My sins (on hold)

Fight

When I got out of the shower, Caden's lean form was sitting on my bed, waiting for me. At first I thought that he wanted to talk about Katnis but he looked too excited for that discussion.

"Hey. What's up?" I asked.

"Atlas wants to go out and keep an eye on Dante. So we're all going to Dante's club. You should come with us." He looked up at me through this eyelashes with a slight pout.

"Wait. Dante has a club or is he at a club? I thought he was going to watch some fight underground?"

Caden eyes sparkled and he choked as if he was holding back a laugh. I squinted at him and he schooled his facial expressions back to normal. "Sorry, Dante meant he was going to join the fight. He said underground fighting. Dante has a club with different floors for everyone. The basement is underground fighting. But, the main floor is a regular club."

"So Dante was going to fight underground after he just had surgery."

Caden winced and scratches the back of his neck, "Atlas is heading over there now. Nobody can stop Dante when he has his mind set on something." He looked back at me with his large, aqua eyes and a slight, mischievous smile, "I bet you could talk him out of it though."

I knew I could never say no to Caden, especially when he was looking at me with that face. I never had the opportunity to go clubbing in my small town. Why not go now? Bonus, I could talk Dante out of hurting himself more and see his club.

"Ok." I responded.

A few moments later, I found myself in another one of their slick, speedy car. This time, it was with Caden and Ronan. Ronan's smoky, vanilla scent was infused into his leather seats while Caden's deliciously, sweet scent thickened the air. I had to crack the window to give myself some fresh air that wouldn't mess with my head.

We turned into the back parking lot behind a dark building. It looked to be three stories tall and it was covered in a dark, blood red paint. Ronan banged on the metal, rusted door and it was aggressively thrown open by a burly man. He seemed to recognize Ronan because his scowl turn into a grin, he clapped him on the back and moved aside to let us through.

The walls were covered in a similar dark burgundy color. The ceiling was decorated with dim lights and swinging lanterns that were hung from the black ceiling. Before I could admire the extraordinary interior of the club, I was gently tugged along and into a small, half hidden staircase leading downwards.

The light, pop music from the fancy club upstairs was soon drowned by the loud, rock & roll music from the lower level of the building. I assume this must be the boxing part of the club.

Ronan looked back at Caden and I when he hit the bottom of the stairwell, he yelled something to us which I couldn't pick up over the music and then pushed open the door that officially led us into the basement of the club and connected us to the illegal activity that was held in this level.

The music plus the loud jeering and shouts from a large crowd surrounding something in the center of the room almost demolished my ear drums. I slammed my hands over my ears, not caring how many judgmental look I got from the people around us. The smell was a mixture of mostly dominate alpha scents which made me switch to breathing from my mouth in an attempt to gain back some control.

The floor and walls were thick, grey concrete, the ceiling was so high with barely any lighting, I couldn't tell what it was made out of.  I glanced behind me to find Caden was gone, I whirled forward to grabbed Ronans sleeve and pointed behind me, hoping to indicate that Caden was gone.

Except the man whose sleeve I pulled wasn't Ronan. The stranger growled at me and I stumbled backwards and quickly turned, pushing my way into the dense crowd to put distance between us. In my panic to get away, I didn't keep track of what direction I was going. 

I was lost. 

I had no idea what direction the stairs were. I reached into my pocket for my phone. The screen was black. It's dead.

Fuck. It's okay, Odette. Just breathe. 

All around me the thick crowd pushed and jostled me forward, towards whatever was in the center, a spectacle that I couldn't see because of my short height. The crowd was screaming in my ear until their sounds echoed in my head. 

I was trapped. There was no way out from this jungle of bodies. My hands grew clammy while I tried to convince myself to stay calm. There had to be a way out. Maybe if I jumped, I could see over the shoulder surrounding me.

The image of me jumping, falling and then being trampled burst apart my idea. I squeezed my hands into fists at my sides, willing myself not to start crying. There was no way I could push against the bodies, so I had to go forwards toward the center. 

I slowly squeezed through people until I could hear the sound of grunting and curses being thrown. I flinched when I heard the sound of bone crunching and a roar of pain. 

I paled, regretting my decision. But, with no where else to go, I had no choice but to keep pushing through. As I got closer to the commotion, the people became more aggressive. There were more fists being punched into the air, more feet stomping, more small fights broke out around me and more elbow swung around in excitement.

The people viewing the fight were abnormally tall for a human, as tall as Ronan and Dante. I was starting to think this tall height trait was very common in wolves. This height difference between the crowd and I, meant I was at the perfect height to be smashed with their elbows whenever they angry threw them backwards. Some apologized, others glared at me as if I had hit them. 

By the time I had made it to the last layer of people until I made it to the front, I had a bruised cheek and a bloody nose. I shoved through the last few people and looked up into the ring to find a bloody Dante standing in the middle.

A small voice in my head joked about being too late to stop him from fighting. The voice went dead silent when his limp opponent was dragged away, leaving a trail of blood that made me nauseous. And the single opponent was replaced by three more guys.  

They were a little skinnier than Dante. But, they were clearly wolves and Dante was also recovering from surgery and bullet wounds. I prayed that he would back out. From the look of the bruises on his face and his arms, it showed that he had already been in the ring for a while. He must be tired. He didn't seem to take any of that into account because his eyes lit up at the three males.

"No," I whispered, shaking my head violently. I was immediately drowned out by the cheers from everyone around me. I could only watch in horror as the referee stepped into the rink with a whistle in his mouth, ready to start the fight.

I gasped as Dante tore off his shirt, revealing his wrapped wounds and new cuts and bruises. It was worse than I thought. 

The whistle blew sharply through the air.