I yanked my wrist out of the warrior’s grip and moved away from him. He circled around me, keeping me in the middle of the fighting area. As soon as I tried to move closer to the edge, he attacked. I managed to dodge most of his attacks, but even the ones that barely skimmed me had a real kick to them. This was becoming a real issue.

“He is intentionally keeping her in the middle,” I heard Matilda telling the official watching over the match.

“There is nothing in the rules saying he needs to let her step out of the match,” he answered.

The match seemed to go on forever. I had managed to get a hit or two on him and took some pride from the fact he was limping slightly from a good hit on his left knee. At the same time, I had to be honest with myself; I was losing, and it would only get worse. My energy was still high enough to block or avoid most of his attacks, but I was starting to fade. As I moved around in the ring, I saw Finlay had joined Matilda, and he looked like he was going to kill my opponent. I needed to end this before I got so tired I made an easy target. I knew he wouldn’t end the fight quickly. At some point, Finlay would step in; I knew it in my soul. He wouldn’t be able to stand to the side and watch the warrior pummel me into pulp.

I had a plan. It was risky, and I hated it, but it was the only one I had. I charged the giant warrior, and as I leaped at him, I shifted into my wolf. My wolf knew her assignment and bared her teeth. The warrior acted out of instinct to protect himself from what he perceived to be a full-out attack on his life. He aimed a skillful kick at me, and I did nothing to avoid or block it. I braced for the hit and felt his heel connect to my already bruised side. I could hear the ribs breaking and feel the pain radiating through my body. The hit halted my forward motion and instead sent me flying backwards. My wolf curled into a tight ball for the impact, and when I hit the mat, I continued rolling. With a last thump, I rolled off the mat and down onto the ground. I heard the warrior cry out in frustration at letting me escape, and Finlay and Matilda were calling my name. Finlay was kneeling beside me.

‘I’m okay,’ I mindlinked both of them. I remained on the ground, needing a moment for the pain to ease and to catch my breath.

‘I’m going to kill him,’ Finley told me. His hands were hovering over my side and head, barely skimming my fur, as if he was afraid to touch me.

‘Do it, and I will kill you. I just took a hit to avoid that scenario. Don’t let it be for nothing,’ I said.

‘He is not going to do anything stupid. He is going to march to his next match, and let me take care of you. I have a change of clothes, and Hugo is heading over here to patch you up,’ Matilda decided. ‘She will be good as new when your match is over,’ she added to Finlay. I looked at him, and I could see the pain, worry, and anger in his eyes.

‘Use it all to win,’ I told him in our private link. He nodded and got up. Shortly after he left, Ramses and Hugo came walking over. They hurried over to me, and Hugo gently examined me.

‘You have a couple of broken ribs that should be stabilized until they heal. It’s best if we do it in your human form. It will hurt to shift,’ he told me.

I scoffed because everything hurt at the moment. I regretted scoffing the moment a wave of new pain washed over me. I sat up and shifted. Hugo hadn’t been kidding. Shifting had not been this painful since my first shift, but now I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming as I took my human form. Matilda helped me put on an oversized t-shirt, and Ramses gently helped me stand up. I saw his shoulder was patched up.

‘New or old injury?’ I asked him as we walked over to some tents set up for the healers to work in.

‘Old,’ he said, sounding less than happy. ‘It made me lose my match.’

‘That leaves Sam and Finlay.’

‘They will do us all proud,’ he told me as he helped me sit down on a chair and then pulled a screen across, leaving me and Hugo in some kind of privacy. Hugo helped me off with the t-shirt and wrapped my ribs tightly. At one point, I was convinced he was trying to kill me. He took a look at my other injuries—mostly bruises.

‘How long before I’m healed?’ I asked.

‘You are healthy and strong and haven’t taken too much of a beating in the games. I would say your body will mostly be back to normal by tomorrow,’ Hugo told me as he helped me dress in the oversized t-shirt. I didn’t want anything tight on my body at the moment, so it would do. I slipped my feet into slippers.

‘I am looking forward to tomorrow’s formal dinner and especially the dancing part of it,’ I said.

‘You will be healed by then,’ he told me with a smile. Matilda and Ramses were waiting for us.

“Should we go and see what else is happening?” Ramses said out loud.

“Sure,” I agreed. We walked out of the tent and headed in amongst the fighting rings. We hadn’t walked far when I spotted Becky. I looked up at the ring and saw my brother fighting another male. I walked up to Becky and took her hand.

“Amie! Oh, thank the goddess. I hate this. It’s his fifth fight, and I feel like killing each one of his opponents,” she told me.

I squeezed her hand; I would have given her a hug, but my body would likely break if she hugged me too tight.

“I’m out, so I can stay and watch this one with you,” I offered and introduced her to Ramses and Matilda. Watching my brother fight was horrible. I understood what Becky had told me. Each blow against him had my gut clenching; each hit which connected with him had me wanting to claw at the other man. In the end, Elder managed to land a round kick at his opponent’s head, which rendered him unconscious, and Elder was proclaimed the winner. Becky hurried over to him as he stepped off the platform.

“Congratulations, you have some good moves,” I said. He smiled, and then he looked at me, and his smile fell from his face. Did I look that bad?

“What the fuck has happened to you?” he asked. I raised an eyebrow and looked at the platform he just got down off and then looked him up and down. “Yeah, yeah. I know what happened. Let me rephrase. Who happened to you?”

“A mountain with muscles. I’m fine. Don’t think about doing anything stupid. You still have matches to worry about. And try to win a little faster from now on. You are giving your mate a heart attack,” I told him. He frowned but placed a kiss on Becky’s temple.

“You shouldn’t tell me to win; it means I will beat your pack mate,” he pointed out with a grin. I shrugged.

“Not really. Ramses’ shoulder took him out of the game. Since we can’t win this group, I would rather you did than anyone else.”

“I’m sorry about that. It would have been interesting going up against you,” my brother told Ramses.

“We will have to make that happen sometimes, Beta,” Ramses replied. Becky, Matilda, and I rolled our eyes as one.

“Be smart, and be careful,” I said to my brother and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

“Take care of yourself, little sister, and don’t forget to call home tonight,” he reminded me.

“I won’t. Can you please try to arrange a meeting with me and James? I hate to put you in the middle, but I would like to avoid needing to have our talk in public,” I said.

“We will make it happen,” Becky promised me.

We said goodbye and headed to find our Alpha and Beta. We were closing in on the final matches. Two rounds left, and then there would be the final, where the victors would be decided. We watched Sam’s next two fights. I was reluctant to watch Finlay after watching my brother. Both Sam and Finlay won both of their matches, meaning they both would be in the final event, as was my brother. We went to the board to find out who they would go up against.

“Oh no,” Matilda said.