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She raced across the open center of the backyard toward the man in the shadows. She wasn’t sure who it was. A Campbell, and it wasn’t the old man, Angus. She would have recognized his voice.
Merge the dominance,Ryder ordered.Complete the link.
She frowned, but she obeyed her Alpha. She pushed energy toward him through the mate bond, and merged dominance through the Alpha-Second bond. And it was like someone had flipped a switch. She made sure she was pushing energy toward him, not pulling it. She was more powerful than before, but she also was getting some of Ryder’s knowledge of how to fight. Encouraged she ran faster and leaped at the wolf who rushed toward her.
Pull from me,another voice in her head said.Pull from the pack. Use us.
Jessie frowned, not sure who that voice belonged to.It’s Miles,the voice said.Duncan is giving me instructions. He can’t reach you, he says. But I can. Pull from the pack through me.
Never let it be said a woman can’t follow directions better than a man, she thought somewhat hysterically, and she soaked up the energy that Miles offered.
It was almost too much. She felt like she had hold of a live wire in an electric storm. She flung the energy away from her, flooding her mate bond, and then pushing it out toward the man she was fighting.
He was bigger than she was. Of course he was — most wolves were. A black shadow of a wolf, and she could tell he’d been in fights before. He moved confidently, snapping at her neck. She scrambled out of the way. That was her strength, she realized suddenly, she was quicker, faster. He was used to using that powerful body to grab a wolf and shake it.
She dodged in, and raked his back leg, going for a tendon. She got it, she thought, from the snarl she heard.
Belly,she heard from Ryder. She considered how she might do that.
Her opponent lunged at her — using only three legs, she saw with satisfaction. She dodged out of the way, then realized that if she’d attacked instead of dodging she could have gotten in close to that belly.
Yes.Ryder said.Attack. Use your teeth. Then your claws. Then do that howl thing you do —scares the bejesus right out of every man who hears it.
Jessie laughed at that. Wolf, she said, can we do that?
Wolf seemed to think so, and she danced in front of the older, larger wolf, until he lunged again. And this time, Jessie-wolf barreled ahead, and grabbed the male wolf’s balls. The penis was more protected in wolf form, she realized. Who knew? She felt a whiff of laughter and didn’t check to see whose it was. She ripped the balls off, though, and then when the wolf howled, she grabbed at the belly with her teeth and ripped it open.
Desperate, now, Campbell tried to grab her by the scruff, but she dodged, and then raked his other hind leg. Yes! She got the tendon. But in her excitement she didn’t see his attack, and he raked his claws down her spine. She howled in pain and turned to face him. He was panting, waiting for her attack.
Don’t give him time to recover,Ryder warned.There’s a reason why challenge fights are short and brutal.
She thought Campbell had a plan of some sort. Well, he was more powerful than she was, she conceded. Sheer body size guaranteed that.
Use your dominance.The phrase floated through her mind —Miles again, not Ryder.Duncan says push it at him, follow with an attack.
Jessie visualized what that might look like, and then turned her wolf loose. Jessie-wolf lunged forward, and Jessie pushed all of hers and Ryder’s combined dominance at him. Submit, she ordered. Submit! Campbell hesitated for a split-second sealing his fate.
Jessie-wolf tore open his jugular and howled in triumph. She danced on his body.
Now shift,Miles encouraged her.Order him to shift too. And then tear off his head.
Jessie paused at that instruction.I don’t know how!she wailed. She felt Ryder’s amusement.
He’s right. Shift, then order him to shift,Ryder said.Then see if your wolf will rise and let me be her guide.
Jessie obeyed. She hopped off to one side of the body, shifted, and stood up. “Shift!” she ordered, panicking for a moment when nothing happened. “Shift,” she hissed. “Let’s see your cowardly face, Campbell. Shift.”
The wolf shifted, and a man lay on the ground instead. “Mercy,” he said.
Jessie shook her head no. “No mercy.” She let her wolf surge to the surface, and suddenly inspired, she flashed her wolf a picture of Abby’s shifted hands. Her wolf’s grin was truly frightening, she thought. She felt her hands shift, and she reached down, letting Ryder guide her, and she ripped his head off.
A wolf howled in the distance.
Miles, who was that?she demanded.
Duncan says Angus Campbell. He may be headed here next.
And who did I kill?
