Free UNTOUCHED (Midwest Alphas) (Book 1) by Tabatha Kiss

up straight. “I guess we’ll just settle this later tonight then,” he says, breathing into her face.
    “That would be wise.”
    He spins on his feet and walks back into the crowd to watch the fight. Amy nods at the crowd and brushes her hand through the air to signal that everything is fine. The onlookers turn back around.
    “Amy…” I say. “Are you okay?”
    She gives me a confident nod. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Of course.”
    I take a step towards her. “Did he do that to your face?” I ask.
    She looks at me with wide eyes. “I don’t think we know each other well enough to have that conversation, Claire,” she says.
    I close my mouth and look back towards the fight just as one of the fighters crumbles to the floor. The remaining fighter throws up his thick hands in victory and Lillian cries out in applause.
    “ Danny the Devil from Springfield,” she addresses him. “You lucky bastard!”
    The audience laughs with her and calls Danny’s name over and over again.
    “Looks like the night is over, y’all!” Lillian says as she playfully wipes fake tears from her eyes. “But don’t you worry. Next week is our final elimination round! There’s just three fighters left! Will Pike remain our Alpha for another year? Or will someone new claim his title?”
    The room trembles as their screams echo into the night.

Chapter 7
    Promise Me Again
     
    I walk up the long and dark driveway, flinching at every little sound nature makes to scare me. For some reason, wandering down a gravel road in the middle of nowhere terrifies me a lot more than the streets of Chicago in the middle of the night.
    Maybe it has something to do with where I’m going and who I’ll face when I get there.
    I reach the quiet farmhouse and hesitate outside on the porch. My blood still pounds in my ears, filling my head with a steady drumbeat. Every time I close my eyes, I see Tobias towering above me. I’ll admit, I’m scared to face him again. There was a subtle rage behind his eyes tonight, one that I can’t ignore. The thumping in my ears becomes louder until I realize that it’s not in my head at all.
    I step over to the barn and slide the door open.
    The thumping stops and Tobias immediately abandons the punching bag to turn on me. “What the hell were you thinking?” he seethes.
    I slide the door closed behind me and fight my eyes from looking down at his bare torso. “I wanted to watch you fight again.”
    “I told you not to.”
    “No,” I say. “You told me not to steal Charlie’s truck again—”
    “You know what I meant, Claire,” he says. “You’re gonna get us both caught if you keep sneaking out like this.”
    “So you’re just worried about your little secret identity then?”
    He pauses and turns away from me. “How did you get up there?” he asks.
    “Amy gave me a ride.”
    “When did you two become friends?”
    I smirk. “When did you two become lovers?”
    He furrows his brow. “What?”
    I lean back against the door. “She said the two of you have spent time together.”
    His lips twitch. “She’s exaggerating.”
    “How so?” I ask.
    He brings his hand to his face and he rubs a bit of sweat off his brow. “Amy is an hour of my life I’ll never get back,” he says with amusement.
    “Sounds special.”
    “It wasn’t.”
    “What happened?” He stares back at me with tight lips. “Hey, I told you about Rick…”
    Tobias chews on his lip for a moment. “It was right after my first fight. We got a few drinks, she gave me a hand-job, and then she passed out on her couch. I left right after.”
    “You’re kidding,” I chuckle.
    He shakes his head and grips his wrist to massage it in silence.
    “So you two never…?” I let the question linger.
    “No.”
    “She makes it sound like you did.”
    “Amy has a thing for fighters.”
    “Yeah, I noticed,” I scoff and cross my arms. “Looks like she has things going with quite a few of