More cheers.

“It’s over, boys,” someone shouted. “I would have never expected that.”

“Over in less than five minutes. I get the bonus!” someone else said with a laugh.

They were not only betting on winners, but how long the fight lasted.

I gasped when the wolf lunged again, this time at the back of my neck. I turned facedown and my hair smothered my view. After a few efforts to grab at him, I quit moving.

What was the plan? Oh God, I had no earthly idea what to do next! Did Wheeler have a plan?

Movement sounded from all around us and trickled away as the crowd left the room. Then I heard Wheeler.

“You bastards!” he shouted.

“You’re the bastard,” the guard with the British accent said. “You’re the one who killed her. Don’t blame us because you have a dead woman at your feet. Were you like this in all your fights? The most savage warrior, my arse. Nothing but a crybaby.”

“She was innocent.”

The cage door unlocked and another voice sounded. A familiar one I couldn’t place. “Stand back so we can collect the body. You’ll be rewarded with an exquisite meal tonight. The boss gives the winner a choice between steak and lobster, so think it over.”

Wheeler’s hand pressed against my back and all the rough edges in his voice smoothed out. “You wouldn’t be laughing so hard if she were alive… in panther form.”

The last thing I remembered after my shift was Manny, the stagehand from Club Sin. The bastard! He’d worked for Delgado this whole time and had been spying on us at the club. It was his eyes I saw behind the mask when a stranger walked onstage during my dance and made me shift, and he must have been the one who had attacked me outside my apartment. Those eyes I’d never forget.

By a simple twist of fate, I was the last thing Manny saw.

“And boom goes the dynamite,” I heard Wheeler say.

***

Wheeler slanted his eyes at the guard, who was holding a black baton. They wouldn’t expect an attack after a match because the fighters were tired and wanted a reward instead of punishment.

Naya had impressed him with not only her cunning actions, but also the fact that despite what he’d told her about his past, she trusted him. Wheeler had thought for sure his wolf would kill her on sight once he shifted uncontrollably, but his wolf tapped into his own emotions about Naya. A Shifter’s animal was usually respectful of close bonds, but even so, she was a panther, for Christ’s sake! He should have attacked. Wheeler’s wolf was calculating and methodical—almost to the point where some had once compared his mind to that of a human.

When he’d lunged at Naya, Wheeler had tried to shift before it was too late, but his wolf refused to give up control of his body. Wheeler had felt his canines latch around her tender throat—her pulse beating furiously against the soft flesh. Yet he’d seen something in her eyes that stilled him.