UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) (18 page)

“Ooof—!” It knocks the wind out of him and Frankie tumbles to his knees.

“This fight…” Amy heaves a thick breath, staring at him with daggers in her eyes, “is
over
.”

The Kings fall silent again, their faces full of curiosity. They whisper to each other with hushed tones, no doubt enthralled by this blonde woman that dares to stand up to one of their men.

Ryan finally reaches them and plants himself in front of Frankie’s seething face. “You heard her —
back off
,” he growls.

“I don’t take orders from
women
,” Frankie slurs.

“You’re in
her
domain.”

“For now.”

I jump in surprise as Ryan latches his fingers around Frankie’s throat. “Apologize or you’ll have to deal with me…”

“Ryan—” Amy steps forward. “Let him go.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Amy—”

“Do it,” she interrupts with her eyes locked on Frankie’s tortured face.

Ryan obeys and releases him. Amy takes another quick step up to stand in front of Frankie. “Get the hell out of my ring,” she says, her voice deep and strong.

Frankie’s lips curl. “I’ll have you on your knees for this…” he mutters.

“Try it,” she says, loudly biting her teeth together. “I dare you, you fucking
savage
.”

Rick’s laugh carries across the ring. “As entertaining as this is…” He leans forward to rest his hands against the bottom rope. “Can we please get on with it?”

Frankie’s eyes dart downward. “Sir—”

“Get off the damn mat, Frankie,” he spits. “You’ve already won.”

His body quivers with anger, but Frankie does as he’s told. He backs away from Amy, slowly licking his lips at her as he goes, and climbs out of the ring.

Ryan bends down and pulls Pike to his feet. I breathe a sigh of relief as Pike opens his eyes and stands on his own. More than half of his torso has turned purple, along with both of his eyes and cheeks. Several Alpha fighters climb up to assist him and Ryan back down.

“Claire,” Tobias says, his fingers slipping free of mine. I turn to face him. “Don’t leave their side, okay? The Alphas will protect you.”

I nod. “Okay.”

He lingers in front of me and cups my cheeks, pulling my eyes up to his. “I love you,” he whispers, his voice only for me.

“I love you, too.” I smile and he kisses me softly. As he pulls away, my eyes twitch across the gym, feeling a presence honing in on me. Rick stares at me and I sense the envy in his blue eyes again. Tobias and I have what he could never give me and he knows it.

Tobias follows my eyes to see what I’m looking at. “Claire,” he whispers, drawing me back, “don’t look at him. Look at me.” I obey, fixing my gaze on him. “I want you to promise me something.”

“What?” I ask.

His fingers shake against my cheeks. “Promise me that… no matter what happens up there, you’ll remember me as a man — not like this.”

“Tobias—” My voice cracks. “What are—”

“Promise me, Claire.”

I search his eyes, desperate to decipher what he means. “I promise.”

“Always and forever.”

“Always and forever,” I repeat. My lip trembles. “Tobias, what are y—”

He silences me with another kiss, pulling me in so tightly, it’s impossible for me to break free. I feel it all — every bit of love and affection he has for me. It warms my cheeks. The sensation travels through my entire body with a flowing current that wiggles my fingers and toes. Just as quickly as it began, Tobias pulls away from me, leaving me behind to hold myself up without him.

“Tobias…” I whisper his name, although it feels like I’m screaming. He doesn’t look back at me. I need him to look back at me and confirm that my darkest fear isn’t coming true right now, but that would be too easy.

I could feel it in his kiss. The feeling still lingers on my lips, that phantom tug of his teeth. It’s new, but not in a good way. It’s painful and nauseating and downright horrifying. I rest my fingers against my lips as he climbs up into the ring and tears fall down my cheeks.

That was our last kiss.

I step forward, drawn to race over to him, but Devlin plants himself in front of me. “Move.”

“I can’t, Claire,” he says, flexing his jaw. “Tobias told me not to let you near the ring—”

“Devlin,
move,”
I beg.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “No matter what happens, you’re to stay here. It’s what he wants.”

I grip my throat, feeling the thick rock settle in my neck.
“Tobias…”
I wheeze.

He stands in the far corner of the ring, stiff as a board, and watches as Rick climbs in after him. Rick wears his token smirk and I curse myself for ever falling for it. I see it for everything it is now. Hateful. Deceitful. Cowardly. Weak. He paces in his own corner in black shorts, ones that look just like Tobias’. It’s obvious just how much of himself he’s stolen from his superior cousin, and if that doesn’t prove who the better man is in all of this, nothing will.

Rick cranes his neck to find me staring at him. His lips curl, as they always do, but if he knew what I was thinking, I doubt he’d be so fucking happy about it. My fingers form fists and I feel the pain of my nails digging into my palms, reopening the wounds I’d long forgotten about.

This isn’t just any fight.

It’s a death match.

It’s the only thing that makes sense. Last night, Tobias was broken. His life has become unrecognizable to him. His father no longer trusts him. He was one mistake away from losing me all over again. What better way to end Rick’s threat to our lives than to end him completely? It’s the only way Rick would have ever agreed to give up Amy and let my mother go without a second thought.

A fight to the death. Winner takes everything, including the loser’s life.

Amy steps into the center of the ring with her fingers lightly holding on to the metal whistle around her neck. She looks back and forth between them with shimmering eyes. “One last fight, between our standing
Alpha
,
Tobias the Untouchable
, and Rick Eastwood of the Kings,” she says, dropping Rick’s former moniker. “The Alphas and the Kings each have one point. The winner of this match takes the tournament.”

