Chapter 15 #2
I met him strike for strike. Let him think he was gaining ground. Then I flipped him over my shoulder and slammed him into the ground with a satisfying thud.
He lay there for a beat. Then, breathless, he looked up at me and grunted as he rolled to his feet.
“Say it,” I said softly, wiping my hands on my pants.
“Say what?” he grumbled, dusting himself off.
“I know you have something to say, Jarik.”
He looked me up and down and then glanced away, his hands on his hips.
Riled up. Angry. He sniffed as he looked back at me.
“This isn’t Stonefang’s fight. You’re fighting hard to prove yourself, Alpha,” he said with a sneer.
“More than you seem to be for your so-called mate, if you don’t want her, why the fuck are we still here? ”
Silence.
Just the sound of wind and the echo of blood pounding in my ears. I stared across at him. “What did you say?”
Jarik took a step forward. “I said—”
I hit him. Not in a rage. Not wild. Controlled. Direct. Fist to jaw. A single, brutal crack that dropped him back to the dirt with a groan.
I stood over him, my chest rising slowly.
“I don’t explain myself to wolves who spit poison in the same breath they call me alpha,” I said, voice low. “And if any of you think I’d let the woman tied to my soul fight alone, you’re either blind, stupid, or you’ve forgotten who the fuck I am.”
No one moved.
Jarik spat blood into the dirt and didn’t speak again.
I looked around at the others.
“You think I’m distracted because she’s not here? You think I don’t want my true mate here?” I growled. “Am I any more dangerous because she’s not here? Or do you think that until that bond is sealed, I’ve got something to prove to every goddamn one of you?”
The circle stayed silent, and I wanted to hit someone again.
“Train harder,” I said, pulling my shirt back on. “Or don’t train at all.” I looked around. “The fight is coming, and this is your pack. I expect you all to fight for it.”
I walked off. Not because I didn’t have more to say, but because if I stayed, I’d start breaking bones…and I really wanted to break bones.
I walked as far as the front yard of our house and leaned against the fence post beside the small path that would take me into our empty house. I still felt that I was breathing harder than I wanted to admit. The wind had picked up—mountain air sharp as ever. My knuckles throbbed from the hit.
I hoped I cracked his jaw, but I also hoped they heard me. Let them all think on it. The crunch of boots behind me made me turn, expecting another scolding from the druid or someone looking for an apology they wouldn’t get.
Instead, it was Henry.
Rowen had a soft spot for him, and it was easy to see why.
He was young but still sharp-eyed. I frowned, sizing him up.
He walked as if he were trying to make himself smaller.
Henry hadn’t been shy about wanting to spend more time with the new shifters from Stonefang, and I’d seen the looks he received from his elders for doing so.
“Alpha,” he said, stopping a few feet away.
I nodded. “How are you, Henry?” I could smell his uncertainty, and I made it easier for him. “You saw what happened in the training ring?” He gave me a small nod. “You got something to add to that?”
He blinked. “What? No. I just…I saw how he talked to you.”
“And?”
“And he was wrong.”
I turned fully then. Studied him. “And what makes you think that?”
Henry licked his lips, shuffling his feet before he spoke again. “I think you should know not everyone agrees with him.”
I raised a brow. “Are you speaking on behalf of the whole Hollow?” I asked, trying to hide the amusement in my voice.
The flush on his cheeks spread to the rest of his face.
“No.” His face screwed up as he struggled to find the words.
“I just think…” He looked away, uncertain.
“I think they forget we’re not the only ones trying to survive.
” He kicked his foot against a clod of dirt.
“It’s scary right now. My mom is scared to come outside. She cries when I go on patrol—”
He was on patrol? I needed to talk to Brand.
“I think your other pack…” Henry let out a big sigh.
“I think they need to stop thinking of themselves as other, and I think we do too.” He shifted his weight, fidgeting, then forced himself to meet my eyes.
“I train with both sides. Blueridge Hollow shifters mutter that I’m a traitor.
Stonefang thinks I’m soft. But I don’t care which pack I was born in.
I just want a future where I don’t have to pick between them. ”
I studied him for a long moment. No bravado. No fear. Just stubborn, quiet honesty.
“It takes longer than a few weeks to build a pack,” I said. “If you think it doesn’t—”
“I don’t,” he said quickly. “But I see you trying. I see the new shifters coming in, or going out, and I don’t think you know that not everyone here is thinking you’re keeping us divided.”
Silence settled for a moment between us. “Walk with me,” I said, pushing off the post. He blinked again, surprised, then fell into step beside me. “You ever see wolves in nature tear each other apart over nothing?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No.”
“That’s what happens when you let old grudges and prejudice run a pack.” He didn’t answer. Just looked forward, thoughtful. “I need more shifters like you, Henry,” I said after a moment. “Wolves who aren’t loyal to bloodlines. Who are loyal to the pack. Think you can handle that?”
“Handle what?” His throat bobbed when he saw my look, and he nodded as he swallowed. “Yes, Alpha.”
“And do you have friends, Henry, ones who think like you? Who want to train with both the Hollow and Stonefang?”
He looked excited as he spoke. “I do! There are more of us than you think, Alpha sir.”
“Good,” I said, feeling Axel move in behind us. “Because if this goes the way I think it might, I’ll need every one of you to hold the line when the others run or sit on their ass and do nothing.”
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t run. Just nodded again. I looked behind me at Axel.
“Brand has him on patrol?” I asked, fighting the smile as Henry jumped at the fact that Axel was so close to us.
“That won’t work, he’s not ready.” I cut off Henry’s protest with one look.
“Henry, go with Axel, introduce him to your friends who want to learn and aren’t scared who they are standing in line beside.
And I told you before, don’t call me sir. ”
Axel gave me a look, and I knew what he was asking. “No patrols, I want you to spend three hours with them every morning,” I told him.
“You in the afternoon?” Axel confirmed.
“Yeah,” I said as I smiled at Henry. “That okay?” I asked the young male.
He looked between us both. “Like bootcamp?”
Axel chuckled. “Yeah, exactly like bootcamp, only alpha style.”
“Lewis used to train us, but he doesn’t anymore.”
“Yeah?” Axel asked as they walked away. “Alpha style is different.”
Not Stonefang style. Not Hollow style. Alpha style. I watched them walk away together, Henry asking all his questions and Axel patiently answering them all.
And for the first time in days, I felt something in my chest loosen that wasn’t about attacks or Rowen. It was about pack.
Maybe the future didn’t have to be built on the bones of the past. Maybe it could be built on shifters like Henry.