Way of the Wolf: Shifter Legacies 1 (43 page)

Jonas nodded. “Understandable but easily remedied. The challenge was delivered properly and accepted. Ronnie will fight in your place.”

“No!” he snapped but then he realised he couldn’t stop it. “I mean...”

Georgie laughed. “You’re going to be such fun.”

“You won’t live a minute against Ronnie,” he said staunchly, but he had his doubts. That night was emblazoned upon his memory. Georgie had gutted Callia that night; had literally eviscerated her. “If by some miracle you win, I’ll see you challenged every day until you go down for good. I swear it. Do you want to withdraw the challenge now?”

The Alphas murmured among themselves and turned to regard Georgie speculatively.

She glared at them. “I’ll take my chances. Maybe after I become Alpha, I’ll arrange something special for you. Maybe your second would like to be Alpha in your place.”

“I’d sooner gnaw my own arm off than mate with you!” Lawrence said.

Jonas laughed. “Enough of the funnies. I have to get up early for work. Let’s get this thing done so my boys can bury the body before dawn.”

David looked at Jonas in appalled silence.

“What?”

“Nothing I guess.”

Both women stripped for the fight to make shifting faster and not risk getting tangled. The sight didn’t move David at all. He was too worried to think about how beautiful Ronnie looked, or how muscular Georgie seemed in comparison. He couldn’t get the image of a half-dead Callia dragging her broken body away the night he hit Ronnie with his car. By the goddess, what was he going to do? He couldn’t let this happen! Georgie was too powerful.

This is The Way, and our She will win. She is strong.

You can’t be sure. You didn’t see Georgie that night. She’s a vicious fighter.

I see everything. I know what you know. I see what you see. We are one.

That distracted him a moment.
You can see my memory of that night?

All.

All? You can see all of my memories?

Of course. We are one, as it should be.

But... if so, why can’t I see yours?

You have tried?

Well no, I didn’t know to try.

Try, but not now. They begin.

Jonas’ coyotes gathered to watch the fight edging the arena but not so close as to risk crossing the chalk line. That was forbidden apparently. Pederson’s wolves had also gathered to cheer on their wolf. The coyotes seemed more interested in watching for interference than in watching two naked women fight for their lives. David was grateful, but not for Ronnie’s dignity; she didn’t give a damn. Shifters were inveterate exhibitionists, every single one of them. No, it was that they were alert for cheating. He didn’t know how anyone could with so many witnesses present, but if there was a way, he was sure Georgie would know how and employ it.

“Don’t worry. She’s got this,” Lawrence said.

“You didn’t see the fight that night.”

“No, but I’ve seen Ronnie fight before.”

He looked at his friend in surprise. “When?”

“When she first asked Stephen to take her in. You don’t think the others just welcomed her and let her take over without challenging her do you?”

“I hadn’t thought about it.”

“We haven’t got very many females at Lost Souls, but those we do have aren’t pushovers. You’ll need to recruit more for balance. A healthy pack needs a decent mix of male and female betas.”

He nodded; it was another thing to add to his growing list of things he had to take care of.

“Anyway, Stephen has a rule about fighting. He knows it would be pointless to ban challenges, but he does insist they’re not to the death. He needs us; he can’t afford to have us killing each other, so our challenges are always to submission. Ronnie took all of them apart in minutes.”

“Martina too?” he said feeling more hopeful. Martina was a werelynx and a formidable woman.

“Yeah. Martina was one surprised kitty that day I can tell you.”

“What do I do about her and Darrin? I don’t like the thought of Stephen turning them out.”

“They can join us. You need to stop worrying about the whole wolf with wolf and kitty with kitty thing. Oh sure, that’s the best way when it can be managed, but sometimes it can’t. I mean, how many werelynx or weretiger groups do you think are even in the country let alone LA? Sometimes a loner can’t find an animal group in the area to join, so they become affiliate members of a pack like us. That’s just the way it is.”

