7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

BLAKE

" H ey Blake," Landon said from the other side of the bar, immediately grabbing a pint glass. "The usual?"

I nodded, exhaling heavily and wondering if I should get a coffee instead to wake me up. The fight was late enough tonight that I'd managed a few hours' sleep first, before Leo had dragged me out of bed, but I was still fucking exhausted and wanted to be just about anywhere other than here.

"There's a new guy tonight." The beta bartender pushed the beer over to me while I patted my pockets, looking for my wallet. "Don't worry, this drink is on the house. You might need it to steady your nerves—the new guy is who Leo is up against."

"Thanks. Is he? Leo didn't mention a new guy." My brother had immediately vanished to greet his "friends" the moment we'd arrived, ignoring me now that he'd been allowed on the premises. They weren't actually his friends—they were punters, and Leo was a good bet, nothing more. Leo's ego didn't allow him to see that, though.

"Leo might not know about it yet. Ronnie only brought the new guy on a couple of hours ago. He's a big bastard."

"So is Leo," I replied, shooting Landon a sharp smile.

"True," Landon conceded, tipping his head in acknowledgement, though he seemed oddly uneasy. He'd worked here for as long as we'd been coming to Leviathan, and was pretty hard to rattle.

"You're not convinced?" I asked over the rim of my drink before taking a sip.

Landon shrugged. "Ronnie has been a bit… hasty lately."

"In what way?"

He was clearly uncomfortable talking out of school, and I did my best to look casual and less threatening than Landon probably perceived me as. Unfortunately, there was only so much I could do, by virtue of my size alone. My face probably didn't help, though I didn't mean to look like such an angry fucker all the time.

"Ronnie has been making a lot of business choices that feel a little…" Landon trailed off, absently wiping the same spot in front of him as he mulled it over. "Desperate," he decided on eventually.

I nodded slowly, giving the idea some consideration as Landon was called away to serve another customer.

Rents were up everywhere. This area of London—formerly a grimy shithole—had become something of a trendy hotspot recently, for reasons I would never understand. The underground fight scene had been splintering in recent years, both as the authorities cracked down on it, and legitimate fighting became a more lucrative option.

The writing was probably on the wall for Leviathan , and perhaps it had been for a long time, but I hadn't been paying close enough attention. And if I hadn't, then Leo definitely hadn't, because his attention span was basically nonexistent.

Could I convince Leo to go legit? He was a bit long in the tooth for it, but maybe he could still get a few years out of it. It would be safer and a steadier source of income than this, at least.

Leo and his competitor climbed into the cage just as I was finishing my beer, and I made my way through the still-forming crowd to speak to my brother.

It wasn't until I climbed onto the narrow lip of the raised cage, holding on to the chain link to keep myself steady, that I got a good look at Leo's opponent.

Landon had been underselling when he'd called him a big bastard. This guy was a beast , with a bald head and raised veins everywhere beneath tomato-red skin. His teeth were bared already, gaze fixed wholly on Leo, who wasn't backing down in the slightest.

At this rate, they were going to have to start the fight early, given the aggression that was pouring off these two.

This had bad idea written all over it.

"Don't be an idiot, Leo," I murmured, speaking to the back of his head through the fence. "That guy looks practically feral."

Leo grunted in acknowledgement, playing with his mouth guard, but that was all he gave me. I should have known he wouldn't even consider forfeiting, but I was irritated regardless.

He wasn't going to concede, which meant he'd get his ass kicked. Then I'd have to lug him home where he'd be half dead for a week, and entirely useless to Freya. By the time he recovered, he'd be demanding to come back here and do it all over again.

With a huff, I jumped down from the raised cage edge, pushing my way through the throng of people who were now pressing as close as they could to the action, drawn in by the temptation of violence in the air. Ronnie had stationed himself behind the betting table, though he was merely supervising as his staff managed the books.

"Oi, Ronnie. Where'd you find this joker?" I asked, jabbing my thumb over my shoulder at the ring.

"New bloke. Rytis." Ronnie grinned, flashing me a mouthful of gold-capped teeth. "He's from up north somewhere. Domas is vouching for him."

