The Fighter Duet: Two Full-Length, Red-Hot New Adult Fighter Romances (39 page)

It all makes sense now, and it’s so much worse than what I imagined. Dylan doesn’t hate me. She isn’t trying to dismiss my dreams. She knew I had no right to dream them in the first place. My hopes have only ever been castles in the sand. Now a cyclone is blowing them all away.

“What if I talk to him?” My voice is barely above a whisper. “I could ask Hayden to let me go. He might say yes.”

“Oh, Mercy,” she laughs bitterly. “You’re so sheltered and naïve. He might seem aloof at Thursday night dinners, but Hayden Cross is very serious about his property.”

NO! I am NOT his property!
I have to stay strong. I won’t go down without a fight. I’m a fighter—self-defense is what I do every Saturday! I might not be able to take on the fucking Lord of the fucking Underworld using self-defense maneuvers, but I can talk to him, reason with him.

Self-preservationist anger burns in my chest. “Where is Hayden? Where does he stay? I’ll go there and talk to him myself. I’ll make him listen to me.”

Her brow creases. “This is his house.” She motions around the large room. “All of this is his—the grounds, the money. Our family has nothing. It’s how he ensures we won’t renege on the deal.” She sighs wearily. “But that’s not all…”

“Are you trying to say it could possibly get worse?”

“The way the pact is written, if we refuse to hand you over, he has the right to slaughter our entire family, possibly even the town, although I doubt he’d go that far.”

I have to sit down. She’s shown me his trump card, and I don’t know anything stronger.
Slaughter us all?
My blood runs cold.

I can’t think about that. I can’t let it weaken my will to live. Instead, I look around the room slowly. “Everything is Hayden’s?”

She gives me a sad little smile. “We live here because of you, Mercy. When he takes you, you’ll spend the rest of your life with him. Then after you die, he’ll return for the next Quinlan daughter.”

No… no… no…

“How do you talk to him? How do you get him to come here?”

“He comes here every Thursday for dinner.”

My heart is beating so hard it hurts. “Yes, but he said you called him. You asked him to pick me up from the gym so I wouldn’t ride the bus…”

“I’ve never called Hayden. I don’t know how.”

“Oh my god!” It’s too much. I crumple to the floor, overwhelmed. My arms are on the couch, and I can’t breathe. I press the heels of my palms against my chest where the pain radiates. “I can’t breathe.”

Dylan seems to move at a glacial pace. She leans forward, handing me the tumbler of scotch. I take it in my trembling hand and drink deeply. It doesn’t begin to kill the agony.

“I’m sorry,” she says before slowly leaving her office.

I sit on the floor for a long time trying to process what I’ve learned. After a while, I see the sky is growing dark. I’m glad because I want to crawl beneath my covers and never come out again.

In a zombie-like state, I walk slowly through Hayden’s mansion to the enormous foyer. I climb the stairs one at a time, making my way to my bedroom as if I’m moving through thick syrup. Once inside, I pick up my phone and type a text.

Can’t meet you tonight. Will explain later.
I hit send and my phone slips from my fingers.

* * *

Mercy’s bedroom is dark as I stand out at the tree line looking up. The waning moon tips the grass in silvery light. I told her I wouldn’t sleep with her here, but that text has me worried. I’m even more worried because she hasn’t replied to any of my follow-up texts, and my calls go to voicemail.

I’ve gone from insisting she should stay here and wait for me, to standing at the edge of this well-manicured lawn, ready to carry her out of this pampered life as fast as I can.

Lifting my head, I scent the air. Nothing. I haven’t detected the strange, ominous presence in almost a week, and I’m starting to wonder if I might have dreamed it. The only instance that keeps me grounded was at Doris’s church. I hadn’t been tired, and I was wide-awake on the lawn in broad daylight. Something was there.

Either way, it’s not here now, and I creep out of the shadows, silent on my panther feet, and run quickly to the side of the house. In two leaps I’m on her balcony, listening. No sounds come from her room, and it only takes a moment for me to shake the magic away. I touch the handle of the glass doors. They give easily, soundlessly.

The room is dark, but I can hear her breathing. I want to see her, so I push back the heavy curtains to allow the moonlight to shine in. Her face glows in the bluish-white light. Her small body is in the center of the bed, and a surge of warmth fills my insides at the sight.

