone so hard it creaked. “What would people say if they knew that you were blackmailing me into this?”

  “Now don’t be that way. You’re acting like you can’t possibly be happy with me. I have a mansion, and money, and fame. Isn’t that what every little girl wants?”

  “I want love, and respect, and fidelity.”

  “Two out of three isn’t so bad, is it? As I’m sure you’ve heard I’m a monster incapable of love. Apparently I’m incapable of feeling anything but anger and lust. But I can promise you that I’ll respect you, and I’ll always be faithful. I’m old-fashioned. I’m with one woman and only one.”

  “What do you want with me?” I asked again, trying not to be bothered by what he’d just said.

  He sighed. “I told you my new deal. Accept my offer, and I’ll spare them. If you agree to this, meet me in the clearing in the woods surrounding that cozy little cabin of yours in one hour. I’ll take you away and you’ll never be left wanting anything ever again.”

  He hung up before I could answer and I put down the phone with a sigh of frustration. What was I supposed to do? He was giving me a chance to spare my family. Could I trust his word though?

  I’ll never get to see Quinten again…

  I grabbed my drink and sat back down on the couch. I tried to look like I was listening to what everyone as saying, but I tuned them out for the most part. I couldn’t stop thinking about Roger’s offer.

  I glanced at Quinten out of the corner of my eyes and felt like crying. Was this the last time I’d ever see him? Would he ever be able to forgive me for what I was about to do?

  Forty-five minutes later, while Jax and Ray were busy planning my freedom, I slipped my shoes on and snuck out of the house. I was tempted to just turn and run in the opposite direction, away from Roger, but I couldn’t just leave my family to be tortured because I couldn’t face what a monster he was.

  They were willing to risk everything to protect me; I had to be willing to do the same thing for them. I just hoped that someday they could learn to forgive me for doing what needed to be done.

  As I neared the clearing, something crashed through the trees behind me. I spun, ready for an attack, and found Quinten. He was out of breath, scratched, and dirty. His eyes were narrowed at me in anger. “How dare you!”

  I looked away from his accusing eyes. “I’m trying to keep you all alive. Roger told me that if I accepted his offer, he’d let all of you live. He said I’ll even be able to see Ray, Ilene, and Jax again.”

  “But not me? Can you just throw away our friendship like that? Did you even stop to think what this would do to me?” He was shouting now, and his hands gripped painfully at my arms. “How could you just walk out without saying anything to me?”

  I looked up at him. “I’m just trying to do what I thought was right. It’s not like anybody else had a better plan! I won’t be responsible for your deaths. This way you all get to keep your lives.”

  “Did you stop to think for one moment that maybe I don’t want to live without you?”

  My heart sped up, and the blood began to pound in my ears. Did he really just say that? It made me inexplicably happy.

  “Quinten, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

  He sighed. “Alanna, you’re coming back with me.”

  “I can’t. If I do, he’ll hurt you.”

  “I can’t lose you.”

  His grip on my arms softened and he pulled me closer. In that moment, everything between us shifted, and I felt myself leaning into him and his warm embrace. In this one wonderful moment, there was no crazy homicidal werewolf threatening to kill everyone I loved. There was just me and Quinten.

  His head lowered, and his lips were inches from mine.

  “Well, well, well. Look at what we have here. A couple of lovebirds in a passionate embrace.”

  Quinten and I broke apart and I stepped in front of him. I wasn’t sure how much protection I could offer him against Roger, but I was determined to do everything possible to keep him safe.

  “Roger–”

  “You dare bring him here to our secret tryst?”

  I tried not to shudder and he frowned.

  “So be it, my love. If this is your final decision, you’ll both suffer the consequences.”

  I threw myself to the ground, landing on four silvery gray paws. Roger was almost an entire head and shoulders taller than me, and his fur was a dingy ugly brown color. His body was lithe and powerful looking. It would take a miracle to get me and Quinten out of this alive.

  “You dare challenge me!” He snarled, baring his fangs at me.

  “You’re not going to hurt him!”

  I turned to look at Quinten, hoping I could nudge him toward the clearing, and Roger lunged in, sinking his teeth into my neck. I yelped in pain and he dragged me down to the ground, shaking his head rapid
ly back and forth. He was trying to snap my neck!

