It was a fight she couldn't win. Laura knew it the moment she heard Lucian called a name. "Garrick."
The warrior stepped forward, his boots crushing the dirt beneath him. Slow and heavy, like a predator taking its time before a kill. He rolled his massive shoulders, his body shifting with a lazy kind of ease, muscles flexing under the torchlight. The scars on his arms and chest weren't just old wounds. They were victories. Trophies. Proof that he had walked into battle again and again—and survived.
No, not just survived.
He had won.
Again and again.
And now, she was expected to fight him.
Laura kept her breathing steady, her face blank, but inside, her stomach twisted itself into knots. Her palms grew damp with cold sweat.
"This isn't happening," she thought, her heart hammering aga
