For several more seconds, she thrashed beneath me, each movement growing weaker. Finally, she lay slack and unmoving, eyeing me with impotent rage. Ensuring my knees were firmly planted and my free hand had a good hold on the soft flesh under her jaw, I released her tongue and pulled my other hand free, then clamped it on her throat as well. Eugenia shifted back to her human form, gasping for breath, coughing and retching. I didn’t give her time to recover, instead, I squeezed harder on her neck, making her face go blood red.
“I said, do you yield to me?” I cried, mentally begging for this to be over.
“I yield,” she hissed, barely able to croak the words out due to my grip, but it was loud enough. All around the circle, gasps of surprise echoed through the deepening dusk. I rolled off her, laying in the dirt panting and trying to recover.
Claudette stepped forward, looking a little shell-shocked.
“We…uh…we have a winner,” she said, and waved her hand toward me. “Juniper has defeated Eugenia.”
Eugenia clawed at the ground, dragging herself away from me, still gagging and coughing, holding her throat with a free hand.
Linnea beamed at me and gave me a thumbs-up as I finally managed to get unsteadily to my feet.
“June?” Claudette said. “Do you wish to banish Eugenia from the pack? Or would you allow her to remain?”
I had a hard time believing this was happening. Deep down, I’d prayed for a miracle. Hoped an asteroid might crash down and end the fight, or perhaps an out-of-season bee swarm, or even a bolt of lightning. I’d truly never believed that I would beat her. It may have been luck and good timing, but I’d take it. Now, her fate rested in my hands.
I thought back on all the snotty comments she’d made to me since I got here, how she’d looked down her nose at me for being less than I was supposed to be in her eyes. The same way Anders had looked at me. As if I was worthless. Ishouldcast her out, let her spend her time in the woods alone. Maybe let the Red Maw find her. I took a breath and stood tall, looking from Eugenia to Claudette.
“I’ll allow her to stay,” I said. “If she agrees to start fresh and new. If she accepts, then I’ll consider our issue at an end.”
The words surprised me. Up until the moment I opened my mouth, I’d been sure I’d banish her, but at the last second, a faint glimmer of mercy overtook me. Now it was for her to accept or refuse.
Claudette turned to look at Eugenia. “Will you accept Juniper’s mercy?”
Eugenia, having mostly recovered, sat on her knees, angry tears tracing lines down her cheeks. She was staring at the ground before her. There, a foot away, lay the necklace Levi hadgiven me. With trembling hands, she picked it up gingerly. The delicate infinity symbol pendant dangled from her fingers.
“Did he give you this?” she asked, her tone bitter and repugnant. “You didn’t have this when you arrived.”
Letting out a sigh, I shrugged one shoulder. “Yes. He did. Do you agree to what I said?” I asked, trying to end this.
“He was supposed to bemine,” Eugenia said, clamping her fist around the necklace. “It was supposed to be me.Me!” she shouted, jamming her thumb into her chest and leaping to her feet. “Keep your goddamned pack!”
With that, she bolted into the forest, running in the opposite direction from town, deeper into the woods. No one moved to stop her, and most notably, no one moved tojoinher.
“Does anyone else have anything they’d like to voice?” Claudette said.
Silence. Every face, even the ones who’d been within Eugenia’s inner circle, looked at me with renewed respect and awe. To defeat a shifter without using your wolf form, without even beingableto shift, was something that most—including myself—would have considered impossible. I’d gained their respect. I’d done it without any help from anyone, including Levi’s. This was something I’d done by myself, and it gave me a newfound confidence that I could doanythingI put my mind to. I smiled, exhausted but happy, relieved and ready to face whatever came next.
40
LEVIATHAN
Sitting on my haunches, I tried to clear my mind. Usually when I was in my wolf form, it was easier to forget the nagging worries and stress of human life, but not today. Fear and worry simmered in my chest. My inner wolf felt it as well, because he whined every few minutes.
Regardless of whether JunewasNaphele’s reincarnation or not, I didn’t want her hurt, or worse, dead. I didn’t see how there could possibly be any other outcome, though. I’d spent an hour sprinting through the forest, trying to burn off the anxious energy, but nothing helped. Now, sitting here, watching the sun go down, it all grew to a storm I couldn’t control.
I hadn’t wanted to see June before she went to fight. I wasn’t sure if speaking with me one last time would break her concentration on the fight. And I also didn’t knowwhatto say to her. I could apologize again, I could try to explain for the hundredth time why I did what I did, but that might have led to another fight, and that was the last thing she needed to deal with before facing Eugenia. Yet here I was, regretting that decision.
I glanced at the sun. If I hurried, I might have time to see her before the fight. I took off, leaves spitting out from under me as Isprinted for home. The entire run, I cursed myself for not being there.
The closer I got to home, the lower the sun slid, and I began to worry that I’d timed it too late. When I ran up to the cabin and found Rainier standing on the porch looking at me with a dejected frown, I knew I was too late.
“June?” I asked, once I’d shifted back to my human form.
“Gone. Left here for the fight about thirty minutes ago,” he said. “I saw the last of the women head off into the woods twenty minutes back. The fight should be well underway now, if it’s not over already,” he added with a grimace.
“Fuck!” I kicked the dirt and ran my hands through my hair.
