Gladiator Wolf by Murphy Lawless

Author:Murphy Lawless [Lawless, Murphy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 55579605
Publisher: Miz Kit Productions
Published: 2021-09-04T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Conri remembered saying, "Don't make me kill you," in his brother's ear, in the moment before they shifted the final time. He remembered Rory's angry strength, briefly fueled by disbelief, but then fading. He remembered pain and fear, but mostly he remembered determination, and then Rory was human again, his head turned to the side in defeat, his eyes red with rage.

Beneath the sound of the crowd screaming their joy, Rory said, "You don't know what you've done," and rose stiffly, with the hunched pose of a man unexpectedly displaced, and shuffled to the side of the ring to his waiting wife.

Maggie was waiting there, too, a blinding grin stretched across her features. Conri's mother was beside her, her gaze almost neutral with unreadable thought. Conri reached for the ropes, wanting to share the moment with Maggie, but she gave the smallest shake of her head and he realized suddenly what he needed to do. He lifted his hand, shielding his eyes, and yelled, "Can somebody get the lights, please?"

A few seconds later, the house lights came up, flooding the stadium so that he was no longer the center of a spotlight.

Not literally or figuratively, Conri thought, and that was the whole point. He called, "That's better," and for a minute after that he could only stand at the ring's edge and reach down to touch the hands of shifters who wanted him to see them, to acknowledge them.

Maggie wasn't among those ones. She stood like a stone in the sea, arms folded across her chest, with pride and satisfaction radiating off her. Everyone around her celebrated, but her pleasure seemed to go much deeper than a need to shout about it. Instead, she only had eyes for him, and a smile that barely touched her mouth, yet reached all the way into his soul and held him captive.

Finally the shouting began to die down, and Conri was able to lift his voice to be heard. "I don't know if what's happened here tonight breaks the power my family has held over you," he called. "I do know that as long as I'm pack leader, it will never again be utilized."

Another cheer went up, ringing through the stadium, and it took another minute or two for him to be able to continue. "I need to tell you all something," he said, much more serious now. "You all know we have to live carefully, keeping our secrets safe. And some of you know there's another side to my family⁠—"

"Remus Sverre," a voice in the crowd spat. "The blood sports ringmaster. I know him."

That voice sounded like they knew Remus personally. Conri sighed, almost winced. "I have an idea of what that means, and I'm sorry. But I'm more sorry to tell you he's gotten his hands on a database of information about us. All of us. And while he may never do it, he's threatened to release it, to make it public. So I need everyone to warn their friends and their families, please.

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