Chapter 26

Chapt er 26

Rose

We follow a small group of people over to a building that has definitely seen better days. I wonder if the door will be locked, but it's not. I glance at Ava, but she doesn't look over at me. She holds her head high, looking like she's supposed to be here, and I try to do the same. The group in front of us goes inside and we follow a moment later. We follow the people in front of us through a set of double doors, and I blink at the bright lights and the noise. We're in some kind of old factory building. The electric probably stopped working a long time ago, but there are generators powering spotlights. Music pumps through huge speakers on the floor. I stare at the scene in front of me as I realize what it is. "Ava," I call out, but she doesn't hear me over the noise. We're pushed forward, and I glance behind me, trying to see the door we came through but it's long gone. There are too many people. We get pushed in further and further. We're surrounded on every side by people...too many people. I feel myself starting to panic. Ava squeezes my hand. "What is this place?" she yells in my ear.

"It's a fight club!" I yell back. Her eyes widen, but we're pushed forward before she can say anything. I try to look back at the exit again but can't see it. Panic claws through my chest, and I try to take a breath. Ava doesn't look a whole lot better than I do, and I berate myself for putting us in this situation. I glance around, trying to gauge how it works. From what I can see, there are three fight circles. Fights are taking place in each of them. The noise from the music and the people yelling drown out the noise of the fights, and for that, I'm grateful. Since we can't go backward, I figure we might as well keep going forward. "Maybe there's an exit on the other side," I shout to Ava. She nods, and we begin slowly moving through the crowd. It's next to impossible. It takes forever to just make a little progress.

Time seems to drag, and we focus on not getting trampled. Somehow, we finally make our way to the side of one of the fights going on. I manage to get a glimpse through the mass of bodies and freeze. Ava keeps moving forward, but I grab her hand and squeeze. When she turns to me, I point at the circle. "Maverick's in there!" I shout over the noise. She nods, and we turn our focus to getting closer to the fight. Neither of us are particularly tall, so it takes work, but I finally manage a tiny spot where I can bend in just the right position and see through the crowd. I see Maverick standing tall in the circle. His shirt is off, and he's just wearing shorts. I swallow. I may be a distance away, but I can see how cut he is. He's muscular everywhere . I can clearly see his markings that look like tattoos. I know that they're alpha marks, but it surprises me that he has so many seeing as he's not an alpha.

The fight starts, and I watch as Maverick explodes into action. As brutal as it is, I can't look away. Watching Maverick is like watching a waterfall; it's all grace and power. It doesn't take long for Maverick to decimate his opponent. Another guy takes Maverick's arm and holds it up, and I watch him carefully. He doesn't smile. He doesn't even look out of breath. It only takes a minute or two before another guy steps into the ring. I suck in a breath. He looks mean and tough and dangerous. His head is shaved, and he's got tattoos all over his body. He's shorter than Maverick, but he's built like a tank truck. There's a whole lot of cheering, and I get the feeling that this guy might be a fan favorite. As the cheering and noise ratchets up, I grab Ava's hand and drag her with me as I try to fight the crowd to get closer. I lose my view for a few precious seconds. When I can finally see again, I see the fight has started. Maverick and the other man are circling each other. And then the guy goes for it. He goes after Mav brutally. I can't even look. It's a brutal fight. I cover my eyes, too scared to look. I peek through my fingers and see Maverick is still on his feet. Then I see the craziest thing. I see a tiny smirk playing on the side of Mav's mouth. If I didn't know that smirk by heart, I wouldn't even notice it. But I've seen that smirk more times than I could count. I'm always itching for it to become an actual smile, but so far, I've had no luck.

I stare at Mav now as it hits me—he's just toying with this guy. I suck in a breath because I knew he was powerful, but this—this is next level. I watch as he darts in and out of reach of his opponent. His opponent is getting really annoyed with not being able to pin Maverick down. I push closer, trying to get closer to the edge of the circle. Suddenly, Maverick's head jerks up. He pauses for the tiniest second, and then he attacks. He ends the fight in less than ten seconds. The cheering around us dies down as the cheering on the other side of the circle ratchets up. I lost sight of Maverick for a moment. Then suddenly, he's in front of me. I yelp and nearly stumble backward, but a firm hand on my elbow keeps me from falling.

