I’d intended to land and spin to counterattack. But instead I faltered, losing focus on the battle. I was related to somebody living other than Vega?
“There could be dozens out there like her. The Council banked my son’s sperm before they killed him.”
To give myself time to digest, I backpedaled on autopilot. I’d never considered something like what this man—my grandfather?—was suggesting when I’d looked at Maya and Gabi as potential sisters. I’d thought any sibling of mine had to be older. After all, both of my parents had been executed not long after my birth.
But banked sperm meant my sister might be younger, which opened up a much wider range of possibilities.
And…Bellwether’s teeth came together a millimeter away from my throat, proving that this was precisely the wrong time to focus on genealogy. I evaded yet again, but he had me solidly on the defensive, more in my human brain than I’d ever been while fighting. I needed to center myself back within my lupine skin if I wanted to win this struggle.
That didn’t happen. Instead, it soon became apparent that Bellwether had been toying with me up until this point. Again he corralled me using the wall of audience members. Then, moving faster than his heaviness had formerly suggested possible, he slammed me into the ground.
My back dug into the sand as his entire body pressed against mine. I was defenseless, just like in that armchair back in Orion’s pack central. Fear strummed through my muscles, remembered helplessness fusing with belatedly awoken animal instinct. His jaws were so close to my jugular that a single jerk of his neck could end my life.
A nip, I reminded myself. First blood only. Bellwether wanted to win and would as soon as he broke through my skin. But he wasn’t going to kill me. There was no advantage to that. Plus, Orion’s scent-marking would warn of serious repercussions if he went too far.
Only, Bellwether didn’t nip. Instead, we froze there nose to nose, his lupine nostrils billowing. Then he growled, a note no less intense for all it was quiet.
My scattered thoughts took far too long to coalesce, to realize what Bellwether was reacting to. He must have caught Orion’s scent clinging to my fur, the marker that had been intended to protect me now doing the exact opposite. Because Bellwether’s aroma transitioned from smugness to fury. And when his jaws opened, it wasn’t to take the small nip that would be required to win the contest. It was in preparation for a much more serious bite.
I’d messed up. Not once but twice. I’d let myself fall back into human thought processes while fighting lupine. And—worse—I hadn’t realized that an alpha werewolf who already considered me his property would be infuriated by smelling another male’s scent upon my skin.
So this would be painful. But Bellwether wouldn’t kill me. That was the original purpose of the scent-marking after all. A warning that Orion was looking out for me, that he would protect me if necessary.
Which is when I remembered our ace in the hole. Shifting as fast as I could, words were already spilling out of my mouth as I lost my sharp canines. “Chief Bellwether, I acknowledge your win. Orion, I choose you as mate.”
The earth responded faster than either male shifter. Sand rose up to sting the parts of my bare skin not covered by Bellwether’s furry body. Meanwhile, an inkling of sensation on my forearm suggested the matebrand ink was regrowing. Electricity built inside me and outside me…
…Then nothing. The cloud of sand particles plummeted, the electric itch on my arm subsided. And what I saw lunging toward me through the dusty air wasn’t a mate resplendent in our newfound connection.
Well, it was Orion. But his lupine ears were pinned as he barreled forward with no intention other than battle.
Because that’s what his evasive language had meant earlier. His nod hadn’t been agreement to wiggle out of this mess with a mating, and his language back in the gym hadn’t been an agreement to let Bellwether harm me either. Instead, he’d bided his time. And when I appeared to be unable to free myself, he forgot his pack and his duties and the inevitable result of alpha challenges. He forgot everything except a wolf’s urge to protect the woman he still refused to claim as his mate.
Slamming into Bellwether, the pair tumbled sideways off me. Not before Bellwether’s claws raked across my bare skin, though. Not before I was showered with a mixture of aromas—rotten peaches combined with cactus spines and the dense, dominant fur of two alphas.
Mingled with that was another aroma. Amusement. Pleasure. This one didn’t emanate from Orion but rather from Bellwether. The older shifter would have liked to form a matebrand with me, but Orion’s attack was another eventuality he’d equally craved.
After all, this wasn’t just an attack. It was an alpha challenge, one Bellwether appeared certain he would win.
And I had a sinking suspicion he was right. I’d seen Orion fight like a pro in the past, but this wasn’t the same Orion. Instead, each move was defensive, his only apparent goal keeping his body between mine and Bellwether’s.
The older wolf had no such handicap. Not when Bellwether had already dismissed me as irrelevant, had moved on to the task of gaining power by taking out another pack leader and merging their lands.
Or I could only assume that was Bellwether’s intention as he found his way onto Orion’s back, head-to-tail with the other wolf. Throats and bellies were the most vulnerable spots on the lupine body, but most fighters went for throats.
This time, Bellwether went for the belly. Curling sideways around Orion, his teeth sank in.
Then blood spurted out of Orion, sinking into the hungry earth.
Chapter 23
We weren’t mates. I knew that because I didn’t feel Orion’s pain searing through my own belly. I felt his pain, instead, in my throat, which clenched shut. In my eyes, which ached for want of tears. In my bare feet as I raced across scorching sand to wrest his broken body away from Bellwether.
To my surprise, the massive wolf didn’t protest. Just let me cradle the unmoving body of his opponent in my lap.
Probably he could see the same thing I saw. Orion was dying. He lacked the energy to shift back to human form. And without that transformation, he’d bleed out within minutes even though I pressed both hands as hard as I could into the awful mess of broken skin and sodden fur that used to hold in his guts.
If Maya had been there, maybe she could have saved him. She was the pack’s healer, the one who understood how to doctor wolves who were also humans.
If Orion had accepted the matebrand, maybe the outpack could have saved him. After all, the electricity that had risen between us earlier was pure magic and power. It must have at least a sliver of a chance at forcing the gaping edges of Orion’s wound back together.
It was also the only straw left for me to grasp.
“We’re mates,” I murmured into the soft fur of Orion’s forehead. “You know that. Just because I made a mistake the first time doesn’t mean this is a mistake the second time. Accept the matebrand. It will save you. It will save us.”
I couldn’t tell whether Orion was simply being stubborn or whether he was beyond the ability to make that sort of decision. Either way, nothing happened. He stared up at me, but when a fly landed on the edge of his eyelid he didn’t blink to dislodge it. Instead, I had to brush the winged vermin away with a hand so bloody it left a trail of red across Orion’s formerly unblemished facial fur.
Which is when his pack mates began to howl, their undulating rhythm seeming to expand out all the way to the heat haze at the horizon. It was unearthly, wolves crying out pain and loss. Wolves grieving the leader at their heart.
“He’s not dead!” I yelled, refusing to take my eyes away from the painfully slow rise and fall of Orion’s chest. “Stop it!”
My words made no difference. The pack continued to mourn.
Someone wasn’t mourning. Rotten-peach hands landed possessively on my shoulders as familiar breath wafted over the top of my head and into my nostrils. “I’m glad that you joined his clan,” Bellwether purred. “It means you’ll be mine soon.”
I hadn’t joined Orion’s clan, but I didn’t bother correcting Bellwether. Instead, I tried yet again to draw upon outpack magic. There were still a few tiny remnants of tattoos banking power within our bodies. Surely I could use that potential here in the outpack, atop sand that advanced out in every direction. Surely…
I grabbed handful after handful of sand, but not so much as a crackle of electricity met my summoning. And Bellwether’s patience was wearing thin. I could feel that in the way his fingers clenched down harder into my naked skin. The way his scent turned sharper and more acquisitive as I ignored his presence at my back.
