Alpha's Last Fight: A Paranormal Shapeshifter BBW Romance (26 page)

The fight was… entertaining. A whole load of glitz and glamour. Dazzling lights and the ring miked-up so that every punch sounded like a jack-hammer. The crowd was certainly into it. A lot of wealth and power screaming itself hoarse as they watched men who weren’t quite men throw punch after punch into their bodies. That was what I was here to do, to fight. To beat fifty shades of crap out of my opponent.

The fighters themselves were good. Good, but not great. I would have stood a more than decent chance against either of them. But this was the undercard on a weeknight when the arena was half full. I wouldn’t be fighting guys like these.

After the fight, I headed back to the lounge to grab some liquid refreshment. As I knocked back some expensive imported beer I was approached by a couple that reeked of money. They also reeked of something else. The woman in particular was so excited that when she spoke the tremor in her voice made her sound as if she was on the verge of orgasm.

“Hutch. Hutch, is it?”

She reached out and touched my forearm. Like she was checking to see if I was real. Her fingertips shivered on my skin.

I shrugged. Yeah, whatever, lady.

The man, a solidly built guy with vaguely eastern European features, was excited too. An obvious erection strained against his suit pants.
What the hell?

“We would like to make you an offer.” She nodded at the guy, as if asking for permission and he replied with an affirmative tilt of the head. “He’d like to watch you fuck me. He’ll pay you. Two thousand dollars… three if you—ah,
shift—
while you do it.”

My jaw dropped. For all of a half-second, I seriously considered it. That was a lot of money for boning some skinny chick with a thing for animals. The fact that the rich mook she was with wanted to watch didn’t bother me none. But she wasn’t finished.

“Another two… if you let
me
watch.”

“Me and him? Yeah, sorry, sweetheart, that’s not really my thing.”

“Oh no… I don’t mean watch you two… no… I mean, if you let me watch you… hurt him.”

He groaned! The guy fucking groaned as she said those words. He sounded like he was about to shoot his load just thinking of me punching him in the face after I’d fucked his girlfriend.

Rich people are fucking crazy.

I politely declined their offer, and the lady pouted. The man took her arm, and they went off looking for someone else to rope into their crazy idea of a threesome.

They weren’t the only ones who propositioned me, either. It’s like the place was as much about sex as it was about fighting. I mean back home, sure, there was that too, but not like this. Not as decadent. It’s not that it made me uncomfortable. It just wasn’t my thing. I like to fuck, sure, but everything here seemed to have strings attached… or possibly ropes.

Whatever happened to just fucking because it felt good? Why go and overcomplicate it?

I ended up alone in my room in the adjoining hotel.
Rooms
to be precise. Each one of them was bigger than my trailer. They’d put me in a suite and it had everything I needed. From cable TV to a well stocked mini fridge. Everything, that is, except
her
.

“Man, Nat, I miss you,” I murmured, slumping back onto the luxury bed with thousand-thread linens. I couldn’t think. Every time I closed my eyes, there was her face, telling me not to fight.

By the time I got to sleep, the mini fridge wasn’t nearly as well stocked as it had been when I arrived.

***

“Mr. Hutch.”

“Just Hutch.”

“Hmm, if you say so. Looks like you’ve taken quite a beating in the past few weeks.”

“If you say so.”

Despite some nagging injuries, I managed to pass my physical. The doctor took notes as he poked and prodded. As a species, we shifters heal pretty quick when we’re given the chance. A chance I simply hadn’t been getting with the grueling schedule back home. But now, for the first time in as long as I could remember, I hadn’t stepped in the ring for close to a week. All the nagging aches and pains were starting to fade.

My ribs had been the biggest concern, but despite them still being tender it was the doctor’s opinion that they were healing. I’d be fit to fight on the weekend. He shook his head when he saw how happy I was to get the all clear.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s not too late to call this off, you know? The guy running this… Vince? He’ll be pissed that he wasted all that money courting you and making sure you lived like a high-roller for a couple of days. But you could still back out.”

“Yeah, thanks for the advice, Doc, but I’m good.”

