Alissa

  My muscles felt like someone was twisting them. Along with that, my head felt like I was hungover. Opening my eyes hurt like hell as light drove needles into them, so I closed them and raised a hand to help block the light. “Welcome back.” Came Paul's voice.

  “What happened?” I croaked out of my dry throat. “Why do I hurt so much?”

  “I was hoping to ask you about that. Billy keeps saying that he beat you just before he crossed the ring.” A growl rumbled from deep in my chest upon hearing that. “No one believes him. It is just what he is saying.”

  Barbra’s voice cut in. “Just pick one of the wolves already.” My eyes flung open. Ignoring the pain, I focused on Barbra. Daring her to continue. “Oh, get over yourself. Eli is never coming back. The mages will never allow such a thing to happen.”

  My voice was soft and calm as I asked her, “What do you mean?”

  “Our mage contacts have been refusing to talk more and more. They are subtle about it, but it is becoming obvious. On top of that, the traders that go to the mage world have been telling stories of humans being killed if they are caught using magic. The chance that he is…”

  “That’s enough, Barbra,” Paul said, cutting off what she was about to say. Not that I didn’t already figure out what she was about to say. My wolf howled in challenge, but I stayed quiet as he continued. “I had been trying to force the issue. To find a compromise before I brought it up to you.”

  Voice cold and low, I said, “He is not dead. I will not give up on him.”

  “No one is telling you to,” Paul replied, his voice calm.

  “I am,” Barbra cut in. “You are one of the only females who refuse to find a mate inside the pack. Your strength is causing the males to circle you and not looking at other women.”

  “Strength? You think that my being too strong is the reason that people keep challenging me?” I scoffed. “They just want my wolf.”

  “Having a full wolf form doesn’t hurt, but yes, it is your strength that is attracting them,” Paul admitted.

  “So, if I was seen as weak, they would leave me alone?” My mind raced through ways I could do that without losing too much pride or something I was unwilling to lose.

  Paul shook his head. “That would not work. Not now. At this point, you need to establish yourself in the pack. Show them that you are untouchable. Unfortunately, I don’t know if you will be able to do that. We have some strong wolves that are just waiting for their chance to challenge a strong woman.”

  “What if she challenged up the ranks?” Gordon asked.

  Paul’s hand came up to hold his chin as he thought before finally saying, “That would work, but how far do you think she would get?”

  “Her fighting may be unrefined, but I think the amount of power she holds could push her to the top ten in the pack. I don’t even know if I could beat her.” That was saying a lot, as Gordon was the second in the pack. The Beta. Barbra was quite a bit lower in the pack, but her abilities had less to do with fighting and more to do with people.

  I nodded as I said, “Set it up. I will take everyone on if I have to.”

  “You will have to.” Gordon replied, “Your matches so far were mating challenges. You are still unranked in the pack.”

  Having to fight so many people would be annoying but I would do it. I would do anything to stop these challenges. At least none of the outer pack was trying to court me. I don’t know how I would handle those that didn’t have a fully human form. Various forms of animal ears and tails were common for those people. The truly unlucky people were those with animal paws or faces.

  Seeing them made me rethink all the things that happened around Comicon time as well as the local furry population. Was Eli technically a furry now that I was part beast? Thoughts for later. For now, I needed to kick some people around a ring.

  And I did. I fought people every day. Sometimes the fights were back-to-back. Each fight ended up with the person either forfeiting or being kicked around until they were unable to continue. It wasn’t until I was most of the way down the list that I started to get injured. At first it was a scratch from a cougar here, or a large bruise from a bear there.

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  The wounds were not given time to heal though. People around me looked at me like I was crazy as I pushed for the next fight. I wasn’t the only one pushing though. My wolf wanted to come out and help me, but I didn’t let her. For that, she was no longer helping me.

  All of the damage had accumulated, and my reflexes were slowed as I entered the ring against Gordon. “I don’t know if I should be proud that you made it all the way to me or annoyed that you insist on fighting in that shape. Did I not teach you better than that. What was the first thing I said about fighting?”

  Of course he would take this fight and turn it into a lesson at the same time. “To take every advantage you can. To give your opponent as few advantages as possible.”

