Alpha Rogue 3 (BBW Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance) (2 page)

E
very second sitting here
, watching Hawes in the same ring as Vincent Legrand, is torture. I’m frustrated even more by the fact that we have no intel on him. Nothing that we could exploit to our advantage. We’re sitting ducks here, and all we know for sure is that he’s a cold-blooded killer.

“Are you sure there’s nothing we can do?” I ask Josh, knowing what his response is.

Josh doesn’t respond, just watches the fight. I can see sweat beading on his temple. He’s as nervous about this as I am, he’s just trying to keep his cool or we’ll all lose it I think.

Right now they’re locked together against the cage, Hawes and Legrand moving a little here and there, trying to find a weakness in the other’s technique. I haven’t seen many fights, but between my self-defense training and watching a handful of fights while on Hawes’ case, I know the difference between a good position and a bad one.

And right now Hawes is in a bad one.

“Get out of there, Hawes!” I yell, not as a hopeful fan cheering for their favorite fighter, but as a desperate woman who doesn’t know what else to do.

Hawes is trying to trip Legrand now, using his leg as a hook to hopefully bring Legrand off balance, but it’s no use. The Chainsaw’s technique is really good, and he simply sidesteps out of the way, keeping his feet planted far from Hawes’ reach. There are a few shallow punches from Hawes, but none can connect well at this distance.

The crowd is still going wild, and the noise only adds to the chaos my mind is swimming in, trying to reconcile what is happening against what should instead have happened.

“How did Legrand end up in the ring? How did we not know about this?” I ask Josh.

“None of our sources gave us any idea that he would be the one fighting tonight. It must have been a last-minute change, which they could get away with because they’re the organizers. It had to have been a setup,” Josh replies, rubbing his temple worriedly.

I’m still watching Hawes, though. Through sheer strength, he’s able to free his arm from Legrand’s grasp, putting a few inches of space between them. With a quick motion, Hawes jumps onto Legrand in flying guard position, wrapping his legs around Legrand’s midsection, forcing the larger shifter to take his weight.

We sometimes worked in this position at the gym. Though technically an advantageous position you can attack from, you’re still vulnerable to strikes from the enemy, and it can be dangerous if you’re locked with a larger, more aggressive foe.

Legrand keeps Hawes pinned to the cage, almost as if he’s trying to push free of Hawes’ grip. Hawes pushes back against him, and for a few seconds they’re locked at a stalemate.

In an instant though, Legrand swivels, with Hawes still wrapped around him, propping himself up by hooking an arm around Legrand’s neck. Before we can even anticipate what will happen, there’s a loud slam heard across the room as Legrand jumps forward and rams Hawes into the ground, his elbow driving into Hawes with incredible force. For a split second I can see Hawes gasp for breathe as Legrand sits up and tries to pull Hawes’ legs off of him, hoping to escape Hawes’ guard.

In normal MMA matches this sort of thing wouldn’t be allowed. But it’s only a harsh reminder that this isn’t normal MMA.

Thankfully, Hawes keeps his legs tightly locked, and Legrand is unable to pull out of Hawes’ guard. Recalculating his plans, Legrand goes on the offensive. Hawes has barely recovered enough to put his arms up to protect himself, just in time as Vincent begins throwing a flurry of punches down on the still-recovering Hawthorne. Even with Hawes’ arms up, I can see the incredible force Legrand is hitting with. Though he may not be connecting with any vulnerable spots, it has to be whittling Hawes down. He has to get out of there fast, or counterattack, and soon.

Typically with MMA, it doesn’t make sense to strike against an opponent who is blocking your attacks, as it wastes energy and strength, which can leave you vulnerable later in a match. But I can see how Legrand’s strategy has shifted. His early attacks were hoping to end the match quickly. Break an arm, land an easy choke, anything that could finish fast, but that would only work against someone inexperienced or overly cocky. Hawes may be cocky but it’s mostly justified, so luckily, he didn’t fall for any of that.

But now I can see that, without an easy victory early on, Legrand’s plan looks to simply wear Hawes down. And because Legrand is a shifter too, his stamina and power can last drastically longer than any regular human’s. All Legrand has to do is last longer than Hawes. Or at least weaken Hawes enough so he won’t be able to recover from any of the more powerful moves.