He shrugged. “Your call. Maybe I’ll see you on Friday if there’s enough of you left to stitch back together.”

“Sure thing, Doc.”

Over the next couple of days, I had several similar appointments. A personal trainer, a lawyer. Even, I shit you not, a stylist. All of them copped a similar attitude to the doctor, acting like I was signing my life away.

After a while I began to get a little nervous, like I was missing something. I would have been more worried if I hadn’t been watching the fights every night and getting a good look at potential opponents in the gym. These guys were good, sure. Well trained and disciplined. But I could take them.

It wasn’t them I’d be fighting, though. I started asking around, but no one seemed to know who my opponent was or, if they did, their answers were vague and evasive. In the end, I decided to pay Vince a visit.

***

“Hutch! Great to see you. Hope you’ve been enjoying the calm before the storm. How was Tiffany? Not your type? Plenty more fish in that particular sea, just get one of the drones in hospitality to hook you up.”

He rifled through a stack of papers on his desk before continuing.

“So far, it looks like everything checks out and we’re good to go. You got anything you want, let me know. Any particular food you’d like before the bout? Doesn’t matter what it is, we’ll get it in for you. No expense spared.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a last meal.”

Vince burst into the loudest laughter I’d heard in a while.

“Last meal! Hilarious. You, you are too much, Hutch. I knew you were something else as soon as you stepped through the door. Now, really, is there anything I can get you?”

“I’d feel a lot better if I knew who I was fighting. Is it one of the guys from the pool here?”

He shook his head and his eyes narrowed slightly - I would have missed it if I hadn’t already been suspicious.

“No, no, it’s an out-of-town fellow.”

“Anyone I know?”

“Possibly, Hutch, possibly, but I doubt it. I sincerely doubt it. This guy doesn’t exactly have many friends, if you know what I mean!”

Shit
. I felt like an idiot that I hadn’t figured it out beforehand.

“A loner? You’ve got me fighting a loner? Fuck. And no one thought to tell me?”

He spread his hands as if to say
you-got-me
. It wasn’t good enough. Loners weren’t human, and they weren’t animals. They were monsters. The strength I was so good at finding inside myself? My ability to balance between man and animal in a way few others could? That was a loner’s natural state.

Only they didn’t give a fuck about balance or their humanity. They just lived with this kind of strength all the time and before long they didn’t care what it did to them, what it made them.

I’d seen a loner fight once. And that was enough. He ripped his opponent to shreds and then lost it and started going to work on the front row of the crowd. It took half a dozen fighters to subdue him, and none of them came out of it unscathed.

It was this atrocity that had led to me adopting a strict no loner policy for our own fights.

“You’re not fucking serious, are you?” I asked. He smiled, a tight smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Come on. Wake up, Hutch. What did you think would happen? Did you honestly think anyone was going to pay you half a million bucks to watch you butt heads with the kind of guys you’re used to fighting? You think anyone is going to pay fifty large a seat to watch something your hillbillies in Bumfuck, Nowhere can hoot and holler at for twenty bucks a night?”

I growled. It was one thing to insult me, but it was another to insult my pack. But he just laughed and continued on as though he hadn’t heard me.

“I’d heard you were arrogant, but I had no idea just how full of yourself you were. You’re nothing, Hutch.”

“I’m the leader of a pack back home. In case you didn’t know.”

“Oh! Excuse me! Chief fuck-up of a pack of fuck-ups! Did you honestly think people were paying to come see you fight? My god, Hutch! They don’t even know who you
are
. They came to see a desperate loser get ripped to shreds by a real life monster. They came for blood.
Your
blood. What did you think you were signing up for?”

I’d been an idiot. I guess as soon as I saw a way out, I’d latched onto the idea that this was the start of something bigger. I’d fix everything, maybe even mend a few of the bridges I’d burned getting here. But I’d been lying to myself the whole time. This was never going to be my way out.

I was a loser, and this was my one shot at redemption. A chance to go out swinging and try and make amends for some of the damage I’d done. I was being paid, well paid, for a monster to bat me around the ring until it got bored for the entertainment of a handful of modern day Caligulas.

