She felt the mood of the crowd shifting—felt it in the angry mutters, the accusatory glares now directed at Howard, the way pack members who’d been nodding along to his speech now edged away from him.
Howard must have felt it too, because his face twisted, desperation giving way to something uglier.
“Fine.” The word came out as a snarl. “Yes. I did what was necessary to protect this pack from corruption. From the poison seeping in from the cities, from the humans and their technology, from an Alpha too weak to see the danger right in front of him!”
He pointed at her.
“Look at her! A human. A city human. And he claims her as his mate? Our Luna? The mother of future Alphas?” His laugh was harsh and bitter. “This pack has survived for three hundred years by keeping to the old ways. By staying pure. By rejecting the corruption of the outside world. And now our Alpha would pollute that legacy with?—”
“Enough.”
Adrian’s voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through Howard’s tirade like a blade.
“You speak of tradition, Howard. Of the old ways. Very well.” He stepped onto the dais, putting himself face to face with the Elder. “By those same traditions, you have accused your Alpha of being unfit. You have worked against the pack’s interests. You have collaborated with an exile.”
His eyes blazed gold.
“There is only one way to answer such accusations.”
Howard’s face went from grey to white.
“You’re challenging me,” he said. Not a question.
“No.” Adrian’s smile was pure ice. “I’m inviting you to challenge me. Since you’re so convinced of my unfitness, this is your chance to prove it. Unless—” the smile widened “—your conviction doesn’t extend that far?”
The hall held its breath.
Howard’s hands clenched into fists. His shoulders hunched. For a long moment, she thought he might back down—might try to salvage something from the wreckage of his schemes.
Then his eyes darted to the photograph of Vivienne, and something in them hardened.
“I challenge you,” he spat, “for the right to lead the Moonstone Pack. May the old ways judge between us.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The challenge circle had been carved into the earth centuries ago.
Adrian stood at its northern edge, bare feet pressed into soil that had drunk the blood of his ancestors. The morning sun slanted through the pines, painting everything in shades of gold and shadow. Around the circle’s perimeter, the entire pack had gathered—silent, watchful, their breath misting in the crisp mountain air.
He could feel Harper’s eyes on him from the crowd and sense her fear despite his assurance to her that he would not lose. Not to Howard. Not ever.
Across the circle, Elder Howard stripped off his ceremonial robe.
The old wolf was leaner than Adrian remembered. Age had whittled him down to sinew and spite, but there was still power in those rangy limbs. Howard had been a formidable fighter in his youth—Adrian had heard the stories. He’d also watched him spar with younger wolves and hold his own through cunning and viciousness where raw strength failed.
But that was decades ago.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said, loud enough for the crowd to hear. “Surrender now. Accept exile. Live out your days somewhere far from here.”
Howard’s laugh was a dry, rattling thing.
“Exile.” He spat the word like poison. “Like Vivienne? No, boy. I’ve waited too long for this. Planned too carefully.”
Coleman stepped forward, his face grave. As the Alpha’s enforcer, tradition demanded he oversee the challenge.
“The rules are simple,” Coleman intoned. “Combat continues until one party yields or is rendered unable to continue. No weapons. No outside interference. The survivor claims leadership of the Moonstone Pack.”
He heard Harper’s sharp intake of breath from somewhere in the crowd.
