“I'll be back in a minute. You'll be okay?”
She nodded too quickly.
His lips pressed into a thin line. He leant towards her ear and said, “If anything happens, please don't react on your feelings. Wait for me.”
She wasn't sure what he meant but bobbed her head in response before he turned and squeezed past the crowd. He moved round the outside, dodging flailing arms, glancing at the cage every so often. When he was at the halfway point of the arena -to Jaz's right- where a wide box was positioned seating five important-looking members on a raised platform, he was stopped by a guard. Jaz stared, waiting. And then Alf was let past and she relaxed.
She turned back to watch Nik punch Kain square in the face. She was so caught up in the fight, her aching jaw clenched so tight, she didn't notice Alf's place was taken until the occupier spoke.
“It's amazing how we can survive that long, isn't it?” The comment came from a cool, purring, low voice of a man.
She swivelled round a little too quickly, openly displaying her alarm. She was met with the deep, stone-blue eyes of a handsome, but severely intimidating man. His shoulder-length ash-blonde hair swept either side of his piercing eyes, framing his sharp, rectangular face. His black, expensive-looking shirt and trousers contrasted with his powder-white skin.
“Excuse me?” she croaked. She interlocked her fingers self-consciously on her lap. Unable to lean back -her muscles turned to blocks of ice- she stared at him with her chin touching her right shoulder.
“You look uneasy,” he observed with a mild smirk.
She couldn't have made herself appear relaxed even if she tried.
“It must be strange for you, as a new Pack member, to watch your Leader fighting so... violently.”
Jaz could feel the menace in his words scraping against her back. “I don't believe we've met?” she said, her voice barely audible above the din of the crowd. She didn't look to see what had happened, but it sounded like someone, perhaps both of them, had climbed up the cage. She felt the rattling of metal vibrating through her bones.
“Njord. Pack Leader of Red Sword Pack.” He held his fist against his chest, bowing his head just a fraction.
Jaz's breath lodged in her throat. She took another sip of water to wet her dry mouth. She did not return the bow, which she had learnt was as equally insulting as refusing a handshake, perhaps more, but she couldn't remove her hands from the water bottle. She gazed at it as if it held all the answers to her troubles.
“From your expression I can see you've heard of me.”
She nodded. “You're a bloodthirsty ruler.” She opened her mouth in shock, then pressed her lips together, ordering herself inwardly to shut the hell up. Her Beast voice had momentarily unleashed itself.
His expression froze, then his eyes were smiling as if he found her delightful. “Interesting,” he purred.
She told herself to breathe. In. Out.
“I can see why he likes you.”
She forgot to inhale. Her clenched leg muscles couldn't take the strain and her calves groaned in protest. She gazed down at her red, high-top trainers, flexed and retracted her toes and her muscles loosened again. “Who? Alf?”
He gave her a disapproving look. “Now, Jasmine, we shouldn't lie to each other.”
She was pinned by his penetrating stare. His eyes looked like pools of hot, blue fire, circling the black vacuums that were his pupils. She was afraid she'd be sucked into them and drown. “Where did you hear my name?”
He smiled with approval. “You read between the lines very well. Why not just ask what you really mean?”
After a moment's hesitation she probed, “Why have you been spying on me?”
He nodded, his approving smile widening on his strong Viking-like face.
The description of Njord was true. He did look like a Viking. If they'd had a Viking Vogue magazine in their day, he'd have been on the front cover.
“Good question. Keep it locked in here,” he tapped his temple, “and maybe one day, if you prove yourself, I'll answer it.”
Jaz's brow furrowed.
“Now here's my gift to you. I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone where you got it. Including your Pack Leader.” He held out his hand to shake hers.
She reluctantly took it, only registered the piece of folded paper in her hand after he stood up and disappeared into the crowd. She stared in the direction he'd gone, frowning, wondering what the hell had just happened.
The round was over and Nik was coming out of the cage. She didn't realize because her eyes were fixed on the open paper that had in tiny, italic swirly writing, one small paragraph:
Your sister was murdered. You suspect it, but I know it. I also know who did it. I hear on good authority you had a disagreement not so long ago.
She looked up from the paper in shock, a whirlpool of biting, cutting and burning emotions flooding her head. There was one more line, but she didn't read it because it was then she saw Nik approaching her side of the barrier.