Fuck
. I was more of a dog than Nat had ever been. Vince’s shoulders relaxed as he saw me ease back. As he saw me submit.

“There, there. Surely you understand. Surely you get it now, son?”

“Sure,” I growled. “I got it.”

“Good, good. Look, I’m terribly sorry about your pack. Shit happens, and all that. I didn’t mean to insult you. You just needed a reality check, kid. Now you get it, good.”

I nodded.
Whatever you say, boss
.

“So.” He clasped his hands together. “How about that dinner? Nico does a steak to die for. No pun intended.”

“I’m good.”

“Excellent.”

I turned to leave, then paused mid-step.

“Hey, you know a decent tattooist round here? I got to get some ink done.”

If this was going be my last fight, I needed to finish my story first.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Hutch

I was doing Tai Chi in the locker room when my opponent arrived. It didn’t really help with my preparation, but it took my mind off the waiting. I couldn’t stop thinking about Natalie. And Gina, and the rest of the pack. How I’d fucked it all up. Well, at least I’d buy something with my death. And Natalie wouldn’t have to watch me fight ever again. Not after the loner they’d set me up against got through with me.

I heard his step on the floor before his voice came rolling across the locker room.

“Good to see you again, Hutch.”

The voice was familiar and not familiar at the same time. Deep and gravelly, barely human, like a grotesque parody of someone I used to know. I looked up and saw the specter of a wolf I used to know.

“Quinn? Quinn? Holy fuck, I thought you were—”

“Dead?”

“I was going to say
enjoying your retirement
.”

He was barely recognizable. Long, lanky hair and a beard to match. What little of his face I could see was a mass of scar tissue. One eye was missing, in its place a ragged, puckered scar. He didn’t bother with an eye patch.

“Ask me how Sabine’s doing?”

I had to tread carefully here. Quinn’s whole body seemed to expand with each breath. I could sense the rage that fueled him and waited to see if he would say anything else. I waited too long for him, though. With a roar he sprung across the room and grabbed me by the throat, lifting me and slamming me into a locker.

“Ask me!”

“Sure Quinn, whatever you say. How’s Sabine doing? She still looking after you?”

“She’s dead.”

His body rippled as he spoke. The monster he had become bubbled away under the surface with nothing to keep it in check. He squeezed tighter and I could feel the pressure building against my windpipe.

“She didn’t last the first winter. You remember that winter, Hutch? Remember how cold it was? It wasn’t the cold that killed her, though. It was the shame that broke her heart. You killed her. You understand me?”

“I didn’t… I didn’t do anything.” My throat felt like it was collapsing in on itself.

“You did enough. Sure, she liked to fuck around. That didn’t bother me none. She liked fucking you. No accounting for taste, I guess. But she was
my
mate. She was always my mate. And you used her to betray me. You used her to beat me, and it broke her fucking heart.”

I couldn’t breathe. Quinn’s grip was like a vise, and even if I could focus enough to draw on some of the animal inside, I doubted it would have helped.

“QUINN!” Vince’s shout carried from the locker room door, but to me his voice sounded far away, like my ears were filled with water.

Quinn snarled as he turned to face the door. In profile I could see the elongated snout and jaws, as if he were stuck halfway between man and wolf.

“Kill him now and you won’t get paid,” Vince said. He sounded scared.

“Like I give a fuck. This one I’d do for free.”

“Save it for the ring.”

Quinn released me and I fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, gasping for air. I thanked god Vince was there, but honestly his intervention didn’t really save me so much as prolong my death. He wanted me to wait until there was a crowd of big spenders watching. Then I could die.

Quinn turned on me again as I continued to struggle for oxygen. “I’m going to take pleasure in gutting you, boy.”

Fuck me.

***

As I entered the ring opposite Quinn, I felt as if I had come full circle. That fight, five years ago, had led me here. My arrogance, my desire to win, my willingness to use other people to get what I wanted.

Along the way I’d ruined everything good in my life. The pack, Gina, and finally, Natalie.

The one person who made me a better man, the one person who made me feel like I had a future, and I’d ruined that, too.