Chapter Three
Luca
John and Caleb stand ten feet apart with Ryan between them, reciting the council rules for an alpha challenge.
Fights will be in human form; claws and teeth only.
The fight is to the death or until one fighter surrenders.
Surrender means forfeiting their position in Iron Fang and leaving forever.
Alpha commands are expressly forbidden and will result in an immediate disqualification and banishment.
John glares at his pack elders. As though he is deeply inconvenienced. Not about to fight to his death. He shrugs off his jacket and removes his shirt and tie, scowling at all times.
Caleb, on the other hand, appears calm and collected. If anything, he looks content. A small smile plays on his lips, speaking of anticipation rather than unease. His claws extend as he bounces on the balls of his feet.
“The Alpha Challenge begins on my howl,” Ryan says before stepping back and letting out a low howl. John and Caleb circle each other, taking even steps, keeping a steady distance. John is the first to make a move, lunging forward.
He’s sloppy. A poor excuse for an Alpha.
His movements are too big, too obvious, clear long before he makes contact.
Caleb doesn’t look rattled. He shifts his weight smoothly, almost lazily in the way he sidesteps, deflecting the blows with a precision that makes John seem like an amateur.
Caleb is back in a defensive stance before John can even recover from the previous failed attempt at an attack.
Caleb’s gaze narrows, posture coiled like a predator, waiting for the perfect opening.
John lunges again, faster this time, claws flashing in the low light as they slice through the air.
The sound alone is sharp enough to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
But Caleb doesn’t flinch. He pivots at the last second, forcing John to overextend, and the claws catch nothing but air.
A thin line of red opens on Caleb’s arm—shallow, almost meaningless—but it’s enough to show me the difference between them.
John is all rage and muscle, full of cock-sure arrogance.
Caleb is all about control. Pure, ruthless control.
And fate—it’s brutal and oh so fucking satisfying watching John realize it.
“This is madness,” John snarls. “You’ll never be accepted in my pack. Just give up now.”
Ryan snarls and steps forward at hearing the alpha command John infused into his words.
“No fucking alpha commands,” he roars, applying his own command.
John and Caleb are unaffected—both being alpha wolves—but the air whooshes out of my lungs like I’ve been hit.
The elders bare their necks and cower under the intensity of the command.
Caleb sweeps his leg out with brutal precision, sending John crashing onto his back. In a blink, Caleb is on him, pinning him flat against the floor, all weight and fury pressing him down.
“Do you know why I’m doing this, you piece of shit?” Caleb growls, his voice vibrating through the room.
John spits blood, sneering even pinned below his opponent. “Because you’re too much of a pussy to enjoy pussy?”
My stomach turns to lead. Hearing him refer to his attempted rape of Emily as enjoying pussy as if it’s some kind of joke sickens me. His depravity is bottomless, and it makes my skin crawl.
Which is why I don’t even try to hide the vicious satisfaction that surges through me when Caleb’s fist slams into John’s jaw, the sharp crack echoing across the training arena. A tooth flies across the floor, skittering like a flat rock across the surface of a lake.
Good. He deserves to choke on every one of them.
“I know,” Caleb mutters, his voice low and lethal.
His hand wraps around John’s throat, cutting off the air supply but careful not to slice through his neck with his claws.
“I know about the omegas. I know what you’re doing, and I’m going to shut it down.
You want to live, tell me where they are. Tell me where my sister is.”
John’s shock is palpable, and murmurs erupt among the elders from both packs. Some clearly understand exactly what Caleb is referring to, while others appear confused. Caleb releases John’s throat and in the moment of his hands moving, John manages to buck him off and scramble to his feet.
“I knew she was your sister,” John sneers. “Sweet, broken Camille. There’s no fight left in her. She’s not even fun to play with anymore. She doesn’t even scream when I fuck her—”
A roar erupts from Caleb’s throat, cutting John off with its ferocity. He moves quickly, grabbing John and twisting him to face away before shoving him forward. John lands roughly on his knees, his back to Caleb, who swiftly plunges his claws into John’s back.
John coughs, a harsh, rattling sound that echoes in the sudden stillness. His eyes bulge, reflecting a frantic terror. Crimson blood, thick and smelling of copper, bubbles violently, overflowing his lips and spilling onto his chin.
“I will get her back. And maybe the pack won’t accept me, but you won’t be alive to see it,” Caleb snarls before pulling his arm back.
The wet rip of flesh echoes as John's heart is pulled free from his body.
Caleb holds the heart aloft for a moment.
Deep red blood runs down his dark skin and drips from his elbow, splattering onto the floor underneath.
His bared teeth gleam, lips curled, as John's body collapses, a slow-motion fall.
Caleb unceremoniously tosses the heart onto the ground, a wet thud beside the lifeless form.
Gasps from the elders send goosebumps erupting all over my skin. I hear movement, murmurs, and shuffling, but I can’t tear my gaze from the new Alpha of the Iron Fang pack.
Caleb sucks in heaving breaths, not from exertion, but from the magic transferring into him as he becomes the alpha of the Iron Fang Pack.
He was already an alpha wolf, but aspects of alpha power—such as alpha commands and the ability to sense pack members’ emotional states—only work when you are the alpha of a pack.
The air glistens and glitters around him.
His eyes glow pure gold, bright and terrifying.
Caleb Cooper is a force to be reckoned with.