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“Oh, yeah,” Dan said, with cool amusement. “They’re both alpha, but Cade’s got nothing special. Not on Connor.” He put two fingers in his mouth, whistled. “Fuck him up, Connor!” he shouted, then glanced at me apologetically.
“Sorry.”
“No worries,” I said, but watched more closely now, trying to see what they did. There was a blooming bruise on Connor’s right cheekbone, and one of Cade’s eyes was cut and bleeding, adding that particular peppery magic to the air. But with each shot, Cade’s fist seemed to grow heavier.
And then Cade swept Connor’s legs and sent Connor to the floor.
“Wanna ask your girlfriend to help you up?” Cade asked, body slicked with perspiration.
“Don’t need help,” Connor said, flipping himself to his feet again. He was sweaty, too. He flung damp curls from his eyes, grinned back at Cade. “Want me to askyourgirlfriend?”
Cade cursed and barreled toward Connor, picking him up at the waist and sending them both careering into the opposite wall. Shifters scattered to avoid the shot and the plaster that flew from the divot they’d made. Then they hit the floor, grappling and trying to gain purchase on sweat-soaked bodies.
“Get up!” someone called out, and they were hauled to their feet again and pushed back to the center of the room. Both were breathing heavy now. And Cade, who’d managed to hold out this long, was getting cocky.
“You know what’s going to happen to vampires when I’m head of the Pack? Stakes,” Cade said. “It’s the best they deserve.”
I think he was trying to upset Connor, to put him off his focus. Unfortunately for Cade, it had the opposite effect.
In a strike so fast the motion was blurred, Connor punched him in the face, then again, and again. Cade wobbled, hit the ground on his butt.
Connor leaned down. “Say that again, asshole.”
Cade licked blood from his upper lip. “Stakes,” he said, drawing out the word slowly. And climbed to his feet.
And then I felt something click into place. Magic, seating itself home. And it was coming from Connor.
He closed his eyes as magic—new magic—spread through the room. It was strong and bright and clean. I’d have said it felt like sunlight, if sunlight was something I could easily feel.
Connor had come into his power. And Connor had the power of an Apex.
“I fucking knew it,” Dan said with no little pride.
The rest of the crowd had gone silent.
Desperation glowed on Cade’s face. He knew he had no options now, so he stood up and roared his anger. He ran forward, apparently intending to tackle Connor to the floor. But Connor rotated, kicked Cade in the stomach, which had him hitting the floor hard enough to bounce. He groaned, and Connor fell on top of him, put a knee in his lower back, then grabbed Cade’s right leg, and twisted to put pressure on his knee.
Cade wheezed in pain, hands grasping at the floor.
“We done?” Connor asked.
It was five long seconds before he gritted his teeth, pounded a fist on the floor.
There was utter silence.
Slowly, Connor climbed to his feet, pushed his hair from his eyes. “You lost, asshole. Get the fuck out of our bar.”
I saw the flash of silver behind Connor. Fucking Breonna. She was fast, and she came at him with the speed of desperation.
I pushed forward and put my body between theirs, then executed a low kick that had her sprawling to the floor. The knife popped out of her fingers, reflecting light and magic. I caught it neatly with one hand.
“Never pull a blade on a shifter,” I said, and felt Connor’s body close behind mine. I held out the knife, and he plucked it from my fingers.
“Thanks for the assist,” he whispered, his voice low and full of magic and power, and it sent a delicious shiver down my spine.
“Anytime,” I said, working to maintain my own control.
“Haul all three of them out,” Gabriel said, stepping forward on the dais again. “I want them out of the city within the hour.”
