Mikal was a powerful wolf, but no one was under the delusion he was fit to lead. He’d always been arrogant and rude; it gave me immense pleasure to destroy him when I was a girl. I still didn’t know what he wanted to prove by attacking me then, but whatever it was, he failed. Even now, a note of bitterness tainted his scent when his dark, glittering eyes met mine across the ring. He bared his teeth at me in a poor excuse for a smile, looking even more feral and wild.
My heart rate rose, and my wolf snarled. She sensed the unspoken challenge and wanted nothing more than to tear into him again. Apparently she still had the taste for his blood, even after all this time.
But this was not my challenge. Mikal challenged Warren, the alpha, and it was finally time to see this asshole get what was coming to him. I was actually excited, now that I thought about it. Once he got his ass handed to him by Warren and had to plead for mercy or be killed, his personality change would be a pleasure to witness. He hadn’t lost a challenge since I’d taken him down as a pup, his ego outgrowing the man with every year. A smile curled my lips to think of him running away with his tail between his legs like the worthless cur he was.
One of the elders stepped into the ring, and the restless crowd grew silent. His dark brown hair was thoroughly mixed with silver, earning him immediate respect for being strong enough to live so long. “A challenge has been issued to the alpha.” He turned to Beta, who bounced on his feet and shook his hands to loosen up. “Do you wish to follow through on this challenge to Alpha, knowing that if you succeed you will be responsible for the safety of every pack member, and if you fail, you will lose any position you currently hold?”
“Yes.” Beta answered simply, without his traditionally rude sarcasm. Clearly he was attempting to be taken seriously.
The elder turned to his opponent. “Alpha, do you acknowledge this challenge to your position, and understand that should you lose, you will no longer hold the position of Alpha within the pack?”
“I do,” Warren replied, serene confidence surrounding him like a soothing cloud of power.
“Very well. In front of these witnesses, you have both agreed to the terms of the Alpha Challenge. This is a wolf-only challenge. No weapons of any kind are allowed, and no help from another pack member is permitted. This fight will end when one wolf pleads for mercy, or dies.”
With that, he turned and exited the training ring, closing the gate behind him.
Chapter 3
Kaliya
As soon as the elder left the training ring, Mikal flew out of his skin, exploding into a giant, midnight-black wolf. He shook out his coat and growled loudly, lips curling to reveal enormous canines as he snarled, tongue lashing his teeth.
Warren turned to share one last glance with his mate, giving her a confident smile before shifting. As he’d removed his clothes beforehand, his change didn’t litter the training ring with scraps of clothing as Mikal’s had. Instead, he expanded rapidly into a medium-brown wolf with a thick, lustrous coat. Unlike his calm human persona, his wolf was pleased to reply in kind to Mikal’s snarls, and the two wolves faced off across the training ring.
The tension in the air was palpable; everyone could taste it, scent it. My own wolf rumbled in my chest, reacting to the heightened emotions of the pack. I watched the contest with concern; I knew Warren was a powerful wolf, but Beta had waited until now to challenge him. It’s possible something had changed that gave him the confidence to believe he’d win.
Warren and Mikal circled, watching each other with glittering eyes. Mikal’s were almost indistinguishable in his black fur, and Warren’s only slightly more visible in his brown coat. Noses twitching, they snarled and snapped, tongues tasting the air for weakness.
Eventually, Mikal was fed up with waiting. He charged across the ring, and the fight began. Warren eluded Mikals’s attempt to clamp teeth around his neck, and they continued in a series of ducking, skirting, and clawing attacks.
The crowd gasped and groaned with every encounter as the massive wolves collided again and again. The two were evenly matched, and every time I thought one got the upper hand his opponent escaped, drawing out the fight and the dizzying dance of my nerves.
Typically these challenges went on for five minutes. At over ten minutes both wolves were bloodied and tired, panting, circling each other warily as they tried to seize a break for healing.
With a sudden leap, the limping Mikal knocked Warren to the ground, clamping his jaws firmly around the alpha’s throat. Warren struggled to stand, but his energy was spent, his will broken. My heart pounded against my ribs at the realization he was about to concede. Eventually he stilled, issuing a low whine as he submitted clearly to our new alpha.
The crowd held their collective breath, waiting for Mikal to release his opponent and be declared the victor. But his jaws remained around the brown wolf’s throat, growling viciously.
The sour stench of confusion and fear drifted through the assembled bodies. The former alpha had submitted, there was no longer a need to threaten him with death. Surely he wouldn’t…
The elder that began the contest stepped into the ring slowly, retaining his human form but bowing his head submissively, presenting his neck. “Alpha, your opponent has submitted. Please release him and allow me to declare your victory.”
Mikal snarled again, dragging the brown wolf a few feet before releasing him. Just to humiliate the prone wolf a little more. Dick.
Our new alpha returned to his human form and allowed the elder to declare his victory while he stood completely nude before the assembled pack. It was common for us to be naked in our human form—changing back and forth into wolves made us very nonchalant about our human bodies and nudity. It was definitely a non-issue most of the time.
But the fact that Mikal was sporting an enormous erection right now was telling, and disgusting. Whether he was turned on by the violence, the power, or just the attention, it didn’t matter. Any of the possible answers marked him as completely inappropriate for leadership.
And we were stuck with him. There was no one nearly dominant enough to challenge him now that he’d taken down the previous alpha, and we lacked a beta. There would be a series of contests as the more dominant males in the pack issued challenges to claim the spot; likely they would also wait for the Clan Gathering.
I leapt the fence to tend to our former alpha, who would now go by his given name again. He’d shifted back to his human form; injured, but healing rapidly thanks to his wolf genes. After checking him over to make sure he wasn’t gravely injured, I caught the scent of arousal that drifted from the savage who was now our alpha. When I turned to glare at him he was still nude, still fully erect, and once again baring his teeth at me.
Pushing back the growl of my wolf, my lip curled in disgust and I returned to tending my mentor and friend while his mate helped with his clothes. As wolves we were used to nudity, but that didn’t mean I found Mikal’s blatant display attractive or flattering. Fucking animal.
Unfortunately, his success emboldened him. We got Warren to his feet and were helping him limp out of the arena when Mikal blocked our path. His cuts were already healing, leaving smooth, if bloody, skin across his naked abdomen and drying blood trails down the v-shape of his defined adonis belt. I refused to let my eyes drift lower.