UNBROKEN: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 2) by Tabatha Kiss Read Free Book Online

walks over to her and I gaze around the place. It’s dark, really dark, in every corner, but I suppose that’s why she’s working to get the lights back on. I step closer to the makeshift octagonal arena, seemingly the only place in the room with a working light source above it, and pull open the rusty cage door to step inside. It feels strange to be on the other side of this, looking out at where the crowd would gather to watch me give, or take, a beating. Standing on the outside, looking in, it feels so much safer.
    A burst of sparks shine out from above their heads across the room, followed quickly by a surge of electric charge. “Everything okay?” I ask. Just as the phrase leaves my mouth, the lights around the room flicker on, finally illuminating the expectant space.
    “Yep!” Amy calls. “No problem. Everything works.”
    “Tobias—?”
    “I’m okay,” he groans. “This system is almost fried, Amy. You might want to start looking for a new place to hold fights.”
    “Bite your tongue, Toby,” she scoffs. “This school has housed Alpha fights for over a decade. You don’t mess with tradition.”
    “Well, unless you plan on hosting fights by candlelight this season, you might want to find a new generator before this one explodes.”
    “Anyway…” Amy mutters as she reaches into her bag. “Tryouts.” I step out of the ring and follow Amy back to the table by the door. She grabs a clipboard and holds it out to me. “You have your fighters, Claire. Choose wisely.”
    My fingers twitch so suddenly, the clipboard nearly topples out of my hands. “I’m sorry, what ?”
    She chews on her inner cheek with devious red lips. “You heard me,” she says.
    “But I’m not—” My tongue turns to stone in my mouth. “I can’t—”
    “Yes, you can,” she chuckles. “It’s easy . Just choose the most skilled fighters with the biggest chance of winning Alpha . Piece of cake.”
    “But I’m not qualified for that,” I argue. “You can’t put this on me!”
    “I’m not ,” she laughs. “I’ll be right beside you the entire time. My insight is yours to pick at, but I want you to take point. You’ll never learn to swim if you don’t dive into the deep end.”
    “Yes, but… you usually start in the shallow end with an inflatable tube. You don’t just shove someone into the deep end and expect them to not sink to the bottom.”
    “That’s exactly how my dad taught me how to swim,” she jokes.
    “Mine, too,” Tobias adds.
    “Not helping,” I whine at him.
    “You’ll be fine ,” Amy insists. “Just dog paddle through it, but do it gracefully .”
    I stare at the clipboard and fancy chart Amy must have created before driving out here with a list of all of the potential Alphas. “Graceful dog paddle…” I mutter to myself.
    Amy wanders off again, this time grabbing a dust broom from her supplies near the door and taking it with her to the ring to attack the layer of dust that’s gathered in the last year. I keep glancing at the clipboard, blinking quickly to combat the blurring vision taking hold of my optic nerve.
    “Claire,” Tobias says, “You okay?”
    I force the excess saliva down my throat before I choke on it. “Peachy…”
    “You’ll be fine,” he chuckles. “Amy’s not going to let you make the wrong decisions here. She’d never risk her bonus for bringing in another Alpha.”
    I nod. “Makes sense.”
    He snatches the clipboard from my hand, jolting my senses to shift their attentions towards him instead. “Be like Bowie, Claire.”
    I furrow my brow, the words jarring a memory in my head; the sudden sensation of lying awake at 3 A.M. with Tobias’ old headphones in my ears. “Be like Bowie?”
    “Be like Bowie,” he repeats.
    “I don’t know what that means.”
    “It means wear your confidence on the outside,” he explains. “You can be as nervous as all hell on the inside, but if you don’t show it, then they’ll never know.”
    “Were you