5. Tristan
Tristan
Chapter 5
I could feel the confusion written all over my face as I steered the truck down the wide boulevard, the road bordered with manicured grass and tall maple trees. Even in the dark, I could see how swanky it was. Hell, I could smell it. Instead of the concrete, steel, and car exhaust that surrounded the downtown area, all I could smell here was rich soil and rose gardens. The massive properties on either side were surrounded with thick fences, but the glimpses I caught of the houses beyond were lavish. This neighborhood was a far cry from my little camp in the woods.
"Are you sure this is right?" Jude asked skeptically, leaning forward to squint through the windshield. His face was gilded in golden light from the passing wrought-iron lampposts.
"Believe me, I'm just as baffled as you are," I admitted. I'd already double- and triple-checked the address, but the truck's GPS was adamant that this was the place.
"Your destination is on the right," the cheerful artificial voice declared through the speakers. My hands tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles aching from the choking grip. Pulling up along the curb, I put the truck in Park and cut the engine. The ticking engine as it began to cool was the only sound. There were no cars, no barking dogs, no sirens or music, not even a single pedestrian. Nothing. This community was like a world apart.
Grinding my teeth, I peered out the window at the impenetrable stone wall, broken only by a wide gate. Was my mate on the other side? Was this his home?
I'd never seen an issue with living in the woods like we did. I liked getting my hands dirty, the ache in my muscles from a day's hard labor. I didn't need anything fancy. But suddenly, I found myself wondering if it wasn't enough, even though it was all I'd ever known. That self-doubt that had been sinking in for the past fifteen minutes as my surroundings began to improve now had me in its grasp, dragging me down into its depths. How could fate have decided I was worthy of my mystery omega? I was nothing. Not in a million years would I be able to provide this kind of lifestyle for my mate. I was set up to fail. There was no way he could ever be content to live in my shitty cabin in the woods. If it weren't for my wolf's sheer stubbornness, I might've given up and gone home.
Liar, my wolf snarked smugly.
Okay, you're right. Even if he were a prince, I would still find myself on his doorstep begging for a chance to prove myself. When I thought of how of I felt the moment I laid eyes on him, the way he heart, mind, body had shifted over to make room for him, I knew without a doubt that I would spend the rest of my life trying to prove I was worthy of him.
I was snapped out of my musings by Jude's rough grumble. "It's not fair." He crossed his arms over his chest. "You didn't even want a stupid mate, and fate just drops him straight in your lap. It's bullshit."
"Huh. What is that?" I asked, pointing at his face. "Is that… are you pouting?" I teased, grabbing for his lip.
He slapped my hand away, but a reluctant smile appeared. "I'm not pouting. It's just…" A familiar shadow slipped into place behind his eyes, and the hard-won smile faded.
As grumpy and impossible as he was sometimes, there was no mistaking the longing he felt. "I know. You want a family."
"More than anything," he whispered, then drew in a quick gasp as though he hadn't meant to make the confession. "Just… don't tell Shan." His eyes turned pleading. "He's always trying to fix everything, and I don't want to turn into his pet project. I don't need his pity."
"Your secret is safe with me," I said, though I knew for a fact that Shan had noticed Jude's mood all on his own. Jude was a lot of things, but he was a shit actor. Our Alpha, however, would never try to set Jude up with an omega. He put his full faith in fate. Shan knew the stars would align eventually, but only when they were good and ready. "You know, maybe you'd find your mate if you left the woods every now and then. You should come to the city with me more often."
He shook his head, smirking. "Don't press your luck."
Smacking Jude on the shoulder, I said, "Come on, let's get this over with. I'm sure these rich snobs will take one look at us and set the dogs loose to chase us off."
Jude snorted. "They'd have to be lions to be a match for us."
"You know it!" I held my fist up for a bump, but he just stared at it for a second before popping open the door and climbing out. "Harsh, man. Haven't I been left hanging enough?"
Because, yeah, my mate totally left me hanging last night. And like a moron, I just stood there and watched him walk away from me. After a blowjob like that, I was lucky I could even stand. But, I mean, what else was I supposed to do? I could've chased him, made a very messy, public scene crawling behind him on my hands and knees, begging for him to stay, but that would not have been a good look.
The raw, bare truth was that I'd never been attached to anything—beyond my packmates, but they weren't even on the same level—and this new possessive streak burning through me was absolutely terrifying. I went from being a carefree stud with commitment issues to a family man looking to settle down, all in the blink of an eye. I was surprised I didn't have whiplash!
And the craziest part? It never would've happened if Vesta hadn't gone all woo-woo fortuneteller on me and told me to come to Fairhome. I could've gone my whole life never knowing what this felt like. I could've kept screwing my way through the club scene, could've kept my heart safe from this aching loneliness. Without my mate, I felt like half a man.
I closed my eyes tight, blowing out a slow breath. "Damn you, Vesta," I cursed, rubbing at my chest where a hollow ache hadn't let up since my mystery man left me alone in that bathroom. I could almost hear her laughter at the predicament I found myself in.
