Page 55 of Bonds of Pain
“This is no weapons allowed, right?” I call to them.
Ares holds up his hands with a smirk. “These are the only weapons I need.”
“None of my knives will come off my body,” Poe assures me with a confident smile. “I’d hate to let a blade slip near Ares’s face and make that situation even worse for you when you inevitably end up in his bed on a different night than this one.”
Ares chuckles as he cracks his neck. “That’s a lot of confidence for a man I outweigh by fifty pounds.”
“Maintaining that bulk doesn’t give you much time for perfecting your fighting techniques. I’m about to show you why that’s a problem.”
“Is this really happening?” I mutter, more to myself than anyone else.
“This is how Alpha’s entertain themselves,” Cillian says dryly. “If they don’t get to taunt each other for a few minutes before beating the shit out of each other, then it all feels a little pointless.”
Ares’s grin is sharp and eager. “Ready to lose, shadow man?”
Poe’s face remains impassive. “Overconfidence is so predictable.”
They circle each other like wolves, testing boundaries with quick jabs that never quite connect. The tension in the room thickens, and I hold my breath.
The real fight starts so suddenly that I can’t even register who throws the first punch. One moment they’re circling each other. In the next, there is a blur of motion and the sound of impacting flesh.
Poe ducks under Ares’s wide swing and drives his fist into the larger man’s ribs. Ares grunts but doesn’t slow down. His movements are precise despite his size, catching Poe’s arm and twisting it behind his back. Poe responds by dropping his weight and flipping forward, breaking the hold with a maneuver that looks impossible for anyone with normal joints.
They move like dancers with choreography designed to destroy. Every attack flows into defense flows into counterattack. It’s mesmerizing and terrifying all at once.
“You’re quicker than you look,” Ares says, blood already trickling from a split lip.
Poe’s only response is a swift kick aimed at Ares’s knee that the larger man barely blocks.
When Ares manages to get his arms around Poe’s torso, lifting him completely off the ground, my heart leaps into my throat. The sound of Poe’s body hitting the concrete floor echoes through the basement, making me gasp aloud.
“Careful!” I call out, but neither man acknowledges me.
Poe recovers with startling speed, rolling away from Ares’s attempt to pin him. He springs back to his feet and drives the heel of his palm upward into Ares’s face with a sickening crunch. Blood sprays from Ares’s nose, spattering across his chest in crimson droplets.
I look over at Cillian, expecting him to be as horrified as I am, but his attention is entirely elsewhere. He scrolls through something on his tablet, completely unconcerned as the two Alphas try to maim each other.
“You’re not even watching?” I say in astonishment.
Cillian glances up briefly before returning his attention to the screen. “I’m requesting a delivery of medical supplies to the apartment.”
“Forget medical supplies. They’re going to kill each other!”
“Not likely. There would already be blood on the floor if this were serious,” he replies with a careless shrug. “This is normal. They’ve done worse to each other over less important things.”
“Where I sleep cannot possibly be this important.”
He snorts, not bothering to dignify that with a response.
I return my attention to the fight. Ares roars as Poe lands another blow to his already broken nose. Blood pours down his face, but he’s grinning through it, eyes wild with something that looks disturbingly like joy.
“You need to break this up,” I insist, grabbing Cillian’s arm.
“Why would I do that? Logan told them to fight for you so they’re fighting.” His tone is maddeningly calm. “Besides, neither of them will cause permanent damage. They know their limits.”
As if to contradict his words, Poe slams into the wall with enough force to knock the wind from his lungs with a pained groan. He slides down, momentarily dazed, and Ares pounces, landing a hit to the smaller man’s face with a sickening crunch.
I can’t watch this anymore. These men are fighting over me like I’m some prize to be won, and Cillian just letting it happen. The violence, the possessiveness—it’s everything I hate about Alphas distilled into one brutal spectacle.
