Page 91 of Wolf Cursed
He was right.
I only had myself to blame.
Slowly, I got to my feet. A few yards away, the hexerei had Gordon pinned. He was oblivious to us—or maybe knew better than to let up while he had the advantage—and pummeled Gordon with blow after blow.
Blood covered Gordon’s face, and I winced at the damage being done to him. At least, he was probably too far gone to feel the pain.
“Hey,” Presley said, finally tearing his hungry gaze off me long enough to notice Gordon’s predicament. He went over and yanked the hexerei off Gordon by the back of the man’s collar.
The man swung wildly, landing a sucker punch against Presley’s chin. It was nothing more than a graze, but Presley’s eyes narrowed, and he released the hexerei, his breaths coming in short bursts. His hands fisted, and he glared at the male witch, eyes practically glowing orange now.
“You shouldn’t have done that, spook,” Presley said in a low voice.
The air between them rippled.
Silas backed up, and the others followed.
I didn’t need a crash course in Shifter 101 to know what was about to happen. And if Presley shifted on the hexerei, that guy had zero chance of surviving this night.
“Am I fighting or what?” I said loudly, stepping forward and drawing everyone’s attention back to me.
Presley looked over and blinked, some of the rage in his eyes cooling as he refocused.
“Shit, when you put it like that,” Silas said. “What are we waiting for?”
The guys around him whooped, eyes locked on me like I’d just become their midnight snack.
“You’ll need to be paired, of course,” Silas went on.
His eyes never left mine though.
“Of course,” I said, refusing to back down.
My mind raced with possibilities. That Tiffany girl looked like someone I could take. She probably fought dirty though. Hair pulling. Clawing. I could make that work.
Except for the whole wolf part.
Shifting was still out of reach—a fact my opponent was about to find out.
I knew they could smell my fear. Probably even sense my slick palms. But I couldn’t back down now. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the hexerei watching me with interest.
“Silas!”
Idrissa shoved her way through the hole in the wall. The others moved aside. The ones who didn’t move fast enough got shoved. Behind her was Isaac. He took one look at the scene unfolding and then reached over and grabbed one of the fallen scraps of wood. The others backed away from him, and he slid toward me.
“What the hell?” Idrissa demanded, looking first at me and then at Silas. “We had a deal. You promised me she’d have more time.”
I blinked. “What?”
“She showed up on her own,” Silas protested. “And then volunteered to fight.”
Idrissa looked at me in disbelief. “Tell me this isn’t true.”
“You made a deal?” I asked her.
She didn’t answer.
Oscar stepped through the opening, and his eyes landed on me. “Ash, what the hell are you doing here?”
