Hard Mated (Shifters Unbound #3.5)(19)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

“You worry about that when you step into the ring. I’m putting a lot of money on you, which should tell you I’m not concerned about you losing.”

“And you don’t care if I tell Liam all this?”

Gavan opened his hands. “It’s your choice. It’s not against the rules for me to talk to you about the fights, and to tell you I think you’re a winner. Whether you decide to use your skills to move up the hierarchy is your business. But if I’m ever in a position to make you my enforcer, my second—and I’m not saying I will be—you’ll be hearing from me.”

Spike folded his hands around his cup and studied the liquid inside. Let Gavan think him slow instead, while in truth Spike’s thoughts were chasing each other around like Jordan chasing himself around Spike’s house. Gavan was trying to be subtle, but he’d always been about as subtle as a leopard with square spots.

Ambitious Shifters weren’t hard to find—it was natural to try to move up in the hierarchy. Better to be dominant than have to let others kick your ass all the time. Even Jordan, young as he was, had started trying to establish his position.

Spike took another sip of coffee. “Win the fights,” he repeated. “What if I can’t? What if I’m up against a Shifter who happens to be better than me?” Didn’t happen often, but it happened.

Gavan’s affable look remained, but his eyes lost all warmth, his false friendliness vanishing. “You’ll win, Spike. Losing isn’t an option.”

“But if I do?”

“Make damn sure you don’t.”

Meaning that if Spike screwed up whatever Gavan had planned, Gavan would take restitution.

Two days ago, Spike wouldn’t have cared much. He’d do what he wanted and tell Gavan to go screw himself. Today, he had much more to lose. Jordan. Myka. Life suddenly had possibilities, ones he didn’t want to miss.

When Spike looked up from his coffee again, he let none of this show in his eyes. “Sounds simple. I usually win anyway.”

Gavan relaxed a fraction. “Good then. Saturday night is the next fight club. See you then. In the meantime, go spend time with your cub. I hear he’s a handful.”

“He’s fine,” Spike said, letting the growl enter his voice.

Gavan chuckled. “Good for you.”

He reached across the table to clasp Spike’s shoulder. Spike’s every instinct told him to jerk away and rip Gavan’s face off, but he made himself sit still. That fight was yet to come.

*** *** ***

Myka woke when she heard the porch swing creak.

She’d bunked down on the comfortable couch in the living room, Jordan in bed down the hall, sleeping the all-out way only kids could sleep. Meant he’d be full of energy tomorrow.

Myka rose and peeked out the living room window to see Spike sitting alone on the swing, moonlight slanting across the boards of the porch. The ticking clock next to the sofa told her it was midnight.

She opened the door quietly and stepped out onto the porch.

Spike didn’t look up at her. He’d know she was there, because he was Shifter, and he’d hear and scent her. Myka crept across the porch and sat down beside him.

Why did she like being so close to him? His body heat slid across her skin, soothing her. She was supposed to not trust him, but her fears had started eroding the minute she’d seen him rescue Jordan from that tree.

“You all right?” she asked, keeping her voice hushed.

Spike gazed out across the porch railing to the silent house on the other side of the street. “When you look at me, Myka, what do you think?”

“What?” She moved her gaze up and down his body. “What do you mean?”

“What do you see?” Spike turned his head and looked at her, his Shifter eyes once again tinged with luminescent gold. “When you saw me last night, for the first time, what did you see in me?”

Chapter Ten

No question. “I saw a fighter,” she said. “A jaguar kicking a bear’s ass. Then you turned into a powerful man covered in blood. Scary as hell.”

“You walked right up to me and handed me a bottle of water.”

“Took all my courage to do it. I had to pretend you were a horse.”

The remote look fled. Spike blinked. “A horse? What the f**k?”

“Don’t get your ego into a big twist. I have to work with difficult horses sometimes. Mean shits—the stallions can be tricky, but some mares . . . Man, you don’t want to get on their bad sides. Geldings are the easiest to work with.”

“Don’t even look at me and say gelding.”

“Calm down.” Myka grinned and held up her hands. “See? No scalpel, no anesthetic. What I meant was, when I have to approach a horse that’s dangerous, I have to walk right up to him like I’m not afraid. They sense your fear and use it against you. You have to be head of the herd and let them know you’re not going to take their shit.”

Spike’s tension didn’t ease. “You have to show you’re dominant.”

“Exactly. Just because I’m five-foot-two and they outweigh me about ten times doesn’t make any difference.”

“Huh. You’d make a good Shifter.”

“I figured, if it worked with horses, it might work with Shifters. The difference is that Shifters can think like humans do, so that makes you way more dangerous.”

“So, I’m smarter than a horse,” Spike said dryly. “Thanks.”

Myka shrugged. “It’s the way I think.”

His eyes glinted. “How long did it take you to figure out I was smarter than a horse?”

“Mmm . . . Couple minutes?”

“Dumb-ass fighter, that’s Spike.”

Myka put her hand on his thigh. “I was teasing.”

“I know.”

His voice gentled again, and Spike put his hand over hers. The warmth of him slid through her body like a soft summer night.

“It’s what Gavan sees,” Spike said after a time. “Even what Liam sees.”

“Who’s Gavan?”

“Asshole who wants me to turn on Liam and go work for him.” Spike lifted his hand from hers and stretched his arm along the back of the swing. “Gavan didn’t come out and say it, but that’s what he wants.”

“Is this something you want to do?”

“It doesn’t work that way. I’m a tracker. Means I don’t quit when I’m bored.”