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A slender shadow jumped, two graceful feet aimed for the head but struck the shoulder as a purely catlike twist-and-drop was performed while the larger figure was pushed back, but not down.
Seth stood, his heart in his throat as he watched the maneuvers. He could see the size of the Breed she was sparring with and guess at his identity. Stygian—he hadn’t taken a last name. A dark Wolf Breed created from the DNA of the black wolf. Blue eyes and coffee-colored skin. He was massive, six and a half feet tall, with shoulders a football player dreamed of having.
He struck out as the too-small form advanced again, locked his arms around her neck as a feline scream erupted.
“Does it hurt?” Stygian growled as he suddenly pushed her away. “You’re mated, little Cougar. You think I’m gonna stand here and let you beat on me to keep from touching you?”
“Bring it on, asshole.” She was panting, crouched, waiting for him.
A dark chuckle filled the room as they began a slow, intricate dance around the area. Thrust and parry, a slender shape striking where the larger would least expect it.
A powerful kick to his knee and she was ducking, twisting, kicking out at the opposite knee from behind before executing a quick roll and jumping to her feet several feet away.
Stygian swayed, but he didn’t go down.
“Next time I catch you, I’m taking you down, little girl,” he laughed.
Little girl. The soldiers had called her little girl.
Feline rage erupted and the next time Dawn struck, she managed to sweep Stygian’s feet out from under him.
To give the Wolf Breed credit, once again he didn’t go down, but bounced against the netting and cursed before righting himself.
“Almost had you,” Dawn snapped as the weave and advance between them began again.
“You live in a dreamworld,” Stygian grunted. “You weren’t even close.”
Back and forth, she moved to strike and he countered. Long seconds later he caught her again, her smaller frame swallowed by his. As Seth ran, sprinting across the room and rushing into the partitioned section, the only sounds in the room were those feline screams of rage and pain. Stygian quickly pushed her away from him and retreated, his blue eyes flickering with flames of warning, and Seth stopped, prepared to launch himself at the Breed if he touched her, just laid a single finger on her one more time.
Dawn turned to him. Her face was wet with sweat, her eyes were red, haunted, tormented, as she snarled at him in aggressive fury.
“Stygian, you can leave now,” Seth snapped.
He had never seen Dawn like this. She was primal, fierce, ferocious.
“Get the hell out of here, Lawrence,” Stygian retorted rather than doing as he was ordered. “This is no place for you.”
Dawn turned and snarled at Stygian then, her canines flashing, her pale face white beneath the harsh lights.
Stygian’s jaw bunched, and something akin to pity flashed in his eyes.
There was something desperate, desolate about the sound that came from her throat. All the pent-up rage and horror rushing through her was in that sound. The memories she didn’t want to allow freedom, the child she couldn’t face.
“Let him stay.” Dawn whipped around as Seth moved closer, a step closer. Her lips were pulled back in a primitive grimace of warning.
Stygian watched him, his eyes those of a predator, his expression savage. Seth wondered if he was seeing the true color of the man’s eyes now. Stygian liked his contacts. Colored contacts. He liked shocking, surprising, throwing others off balance. Especially those who weren’t Breeds.
“This is my fight, Stygian.” Seth faced his mate, feeling the power that filled his own muscles, his mind. Mating heat was a pain in the ass, but in this, it had made him stronger, faster. The decrease in aging kept him at his peak, and since the full mating had begun the adrenaline coursing through him had only amplified it.
Stygian shook his head. “She’s going to kick your ass.”
Seth smiled as he watched anticipation rise inside Dawn. She couldn’t be weakened by the pain if he touched her. She wouldn’t lose that delicate edge that the agony of another’s touch stole from her.
He smiled back at her. A slow, sensual curve to his lips as he suddenly realized it had been coming to this. As the memories fought Dawn’s instinctive animalism, the situation had demanded this confrontation. The animal wouldn’t let her give herself totally to him unless he took it. There could be only one alpha male, and to accept him, that part of her needed to know he was stronger, faster, that he could take her down and force her submission if he needed to.
“I can take you,” she growled, her voice raspy and so sensually exciting his dick immediately responded by growing harder than ever before.
“Can you now?” he drawled. “Shall we put that to the test, sweetheart? Do you think you’re the only one who trains? The only one who fights?”
