Shifted Temptations (31 page)

“She was a drunk, because of you! And you had no right to make that decision for her!” Alex shouted.

Alexander ignored him and turned to Lee. “It’s a shame when we make mistakes like that. I think we both learned our lesson, hmm Lee?”

My father smiled, showing off his yellowing teeth. “We rectified the problem, though.”

My stomach dropped at his words. “What are you talking about?” I growled.

His smile only brightened. “
Your mother got her just desserts one too many times, I would say. I can’t help it if her head hit the kitchen counter on her way down to the floor where she belonged.”

Lee shrugged as if beating his wife to death was no big deal. At that moment, the fight went out of me. I had no idea the extent of those men’s twisted minds. To think of what they could do, with no remorse, I was sickened and scared.

“Paul, go back and get the baby,” Alexander ordered.

Paul let go of Sam and turned on his heels, leaving the room without a second glance.

“No!” Sam cried out.

Lee stepped up behind her
and placed his arm around her middle. Leaning in, he pretended to whisper in her ear, but his voice carried across the room purposely. His eyes locked with mine.

“We are going to have a good time, doll.”
Sam shivered and tried to pull away, but his arm squeezed her tightly against him. “You know what they say, like father, like son. I promise, you will have no complaints and if you’re good, I might share you. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A whore like you likes to be shared.”

I swallowed hard as Lee licked Sam’s ear causing her to whimper in fear. She was trying to be so strong, but her fright was visible in her wide eyes. Her sweet scent was turning
bitter with dread.

“Not yet Lee,” Alexander scowled. “We have a fight to attend first.”

Lee groaned. “Oh yes, I had almost forgotten. Well, my little slut, you get to watch your men die and then we get to play.”

Alex and I watched helplessly as he dragged Sam out the room.
The guards came in ready to take us to the trench. Now that they had Sam, there was no way we could go through with the plan. We had to keep her safe.

My whole body was trembling and tears were beginning to leak from my eyes.
Alexander did exactly what he set out to do. He wanted us furious enough to fight dirty, but so broken we would inevitably lose.

~ 35 ~

Alex

Jordan and I stood side by side as jaguars, in the center of the arena once again. It felt like we had been there one too many times and I was sick of it. I was sick of the dirt floors and electric fences. I was tired of the damn crowd and I was ready to go home with Sam and see my baby girl.

My gaze found hers just outside the enclosure. She stood between Alexander and Lee as they collected money. I wanted to tell her to run, but heavily armed shifters guarding the exits would prevent any attempt at escape.

Funny how you usually wanted the woman you loved to meet your parents, yet in our case, we would have much preferred if she had never laid eyes on our fathers.

My head was still reeling from all the information I had received. Sam had our baby girl, Paul was my brother and m
y father killed my mother. Let’s not forget, Jordan’s father beat his mother to death. What a charming family reunion, I thought sarcastically.

“Jordan,”
I called my friend’s name with our mental connection and he turned towards me.
“I don’t care what we have to do, but we are getting Sam out of here tonight.”

“Agreed and I have a plan.”

Jordan loved to make plans. The thought made me want to smile.

“We beat
this mother fucker we’re about to go against and then we do what we were planning earlier. Only this time, I’ll handle the guards while you get Sam. Easy.”

“You know i
f it was so easy, why haven’t we done it yet? We could have been out of here by now.”

Jordan narrowed his eyes on me.
I knew his ‘easy’ comment was only to lighten the mood. There was nothing easy about what we had planned. It was downright dangerous, but we had to try, for Sam’s sake.

“
We have no choice now,”
he said and turned away.

He was right, there was only one choice and that was Sam. She could not stay here one minute longer than necessary.

I looked around the cheering crowd and wondered what in the hell they were thinking. I could understand enjoying a good fight now and then, but these were not normal brawls. I saw nothing right about drugging someone or forcing him or her to kill. Did the crowd not know what was really going on or did they all just turn a blind eye?

“Have
you ever wondered why they haven’t tried to drug us?”
I asked Jordan.

“I have, a time or two, but I have no clue as to why not. Maybe the point of these fights is to match a drugged shifter with a sober one.”

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Alexander’s voice boomed through the microphone. “Tonight we have a treat! In the past you have witness your own kind, jaguar against jaguar, but tonight will change everything.”

The crowd was quiet as they listen to him speak. Did they not hear the bullshit coming from his mouth? His voice was
annoying and I was ready to just get the fight over with.

“We are not the only community to enjoy such sporting events. I have found
that shifters of all races like to come together in battles for supremacy and tonight we will see which cat is dominant!”

The crowd cheered until Alexander raised his hand for silence again. “Please welcome, the undefeated, Tye!”

The audience went wild, screaming Tye’s name as they jumped up and down. My gaze was riveted on the entrance to the trench. The door of the fence opened and in stepped our opponent.

I sucked in a breath at the sheer size of him. At about two hundred inches long and over six hundred pounds, he was
one of the largest tigers I had ever seen. I had only met one his size before.

He stalked forward, his massive muscles rolled
with each step, causing his orange and black striped fur to ripple down his body. His eyes searched the arena then stopped on Jordan and me. The gate closed behind him with a resounding clash of finality.

“Shit!”

