“Yeah, Evie, sic your dog on me. Then watch how fast he gets sent back to the kennel while we find another Covington beast to fight.”
“Seriously, Max. Let me go.” I said.
“You heard her,” Kingston bellowed, and behind him I saw the other guy stagger to his feet and launch himself at Kingston.
“Kingston!” I cried out and he understood my warning but it was too late.
As he turned around to see the fighter rushing at him, the fighter threw a punch with all of his weight and speed behind it. It landed on Kingston’s jaw, knocking him back against the cage. I heard Kingston let out an ‘oof’ sound as he smashed into the wire.
“Get up!” I screamed at him as he sagged down with his head forward. The other fighter drew back his other fist and hit Kingston again. Blood sprayed and I saw Kingston’s head swivel as the blow landed hard. “Max, let me go! I have to help him!”
“I like this too much,” Max said. “I like seeing you scream.”
I reached out and hooked my fingers into the wire near Kingston’s head and said, “Come on, focus. You have to wake up.”
Kingston turned his head towards me and I saw his eye already bruising and blood streaming out of his nose and down his face. His teeth were red with it, and I couldn’t tell if it was from the nose or another wound all together.
“Come on,” I said to him. “You have to fight.”
“Max is hurting you,” he mumbled and turned towards the two of us, the wrong move. He was so concerned with my well-being that he was leaving himself wide open to be pummeled by the fighter he should have destroyed by now.
Max’s grip was iron tight and relentless as I desperately tried to get free.
And then all at once, it was gone.
And Max was lifted by the neck and slammed into the outside of the cage next to me and almost touching Kingston.
“Get back into the fight, Taylor,” Ryker snarled, holding a squirming Max to the metal. “I’ve got this. I’ll protect her.”
Archer and Valen appeared next to him and the three of them gave Kingston enough reassurance of my safety that he got his head back into the fight.
The other guy continued to hit him in the chest and stomach until Kingston stood up, looked down, and smashed the guy’s face with one hand and then the next.
I saw blood spray, a tooth fly and land somewhere on the mat, and his flesh absorb the blow as if in slow motion.
The guy cried out, a deep, guttural, animal sound, and fell back right onto the floor.
The audience went fucking crazy as Kingston punched him one more time for good measure.
The other guy knew better than to get up off the mat after that, so Kingston was declared the winner.
During this entire time, Max was still pinned to the cage by Ryker’s massive, meaty fist. His face was bright purple by the time I suggest they let him down, and he choked out some empty threat against all of us as he gagged and coughed all the way off the platform.
“The little bitch,” Ryker spat as Max ran away. “Too bad he didn’t stick around to earn his defeat.”
And I had to laugh at the thought of Ryker forcing himself on Max, because when you were a girl like me without muscles but filled with rage, the image was powerful and addictive.
And I loved it.