From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (33 page)

Kevin was in the middle of a boxing ring at one end of the gym with one of his adult wolves when we entered. Other wolves were working out at various machines, and all turned their heads in surprise at the noise of the door hitting the wall. The alpha wolf’s expression shifted quickly from surprise to a scowl as soon as he saw that I was by Race’s side.

“Tyler, get that mutt out of here. The Beast Master and I have something to discuss,” he said.

The wolf nearest us, a man in his mid-twenties, looked between Kevin and Race. Race, his eyes never leaving Kevin, said in warning tone, “Tyler, if you lay even one finger on my mate, I’ll remove it and feed it to you.
”

He stepped closer to the boxing ring and I moved with him. “Juliette has more right to bear witness to what’s about to happen than any of your wolves, Tracey,” he was saying as he stalked toward the older man. “But then, I’m told they’ll need to be here to watch your downfall.”

Kevin snorted. “My downfall? My Lord, whatever do you mean?”

“Oh, you know
exactly
what I’m talking about!” Race snapped, sprinting the last few steps and, grabbing the bottom rope on the ring, vaulted himself up and into it. The wolf Kevin had been sparring with backed away and eased out of the line of fire. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the ten or twelve men and women gather around the squared circle.

“You ordered one of your lackeys to follow Juliette and
I to Columbus, to force us into an accident so that he could kidnap her,” Race seethed as he stepped closer to Kevin.

“Why on Earth would I do something like that? I couldn’t give a
wererat’s ass about that little bitch,” Kevin said sardonically.

Fear and anger warred within me as I observed Race struggling to stay human, his muscles visibly trembling. “
Because you don’t think I’m worthy of the Beast Master,” I said sharply. “You want him to mate with Anna because of some ridiculous belief that the Beast Master can take more than one mate.”

The gathered wolves whispered to one another as Kevin turned his sneering gaze my way. “You are
not
worthy of him. You’re just a dog, and he is so much more. And just like a woman, you don’t have the sense to know your place and keep your mouth shut. But my Anna, save for that foolish infatuation with that mutt friend of yours, is a proper woman. She knows her place. She is a wolf, and would be far better for the Beast Master than you could ever hope to be.”

Race stepped into Kevin’s personal space, forcing the man’s attention back to him.
“I believe I have warned you once already about insulting my mate,” he said with deliberate slowness. “Juliette is who was chosen for me and I have accepted her. I neither want nor need any other. And even were I to desire more than one mate, I would keep her as my first, my favorite of all of them.”

He drew a deep breath through his nose and released it. “Your wolf caused my mate to fear. He caused my mate to bleed. For that he has suffered, and because you ordered him to pursue that folly, so shall you.”

Kevin’s eyes flashed. “Do you mean to challenge me, Beast Master?”

“I mean to do more than that, wolf. I mean to make you look like the fool that you are,” Race returned. “
No one
threatens my mate.”

The werewolf’s eyes flashed again, and though he was quick to hide it, I could see the first hint of fear in them. I was half expecting him to
throw the first punch now, but instead he spoke, saying, “My Lord, think about what you are saying. About whom you chose to cavort with. Dogs are not so noble, not as mighty a creature as the wolf.”

“Juliette is far nobler than you think,” Race shot back. “Where I would have let your envoy suffer at the hands of vampires, she interceded and ordered that no harm befall him.”

Kevin’s expression grew thunderous. “
Vampires?
Vampires have Alex?”

This news seemed to piss him off more than my presence had, and I realized there was someone—or some
thing
, rather—that he hated more than “lesser” beings like me. Kevin stepped into Race, toe-to-toe with him, saying, “How
dare
you give a wolf into the hands of our enemy!”

He shoved Race then, shifting into his wolf form as Race stepped back from him. Race immediately shifted as well, taking on the form of a white wolf, contrasting Kevin’s dark gray.

“None of you interfere!” I shouted to the werewolves still in human form that surrounded the ring as the two combatants went at each other. “This is between Kevin and Race!”

The one Kevin had called Tyler turned to me. “And just who the hell do you think you are to give us orders?”

I looked at him squarely, even though my fear for Race made it difficult to tear my eyes from the snarling wolves in the boxing ring. “I am the mate of the Beast Master, and he has challenged your Alpha in defense of me and the sanctity of our mating bond. Tradition states it is not for
any
of us to interfere.”

By adding emphasis I was acknowledging that
I knew I would also not be allowed to come to Race’s aid, however much it would pain me to watch the fight unfold. Without saying another word, I turned my attention back to the ring, where the two wolves had given up circling and snarling and at that moment were up on their hind legs and grappling with one another, their forelegs on the other’s shoulders and their jaws snapping, each seeking to take a bite of the other. I gasped when Kevin’s sharp teeth came close to clamping onto Race’s ear, and recalled my futile wish that they’d have fought this out as men. Though it still would have been difficult to watch Race fight, at least then I could have been more sure of the outcome—in their animal forms I could not be even remotely certain of anything. Of course, given the rumors I had heard of Kevin’s underhanded fighting tactics, I ought have known his first offensive move would be to phase into his wolf. He probably thought that Race either could not become one, or had little experience fighting as one.

And that was the thing that bothered me most. I knew Race could become many different animals, but what—if any—experience did he have fighting in animal form? Kevin probably thought he had the advantage by shifting immediately, but so far Race was holding his own.
I couldn’t really follow his thoughts—he was so intently focused on his opponent, trying to gauge his next move. I silently cheered him on.
Come on Race, you can do this
.

The werewolves surrounding the ring had started cheering aloud for t
heir packmaster—at least, the men had. The two women to my right were silent, though they watched intently. I could not tell whom they wished to win.

