Almost, but not quite.
He couldn’t finish his shift in time to dodge Reeve’s assault, but he could at least roll into it, making it more of a tussle than an out-and-out attack. To a bystander, it probably looked like they were rolling around like dogs in a play-fight, and Reeve must have hated that. He snapped viciously at Case’s throat to make up for it.
Case tucked his chin down to keep him off. He couldn’t ward off Reeve’s teeth completely, but he at least made sure they didn’t sink in anywhere too vulnerable. And his wolf, thank God, had such a white-hot, intense focus on the fight that it barely felt the pain, which meant he barely felt it either.
He wondered if it was the same for Reeve. He didn’t think it possibly could be. Reeve didn’t have a real cause behind him, energizing him and blocking out everything else; he hadwanted Mountainview because (at first) he’d thought it was easy pickings, and then he’d wanted it because he’d hated Lydia foiling him, and now that he knew the town would push back against him every chance it got, he mostly just wanted to save face. That wasn’t much to fight for. It certainly wasn’t enough to drown out pain.
He was glad Reeve was focusing on him. Meg might be just as good a fighter, but at least her wolf was smaller, closer to Lydia’s own size.
But that was the biggest advantage Reeve had on him, unfortunately. Reeve didn’t give a shit about Meg, so he could afford to keep all his attention on Case and Case alone. Case, on the other hand, couldn’t resist trying to look at Lydia whenever he could.
She was definitely holding her own against Meg, who was a small, blondish wolf—scrappy and capable, but not automatically deadly. That was good. If anything, he thought Lydia was holding back a little because she didn’twantto hurt Meg. She was hoping Meg would surrender before things had to go too far.
Case was hoping for that too, but he still wanted Lydia to be careful—
And Reeve ripping his shoulder open with his teeth reminded Case that he needed to be careful too. A sheet of blood ran down Case’s side, matting into his fur. Even his wolf had trouble ignoring the sharp pain there, but it did its best.
It didn’t snarl at him about not paying enough attention, though. It wanted to keep an eye on Lydia as much as he did.
He scored a few blows on Reeve, and he thought he was mostly succeeding at ignoring the rippling pain from his shoulder wound. But it was impossible to tell who had the upper hand ....
*
Lydia hadn’t been in enough fights in her life to know anything about combat styles, inorout of wolf form, but she knew what desperation and exhaustion looked like. Before she’d met Case, she’d seen it in the mirror on an almost-daily basis. It was impossible to miss it on Meg, especially now that the battle had started. Meg was fighting as hard as she could, but she was fighting like a grimly cornered animal. Not a frightened one—it was like she was past fear. Just like she was pushed to her limits and knew this was her only chance.
Lydia recognizedthat, too. It was how she had felt looking at a narrow, frustrated life where she could never stray too far or risk too much. She had needed Case to show her that there was another way. Somehow she doubted that Reeve had done Meg that same favor.
I can tell what you’re thinking, Lydia’s wolf said.And it means taking a big chance. She could tear your throat out. I can try to cover you, to take control and shift back if we need to protect ourselves, but it’s still dangerous.
I know.She jumped to the side, avoiding Meg’s next lunge.But it’s what Case would do. It’s time to try something new.
She felt her wolf’s silent agreement. It was as besotted with Case as she was, of course, and it almost made her grin.
Time to take a chance.
Lydia concentrated and drew herself back to her human form.
“It’s okay,” she cried out, as Case’s shaggy head swung in her direction. “Keep going, don’t let up on Reeve. Don’t worry about me. I just want to talk to Meg.”
The concern in Case’s eyes was obvious, but he turned all his attention back to Reeve. If anything, he fought him even more fiercely than before, because now, Lydia knew, he wanted tomake sure Reeve would have absolutely no opportunity to jump in her direction. Case was going to keep him too busy for that.
Which was good, because Lydia couldn’t afford to take her eyes off Meg. Meg hadn’t sprung at her since she’d shifted back, but her muscles were still coiled. She wasn’t prepared to attack a human, but she wasn’t going to completely back down, either.
If anything, the aura around her of stress and barely controlled terror had gotten thicker. She didn’t know how to respond to something so unexpected, and it obviously worried her.
“I’m not surrendering,” Lydia said, partly for the sake of any confused pack-members and partly because she didn’t think she could stand the prospect of Meg getting hopeful only to have those hopes come crashing down. “But I wanted to say that maybe you could.”
Meg growled at her, baring all her teeth.
“I know that’s not what you want to hear. Maybe it’s not what you want to do, either. But if it is ... surrender doesn’t have to mean defeat. Reeve isn’t welcome here, but you are.”
She had a momentary fear that someone in the audience would object to that, but that was another time she’d underestimated her pack. They didn’t need new arrivals to prove their mettle or their deference to pack leadership, they just needed them to not be total assholes. Reeve hadmadehimself an outcast in Mountainview, but all Meg had to do to belong here was to give up the fight.
Everyone here had struggled at one time or another. They all knew what it was like to be backed into a corner where it seemed like the only possible choice was a bad one. They could smell the desperation on Meg just like Lydia had.
“This could be your home, if you need one,” Lydia said. “I doubt Reeve told you that you could have a place here without bleeding and maybe killing for it, but it’s true. Case would tellyou the same thing if he wasn’t busy fighting off the guy I don’t even think you want to be mated to.”
That would have provoked another growl if Meg had liked Reeve even a little, but it didn’t.
