“My Pride,” Cree calls out. “I humble myself before you today to answer a challenge that’s been laid at my feet.”
My brow crinkles in confusion as gryphons all around me hiss in anger at her words.
Did I challenge her?
“We’ve been asked to join the fight against Lazza and the Vow, but the petitioner is untested and therefore unworthy. How can we follow that into battle? Sacrifice our lives and our futures for someone who won’t even claim her mates!”
The crowd boos and shouts out their anger, and my mouth drops open. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, lady,” I snap at Cree.
Apparently, my mouth gives no fucks, because I just pop off. And what’s weirder is as soon as I open my mouth, the crowd quiets, which means every word that slips off my tongue is heard loud and clear.
“Do I not?” Cree counters. “Your scent isn’t on them, you don’t sleep in the same place, you left them in a dangerous situation with not a care in the world about what we might do to them, you offer them to other females. Why would we fight for someone who looks at us and our ways so heartlessly?” she demands.
I see red at her words, and the next thing I know I’m jumping down into the ring too. I hear the guys shouting my name, but I ignore it. There is no fucking way I’m going to get painted as the bad guy here. Fuck this bitch.
“I did not offer them to other females, I said I don’t own them or their decisions,” I shout out as I close the distance between me and Cree. “You don’t know shit about me. Those fuckers have walked all over me, lied, withheld information, blamed me for shit I have no control over, and destroyed any kind of connection we could have ever had together. If that’s the kind of shit you and your people value, then fuck you,” I snarl at her and then turn to our audience. “But you know what, I’m still going to break the Vow and do what I promised to do, regardless of the fucked up ways any of you see the world.”
I turn back to Cree and continue my rant. “You want a fight, you got one, but let’s keep it real, it’s not because you’re standing up for some kind of code. You’re a bitch with a chip on your shoulder and nothing more.”
Pigeon wing fives me, proud of my little speech. Excitement flashes through her as I start to untie my pants and strip down like Cree is. She’s probably going to kill me, but I don’t even care anymore. I’m tired of being pushed around. If I die, I’ll still fulfill my promise. All I know is, there better be a massive burger waiting for me in heaven...with bacon on it and a pool full of fries.
“Maybe we have a worthy opponent on our hands after all,” Cree declares, and then in a blink, she explodes into a massive fog gray gryphon with bright purple eyes.
“Alright, Pidge, this is all you?”
Pigeon rips out of my chest like a freight train, and we’re attacking before the change from me to her is fully complete. I forgot how utterly fearless she is when she fights, and I clap and cheer her on when Cree rears back in surprise.
She promptly gryphon slaps us into next week, but the element of surprise was good while it lasted. Pigeon shakes it off and flips back at her again, like some bouncy ball of feathers and promised pain, ricocheting around the pit, taking hits, but doling them out too.
We’re fast, and Cree doesn’t quite know what to do with our manic advances. It seems balls to the wall is not the fight setting she’s used to facing. I can feel her studying Pigeon. Like a cat watching a fly, just biding their time before they...pounce.
All at once, Pigeon and I are flying sideways through the air until we slam into the edge of the pit. Cree just swatted us like we were nothing more than an annoying mosquito. The crowd around us roars their approval, and Pigeon and I scramble to our feet just in time to take the full weight of Cree pouncing on us.
She shoves us to the ground, and Pigeon roars out in pain and frustration as claws rake down our back. She’s toying with us. Pigeon and I are in no position to overtake her, but she’s not done having her fun. Cree digs her talons under one of our wings and wrenches it back hard. We scream at the same time she trumpets glee.
Rage builds inside of me as Cree starts to pick at us with her beak, her other talon-tipped hand working to get under our other wing. She wants to break us as badly as she can before ending this. I can feel the lesson she wants to stamp all over this pit with our blood, and defiance surges through me. Pigeon is lost to the pain, and it takes her a long time to register the words I’m screaming at her.
“Shift, Pidge! Let me out!” I demand, ignoring the confusion and concern that flickers through her before Cree’s back paws dig into our flank. It feels like she’s trying to rip us in half.
“Pidge, shift!” I bellow at her again, and this time she chucks the reins at me, and I pull her back inside of me.
Cree is a million times heavier when I’m me than what she felt like on top of Pigeon, but I don’t waste any time before I unleash the power that is damming up inside of me. I scream as it pulses out of my body in purple waves, the blast shoving Cree off my back and across the pit.
I let go of control of our
