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Everyone froze. Glaring at each shifter in turn, I memorized their faces. Though they still restrained me, a sense of relief made my muscles go slack. I’d bought Freya some time, because everyone knew what my challenge meant. But I would spell it out for them just to be dead certain they wouldn’t hurt Freya the minute my back was turned.
“I challenge you, Nira, alpha to alpha, for leadership of your pack. A pack that I should lead, by rights. If I win, you forfeit your place in Frost Fang’s hierarchy. Your pack becomes mine.”
Nira snarled, but next I turned toward the two men holding Freya captive.
“If anything happens to her, no one will ever find your bodies.”
Nira crossed her arms, schooling her expression and clearly trying to decide how to handle this new turn of events.
Then she jutted out her chin and said, “No one’s fighting anyone.”
Maintaining eye contact with me, Nira tried to prove her dominance through sheer force of will. Yet she gave ground, stepping back until she stood beside Freya.
“Honestly, I’m tired of dealing with you both. I’d rather you both just… go to sleep.”
Nira drew a blade and slashed it across Freya’s cheek.
“Knock out all of them!” she shouted.
I dove as Freya’s knees buckled, and she fell. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she let out a quiet groan as she slumped to the ground, too far away for me to break her fall. But even from here, my next inhale sniffed out the culprit — poison. Without being able to shift, Freya might not be able to clear it from her system.
I roared in outrage and felt the answering fury from my pack bond with the others. Someone tried to get in my way, but I kicked out the guy’s knees, bringing him down to my level. Igrabbed his gun in his hands and twisted, using the element of surprise to overpower him. Our limbs tangled together, but I got control of the gun and shot his leg. He let out a cry of pain, and I took the weapon.
Then I pointed upward and shot through one man’s open mouth as he yelled and charged me. When he went down, I shot the next one without waiting to see if he planned to attack.
I climbed to my feet, yelling, “You dare intervene in a pack alpha fight?”
I glared over at Nira just as she raised the knife over Freya’s prone form again. As the knife fell, a shot rang out. I’d acted without a thought, and blood sprayed from Nira’s shoulder. She yelped, then shifted to heal.
I followed suit, shifting and charging the moment my paws hit the earth. Nira’s giant alpha wolf form towered over Freya’s inert body, but I lunged. Airborne, I collided with Nira, bowling her off her paws. We landed in a heap, but I gave no quarter, snapping and fighting for more than just my life.
If Nira bested me, the Howling Echo pack would be hers. The fate of my entire pack would be decided by whoever won this match. But so, too, would the fate of the Frost Fang pack.
Wolves circled us, and I guessed that Nira had issued an order through the pack bond to attack. But they hesitated, knowing that interfering in a pack alpha duel meant the victor might order their deaths.
I used my alpha power to broadcast my words openly, something only dominant alphas could do. And I used my alpha-bark to cow them into submission.
“Stand down or face the wrath of your future pack alpha.”
Heath’s alpha command followed mine, reinforcing it to help overpower Nira’s control over them.“Heed the warning of the Frost Fang heir, or face the consequences.”
Flint reinforced it still further.“Stand down!”
With the weight of three alpha commands to one, the other wolves paused. Our alpha-barks forced the subordinate wolves to wait and see the outcome of the duel.
I steeled myself for whatever might happen next. Freya needed me. My entire pack needed me. And my brother, Ingrid, and the others Nira had wronged deserved justice.
Her orders nullified, Nira charged me — too used to her manipulations succeeding, she was desperate in the face of a direct challenge she hadn’t prepared for. Her ill-conceived attack left her over-committed. When I dodged to the side, her momentum carried her past.
Vicious satisfaction filled me as I grabbed her hind leg in my jaws and crunched down hard, whipping my head to the side and throwing her off balance. She yelped, but I showed no mercy, lunging for her undefended neck.
With a savage snarl, I tore out my former lover’s throat. Her body fell lifeless before me. Filled with the primal instincts of my nature, I placed one paw on her body and howled.
I poured all of my emotions into that howl. Joy that I had avenged my brother. Satisfaction that justice had been served and a traitor brought low at last.
Heath and Flint howled right alongside me, filling the clearing with the sound of victory.
But our howl cut off all at once when Freya let out a whimper. Her breathing rattled in her lungs, and her next breath barely lifted her chest.
