When Liam releaseda howl to signal the beginning of the duel, everything and everyone outside the ring melted into thedarkness.
My breaths were loud in my ears, like the whoosh of waves on sand, frothing into my veins, slowly filling them withgrit.
Unless I call you, Ness, you stay as far back as you can, you hearme?
I hear you.But just because I’d heard him didn’t mean I’d heed his command. If I felt I could help, Iwould.
Justin was larger than I remembered, more bulky than tall. I estimated he weighed twice what I did and bet he planned on using those extra pounds on me if push came toshove.
His golden eyes slid from Liam to me, lighting up with asmirk.
I wasn’t scrawny, but I wassmall.
Unimpressive.
Easily overlooked, like the River Alpha said after Liam and I slayed thebear.
A breeze picked up, blowing clouds over the sliver of moon and smattering of stars, darkening the already dusky expanse. My lupine eyesight sharpened, adjusting to the dim luminosity. Cassandra was waiting for Liam to make the first move, the same way she’d waited for Julian toattack.
Exactly like he’dpredicted.
Now!His word cracked like a whip against myhide
I took off alongside him as he raced towardCassandra.
She waited and waited, and then, just as his hind legs bent in preparation to fling himself upward, she pressed her belly low to the ground, limbs coiled tight against her long body. She didn’t move, expecting him to pounce on her, but he arched high, overtaking her flattenedform.
She blinked, ears perked up in surprise that he hadn’t landed on her. His front paws hit the earth with a thud that shook the ground. When his hind paws crushed the blades of grass, Cassandra lurched back onto all fours and swungaround.
Liam turned fluidly and then held still, fixing the Creek Alpha with his yelloweyes.
For a moment, neither moved. And then she lurchedforward.
Liam hopped back, his big body stirring with a grace that shouldn’t have belonged to a creature so colossal. She stopped her attack, which wasn’t so much an attack as a taunt. She wanted him to sink his fangs into her. Not into her neck of course, or into her chest where dwelled that soft organ that had miraculously kept her alive all these years, but in a chunk of flesh irrigated by her silver-taintedblood.
Justin, who was standing opposite me, jerked, and then his muzzle scrunched up as though Cassandra had assaulted his skull with silent words. She snarled and launched herself at Liam, and he crouched and opened his mawwide.
Which was exactly what Cassandrawanted.
Her speed decreased, and she stumbled, her performance impeccable. If I’d been standing on the sidelines, I would’ve assumed she’dtripped.
I wouldn’t have seen the eagerness to feed the waiting wolf flare in her blueeyes.
A heartbeat before she landed on Liam, he flipped over and scraped his claws into her belly, yanking a shrill whine from the Creek Alpha. Blood sprayed out of her wound. Liam twisted his face, shutting his eyes and mouth so that none of the crimson liquid landed in him. Droplets dotted his fur though, wetting the blackmass.
Just as Cassandra toppled, he sprang onto his paws and pounced, swiping her withers with his claws, slicing her flesh. A sound between a yowl and a snarl pitched out ofher.
If Liam could’ve bitten her, this would already have been the end of theduel.
He had her on the ground, neck exposed. But claws, however sharp, didn’t have the impact of teeth, and paws didn’t have the pressure ofjaws.
She tried to rise, but he slammed his two front legs into her spine, and she sprawled back onto her belly. Low growl rumbling out of her, she bared her teeth and wrenched her neck to nip at hispastern.
She must’ve sunk her fangs in, because Liam jolted off her body. Even though licking his wound would’ve made it heal faster, the injury was too near his claws that were wet with herblood.
As Cassandra heaved herself up, pale fur mottled by maroon patches, her eyes burned with murder andfury.
Did she understand that we’d figured out her technique for eliminating the greatestAlphas?