“C’mon, Hawes, do something,” I hear myself whisper, the sound almost completely drowned out by the crowd.

Hawes is taking a beating, and Legrand is relentless. It doesn’t even look like his breathing has intensified, despite the incredible exertion we can see. Thankfully, Hawes is able to grab one of Legrand’s wrists, attempting to pull it back toward his chest so he can isolate, usually for something like an arm-bar or a Kimura.

“Good job, Hawes, you can do it,” I hear Josh mutter at my side. His eyes are fixed on the match, intensely watching.

Hawes has the right positioning as well, both arms cranking Legrand’s arm back. His alpha strength should definitely help him in this situation. Not even Legrand should be able to pull out of this. For a second, things are looking positive, Hawes turning his body so his leg can isolate Legrand’s arm from the rest of his body at the shoulder. But then it changes direction. Legrand grabs his trapped arm with his other arm, and is able to pull it back from Hawes. Slowly, but gradually, Hawes loses his grip, as Legrand is able to pull the trapped arm away from Hawes and back toward his own body.

How in the hell can that be? Hawes is the strongest shifter I’ve ever met. No amount of technique should have been able to get Legrand out of that, especially with Hawes’ strength behind it.

I can see shock on Hawthorn’s face. What was determination a second ago has turned to panic. Not only is Legrand’s arm far from being arm-barred, Hawes lost his positioning on Legrand while trying to do the move, and his legs are no longer locked around Legrand’s midsection. Rather than try to move back into guard, Hawes attempts to bail, probably so he can take the fight off the ground and back onto their feet. He pushes off Legrand and rolls, trying to pop back onto his feet.

Legrand doesn’t miss a beat though, and he lunges for Hawes while he’s rolling. Thankfully, Hawes is able to get to his feet quickly, throwing a few punches that miss Legrand completely, but enough to keep distance between them.

The fight is back to where it started. Only now Hawes looks battered and bruised. There are small cuts everywhere on his body, especially his arms, probably from where Legrand’s punches made contact.

Legrand, on the other hand, is just as calm and collected as he was at the beginning. He’s starting to sweat, but he looks like he could do this all day. Hawes, on the other hand, doesn’t.

“Damnit,” I hear Josh swear to my left. “It looks like we have company,” he says with a nod to our right, the direction of the doors we entered from.

At the entrance I can see a dozen or so men standing at the large double doors leading into the building, looking intently into the audience. One of them spots us and points, saying something to his group. They turn in our direction, and all begin to walk toward us, quickly, but trying to not look hurried.

“We have to get out of here,” Josh says, standing from his seat. “Now.”

I stand and follow Josh, walking quickly away from the direction the men are coming from. I glance up at the ring and see Hawes and Legrand throwing punches at each other, desperation rising in me since I cant keep my focus on the fight, but instead am confronted with the fact that all of us are in danger right now.

Don’t give up Hawes, please.

T
his guy
just won’t quit. He’s like a machine. A terrible, soulless killing machine made to make my life a living nightmare right now.

“I hate you, Legrand. Just putting that out there,” I tell the machine. It gives no response.

This feels like it’s been going on forever, though it has probably only been a minute or two. Normally a bell would have sounded marking the end of the round, but there’s none. Their ring, their rules I guess.

The guy is freakin’ tireless. Every time I try to find a hole, he has already covered it and is smacking me with upside the head with the shovel he used to cover it. Figuratively speaking.

I shake my head. Focus, Hawthorne. This isn’t a joke.

I’ve been in tough pickles before, but nothing like this. Legrand really lives up to his name. It feels like no matter how hard I give, I get it back twofold. I can feel my body running down, my muscles starting to give here and there. My natural regeneration helps, but it can’t heal faster than Legrand can dish out the pain.

There’s only one option. Win, and win soon.

I throw several jabs, hoping to find some opening. Anything. Legrand just dodges and blocks, then returns a powerful hook which I’m able to catch with my arm, preventing it from connecting with my face and breaking my jaw, but it still hurts. Bad.

Legrand follows up with two roundhouses, each one I narrowly avoid with my unique reflexes. But while my attention is on his bullet-fast feet near my face, I miss a back kick he ends the succession of kicks with. I sidestep, but his heel still caches me on my side, and it hurts like hell. It must be where he got his name from. He spins and slices like a chainsaw.