Domas was a weaselly little fuck and all, so that lined up.

"You sure he's good to fight? He looks a little feral."

Ronnie waved his hand dismissively. "That's just his face. You know me, Blake. I'd never put a feral alpha in the ring."

It was because I knew Ronnie—on top of what Landon had said—that I didn't believe those words for a second. I elbowed my way back to the ring to where Leo was warming up, wondering if I could talk reason into my idiot brother.

Would Ronnie even know what a feral alpha looked like? Considering it was a side effect of unchecked aggression—which was in large supply here—I hoped he would know the signs. But Leviathan was always packed with drunk and happy betas, who had a neutralising effect on all heightened alpha responses.

I was familiar with feral alphas because there sure as fuck weren't any happy betas in the army—not in my platoon, at least. Alphas were usually stationed together and sent to more challenging locations, since we tended to be hardier.

I'd seen plenty of those alphas go feral over the years, and I'd battled hard to keep Leo away from his own brushes with it. Once that dam broke, it could never be pieced back together in quite the same way.

By the time I got back to the ring, the two of them were already touching gloves as the beta ref muttered some low words of warning. He directed them back to their corners before climbing out of the cage himself, wisely avoiding being in an enclosed space with two such clearly aggressive alphas.

There was no dancing around, no feeling each other out. Leo and Rytis immediately launched themselves at each other, furiously trading blows with an honestly embarrassing lack of finesse. Leo wasn't usually so sloppy, but he was feeding off Rytis's aggression, and it was making him hit first, strategize later.

"Focus!" I yelled, wincing as Leo caught a sharp jab to the ribs. Fuck my life. He was going to be a right mopey bastard on the way home. Or comatose. One or the other.

I was relieved to see Leo land a few decent hits of his own, but Rytis didn't even flinch, not even as blood streamed directly into his eye from a reopened cut beneath his eyebrow.

The veins under Rytis's skin had been raised in sharp relief before the fight had even begun, but they'd grown alarmingly pronounced now. His pupils were dilated, and his gaze was wild and frenetic, rather than focused or even generally aware . Nothing about Rytis's expression changed, no matter what was happening around him.

Ronnie was ignorant or a liar, because this was a feral alpha.

As they continued to trade blows, the crowd—who'd been enthusiastically cheering every time either of them had landed a hit—were now watching in uncomfortable silence. I doubted they knew enough about feral alphas to know exactly what was wrong, but they knew it was something .

The worst part was that Rytis was too far gone for anyone to call the fight off now. His hind brain was totally in control, demanding blood. Demanding submission.

If Leo were smart, he wouldn't antagonise Rytis any further. He'd accept a slightly embarrassing defeat, and walk out of the ring under his own steam, with all of his teeth intact.

Instead, he threw himself forwards, coming at Rytis with everything he had. But going feral gave Rytis both a strength and a stamina advantage. The longer it dragged out, the more Leo's movements grew sluggish and sloppy. As soon as Leo found himself fully on the defensive, I knew that there was no coming back from it.

"Concede, Leo!" I yelled, knowing he wouldn't. Not even when he was clearly struggling to lift his arms any higher than his elbows. Not even when he was obviously too slow to block in time.

Leo took a hard punch to the head, crumbling to the ground like he was made of sand.

I slammed my fist against the chain link reflexively, the noise a loud crash in the eerily quiet club.

Rytis's head lifted, bloodshot eyes locking on me as the next target that needed eliminating, despite the team behind him on his side of the cage, urging him to take some deep breaths. Instead, Rytis started pacing, inching increasingly close to Leo's limp form like an animal guarding its kill.

Fuck's sake. Leo owed me for this one.

"Stupid, moronic brother," I grumbled to myself, ignoring my own alpha instincts that demanded I engage and pushing through the still and uncomfortable crowd. No one stopped me as I jumped over the bar top and yanked the door of the small wall panel between the shelves of bottles, pulling down the lever that manually activated the sprinkler system.