He nodded and watched as Ronnie and Georgie circled each other, feinting and lunging but never striking a blow. They were pushing power at each other, grappling invisibly using their Presence alone. He wondered if perhaps Ronnie might win without even drawing blood, but no, Georgie had to die. He couldn’t imagine she would ever feel safe until that was accomplished, and he wanted Georgie dead too. A short time ago, that realisation would have appalled him, but it no longer did. Ronnie wouldn’t be safe with Georgie still breathing, so she must stop that annoying habit and do them all a favour by dying.

Georgie lost patience with the dance first and began to shift, Ronnie stayed in human form and took advantage. She rained kicks and punches into the shifting form as Georgie went furry. It was a vulnerable time for any shifter. When they were between forms, they couldn’t do much but concentrate on the Change, which was extremely painful. Ribs snapped as Ronnie viciously stove them in, but David couldn’t see any advantage in doing that. Georgie was healing the damage instantly as she shifted to her wolf form. Sure it must hurt, but the process of changing form hurt worse.

Ronnie didn’t let up, if anything she forced herself into a frenzy, burning energy in an almost berserk fury of blows. She smashed her fists into Georgie’s face, obliterating the semi-wolf features. Blood flew and splashed upon the concrete. Georgie howled and bit, ripping Ronnie’s hands and arms to shredded ribbons.

“Go for it,” Lawrence growled under his breath, willing Ronnie on as she mauled her opponent.

“Why isn’t she changing too? She’ll be on the receiving end of this when she shifts. She should have changed at the same time!”

“That’s not what this is about. Georgie is healing all the damage as part of her shift, but that takes strength and energy. Healing and shifting are two sides of the same coin. They both work exactly the same way. Exactly the same. By ripping her up and forcing her to heal the damage, Ronnie is making her use up her strength. It will be as if Georgie shifted twice not once. This is going to come down to stamina, and Ronnie is conserving hers.”

“That’s... that bloody brilliant!”

Lawrence shrugged. “Challenges aren’t all about strength. Well they are, but there’s more than physical strength involved. There’s your Presence as well, and tactics in the arena too, but strategy relies upon cleverness. A clever opponent can win against a physically stronger one sometimes. A super strong alpha doesn’t necessarily make a good pack leader. He needs to know how to lead people, and persuade them to do what’s good for the pack a lot of the time, not beat them into submission.”

He nodded; there was another lesson in there. Lawrence was good at telling him things without appearing to do that, and it was no accident. A pack leader’s second could suggest and advise but he couldn’t be seen to be giving his Alpha orders or challenging him. Lawrence was a natural second; he’d slipped into the role as if he’d been doing it for years. It was no wonder Stephen had relied upon him so much.

Georgie was the stronger physically, it was obvious naked as she was, but Ronnie matched her in Presence, and now over matched her in cleverness. She was winning.

Georgie finally completed her shift to full wolf form and attacked. Ronnie backed off, bloodied but still very strong. Her hands and arms were shredded, but she let the blood spatter upon the ground not bothering to use her energy on healing. Georgie’s wolf charged and ripped into Ronnie’s leg in frenzy. David paled at the sight thinking something was wrong, but no, Ronnie wanted her enemy in close. She reached down almost casually and grasped Georgie around the neck, heaving her into the air and throwing her contemptuously across the arena. Georgie rolled back onto her feet and charged back in the blink of an eye, absolutely furious and raging with no thought in her head but blood lust and a need to kill.

Ronnie was ready.

David might have missed it, but Lawrence had seen it before and was waiting for the move. He hissed in excitement as Ronnie shifted her arms and hands. Suddenly they were no longer bleeding or human either. They reached down below her knees now and wicked claws sprang out as she flexed alien fingers. She stood her ground as Georgie leapt and David cried out an involuntary warning.

Ronnie caught the wolf easily in her new powerful arms and said almost gently, “Goodbye, Georgie.”

