Jax shouted my name above the din, but the warning came too late. A large fist slammed into my forehead, making my head kick back. My opponent sent another strike to my jaw. The distraction of Alex De Luca was going to cost me this fucking fight.

He came at me again, and I ducked at the last second, forcing my head into the fight. Literally. I slammed into him, grappling his massive frame into a body lock, but fuck, he had some furious strength. He escaped the maneuver, and we sprang apart, bouncing on our feet. The bastard’s cocky mug blasted me from a couple of feet away. We’d been circling each other for a while now, sizing the other up as tension thickened the space between us.

I got a right hook in then backed off, sensing his next move by the bunch of his shoulders, the way his hawk-like gaze followed my every step. I anticipated him coming, but I was too close to the fucking cage. His momentum hurled me straight into it. As the metal clanked, time seemed to slow. The overhead lights glinted off his bald head as sweat trickled down the side of his scruffy face.

The cage was cold and familiar at my back. I pushed against it for leverage, bringing an arm up and twisting. With a grunt, I took him to the ground and wrapped an arm around his neck, lips pulled tight over my teeth. Adrenaline careened through me in a sudden burst, and he slumped with each pulsating thump of my heart.

This was it.

The moment.

Nothing else mattered except the next few seconds when his lids would droop and shutter the realization that he was losing. The ref shouted at me to stop, but I ignored him and increased the pressure on the guy’s throat. As I restricted his oxygen, something inside me buzzed, wept with fucking relief. The ref was crazy if he thought I’d back off. I never stopped, and the crowd knew it. They lived for it. My opponents knew it and hoped it wouldn’t happen to them, but it always did because there were few rules in this cage.

The ref finally dragged me off him by force. I jumped to my feet, staggering forward, about to hoist the guy’s spent body off the floor and demand more. But the ref blocked me and shoved me back, all the while shouting at me to cool off.

It wasn’t enough. This fight, my self-inflicted banishment from Alex…I still couldn’t protect her.

From me, the violent maniac inside this cage. I wasn’t a champion. I was a disgusting excuse for a human being.