  I twisted my head; it tore painfully at the open wound his jaw was fastened around, and swiped with my claws at Roger’s underbelly. He loosened his hold just long enough for me to back off and get a safe distance away.

  I stood my ground as he rushed me, rising up on my hind legs with him. We collided, fighting to get our teeth around each others’ throats. It was like a fight for dominance in a wild wolf pack.

  Grunting and snarling we fell back to all fours. I jumped on him and tried to roll him off his feet. The blood loss from the wound in my neck was going to make me slow, and he was going to use that to his advantage. In a fight with Roger Mason, one little extra ounce of speed could make all the difference.

  He knocked me aside roughly, and as I hit the ground he pounced on top of me. He struck fast, lunging in at my exposed throat a second time. I moved aside and all he caught was a mouthful of thick silver fur. He yanked up, trying to rip it from my skin, and I raked my claws down his face.

  He shook his head, trying to keep blood from pouring into his eyes, and released his grip on me. I buried my face in his neck, desperately trying to reach the flesh beneath the fur. His head collided with mine and, as I sat there dazed, he turned on Quinten, who was standing helplessly in the clearing.

  The blood loss was setting in and I was getting dizzy. But I forced myself to my feet. I rammed my shoulder into Roger’s, knocking him to the ground. Standing in front of Quinten, I snarled at Roger, hoping that somehow help would arrive in time to save both of our lives.

  He circled me, determined to kill something today, even if it was the werewolf he’d wanted as his second mate just moments ago. I wasn’t going to let that happen though; if he killed me, Quinten wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving. I was going to do everything in my power to protect him.

  I refused to take my eyes off of Roger for a second. I knew it would be hard to fight him, even though he was bleeding as well. My wound was more severe and it wouldn’t be long before he knocked me down and I would be unable to get back on my feet.

  He snapped at me and I clumsily dodged. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to gauge my response time. He had to know that I was beginning to slow down. All Roger had to do was wait it out and I’d probably collapse without any help from him.

  He moved in closer and I swiped at him, trying to get him to back up. My nails dug into the meat of his shoulder, and he grunted in pain. He shook it off and lunged in again, determined to finish this fight now. I met him head on once again, and we snapped at each other.

  Roger raked me twice and managed to nip my hind flank. I swiped him across the face again and bit his foreleg until it snapped under my massive jaws. He yelped, and tore my shoulder open with his teeth before pulling away.

  He limped back a few steps, licking his damaged leg. He tired to put weight on it and whimpered once. He growled in frustration and looked at me with all the hatred and contempt he could possibly manage. Even with his broken leg he could still be dangerous enough to win this fight.

  “You’re a natural fighter, just like your father.”

  I glared at him, trying not to show how dizzy the blood loss was making me. “Good enough to earn your respect and walk away from this?”

  He barked a laugh. “Nice try, Love, but you and your boyfriend are going to die here.”

  The blood loss was worsening, and I felt my legs buckle underneath me. I wouldn’t be able to fight any longer, but I refused to back down. I wouldn’t give in, and made this easy on him.

  “Alanna!” Quinten’s voice startled me.

  I turned to see a large black wolf with a star on his chest and an equally large sandy blonde wolf run into the clearing: Ray and Jax. They’d obviously figured out where I’d snuck off too, and just in time to save the day.

  Roger was outnumbered and outmatched. With his broken leg he didn’t stand a chance. He turned and ran out of the clearing, forcing himself to run on his injured leg. I could tell Ray and Jax wanted to run after him, but they more worried about my wellbeing.

  I shifted back and tried not to feel awkward about being naked in the clearing with Ray.

  Thankfully he wasn’t looking at me. He was busy checking Quinten for injury. Jax had shifted back and was kneeling beside me. He had Quinten’s shirt in his hands and he handed it over to me without a word.

  I looked up at him, tears stinging my eyes. “Jax, I am so glad that you’re gay.”

  My eyes closed, and I felt myself drifting off.

  I was comfortable, warm, and not alone. I forced myself to open my eyes a tiny bit, and found myself tucked under my comforter. An arm was wrapped protectively around my waist, and I looked behind me to find Ray curled up by my side.

