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The excitement was palpable as both the inmates and Prizes, all privy to the story that had made the rounds last night, knew what was at stake.
Druin’s honor.
Only in my and Ohara’s heart was there something even more at stake:
Me.
I didn’t know what kind of terrible things Druin would do to me if he won — if I would ever be the same again afterward — but I do know the incredible things I would do to Ohara if he won…
The thought alone made me blush.
Was there anything more attractive than a mate determined to protect you, no matter the cost? I didn’t think so.
The butterflies gave me a reprieve and settled in my stomach for just a moment as the first siren wailed and Ohara and Druin entered the pit.
They met in the center. They were talking but no one could hear what they were saying. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know.
The second siren seemed to take forever to come, but once it did, all bets were off.
20
OHARA
I hissed through my teeth at the pain in my arm.
The freiza had really done a number on me and I’d almost had to resort to using my unique ability… but that was something I was desperate to keep to myself until the time was right, when it would have the most impact.
I expected Druin would play the same kind of psychological games the moment the second siren wailed and we would be released from our holding patterns.
There, not more than two arm lengths away, stood the filth I had beaten to a pulp last night.
He wore the same thick chain mail that, on his powerful frame, weighed nothing more than my leather armor on me. He had a curved sword at his hip that he was devilishly skilled with — I’d seen him cleave a full-grown thorian in half with it — and a spiked helmet on his head that barely contained his thick skull.
I couldn’t bring myself to look upon him without the rage storming the entire length of my body.
But I controlled myself.
At peace. In harmony.
He only smiled over at me through the black and blue bruises I had tattooed across his face. I wished I had broken his bones and given him no reason to show up today.
“So,” he said around an ugly grin, “it looks like we’re going to be enjoying a rematch of our little… misunderstanding last night.”
His choice of words irked me. “Misunderstanding?” I said. “You beat her.”
I bit off the rest of what I needed to say and swallowed it. Keep the fighting for when the siren calls, I thought to myself.
“I am the champion. I can treat the Prize I Claim however I wish. But let us not dwell on such trivial matters.” He arched his fat neck up at the audience. “Can you feel them on you? The eyes? The expectation? The desire for them to see us tear each other’s heads off and to show each other no mercy?”
And he opened his arms out wide to either side and let himself be swept up in it. He turned in a circle, shutting his eyes to become fully immersed in it.
I could attack him right now, I thought. I could attack him and he would never pose another problem to Lily ever again. I didn’t even consider the extra life sentence they would tag onto my time for taking his life.
But I knew in my heart that there wasn’t just one Druin, there were countless scores of them, and if I was to teach them to stay away from Lily, for them to never raise a finger against her ever again, I was going to have to show them what doing so entailed…
The beatdown they could expect.
And it was with that purpose in mind that I maintained my cool. I was a stone, I told myself. I was cool and calm, much like the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Nothing could touch me here, nothing could have an impact. I was alone in a sea of icy calm.
