Chapter 110

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 110 CHAPTER 107 – LYING?

Badru The s***h from the wolf’s silver-dipped claws tore through the tattooed rogue’s chest. A portion of some of the spectators at the front were splattered with specks of blood that flew above the glass guard perimeter of the silver mesh dome. Far from being repulsed, the crowd went wild for it, enraptured from the shower of crimson. The noise was so loud, I could barely hear the screams that tore from Catalina beside me.

The rogue was swept sideways with the force of the blow, rolling and tumbling in the dirt of the huge fighting pit. Blood poured from the four slashes, gushing and soaking into the sand beneath him. His opponent circled, gearing up to strike again. But what I wasn’t expecting was the thunderous slam against the glass of Catalina’s fists.

“Get the f**k up, pendejo!”

Her cheeks were stained with tears, yet her eyes blazed with determination. Where her scream before dissolved with the surrounding tumult of the crowd, her roaring command rang above everything and far too conspicuously for comfort.

The rogue below met her eye, the same look on his face that graced mine when Evie showed her dominant side and made my chest swell with a heated pride. He pushed himself up in a roll, narrowly avoiding the wolf pouncing down on him, who skidded into the concrete wall. As his blood spilt down the front of him, he shifted in an instant to a huge pitch-back wolf that shone with hues of deep brown.

“That’s it!” Catalina pounded on the glass again, a hairline fracture forming at the point of impact. “Don’t you f*****g dare die!”

The spectators nearby shot us both the side-eye, questions beginning to form in their expressions. We were drawing far more speculation than what was safe.

‘Stop her before we end up strung up by our toes in silver. Because I’m pretty sure these people will do it,’ Baniti pressed me into action.

I grabbed around her waist, hauling her backwards and away from the mesh front.

‘You wanna draw any more attention?’ I tried to stop her struggling.

She elbowed me to the gut, prying at my hand to free herself. ‘What would you do if that was Evie?!’

I swung her around to face me, my aura threatening to burst free from its containment. ‘I’d tear that f*****g mesh apart to get to her and level this place to the ground… but then what about the others?

There has to be other fighters that Marceau keeps in his base. Who rescues them?’

Her lips pursed and her jaw worked, a ruddy tinge settling into her face in frustration.

My brother mind-linked from the top of the tiered steps, obviously seeing the outburst.

‘The man who was just slashed is Cata’s mate.’

‘She was always extra. Figures it would be the same with her mate,’ Adrian commented.

Catalina was caught in a war between wanting to watch the brawl to assure her mate was ok and needing to look away, struggling to witness him spill more blood. The man’s wolf was towering in size, but lithe in his build and with long legs, he was built for speed; a powerful Gamma if ever I saw one.

Despite his disadvantage of injury and no silver, he came back swinging, running circles around his opponent and making them tire themselves out. He narrowly avoided the wolf’s jaws, shifting back to his human form mid-leap, hooking his arm around his foe’s neck and squeezing. The grapple barely lasted a second, not even enough time for the wolf to shift while it was conscious. It slowly shifted back to a human-form male, the silver caps falling to the sand as his claws retreated, and the rogue gradually let his grip up, pressing a finger to his unconscious rival’s neck. He was checking for a pulse, to make sure he was still alive. He wanted to win, but he didn’t want to kill…

The tunnel began to open and I knew what would follow. If they knocked Catalina’s mate out now the match had concluded, she wouldn’t be able to follow the bond. We needed to find where that tunnel let out. They had to bring the fighters in from somewhere and it clearly wasn’t from within the club itself.

‘We should leave,’ I gripped her shoulder. ‘Now.’

‘I can’t leav-’ she stared after her mate as he was rendered unconscious from the dart fired.

‘Yes you can,’ I gave her a gentle shake. I knew the exact conflict that flowed through her, having experienced it two months ago. The feeling of the bond going numb, unresponsive but intact, and knowing there was nothing that could be done to stop it, was one of the worst experiences of my life;

more so than discovering Isaac’s secrets. ‘That tunnel faces southwest, towards the river.’