Crossing to her, I carefully slide back the heavy duvet. It’s cool in the room. Her shifter blood keeps her warm, but she doesn’t seem to be sleeping peacefully. Her face is troubled. She’s curled deep in the blankets, and it takes several seconds to unwrap her small body. As soon as I touch her, she jerks awake with a little yelp.

“Shh,” I reach for her face, smoothing her dark hair back. “It’s me. I was worried about you.”

“Koa, No!” She’s instantly frantic, catching my hands and putting them down, looking over her shoulder and around the room. “You have to go.” Her voice is a desperate whisper.

I don’t move as she tries to climb across me, ending up in a straddle on my lap. My hands are on her waist, and I’m holding her. “What are you afraid of?”

Her chin drops, and she lunges forward, wrapping her arms around my neck. I feel her entire body shudder, and protective anger rises in my chest. My jaw tenses.

“Who’s threatening you, Mercy? Tell me, and I’ll take care of it.” I’m ready to find whoever has her so frightened and kill him.

Her head shakes against my shoulder, and another little shudder ripples through her body. “You can’t. Neither of us can.”

I rub my hands up and down her torso, trying to calm her trembling. “Let me decide that. Tell me what’s got you so upset.”

She inhales deeply and sits back. Her blue eyes are huge and swollen from crying. My hands still on her narrow body, and I’ve reached my limit on patience. I can’t see Mercy cry.

“I-I talked to my sister. I came to tell her we were leaving, and…” Her chin drops, and her shoulders pull together. “I can’t say it.”

“Jesus, Mercy, you’re killing me here. Tell me what happened!” I don’t mean to be forceful with her, but I can’t help it.

Curling into my lap like a kitten, she presses her face in her hands. “I’m so afraid, Koa. I don’t want to go with him.”

I’m pretty sure I’ll have a coronary if she doesn’t explain this, but I try to hold it together, to coax it out of her. “Nobody hurts you on my watch. Tell me who’s threatening you. I’ll kill the son of a bitch.”

She clenches tighter, and I lean down, wrapping my arms around her. “Please tell me what’s happening, Mercy. I need to know.”

A few moments pass where I’m only holding her as she’s curled on my lap. Finally, she seems to find the strength I know she possesses. She moves slowly, rising up my body, holding my arms as if for stability.

“My family has an obligation… a pact that has existed for more than a century. The youngest daughter of every fourth generation is promised…” she takes a shuddering breath, and I’m hanging on every word. “Sorry… I’ve been promised to Hayden as his tribute.”

The only noise is the overly loud ticking of her bedside clock marking the passage of time, and the silent shush of our breath. I’m struggling with what she just said, trying to understand what it means.

“You’ve been promised to—?”

“To Hayden Cross. The guy who came for me at the gym—”

“I know who the fuck he is. How… What the fuck does that even mean? You’re his tribute? You have to marry him?”

“Dylan said one of our ancestors killed his immortal mate back when our family had just come here. The recompense for his loss, his loneliness, is I have to go with him. I have to live with him in the underworld… until I die.” Her voice breaks on the last word, and she crumples forward against my chest.

Rage flames inside me. There is no fucking way I’m letting that asshole take Mercy from me. Fucking
Kanaloa
. I knew I felt him that night in the woods. He clearly felt me, too. Mercy holds me and I think about that. He felt me, too… He sent a pulse of energy my way so hard, as if he were trying to kill me or at the very least scare me away. That asshole doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. At the same time, if he were trying to kill me…

“It’s not going to happen.” My voice is flat.

Mercy’s chin lifts, and she finds my eyes. “Dylan said she went to Chicago to meet with the high council. She said she tried to find a way out of it, to end the tribute, but no one would listen to her. Hayden’s too powerful.”

“So the high council decided this?”

“The founding families made the agreement. He threatened to destroy the entire town if my family didn’t make reparations for his lost mate.”

“I’m not going to let him take you.” It’s as simple as that.

Her chin lifts, and I can see her pretty eyes shine with tears in the moonlight. “You can’t stop him, Koa. He owns my family. He owns everything. Even this house is his.”

Fuck that. I’m on my feet, carrying her with me. Looking around the room, I find a short-term solution. “Pick out a shirt and some jeans you can wear.”

Her brow lines as she stands before me in only a thin tee. She’s sexy as hell, but we don’t have time.

“What are you thinking?” she whispers.