Kicking my door open, I hopped down, breathing in the cool night air. There was a faint whiff of various shifters, but nothing definitive. Bolstered, Jude and I walked up to the gate. There was an intercom on the left, and shrugging off the growing unease, I approached it and pressed the button.
For a long moment, nothing happened, but then I heard a small whirr, and I looked up to find a camera trained right on me. There was a click, and though no one spoke, I had a feeling they were waiting for me to say something. "Uh, hello? I have this… card?" I said, digging it out of my pocket and holding it up to the camera. I felt like such an idiot. I couldn't even tell them the name of the man who gave me the card. There was no way this would work, and I couldn't blame them. I wouldn't let me in either.
But then there was a soft buzz and a click, and the gate slowly swung open. Jude and I exchanged a wary glance, and he shrugged and jerked his head toward the mansion we could see in the near distance, peeking over a rise. "What are you waiting for? Go get your man."
There's no way it's that easy…
We walked side by side toward the house. I felt movement across the shadowed grounds, like a whispering touch across my senses. Guards patrolled, escorting us from out of sight, keeping us from wandering the property. Irritation ate at my nerves. "Why did he leave me?" I snapped when the pressure finally got to be too much. "Last night, he just… walked away! How could he do it? Didn't he feel the same way I felt? Is this some kind of game to him?"
Jude shook his head. "You didn't see him when he stumbled out of that bathroom. He was… shaken."
"You mean I— Did I scare him?" The thought that I might've treated him as anything other than precious made my insides itch.
"No, no, not like that. More like he was unsteady, had a lot on his mind. But he was also smiling, so I'm sure you made a good impression."
Except he was the one who'd made the impression. He'd barely given me a chance to get started on him. Well, I wouldn't let him walk away a second time.
The house only seemed to get more ridiculous as it came into full view. Two stories, with marble columns reaching from the ground all the way up, like some kind of Greek monument, along with wide balconies and so many windows that it glittered in the moonlight. I wondered how many people lived there. Did my omega come from a big family? The house was larger than our entire camp.
The front door opened as we approached, and light spilled across the lawn. "Not here, idiots. Go around back," a man said gruffly, hiking his thumb to the side. He wore a suit that fit tight across his barrel chest and scented of boar. "And you'd better hurry. It's about to begin."
"Yeah. Right. Thanks," I said, keeping my voice level, even as my heart felt like it was lodged in my throat. I'd caught a whiff of my mate through the open door, but it wasn't like I could just barge past the guy and force my way in. It wasn't that I didn't think I could take him, but he had security guard written all over him, and I highly doubted he was working alone. Not in a place like this. I waved at the guard vaguely as I grabbed Jude by the arm and started off at a jog in the direction he'd indicated.
As soon as we'd rounded the corner, Jude glanced back over his shoulder and muttered, "Late for what?"
"You think I have any idea?" I hissed through gritted teeth. "I'm just as in the dark as you are, but I can tell you one thing. I can't wait to get my hands on that mate of mine. He's got some serious explaining to do."
"Why didn't you just ask that guy where he was? Maybe this is just some kind of misunderstanding. Like he thinks we're here to clean the pool or something."
"Do you really believe that?" I asked as we made our way to the back of the house where a landscaped yard spread out. My nostrils flared, alarms ringing in my head at the array of scents.
Jude smelled it too, and his pace slowed, his claws extending. "No. I don't." He paused to peek around the corner, his head swiveling left and right, watching for the threat we both knew was here. Because the air was ripe with the stench of predators.
Past-me would've wondered if one omega was worth all this trouble, probably would've cut and run shortly after coming in his mouth, but things had changed. Hell, understatement of the year. It felt like the laws of physics themselves had shifted. Why else did it feel like gravity no longer applied? My compass no longer pointed north.
And badass panther or not, if my mate was in danger, I would not hesitate to throw myself into the fray.
Heat licked along my insides, and a low growl rumbled from the back of my throat. I didn't need to look in a mirror to know my eyes had gone wolfy. Fur began to sprout along the back of my hands. He is ours, my wolf snarled, sharing my sentiment exactly.
I didn't bother with caution or skulking around like Jude was doing. I just marched around that corner like I owned the damn place. "Wait!" Jude snapped, making a grab for me, but I was done waiting. It was time for action.
There was a set of guards, similarly dressed in suits, on either side of a set of sunken steps leading into the earth, like a root cellar. Both their eyes lit up with their beasts when they saw me coming—some sort of eagle and a crocodile, if my nose was right—their hands straying to guns holstered at their waists, but they didn't draw. Instead, they waited to see what I would do.
I bit down on my tongue to keep from lashing out, coming to a stop in front of them. I felt Jude's heat as he moved in at my back. Drawing out the business card again, I held it up between two fingers. "I've been invited," I said, telling the truth but leaving out any details.
