He smiled at Brianne and then he kissed her, and this time, there was nothing missing from the kiss. When they pulled apart, they were both panting. Callin groaned in frustration.
“I would give anything to make love to you right now, Brianne, but first, I have to sort this thing out with Valerie,” he said.
“And when you kick her ass, we’ll come back out here and finish what we started,” Brianne added.
“And we’ll go flying again. It’ll be dark soon and we can fly right across the city if you want to,” Callin said.
“I do,” Brianne said quickly. “I can’t wait to get back up there again.”
Callin led Brianne back to the car and pulled out his cell phone. Brianne watched him as he tapped away on the screen. He put the cell phone down and glanced at her.
“I’ve texted Lucian. He’s the pack’s beta, but he’s like a father to me and he’s loyal to me. I have told him what happened and asked him to gather the pack because I am about to challenge Valerie for the leadership,” Callin explained to her.
He put the car into drive and pulled away, heading further out of the city.
“Where are we going?” Brianne asked.
“To another spot like this one. Only more secretive. It’s the place we only go to for the most important pack meetings. The ones that we can’t risk a human stumbling into,” Callin said.
Brianne understood the implication of his words more than she wanted to. What he really meant was it was somewhere the dragons went when they wanted to fight. A place that no one would stumble across and witness a dragon fight in action.
She closed her eyes, resting her head back on the seat. She tried to squash her fear over this, telling herself Callin was strong enough to beat Valerie. He was strong enough to beat anyone.
* * *
Brianne woke up when a warm hand shook her shoulder gently. Night had fallen as she slept and she was sitting upright. She groaned slightly as she came fully awake and remembered where she was and why she was here.
“Lucian has just texted me. The pack, including Valerie, have all gathered. It’s time, Brianne,” Callin said. “You can wait here if you want to.”
“No chance,” Brianne said quickly.
Callin smiled and squeezed her hand. He released it and they got out of the car. They came back together in front of the car and Callin took Brianne’s hand again. He led her down a winding gravel path through some trees. She could hear voices whispering amongst themselves and as they walked, the voices got louder.
Callin nodded to her after they had been walking for a few minutes and she understood his meaning. He was asking her if she was ready for this. The pack must be right behind this last row of trees. She nodded back at him. She was as ready as she would ever be.
Callin squeezed her hand one more time and then he relaxed his grip on her, although he didn’t let go of her hand and she was glad of the contact. They stepped through the trees and came out into a large clearing, surrounded on all sides by more trees.
There had to be at least one hundred people in the clearing, and as one, they fell silent when Callin emerged. They began to move, to form a half circle with Valerie standing at the front of it, and Brianne felt nerves flood her system. All of these dragons against her and Callin? They didn’t stand a chance. She told herself to stop thinking like that. Callin would never have even attempted this if he didn’t think he stood a chance against them.
A dark-haired man stepped up beside Valerie. He smiled at Callin, making no secret of the fact that he might be standing by Valerie’s side, but that wasn’t where his loyalty lay. Brianne figured the man was Lucian.
“Well, well. Callin McKenzie finally dares to challenge me after boldly defying one of my decisions for the good of the pack today,” Valerie said coldly as Callin stopped walking a couple of meters away from her.
“It’s past time for this, Valerie, and we both know it,” Callin replied, his voice equally cold. “So, why don’t we stop with the charade and you can do the honorable thing and step down like you agreed to do when you took over as an interim pack alpha.”
“I don’t think it’s going to happen that way, Callin. And I think you know that,” Valerie said. “I have led this pack to greatness, and if you want to take that away from me, then you’re going to have to fight me for it.”
Callin shrugged his shoulders.
“Have it your way,” he said.
Valerie threw her head back and laughed.
“You’re really going to go through with this? You know you’re not strong enough to fight me, Callin, and if you choose to try anyway, then I will show you no mercy. If we fight, we fight to the death.”
“Actually, you might want to rethink that, Valerie,” Lucian said. He stepped away from her side and the pack began to spread out, surrounding Valerie. “You might be stronger than Callin, but you’re not stronger than the whole pack put together. We know what you did, and it wasn’t for the good of the pack. It was selfish and childish, two traits none of us want in a leader. You won’t be fighting just Callin tonight. You will be fighting the whole pack.”
Valerie’s face changed, her confident amusement gone, replaced by a sudden dawning fear that seemed to creep over her inch by inch.
“You wouldn’t dare defy me that way,” Valerie said, not sounding at all confident that was true.
“Do you want to bet your life on
