AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And Shane just boasted that he was going to fuck me.
Maybe if I wasn’t the female he was planning to force into mating him, I’d feel bad for what he’d unwittingly triggered. No way Ryker would ever let such a threat stand.
But then, before any of us can do more than just gasp at his nerve, Shane takes advantage of Ryker’s seemingly stunned silence to shift completely to wolf.
Technically, that’s not against the rules of an Alpha challenge. Just… more like the spirit of it. In most challenges, the shape you begin the fight in is the shape that you finish it in. Skin versus skin, fur versus fur, it’s not usual for a wolf to attack when their opponent is still in their human form.
But it’s not illegal, and all we can do is watch as Shane’s wolf uses his powerful back legs to lunge at Ryker
Up until now, Ryker was holding back. It’s clear to anyone with eyes that he was giving Shane every chance to get in some hits before realizing that this challenge was futile. But, as soon as Shane slams into him with his front paws, jaws snapping as he aims for Ryker’s throat, it seems as if all bets are off.
He changes. Not shapes, though. Staying in his skin, he does a partial shift, relying on his shifter’s strength to catch Shane before he can get his jaws anywhere near Ryker.
The impact does send him flying, crashing into a row of vacated chairs. The wood smashes and splinters as he hits the ground hard, but he still manages to throw the snarling wolf off of him.
Shane hits another stretch of abandoned seats with his spine.
I’ll never know if the way Ryker threw him was intentional or if he just got real fucking lucky—and, later, I decide that I’ll never ask—but the way Shane’s wolf slams into the chairs on his back snaps something. He yelps and goes down.
This time, Ryker doesn’t hesitate.
Before tonight, I’ve only ever seen him fight to kill one time. When Aleks made it clear to him down at Charlie’s that he was claiming me and Ryker’s possessive rage had him jumping over the bar and tackling Aleks. My ex-roomie had his whole chest turned into minced meat by the time I was able to drag Ryker off of him, and only two paycheck’s worth of Charlie’s blood supply was enough to have Aleks recovering from the attack.
Aleks didn’t fight back. I thought that the extent of his injuries was as bad as they were because he didn’t fight back.
And then I see how easily Ryker tears Shane’s wolf from limb to limb, leaving nothing but a pile of gore and hunks of fur a few feet away from where I’m still standing at the podium.
Just like that, it’s over.
Shane Loup, former Beta of the Mountainside Pack, has lost—both the challenge and his life. He’s dead, and the Alpha is victorious.
At what cost? I don’t know, but it had to be done.
I only hope my mate sees it that way, too.
* * *
I wantto rush over to Ryker, to check on him, but I force myself to stay near the podium.
It’s another pack thing. With Shane interrupting us, Ryker hasn’t officially accepted me as his mate in front of his packmates or his council. I’m his intended, but that’s all. Worse, they all instinctively see me as another alpha and, therefore, a threat to his control over the pack, especially so close on the heels of an Alpha challenge. I definitely don’t want to undermine him, and I’m super careful not to do anything that might be misconstrued as a second challenge with tensions still simmering.
I still have to be strong, though. To show all of Mountainside that I’m the right mate for their Alpha. That I can support him in just the way he needs.
No matter how difficult that is for me.
With a quick glance my way to make sure that I’m okay, Ryker takes Grant, Jace, and Duke over to the far side of the clearing. Keeping their voices low, at a decibel that us other shifters can’t quite hear, they have a hurried conversation. Bobby joins in, replacing Grant—who, at a solemn nod from his Alpha, rushes back to his mate’s side.
Audrey collapses into his arms. She’d gone pale when her brother interrupted the ceremony, crying softly when he initiated the challenge, but she was Mountainside through and through. Like me, she didn’t interfere, and she didn’t mourn even after Ryker had to put him down.
But now that she seems to have his permission, Audrey gives in to her grief.
My heart aches for her. She was stuck between her loyalty to her blood and to her pack; like being trapped between a rock and a hard place, there’s nowhere worse for a shifter. Even though Ryker was justified and everyone here would agree, she still had to watch Ryker rip her brother apart.
I watch as Dahlia, a petite female with short, spiky white-blonde hair, separates from the rest of the pack. I’m not surprised. Unlike me, she’s a true omega; actually, she’stheMountainside Omega. Good. With the help of her Omega and her mate, Audrey will be okay. Maybe not now. Maybe not soon. But she’ll be okay, and I promise never to hold the doctored Coke against her ever again.
With Dahlia’s help, Grant ushers Audrey away. Once she’s disappeared into the trees, Ryker says something else to the members of the pack council he’s gathered close.
The small circle breaks up. Duke and Jace are joined by three others—more members of Ryker’s pack council—to take care of Shane’s remains. Bobby grabs Dorian by the collar, points at the row of smashed chairs. The two start to clear the broken pieces, but they had barely started before countless other packmates move forward to help, including both my mom and, to my surprise, Trish Danvers.
