Chapter 333
Chapter 333
Avery’s POV
I was shoved through the double doors and into the courtyard. The guards deposited me along the outer edge of the circle and then took up a position behind me, blocking my exit.
Not that I was trying to run at this point anyway. I was too busy staring at the scene I’d walked into.
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Sebastian and Gideon were circling each other as the torchlight played off the planes of their shoulders. They were both shirtless both glaring at the other, both growling low in their throats in that way challenging Alphas did.
I told myself to look away. I told myself to watch for an opportunity to slip back through the doors, to put distance between myself and this entire situation before it got any worse. My keys were still in my pocket. My car was still out front. I could still get out of this if I ran fast enough.
But I didn’t. I… couldn’t.
Watching Gideon like this made my wolf surge properly for the first time in years.
He looked different than I remembered, and also exactly the same. The decade that had passed had given him a harder set to his jaw, a little silver at his temples, and lines that hadn’t been there before.
But his body was still what it always was. Broad shouldered, every muscle in his back moving cleanly under his skin as he turned. He was bigger and bulkier than Sebastian, and despite the years he had on the younger Alpha, he had clearly not lost any muscle. If anything, he looked like he’d been training harder than ever.
“He’s perfect,” my wolf whined. “Like a fine wine p>
I shut her down before the feeling could take hold and breathed in carefully through my nose, making sure I wasn’t creating a scent. The last thing I needed right now was for Gideon to catch my scent while I was standing thirty feet away from him in the middle of a crowd,
Suddenly, the two of them lunged. Sebastian moved first, which didn’t surprise me -he was leaner, younger, and hotter-blooded-but Gideon sidestepped it almost lazily and got ahold of his arm long enough to redirect him hard into the dirt.
Sebastian came back up without stopping and they locked again, grappling. For several long moments, the fight was completely even. Neither of them got a proper
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Charter 333
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hit in on the other.
I glanced over to see that a woman had appeared next to me. She looked like she was one of the women from Sebastian’s pack, based on her long, wavy hair and her bare feet sticking out from beneath her long skirt
“This is an evenly matched fight,” I pointed out.
She didn’t pull her eyes away from the fight. “For now. But not for long. Alpha Sebastian will take him down p>
“I don’t know, it seems like Alpha Gideon can hold his own,” I said carefully.
The woman laughed wryly. “He used to. He was one of the strongest Alphas in the territories not that long ago.” She shook her head. “But he’s been running himself into the ground for years. Everyone knows it Searching the forest, following cold leads, barely sleeping. All over some dead woman p>
I kept my eyes on the fight even though my heart pounded. “Dead woman p>
“His Luna. She died about ten years ago, or that’s what everyone assumes, anyway- they never found a body, just a finger. But he never accepted it, and he’s been hunting ever since. Chasing her ghost through the forest instead of leading his pack p>
She tilted her head and finally glanced at me. “You can see it on him if you know what to look for. He’s getting old and tired, and his mind is too focused on her. Sebastian doesn’t have any of those problems p>
I glanced at Gideon and realized that the woman was right. It was there in the small things. The half-second delay in his recovery when Sebastian landed a hit. The way he absorbed the blow rather than evading it, like he was trying to conserve his energy. He was still an excellent fighter, but he wasn’t what he once was.
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