  His eyes opened. They were red-rimmed and tired. He smiled at me. “How are you feeling kiddo?”

  “I’m fine, Dad. Thank you for coming for me.”

  “I’ll always be there for you,” he said, propping himself up into a sitting position.

  I burst into overwhelmed tears, too tired to be embarrassed or ashamed. I tried to pull away, but Ray dragged me against his chest and gave me the most protective loving hug ever. I sobbed into his chest for a few minutes, before finally reaching my limit, and the tears stopped.

  He gently pushed me away and looked down at me. “What the hell were you thinking, giving yourself over to Roger?”

  “He told me that he’d let you all live. I just wanted to keep you all safe.”

  “If Quinten hadn’t followed you, we never would have gotten to you in time.”

  “What?”

  “You’re surprisingly hard to locate when you don’t want to be found. Quinten’s trail was much easier to follow than yours was. Of course, he wasn’t worried about hiding his trail; he was just trying to catch you before you destroyed your life.”

  I sniffed and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands. “Dad, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. You guys were willing to do so much for me; I just wanted to do everything I could to keep you safe.”

  He nodded. “I know kiddo. If it had been me, I would have done anything I could to keep you safe. I should have figured you would do something like this. I guess I just underestimated how much like me you are.”

  I smiled and hugged him again. “You mean amazing, fearless, caring, and with perfect timing?”

  He chuckled weakly. “Yeah, I do,” he pulled away, and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m so proud of you.”

  “I lost. He would have killed me if you and Jax hadn’t shown up when you did.”

  “You survived, that’s all that matters.”

  I sighed. “Alright, what are we going to do now? I’m dead to Roger. None of us are safe anymore. He’ll kill you, Ilene, Quinten, Jax, and me just to prove that he can. I can’t watch him hurt all of you.”

  “We’ll think of something. And this time we’ll do it together, without you running off to sacrifice yourself.”

  “Ok, Dad.”

  “Come on, we’ll get you something to eat.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “It’s almost ten in the morning. You slept all yesterday afternoon and last night. Now, come eat something. Jax and Quinten have done nothing but worry since we brought you back.”

  Ray got up and headed toward the door.

  “Dad!”

  He looked back at me. “Yeah?”

  “You didn’t see me naked, did you?”

  He laughed. “No Alanna, I didn’t see you naked. Only Jax did, and I don’t think you have to worry about him staring.”

  I giggled, feeling oddly happy considering I’d just survived a fight to the death against an old powerful werewolf.

  I slid out from under the comforter, trying to ignore my body’s screams of protest as I did. I took a silent inventory of my body, trying not to think of the last time I’d had to do that, because that was when I’d first met Roger.

  The bite
in my neck had healed to the point where it wasn’t life threatening. My left side ribs were sore, telling me they’d probably been fractured during the fight. I had a headache and my shoulder was one fire; I’d probably torn a muscle during the fight.

  Overall, I was lucky to be alive and in one piece.

  I dressed for the day in the comfiest pair of sweats I could find and threw on a large t-shirt, not caring to do any better. I limped out into the kitchen to find Jax making pancakes. There was a bowl of mixed fruit on the counter and bacon frying in a pan on the stove.

  Jax smiled at me. “Well, Sleeping Beauty’s finally up. Looks like we can finally eat.”

  “You guys didn’t have to wait for me.”

  Jax shrugged and, surprisingly, kissed me on the forehead. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something.”

  “What?”

  “What did you mean when you said ‘I am so glad you’re gay’?”

  I smiled. “If it had been any other man, naked, touching my naked body, I think I would have had to kill them.”

  Laughing, he shook his head and flipped a pancake. “There’s already some finished. Help yourself.”

  “Where’s Ilene?” I asked, noticing for the first time that she wasn’t there.

  Ray sighed. “It’s Tuesday. She’s at school right now.”

  “She’s at school? Roger could show up there and kill her and we’d be helpless to save her!”

  “She refused to listen to us. I told her that she wasn’t going and she snuck out the second my back was turned,” Ray said, grabbing a piece of bacon. “I’m gonna shower, and then we’ll talk about our current situation.”

