Chapter Eight
Barely avoiding another slash of claws and gnash of teeth, Leyden skipped out of the way and turned, swiping his claws at his opponent.
Make that opponents. Leyden had managed to take down Rolf, the main challenger, but it seemed that all of his other enforcers - men he thought he could trust - had now decided to get into the act as well.
Leyden was beyond pissed off, but he tried to keep his focus on the fight.
There were eight men opposing him, and Leyden knew the chances of getting out of the situation alive were slim.
Before the challenge, Leyden had thought of just submitting.
In a way his pack was right. He couldn’t keep his mate, not because there was anything wrong with Connor, or him for that matter, but because their relationship had the potential to be something more than sex from the get-go.
And the wolves in his pack didn’t understand that.
The stupid thing was, Leyden realized as he wallowed in self-pity before the challenge, was that Connor had done what any decent wolf would do when faced with a problem - put the needs of his mate first.
There’s too much emphasis on fucking sex, Leyden thought as he dodged another set of teeth. Fuck, now there were two of them, no make that four. Leyden knew he had to focus on the fight, he had to protect his pack, but honestly, without Connor at his side, he wasn’t sure it was worth the effort.
Connor had warned Leyden about Rolf, told him the man had been through too many packs and had apparently been banished more than once for challenging the Alpha.
There was no way a man like that should have had the right to challenge for a second’s position.
But after Connor had left, and Leyden was all for heading after him, he had been tied up in one thing or another until the challenge.
Rolf’s application had gone through, and Leyden hadn’t realized it until the man turned up in the pack circle.
Wincing, Leyden snapped and whirled again.
He was favoring his leg and wanted to keep the other wolves away from it.
Rolf had managed to sink his teeth into his paw, just before Leyden had ripped his throat out.
Although Leyden didn’t hold with killing indiscriminately, Rolf’s attitude and the way he had taken Lonnie’s comments and used the information to stir up the enforcers was too much to take.
In a coordinated attack, two of his enforcers barreled into him at the same time and all three wolves went down in a flurry of claws, legs and teeth.
Fuck this isn’t good, Leyden thought as he struggled under the weight, desperately trying to keep teeth from his neck.
He raised his head, snapping and snarling, but he couldn’t get free.
One of the wolves had scraped his claws down Leyden’s side and he could feel the blood flowing from the wounds.
Kicking, biting, and trying to wiggle as best he could, all of a sudden Leyden could see the sky.
The sounds of fighting hadn’t stopped, but…
Leyden shook his head and stood up. Another wolf was fighting off the enforcers, his strength and sheer power rippling through his muscles.
For the first time in days, Leyden smiled, a freaky thing for a wolf to do, but Leyden felt his heart lift.
Connor hadn’t abandoned him and yet again, he was in protector mode.
Watching Connor in action was sheer poetry.
The wolf took on all comers, his actions fast, and his retaliation brutal.
Reminding himself that he was the alpha in their relationship, Leyden moved alongside his mate with renewed vigor, and in less than ten minutes all eight of the wolves were down, their submission evident.
Panting heavily, Leyden stood for a moment simply savoring the victory.
That was until he felt Connor nudging his shoulder, and a long warm tongue licking the wounds on his side.
While Leyden knew he would heal when he shifted, he was so blown away by the fact that his mate was tending to him, even if it was in wolf form, he stood under the caress, enjoying every lick.
Seeing one of the downed wolves move, Leyden growled and Connor nudged his shoulder again.
Right. Time to shift and take care of the mess.
Leyden shifted, glad that his wounds healed, although his hand was still a little sore.
He stood tall and proud as his mate shifted with him, the man almost equally tall, definitely proud, and not at all pleased with his enforcers.
Leyden slipped his arm around Connor’s waist, the urge to have the man close to him too hard to ignore.
Fortunately, Connor made no move to get away from him.
Instead Connor was focused on the enforcers who were still cowering in wolf form.
“Your disrespect to your alpha is sickening,” Connor snarled. “Shift your lame asses, and explain yourself to your alpha.”
“You’re not our second, or even in this pack. You have no say here,” one of the louder mouthed idiots yelled, as one by one the enforcers shifted and knelt on the ground.
“I still bested you, and claimed or not, I am your alpha’s true mate. Now explain your actions before I rip your throat out.” Connor didn’t have to yell. His voice was powerful enough to ripple around the clearing and make every other wolf in the area take notice.
The wolves on the ground moved about nervously and then one spoke up.
“Alpha. It was Rolf who spoke to us. Told us you weren’t fit to be an alpha because you haven’t sexually claimed your mate.
