Chapter Eleven #4
“Davis Gray, consider your next actions carefully.” I stood straighter, and my voice rose, sounding almost like something else was speaking with me.
“You have not issued a challenge. If you shift and attack me now, I will fight in self-defense, not for the rank of Anax. In the unlikely event that you win, you will gain nothing.”
It was too late to stop him. Even as I spoke, I saw fur beginning to sprout on his hands and arms. His face twisted more but also seemed to elongate. His mouth moved, but no words came out, only snarls and sounds more appropriate for a wolf than a man.
Seeing no choice, I sent a quick thought to Kyle. Complication. Davis came back. He wants a fight.
Tobias, no. Panic tinged the thought. Refuse.
He didn’t challenge. He’s shifting. Kyle, just…I’ll be all right. I love you.
Don’t you fucking leave me, he snapped. Not right before our wedding.
I won’t. I didn’t add the rest of my thought. Kyle knew I might not be able to help leaving him. I would simply have to fight like hell not to. Stay inside. I’ll let you know when it’s over.
Sure.
I began to shift as well. It hurt like a motherfucker this time, so soon after I’d shifted to wolf and back for the fight with Edward.
My body screamed in agony, and I barely managed not to release that scream through my voice.
Everyone present knew that multiple shifts in a short amount of time was more than some wolves could stand, but I couldn’t show the effects.
Sometimes I hated being a frigging werewolf.
Everything was about ceremony and dominance.
Don’t show weakness. Be powerful. I’d been considered a dominant wolf from the moment I was changed, something I’d been unaware of until Hezekiah, in the last moments of his madness, had blurted out that he should have ordered Jed Howe to kill me because I was too strong to leave alive.
Jed had set me up to challenge for the rank of Alpha of Boston North Pack before my eighteenth birthday out of fear that I would challenge him.
Now I was the most powerful werewolf in the United States—and sometimes, in my darkest moments, I shared Hezekiah’s wish that he’d ordered my death when I was fifteen.
This wasn’t one of those moments. I hated what I had to do, but in a few days, I would celebrate life with my mate. I would live. With pain, with the knowledge that I’d ended others’ lives, but I would live.
When I lay, breathing heavily, in my wolf form, Davis still hadn’t completed his shift.
As I watched, his form shimmered, caught partway between the two shapes.
Something was off. He was fighting it. His temper had gotten the better of him, but now, with me ready to meet his attack, he didn’t want it.
I couldn’t have said exactly what gave me that knowledge, but his shift was clearly not progressing, and I sensed resistance and fear.
As a wolf, of course, I couldn’t speak aloud. But since Davis hadn’t challenged me, and therefore the prohibition against interference wasn’t in effect, I could talk to him through the bond.
Davis, you can’t stop the shift, I said.
I tried to find the tone and cadence I’d always used when helping others, especially Kyle, through difficult shifts, but it wasn’t easy.
My wolf and the Anax aspect of me were furious with Davis.
For his audacity in returning to the gathering I’d ejected him from.
For his hubris in trying to challenge me, and his breach of protocol in shifting before the challenge was issued.
I clung to the human part of my mind, because that was the part Davis needed right now.
He was trying to force himself to remain as he was.
Maybe it was only his fear that I would kill him the way I had Edward, but the reason didn’t matter.
He was trying to stop in the middle of shifting, and that meant he didn’t want to fight.
You can’t stop it, I repeated. Let yourself shift. I won’t kill you unless you attack me.
He didn’t answer, but the shimmering of his form, the weirdness that made my eyes question what they were actually seeing, resumed.
Arkhons. This time I reached out to all ten of the arkhons who were present.
I hadn’t yet appointed a new Arkhon of the Southeast Region.
That would have been my next step if Davis hadn’t shown up.
I didn’t have the brain power to put together a complete plan while I was in wolf form, but I did my best. Robert Greenlea, assume leadership of the Southeast Region wolves here until I am able to instate a new Arkhon. Do you accept this?
“I accept, Anax.” I didn’t know why Robert chose to speak out loud, but I didn’t care enough to ask.
He actually did me a favor, since my mind was filled with the awareness and thoughts of every werewolf near me and some of those who were in far-flung parts of the country, and not having a full conversation going on in my head was appreciated.
Get the alphas inside, I said. This is not a challenge fight. No need for witnesses. Bob McKinley, Earl Swenson, assist him.
“Yes, Anax,” Bob said. Earl, after a half-second beat, repeated the acknowledgement. Bob said something quietly to Robert, and the three of them started herding the alphas toward the house.
Paul Drake. Hollis Rourke. Go inside. Bring the former Pacific alphas to the auditorium.
We would have to sort out whether the Pacific Region still existed and if not, where the packs in that region belonged, once this was over.
If we decided to keep the region intact, I would have to appoint an Arkhon there, too.
“Yes, Anax.” Paul and Hollis spoke in unison and walked away.
The rest of you, stay. Oliver Peterson, if Davis attacks me, you will monitor the fight.
“I accept that role, Anax,” Oliver said.
Zane Wolfskin, when this ends, please arrange a cleaning crew.
That crew would dispose of Edward’s body, and of Davis’s if I had to kill him.
My guards could fill the role, but I didn’t know if I would be in any shape to give the order.
Since we lived in Massachusetts, my guards were technically Northeast Region wolves, even though they were under my direct rule and therefore Zane had no real authority over them.
City Pack also had a cleaning crew, as did Zane himself, and he did have the power to command them.
You will act for me with my guards if need be.
“Done, Anax,” Zane said.
The fact that I was able to issue all of those directives before Davis finished his shift was surprising. It was rare for a werewolf to shift as fast as I did, but most arkhons, and many of the alphas, shifted more rapidly than lower-ranked wolves. It was a sign of their power, of their dominance.
Yet when I stopped talking to the arkhons, Davis’s form still shimmered. He was nearly wolf now, but hadn’t completed the process.