Chapter 1
Before an underground fighting match in Lasvikas, my elder sister, Annabelle Carter, dumped pure silver powder into one of the two gene stabilizers.
Arthur Blackwood, my fiancé and the pack Alpha, seized my wrist and spoke sternly, "Annabelle took it for fancy glitter powder and only meant to make the nutrient solution look prettier.
"She suffered a lot living away from home. Can't you give your own sister a break?
"You're already a high-level mutant. You can get through tonight's match without the stabilizer. Don't make a big deal out of such a trivial thing."
The gene stabilizer was completely destroyed.
Arthur gently wiped away Annabelle's tears and took her up to a VIP box high above the arena.
"Stay sharp and watch your defense out there tonight," he said to me.
I stared silently at the ruined stabilizer inside the cold storage case.
Arthur forgot that I always keep both of our emergency shots in the same slot.
The one the silver powder destroyed had his barcode on it.
I wondered if he would still be so caring to Annabelle half an hour from now, when the bloodline backlash hit and he went on a full werewolf rampage in the ring.
*****
The door to the VIP box slammed shut.
I stood in the prep room, my eyes fixed on the stabilizer in the medkit, now ruined and blackened.
Pure silver was the deadliest poison for werewolves, and the powder Annabelle poured in was ninety-nine percent pure.
That kind of stuff was meant to kill high-ranking vampires.
But she "happened to" grab the wrong bottle and "accidentally" poured it into the medical kit. Who would believe that?
The countdown screen on the wall flashed red.
There were fifteen minutes left until Arthur stepped into the ring.
My phone lit up with a message from Arthur. [Annabelle is really shaken up by how you acted. She's crying right now.
[You'd better apologize to her in front of everyone after the match.
[Don't test my patience, Evelyn.]
I tossed my phone in the trash can without a second thought.
The prep room door was pushed open, and the pack's Beta, Frank Shaw, hurried in.
"Lady Norman, the Alpha is about to step into the ring. Where's his stabilizer?" he asked.
I pointed at that blackened mess. "It's destroyed."
Frank sucked in a sharp breath. "That's the Alpha's lifeline! Without the stabilizer, and with a mutant bear shifter as his opponent tonight, he's going to lose control."
"He said he could handle the match without it." I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed. "He told me that Annabelle ruining the stabilizer was a trivial thing, because he didn't want her to feel upset."
Frank started pacing anxiously. "Please, you can't leave him hanging like this. Your advanced mutant blood can curb the backlash temporarily.
"If you donate one pint of your blood to him..."
I let out a cold, sarcastic laugh.
"My blood isn't for cleaning up his mess," I said. "If he wants to buy into Annabelle's so-called 'glitter powder' nonsense, then he can go out there with that thing running through his veins."
Outside, the deafening roar of the crowd shook the arena.
The match had begun.
I walked up to the monitor, watching as Arthur leaped onto the ring.
He was shirtless, muscles rippling, the wolf pack's emblem tattooed across his chest.
Annabelle was sitting in the VIP box, snapping selfies like crazy with the ring in the background.
Arthur's opponent was a mutant bear shifter, nearly ten feet tall.
In the first round, Arthur used his speed to take the upper hand.
He landed a punch right on the bear shifter's jaw, and the crowd went wild.
He even looked up with a cocky grin and blew a kiss toward Annabelle's VIP box.
Annabelle screamed back from the VIP box, her excitement obvious.
When the second round started, Arthur's movements suddenly got slow.
The monitor zoomed in, and I could clearly see the veins in his neck starting to bulge.
Black veins snaked up his spine, spreading fast.
The silver poison was kicking in.
Without the gene stabilizer to suppress it, his werewolf bloodline went berserk.
The bear shifter seized the moment and slammed a massive paw into Arthur's chest.
A sickening bone-snapping crack blared over the arena speakers.
Arthur crashed to the ground, spitting out a mouthful of black blood.
Gasps swept through the arena.
"What's going on? The Alpha's healing isn't working?"
"Look at the blood he spat out. It's black. He's been poisoned."
Arthur curled up on the ground in pain and clawed at his throat while his eyes turned into a wild, mindless red.
His body started to shift, but it was a twisted version of the change.
His bones made a horrible cracking sound as they bent the wrong way, and his fur came in patchy, with half of it gray and the other half raw, rotting flesh.
The bear shifter wasn't about to let this chance slip by.
He brought his massive paw crashing straight down onto Arthur's back.
Arthur let out a terrible scream.
Annabelle, up in the VIP box, dropped her phone in terror and kept screaming with her hands over her face.
Frank burst into the prep room and lowered his body to the ground in front of me. "Lady Norman, please, I'm begging you. The Alpha is about to get beaten to death out there.
"If you don't do something, he's going to die in the ring."
I looked down at him and said, "Everyone knows the rules of underground fighting matches. Their life is their own responsibility.
"He chose to defend a woman who poisoned the stabilizer with pure silver, and he threw away his chance to survive.
"He is a grown man, so he needs to live with the choices he made."