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“My office door is always open,” Stone said dryly. “But that’s not really what you want, is it? You want the power for yourself.”
“Are you accepting my challenge or not?”
“I am. I was just giving you one chance to come to your senses before we began.”
“Never change, Stone,” Shaw muttered at my side. “Be sure to make sure you really piss him off.”
“It doesn't matter anyway.” Karissa said. “If they’re going to fight, it’s the end for one of them.”
Stone waited in the center of the dance floor, as if he were giving Ben every chance to turn back. Ben leapt at him.
They started off both as humans, closing up and trading punches. Then Stone released a furious volley of sudden punches that left Ben stunned. Ben shook his head and then dropped to all fours, shifting. It looked like Stone was trying to transform too, but a shiver ran through his body then… nothing.
Karissa grabbed my arm as the wolf lunged at Stone.
“Look out!” I called.
Stone threw up his arm, shoving it into the wolf’s open jaws. He threw himself at the wolf, landing heavily on top of him, still shoving his arm so deep into the wolf’s jaw that the wolf gagged.
The wolf wrenched Stone’s arm, and I cried out seeing blood flow from Stone’s arm. But Stone seemed to be using his own injury to anchor the wolf in place while he aimed several brutal punches at its head. The wolf finally slumped, unconscious, its mouth lolling away from Stone’s arm.
Stone got to his feet. He cast a dismissive look at the bloodied wolf at his feet, the one he had defeated even as a human.
Stone looked around. “Anyone else? Longroad pack? I’m welcoming you here as friends, as packmates. But if you aren’t willing to be one of us, this would be a good time to step up.”
“Does he have to do this right now?” Karissa muttered, turning to me with a wide-eyed, disbelieving look. “That arm…”
Blood ran down Stone’s slashed forearm and dripped onto the teak ballroom floor, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“I’ll challenge you.”
Stone fought Will next, and once again, the other turned into a wolf but he didn’t.
I looked at Cole and saw horror written across his face.
Had he betrayed Stone? Had there been something in the drink he had given his old friend? I couldn’t imagine Cole ever doing something like that. And yet… guilt was written across his face.
Stone finally bested the other wolf. Then he turned. He looked weary and exhausted. In my head, I begged him to just stop.
Stone raised his voice. “Anyone else?”
Joshua was silent. He looked distinctly cagey. When our eyes met, he gave me a wink. Rage built up in my chest.
I might want to murder Stone at times, but no one else was going to do it.
One of the Longroad pack guys stepped up. “I will.”
“I wish he’d stop goading them,” Shaw muttered.
“He wants this to be over,” Liam said. “For the pack to unite. And this is Stone, so he only has one plan.”
Violence. His plan was violence.
“And he’s going to want revenge for Louisa,” Shaw said.
Stone and his new opponent circled. The Longroad challenger was a tall man, heavy with muscle and fat; he was older, but that could go either way. Old meant slower reflexes, but more time training and fighting. I chewed my lower lip, watching them.
Then suddenly, the Longroad man lunged for Stone.
