Vivian Arend - Wolf Flight

Doug struck the ground four feet back from where he’d started. Blood poured from his nose and mouth, and he casually wiped his hand through it. Staring down at his bloody fingers, he cackled, a wild and maniacal sound.

“Well. I’ll admit it. You’re a stronger man than I am. I don’t know if I would beat you if we continued for much longer.” He rolled to his hands and knees, and sat back on his haunches for a minute. “It’s been interesting but I’ve had enough playing. Missy’s mine and you can die knowing I’m going to make her life hell.”

Doug shifted.

His human body wasn’t very impressive, but his wolf more than made up for it. Here was why the man was Alpha. He was huge. He was also a dirty brown, one of the few brown werewolves Tad had ever seen. Tad leapt to his feet, grabbed his coat and got it swinging, the heavy knot whistling through the air.

Doug lunged and Tad whirled aside, smacking the coat onto Doug’s head. There was no use in bashing him anywhere else on his body with the thick fur protecting him. Besides, if Tad thumped his brains often enough the ass might get knocked unconscious.

Tad danced toward the edge of the arena, wanting something at his back. Doug could strike too far and too fast, and if Tad got stuck in the middle of the space it would be like tossing a marshmallow into a fire.

Doug’s teeth snagged the coat and his claws scrambled over Tad’s leg. He forced himself to remain standing on a limb that burned with pain while with the other he kicked at Doug’s groin, trying to slow the monstrous beast a little. Blood dripped as they backed away from each other, Doug favouring his hind left leg, Tad limping as well.

A silly little thing caused the turning point of the fight. Tad wore the clothes he’d borrowed from Shaun’s room, and they all fit loosely. Doug snapped at him, captured a pant leg in sharp teeth and shook like he had a rabbit in a death grip. The motion pulled Tad’s pants over his hips and trapped his legs so he couldn’t escape. Doug let go and watched with a wolfy grin as Tad scrambled backward crablike toward the very edge of the arena.

This was not the way it was supposed to happen. Dying with your pants around your ankles was a joke, for heaven’s sake. Tad hesitated for a sheer second and Doug was on top of him, forcing him to the ground. Fiery darts shot through Tad’s body as razor-sharp teeth fastened on his upper arm and snapped it in two. He screamed in pain and anger, watching the wolf retreat to the middle of the arena to gloat.

Sweat ran into Tad’s eyes, stinging, and he gasped in air.

“It’s time, sweetie.”

A wash of cool flowed around him, numbing his arm and clearing his mind. Missy’s touch was assuring and comforting. She was still confident he knew what he was doing.

Holy crap, he hoped he knew what he was doing.

It wouldn’t be pretty but he had to try. He kicked off his shoes and dragged himself to his feet, letting his pants fall to the ground. He paced the perimeter of the arena, his gaze tracking Doug as the wolf snarled and stalked toward him. Tad leaned back on the tree nearest where Keil and Heath had left the arena and prayed the message had gotten through.

“Kill the lights now.”

The lights blacked to nothing, leaving ghostly auroras on his retinas. Reaching blindly behind him, Tad slipped his good hand into Keil’s vest where it had hung since the start of the challenge. It had to be there. Keil always wore the damn thing. He spun around and dropped to his knees cradling his broken arm as he held the gun procured from the vest. He heard Doug sniffing, trying to track him. It would be normal for the wolf to gain the advantage under these dark conditions.

Except Tad was an Omega.

All the anger built up from feeling Missy’s fear of this man lifted Tad to the place where he would do anything to save her. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t strain to use his vision, and he opened his mind to the ability that had hovered under the surface for so much of his life. Tad reached out with his new awareness and found the emotions of his enemy.

It was like wearing infrared goggles.

Doug came toward him on silent paws. Tad stroked his mind, calming. Cooling. Doug paused in his pacing, his head swinging from side to side like he was dislodging an annoying fly.

Tad’s heart rate increased. It was working. He pushed harder at his enemy, attempting to make Doug fall asleep. The wolf staggered in a circle, whining and snapping at the air. He clawed at the ground and snarled, obviously aware of what Tad was doing, but unable to overpower the Omega skills Tad appropriated from somewhere deep within.

Tad wanted the man out of Missy’s life forever, yet the thought of killing another in cold blood just wasn’t his way. Maybe there was too much human in him, but since Missy had mentioned the possibility of the wolf council or the human courts, it seemed there might be a better solution.

Doug rolled on the ground, his legs scrambling in the air as Tad continued to mentally overwhelm him. Suddenly Missy was there in Tad’s mind as well, supporting him, aiding him. Doug was no match against their two strengths, untrained and untried as they were.

The sensation of Missy’s presence grew stronger, and across the arena Tad saw a shimmer of silvery fur in the moonlight. He couldn’t believe his eyes as she bounded into the fight area. “What are you doing? Get out of here!”

She slowed to a walk, her wolf form so beautiful he couldn’t take his gaze off her. “I’m the cause of the fight. If he will deny the challenge, you don’t have to kill him.”

She knew. Somehow she knew that he didn’t want to kill, not if it could be avoided. His astonishment at the depth of the connection between them as mates rose again.

Tad turned to face Doug who lay twitching in the midst of the arena. “Do you yield? I’ll let you live if you stand down the challenge for Missy.”

Tad eased his control on Doug, enough to let him move slightly. The Alpha rolled to his belly and dropped his head to the ground.

“He yields!” The Whistler Beta had changed back to human and rushed out to the arena with Keil hard on his heels.

“Will he accept the council’s examination of his leadership as well as give up the challenge?” Tad demanded, keeping his eyes on Doug.

The Alpha’s gaze darted back and forth, and suddenly he gathered his legs under him and leapt at Missy. His body shifted to the left as his claws swung and his teeth reached to rip her throat open. Tad cried in disbelief, raised the gun and fired twice in quick succession before everything went silent.

Missy watched happily as her new brother-in-law hung up the phone and turned to give his wife a tender kiss. Now that was a neat sensation, to be able to think about a brother-in-law without getting nauseous at the same time.

“Whistler pack leadership has finally been reorganized by the council. They’re trying to avoid getting human authorities involved to deal with the illegal items Missy had documented,” Keil said. He wrapped his arm around Robyn, pulling her into his side. “You using a gun during a challenge has been forgiven in light of Doug’s double-cross. Plus the fact you turned down the position of Alpha for Whistler means there’s some archaic law in the code that gives you clemency.”

Missy tucked herself in tighter to Tad where they sat on the loveseat. She exchanged contented smiles with Robyn.

“I wasn’t going to let the bastard kill me because I couldn’t shift yet,” Tad pointed out. “I’m glad you were paying attention, Robyn, or I’d have been down there without a backup weapon. I felt like a fool waving my arms around signing like an idiot. And while the whole Omega thing is really cool, I need more practice before relying on it to save anyone’s life.”