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Chapter One
Ronan McCallum stared at the shelves in the tiny pantry of the RV he shared with his two siblings until his eyes blurred, but he couldn’t find the coffee pods.
“Damn it, Taryn, where’s the coffee?” His voice was all snarl and exhaustion, his sabertooth tiger pacing in his mind and just as on-edge as he was.
His younger sister sighed from outside the RV and, after a few moments, entered the space and joined him.
“You’re blind, I swear.” She reached past him and flicked a red box of coffee pods with her finger.
“What?” He grabbed the box. “It was a green box. Wasn’t it?”
“No, it’s always red because we like that brand the best. Holy crap, man, you need to get your eyes tested.”
His upper lip curled as he slammed the pantry door and turned in the cramped space to make a cup of coffee.
“No, I just need to start having mating dreams.”
“Hell, yeah you do,” their youngest brother, Sylas, called from the other end of the RV where he shared a room with Ronan, although calling it a room was a vast overstatement. It was a closet with two twin beds anchored to the wall. Taryn, as the only female in their family, was gifted the other bedroom which had a full bed.
He put the pod into the coffee maker and closed the lid with more force than necessary, pushing the button to start the cup brewing.
Taryn leaned on the counter. “I had a thought.”
“Uh oh.” Sylas chuckled as he strode from the bedroom, scratching his chest and yawning.
She punched him in the arm.
“Ow, shit, it’s too early for that,” he said, rubbing his arm.
“Then don’t be a butthead. Where was I? Oh, right, my thought.” She set her tablet on the counter and opened the browser. “I found this last night. It’s called the National Were-Fighting Association.”
“I thought were-fights were illegal?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“This is sanctioned by the government and they have a no-fighting-to-the-death policy,” she said. “They operate outside of a vampire-run town called Belle Terra, and an alpha wolf named Jonathon Black is in charge.” She pulled up a page for the organization, which featured a large football stadium that had been repurposed into a fighting arena, and gave him gladiator vibes.
“What about it?” he asked, too tired to try to figure out his sister’s thought process.
Sylas took the tablet and swiped around on it, making curious noises.
Taryn gave him a long look. “Several things. First, we can’t travel between states without government approval, but according to the website, fighters that join up with the NWFA can become part of their tour group, that goes around the country doing exhibition fights in various cities for weeks at a time. We can reach out to this Alpha Black and get approval to join up with him, you two can do some fights and prove that sabertooth tigers are the best fighters around, and then we can all join up with the tour group.”
He was too exhausted from not sleeping well in…forever, that he couldn’t really put together what she was saying.
“Speak English, please.”
She rolled her eyes. “We can travel in the States easily by being part of this group, which means you’ll have a better chance of coming into contact with your mate than if we petition the government to let us move freaking state by state like we’ve been doing.”
The fog of his exhaustion cleared as her words hit home.
“Holy shit.”
She laughed. “Yeah, holy shit.”
“I’m in,” Sylas said. “They’re looking for fighters, and they offer room and board with a signed contract for a minimum of one year.”
He set the tablet on the counter and Ronan picked it up after he fixed his coffee and took that first blissful sip.
It seemed legit, and it was a way for them to have an easier time moving from state to state.
