Jordan narrowed his eyes on me. I knew his comment was only to lighten the mood. There was nothing easy about what we had planned. It was downright dangerous, but we had to try, for Sam’s sake.
“We have no choice now,” he said and turned away.
He was right, there was only one choice and that was Sam. She couldn’t stay here one minute longer than necessary.
I looked around the cheering crowd and wondered what in the hell they were thinking. I could understand enjoying a good fight now and then, but these were not normal brawls. I saw nothing right about drugging someone or forcing him or her to kill. Did the crowd not know what was really going on, or did they all just turn a blind eye?
“Have you ever wondered why they haven’t tried drugging us?” I asked Jordan.
“I have a time or two, but I have no clue as to why not. Maybe the point of these fights is to match a drugged shifter with a sober one.”
“Ladies and gentlemen!” Alexander’s voice boomed through the microphone. “Tonight, we have a treat! You have witnessed your own kind, jaguar against jaguar, but tonight will change everything.”
The crowd was quiet, as they listened to him speak. Did they not hear the bullshit coming from his mouth? His voice was annoying, and I was ready to just get the fight over with.
“We are not the only community to enjoy such sporting events. I have found that shifters of all races like to come together in battles for supremacy, and tonight, we will see which cat is dominant!”
The crowd cheered, until Alexander raised his hand for silence again. “Please welcome, the undefeated, Tye!”
The audience went wild, screaming Tye’s name, as they jumped up and down. My gaze was riveted on the entrance to the trench. The door of the fence opened and in stepped our opponent.
I sucked in a breath at the sheer size of him. At about two hundred inches long and over six hundred pounds, he was one of the largest tigers I’d ever seen. I had only met one his size before.
He stalked forward, his massive muscles rolled with each step, causing his orange and black striped fur to ripple down his body. His eyes searched the arena, then stopped on Jordan and me. The gate closed behind him with a resounding clash of finality.
“Shit!”
I could not agree more with Jordan’s assessment of the situation. We separated and began to circle around our opponent. It may be two against one, but the odds were not in our favor. His size alone caused alarm and adding the drug could make things worse. Yet, as I looked him over, I couldn’t find any visible symptoms of cocaine use.
“He’s not drugged,” I said to Jordan.
“I was just noticing that, and I think we are in deep shit.”
“How’s that? At least he doesn’t have super strength.”
“That is a plus, but being sober also means he’s going to be a lot smarter and tactical.”
I sighed, yes, that was definitely not a good thing.
“So, boys, figured out how to kick my ass yet?”
Jordan I both froze at hearing the voice inside our heads and just stared at the tiger. It only took a second or two before Jordan was chuckling.
“Not yet, sir.”
Damn, he must have been using the scent eraser. I hadn’t recognized his scent when he first approached.
“Teij, what are you doing here?” Both Jordan and I spoke at the same time.
Teij laughed, as he began circling us. “Keep moving while we talk. I don’t want to cause suspicion.”
Jordan leaped first, causing the crowd to scream louder. Teij dodged him, only to swipe his paw at Jordan’s shoulder. Jordan rolled away, and I lunged forward.
I landed on Teij’s back and held on, but was careful not to dig my claws into him too far. He reared back and twisted, sending me flying across the arena. I landed on my paws and skidded to a halt before stalking towards him again.
“I’m not sure how fair this is, two against one.”
“Oh, shut it, you big pussy!” I said as I twisted around just in time to miss a kick to the head.
Teij chuckled. “I’ll show you who’s a pussy!”
He charged the few feet between us. We both reared up at the same time and locked arms.
We were actually having a great time. It reminded me of the fight training the team did regularly. It was second nature, and didn’t require much effort to continue wrestling as we talked.
“So where have you been?” Jordan asked.
“When you both were captured, we sent out a team and immediately discovered what was going on. Paul got us most of the information and has been helping us out since.”
“No, Teij. You can’t trust that guy…” I began.
“I know everything he’s done, Alex, he admitted it without force. I know you don’t trust him, but I do. If it wasn’t for Paul, I wouldn’t be here right now helping you guys.”
“How did you come to be here?” Jordan asked, as he ducked a blow while swiping his own paw and catching Teij in the face.
“Damn, boy! That fucking hurt!”
Jordan only chuckled as he lunged again.
“So as I was saying, Paul helped a lot to get me in here. I had to fight quite a few of these matches before I was finally led here.”