“You’re not spending another night in his house. You’re coming with me to Doris’s. You’ll stay with me until we figure out how to break this pact.”

Several different emotions flicker across her face. I see her pushing back the despair from when I got here. I see her inhale a shuddering breath. Then I see my girl struggling to believe me, struggling to find that inner strength to fight her inherited destiny.

“You think we can find a way?” The smallest note of hope is in her voice, and I pull her into a hug.

“I won’t let you down. Now come on. I need you to give me your clothes then shift. We’re getting out of here. You’re not spending another night in his house.”

She nods and goes to her dresser, lifting out a pair of jeans and a maroon V-neck tee. They’re in a neat bundle, and she puts them on the floor. “I’m not sure I can carry them,” she whispers.

I smile touching her bottom lip with my thumb. “I know what your little mouth can handle.”

Her cheeks flush, and she blinks up at me in a way that has me thinking ahead a few minutes. “When we get to my place,” I say with a wink. “I’ve got your clothes. Let’s go.”

The nightshirt is over her head in a flash. Her gorgeous, naked body is a flicker in my eye before she shimmers into the cutest little chestnut cat with black-tipped ears and big feet.

My head bows, and at once I’m in my panther form, towering over her. I lean my head down and take her clothes in my mouth before going to the window. A glance back, and she’s right behind me. We’ll get to Doris’s place, and then we’ll get to the bottom of this situation.

O
ne week is
all I have. According to my sister, Hayden intends to come for me on the night of the new moon. As overwhelmed as I’d been the day she told me everything, Koa’s strength has managed to revive mine. If he believes we can fight this, I have to believe it, too. With my beautiful panther by my side, I can fight my future.

Still, I feel so stupid and useless. I’ve been so focused on getting out of here, on cultivating my art and saving every penny I earned at Andy’s Gym, I never cared to know the folklore or develop any ties to Woodland Creek. I know nothing about the founding families or how they might help me.

My only hope is confronting Hayden directly, trying to reason with him, convince him to free me from my family’s debt.

Koa won’t let me spend another night in the mansion. He barely even agreed to let me go in my human form in broad daylight to collect my clothes, but I had to go back.

“What about my cat Phoebe… and my ceramics?” I’m wrapped tightly in his arms early Sunday morning recovering from an incredibly intense round of lovemaking even for us.

We again exchanged blood, and our connection is growing. I can sense his emotions, and I expect to be able to hear his thoughts before long.

“Your cat will be fine. Cats are survivors.”

“I need to get the things I care about,” I say gently.

“I don’t like you on his land,” Koa growls. The tension in his powerful body hums in my veins. “It only reinforces his hold on you.”

Pushing to a sitting position, I smooth my fingers over the lines in his brow. “Dylan said we have until the new moon. She negotiated that much from him.”

“Your sister might have bought us time, but I don’t trust him.
Kanaloa
is a trickster. It’s in all the old stories.”

“I love how you call him by his Hawaiian name.”

“That fucker’s been at this a long time.” He nuzzles against my breast, inhaling my scent and kissing me. Chills skitter across my skin at his possessive actions. “It’s why I know we’re going to beat him.”

Holding his face, I find the glowing green eyes I love. “Why does that make you know we’ll beat him? If anything, it makes me feel even more doomed. He has so much more experience than us.”

He pushes up to sit beside me, pulling me close “It’s a game to him, Mercy. He doesn’t want you. He wants the idea of you. I’m only guessing, but I’d say to an immortal like
Kanaloa
, or Hayden if that’s what he’s called here, life must be incredibly boring. Humans, shifters, we’re all toys to him. We’re playthings to fill the expanse of eternity.”

Leaning back, I look deep into his eyes. “You’re so intelligent.”

“Is that bad?”

“Not at all. Only I fell for your body. Now you’re pulling out this brain on me. Give a girl a break.”

That earns me a rare Koa laugh, and it’s not long before we’re back to making love. Still, he lets me return to the mansion to fetch my things and say goodbye to Penny. He’s right about Phoebe, though. She’ll want to stay where she’s familiar.

My aunt scampers down the steps when she hears me enter, and for the first time in a while, I see the old lynx in her movements.

“Mercy! Oh, Mercy, I’ve been so worried about you.” She runs straight to me and pulls me in her arms. “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been with Koa! It’s okay.”

“Is he holding you prisoner?” Her eyes are round, and I shake my head.

