Before the tiger grasped the advantage, Titan went into full attack mode.
He lunged up to latch onto the tiger’s throat, clamping his jaws hard as his body got yanked around. Adrenaline overrode Titan’s pain from his paw, ribs, and back. He shook his head back and forth vigorously. His claws dug rapidly, mutilating the skin protecting the tiger’s throat. Bloody parts dangled free.
All that happened in the second it took for the tiger to arch up, snarling and slapping his paws at Titan while trying to escape the bludgeoning.
Running out of energy, Titan made one more desperate attempt to reach the tiger’s vertebrae but failed.
With one mighty lunge, the tiger wrenched up again, straining to escape. As if the thread holding him together snapped, eight hundred pounds fell toward Titan in slow motion.
Chapter 2
At the sound of Krol’sroar and the guards’ jubilant shouting, Alifair paused in her kitchen duties. Her heart clutched with worry the wolf shifter would lose. If he died, her sacrifice would have been wasted.
Hard to blame him when they had yet to speak a word to each other for her to share why she needed his help.
Bosse, the big wolf shifter, fought a tiger shifter this time. This would be the tiger’s first battle, unlike Bosse, who fought every single day while being fed gruel a starving animal would pass on. She’d heard that wolf shifter had been here for a couple of years. How had he lasted so long?
Would today be his last battle?
She carried a tray filled with Pogaca, which reminded her of focaccia a friend at home in the States made, except these were stuffed with potatoes. If she were home in America now, she wouldn’t have lost her appetite at the fear of Bosse being killed or grip the tray so tightly it shook. To hide her reaction, she quickly placed the tray on the coarse wooden table in the great hall and scolded herself.No reacting to anything, ever.
It was difficult enough to maintain this submissive servant role daily while fearing how much could go wrong with her plan.
If she rattled the next tray filled with bowls of Kapustnica and spilled even one drop of the succulent soup, Hessie would probably have her strung up by her thumbs. Hessie ruled over the kitchen and servants with the callous demeanor of a prison warden.
Linota, a thin young woman with brassy red hair who sounded British, glanced at her. “You look gutted.”
“No, I’ve just got a cramp.” Getting to understand the woman’s phrases, Alifair made a show of shaking her left hand to prove she was not upset.
Linota nodded and moved on.
Alifair picked the tray up again and continued placing bread on each hammered metal plate along the twelve-foot table. She’d come from a world of electronics to this ridiculous medieval setting. She wanted air conditioning no matter where she was in July. Unlike a fun Ren Fair, Krol made everyone live this backward life for real.
She’d never known a shifter of any kind before allowing herself to be captured and brought to Krol’s castle three weeks ago. Her one dependable gift, clairvoyant dreams, only recently showed her that Bosse would be critical to her plan.
Raised in a clan of gifted beings, she’d been taught to fear and avoid all shifters.
