Prologue: Caged

(DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ BOOKS ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR & FIVE) -Her Shifter Bodyguard / Shifter On Ice / The Shifter Bar / Bearing the Shifter / Dreaming of the Shifter-

-Ten Years Ago-

Eighteen-year-old Josiah Queen; watched the two men fighting. He’ll be fighting the winner of this fight, so he needs to find anything he can use against them. Normally, he wouldn’t fight in a place like this, preferring to fight in the street for fifty bucks here, a hundred there—if he wins.

But someone saw him fighting and told him about this place. It’s indoors, and a huge cage around them will keep the audience from disrupting the fight, which has happened to him several times.

Humans don’t like shifters. But they’ll pay to see them fight. Go figure.

“Do you like what you see?”

The soft voice behind him had him spinning around to find a beautiful woman. She was so beautiful; he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Which was odd because he usually stayed away from women.

“They’re good,” he answered.

She shrugged. “Perhaps, but what about you?”

“I….” He shook his head. What was happening to him?

“I’m Lydiahna Penth,” she said, holding her hand out to him.

He shook her hand, his head a bit fuzzy. Every time she spoke, he felt dizzy… as if he was besotted by her…

“How about we go to my office?” she said with a smile.

He shook his head. “I’m up next to fight.”

She looked in the ring and smirked. “Do you really think you can fight one of them?”

He turned to the fence and shrugged. “Possibly.” He’d seen both their eyes; neither of them were shifters, so he was pretty sure he could take them on.

“I have a better fight for you,” she whispered into his ear.

“Yeah?” he asked, turning back to her.

“Yeah,” she said with a nod and a sexy smile.

“How do you know?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.

“Because I know fighting humans isn’t as exciting as fighting a shifter.”

He looked her up and down and shook his head. “Who are you?”

“The woman who’s going to change your life,” she said, looking into his eyes. “Now, come along with me. I’ve already seen you fight in the street; now, let’s see you fight in a cage.”

“But I’m supposed to fight here.”

“Come with me,” she growled.

“Of course,” he said, staring into her eyes.

“That’s better.” She smiled as she took his hand and led him away from the cage.

“I thought we were going to your office,” he said as she led him from the building.

“Oh, we are.” She chuckled.

She led him to a limo and helped him inside, then climbed in after him. Once inside the limo, she climbed onto his lap.

“Wh-what are you doing?” he asked, staring at her.

“Testing out my product,” she said as she rubbed against him.

“Uhm….”

“Shut up,” she said as she kissed him.

Josiah blinked as her mouth crushed his. What was going on? One minute he was preparing to fight, the next minute, he’s in a limo with a woman on his lap… It’s not the first time a woman has come onto him. But this didn’t feel right; he didn’t feel right.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as her hand slid down his chest to his crotch. “Don’t I turn you on?”

“Uh.” He swallowed. “Not so much,” he whispered.

She stopped when she felt his deflated cock. She leaned back and stared at him.

“You don’t like what you see?” she asked, looking into his eyes.

He looked at her. “You’re pretty,” he admitted.

She smiled, then started moving against him again. “Come on, I want to fuck before we get to the club,” she said, licking up his neck.

“Uhm, I don’t….” He stopped talking when her hand went down his pants.

“What the hell?” She wrapped her hand around his cock and looked into his eyes. “Why are you not hard? I really wanted a shifter cock inside me before we got to our destination.”

He shrugged. “You don’t do anything for me,” he said honestly.

She scowled. “We’ll just see about that,” she growled, then kissed him again.

For the thirty-minute drive to the club, she tried to get him hard enough to fuck, but his cock never even twitched.

With a scream of agitation, she shoved off him. When the limo stopped, she jumped out of the car and ordered one of the bouncers to bring in her prize.

The large black man pulled Josiah from the limo and dragged him through the club.

“You must have really pissed her off,” the man said as he watched Lydiahna storm ahead of them. “Didn’t you fuck her before you got here?”

Josiah shook his head. “She doesn’t appeal to me.”

The large man snorted with laughter. “Oh man, you’re in for it now.”

Josiah looked up at him. “What’s going on?”

The bouncer looked down at him and sighed heavily. “If you’d fucked her, she’d have fought for you to fight less, so she can continue to fuck you without waiting for bones to heal, but since you didn’t give her what she wanted, she’s going to make sure you suffer.”

“Wait, what?” Josiah felt his heart plummet to his stomach. ’What the fuck was going on?’

“Shut up!” Lydiahna screeched.

The bouncer closed his mouth and continued after her, Josiah at his side. Josiah knew he could easily take this human on. So why wasn’t he? It was as though he had no control over his own body.

