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What the hell was going on? “You like… the smell… of shit?” I managed to taunt, although it still hurt to breathe. I felt a hand on my ribs, then heard a curse.
“Can you stand?”
“Why?” I pursed my lips, drawing in tiny sips of air like Del had taught me. “You want me to hand you… your ass… again?”
It sounded like he stifled a laugh. “Whatever, kid.”
And then I heard another voice, a low grumble. “Finnick? You done beating the crap out of baby rogues?”
These shifters thought I was a rogue? I wanted to laugh. Everyone knew rogues were feral. They’d lost their connection to their packs, and from what Del had told me, most of them couldn’t even speak. They were less than human, and less than wolf.
Crazed.
Idiots. I might have a bad haircut and smell like I’d rolled in shit, but I… Well, okay. I might look a little feral.
The guy I’d fought—Finnick—let out another curse. “This one’s not a rogue. Southern.”
Another voice joined in, with an accent I’d never heard before. “Should have known from the smell. Worse than a New York sewer.”
I managed to push up onto my elbows, blinking through the pain. “Say it... to my... face, asshole,” I spat.
The clearing filled with laughter. I scrambled to my feet, trying to focus, but my head was still spinning. Or I was seeing things. The guy with the accent looked like an angel, or at least like an actor I’d seen playing one in a TV show. As tall as Finnick, but with blond hair that curled around his face, deep blue eyes, and golden skin, his jawline dusted by stubble. He wasn’t as muscular as Finnick, but lean, like he ran miles every day.
“I didn’t think anyone at Southern had this much fight in them.”
I raised one eyebrow in a come at me, bro way. The angel laughed, and I swear, something in my stomach clenched in a way I’d never felt.
What the hell was that?
“Fights dirty,” Finnick growled. His eyes were still red, his face blotchy.
I bared my teeth in my worst smile ever. “My teacher said to use every weapon you got in a battle.”
His impossibly rugged jaw dropped. “We were sparring, not cage fighting.” I shrugged.
The grumbly voice came from behind me. “He’s just pissed he lost.” I whirled around and blinked.
There was a mountain in front of me. A mountain that moved, and breathed, and had ridiculous, boulder-sized muscles all over his body. And a lot of muscles were showing since he was only wearing shorts and a tight, navy-blue t-shirt.
He was the largest man I’d ever seen, seven feet tall or more. Massive, with long dark hair that fell on the sides of a close-cut bearded face. His eyes were a deep chocolate brown, almost black, and snapped with a strange fire as he examined me. He was so huge, I was mesmerized. My fingers itched to feel how soft his beard might be, though it would be a stretch to reach that high. He wasn’t a mountain, though. Maybe he was a bear.
His eyes gleamed with something I’d never seen directed at me before. Something warm, and possessive.
I swallowed hard, saying the first thought that floated into my mind. “Are you… Are you a bear?” The other guys burst out laughing. My mouth kept moving, saying exactly what I was thinking. “You’re enormous. Like a mountain of shifter. Are bear shifters a thing?”
The other two laughed harder. The grumbly shifter frowned. “You don’t recognize me?”
“Um, no,” I said, taking a step back. His gaze was glittering with something else now. Was he staring at my ear tag? I had to fight to keep from covering it up. “I’ve never met you.”
“You should have,” he growled, stepping closer. “If you really are part of Southern.”
“W-what do you mean?” I stammered. “I really am.”
“Then why weren’t you there to greet the visiting Alpha Heirs yesterday afternoon? Your Alpha said all his males were there for the official start of the Conclave.” Was it my imagination, or had he put extra emphasis on the word male?
Finnick coughed behind him. “Leave the kid alone,” he muttered. “There aren’t any rogues on packlands.”
The blond angel wandered closer, pushing the supplies next to my backpack around with the toe of one sneaker. “I think there’s one. Let’s take him back to camp. Come on, kid. The Southern Alpha might let you join up.”
