POV: Isla Reid
Location: Fighting Pits, then Shelter
Time: That Night
I find Callum at Bill Bolter's fighting pits. He's in the cage fighting a wolf twice his size. Prison-thin, scarred, moving with brutal efficiency that comes from eighteen months of survival training.
He wins in four minutes. Forces submission through pain rather than death. The crowd boos. They wanted blood. Callum doesn't care.
I wait while he collects his two hundred pounds. Then I approach.
"Callum. I need to talk to you."
He looks at me with dead eyes. Prison did something to him. Took away whatever warmth he had. Left only survival instinct and controlled violence.
"About what?"
"A job. Protection work. I'm willing to pay."
"I don't do protection work. I fight in pits. That's it."
"Please. Just listen to
