Like how Katy being gay made her a failure to our race since she likely wouldn’t have a kid herself. Her entire identity as a female was based around her ‘job’ to procreate in the majority of our world.
It was bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit, and I wasn’t upset that the deaths of the Council members meant my sister and my friends might have a shot at living their own lives.
Brooks Ridge would have embraced Dante as their Alpha. He, Ryder, and Tate didn’t have to hide their relationship in their small, close-knit pack in an all but forgotten part of northern Alaska, but he would have been forced to shove Ryder into the background at Summit meetings or anytime outside shifters visited.
Now Dante had surrendered his pack and was completely free to be with the people he loved in the open. It looked like he was already embracing that freedom.
“Whatever happens, we have your back,” Rhodes told me firmly, pulling me back into the moment.
I glanced at the sky. We had about ten minutes before sundown when the challenge would start. Judging by the cars parked in the front yard and on the road leading to the house, a lot of people had heard about the challenge and were here to witness it.
I pushed down the sudden swell of nerves as I dropped my phone into the cup holder. Cell phones, or anything that could make an unexpected noise and draw the attention of the fighters, were forbidden. The screen flashed to life, a picture of Skye and me taken at GPA stared up at me.
My stomach twisted. I needed to win this fight so I could focus on finding her.
I had prepared my whole life for this moment. William Lodge wasn’t taking my pack from me.
Shoving open the door, I stepped outside the car and slammed the door. The echoing sounds of my friends getting out and closing their doors filled the air. Once it was quiet, I listened.
I could hear the sounds of the pack behind the house. There was a small clearing where all pack challenges have taken place since Blackwater began, but it had been years since a challenge was issued.
Dante clapped a hand onto my shoulder. “You know what to do,” he told me in a quiet voice.
I did.
I had trained for this moment, spending hours sparring with Dad, Rhodes, and other betas since I was ten. Luke had invited me to Brooks Ridge every summer so I could train with him and Dante.
It was strange; I always imagined I would feel nervous or jittery before a challenge. No Alpha ever went his entire life without a challenge. Either a beta with a massive ego or a lone wolf on a power trip would inevitably issue a challenge. Dad had seen his fair share.
But I didn’t feel any worry. Maybe because all my anxiety was currently focused on my missing mate, I didn’t have any left to spare on myself.
I rolled my neck, loosening the tight muscles on my shoulders as I shook my arms out.
My wolf was already awake, eager for the challenge. I had kept him locked down for too long. My only concern wasn’t if I won the challenge, but what would happen when I did.
A challenge ended when someone submitted or died.
Usually I would have focused on getting Lodge, or any opponent, to surrender, but I could feel the bloodlust in my wolf. If given the chance, he would go for a kill shot, and I probably wouldn’t be able to hold him back.
Fuck. I didn’t want to hold him back.
I scrubbed a hand down my face and started walking. I felt everyone fall into step around me. We didn’t stop moving until we reached the clearing behind the line of trees in the backyard.
There were at least three hundred shifters here, loosely standing in groups that fell silent as we broke through the treeline.
Lodge was on the other side of the clearing, his friends and mate standing at his side. They all paused to glare at me, like I issued the damn challenge, as we approached.
One person from his entourage broke away.
“Ainsley!” Lodge’s voice boomed across the clearing as she pulled away from him and started in our direction.
I raised my brows as she openly defied her father.
“Aren’t you on the wrong side?” Katy asked once Ainsley stopped in front of us.
Sighing, Ainsley glanced back over her shoulder then shook her head. “I love my dad, but he’s wrong.” Her eyes met mine briefly before skittering away in deference. “I think Remy is the one who needs to lead us now.”
“She could be a spy,” Katy said with a shrug, not giving an inch.
“Katy,” Larkin muttered, her voice full of reproach. “Stop.”
“I’m not a spy,” Ainsley snapped. “And it’s not just me.”
No, it wasn’t.
The other GPA students had slowly migrated to our side, along with most of my father’s betas and a solid chunk of the people who had come to watch. Having the support of the pack was humbling.
“You lead us at school, Remy,” Ainsley told me as Kyle, Konnor, and Will stood behind her. “We trust you.”
“And we’re sorry about your dad,” Kyle added.
His twin nodded in agreement. “He’ll pull through, man.”
I nodded back instinctively. The alternative wasn’t even an option I would entertain.
Michael approached from the side, giving me a tight smile. “Remy.” He glanced at his watch. “You need to get ready.”
“Yeah.” I pulled my shirt over my head, barely pausing before I kicked off my shoes and jerked down my jeans.
Katy and Larkin dropped their eyes; neither had any interest in seeing me naked. Ainsley whirled around when I growled at her curious gaze and finished stripping.
I didn’t really give a shit about shifting in front of my pack, and a year earlier I wouldn’t have cared that she was checking me out, but all of that changed with Skye.
My body wasn’t mine now; it was hers. She owned every part of my anatomy from skin to soul, and my wolf took offense to someone looking at what belonged to my mate.
Usually males and females separated when they took off their clothes to avoid mates getting territorial over wandering eyes, but the rules of the challenge stated that both parties had to shift in front of the pack so there was no denying or hiding who was fighting.
Unlike humans who came in a variety of shapes, colors, and details that could be changed and altered, wolf coats were only so many variances of so many colors. The rule was put in place generations earlier when an Alpha, who had been injured days before his fight, convinced his brother to take his place so he wouldn’t lose his place as Alpha when challenged. Their coats were identical and his brother won.
But the joke was on the Alpha when his brother shifted after his win and declared he had been fighting for his brother in challenges all along.
After that it happened with more frequency as families tried to usurp and protect each other indiscriminately. After years of this, the Council ruled on the issue and made it a Pack Law that both participants shifted in front of whomever was watching.
Shifting only took a few seconds, the snapping and ripping of my bones and muscles heating my blood as they reformed until my wolf form was all that remained.
It was instinct to reach out for Skye as soon as my paws landed on the soft earth.
The deafening silence that greeted us was crushing.
I funneled that pain into fury as I watched Lodge shift.
Katy moved in front of me, kneeling until she was eye level with me.
“Kick his ass, Remy,” she ordered. “If Skye comes back and finds out you lost to Lodge, she’ll be pissed.”