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CHAPTERONE
Row Grayson side-stepped to avoid the furious bear’s meaty fist, then countered with an uppercut that caught the other male in the jaw, throwing him off-balance and making him stumble backward. The male was bigger than Row by a hundred pounds or so, but he wasn’t as well-trained. Sometimes being bigger was enough to win a fight, but not in this case.
As the male went down, Row leaped on him, raising his fists over his head and bringing them down in the center of his opponent’s chest. The male’s sternum cracked audibly, and the crowd around him bellowed in joy. Breathing hard, Row sat on top of him and waited to see if he’d try to get up. After a long moment, Row was certain the other bear wouldn’t rise, at least not without medical help.
Row’s king strode into the center of the ring with a smug grin. Row stood, ignoring the sting of his battle wounds, and let King Fayar clasp his hands together and raise them in triumph. The crowd cheered loudly as Fayar shouted, “Row stands victorious!”
Row’s vision blurred for a moment; he probably had a concussion. The other bear, whose name he couldn’t even recall, had walloped him on the head a few times, hard. While Fayar listed the number of fights Row had won in the last year, Row scanned the crowd for the only two people he cared about—his mom and his sister, Dani.
He found them standing with some of the other sleuth females. Although they were both smiling, he could see they were worried about him. They were the only family he had. His dad died before he was born. His mom had adopted Dani when Row was eight, and the sweet little girl had been his closest friend and champion.
The crowd cheered again, and Fayar slapped Row on the shoulder. “Go have a beer, you did well tonight.”
“Thanks,” Row said.
Once a month, Row and other fighters within his bear sleuth battled against neighboring sleuths. There was no prize apart from accolades for the winners and their kings, but Row had been winning these monthly battles for the last few years. Sometimes he lost, but it was a rare occurrence. He didn’t think he’d been defeated within the last eighteen months, although he had to admit his memories of some battles were a little fuzzy around the edges.
As Row watched his mother and sister move through the crowd, a dark growl erupted behind him. He turned at the familiar sound. Hector, a male he’d beaten in a previous battle, stood glowering at the edge of the makeshift ring.
Fayar stepped between Row and Hector. “You have no standing here, cat.”
Hector was a lion shifter. And an asshole.
“I came to have my pride restored,” Hector said, pounding on his chest like a disgruntled ape.
Row rolled his eyes and let out a short growl of his own. “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”
That fight was one that Row would never forget. The two had faced off against each other, but Hector’s king, who’d adopted the crazy lion when he was a cub, had failed to mention that he’d encouraged Hector to shift during their fight and try to kill him. In a dick move, Hector had tried to claw off a certain valuable appendage of Row’s, and Row had pulled out his claws at the root so they’d never grow back. It did give Row a small bit of joy to see Hector’s scarred fingertips before he clenched his hands into fists.
“Your pride is not my concern. Your sleuth was banned from our fights, and you are not welcome here. Either leave on your own, or leave in a body bag,” Fayar said, punctuating his words with a loud growl.
“I want my fair shot,” Hector snarled. Three other males slunk behind him, bears from his sleuth and clearly his friends. “I’m owed retribution for my suffering.”
Row knew he’d never beat Hector if he faced him now. He was injured from the last fight, barely standing under his own power.
Fayar tilted his head slightly. There was a heartbeat of utter silence, and then the king moved so quickly he was a blur. One moment Hector was standing between his three friends; the next he was flying through the air, over the heads of the other sleuths, before slamming to the ground.
“Get. Out,” Fayar bellowed. The three males, mouths open, stood frozen in place until Fayar took a menacing step toward them. Then they dispersed into the crowd, grabbing the unconscious Hector and hauling him away.
“Follow them and make sure they leave town,” Fayar said, gesturing to two of his guards. They nodded and darted off in pursuit.
“Well, that was interesting,” Fayar said, turning to Row.
“I’m sorry,” Row said.
“For what? He’s an ass. His king probably raked him over the coals for losing so badly to you during that fight. Maybe being a lion without claws is like being a neutered house cat.”
Row snorted. “Thank you.”
“No one fucks with my people, Row. Don’t you know that by now?”
Row did know. Fayar was a good king, and he took care of the sleuth. Every member was important to him, from the smallest cub to the oldest males and females. Fayar called for the party to start and then told Row, “I’ll set up a patrol for a while, just to make sure that Hector and his cronies don’t come back, and I’ll speak to his king about my dislike for this behavior.”
Row thanked him again and watched him disappear into the crowd. Dani and his mother walked swiftly to him as everyone else dispersed for the celebration that would follow. There had been four sleuths at the battle tonight; Row had fought three times and won each fight. He preferred the nights where he only had to fight once. It wasn’t that he didn’t like winning or honing his skills, but the constant battles were draining. Injuring a male until he couldn’t get up from the ground had long since lost its thrill. In his early years, when he’d first come into his shift, he’d enjoyed the battles—at least once he’d learned how to fight and win. Losing sucked, as the male he’d defeated tonight would attest. Once he’d woken up.
“You did so well,” his mother said in a low voice. She and Dani walked on either side of him, leading him away from the crowd. His vision still hadn’t cleared. It was a good thing he was a shifter and had accelerated healing; otherwise he might worry that the blurry vision was going to stick around.
“Do you want to shift? We can take you into the woods,” Dani said, linking her arm with his. Anyone seeing the trio would assume his family was congratulating him on battles well fought, but Row knew they were also bracketing him in case he passed out. That had happened on more than one occasion after he’d won a battle by the skin of his teeth.