A sharp cry drew my attention to the ring once more. Kevin and Race were apart, and the former was favoring his right front leg as he shook himself. I noticed that there was blood in the fur—Race had drawn first blood. Inwardly I cheered, but then found myself cringing as Kevin suddenly lunged forward and swiped at Race
’s face with an open paw, his claws extended. Race moved back quickly, barely avoiding the strike. Kevin growled loudly and lunged forward again, pushing off from his hind legs to jump on Race’s back.

The two of them rolled across the mat and
passed under the bottom rope, landing on the floor to my left. The werewolves standing watch over there barely scrambled out of the way in time to keep from being knocked over. There was another sharp cry then, and the pain I felt in my right shoulder made me gasp loudly. I clutched my shoulder tightly, knowing that it was but a phantom pain, one I was feeling because now Race had been hurt. My gasp drew a few eyes my way but I ignored them, focusing all my attention on the fight before me.

Kevin’s teeth had latched onto Race’s shoulder. The werewolf had him
pinned, and Race was trying to shake him off. When he realized shaking alone wouldn’t do, Race threw himself to the side and rolled on top of him. Surprised by the move, Kevin released his shoulder, and I closed my eyes briefly at the sight of the blood staining Race’s white fur.

When I opene
d them again, the two wolves had moved further into the gym, past the boxing ring and onto what appeared to be a wrestling mat. They were grappling with one another again, their snapping jaws seeking purchase on the other’s throat. At one point they fell and rolled across the room, tumbling end over end as they fought, before crashing into a lat machine. The weights rattled with the force of the blow, but Kevin and Race merely shook it off and went at each other again.

The back and forth went on for some time—
grappling, lunging, biting, swiping, rolling… More blood was shed on both sides, and each time Race’s blood was spilt I felt his pain. Once, when his head crashed into concrete, I was almost driven to my knees. But surprisingly, one of the wolves—Tyler, actually—took me by the arm and held me steady. I shot him a look of wary thanks.

“Is it true?” he asked me quietly.

I nodded. “Your packmate told us he was acting on Kevin’s orders,” I replied in a low voice, though I knew the others could still hear me. “He said that Kevin has some journals of one of his ancestors stating that the Beast Master can mate with more than one person, and because he considers me unworthy due to my animal form, he believes Anna to be more suitable. You heard him say that much yourself.”

“There are…some of us…who would not agree with Kevin’s tactics,” said another wolf, stepping up to my left. “He is a traditionalist, and though some of the traditions are worth keeping, some are not. If your mate is truly the Beast Master, the taking of other mates should be his choice alone, and it should not be forced upon him.”

Part of me wondered if the man was referring not only to Race’s alleged ability to take multiple mates, but also to the taking of mates at a young age, the ones who bonded soon after phasing for the first time. It was an old tradition that I knew Kevin practiced, because he believed it made the bond stronger. Should Race win this fight and the wolves accepted him as their Alpha, it was a tradition I would personally see to it that he put a stop to.

“Is Alex really in the hands of vampires?” the second man asked.

I nodded again. “He is, but the only damage done to him was at his own hand because of the accident or that of my mate. I know the vampire into whose custody he was taken—he is the father of my brother’s mate. He will not harm Alex for the simple fact that doing so would displease her.”

“Your brother is mated to a bloodsucker?” Tyler
asked, a small note of disgust in his voice.

I turned to him, my jaw set, and said in as controlled a voice as I could, “Saphrona is a hybrid—half vampire, half human. She does not use humans for
sustenance, she drinks the blood of animals. You and I eat animal flesh, so it’s no different.”

A loud growl drew my attention back to the battling wolves, and my heart leapt in my chest to see that Race had pinned Kevin to the mat, his jaw clamped around his throat. If I remembered my traditions correctly, he now had two choices before him: he co
uld show mercy and release Kevin, at which time the werewolf would be required to forfeit and leave with his tail between his legs (literally or figuratively)…

…or Race could claim ultimate victory by tearing Kevin’s throat out.

I watched as Race lifted a paw and placed it over Kevin’s throat, then shifted back into his human form, the paw becoming a hand holding the gray wolf’s throat in a vise-like grip. He leaned over the prone wolf (much too close to his teeth for my liking) and said, “It’s over.”

He then looked up at the gathered wolves,
whom I noticed were staring in shocked silence. “Your Packmaster, Alpha—whatever you call him—acted in a disgraceful manner by seeking to force a second mating on me. In so doing he risked the lives of myself and my mate, and that is a transgression I could not let go unanswered. I have challenged him and won, which I understand means I can now claim the pack as my own.”

I looked left and right, checking to see the reactions of the wolves around us who had born witness to the challenge. They had heard Kevin’s disparagement of me, his claim that Anna was better suited to being the Beast Master’s mate, and they had heard mine and Race’s explanation as to why he had done those things. I had to wonder what
they would do now—would they deny Race’s right to claim the pack and support their Alpha, or would they acknowledge it, thereby casting Kevin out?

I was surprised when Tyler, followed by the man to my left,
slowly dropped to one knee, their heads bowed. The other wolves followed suit.

“My Lord Beast Master,” Tyler said reverently, “by the ancient traditions of challenge, you are victorious. We accept your claim to become our Alpha.”

Kevin shifted under Race’s hand, crying out as he did so. “NO!” he screamed, thrashing so much that Race released him and stepped back. Kevin scrambled to his feet and turned on the pack. “You are mine! You can’t just switch your allegiance so easily!”

Race crossed his arms over his chest. “Apparently they can, Tracey. They have heard of your deceit
and chosen not to follow a man who would attempt to force an unwanted mating on another—if you’ll do that to someone who isn’t even of your pack, then what’s to stop you from doing that or worse to someone who is? They can’t trust you anymore, Kevin, and they’re right not to.”