Chapter Eleven

GO! Goliaths Online

Dan

Tucking my head under my arm, I emerged from my dressing room and pushed through the doors to the backstage area, already grinning.

It was Thursday night, and I could tell that the crowd down in the arena was heaving. The floor always rumbled under our feet when the show was on from the cacophony of excited voices, shoes and hooves and talons traipsing up steps and the seats of plastic chairs being pushed down as people got ready to watch.

I loved it. I was a little addicted to it. It always pumped me up, got me raring to go.

"Damn, they sound extra excited tonight, huh?" Vince said with a grin when he saw me, already dressed in his seventies disco outfit—tiny silver hotpants and a matching cropped halterneck. His roller skates were slung over his shoulder, tied together by their laces.

I grinned back, wandering over to the windows that overlooked the arena and holding my head up so I could see. "They know it's being streamed. Probably feeling cocky that they all get to watch it in person."

Vince joined me, and we both watched the throngs of people moving around below. Lampyrs clustered together by the bar, sipping drinks. A pack of rowdy werewolves in business suits laughed and shoved each other good-naturedly. A group of fae women had already taken their seats, and I could see that several of them were sipping one of tonight's signature cocktails—the Headless and Horny, inspired by yours truly, composed mainly of bourbon.

One of them looked up, spotted us standing at the window, and started screaming. Then her friends noticed and started screaming too. She grabbed the sign tucked between her legs and stood up to wave it at us.

" I'M A HOLIATH FOR THE GOLIATHS " it said, which made me chuckle.

I shot them my charming grin and tipped my head in salute, which made her start jumping up and down and screaming louder.

God, how could anyone not love this? It was fucking addictive.

"Hey, guys," Susan chirped as she bounded over to join us, dressed in her wrestling outfit aside from her spiked black mask. "Isn't this exciting? I swear it feels different tonight."

"It does," I agreed, tracking my gaze over the crowd again. There was a big sign behind the bar promoting the two signature cocktails of the night—mine and Vince's, seeing as we were the main event. We had extra security to get everyone to their seats in time, and to stop anyone from swamping Holt when he came out to announce the launch of GO! Goliaths Online.

"What are you looking at?"

Crossbody's haughty voice made me roll my eyes. He appeared on the other side of Susan, dressed only in his skimpy gold briefs, his lavender skin already oiled up and gleaming. On his back, his huge wings opened and closed languidly.

"What do you think?" Vince replied sardonically, not even glancing at him.

Crossbody's jaw ticked. He crossed his arms and tossed back his hair, expression turning decidedly calculating as he side-eyed Vince.

"Ready for your match?" he asked airily. "No room for error when it's being streamed to potentially thousands more people."

Vince stiffened beside me. "Not gonna work, Crossbody."

"What?" He tried to sound innocent, but he was smirking. "I'm just pointing out that you're our first ever online main event. If you fuck up, we might as well call it quits now."

"We're not going to fuck up," Vince gritted out. I tucked my head under my arm so I could squeeze his shoulder, silently telling him to keep a cool head. Crossbody had a talent for pissing most of us off, and he seemed to enjoy riling Vince up the most.

"Oh look, there's Asmo!" Susan suddenly exclaimed, pointing down into the arena.

I shot her a quick smile before looking down. She was a sweetheart who hated when any of us bickered, so I knew she was trying to distract Vince and Crossbody intentionally.

Following her finger, I spotted her incubus pornstar boyfriend—her exceptionally talented pornstar boyfriend, who went by the stage name Assmo Dickus—sitting with a couple of his buddies. When he looked up and spotted us, a huge grin broke out over his face. Jumping to his feet, he waved frantically before grabbing a sign to hold up.

I LOVE YOU, SUSIE!

"Fuck, you two are adorable." Vince shook his head with a chuckle, and I breathed a sigh of relief that he seemed to have calmed down.

"He delayed his shoot to be here tonight and tomorrow night so he can watch me headline." She was beaming and blowing kisses down to him, which he pretended to catch and put in his pocket like a ridiculously sexy dork.

"You make me believe true love is possible," Vince said teasingly with a wry grin. Susan immediately gasped and placed a hand on his arm.

"Oh, Vinnie." Her soft voice was laced with sympathy. "You'll find true love."

"Eh." He shrugged. "Not all that interested right now. I prefer fucking with zero emotion."

I snorted in amusement as Susan laughed and Crossbody's lip curled with disdain. With a dramatic flip of his hair, he turned and strode away.

"Well, Asmo gets plenty of that at work," Susan said jovially, which made both of us laugh.

"True," Vince agreed.

"I think some of us plan on heading down to watch Holt's big introduction speech and give him some support from the sidelines," she told us. "Corey's already in his office running through the script and giving him some tips. Breathing exercises and stuff, so he doesn't sound nervous. Do you want to come?"

"Sure," Vince said with a shrug as I nodded and grinned. I liked going down into the arena when it was full. The audience went totally wild when any of us made a surprise appearance, even just to watch from the sidelines.

