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He was goading me, and then he nonchalantly told everyone that Kira couldn’t shift. What was he thinking? I didn’t know what he was trying to do, but whatever it was, the mood of the room had gone off the rails. Everyone was silent and staring at Kira. Some of them looked confused, and others looked outright angry.

I slowly got to my feet, unsure how things were going to go from there. I didn’t think Kira was in danger, but I didn’t want to take the risk.

Kira did exactly what I thought she’d do. Noticing the looks the guys were giving her, she lifted her chin and told everyone exactly what was going on.

“He’s right,” she said indignantly, glaring at Gavin.

His face clouded over as he realized he’d made a misstep. He looked surprised that everyone didn’t already know. His ignorance wasn’t enough to quell my rage. Unless you were absolutely certain about something like that, you kept your damn mouth shut. It showed me he was just as much of an idiot as his older brother. Which meant he was a threat to Kira.

Gavin raised his hands in surrender. “Kira, I didn’t think–”

“No, you didn’t,” Kira said, cutting him off. She turned to address the rest of the room. “I don’t shift. That’s correct.”

I liked how she judiciously used the word don’t instead of can’t. No one other than me knew her secret. None of the other alphas caught on to the wordplay, though.

Omar groaned and rolled his eyes. “We’re out here risking our lives to what? Win a damaged mate as a prize?”

Tate looked equally pissed. He’d crossed his arms and was staring at the floor, shaking his head in disgust. Abel and Mika wore matching confused and disapproving frowns. I moved closer to Kira, ready to tell them all to shove their condescending looks up their asses. Before I could, Leif beat me to the punch.

“Can you all get over yourselves?” Leif looked at the others like they were stupid. “She’s done pretty damned good in her human form, hasn’t she? How many of you could have survived what she has so far without shifting?”

“Hey,” J.D. said to Kira, “it’s not a huge deal. I mean, your wolf is probably taking a little longer to manifest than others. The same thing happened to one of my cousins. You’ll be fine.”

“She’s not gonna be fine,” Omar snapped. “She’s twenty-fucking-three years old. If her wolf hasn’t manifested by now, it won’t. She might as well be a human, for goddess’s sake.”

His tone held nothing but disgust. I took a step forward and growled at him, but Kira pressed a hand to my chest to hold me back. She shot me a sharp look and kept her chin up when she turned back to Omar.

She raised her eyebrow. “I’m faster and stronger than a human. I’ve learned to focus my energy. But even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t care if I was a human. What’s wrong with being human, Omar? Do you have a problem with them? You’re being awfully judgy about non-shifters when I hear you like to get cozy with vampires.”

At the mention of vampires, Omar’s eyes swelled in rage. I had no clue what Kira was talking about, but she obviously had more information than I did. He jumped to his feet, snarling at Kira.

Before he could do more than snarl, Gavin slammed a shoulder into him, a deep growl emanating from his chest. The two men squared up and pressed their chests into each other. They were seconds from a full-fledged fistfight. I needed to defuse this before it came to blows and before the damn cameras came jetting back into the room.

Sprinting over, I shoved the two men apart. “Enough! If her not shifting hasn’t come up yet on the show, it shouldn’t matter. She beat a feral tiger shifter and saved pretty much every one of your asses in the swamp, all in her human form. I’d call that pretty impressive. She saved Leif, and she would have done the same for any of you here. Maybe you could be a little grateful, huh?”

“It would be easier if some of you let me save you,” Kira said, looking pointedly at me.

She needed to get over that. What’s done was done. Before I could retort, Von rushed into the room. For the first time since meeting him, he looked irate.

“What’s all this?” he asked, gesturing toward me, Gavin, and Omar. I had a fistful of their shirts, and the two other men were staring daggers at each other.

He shook his head and clucked his tongue, obviously annoyed. “Were you all not told earlier? Make sure to summon the cameras to capture all the drama.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Is it possible to redo whatever happened? Make another attempt for the show?’

“No,” I barked at him. “Nothing was going on, and no, we aren’t going to play games to get you ratings.”

Omar slapped my hand away and grinned. It was a dark, dangerous look he gave me.

“You know what, Von? I think we do need the cameras back. We need to have another challenge.” He looked from me to Gavin, then Kira, and back to me with a smile. “A challenge where we can only survive if we shift. Our precious little mate isn’t up to snuff, in my book. Might be better if she got knocked out of the show so we can bring in a replacement. That’s always good for ratings, isn’t it?”

On this show, getting knocked out meant getting killed nine times out of ten. He was literally saying he wanted Kira to die so he could get a chance at a new and better mate.

I was about to tear his throat out when Kira pushed me aside. She stepped right up to Omar, looking up at him as he was almost a full foot taller than her. Von had summoned the cameras back, but Kira didn’t seem to care.