“Face it, you’ve lost. Just give up, Hawes,” Legrand says. His voice is low and direct. It sounds educated, but in the kind of way that makes your hair stand on end. It’s unsettling.

“Oh, so it speaks?” I reply sarcastically, my hand on my side, trying to ease the pain of the blow my poor oblique just took.

“You can be as sarcastic as you want. But by my predictions, you only have about ninety seconds left in the ring before I break your arm. After which I’ll then break your skull.”

“Ha ha ha. Yeah I get it. You’re the evilest, biggest bad wolf of all. I’m shaking in my boots.” I lunge at him with my palm. I know he’ll probably deflect it, but hey, I could get lucky.

He sweeps my hand to the side, and his fist connects with my nose. Damn, that hurts. Probably not broken, but I can feel blood running down my face now.

“You have an odd way of coping with facing your imminent death.” He stares at me, arms posed and positioned to attack at a moment’s notice. “Shall we raise the stakes, then?” he turns and looks at the audience for a short moment, and looks back at me. I swear he smiles, but it’s such a small expression that I barely catch it. Or my vision is getting blurry. Maybe both.

Oh, hell. Rose.

I look down at where I last saw her sitting, and she’s not there. But in the aisle, not far from her chair, I see two figures walking hurriedly toward a small exit door. One is probably Josh, the other has to be Rose. Not far behind them, nearly on their heels, are at least a dozen men following them.

“What the hell is going on?” I reply, trying to keep my cool.

“Don’t you see? You’ve all walked willingly into my trap,” he says, voice low and without affect.

“What do those two have anything to do with this?”

“Well, aside from being Tribunal lackeys that I would be more than happy to do without, I recently came upon some information saying that Rose is an unmated alpha female. Pure alpha.” He licks his lips. “I’m thinking she’d make the perfect mate.”

I throw several low kicks, hoping to catch Legrand’s knee. I would
really
love to break it right now. He throws his elbow up at me and catches my jaw squarely in the middle.

Shit.

I see Rose and the guy that looks like Josh exit through the back doorway, but only seconds later the goons follow after them.

“What do you plan to do with them?” I ask, hoping to keep him talking with the off chance that it will give me an opening, though it seems unlikely.

“Well, once they’re captured, I’ll kill the suit first. I despise guys like that Josh. And Rose, I’ll take to a nice little penthouse suite I own a few blocks from here and make her mine. After that, I might even make her put in a good word with her father for me, see where that goes,” he says, as if his plan were completely logical and not at all insane.

“You’re crazy. Just putting that out there,” I reply, wiping the blood from my battered jaw and wiping it on my shorts.

“I’ve heard that before. The people who said it are now dead.” Legrand goes on the offensive, lunging for my core, probably hoping to knock the wind out of me. I try to put my training to use, keeping light on my feet and looking for an opening to retaliate, but I see none. The second I miss, his arms are up, defending the very place I’m attacking, as if he’s anticipating my every move.

My back is next to the exit of the arena now. And even though it’s held with a chain and a small lock, I try to guess how long it would take me to rip the lock and bolt for Rose. Every second with this madman, something terrible could be happening to her, and I have to stop it.
I have to.

Legrand watches me, reading my expressions. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Don’t worry though, I’ve given strict instructions for her to not be harmed.” He throws a straight kick, which I’m able to absorb most of the impact with my forearms, but the force throws me into the cage behind me. I quickly sidestep, narrowly avoiding another powerful kick from Legrand which lands on the cage. He turns back to me. “So you’ll get to die knowing she was safe while you were still alive.”

“Beep boop boop,” I say, imitating robot-like sounds. “All I hear is ‘I’m a psycho madman, please punch me in the face now’.”

Legrand rushes at me, and I put up a block, anticipating a strike from him. But instead he lunges at me, bringing me to the ground. We shuffle, me trying to avoid being pinned, and he trying to move into an advantageous position. He’s fast, and still has a lot of strength left though, and he’s able to come on top of me and pin me down. I try to buck him off, but he has a good hold on me from where he’s at.

“Joke all you want, Hawes. You’re just wasting breath. And you’re down to about thirty seconds.”

I’m coming, Rose. I just have to kill this asshole first. I’m just not sure how to do that yet.

And at this rate, Legrand might not be wrong about how much time I have left.