"Is Chris here yet?" Vince asked as we wandered away from the windows. "Just want to run through it again with him one last time."

"He's about twenty minutes away."

Tonight, we were debuting a new storyline in which Chris—who I rode down the walkway on while he was in his unicorn form—betrayed me to team up with Vince and make me lose the match. He was going to steal my head and run out of the arena with it, leaving my body flailing in the ring for Vince to pin.

I was looking forward to it. I knew the crowd was going to be rabid when Vince beat me. They loved both of us, but Vince was firmly a face—a good guy—whereas I veered closer to being a heel—a villain—kind of straddling the line in between, because I always pulled illegal moves in the ring. It meant some of the audience loved me, while others loved seeing me get taken down. Either way, it made for great crowd reactions.

When Chris showed up a while later, he fist-bumped me and Vince before heading into my dressing room to get ready. Once the audience was seated in the arena—the security was being extra stern about enforcing it tonight—most of us headed down to watch Holt introducing Goliaths to the world, no longer just our local supernatural community.

We used the side entrance to slip into the arena and stand by the now deserted bar. Over by Paxton and his camera were Taylor, Larkin and Corey. The security guards were already blocking the exits from the seats, because people were frantically trying to reach for the Tasselled Tussler. He just gave them a demure smile before turning away. He wasn't performing tonight, so he was wearing only light make-up and a sombre—for him—peach silk jumpsuit with thin straps.

Corey was a natural born performer, and he revelled in the adoration from fans even more than I did, but he also held strong views about not stealing someone else's moment. We'd all heard his many speeches on his philosophy of performing. One of his favourite inspirational phrases was, "This is your moment. Never let anyone take it from you."

And he was unflinchingly loyal to Holt, so he wasn't here to steal the spotlight, just support him.

Larkin was chatting to Paxton, probably distracting him, because he looked a little tense as he fiddled with his camera but nodded politely. Paxton was a shadowperson, so he could operate the three cameras we had at once, his smoke tendrils snaking along the floor to each one around the ring while we performed, making sure he never missed a crucial shot during a match.

Taylor was fiddling anxiously with his phone and glancing repeatedly at the left walkway, which I assumed meant that was where Holt would appear from when we went live.

Some of the audience members seated closest to us finally noticed that most of the Goliaths were down here in the arena, and they started jumping out of their seats and screaming, waving at us. I had my cowboy hat on now, which meant I couldn't tuck my head under my arm, so I placed it on my shoulders and waved back.

Folks started waving their homemade signs at us, and I chuckled as I read them.

THE NIGHT LIGHT WOULD TREAT ME RIGHT

LADY VICTORIA TURNS ME TO STONE

DULLAHAN DAN CAN DU ME ANY DAY

"Ooh, I think it's starting!" Susan patted my arm excitedly. I glanced over with a smile, then followed her gaze up to the commentator's box, where David the incubus was getting settled in his seat and scanning his notes.

When he looked up and dragged his mic closer, he spotted us clustered together by the bar and grinned, shooting us a quick wave. Then he did a few quick mouth exercises, wiggling his jaw and stretching his lips open wide, before fitting the headset over his ears.

His voice boomed through the arena a few seconds later. "Goooooood evening, folks!"

The crowd cheered. I grinned as the floor vibrated under our feet when lots of them started stamping their hooves and feet excitedly.

David chuckled. "We've got a great show for you tonight. And this weekend, for the first time ever, Goliaths of Wrestling is being introduced to the rest of the world through our new online pay-per-view service. Tell all your friends from out of town!"

As the audience roared with excitement, I quickly glanced around again, wondering if Rafe was in here somewhere with his laptop like he had been when they did the test run.

He wasn't. I knew he'd have to be watching so he could react if anything went wrong, but he was probably in his office.

It was kind of a shame that he wasn't out here seeing how excited everyone was. Well, I guessed he was seeing it through a screen, but it wasn't the same as feeling it. Feeling the buzz in the air, feeling the floor rumbling under our feet from the roar of the crowd, feeling the anticipation for real.

"Please stay in your seats, folks. The show will begin shortly when our owner and manager, Holt Hector, makes a special appearance to introduce the launch of GO! Goliaths Online." David cleared his throat and adopted a more clipped, refined tone. "Sponsored by Beef Teef, the jerky of choice for the Goliaths' Tasselled Tussler."

He turned off his mic and sat back, taking a swig from his water bottle. I glanced over and saw Corey talking to Paxton and pointing at the left walkway, no doubt trying to direct the entire show. He was also wearing a headset, and he kept delicately touching the earpiece while turning away and speaking into it. Larkin was helping Taylor with something on his phone, starting to fidget and bounce with excitement. I wondered where Seb was.

When the lights dimmed a couple of minutes later, the crowd roared again. The music got quieter, prompting the audience to gradually start simmering down in anticipation.

"Aaand now, folks." David returned on the mic, pitching his voice lower to ramp up the excitement. "Here to introduce GO! Goliaths Online sponsored by Beef Teef, for the very first time… it's… illustrious Goliaths owner and manageeerrr… Hooolt… Hectooor!"

