18. Archie
ARCHIE
The pack gathered in the clearing below the ridge, the same ground where my brother and I had taken our first shifts as boys.
My father had gotten the word out, and as usual in a small town, those who didn’t hear firsthand got the message from other pack members.
By the time the moon was waning, the pack had arrived.
They were ringed around the edge of the clearing in the dark, but with their beasts showing in their eyes, their pupils caught the light.
I’d grown up with many of these people, and though I hadn’t been present, Garrick had stood here after I left and explained why he‘d given me the option to give up my mate or watch him die. None of them had objected, and I assumed they’d stay quiet tonight.
But they’d come to witness whatever was about to go down.
Garrick walked into the clearing with his shoulders back and his head high.
No matter what he was thinking, he looked like the Alpha he was.
The years hadn’t changed him other than the gray in his hair and lines on his brow.
His gaze swept over the circle at the assembled pack members, barely allowing his eyes to rest on me. To him, I was still the boy who ran.
You aren’t and neither am I. We can do this. My wolf had been longing to bring Garrick down as I had.
“So the pup came home.” His voice was loud enough for everyone to hear. “I wondered if you would.”
“I’m here to challenge you.” I didn’t bother with pretend pleasantries or games. I said the words written in the old law so no one could argue later about my intention.
Garrick's smile broadened, and a ripple went around the circle and heads bobbed. I wondered if some of the pack members relished Alpha being challenged or if they were looking forward to bloodshed.
“You understand what I’m saying.” I was determined but not overly confident.
This man had been terrorizing pack members for over ten years.
“A challenge doesn’t end with someone walking away sore or with broken bones.
This is a fight to the death or with one of us face down and accepting defeat.
That’s the law and was the law of your father and his father. ”
Garrick shrugged off his jacket. “I accept. I’ve waited a long time to put you down and have you stay down.”
He extended his arms but kept his eyes on me. “Bring the human and let him watch. Allow him to witness what he’s walked into. If a pack member wants a plaything from outside the pack, everyone should see the price of mating an outsider.”
One of the Betas brought Walter and walked him into the clearing.
His shoulders drooped, and he was stumbling as he stared at the ground.
But when he saw me, he straightened and yelled my name.
Our eyes locked, and I imagined I saw an apology in them.
But there was also fury as he lifted his chin and his eyes blazed, followed by affection when he mouthed, “I love you.”
The leaves rustled in the breeze and brought me my mate’s scent. That clean smell that soothed me and my wolf had something else woven into it. It was faint, but there was no mistaking it. That scent under Walter’s that hadn’t been there when we last saw one another.
My knees almost buckled, but my wolf shared his strength so I could stand tall.
Walter was pregnant.
This is not the time to appear weak. My wolf didn't allow the good news to distract him.
Everything that was at stake had just doubled because it wasn’t just Walter I had to fight for, but it was him and our child.
Now I understood why Garrick had locked him in a cabin instead of what he’d promised after Walter and I met.
Garrick who was rigid, cruel, and bloodthirsty lived by the old law, and the oldest law was that you did not raise a hand to a pregnant omega.
He would have picked up Walter’s scent and hadn’t been able to touch my mate which probably infuriated him.
The law that ruled his life and the pack’s had protected my mate and baby without me knowing.
Not being able to touch Walter, Garrick had locked him up and waited for me to rescue him. He’d expected me to sneak into the cabin late at night and try to flee with a human in tow. I’d bet that he didn’t suspect I’d challenge him because he thought he was invincible.
“Let’s not keep everyone waiting.”
I didn’t bother to undress. That was for hunting or a reveal to an unsuspecting human. My clothes shredded, and the wind picked up the threads and scattered them over the clearing as my wolf landed on all fours and growled.
Garrick shifted, and his scarred and graying beast put his head up and howled. He’d held the pack in his tight grip for a generation, and his battle-hardened wolf didn’t shy away from a fight.
His beast didn’t circle but came straight at me, and we met in the middle of the empty space as our beasts’ bodies slammed into one another.
He was fast and strong, and his wolf was vicious because he’d done this before and mine hadn’t.
His teeth dug into my wolf’s shoulder and tore the flesh.
Walter screamed my name as blood spurted over both beasts, but instead of cowering, my wolf savored his injury.
Like me, he’d allowed the rage he bottled inside him to show up in every hockey game. When I’d thrown myself into a wall trying to feel something, it’d been practice for this, the real thing.
Our wolves broke apart with teeth bared and blood and saliva mingling on his beast’s fangs. But I had something Garrick didn’t, and that was someone worth dying for who was carrying our little one inside him. My mate was sobbing and begging me to stop, but I couldn’t lose my focus.
His beast tossed mine onto his back and went for the throat. I felt and smelled his foul breath. There was a sharp cry from the crowd that alerted my beast that if he allowed those fangs to puncture an artery, we weren’t getting out of this alive.
My wolf twisted out from under the older beast so his weight was over his opponent’s shoulder and his teeth on his flank.
The centuries-old instinct had never faded during the years I’d been gone from the pack.
Now when we hit the ground, Garrick’s beast was the one underneath.
His throat was under my jaw and his body was heaving.
That heavy breathing was the only sound in the clearing, as the pack had gone silent and so had the wind.
My wolf wanted to end this, but I stopped him.
The old law didn’t require me to give Garrick a choice, but I did it because I wanted the pack, and most of all Walter, to see that I would be a different kind of Alpha.
My beast eased his jaws off the wolf and stood over him with my teeth bared. The age-old message was Yield. Give up your position and bare your throat to me before you leave pack land and never return. He could choose to live.
“Please, please stop this.” Walter was on his knees.
Almost, my love.
I thought Garrick might take that option to live on. But behind his beast’s eyes it was all Garrick, full of contempt and pride. He lunged, knowing it would be his last act and choosing to die with his teeth in me rather than staying alive while lying in the dirt.
His beast’s teeth didn’t reach my wolf’s flesh. We were too quick for him, and his death was fast and clean and all according to the law. The wind started up, weaving through the trees as if announcing the change in leadership.
I didn’t regret killing him, but taking a life wasn’t something I’d forget. Garrick had been cruel and willing to kill my mate and baby, and I hoped Walter understood that.
The pack members bowed their heads and bared their throats.
I was Alpha.
I shifted back. My skin was covered in blood, and I was shaking as someone wrapped a blanket around my hips. My mate's face was streaked with tears, and he had a hand over his mouth as he raced toward me and flung himself into my arms, covering himself with my blood and that of the late Alpha.
We had to talk, but for now, I held his trembling body, and he rested his head on my shoulder.