“No.” Addie shrugged, a bit breathless from the recitation. “Not with math or science or anything that might get me a high-paying job. But I learned to notice things about people and couple it with what they say and do. I can’t remember every meal I ever served, but definitely the last few days.”
“I take back my original objection,” Ben said. “I say, send her.”
“My mate,” Kendrick said, a growl in his voice. “Send my mate into the fight club, which is dangerous at the best of times, to get close to Shifters who are into shooting and stabbing other Shifters? It’s a bad, bad, bad idea.”
“She could go with Seamus’s mate,” Tiger said.
Kendrick’s gaze snapped to him. Tiger had been so silent that his abrupt statement was jarring. “What?”
“Seamus’s mate,” Tiger repeated. “She used to be a Shifter groupie. She would know how to make Addie look the same.”
Kendrick curled his fist on the table. “A Shifter groupie. Women who will do anything to have sex with a Shifter—you want Addie to go in looking like a groupie to a place full of Shifters who are happy to oblige?”
Tiger shrugged. “Seamus’s mate has a brother. A soldier. He could protect them.”
“Shit,” Kendrick said. “No, Addison. It’s a stupid idea.”
“I know that,” Addie said. “But I want to help you, Kendrick. I’m not happy that I was in the line of fire when these people came after you. They need to be stopped. I’m protecting myself as much as you. And the cubs. If I can do this, then why not?”
“I would protect her too,” Tiger said. “I am always at the fight club. And Spike, Ellison, Ronan, Broderick . . . all the trackers.”
“And me.” A voice rose from the couch. Zander lowered his arm from his eyes, looking wide-awake. “I always like a good fight club. A tip—bet everything on me. I always win.”
* * *
In the end, Kendrick decided to concede—sort of. He would send his trackers to covertly watch over her. Addison and Seamus’s mate would go in separately and make no indication that they knew Kendrick’s Shifters. Ben assured Kendrick that he had a spell that could remove Kendrick’s scent from Addison so she wouldn’t be announcing she was Kendrick’s as soon as she walked into the arena.
The idea that a spell could do that unnerved Kendrick. Scent was important to Shifters—he didn’t like to think someone could arbitrarily confuse the hell of out them by removing Shifter scent. He didn’t like the idea of Addison not being protected by his scent either, but he couldn’t have it both ways.
Kendrick would go as well. He didn’t mention this, but he laid his plans. No way was he going to let Addison walk into a space full of adrenaline-hyped Shifters who’d be in animal form or naked as humans, willing to relieve their pent-up emotions with sex instead of fighting if the opportunity presented itself. Casual encounters were not forbidden to Shifters as long as they didn’t poach someone else’s mate. And with his scent off her, they would consider Addison fair game.
Addison would go with Seamus’s mate, Bree, and her brother, with Seamus watching from the sidelines. Zander would go with Tiger—he’d been seen by the Austin Shifters before. Dimitri and Jaycee could slide in on their own. Shifters came from all over the state to the fight clubs, so it wouldn’t be odd if they weren’t well-known by the locals.
Once the plans were made, Kendrick removed himself from the house.
A run as tiger didn’t help his pent-up impatience, anger, and need. He was sending Addison into danger. He’d mate-claimed her. Kendrick’s first instinct was to carry Addison straight to the bedroom and bury himself inside her. But that would scent-mark her, and he couldn’t risk that Ben’s spell wouldn’t erase the distinctive odor of a Shifter who’d gone mate-frenzied with her.