A wolf shifter who doesn’t have sex is considered weak, you know that, Alpha.
A weak alpha is unfit to lead or keep our pack safe.
It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. ”
“There’s a lot of things wrong with your story, Clancy,” Leyden said, eyeing the man with distrust. “Firstly, Rolf had never met my mate so had no way of knowing if I’d had sex with him or not. Second, do either one of us look. Weak. To. You?”
“No Alpha.” Clancy at least had the grace to look embarrassed.
Looking around the pack, Leyden could see Lonnie had gone a bright red and was consciously avoiding his gaze.
He guessed the little twink had a lot to do with the gossip in the pack.
Lonnie certainly had alpha mate aspirations, something Leyden hadn’t even been aware of until Connor had come along.
Leyden raised his voice so the whole pack could hear him.
“What I do in the bedroom or with my mate is my business and is of no concern of anyone else here. I thought I treated you all well. I take time to listen to your concerns. I help out where I can. I keep this pack safe and profitable. I thought I had your trust, your respect. I was stupid enough to think I had your support.”
Gripping Connor a little closer, the man standing like a rock beside him, Leyden went on.
“What is going to happen to you all if I decide that I don’t want to live with this farce of a pack anymore and walk away?
That would leave you with no alpha, no alpha mate, no second, and a bunch of enforcers who are that cowardly they would only try and attack me en masse instead of facing me in an individual challenge for leadership.
What is going to happen to you and the way you live your lives? ”
Leyden saw the fear and shock on the faces of his pack members and tried not to let it affect him.
He cared for every man, woman, and child in his pack, and he hated the thought of hurting any one of them.
But he could not, would not allow them to dictate how his mating went, or how he and Connor lived their lives.
The actions of Rolf shouldn’t have been surprising, but the way his enforcers had turned on him had cut Leyden to the core, and he was deeply hurt.
“Alpha, all wolves are sexual by nature. Your sexual prowess was something that typified your rule. You are known for your strength both in and out of the bedroom. Surely you can see how worried we would be as a pack, if that changed,” one of the older pack members said.
Feeling Connor stiffen beside him, Leyden shook his head.
“Didn’t you hear anything I just said, Walter?
My mate is unique. He clearly isn’t weak because he bested all of our enforcers.
He has been living as the pack second for the Davis pack for freaking years.
Connor has proven his worth to me in every way and would be a strong addition to this pack as alpha mate.
Whether we have sex or not has nothing to do with it. ”
Leyden looked around at his gathered pack mates, ignoring the enforcers for now.
“I shouldn’t have to explain myself, because I thought I was trusted in my position.
However, just this once, I will make an exception.
My mate and I have not been sexually active yet, because my mate wants to wait until we know each other better.
I agree with his decision. Mating is for life and is a serious decision to make.
If the pack has a problem with that, or my mate, then I’ll walk away and you lot can fend for yourselves.
What has happened here today has sickened me. ”
“You would give up your pack for your mate?” Walter seemed surprised, and Leyden didn’t know why he would be.
Every wolf worth his salt knew how important a mate was.
Leyden didn’t want to have to fight every day for the right to keep his unusual mate by his side.
To keep Connor, he would gladly walk away.
“Contrary to popular belief, there is more to being mates than having sex, Walter. Connor is compatible with me in every way. He is also protective and possessive, and today he proved that he is a damn sight more supportive than any of you.”
Walter nodded his head, as did many others in the pack.
Hopefully he had got his point across, but it was hard to tell.
Suddenly Leyden felt really tired as the events of the day, damn, the whole week caught up on him, and he felt his knees turn to jelly.
Connor tucked in tighter against him and held him upright.
“I am going to take my mate home, shower, eat, and enjoy my evening. You all have twenty-four hours to make a decision as to what you want me to do. Know this, if you can’t support my mate and me then I will walk away and you can find someone new to lead you.
After the events of this week, I really don’t care. ”
Leyden looked at his ex-enforcers. Their defection had hurt him most of all.
“I may not be alpha tomorrow, but I am today. All of you are banished, effective immediately. If you set foot in my territory again you will be killed. All of your records will note the reasons for the banishment and the fact that you ganged up on me instead of challenging me directly. That’s a fucking cowardly thing to do.
I doubt that will help you in your efforts to find a new pack, but that’s your problem.
I won’t be surrounded by people I can’t trust.”
Not bothering to see how his words had been taken, Leyden let Connor lead him back to the pack house. He seriously needed to lie down.