The guards exchanged a glance, then the eagle stepped aside and nodded at me. "Don't get started too early," he said, eyes drifting down to where I was tapping a tempo out on my thigh, my claws snagging on my jeans. "Mr. Caruso takes this very seriously, and he expects you to play by his rules. If you can't abide them, you will be escorted from the premises."
"Of course. I wouldn't want to upset Mr. Caruso." I was confused, untethered, and bordering on feral in my desperation to see my mate, but I didn't allow myself to blink as I stared right at him.
His eyes trailed down my body, taking me in, and he chuckled and shook his head. "You don't stand a chance."
How was I supposed to answer that? A chance at what?
As I descended the set of concrete stairs, the skin on the back of my neck prickled in warning. I felt like I was walking into a den of vipers—almost literally, considering I was pretty sure there were at least three kinds of venomous snake shifters in here. What the hell was going on?
Shoving open the doors at the bottom of the stairs, my senses were assaulted by a barrage of sounds and smells and a suffocating wave of body heat. Instinctively, I held my breath, my wolf pressing to take control of my body in self-defense. I took in my surroundings, glad for my shifter eyesight. There were concrete walls and floors, low lighting from sconces. It was almost a bit like the bar last night, with rock music and a crowd of shifters milling around in small groups, but that was where the similarities ended. The mood in the room was not lighthearted or fun—there was aggression and violence pricking at my senses. Oh yeah, and then there was the fucking cage.
Right there in the center of the open space was a big-ass caged arena like I'd seen on a TV in a bar once, the kind used for MMA bouts. I eased into the room, weaving through the crowd to get a closer look.
Jude stayed as close to me as possible, even going so far as setting a hand on my shoulder. "I don't like this," he warned in my ear. Same, brother. Same.
It seemed no one was here alone. There was an entire pack of hyena shifters and a lot of big cats. I drew in a deep breath, sorting through the smells. There was a distinct lack of prey animals in the place and a disproportionate number of alphas, but also, an underlying scent of steel and gunpowder. "What the hell have we walked in on? Some kind of fight club?" I muttered under my breath. Whatever it was, I had a feeling walking out wouldn't be so easy.
"We don't belong here," I said, stating the obvious as I scanned those around us. It wasn't that I didn't feel like our wolves didn't measure up in this crowd, but it was similar to how I felt driving our truck down the street outside. These men were all wearing their best suits, their fingers adorned with heavy jeweled rings, gold watches, and chains peeking from the cuffs of their spotless dress shirts. I glanced down at my ripped jeans and t-shirt worn soft. I was severely underdressed.
I had almost reached the cage when a spotlight clicked on, and someone cut the music. All conversation tapered off as a tall man stepped up onto a dais at the far edge of the room. His elevated position put him above the crowd, and I knew immediately this was my mate's father. Besides also being a panther, he had the same hair, the same eyes, though this man was all Alpha, capital A. He had an aura of authority that threatened to buckle my knees in subjugation. I wasn't the only one under strain. I saw eyes lowered and necks bared.
"Welcome and good evening," the man I assumed was Mr. Caruso said. Everyone was so silent, you could've heard a mouse fart. "We all know what you're here for tonight." Speak for yourself, I thought. "You've gathered to compete for a chance to join my family. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it comes with generous benefits. Only the strongest, fastest, most cunning of you will win. The most ruthless." He paced the length of his stage, eyeing the potential competitors. I felt his gaze linger on me a moment, the corners of his eyes tightening, before moving on. "There will be one round of preliminary fights tonight. You must start in your human skin until first blood is drawn. There will be no need to fight to the death, we're not savages, after all… but if it happens…" He shrugged. "For this competition only, there will be no repercussions for a life taken. Those are the risks."
A tall viper shifter to my left chuckled darkly, cracking his knuckles, which were tattooed with letters that spelled out GO TO on one hand and HELL on the other. A license to murder? Mr. Caruso had just handed out a free pass to a room full of killers. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. What the fuck was I doing here?!
Mr. Caruso paused in his pacing, hands clasped at his waist. "Would anyone like to leave now? I will think no less of you, no hard feelings. All our previous business dealings will remain in place." He waited, but no one left, though I heard a few shifting uneasily, loose grit grinding under their feet. "And now that we have all the formalities out of the way… let me introduce you to the prize."
A door opened, and with it, a wave of familiar scent washed over me. I swayed on my feet, lightheaded, and instinctively started moving forward through the crowd until Jude locked an arm around my neck to hold me in place. "Don't," he gritted out, but no matter the logical part of my mind that agreed with him that it would mean my death, my heart and soul had already left my body, halfway across the room by now.
Out walked the panther shifter from last night, his skin radiant under the spotlight. Mr. Caruso gestured to him with a wave of his hand that would've made Vanna White proud. "My son, Dylan."
It felt like the floor tilted like a ship at sea, nausea twisting my stomach into knots. "Well, shit. Looks like I'm fighting." Inside my head, my wolf tipped his head up and howled.