Page 8 of Quietly Hux's
My stomach twisted again, and a shudder went through me. Rylan slid an arm around my shoulders.
“Yes,” Dormaunt said, arrogance bleeding through with every word. “TheAlphaof this…group.” He turned his attention to the fight cage where Hux was pacing, claws already sprouting from his fingertips. “Well, let’s not keep the beast waiting.”
Chapter
Six
HUX
Every moment Dormaunt stood there looking at Milo pushed at the edges of my rapidly fraying control. The claws and fangs were already out, the bear pressing at my splitting seams, dying to get through and tear the man who’d instilled so much fear into our mate apart.
After Shep spoke to him, Dormaunt finally turned his attention to me. “Well, let’s not keep the beast waiting.”
He smirked, and a haze descended over my vision. I pulled it back, refusing to let him rile me into making a mistake. Milo was safe. Dormaunt had never touched him, and he never would.
I glanced at my mate. Milo was behind the bar where we’d all agreed it was safest while still being present. Rylan and Sebastian were standing close to him. Aiden stood at the pass-through, blocking the only way to walk behind the bar, and Thorn was stationed not far from it, near the door leading to the kitchen.
Dormaunt slipped his suit jacket off and held it out on one outstretched finger for one of his men to take. His watch wasnext. Then he unbuttoned and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt to his elbows.
I’d have felt underdressed in my loose shorts and cut-off t-shirt if I gave a fuck about what he thought.
Once he’d removed his shoes and socks, he walked to the steps that led up to the apron surrounding the fight cage. All of us at the bar had facilitated fights like this many times. Although they weren’t normally to determine someone’s freedom, and one of our own wasn’t usually involved in whatever dispute or leadership challenge had prompted the fight.
Shep followed Dormaunt, walked up the steps and opened the door to the cage. As was customary, I backed into my corner. Once they were both inside, Shep closed the door and went to stand in the middle of the cage.
“This challenge will solidify or dissolve the claim Baron Dormaunt has on Milo Reynolds. If Dormaunt wins, his claim stands.” There was a growl in Shep’s voice that he couldn’t quite hide. “If Hux wins, the claim is dissolved.”
“And then he’ll claim Milo for his own, I assume,” Dormaunt said, sneer in place. “Milo is an exquisite creature.” Dormaunt turned toward the bar, presumably speaking to Milo. “You think this brute will know what to do with an Omega like you?”
The boiling rage inside me turned to cold steel. The deadly, quiet calm that somehow always found me in the thick of battle settled over me like the strongest armor. This man was a lunatic. There was no way,no way, he was leaving this cage alive.
When Milo didn’t respond to his taunt, and everyone else in the bar only looked at him like the twisted asshole he was, Dormaunt huffed and leaned back against the side of the cage, crossing his arms over his chest. Petulant up to the roots of his shiny, slicked-back hair.
Maybe he wasn’t a lunatic. Just a man-child who couldn’t understand that Milo was Milo’s. No one else’s. Not his. Notmine. And when this fight was done, I planned to ask Milo if he’d stay with me—choose me—and I’d respect whatever decision he made. Even if it broke my heart.
MILO
I thought my heart would beat out of my chest.
Long curved claws—a cat’s claws, I realized—slipped from the end of Dormaunt’s fingers. He and Hux hadn’t moved at all, only staring and growling at each other from opposite sides of the cage.
As tension crackled through the air, everyone else in the bar moved closer to the cage. Everyone but me, Rylan, Sebastian, and Aiden. But our eyes were glued to the men inside, the same as everyone else’s.
Shep backed completely out of the cage, and my heart stopped. He wasn’t staying in there? Weren’t there referees for this kind of thing? I grabbed my notebook and scribbled out the question, holding it up for Aiden to see.
Aiden shook his head, gaze darting from me to the cage. “On fight nights, yes, but not for fights like this.”
My heart pounded harder.
The click of the cage door closing sounded as loud as a gunshot, and I flinched. The sound had barely faded when Dormaunt launched himself across the cage, faster than anything I’d ever seen, and swiped bloody furrows into Hux’s chest.
Beside me, Rylan gasped, and Sebastian started to shake.
“How do they win then?” Sebastian asked, voice unsteady. “If there’s no referee to stop the fight.”
Aiden met my gaze, and I could tell he didn’t want to answer. “One of them yields…or dies.”
In the cage, Hux roared. I tore my gaze away from Aiden, seeking my mate. Somehow, in the mere seconds I wasn’t looking, Dormant had dealt more cuts than I wanted to count.