“He’s not the jailer I’m worried about.” Studying her face, I realize she’s always known. “I told him about Hayden. About what’s happening next week.”

Her lip pulls between her teeth. “Dylan told you?”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” It aches in my chest that everyone kept me in the dark. I feel like I can’t trust any of them now.

“I wanted to! Dylan said I shouldn’t. She said we should try and see if you would love him. Your aunt Cora did.”

That has my attention. “She did? I don’t know a Cora—tell me about her!”

“She was the first one to be taken… It was all so long ago. Still, when Cora’s father tried to get her back, she didn’t want to return. She would come up for visits, but she always went back to him.”

Visits?
My brow lines, and I think about this. Is it possible one would actually want to stay with Hayden? I think about how he conducts himself. He isn’t horrible. I suppose if I weren’t in love with Koa…

“Hayden is refined, but I don’t want to live in the underworld. I want to live in the sun by the ocean. I want to leave the snow and woods behind and see the waves, live in the light.”

Penny’s chin drops and she does a sad little nod. “It will be harder for you, then.”

A flash of fear trembles in my chest. Koa told me not to give up. He said he would save me. I have to believe him.

“Do you know how to reach Hayden? I really need to talk to him.”

“Oh, no! You mustn’t do that!” Her head shakes fast, and her eyes are wide with panic. “Don’t invite him here. He might decide to move up the timeline.”

Another shimmer of terror clutches my insides. “He can’t do that… can he?”

“He can do whatever he wants. Since you turned twenty-one, he’s had the right to take you at any moment.”

My chest is winding so tight, I’m afraid I’ll vomit. “But Dylan negotiated…”

“Dylan has no control over him. He agreed to her plans only to see if you might find him interesting. Now that he knows about the panther, all bets are off.”

“He knows about Koa?”

“He was furious about it, too. You were at the gym the day he discovered you’d been sleeping with him.”

Rubbing my forehead, I pace a small circle around the table in the grand entrance. “If only I could speak to him before Thursday.” As a last-ditch effort, I tense my arms at my sides and look straight up at the chandelier hanging overhead.

“Hayden!” I shout. “I need to speak to you now! Please come out!”

Penny looks at me in horror. Her eyes seem to bug, and she grips her neck. “What have you done?” she hisses.

My heart beats faster at her reaction, but I have to be brave. I have to believe he’ll keep his agreement with my sister. If not… Koa is too far away to save me.

Penny screams when a loud knock sounds on the door. “It’s him!”

She runs up the stairs, but I spin around, pressing my back to the stairwell as I face the front door. Slowly it starts to move, and a lump tightens in my throat.

The door falls open, and there he stands. His pale hair is swept back in his usual style, and his tall slender body is elegantly clad in a black designer suit.

“You wanted to see me?” In the past, I’d thought Hayden was sexy. Nothing about him has changed—only now I’m actually afraid of him.

“Hayden?” I quickly clear the nerves from my throat. I have to be brave. I have to be strong. Koa would want me to be strong.

“Yes, my love. I’m here at your bidding. It’s one of the many privileges you’ll have before long.”

“You’ll be at my bidding?” My brow lines at the thought.

“Only because I want to be.” His voice is soft as he crosses the threshold, gliding with a smooth stride to where I’m standing, holding the railing for support.

“Now,” he smiles down at me, twisting a dark lock of hair around his long, elegant finger. “What would you like to say to me, my little lynx?”

My voice is small as I say the words. “I want you to let me go, Hayden.”

The corner of his mouth quirks up in a shadow of a smile, and his pale blue eyes actually look sad a moment. One blink and the emotion is gone.

“I’m sorry, little cat. You belong to me.”

“But I don’t want to belong to you!” Desperation makes my voice stronger.

Hayden’s brows rise, and he seems disappointed. “So I’ve heard,” he sighs. “I had hoped you would come to me willingly. I never could seem to change your mind…”

“You’re not one of us.”

“Our bodies still work quite well together. You’ll see.”

“I’m not a virgin!”

He straightens and pulls his chin back. “Your generation is so blunt.” Shaking his head, he looks down at his nails. “Virginity is a minor detail I’m willing to overlook. I’ve overlooked it before. You female shape shifters are all so eager to spread your thighs.”

“It’s part of our nature. You’ll never understand me. We’ll be miserable together.” I’m grasping at anything that might sway his decision.

