Page 87 of The Last True Hero
Zarina cursed under her breath. "That's impossible."
Colton wiggled his human fingers at her. "Sorry, sweetheart, but it's not."
The color bleached from Zarina's face.
It was too much to take in. Mia wrapped her arms around her legs and drew them in to her chest. "What do I do?"
She'd been trying to tell herself that there was no future between her and McClain, but the second he'd been shot in the chest, she'd felt the weight of that loss threaten to crush her. She'd begged—prayed—that he wouldn't be taken from her, and now her prayers had been answered.
In a way.
Mia buried her face in her hands. McClain still paced the cell, watching her and growling every now and then if Colton got too close to her. She was so grateful that he was still alive, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Everything she'd thought about him had been blown to ashes.
"What were you planning to do," Colton asked carefully, "if you hadn't found out?"
Nothing. Walk away. Maybe. She didn't know. She knew what she'd been telling him, and herself. Loudly. Vocally. One night and all that bullshit. But something inside her had known that there was something different about McClain. He was not the sort of man she'd have ever forgotten. And maybe there'd been the occasional thought of "what if" that lingered in her heart.
What if he didn't walk away at the end of this?
What if they rescued Sage and the other girls, and survived?
What if there could be more than just one night?
He was it for her. She might not have accepted it just yet, but she knew what she felt for McClain was like nothing she'd ever felt before. Mia's shoulders slumped. "My people will never accept this."
"I don't think it matters if your people accept it or not." Colton watched her with wise eyes. "You've clearly spent some time together, and all this time you never realized what he was hiding."
That's because she'd thought it was impossible. Wargs haunted the desert nights. They tore people apart and killed indiscriminately. Or at least that was what she'd always believed, even though Jake hinted that they could pass as human. It just seemedinconceivable.
But here sat Colton, and he seemed human enough.
"I thought the two of you were enemies," she said. "You almost sound like you hope I stay with him."
Colton shrugged. "It'd be nice... to know that the dream could come true, you know?"
And she realized that it wasn't McClain he was speaking about at all.
Her heart gave a sideways shift in her chest. She hadn't been thinking about this from McClain's perspective at all.
I lost everything, he'd once admitted, sitting in her bar. Every action he'd taken toward her since then had been gun-shy, because he fuckingknewthat he could never have what most men dreamed of.
Unless she could come to terms with all of this.
As if he understood what was in her heart, McClain suddenly rattled the bars and howled.
And Mia didn't know what her answer would be.
* * *
“We’ve got a problem,” Jake whispered, sidling out of the gloom. He shot a glance at McClain, who prowled his cell, and swallowed hard. Both Bethany and Sara followed him closely, as if afraid to leave him.
Ellie followed on his heels, gripping the shotgun with white knuckles. "We've found a way out, but—"
“What?” Mia almost didn’t think that she cared.
"They just finished the third match," Jake announced. "There are reivers crawling through the other wings, dragging wargs out of their cages. We've been lucky so far but... I heard the announcer say they're taking a brief break and then going to bring out the champion."
Colton shoved to his feet, rolling his shoulders loosely. "Which means me."