They walked into an office, and Josiah saw a man and woman standing off to the side. He recognized the man. He’s the one who’d told him about the other fight… What was going on?

“Ah, Lydiahna, you found him,” the man said with a smile.

“Wasn’t hard.” Lydiahna scowled.

The man laughed. “Did he give you trouble?”

Lydiahna snorted. “You can say that. Well, he’s all yours.”

“What, you don’t want a piece of him?” the other woman asked.

Lydiahna growled. “Not this one.” She turned to Josiah. “You’ll do everything they say until they place you in your cage.” She laughed as she headed for the door. “If only you would fuck me.” She smirked as she left the room.

“I see you upset the vampire.” The man chuckled.

“Not hard to do.” The woman smiled at Josiah.

“Witch,” Josiah whispered. He could smell it on them from here.

“Very good,” the woman said as she moved over to him. “So smart and handsome.”

“He’s a wolf,” the man warned.

“Oooo, we haven’t had one of those in a long time,” the witch said with a wide grin.

Josiah looked at the wizard. “How did I not smell it on you before?”

The dark wizard laughed. “Magic,” he said, snapping his fingers. “You’re ours now. You’ll fight for us….”

“Can’t we use him other ways?” the witch asked as she rubbed up against the shifter.

The wizard snorted. “If Lydiahna couldn’t get to him, I doubt you or your girls could.”

She frowned. “Fine. But I want to watch him fight.”

The wizard nodded, then looked at the bouncer. “Take him to the cage. He’ll fight Bruno.”

“On his first fight, sir?” the bouncer asked, his eyes open wide.

The wizard laughed. “He’s not bringing in any extra money for the vampire to fuck, so yes, I want to see how well he can handle himself against a real shifter.”

The bouncer bowed to the witch and wizard and pulled Josiah out the door.

~🐺~

Josiah stood in the middle of the cage and looked around at the screaming humans, witches, and shifters. A door opened, and a large man walked into the cage.

“Bruno, I presume.” Josiah looked the man up and down. He was huge, even for a shifter. He must be a bear shifter.

“New kid,” the large man said, looking Josiah over.

“This fight tonight is special,” the announcer said into his microphone. “We have our champion, Bruno, versus our new member, Josiah Queen.”

Cheers and boos surrounded the cage.

“I won’t go easy on you, kid,” Bruno said with a cocky grin.

“Tonight’s fight will be Bedon Sontoiya.” the announcer said.

Josiah’s head whipped to the announcer. ’What?!’ he practically screamed in his head.

“Sorry, kid. It looks like your first fight will be your last.” Bruno smirked.

Josiah ran to the chain wall of the cage and started shaking it. “I didn’t sign up for this!” he shouted

“You will do as you are told!” the dark wizard shouted.

Josiah moved away from the cage wall and returned to his place. Why was his body doing as the bastard said? Then he remembered who had brought him here. A vampire.

The crowd had gone wild when the announcer had said, Bedon Sontoiya. Josiah looked at Bruno. ‘To the Death.’

The announcer signaled for them to start, and Bruno came after him. He easily skidded out of the man’s way and delivered his own blow to the man’s back, sending him forward.

He fought like his life was at stake, which it was. The crowd seemed to like his fighting style, but they wanted blood. He’s not going to kill this man. It’s not who he is.

His speed, movements, and jabs earned him a name in the first ten minutes of the fight.

Annoyed that his new fighter wouldn’t kill his opponent, the dark wizard moved to the edge of the cage and raddled it. “Kill him!” he bellowed.

Josiah sucked in a breath as something took hold of his mind and body. He blacked out, and when he came to, the large man called Bruno was dead at his feet.

The crowd went wild, and that was the start of Josiah’s new life.

When he was placed into his cage, he felt the vampire’s powers leave his body and sat in the corner of the cage as tears streamed down his cheeks.

‘I’m not a killer,’ he told himself over and over as he rocked in the cage, his head in his arms.

~🐺~

-Two years later-

“You know, if you’d just kill, I wouldn’t have to do this every time.” Lydiahna scowled as she knelt at Josiah’s cage.

“I’m not a killer,” Josiah growled.

Lydiahna laughed. “Keep telling yourself that.” She took hold of his shirt and pulled his chest against the cage. “If only you would fuck me, I could make this all go away.”

Josiah shook his head, and the vampire sighed.

“You will kill your opponent tonight; you won’t stop until he’s dead.” She let him go and backed away. “Such a pity,” she said, then turned and walked away.

Josiah felt his anger bubble to the surface.

One of these days, he’s going to kill her—he’s going to kill them all.