  “Well at least we know you were listening. Now what about that lesson did you fail to learn because you seem to have done the exact opposite.” We started to circle the center of the ring. People filled the room. It wasn’t often that the Beta had a worthy challenger.

  “You think I need to be at full strength to take you on? Hah.” My laugh died off as I lurched toward him. Not really going in for an attack. I just wanted to see what he would do. He didn’t move.

  Returning to my spot, I locked my eyes on his. Watching for any sign that he was about to attack. I didn’t have to wait long. His eyes flicked to my left. Dodging to the right, I attempted to dodge whatever attack he was launching.

  A leg met my right side as he suddenly spun. He had used my watching him to cause me to run right into an attack. His kick launched me through the air. Only at the last second was I able to arrest the momentum. My feet stopped right at the edge of the ring.

  Before I could recover anymore, he moved. His body blurred as he sped toward me. Different scenarios played out in my head in a split second. Dodging to either side left me too exposed. Going backwards was no good as I would leave the ring. My only choice was to attack him.

  Dropping my upper body down toward the earth, I dug my toes into the sand and pushed off. Racing toward him as fast as my body would let me. Without my wolf to support me, I was little faster than a human. Almost as weak as a human too.

  His first punch scraped against my ear as I moved in. The other fist started to move forward as I sidestepped him. Rotating around his body and returning to the center of the ring. “Good, I was wondering if you were going to be taken out so easily.” Turning to face me, he settled down into another form. One that I had not seen so far. “Instead of throwing you out, I think I shall just teach you like I do all the new recruits the first day.”

  I remembered my first day in his tender care. Bruises had covered every part of my body. I was lucky he hadn’t broken bones. Thanks to my wolf, I had healed relatively fast, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt. His form blurred. Only instinct had me crossing both my arms as I raised them. A leg struck across them. He would have hit my head if I had not blocked.

  Pulling on what energy and power I had, I struck back but he was already gone. No blur, just vanished. My wolf surprised me at that moment, pushing me down and taking over. Forcing my body down, she avoided an attack.

  As soon as he had missed, he must have swung downward because the attack that struck me had nowhere near the power I knew he could use. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. He hit with the force of a professional boxer rather than a wrecking ball. Seeing stars, I shook my head.

  This went on for five minutes, he would throw a flurry of attacks at me, and I would dodge, deflect or tank them. Eventually though, I got hit hard enough to nearly put me out. At that point I just laid on the ground, at his mercy. “Know what, I think you would make a great mate for me. What do you think?”

  With that one question, my wolf exploded. She pushed past me and to the surface. My body rippled as she forced it to change. Not all the way to that of a wolf, but enough to give her an advantage. It was something we had been practicing in secret. Neither of us knew if it would be effective, but we knew it would at least be enough of a surprise to catch him off guard.

  The world slowed as she moved. Pushing up to her feet and raking his chest with her claws. His eyes widened as we attacked. I don’t know what he did or said after that because he disappeared from sight. The claws had imparted enough energy to throw him out of the ring and through the crowd.

  Everyone in the crowd went silent. “Is there anyone else that wants to challenge me?” my wolf asked using my voice. I hadn’t even known she could do that. “No? Then let this be the last time someone tries.” With that, we walked out of the room. Rushing to our bed. We could both feel how much energy we had just used. The adrenaline was all that was keeping us awake. As soon as it was gone, we would be out. Lucky for me, upon seeing me, everyone shrank to a wall and kept their eyes down.

  Paul

  Alissa was still surprising me. Very few people had a beast as strong as her. Yet even fewer had built up enough trust to allow them to take over. Still fewer beasts trusted their other enough to work hand in hand with them. That was the secret to the partial shift she had just pulled off.

  Out of the whole pack, only seven of us had been able to pull off such a transformation. Only I had a wolf strong enough to match what she had just done. I was the only one who had been able to follow every move she had made at the end. How she had basically batted Gordon to the side.

  Not that I blamed her. He had goaded her into it. I would have to remember to ask if he was just that stupid or wanting to push her over the edge on purpose. That was if he survived his injuries. If he did, I would make sure he trained her well. She was our packs new Beta after all. Looking around, I wondered where she had gone. I needed to congratulate her after all.