“You’ll have a bit of an adjustment period, but you’ll see. Your aunt Cora was quite happy with the arrangement.” The heels of his expensive shoes are a staccato click on the wood as he walks slowly to the round table in the center of the foyer. “You’re very much like her, you know. I’m eager to see if your body responds to mine the way hers did.”

“She wasn’t mated. You became her mate. I’m with mine—”

He spins to face me. “You’re with ME!” A cold light burns in his pale eyes. “Besides, I don’t believe in mates.”

“Then you’ll let me go?”

He starts to chuckle. “So tenacious, little Mercy. Of course, I won’t let you go. The deal is made. It’s why I allow these people to exist on my lands. It’s why I keep my servants from stealing your babies in the night when they’re feeling naughty. Stealing your women is quite another matter…”

A muffled whimper screeches from above, from wherever Penny is hiding, and I remember her fear of shadows at night.

Hayden’s brow rises, and he scans the ceiling, running his eyes along the lines of the wood. “Your aunt is old enough to remember how mischievous they can be.”

My heart trembles in my chest. “Let me go, Hayden.”

His eyes snap back to mine. “No.”

Racing through my thoughts, I try to remember everything I’ve learned in the past two days. Penny’s words from so long ago flash in my brain. “Persephone… my aunt Persephone!”

“Oh, god,” he waves a hand as if deterring a bad smell. “Yes, you have a point. I did send that one back before her time had expired.”

A glimmer of hope? “Why?”

“By Zeus, she was awful. Can you imagine anyone able to make the underworld depressing?”

My breathing picks up. “What makes you think I won’t be the same?”

“No,” his head shakes. “You’re not like her. For starters, the name
Persephone
… I will say, her mother was an ancestor I’d like to have taken. It’s a pity cleverness sometimes skips a generation. Especially considering how long you shifters live.”

His manner is so easy, so familiar, I cross the room and grasp his arm. “Please, Hayden,” I whisper.

At my touch, he seems to soften. A gentle smile curves his slim lips. “I’ve waited for you, Mercy. I’ve watched you since you were a little girl. You’re smart and beautiful. You’re a talented artist. You’re the first to give me hope. For the first time in a long time, I’ll have a true Queen of the Underworld at my side.”

“I’ll never love you. I love someone else.”

He stiffens. “That brute? He’s a criminal!”

Pleading is in my tone. “I want to be in the sunshine, Hayden. I want to live by the sea. I love the light.” My fingers clench his soft coat, and my voice is a cracked whisper. “If you truly care about me, you’d want me to be happy.”

“Where did you get such a delusion?” Jerking his arm back, he storms to the door. “I am selfish and vain, and I want you. You belong to me.”

“Hayden, please!” I’m crying now.

He jerks the door open. “I’ll be back in two nights to collect you.”

* * *

College has never been a priority to me, even though my mom was an instructor at Whitman College near Princeton. She was a tall, athletic non-shifter with smooth chocolate skin and long, African-American curls. She was beautiful, and she was my mom.

She fell hard for a scrappy Hawaiian panther-shifter, doing the rounds on the middleweight boxing circuit. According to her, he was wild and dangerous, and he left her with a broken heart and me on the way. I’m pretty sure he never knew he had a son, but she never complained.

I grew up hating him and being exactly like him, and looking back, I regret the shit I turned into as a teen. Mom never liked me boxing. She taught me as much as she could about my Hawaiian heritage and tried to get me interested in books. None of it stuck. I put her through hell, and I ended up exiled.

The one bright spot is I’m comfortable in a university setting, and I even know how to use the library and research the archives. The past tangles in my thoughts as I make my way across the grounds of Hastings-Albrecht University. I might have failed my family when I was young, but maybe saving Mercy is a way to redeem myself.

A tall, red-brick building with beige limestone accents forms the center of a quadrangle of similar red-brick buildings. The library has an enormous tower rising from the entrance with two spires pointing to the sky.

Students mostly dressed in jeans, boots, and plaid shirts with backpacks slung over their shoulders hurry across the grass never looking up. A few loiter in the sun, I assume on break, or congregate in little clumps talking. The occasional shriek of laughter pierces the low drone.

I could easily pass for one of them. I’m similarly dressed, and my age puts me in at least graduate-school range. As such, I only catch the occasional eye of a co-ed checking me out. Red leaves speckle the green grass, and I can feel winter in the air.