Maverick's dark eyes blaze as he stares down at me. "Let's go. Now." He demands. Without another word, he wraps his hand tighter around my elbow and Ava's as well and strides through the crowd. The crowd parts for him like he's stinking Moses and they're the Red Sea. We're back at the entrance in a mere seconds. Then he's in my face. "Don't move." He disappears for a moment before I can argue with him. He's back less than two seconds later with a bag over his shoulder. "Let's go." He pushes through the double doors and then out the front door. The noise of the building falls away as the silence of the dark night settles around us. There are people congregating here and there, but the noise is nothing like it was inside. My ears are still ringing. Mav doesn't say a word as he marches us across the parking lot. I happen to glance down.

"You're not wearing any shoes." I feel like I should point it out. I mean, it has to hurt, walking on the broken concrete like that. But if it does, he doesn't show it. We're at his car moments later.

"Get in," he growls.

I face him. "Maverick, I know you're upset, but—"

He steps close to me. "Get in the car, Healer." His words have an edge to them.

"But we drove a car, and we need to—eep! Maverick!" I'm suddenly slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. All the blood rushes to my head. And then suddenly, I'm flipped upright and set into the front seat of the car. By the time I can see clearly, my door is closed and Maverick is on the other side of the car. I glance over my shoulder and see Ava sitting in the backseat. "How dare he!" I'm furious.

Ava is oddly quiet and diminutive. All her bravado from earlier has certainly left her. "I think we'd better just go with him," she says quietly.

Before I can say anything, Mav slides into the driver's seat, wearing shoes this time, I notice. "Maverick, we—"

"Don't," he says, turning to me. The fury in his eyes silences me. I watch as we pass Sara's car.

I squeeze my hands into fists. "That's Sara's car," I say quietly.

"I'll send somebody back for it." His words are final. I glance over at him and then grimace and look away. I've seen him mad. A lot. But this mad feels like a whole other level. I glance back at Ava, but she's staring out her window silently. I finally decide to do the same. It's absolutely silent the entire way back to the pack house. There's not even the sound of the radio to break the silence. When we pull back through security, I do my best to duck so the guy from earlier doesn't see me.

It doesn't work. "Mav, glad to see you caught up with your date for tonight. Hope it was a good surprise."

"Oh, it was a surprise all right," Mav growls, and I try to sink lower in my seat. We drive the rest of the way to the house in silence. Maverick parks and makes no move to get out of the car. I take that as my chance to escape.

"All right. Well, thanks for the ride." I reach out for the handle.

"Don't even think about getting out of this car," he growls at me, and I freeze.

"Um, I'm going to head in," Ava says from behind me. When Maverick doesn't say anything, she climbs out quickly and closes the door.

Coward. She and I will be having words tomorrow morning. I take a deep breath and try to figure how to get out of this mess. "Maverick, I—"

"Don't," he interrupts.

I snap my mouth shut and then try again. "Look, I know you're mad at me, but there's no reason for it."

He turns his head to look at me. "No reason?" he repeats in a voice that makes me think maybe I misjudged just how mad he is.

"How about we just chalk this up to a misunderstanding and forgive and forget?"

"Do you know how I knew you were there?" he asks suddenly, and I freeze.

"Uh, no."

"I smelled you," he says in a low voice that's still filled with anger.

I wrinkle my nose. "Are you sure it was me you smelled? There were a lot of scents going on in that place. I'm sure I wasn't—"

"Your scent hit me, and my wolf pushed me for dominance. I almost shifted on the spot."

I cringe. "Sorry."

"That would be really bad. Do you know why?"

"Uh because everybody would know you're a wolf?" I ask.

His eyes meet mine, and I see his eyes are glowing. I catch my breath at the obvious presence of his wolf. His voice is deeper when he responds. "Because my wolf would have killed anyone standing between him and his mate. And then he would have killed everybody else there just because they were in the same vicinity as you."

"Mav," I shake my head. "You wouldn't have—"

"He would have, Healer." I stare at him. "What you did tonight was stupid and reckless." His words wipe any tenderness away, and I jerk back.

"I wasn't being stupid and reckless." I shake my head, reaching out for the door handle.

"You sure about that because that's what it looks like from where I'm sitting. You have to stop doing things like this."

And just like that, I've had enough. "You know what? I've had enough of this from you. You call me reckless and stupid. Yet, who was the one fighting in a fight club tonight? Who is the one that disappears almost every night to go fight in some stupid fight club where you could get killed and nobody would even know? Does Cade even know you do this? Does he?" I push when he doesn't answer. I pull on the handle and open the door. "Now, I'm going to take my stupid, reckless self up to bed because instead of sleeping tonight, I had to drive halfway across town to check on you because I thought you were with another woman!" I climb out and slam the door behind me. I take two steps, and Mav is in front of me. Stupid shifter abilities.