Ten seconds.
Five.
Akim is just ahead of me, but he does not reach out again telepathically. He wants me to make the choice entirely of my own volition.
I reach the red flag first, just as Akim intends.
And take the damn thing between my jaws.
Great.
Now all I have to do is get back to the bonfire with the red flag, and I will have asserted myself before the whole pack.
The male wolves are surprised, but they fall back as the females begin to circle.
I lower my head and place the flag between my front paws in order to free up my teeth for the inevitable attack.
Which comes flying in like a missile.
The growl that tears up my throat quickly turns into snarls as the other female and I collide, jaws snapping. My heart beats fast, though the wolf in me is calm, eager, and hungry.
I rip out a chunk of red-gold fur, surprised by the identity of the attacker, though I suppose I should not be. Tara came to us a little over a year ago as a lone wolf, and had somehow convinced Calvin—our current alpha—to let her join the pack. It’s not unheard of for a lone wolf to find a pack, but most people in a pack grow up together, and are born into the group.
For this reason, Tara’s challenge is bold, bordering on overly so. I’d been one of the few wolves who had been nice to her, too.
She yelps as I catch her again on her left flank, my teeth sinking just deep enough to really hurt, but not seriously injure. I taste her blood on my tongue, and have to remind my wolf that we don’t want to kill Tara. Newbie or not, she is our sister. And these runs are not meant to lead to murder. Simply a show of dominance.
But it becomes apparent a moment later that Tara is not playing by the same rules.
Her jaws snap closed a quarter-inch from my throat, and I move out of her way with less than an inhale to spare. Though I sense them there, the wolves around us have gone silent, surely as aware of the slights from the newcomer as I.
“Careful, little wolf,” Akim says into my mind. “It seems our new addition is playing for keeps.”
I barely hear him for the single-minded purpose that has descended over me. To insult me is one thing; human Harper could think things through and rationalize. But to insult my wolf is another matter entirely. That bitch bites first and asks questions later.
The fur on my back stands on end, the lust of a predator making my eyes burn wolf-gold.
I watch the way she moves, the steps she favors, dodging her as she darts in for another attack. I let her get near enough that I feel her hot breath on me.
Then I make my move, twisting around at the last second and snapping my jaws shut around her rear right leg.
My powerful teeth crush the bones there like twigs. Hot blood rushes into my mouth, coating my tongue. Around us, the wolves are shifting, howling, and snarling, as awakened by the coppery scent as am I.
Tara throws her head back and howls at the full moon, agony lacing the sound.
But the crazy ass bitch takes another snap at me, her teeth pulling free a tuft of hair on my chest, just below my neck.
She’s still trying to take me down.
Either the bitch is crazy, or this shit is personal.
But that is a pondering for later.
I’ve destroyed one of her legs, an injury that will take months to heal, even with our extraordinary regenerative capabilities, so knocking her onto her back is nothing. Then my jaws are around her throat, and I have to sternly command my wolf to spare Tara’s life.
Fucking generous, if you ask me.
“Submit,” I say into her mind as the others watch on.
She squirms a bit, as if she really thinks she can break free. I close my jaws a touch, the tips of my very sharp fangs sinking into her fur and puncturing the flesh beneath.
“Submit,” I repeat. “I won’t ask again.”
For a split second, she hesitates, and I realize that it is personal, whatever this grudge is she has towards me, though I can’t for the life of me recall ever being anything but nice to the bitch.
Finally, she projects her defeat into the minds of the pack.
“I submit,” Tara says.
Even so, it takes some convincing my wolf before I release my hold on her throat and back away, my eyes scanning the crowd for another challenger.
No one steps forward.
I pick up the red flag and start the trek back to the bonfire.
I pull on some clothes and am handed a cup of moonshine right after.
“Yo, what the fuck was that about?” Hera asks me as she glances toward the male wolf carrying Tara to the big house to tend her injuries.
I shrug. “I don’t know what the hell her problem is.”
“She’s lucky you didn’t kill her.”
I’m sure the expression on my face relays my agreement, so again, I shrug.
“I bet it has something to do with him,” Hera says, nodding toward where Akim is filling a cup with moonshine near the bonfire.
“Why do you say that?”
Hera raises a brow. “Tara has had her eyes on him since she first joined the pack a year ago. Hell, with the way that you’ve been avoiding officially mating him, half the young females in the pack have probably been thinking about going after him. He’s gonna be our new alpha sooner or later.”
“No one has said anything to me about it.”
Hera laughs out loud as I stare at her in confusion, which only makes her laugh harder.
“No one would say anything to you about it, Harp,” she says, after she gets a hold of herself. “Other
