Page 6 of Bosse
They’d survived once more, but not for long unless Bosse could come up with a way to get the tiger off Titan’s body. If he failed, his wolf would eventually tire and be unable to expand his lungs enough to keep breathing and survive.
Asking Titan to angle his head at Krol, Bosse took in the castle alpha’s actions to see if he was sending guards to finish him off.
No, the drama queen alpha dropped his head back, staring up at the ceiling. Probably infuriated that Bosse and Titan had once again squashed his attempt to lord over their defeat and death. He may get his wish yet.
During the silence, the metal gate where Bosse exited the arena each time whooshed open. Guards came in, moving carefully. One carrying a crossbow took aim but stood back. The others poked their rifle barrels at the tiger, checking to see if it had expired. The stink of body fluids should have been confirmation enough.
Bosse had only one option, and it was not going to be fun.I’m sorry to hurt you more, but give me the body, Titan.
After a strained sigh, Titan dropped his head down and shifted, struggling through a change that stopped halfway.
Hell.
But Bosse’s human head had made the transition. When he could speak, he rasped out in a rough whisper, “The tiger skin can be sold for what all of you earn in a month. But if you wait too long, the skin will be nothing more than a dirt rug.”
Two of the guards had paused and leaned forward to hear his words.
They straightened up and murmured to each other, then quietly addressed the other four. Evidently, a deal had been made.
All six began dragging the tiger’s body away.
Titan whimpered once when the dead tiger’s paw dragged across Bosse’s back and banged his badly injured foot.
Bosse clamped his mouth shut tight to keep from shouting at the guards. He did not want Krol to discover they were inadvertently helping him. Once the pressure had been removed and Bosse had worked his way free of the tiger’s dragging leg, he finished shifting all the way. Drawing in a couple of deep breaths to prepare for the pain, he forced himself to stand but had to put a hand against the wall to stay upright.
He suffered a dry heave for his effort.
We are healing slowly, Titan said, sounding weary and beaten down from suffering.
Drawing in shallow breaths to keep from throwing up, Bosse sent back silently,That’s good. We’ll stand here a minute. If you can heal at least the foot, that would be most helpful.
Energy seeped slowly into the damaged foot. Not as powerfully as it would if they were a hundred percent, but a start.
“What are you doing?” Krol shouted.
Bosse kept quiet and watched without moving a muscle.
Every guard froze. The one in charge said, “Uhhh... we wish to save this hide for you, Alpha.”
“Do noteverhelp that wolf again, or you will face worse than a tiger next time.”
They all dropped the hold they had on the tiger’s body. As one, they shouted, “Yes, sir.”
Nobody moved.
Grabbing his head, Krol said, “Get it out of there, skin it, and bring me the hide.”
Panicked now, every guard used both hands and dragged the carcass free of the arena.
Bosse tried putting weight on the foot.Oh, mother. Not yet.
Krol swung his black gaze to Bosse. “You were lucky again today. You will not always be so fortunate.”
If this was luck, Bosse and Titan could do without it. He found saying nothing to Krol worked best, especially since that lunatic liked hearing his own voice more than anyone else’s.
“You will stand there for ten more minutes before you can return to your cage.”
Inside him, Titan snickered.Ask him to punish us with twenty minutes.