‘How do you know?’ A slow tear fell down her cheek as she watched her mate be dragged away.

‘I’m good with spatial awareness,’ I pulled her behind me, shouldering people out of the way. ‘Adrian, Aste, we’re leaving. Give it a few minutes and head back to the SUV. Aste follow our bond but keep your distance. Cata and I are going to try and find where that tunnel lets out.’

At the top of the tiered levels, Catalina brushed me away and rushed up the black marble steps, pushing her way through the clubgoers still partying away above ground. She stormed her way towards what would be the main entrance, the one we had purposely avoided. The bouncer at the door swung the door open for her, flashing me a sympathetic look as I shrugged my shoulders in a play-act and ran after her. They didn’t even check the fake ring on my finger. They must have had their share of squabbling couples or dates storming off and, with any luck, that was just what we looked like.

Outside in the freezing winter air of Toulouse, she hopped on alternating feet to remove her heels, throwing them with venom across the street along with a string of Spanish swears.

“I’m only playing this long game because I will come back here and burn these la madres que te parió (motherfuckers) for ever doing this to any rogue,” she croaked, wiping her eyes.

Just as I caught up to her, a strange passive dizziness clouded my eyes, swaying my feet. I hadn’t done anything to cause it, so it had to be…

‘Brother…’ Baniti whispered, worry setting in that something had happened and we had left him behind.

“Aste!” I pressed my earpiece, hoping he could hear me.

“I’m fine,” his quiet voice strained. “Keep going.”

I didn’t believe him entirely, but I knew he wasn’t injured and he wasn’t panicking. So he couldn’t have been caught, yet he was lying to me, something we never did with each other.

‘It’s because he knows you’ll do something dumb if he doesn’t,’ my wolf urged me onwards. ‘He isn’t dead and Adrian is with him.’

‘If anything happens to him now, I’m blaming you,’ I cast one last look over my shoulder at the club in the distance. I had to trust that Adrian would look out for my brother.

“Ru!” Catalina whisper yelled. “Put that homing pigeon mojo to good use and find this f*****g tunnel.”

“I’m not a pigeon!” I grumbled on my way past her, jogging down the steps to the riverside of the Garonne two at a time.

“I’m not calling… oh hell, forget it. I don’t have the patience or the finger puppets for this,” she rubbed her temple, catching up to me with the skirt of her dress hiked up.

‘She-wolves are weird,’ Baniti muttered. ‘Why would we need finger puppets?’

‘I have no clue, she’s probably overly stressed.’

Orientating myself in the direction of the club, I worked out where the tunnel’s trajectory would face, right under the bridge that crossed the river, Pont Neuf. Creeping along the concrete river bank, we followed the short distance to the bridge. Under the cover of the wide overpass, sat a pair of double doors with no visible lock, yet they looked sturdy and unmovable. An orange and black warning sign hung on the outside, “AVERTISSEMENT PERSONNEL AUTORISÉ SEULEMENT DÉFENSE D’ENTRER,” making it look as though it was a standard service tunnel and nothing more, only I knew better. Just a ways up from the double doors was an access ramp, wide enough to accommodate a large van, a van full of knocked-out fighters.

“This has to be it. I’m sure of-” the sound of a vehicle pulling up above triggered my defences and I shoved Catalina behind me, only breathing a sigh of relief when the bond with my twin hummed.

“You can stand down, killer,” Adrian’s head popped over the railings at the top. “You find it?”

“Yeah. Or, at least, we think.”

“Give me your hand, I’ll help you guys up.”

“Don’t you dare look up my dress,” Catalina grunted as I gave her a boost up the wall.

“Not even if you paid me.”

Taking a step back, I took a running jump, vaulting up the wall to grasp the railing, and clasped Adrain’s outstretched hand to haul me up and over. My worry for my twin only grew. Why was Adrian helping me and not Astennu? I ripped the back door open to the SUV to find my brother, slouched and with a gold handkerchief pressed to his nose, seeped in red.

“I f*****g knew you were lying!”