Max staggered away from him. She was so tired that she could barely think. After a moment, she wobbled to her pile of torn clothing and turned human again. She had so much blood on her, Nacio's and her own, that she was getting her clothes filthy too, but she forced herself to put on her clothes, one item at a time. She refused to stand in front of her clan naked.
Then, suddenly, strong arms were around her. Gio had come to join her.
"You won," he whispered into her ear.
Max leaned on him and straightened up. Everyone was staring at her. There was no cheering; they were too shocked, she thought.
Max cleared her throat.
"I never wanted to be alpha," she said as loudly as she could. "And I still don't." She pointed into the stands. "If I may appoint someone to serve in my place, I declare my sister Sofia your new alpha."
Now there were shocked murmurs. Her parents had risen from their seats in surprise. Sofia stared at her.
"She is the kind of alpha the clan needs," Max went on. "Someone who will look for solutions and try to build bridges between people. You can all decide among yourselves what to do now—if you're going to accept her, or if it's going to be someone new. I just don't want to fight with my family any more."
Exhausted by the speech, she slumped against Gio.
Her parents were the first to applaud. Then there were more scatterings of applause from the stands. Some of Nacio's supporters had come down to tend his wounds. It wouldn't be easy, Max thought; the clan was divided. One alpha challenge wouldn't change that overnight. But she believed that Sofia was the person who could see them through.
"Your flower, my lady," Gio murmured. He tucked it back into her sweat- and blood-matted hair, and then held her close.
GIO
Sofia tookthem up a road Gio hadn't been on yet, a steep, winding one-lane cobbled street that led to the walls of the estate he had been able to see from the village.
Behind the walls was a courtyard and a sprawling, multistory complex of stone buildings. Gio helped Max out of the truck. She clung to him, one arm over his shoulders, limping and dripping blood on the floor.
"She needs a doctor," Gio told Sofia.
Max was shaking her head. "I don't. I'll be all right." Her voice was faint. "I just need to get cleaned up. Take me to a bathroom."
"I'll show you where to go." Sofia led the way. It seemed to Gio that her newfound authority was already settling on her. There was visible confidence, a spring in her step that hadn't been there before. Max had made a good choice, he thought.
Sofia brought them to a large bathroom with a huge sunken tub and stone-flagged floors. There was a window looking down over the valley, half blocked with a privacy screen of plants and flowers on the rim of the tub. "There are first-aid supplies in the closet," she said. "We are well equipped since we're used to providing for ourselves. I'll bring some clean clothes for my sister. Please let me know if there's anything else you need."
She closed the door and left. Max sat wearily on the toilet and rested her arms on her knees. "You don't have to worry about me," she told Gio. "I'll heal."
"Just because you'll heal doesn't mean you deserve to be uncomfortable," Gio told her.
The closet Sofia had pointed out was a tall, narrow one beside the sink. Inside, Gio found a large first-aid kit as well as a number of folded towels and linens. The towels, rather than being white, were dark red and blue.
"Are these designed not to show blood stains?"
"My clan likes bright colors," Max said. She swiped some hair out of her face, then looked ruefully at her hand as she realized she had left a swatch of blood on her forehead. "But it's certainly convenient in this case, I guess."
The door cracked open, and a hand slipped in and left a folded bundle of clothing, then withdrew.
Gio spread a towel on the edge of the tub and held out a hand to Max. "Let's get some of that blood off you."
Max hesitated very briefly. Then she placed her hand in Gio's and let him draw her up from her slumped seat. Gio sat her gently on the edge of the tub. He wet a towel in warm water and began to peel off Max's bloody, ragged shirt.
"It looks worse than it is," she said, then gasped as he pulled the fabric carefully away from the claw marks on her shoulder.
"You can stop telling me how totally fine you are," Gio told her, dabbing at the scratches with disinfectant. "Let's just assume you've already told me extensively, I'm going to ignore it and go ahead and clean you up, so you can curse me for being a cad and then just relax and enjoy the warm water."
Max's frown dissolved into a smile. He could feel her relaxing in his hands as he smoothed the warm, damp towel over the bare skin of her shoulders, washing away dirt and blood. "You're not a cad," she said, adding playfully, "Maybe a bit hardheaded sometimes."
"I like to think it's one of my best features," Gio said. "Do you mind if I undo your braid?"
