Page 7 of Bosse
Bosse did his best to maintain a flat, give-a-shit expression and avoid chuckling at Titan’s twisted humor. He might be able to walk in twenty minutes.
Krol turned his back, and two female servants rushed to his side, asking what they could do. He sent them running with a sweep of his hand.
Neither had been the female with two different eyes and coffee-brown wavy hair so dark it often looked black. Just as well. Her presence had once calmed Bosse’s rage while he stood in the arena. For the few seconds of peace he’d absorbed, he and Titan ended up gouged by a buffalo shifter.
Titan had not let him forget his stupid distraction.
Once Krol stalked out with the two women in tow, Bosse relaxed his body, allowing his shoulders and chest muscles to ease. He still had to keep his bad foot flat on the ground for it to heal properly. Nerves in his back burned to life all at the same moment. Reaching a hand back to check the lump on his head resulted in the headache pounding his skull.
Titan growled, but the misery they suffered meant they stood tall to battle another day.
Bosse listened to the movement of guards outside the arena. They spoke quietly, grumbling about getting screwed on the tiger skin. They thought no one could hear them whisper. Stupid humans.
He would not kill them for doing their jobs unless he got a chance to escape, and they stood in his way. Ridiculous thought. He was never going to escape. Krol had armed the guards with titanium-coated bullets, arrow tips, and swords.
Harming Krol was another story.
Bosse would shred that lion shifter if he ever had the chance to battle the castle king. Sadly, Krol had treated Bosse no worse than his family and pack alpha. They’d sold him into slavery.
In fact, the entire pack where he’d grown up in Ávži, an area at the north end of Norway, had turned their collective backs on him.
The only woman he’d thought cared for him had come to his bed nightly for a month. He’d welcomed her soft and willing body until she went into heat. At that point, he refused to bed her until it passed. He wouldn’t even risk having sex and pulling out. She’d shown no interest in him beyond the sex, which had been fine since she was far from mate material.
One minute, she loved on him, and the next, she turned into a harpy, screaming at him, “What are you doing refusing me?”
He’d been adamant. “I will not bring a child into this world to be raised by the pack that has mistreated me my entire short life.”
“You self-centered piece of shit! The alpha expects me to deliver a monster cub. If I don’t, he’ll make me mate with that pig Skott.”
That’s when he realized he’d been played by her and the alpha. How many other women were waiting to convince him to breed them?
He told her to leave and that he would no longer bed females from the pack. That was the day he decided he had to make other plans, but going lone wolf was dangerous now that humans knew shifters existed.
Still, all he’d ever wanted was to live free and settle down with a mate. Unlike other lone wolves who needed a pack for support, he didn’t need one. His alpha had just confirmed that for him.
The alpha of his wolf pack brought him up in front of everyone the next night and gave him a choice—breed the females in heat or leave.
Bosse had crossed his arms and calmly declared, “My mother and I will leave.” It would have to be better somewhere else. He and his mother did not get along, but he would not abandon her. As the original alpha when Bosse was born, his father had died a month earlier beneath the claws of this unscrupulous shifter who had blindsided him in ambush. Bosse had accepted his duty to the family and kept his mother safe.
He sure as hell hadn’t expected her to slide over next to the new alpha that night and curl her fingers around his arm or to declare, “I’m staying.”
The woman had never been much of a mother, but Bosse couldn’t believe she’d stand with that miserable excuse for an alpha who had killed her mate.
Done with her and the entire pack, Boss said, “Very well. I will leave immediately.”
“Not exactly.” The alpha gave that cagey reply, then waved his hand as if calling someone forward.
Two shifters in human form smelling of jackal and panther entered the camp meeting.
Bosse had never seen them before. He angled his body to keep everyone, including the strangers, in view.
The alpha casually explained, “You will go with them.”
With a dismissive glance at the two shifters, Bosse scoffed at the stupid comment. “No. I will cause no problem. I’ll leave, and you’ll never hear from me again.”
“You are partially correct,” the alpha mused. “I tire of you refusing to do your part to build up this pack. I will not allow you to join another pack where you might breed their females and build an army against me. A powerful man has paid well to take you off my hands.”
What? Bosse stabbed an incredulous look at his father’s killer. “Yousoldme?” His gaze swept sideways to his mother, who showed zero reaction. “And youknewabout this, didn’t you?”