I force my eyes to abandon Rick’s and I turn to look at Tobias. His gaze finds mine, those shining tunnels of green, and a smile climbs to my lips.

Tobias.
My strength.

My lover. My friend. My family.

My
Alpha,
in every single way.

And above all, my future.

I lick my dry lips and nod at him. To my surprise, a smile strikes his mouth, curling ever so slightly on the edges of his lips. His stoic nature crumbles around him. It’s almost jarring to see
Tobias the Untouchable
grinning in his tight, black shorts, but I easily hold our gaze.

I cast a pitiful glance at Rick and I notice the anger in his squinting eyes. They dart back and forth between us. The image of Tobias and me — so obviously in love with each other — turns him to stone. It’s always made him angry, but now, in the final moments before their last fight, it makes him more furious than ever. He knows that even if he wins, he loses.

He cannot compete with
the Alpha and his Dame.

Tobias winks at me and finally turns back to his opponent with a firm expression. He raises his fists to block his face, easing into that perfect stance, and waits for Amy to give him the go ahead to finish this.

Amy steps back and exits the ring, making sure she’s at a safe enough distance away before wrapping her red lips around the end of the whistle. I take a deep breath, allowing for the air to travel the entire length of me before slowly letting it out again.

Finally, Amy blows the whistle and the entire room falls into a deadly silence.

Rick throws himself forward with a grunt of rage as he lunges for Tobias with extended fists. Tobias slides to the right, easily dodging the sloppy, emotion-fueled, attack, and shoves Rick back into his corner. Rick rights himself fast and bounces up and down on his toes.

I study his moves, noticing a stark change from the fighter he was six months ago. Before, he was far more focused — not easily as rattled as he is now.

He darts forward again, this time pulling back to throw a fast punch at Tobias’ face, but Tobias catches it with his palm and slams his head forward to connect with Rick’s nose. Both sides wince as Rick stumbles back and blood pours from his nostrils. He lets out a deep bellow before throwing another punch at Tobias, missing him by several inches. Tobias swings around and hits Rick in the stomach, slamming multiple, hard punches against his ribs until Rick finally topples to his knees.

A darkness settles in my gut. Rick has never been this twitchy before. Either the last several months have pushed him so close to the edge that he’s lost all control of himself, or…

He’s faking it.

“Tobias…” I mutter nervously. He has to see it, too. I look around the room, watching the faces of the other Alphas, each one of them just as confused as the last. The Kings don’t hold the same expression. They stand at attention, breathing calmly as ever.

“Devlin,” I say, keeping my voice low. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“I hope not,” he mutters back. “Because I see a King taking a beating and his men don’t seem to care.”

“Or they expected it.” I look back to the ring and watch as Rick fumbles on his knees, seemingly desperate to pull himself onto his toes, but he slips back to the floor. His moves are stiff, planned. Almost comical, like a slap-stick stage play.

Tobias steps back and watches Rick squirm.

“Looks like we aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed,” Devlin says.

“What the hell is he doing?” I whisper.

“Biding his time, maybe?”

“For what?”

“Claire—” I turn around to find Pike standing over my shoulder. His left eye has swollen closed and he holds a blood-soaked cloth against his nose. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but it seems—”

“That Rick is completely faking it up there right now?” I ask. “Way ahead of you.”

“That,” he says, “and Thomas just walked in.”

I spin back to find him standing near the ring. “What is he doing here?” I fall silent as Rick’s laughter reaches my ears. He stays on his hands and knees, obviously baiting Tobias to attack him, but Tobias stays back.

“Come on!” Rick shouts, chuckling even louder. “Don’t stop now!”

Tobias shakes his head and waits for him to stand up.

Rick growls and hops up onto his feet. “Stop pretending to be so righteous, Tobias.” He straightens up. “You’re not fooling anybody.”

“I’m not the one pretending,” Tobias replies.

Rick laughs even more and wipes the blood off his nose. “You caught that, huh? Well…” He shrugs. “I was planning on tiring you out to make this easier, but that trick just isn’t going to work on you today, is it?”

Fear strikes me cold as Rick stands up taller and raises his fists. Tobias mirrors it, settling back onto the balls of his feet, lying in wait for Rick to strike at him first.

Rick twitches his biceps with glee. “You know what I’ll do to her first, Tobias?” He lunges forward to deliver his first real punch. I bite my cheek, startled by his speed. His fist slams hard against Tobias’ face. The blow nearly sends him to his knees, but Tobias shakes it off and manages to block Rick’s second punch before it collides with his nose. “I’m going to make her confess what the three of us have known all along.”

Tears burn my eyes, blurring their forms as they trade several blows against each other’s ribs. I blink them away in time to see Rick sweep Tobias’ foot out from under him, tripping him down to his knees.

Rick stands behind him and wraps his arms around Tobias’ throat. He looks forward, his eyes easily zeroing in on mine. “She loves
me
,” he says, flexing hard enough to choke Tobias. “I’m gonna make her say it. It won’t take much convincing either,
remember
? Get her buzzed enough and I’ll have her
purring
my name. Isn’t that right, Claire?”

I shake my head in disgust, parting my lips to condemn him, but Pike wraps his fingers around my arm. “Don’t,” he says to me. “Let him talk.”

Tobias struggles in Rick’s grip, rage bleeding out of his eyes. He must know it’s all a lie, but that doesn’t stop the anger from growing inside of him.

I glance backward to meet Pike’s bloodshot eye. A heavy rock settles in my chest, fearing what will happen if Tobias loses all control. “I don’t want this…” I whisper, shaking my head.

“Neither did I,” he says, his dark past flashing behind his eyes.