A burst of loud music was accompanied by pink and green smoke billowing from the left walkway. Corey was speaking rapidly into his headset, and he pointed at the spotlights over the ring a split second before they started flashing pink and green in time with the music. He smiled in satisfaction.

The audience screamed when a tall, slender figure appeared in the colourful smoke, followed by two much larger and more muscular figures. My brows shot up when Holt came into view.

He was wearing a skintight, all-in-one leopard print bodysuit, complete with built-in platform high-heeled boots and gloves. I glanced over at Taylor with a tiny smile to see his reaction. He was blushing, looking a little flustered as he held his phone up to record his boyfriend's big moment. That was kind of sweet.

"Damn, Holt looks gooood ," Vince muttered beside me as the boss waved at the crowd, making his way toward the ring. Seb and Ludo were flanking him a few steps behind, with stoic expressions behind their matching sunglasses, both dressed in sharp black suits.

"I don't understand how he got that on," Heidi said, sounding confused. "If he needs to pee, does he have to strip off his upper half completely?"

"He's probably not going to be wearing it for that long," Vince said, and Mads snorted, crossing her arms with an amused smile.

"He's probably never going to take it off, actually. Look at him. He knows how good he looks."

Holt had paused at the end of the walkway, preening and waving and flipping back his shiny dark hair as Ludo and Seb set down a glittery pink footstool. Then they leaped onto the very edge of the ring and pushed down the bottom two ropes with a foot each while grasping the top to stretch it up and out of the way.

Holt stepped delicately onto the footstool and took the hand Seb offered so he could gracefully duck under the top rope and enter the ring. I was kind of impressed. It was all very seamless. They must've practised a lot.

One of Paxton's smoke tendrils snaked into the ring holding a mic, which Holt took with a smile, waiting for the audience to stop screaming and cheering. He didn't look like he minded, though.

Taylor looked a little emotional as he kept filming on his phone. Larkin was filming now too, but he was definitely pointing his camera at Seb, not Holt. Corey mouthed something to Holt, then nodded emphatically as he pushed his finger into his cheek and smiled with lots of teeth like an overbearing pageant mom.

In the ring, Holt made his smile wider, clearly following Corey's directions. He waved again and finally raised the mic to his mouth when the crowd began to quieten down.

"Good evening, everyone," he said clearly, his voice only the tiniest bit unsteady with nerves.

I chuckled. "I don't think I've ever noticed how polished Holt's accent is."

Vince snorted. "You saw his mom and sister at his birthday party, right? They were fancy as fuck. Kind of snooty." After a pause, he added, "Pretty sure the sister was interested in Crossbody. Makes sense."

I glanced back. Crossbody was standing beside Kenneth just behind us, but he either hadn't heard or was choosing to ignore Vince as he watched Holt with his arms crossed and a haughty brow raised.

"I am delighted to introduce the start of a new era for Goliaths of Wrestling," Holt was saying into the mic. "A bigger, better era that will see us grow exponentially. And you , our loyal fans, are the lucky ones who get to witness it in person."

He smiled wide as the crowd cheered, his nerves gone now and his hot pink eyes gleaming with exhilaration.

"And to our new fans watching across the world"—he gracefully spun to face the camera Corey was frantically pointing at—"it's my great pleasure to introduce to you the Goliaths in all their glory. I can confidently say that my wrestlers are the greatest supernatural wrestlers in the country." As the crowd cheered again, he quickly added, clearly buoyed by his enthusiastic audience, "No—the world !"

The crowd screamed and whooped, standing up to stamp their feet and pump their arms.

"We have a fantastic line-up for you tonight to kick things off," Holt continued, speaking a little louder into the mic to be heard over the roar. "So without further ado…" He paused for dramatic effect, then threw his arm up into the air. "Llllet's get ready for the Goliaaaaths!"

In the commentator box, I saw David's mouth drop open. He looked outraged that Holt had stolen his big line, but hastily tempered his reaction and got ready to speak as Holt wrapped up his speech.

"Beef Teef is the proud sponsor of GO! Goliaths Online," he was saying pleasantly into the mic. "Beef Teef—the jerky of choice for the Goliaths' Tasselled Tussler."

Paxton quickly swung one of the cameras around to focus on Corey, who made a big show of looking humble yet pleased—a look he'd perfected—as he waved regally.

Seb and Ludo held the ropes apart again and helped Holt back out of the ring. Ludo picked up the glittery footstool and moved it to the side before he and Seb followed the boss back up the walkway. Holt was smiling demurely up at the audience members cheering and waving down at him from their seats.

Taylor fumbled with his phone, looking a little choked up and adorably proud. He said something to Larkin, then hurried out of the arena. Larkin wasn't even paying attention. Too busy lifting his phone high to try and zoom in on Seb's ass as the werewolf followed Holt up the walkway.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," David said over the mic with a slightly terse chuckle. "Llllet's get ready for the Goliaths!"