  I watched him go.

  “He thinks that Ilene’s mad because Ray loves you more than her.”

  “Jax!” I said, shocked. “Don’t say that. Ray loves us both equally.”

  “No, Alanna, he doesn’t,” Jax argued, sitting on my other side. “It’s obvious, even though he tries to hide it. Ilene’s different, especially since she changed. He loves her, but you’re his baby girl.”

  “Jax–”

  “He spent practically all day and night in your room. It took so long for the wound in your neck to heal, Ray was terrified for a while that it wouldn’t. He held you until he was sure that you were going to be ok. He may love Ilene, but if anything were to happen to you he’d be completely lost.”

  I shook my head. It was wrong to think that a father could love one daughter so much more than another. Deep down, I kind of understood it, even if I didn’t like it. Ilene was different. Sometimes I got the feeling that she didn’t care about anything anymore but herself.

  Where had my baby sister gone?

  “We’re screwed,” I said, folding my legs under me. “Still.”

  Jax nodded. “Yeah, we are. But we’re not gonna give up. Alanna, we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep you safe. If we have to kill that monster to get him to leave you alone, we’ll do it.”

  “We can’t just kill him you guys. Dad was right when he said that Roger has lots of power and influence. If we kill him, someone else could take it personally, and try and kill us themselves. We need to find a more civilized course of action I think.”

  “Like what?” Quinten snorted. “Are we supposed to sue him? We could hire a full-time bodyguard. Ooh, ooh, I know. We could get a restraining order. I’m sure that will stop him.”

  I turned on him. “What is your problem?”

  “My problem? My problem is that you were willing to give yourself to him without consulting anybody first. You would have suffered the rest of your life being the mate of a man you despise, because you thought it would save us.”

  Apparently our close moment earlier was completely forgotten now.

  “I was doing what I thought was right!”

  He snorted, and turned away from me. “Alanna, you have to be more careful. I don’t think you realize just how much you mean to the three of us.”

  I smiled. “I do know. I know because you three mean the world to me. I don’t know what I would do if I lost any of you.”

  Jax frowned. “Well, Roger’s obviously going to try and use that to his advantage. I’ll bet you anything he’ll try and use us to get to you.”

  “Yeah, I have three major weaknesses that he can exploit.”

  “Some a little easier to exploit than others,” Jax said, looking at Quinten. “No offense dude.”

  Quinten shrugged, trying to act like he wasn’t bothered. “None taken. I’m human, blind, and weak. I’m the one that he’ll probably end up getting to first. I’m the weak link, I get it.”

  I sighed. “Quinten, I thought you and I discussed this before. You are not weak.”

  “You were attacked by a werewolf and all I could do was sit there and listen, praying that it was him that kept yelping in pain and not you. Hoping that he didn’t get around you to hurt me, because I knew that if he did, it might hurt you and make you lose your focus. I’m going to get you killed, Alanna.”

  “No, you won’t. We’re going to work together, the four of us. All we have to do is make sure that nobody goes anywhere alone from now on. We’ll look out for each other. Everything will work out.”

  “Five. Aren’t there five of us working together?” Jax asked, frowning slightly. “Or are we going to count Ilene as a possible enemy now? I mean, she’s been moody and stuff, but evil?”

  Ray flinched and I shook my head. “I don’t think we can trust her. Roger said something in the clearing and on the phone when he called. He mentioned how we thought he was a monster incapable of feeling anything but hatred and lust. We used those exact same words to describe him the other night. How could he have known that? Somebody had to tell him.”

  Everybody was silent for a minute, and I realized why. Jax and Quinten were waiting for Ray to say something, to make this decision. How could he though? He’d be putting one daughter ahead of another.

  Finally, he sighed. “I’ve already lost my wife and one of my daughters. I won’t lose the other.”

  He sounded so wounded that I wanted to reach over and comfort him, but I didn’t want him to get embarrassed. I noticed Jax fighting a similar urge, and I almost smiled.

  Even if everything went to hell, at least I’d still have three people who loved me, who I loved too. I knew that if there was anyone I would want to spend my last few days with, it would be them.