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“Yes,” I say flatly, squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin. “I challenge you for the position of Alpha.”
Everyone draws a collective gasp. Paul stares at me for a long moment, disbelief coloring his features as he contemplates my statement. Then he suddenly throws his head back, clutching his belly and cackling a laugh like this is all some kind of joke.
I don’t flinch. I’ve already said the words, and they can’t be taken back. Shifter protocol dictates that if someone declares their intent to challenge the current alpha, it can’t be rescinded, and it’s up to the reigning alpha to either yield their title or name a time and place for the fight.
Paul lowers his chin, narrowing his gaze on me assessingly. I watch as he takes in the sweat on my brow, the way my chest is still rising and falling heavily with exertion from the effort it took to drag Stefan’s body back here.
Good. Let him think I’m weak.
I play it up a little bit, letting my shoulders droop and curl in, breathing a little more raggedly. I know it’s working when I see the wicked gleam spark in his eyes, his lips parting as he runs his tongue over his crooked teeth.
“Right here, right now,” Alpha Paul declares.
The pack draws another sharp gasp, totally eating this up.
Nervous glances are cast in my direction, people fidgeting and wringing their hands anxiously, but nobody intervenes. I sweep my gaze over them confidently, and in of the sea of eyes, I pickout a set of deep brown ones that match my own. My mother gives me a subtle nod, the corner of her mouth turned up in a knowing smirk.
She’s well aware that I’ve been planning for this. Hell, she orchestrated it from my birth, ingraining in me that it was my right to assume the role of Alpha someday. She’s pissed I’ve waited this long to challenge Paul.
Then again, maybe if I hadn’t, the wolves we lost tonight would still be alive. Cheyenne wouldn’t have been assaulted and marked against her will.
“I accept,” I say confidently, threading my fingers together and cracking my knuckles.
Alpha Paul’s eyes widen the slightest amount, but he quickly schools his expression, still playing it cocky. His lips spread into a smug grin and he runs his hands down his chest, drawing attention to the scars that stand out in contrast to his tanned skin. This isn’t the first time he’s been challenged. A pack of misfits like ours doesn’t take well to someone dictating the rules, so over the years, people have stepped up. A few have come close, but they ultimately failed. I won’t.
I stand up a little straighter, hooking my fingers beneath the hem of my t-shirt and tugging it off over my head. I’ve purposefully been wearing baggy clothes for the past year to conceal my cut physique, not wanting Alpha Paul to notice the changes to my body and view me as a threat. I couldn’t risk him provoking me before I was ready to step up to face him in a challenge; before I was sure I could win.
I see his arrogant smile falter as I shed my shirt and he gets an eyeful of what I’ve been hiding underneath. His gaze flickersover the sculpted muscles of my broad chest, his jaw tightening as he takes in the hard ladder of my six-pack abs.
Surprise.
Though I’d love to stand here and soak in his state of suspended shock, instead I drop my pants, calling my wolf forward to shift. I’d rather just get this over with.
The air shimmers around my body, my bones snapping and rearranging as I take on my wolf form. Thick dark fur sprouts from my skin as I drop to all fours, my fists changing to big blocky paws and my vision sharpening. Across from me, Paul shoves his jeans down his hips with an annoyed grunt and starts to shift, too, the crowd collectively stepping back to give us room.
A breath later, we’re both in wolf form, circling one another menacingly. My wolf is larger than Paul’s, and not by a small margin. It’s a telltale sign that I’ve got alpha blood while Paul is just a pathetic imposter. It’s obvious that he can’t match me for size, and as he’s about to learn, he’s no match for my strength, either.
He thinks my size is a detriment to me; that it makes me sloppy and uncoordinated. It’s no accident that he believes that. Unbeknownst to him, it was all part of a carefully orchestrated effort on my part to throw him off my trail so I could catch him off guard when the time came. Was that sneaky and underhanded? Probably. But hey, I’ve never claimed to be a good guy. I am a smart one, though, and I’m adept at making people see what I want them to see. I’ve never lost sight of my objective.
I bare my teeth in a snarl as we continue to circle one another, provoking him to be the first to attack. And sure enough, itworks. With a loud growl and a snap of his jaws, Paul’s wolf lunges for me, aiming to take me down.
I let him. My body slams against the pavement, pain shooting through my shoulder as it hits. I grit my teeth against it, knowing this is all part of the plan to lure him into a sense of false confidence. He tries to sink his teeth into the fleshy side of my abdomen, but I roll out from under him before he can, springing back up to my feet and readying myself for his next attack.
It comes swiftly, and this time when I allow him to take me down, I fight against him a little harder. I have to make it believable, after all. Each time he tries to latch onto me with his teeth, though, I narrowly escape, frustrating him to no end.
The crowd gathered around us doesn’t outwardly cheer me on. It’d be foolish for them to do so, should Alpha Paul prevail. Even so, I hear some of them hiss when he takes me down and make excited little yips when I evade his blows, which tells me that at least some of the pack’s on my side. After years of Paul’s shoddy leadership, I’d wager that more than a few are rooting for me to win this.
I continue to toy with Alpha Paul for a while, letting him think he’s getting the upper hand in our fight. My body takes a beating, but it’s nothing I can’t withstand. The pain only fuels me. I harness it, channeling it into my rage, my resolve. And then I unleash.
We clash together for what feels like the hundredth time, but for once, I don’t go easy on him. I put my full weight behind me as I slam my paws into his chest and take him down to the pavement, holding him immobile with all four of my limbs and snapping my jaws at his neck.‘Yield’, I command through the mind-link,pushing my voice into his head to communicate with him while in wolf form.
Paul’s eyes bore into mine as he pushes his response into my own head.‘Never’.
I snarl, lunging forward to sink my teeth into the flesh of his throat, blood pooling in my mouth as he lets out a strangled yelp.
‘Yield,’I repeat.
It’s just a warning bite. I release my jaws and Paul’s wolf struggles beneath me, fighting hard against my hold on him.‘You’ll have to kill me, boy,’he hisses through the mind-link, and from the frantic look in his eyes, I can tell he’s grasping at straws, thinking he’ll gain the upper hand by challenging me to end things this way.
