The crowd was much larger than the last time she’d been there. Zephyr sat in the exact same seat she’d been in, Morana on one side, Amara on the other, their respective partners covering their corners, Victor and one of Dante’s guys behind them, giving them all the cover.
More men in suits and women in dresses sat in the upper sections of the arena, getting a bird’s eye view of the ring in the center. Other rowdier crowd stood all around the huge warehouse, behind a single row of chairs on each side just a few feet from the fighting ring. People were betting, scores were being kept, both the classy and the ugly in the underworld gracing the fight.
Zephyr sat with her heart in her throat as the announcer jumped up, clapping his hands for silence.
“What a fantastic tournament it has been, ladies and gentleman,” his voice boomed again. “We’re at the final fight, and oh, what a fight it will be.”
She didn’t know how, but she needed Alpha to make it out.
“Ladies and gentleman, he trains the best fighters in his homeland, his name instills fear in the ring, please welcome our Russian killing machine, The Ravager!”
A cheer went up in the crowd as the man with the icy hair and icy eyes walked from what must’ve been the locker room to the ring, not giving the crowd a look, just jumping in the fighting ring.
“He looks scary,” Morana whispered from her side, and Zephyr nodded, remembering when he’d dropped the boy in five seconds.
“And now,” the announcer yelled. “From the host city, the legend who doesn’t start a fight he cannot finish, the one-eyed beast, The Finisher!”
Another roar went through the crowd, the noise so loud Zephyr felt it reverberating through her body. She looked to the side to see her husband, no, The Finisher, walk out in his black fighter’s shorts out of the same locker room, wrapping his tape around his hands, going straight to the ring, jumping up beside the Ravager.
Alpha turned his head and looked at her, just to make sure she was there, and turned back.
“How the hell is he going to fight with one eye?” Amara whispered from her other side.
Zephyr didn’t know, even though she’d seen him training and fighting and killing. She didn’t know but she prayed he did.
The men exchanged a look, tapping their fists.
The announcer dropped down and rang the bell.
The fight began.
Zephyr gripped the arms of her chair, not daring to blink, not daring to breathe as The Ravager got behind Alpha, her husband immediately pivoting and coming at him from the side, to which The Ravager ducked and moved away, both men circling each other.
A hush fell over the crowd as they studied each other, adrenaline filling her veins as she rooted for the man she loved to come out the victor, no matter what the cost.
“He needs to go from the right,” Dante muttered under his breath, leaning forward in his seat and observing the fight as closely as he could.
“He’s blind on the right,” Tristan commented to Dante from the other side. “It’d make him weak.”
The commentary on technique kept on, as did the fight, much longer than any of the previous ones had lasted.
Zephyr looked at the announcer to see him looking agitated, realizing the fight had gone on for over ten minutes, with both men just fighting and ducking and dancing around each other.
“What is he doing?” she mused out loud and felt Amara give her leg a squeeze.
Suddenly, the sounds of fireworks penetrated the air.
A collective gasp went up in the warehouse. People began screaming, and Zephyr looked around in confusion, her heart threatening to bust out of her chest as Dante covered Amara and Tristan covered Morana, pushing them both to the floor. She saw Alpha looking at one corner of the warehouse before jumping over the ring, abandoning the fight to come to her. He picked her up in his arms, on the move toward the locker room.
“Find the shooter,” he ordered Victor, who was already running to the other side of the warehouse.
Dante and Tristan followed them to the back exit, the Ravager surprisingly opening the door to let them out near the back of the parking lot, now filled with people running away.
“I owe you, Adrik,” Alpha nodded to the Ravager, who gave a solemn nod in return.
“What just happened?” Zephyr asked, still shaken from the adrenaline pumping through her blood. Had she just been at a shooting? An actual shooting? One that sounded like fireworks?
“It was a shooting.” Alpha’s grim tone confirmed.