It was instantly chaos. Everyone sprinted for the exits, and the rush kicked the useless alpha bouncers into gear, forcing them to safely funnel patrons up the stairs before they trampled each other. I climbed up on the slippery bar top so I could get a view of the cage where Leo was still lying unmoving in the centre. Rytis was shaking his head, flicking away the water in irritation, which was a positive sign. The water was piercing through the haze enough to annoy him, and his support team was using it to their advantage, shouting for him to leave.

"I'll help you pull Leo out," Landon offered, carefully climbing over the bar top with me as I jumped down.

I nodded in thanks, not having thought that far ahead. Landon was slight and Leo weighed a ton, but I'd drag my brother out of here by the ankles if I had to, and he could goddamn thank me for it tomorrow. It was his fault we were here in the first place.

"You'll fucking pay for that, Blake!" Ronnie yelled as Landon and I passed him. "Anything that needs replacing is coming out of your pocket, Blake—you hear me?"

"Ignore him," Landon shouted over my shoulder. "Ronnie will be fucking cooked if someone dies in the ring, and he knows it."

"Comforting," I snapped.

"Sorry. I didn't mean Leo. He's fine, right? You don't seem worried, and he's made of tough stuff. Anyway, Ronnie is full of shit. We've pulled the sprinklers before for crowd control—the club will be fine."

I didn't particularly care either way, but it was nice of Landon to reassure me. By the time we got to the front, Rytis had already vanished from the ring, and Landon followed me in without hesitation, both of us slipping on the wet padded floor as we made our way over to Leo. It took us several attempts, down on our knees in the rapidly forming puddle, to drag Leo upright, his arms draped over our shoulders, body hanging limp between us.

"Now what?" Landon called, panting with exertion as we made it to the cage opening. I'd genuinely been considering tossing Leo on the floor and hoping for the best, so it was lucky that some of the bouncers decided to pull their fingers out of their arses and give us a hand to lift him down. Someone had shut off the water at some point, but the place was drenched and the staff were running around like headless chickens while Ronnie barked orders at them.

"You parked in your usual spot?" Landon asked. "Ronnie will cool off about the sprinklers—he knew that situation was getting out of hand—but he might not forgive you if you call an ambulance to his property. Negative attention, innit?"

"Leo would be pissed too," I grumbled, directing the small crew of helpers to carry Leo upstairs and out into the carpark where I'd left the van. They held him for me as I cleared a bit of space in the back, throwing down some dropcloths for him to bleed on.

"Need anything else?" Landon asked, watching on as the bouncers loaded Leo into the back. My brother groaned, doing his best to squirm away from them, but clearly in no physical condition to go very far.

"No, thanks. Either he'll be fit enough to get out of the van under his own steam, or he's sleeping in there tonight." I shrugged. It wouldn't be the first time.

Landon nodded, looking apprehensive. Alphas were hard to kill though, Leo would be fine. "I'll let you know when Ronnie cools off."

"I'd appreciate that." I clapped him on the shoulder before closing the back doors and making for the driver's seat. If I had my way, we'd never see Leviathan again, but I doubted Leo would have the same takeaway from tonight. He'd probably not only want to come back to the club the moment he regained consciousness, but he'd demand a rematch with Rytis to boot.

His idiocy was exhausting. It always had been, but my patience for it had dropped significantly in the past year.

As I drove home through the quiet streets, ignoring Leo's cursing and pained groans as he came back to the land of the living, it was the image of Inika's face that was at the forefront of my mind. Specifically, that mischievous smile she'd given me when she asked whether I was freaking out.

What would it be like to come home to a mate? To crawl into her nest—crawl between her thighs—and lose ourselves entirely in each other?

"What happened?" Leo groaned, his words thick and slurred. "Did I lose? I fucking had him, I swear. Let's go back. Why'd we leave the club?"

It wasn't like I hadn't considered having a mate in an abstract sense before, but now my brain was unhelpfully supplying Inika's face—and Inika's thighs—to taunt me with the future I would never have.

"Blake! Did you hear me?"

"I heard you," I murmured, keeping my gaze fixed on the road ahead and my head in the clouds. Anywhere but here.