I could not agree more with Jordan’s assessment of the situation. We separated and began to circle around our opponent. It may be two against one, but the odds were not in our favor. His size alone caused alarm and adding the drug could make things worse. Yet, as I looked him over, I could not find any visible symptoms of cocaine use.

“He’s not drugged,” I said to Jordan.

“I was just noticing that and I think we are in deep shit.”

“How’s that? At least he doesn’t have super strength.”

“That is a plus, but being sober also means he’s going to be a lot smarter and tactical.”

I sighed, yes, that was definitely not a good thing.

“So, boys, figured out how to kick my ass yet?”

Jordan I both froze at hearing the
voice inside our heads and just stared at the tiger. It only took a second or two before Jordan was chuckling.

“Not yet, sir.”

Damn, he must have been using the scent eraser. I had not recognized his scent when he first approached.

“Teij, what are you doing here?” Both Jordan and I spoke at the same time.

Teij laughed as he began circling us.
“Keep moving while we talk. I don’t want to cause suspicion.”

Jordan leaped first causing the crowd to
scream louder. Teij of course dodged him only to swipe his paw at Jordan’s shoulder. Jordan rolled away and I lunged forward.

I landed on T
eij’s back and held on, but was careful not to dig my claws into him too far. He reared back and twisted, sending me flying across the arena. I landed on my paws and skidded to a halt before stalking towards him again.

“I’m not sure how fair this is, two against one.”

“Oh shut it, you big pussy!”
I said as I twisted around just in time to miss a kick to the head.

Teij chuckled.
“I’ll show you who’s a pussy!”

He charged the few feet between
us. We both reared up at the same time and locked arms.

We were actually having a great time. It reminded me of the fight training the team did regularly. It was second nature and
did not require much effort to continue wrestling as we talked.

“Alright Teij, so where have you been?”
Jordan asked.

“When you both were capture
d, we sent out a team and immediately discovered what was going on. Paul got us most of the information and has been helping us out since.”

“No, Teij. You can’t trust that guy
...”
I began.

“I know everything he has done, Alex, he admitted it without force. I know you don’t trust him, but I do. If it wasn’t for Paul, I wouldn’t be here right now helping you guys.”

“How did you come to be here?”
Jordan asked as he ducked a blow while swiping his own paw and catching Teij in the face.

“
Damn, boy! That fucking hurt!”

Jordan only chuckled as he lunged again.

“So as I was saying, Paul helped a lot to get me in here. I had to fight quite a few of these matches before I was finally led here.”

“You’ve been fightin
g?”
I asked, surprised.

“It was the only way to not only get to you, but to also really kn
ow what was going on. There are quite a few of these fighting rings across the southeast, but Alexander is the only one using the drug. Thankfully, word hasn’t spread yet about the side effects of cocaine on shifters.”

“So what’s the plan? They’re going to wonder why there’s no blood soon,”
Jordan said.

As Teij and Jordan spoke, I looked out at the crowd and caught Sam’s eye. She was watching the fight intently and I could see the worry written all over her face. We locked gazes for a moment and everything began to fall away until it was only the two of us.

Suddenly the connection was broken as Lee grabbed Sam roughly and pulled her up out of her seat. He began to drag her down an isle towards an exit. I growled causing Jordan and Teij to glance my way.

“Whatever that plan is, it better be now, because Lee is taking off with Sam.”

“I’m sorry your girl has had to go through this. Paul was concerned about it, but we couldn’t have him suddenly defying Alexander. He would get suspicious.”

“Damn it! She should have never been brought into this!”

“I know and I am sorry,” Teij said regretfully.

“Well something
has got to happen and like now! He’s leaving with her!”

We all turned to see Lee and a struggling Sam getting closer to an exit.

“Don’t worry, boys. Everything is right on schedule.

At those words, the first shots of gunfire echoed
throughout arena. 

~ 36 ~

Sam

I blocked out all of the shouting people as I watched the men I loved fight for their lives against the biggest tiger I had ever seen. Jordan and Alex had shifted into their jaguar forms and I was in awe of how beautiful they were.

Al
ex looked just as I remembered. He had a bulky build, with broad shoulders and thick paws. His black fur shined under the bright florescent lights and his tail whipped back and forth, as he circled his opponent.

I had never seen Jordan shift and
I studied him, hoping it would not be the last time. He was leaner than Alex was, yet obviously just as deadly. His muscles bunched and twisted under his spotted coat. He was mostly a tawny gold with a white underbelly and darks spots covering his entire length.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of either of them as they lunged and rolled, trying their hardest to take
down the massive tiger. I hoped with the odds being two against one that they had a better chance at a win.

Jordan’s father
Lee grabbed my attention by pulled roughly on my arm. I gasped and pulled back, but it was of no use. He only tightened his hold until I whimpered from his harsh grip.

His disgusted breath blew against my face as he leaned closer. I had no idea how Jordan could
be related to him. Yes, they both had blonde hair and blue eyes and Lee was a tall man, but nothing else matched. I did know that Jordan would never nor could ever be anything like his father.

I looked back down at the fight and caught Alex’s gaze. We stared at each other and it was just like every time before. We connected and I could not look away. That is until Lee spoke causing me to shiver with fear.