Her wonderfully sharp claws sliced the wolf’s throat open and ripped its trachea away. She threw the disgusting mess on the floor, and before the dying wolf could begin to heal, twisted its head all the way around and pulled with all her strength. Flesh tore and the head came free in a fountain of gore. The twitching body fell away. Ronnie held the head up before her, staring into its face until the still glowing eyes dimmed and flickered out, glazing in death.

Jonas’ coyotes yipped and barked in that spine-crawling call of theirs.

David shivered. They were all in human form, and that sound coming from ordinary men and women’s throats was just plain unnerving. Alien. Ronnie threw the head and Jonas caught it. He lobbed it like a football to one of his boys who caught it with a laugh. David felt his gorge rise as it shifted back to Georgie’s human head, but the coyotes continued playing catch with it and laughing all the while.

“Keep it together,” Stephen whispered. “Show no weakness here or anywhere if you can avoid it. This is your new reality. Embrace it, or learn to fake embracing it. I would advise the former for your own peace of mind.”

He swallowed bile keeping his expression neutral as the shifters had their fun tossing the human head from one end of the arena to the other in a sick game of catch. Georgie’s body had turned human too now, and Ronnie stepped over it, not giving it a glance. She was untroubled by the coyote’s antics. He watched her approach. She was so damned primal, bloody hands and naked body splashed with gore. She was so beautiful to his hot eyes, but how would he ever understand her or his new people?

Georgie had needed to die. It was necessary and he was glad Ronnie had won, but it was obvious she had no qualms about anything that had happened. Survival was all that mattered to her, and she was full of her victory. How could he live that way even with her? The answer was he couldn’t, but he would have to or change the reality they had to live with. He was determined to try, but it would take time.

Our She,
Mist said with pride as Lawrence handed Ronnie her clothes.
Ours.

Ours,
David agreed, still seeing the moment she ripped her enemy’s head off. She was theirs, the goddess help them.

* * *

24 ~ NSPCL

“Be on your guard. I don’t say you will be challenged immediately upon our return, but you cannot know for sure,” Stephen was saying. “Lawrence will advise you, but I know shifters at least as well as my own people. None of us like uncertainty. You will have to prove your dominance, probably more than a few times during the coming weeks. The others will insist upon knowing where they stand in your pack. I ask that you maintain the challenge to submission rule, at least while on properties I own.”

David nodded and tried to concentrate upon his plans. The limo had regained I-215 now and the tyres hummed quietly over the pavement. It was dark outside and traffic was lighter than earlier. He had been staring out a window while the others discussed things, seeing Ronnie’s fight over and over again in his mind. How could he be attracted to that, be turned on by that? He was. He could pretend disgust at the violence and blood, but it really would be just pretence. When he thought about it, really concentrated upon it, he wasn’t disgusted at all. He was excited. It was that knowledge that actually did disgust him, not the violence itself. It wasn’t civilised. Civilised behaviour was one thing he’d thought he was certain of; it was something to believe in and base his plans upon, but now when he imagined Ronnie killing Georgie all he felt was Mist’s pride and sense of ownership.

We are one. We are pack. Our She is pack. Lawrence is pack.

As if that explained anything.

He shook his head trying to understand the changes within himself. They were ongoing. He hadn’t stopped changing since the attack and his first day as a shifter. They were gradual, those changes, or they had been until now. His acceptance of Mist as a real person or entity in his head had only been the first of many. His lost career and relationships, his realisation at conclave that he really had given himself to Stephen, or his loyalty at least, and now things were going to change again. He was Alpha of the
Blood Drinkers
, mate to Ronnie if she ever let him close enough, ally to House Edmonton... what else would happen in the coming days? So many changes, yet he didn’t want to change so much that the old David died completely. He didn’t want to turn into some ravening beast. He was a man, not an animal. He wanted to remain a civilised man, and become a civilised leader to his people.