The Wild Moon by Riley Storm
Chapter Eighteen
Just as I expected, Johnathan walked to the center of the bar. The crowd was taunting him like mad. They had no idea who or what he was. To them, he was just a human acting too scared to take on a girl.
Not that I would have expected this crowd of degenerates to ever think that maybe a man his size shouldn’t fight a girl like me. If we were both human, this would be suicide.
But we weren’t human. The crowd didn’t know that. They just didn’t care. They wanted a fight and blood.
As he came around, he stripped off his shirt, revealing an impressively muscular torso. I found myself looking at it for a moment. It had never been his looks that I’d had an issue with. Johnathan was as attractive as they came.
Well over six feet tall, he had the thick, powerful build of a bodybuilder, compared to Mr. Unknown’s more lithe, athletic build. Both strong, but in different ways.
Now, why did I go and bring him into this?
“This is a dumb idea,” Johnathan said as he climbed into the cage with me, an enthusiastic fan slapping the gate closed behind him.
“You coming here was a dumb idea,” I shot back. “I told you I never wanted to see you again.”
“We’re Soulbound.” He said it like that explained everything.
To him, it probably did. To me, it was nothing. Worthless.
“I don’t care,” I told him. “I want nothing to do with you.”
“It can’t be severed,” he said harshly. “Stop denying it. You’re only going to drive yourself insane if you try.”
“I’d rather that than willingly go with you,” I said, my voice cold. “I’d rather die.”
“If you keep defying my father, you just might get your wish,” Johnathan said. “I was barely able to keep him from coming here tonight.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for that?” I said with a laugh, reaching back to braid my hair to keep it out of my face as best I could. I didn’t have an elastic to tie it closed, but I made do. It was better than nothing.
“I suppose not,” Johnathan said. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because maybe it’ll teach you to leave me alone,” I said.
He shook his head. “If I win?”
“You won’t,” I said. “Remember, I already beat you once.”
He flushed angrily at the reminder. “If I win?” he repeated hotly.
“If you win,” I said, “then I’ll go back with you. Willingly.”
I had no intention of doing that.
“Fine,” he said. “And if you win?”
“If I win, you leave me alone. Forever.”
“Won’t happen,” he said bluntly. “I can’t. The bond calls to me.”
I gritted my teeth. “Fine. For a week, then.”
That would put me precariously close to the next Wild Moon. Maybe by then, I’d have found a way to hide from him. To stay safe. Because, come the Wild Moon, both Johnathan and his father would be after me.
“Fine,” Johnathan said.
I still doubted he meant it, but I should at least get the rest of the night to myself. That would be a small victory. I could find some way to run. To get away.
“Well, come on then,” I said, lifting my hands like I was going to box.
Somewhere, someone rang a bell. There was no ref this time. No judge. It was just a straight-up fight until one or the other submitted. That simple.
Johnathan lifted his hands, and he came into the center cautiously. I circled the outside, forcing him to turn with me. He easily kept pace. I kept circling. And waited.
It took two laps of the ring for Johnathan to grow impatient. He launched his attack at me, a roaring hammer blow that would have leveled me. If he connected. I easily ducked under it and past him, driving my fist deep into his stomach as I did.
Johnathan let out an “oof” as I drove the air from his lungs, his body folding over the blow. I only pulled my punch enough so that I didn’t send him flying backward, which would have drawn far too much attention from the crowd. But he dropped to his knees from the blow anyway. I tried to follow it up, but he rolled away from me, getting to his feet, slowly sucking in air.
“How dare you come here,” I spat, advancing on him, not planning on letting him recover. “How dare you come to ruin my life again. How dare you think you own me!”
I feinted with my right and then darted to the side and connected hard onto his ribs. I let myself fall through the blow, avoiding his backhand and coming to my feet with some distance between us.
Johnathan growled and charged at me, moving faster than I expected. Faster than a human should. The crowd roared, obviously not realizing what he’d just done. I wasn’t prepared for it, and he hit me like a linebacker, delivering a brutal bodycheck that hurled me back against the far side of the cage.
I hit hard and fell. The crowd gasped.
There was no time for me to waste. I forced my screaming muscles to respond, pushing myself away and to the side. Johnathan’s knee came flying toward me, narrowly missing my skull. The cage shook as he made contact, and his bellow of frustration cut through the crowd’s noise like a knife.
I got to my feet again, the entire right side of my body one giant ache. Nothing was broken that I could tell, but that impact had hurt. Johnathan came at me relentlessly now. Dull blue eyes were filled with frustration as he advanced. He might be winning the fight, but he’d been forced to dance to my tune, and he didn’t like it.
Well, too bad, Johnny Boy.
“Just end this now,” he growled at me. “You don’t have to get hurt.”
I grinned and snapped my leg out as he advanced. I caught him as he was transferring his weight with his step, and the force of my kick—which I hadn’t pulled—whipped his leg out from under him, and he fell. I scrambled to get on his back like some sort of spider monkey, holding on tight.
My arm slipped under his chin. This wasn’t the type of fight Johnathan was used to, and it showed. He wasn’t prepared at all for that move, and he didn’t stop me from locking it in.
The crowd knew, however, and they shot to their feet, erupting with shouts and chants. I squeezed, holding on for dear life, doing my best to avoid Johnathan’s wild attempts to pry me off while taking backward punches and elbows that sent flashes of agony through my body when they connected.
But I didn’t let go. I had this fucker where I wanted.
“You should never have come after me,” I said as his blows started to weaken. “Now you’re going to lose to me twice, you little bitch.”
I don’t know if he heard that last taunt or not because he’d run out of blood to his brain and was slipping into unconsciousness. I braced myself, holding on tight as we fell to the ground. Thankfully, he didn’t fall backward. That was probably the only move he could have made that would have dislodged me. Instead, we fell to the side. I grunted at the impact but kept holding tight until he was completely limp. Then I held on for a few more seconds before finally releasing.
Scrambling free, I got to my feet before Johnathan woke up with a roar, the blood returning to his head.
I slammed a fist into his face, keeping him down.
“You lost,” I shouted over the bar patrons as they went ballistic. “Get the hell out and leave me alone.”
He got to his feet, bleeding from his nose from that last punch. I braced myself for him to continue the fight. If he did, I wasn’t stopping next time.
I don’t know if he read that in my eyes or if the crowd’s taunts were getting to him, but he didn’t come at me again.
“Smart choice,” I said. “Now get out of here.”
Glaring daggers at me, he left the cage, grabbing his shirt and heading for the exit to a chorus of jeers and taunts.
I took a deep breath, letting some of the tension leave me. It was done. I would have the rest of the night to myself, at least.
Looking over at the bar, I spied Mr. Unknown still sitting there. He had a very, very smug smile on his face. I could tell he approved of what he’d seen.
Maybe my night hadn’t been ruined after all.
I started to smile, only to have it fade as Mr. Unknown got up and left without looking at me once before.
I stood in the middle of the ring, surrounded by chanting fans. Carl was pushing his way through the crowd, a smile from ear to ear. He must have bet on me after all. Which meant I had just won a large sum as well.
Yet, none of that seemed to matter as I watched Mr. Unknown walk away.
I was still alone after all.
