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And now there is nothing left to do but wait. The guys crowd around me, Landon holding my bag of clothes—I still refused to strip naked in front of five thousand people—and their closeness helps me breathe more deeply.
There’s nothing to do but wait now. My senses are almost overwhelmed with feeling all the surrounding pack. I don’t know most of the individuals, but I can sense their individual wolves. It’s crazy. I didn’t notice it last time, but then again, there was a lot going on that night.
Milo squeezes my hand, and Landon rubs circles on my neck with his thumb. I try to soak in their positivity, their encouragement, thinking over their words of the last several weeks. A small amount of unease lives within all three of them, but more than that, they are confidently positive. I try to let that confidence bolster me, even though it feels false to claim as my own.
Suddenly, just like before, a cacophony of cell phone noise erupts, signaling the change from 11:59 to midnight.
I’m out of time.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
Layla
* * *
Not wanting to waste any time, I call on the shift and drop to all fours immediately, suddenly regretting my choice to destroy my clothes rather than whip them off and change. Since I’ve been undressing for the last month it feels strange, but it happens so quickly I don’t take time to dwell on the pressure sensation of the restricting fabric before it’s torn free.
Of course, no one else has shifted aside from Amber. We are now two wolves in a ring of humans, watching our challenge, waiting for the result.
My wolf is furious that this girl would dare to challenge us.Doesn’t she know her place?But it’s not my wolf who’s lacking command, it’s me. If I had the alpha voice, this wouldn’t be necessary, but here we are.
After my fights with Roxanne, I know how to pull my mind back from blocking my wolf, so she has full control of the fight. But since I’m not fending off mental attacks, I have nothing else to do with my consciousness but observe.
My wolf rumbles low in her chest, sitting primly on her haunches but issuing a warning.Stop now while you still can.
Amber’s wolf will have none of it. She’s mottled in color, her belly and the inside of her legs white but transitioning to tan on her legs and back, with splotches of grey mixed in. She snarls aggressively, single-minded focus clear in her pale blue eyes.
My wolf issues another warning, louder this time, with a snap of her teeth for emphasis. But she refuses to react to Amber’s threatening stance. There is no challenge until she physically attacks us, and so we wait.
When she charges, we deftly jump aside, and the fight begins in earnest. As a wolf, I am bigger and stronger than Amber, but not by much. And she’s quick; she darts around us, turning on a dime, seeking a soft spot to bite over and over without a second’s rest.
It’s almost as if she’s trying to make us dizzy, confuse us about which way she’s going, so we leave a flank unprotected for her to attack.
My wolf is sharp, her eyes tracking Amber’s every twist and feint. She does an excellent job of intercepting Amber’s constant probes, light on her feet as she shifts and twists our body.
Suddenly deciding she’s tired of being on the defensive, we go after Amber aggressively. I hear the random cheering and reaction of the crowd, noises when Amber appears to have the upper hand and much more noise when I repel her attacks. The fight seems to drag on forever, every handful of seconds a lifetime as my brain tries to keep up with the fight.
I need to call up my alpha voice and end this,I think helplessly. But how can I find an alpha voice when I’m no alpha?
A sharp, piercing pain in my flank brings my thoughts whipping back to the fight. As if proving that I’m not cut out for it, Amber snuck beneath my wolf’s defenses and sunk her teeth into our flesh.
My wolf snarls, striking back while Amber prances away with a self-satisfied cough. As she grows more confident, so do I.
Confident I’m going to lose.
I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have the skill, the training, the experience to do this. To do any of it. I’m basically some girl who was pulled off the street and thrust into a world I know nothing about, told to sink or swim, and oh by the way, the entire pack is depending on me to win or they could all die.
No pressure.
Angry snarls rip from my wolf’s chest as she attacks, leaping onto Amber’s back and getting a mouthful of fur, but no flesh, for her troubles. Amber slips out from beneath us and whips around, nipping at our foreleg with sharp teeth.
Pain lances across our leg and my wolf yelps, limping a few steps away before resuming her growls.
There’s no question now. I’m losing and everyone knows it. Most of the crowd have gone silent, only a small vocal minority cheering for Amber. Her fur stands on end, trying to make herself look bigger as she stares us down, slavering and snapping her teeth.
This is pointless. There’s literally no point.My wolf whimpers as the dire thought bounces around in my brain. Why am I fighting? Maybe it would be better if Amber took over. She’s clearly been after the position since birth, training for it. She’d probably be a much better alpha than I would.
As if sensing my weakness, Amber’s ice-blue eyes gleam with victory and she pounces, knocking my wolf over. We roll and I wriggle under her attack, trying to keep from presenting my throat or my soft belly as a target. My wolf kicks out with her hind claws and Amber jumps aside, avoiding the gutting we attempted.
