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“Jamie, it’s going to be okay,” I said, grabbing a hold of his wrists.
“You don’t know that,” he said, leaning his forehead down against mine. “Eve, I lo—”
“No.” I said, putting my fingers to his lips. “Not till it’s done. After that you can tell me every day for the rest of our extra long lives.”
“Every minute, of every damn day,” he promised, pressing a kiss to my mouth.
I pressed up on my toes, and for a moment, I ignored every instinct that screamed at the back of my mind. My hands slid around his back, pulling him closer. I dug my nails into his shoulder, and poured every ounce of love, and want, and pain into our kiss. I hated that it might be the last. I hated that I couldn’t stop what was coming without bloodshed, but it had to be done.
Pulling back, I said the one thing I couldn’t die without saying. “Jamie, if this doesn’t go well—”
“Don’t you dare say goodbye,” he warned.
I winced. “I’m not trying to say goodbye…I just need to say I’m sorry. If this doesn’t turn out well, my biggest regret will be that we didn’t get enough time.”
“Mine too.” He nodded.
“Enough of this,” Adrian snarled, and two hands roughly grabbed my shoulders, yanking me backward with preternatural force. My body flew through the air, and Jamie screamed my name.
My shoulders smacked into one of the old Corinthian columns, and I dropped to the ground, landing on my feet. Adrian stood by the fire, smiling at me as he threw his shirt to the side.
“I’ll kill you,” Jamie snarled. “You bastard.”
“Keep him back, Gregor. This is between me and the girl,” Adrian called out.
“Wanna bet?” Jamie growled.
“He’s right, babe. This is between me and him,” I said, sending a gentle command through our bond.
Jamie’s anger remained, but he instantly got control of it, glancing in my direction. I winked at him, and he straightened in Gregor’s grasp.
I clenched and unclenched my fingers. The area around me brightened absorbing the light from the fire, and my muscles rippled with energy.
“Was removing your shirt really necessary?” I asked, letting my disgust show on my face. “You’re sweaty and gross.”
Adrian flexed his arms, and a half second before he moved, I launched myself in the direction my instincts told me he intended to run. We met halfway, our bodies colliding with a loud thwack, as my hands connected with his chest, sending him tumbling off balance, back into the far wall of the altar. His head snapped backward impacting the stone, and a crack shot across the surface behind him.
“You never could fight fair, could you?” I said, through my teeth. “Always looking for a way to fight dirty.”
“It’s not about fighting dirty,” Adrian laughed, pushing off the wall. “It’s about survival…and darling, I am the king of surviving.”
His speech was a distraction. I wasn’t ready as he darted forward, clawed fingers outstretched, making a grab for my throat. The light of the fire sparked in his eyes, and I dodged at the last second, but not far enough. His nails rake across the side of my face, drawing blood.
I grabbed his arm as he passed and drove my knee up into his ribcage. Adrian cried out in pain and staggered away from me.
“First blood!” Gregor bellowed in the distance. My heart lurched into my throat. Taking first blood in an Alpha challenge was an old sign that the ancestors of the pack believed Adrian would be the better leader.
I shook my head, banishing the thought. Old superstitions had their place, but none of them had a place in the middle of a fight.
Letting my wolf move a little closer to the surface, I let my nails extend, turning my fingers to claws. My canine teeth elongated, scraping against my lower lip, and I charged.
Adrian tried to sidestep, feigning to the left, but I overcompensated on my lunge and caught him around the waist, using my momentum to drive him to the ground. Adrian grunted on impact, and I reared back punching him square across the jaw. Blood splattered from his lips, and he snarled wrapping one hand around my throat.
I croaked, feeling the pain of his claws digging into my neck. Grabbing his thumb, I jerked it backward, and his bones cracked, forcing him to release his hold, but it wasn’t enough to save me from a wild punch he threw with his other hand.
His knuckles hit my temple, and my body dropped sideways in surprise. Pain radiated through my right eye, and for a moment, my vision went dark. I forced myself to blink, and as my vision cleared, Adrian’s fist connected with the other side of my face. One hit, two hits, three. Everything turned into a blur of pain.
Inside my chest, I felt Jamie’s panic shooting through our mating bond. He was terrified. He thought I was losing. They all did. It made me smile.
