The floodlights had tiny solar panels on top of them, and when I let my eyes adjust I noticed the shadowy figures in the trees looking down on us. Hundreds of people listened on.
“You want our help because yourstupid alphastarted a war?” He spat at my feet and I felt the wetness brush across the front of my legs. “You’re not my alpha.” The scar-faced man growled and everyone cheered in response, all of them. Their laughs and yells of agreement rang into my soul, twisting into me like a hot knife.
Unbridled rage ripped through me at his disrespect toward me and to Sawyer, and I couldn’t hold my wolf in any longer. She burst from my chest. One second she was a ghost and the next she solidified, hitting the scar-faced dude in the chest, knocking him on his ass and making him drop his knife.
Gasps rang throughout the forest as my wolf peeled her lips back, saliva glistening on her teeth as she eyed his throat. I knelt beside her on the forest floor as dozens of Paladin warriors stepped close. I stared Scar Face down as he looked up at me with wide blue eyes.
“Iamdaughter of Running Spirit, granddaughter of Red Moon, and if youeverspit on me again, I’ll rip your balls out with my teeth,” I growled.
A chorus of female whoops and cheers ran throughout the forest, but the men stayed silent. I was well aware of the challenge I’d issued, but I wasn’t going to let this prick ruin everything. Pelts of fur ran down the man’s face as his wolf started to emerge. A firm hand fell on my shoulder, and then I was yanked backward, my wolf retreating with me.
I spun to see who’d pulled me off, thinking it was Sage, only to see Arrow’s piercing blue eyes.
“We have dominance fights that end in death. I would take it easy until you learn the rules here,” Arrow whispered in my ear.
Oh.
People sometimes got in fistfights for dominance in Wolf City, but it wasn’t like arealdominance fight you heard about hundreds of years ago. Was I ready to get in some fight right now and kill this guy to prove to them I was an alpha? I just came here for help. Ineededhelp.
“But I’m…” I couldn’t even say it now. It felt wrong. Was I an alpha? Astra and Arrow had begged for my help and I’d merely sent them food.Oh God. Guilt and shame burned its way across my skin until my entire face felt hot.
“The title of alpha needs to be earned,” Arrow murmured under his breath, as his brother fought his wolf’s change. “You’ve earned a bit of respect with the women just now, but the men won’t be so easy. Your charity food delivery, instead of coming to meet everyone, was a poor choice.”
Shit.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the man who I’d just knocked on his ass stood and glared at Arrow.
“Can she stay, Rab?” Arrow asked. “Prove herself? Enter the alpha trial?”
Alpha what now? Stay and prove myself? Fuck that, we were at war.
“No. I need your help,” I pleaded. “I can’t stay. The witches, fey, vampires, they are all together now. They are marching on Wolf City as we speak. I need warriors or thousands will die. Please.”
Rab, or whatever his name was, gave me a maniacal grin, the thick scar pressing his lip down in a lopsided sneer. He stepped closer to me, slowly. My wolf gave a low warning growl and he stopped.
“Youneed warriors?” he asked, and I couldn’t get a read on him. “You needourhelp oryourpeople will die?”
I nodded. “As many as you can spare. And in exchange I’ll send more food, monthly even—”
“You need warriors … okay, then, we can send you some weapons.” His grin widened and the men cheered and clapped their hands.
I frowned. Confused. Weapons. Like spears and arrows? No thanks.
“I don’t need weapons, I need—”
He growled in my face and I froze. “We didn’t needfood! We need our land healed. We need our pack’s power restored, our crops replenished. You put a Band-Aid on a bullet hole and now you expect us to helpyou?”
He laughed, tipping his head back, and the men in the darkness of the trees joined him.
Fuck.
He met my gaze and his eyes flashed golden yellow. “I’d rather turn into a human and starve to death than follow a cowardicealphalike you.”
He spun then, giving me his back, and walked away.
Each one of his words lashed into me, cutting deep into the bone, into the very core of who I was. I’d rejected Arrow’s plea for help to restore their people and their land, and then I’d come and asked for the same thing.
My body sagged with shame. Arrow had told me thousands would die and I needed to return home to help them, and I’d sent dried food and fucking firewood. This was a moment of reckoning, one that would haunt me for the rest of my life if I didn’t choose wisely.
