Citrine was pretty much done talking to Robert and the others and pretty sure he understood the basic rules of the fight.

Stay in the arena as much as possible to reduce harm to spectators. All natural powers allowed, but no artificial help or weapons. No outside serums or poisons. Just natural ones, which was still a bit worrying that it was even possible for wolves to create poison.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have reacted so harshly to Robbie. His words to her still echoed in his head, and he wished he’d reacted differently, even though he’d been hurt.

He looked up to see her coming toward him and didn’t know what to say. Part of him wanted to run, to see her after the fight when he could face her, knowing she was wrong about him, and the other part of him wanted to pull her into his arms.

She looked so beautiful today, dark skin glowing in the sun, brown eyes sparkling with regret, and he couldn’t resist just staring at her as she came closer.

She stopped, giving her dad a hug and saying hi to the others in the small semicircle, and then turned to him.

“Citrine, can I talk to you for a moment?”

He wasn’t sure it was proper, so he looked to Robert and the others, and when they nodded, he was relieved. “Let’s go.” He took her hand and led her to the other side of the area and into the shade of the trees where no one could see them.

He sat on a large rock and kept her hands in his, looking up at her. “What is it?”

“About last night,” she said. “What I said about Bryson…”

“It’s okay. I forgive you,” he said quickly.

She raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me? I was just trying to help you.”

He grated his teeth together. “Right. I get it. You don’t think I can do this. Well, if you’re trying to come and tell me again about Bryson, you can forget it. For the last time, I’m gonna be fine—”

She stepped forward, resting her hands on his shoulders as she gave him a kiss.

When she pulled back, he was too stunned to speak.

“I’m not worried because I don’t believe in you,” she said. “I’m worried because I love you, you silly male.”

She loved him? The force of it stunned him, and he just sat there in a stupor until she shook his shoulder a bit. Then he snapped out of it and looked at her, confused.

“You do?”

“Of course I do,” she said. “And if you loved someone, wouldn’t you do anything to keep them from being hurt?”

Wow, he’d really misunderstood things. He wasn’t sure how to make it up to her, but as soon as the fight was over, he’d certainly try.

“I’m sorry,” he said, standing and pulling her into his arms and dipping his head down over hers. She was too precious to him, and knowing she didn’t doubt him as he went into this fight just made it that much better. “I just… I want you to think half as much of me as I do of you.”

“I do,” she said, pulling back and cupping his face. “I don’t know how to make you see it.”

He turned his face to the side and kissed the palm of her hand. “Just trust me. Watch and trust me today, okay? I’m going to make everything right.”

“I believe you,” she said, feeling a little tingle of need already building. Damn, she always wanted him. She should have known that was the beginning of love.

He leaned in to kiss her again and then heard an angry bellow coming from the clearing. He whipped around to see Bryson striding angrily toward them and moved so that Robbie was behind him.

“Betrayer!” Bryson shouted, and his face was flushed a deep red, his hands clenched into tight fists, and an odd vein at the side of his head throbbing.

Citrine put up a hand. “It’s not what it looked like.”

“You’re mated!” Bryson practically shrieked, his focus on Robbie. “You little bitch!”

Citrine let out a snarl and ran toward him, shoving him in the chest, keeping him back from his mate. The two shoved back and forth, and then he heard a loud whistle coming from the arena and saw Bryson’s dad and Robert jogging toward them.

“Get in the arena,” Bryson’s dad hissed. “Right now. You’re making a fool of yourself.”

Bryson sent Citrine a glare full of murderous hate, and Citrine got the feeling the male was close to losing control.

That would hopefully just put Citrine at an advantage.

He followed Bryson to the arena, and they both stepped over the little line strung between the stakes that were stuck in a circle around a fairly big area.

Bryson faced off with him, cracking his knuckles, and as he walked in a circle, glaring at Citrine, Citrine mirrored him, keeping a loose but focused fighting stance.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” Bryson said. “Both humiliating you and making Robbie mine.”

“I didn’t mate her,” Citrine said, making sure the other male knew things were fair. Well. Sort of. “But I’m going to right after I kick your ass.”

Bryson snarled and rushed forward, and Citrine caught the impulsive male with a solid punch to the face. The crowd, staying back from the arena, gasped as Bryson staggered back, holding his face. When he took his hands away, there was blood streaming from one eye, and as he closed his eyes and began to go all rigid and tense, Citrine knew he was already giving up on control.

This wasn’t the way to shift, but Bryson was shifting, and Citrine walked back, folding his arms as the transformation took place. Fur popped out all over his opponent, and then he tore out of his clothes as he fell on all fours, still growing into his giant animal.

Still growing in general, unless Citrine was seeing things. Holy shit, he thought, stepping back as Bryson’s shadow grew, as the large gray wolf that he’d turned into slowly rose until his head was the height of a two-story house. He took up about half of the hundred-foot fighting area.

Hell, he was almost the size of Citrine’s dragon. Except Citrine didn’t have his dragon. He darted an alarmed glance at Robbie, realizing now why she’d tried to warn him.

He saw Bryson look her way as well, and that made him angry. Oh well, wolf as big as a house or not, Citrine was going to have to take him down.

The wolf reared up on hind legs and then ran forward, and Citrine had only a second to react before he felt giant jaws clamp down over him, raising in him the air.

Damn, that was fast. He felt his dragon scales popping out all over him, protecting him from the vicious wolf’s teeth, as angry shouts sounded from the crowd below.

An alpha challenge could be to the death, but one opponent could also surrender. Which was obviously hard if they were being crushed inside a wolf’s mouth.

No wonder Robbie had said Bryson had no challenger. For anyone but a dragon, this would be a very dangerous battle. Maybe even with a dragon it would.

He gritted his teeth together, using all his strength to push himself onto his back. He heard Robbie screaming, and that made him work faster. He caught hold of Bryson’s teeth and used all his strength to push upward, holding up the teeth as Bryson tried to clamp them repeatedly down on him. When he had just enough space, he pushed off and rolled quickly out of the front of Bryson’s mouth and hit the ground hard, rolling across it.

Though his scales had protected him, he felt bruised, and he wasn’t going to let that bastard put him in his mouth again.

Bryson stared at him angrily, panting, clearly upset his main plan to end this quickly hadn’t worked.

Citrine looked over to Robbie, who looked almost limp with relief at seeing him.

Dragons weren’t that easy to kill.

Citrine rushed behind Bryson quick as lightning and raised his hands in the air, pulling powerful tree roots out of the ground. Quickly, he threw them over Bryson, pulling them to the ground and binding him until he was thrashing helplessly, snarling and wild.

Citrine threw a quick look to the spectators. Looking at Bryson, he wasn’t sure this guy was in control of himself enough to stop at an alpha challenge.

“You’re dead! All of you!” Bryson spat, trying to regain his balance. “You all betrayed me! You gave her to him! You bastards!”

The tree roots were snapping, and Citrine released them, forcing them back into the ground and healing them as they went. Then, as quick as he could, he ran and faced Bryson, stopping him when he would have raced over to the crowd.

“Run!” Citrine called to the spectators. “Get out of here!” He knew how much Robbie cared about the townspeople and didn’t want to see any of them hurt.

He cursed his collar, which was hot around his neck as he resisted it, and felt his wings spring out of his back. He could only partially shift, and he had nowhere near the size or power to deal with this wolf shifter.

He’d been too cocky. Too conceited to think he could carry out this fight restrained.

He threw a panicked look over at Robbie, who was watching with one hand to her mouth. “Run!” he shouted.

“No!” she yelled back. “I can’t leave you.”

He growled in frustration, looking at her parents. He flew to the side to block off Bryson’s route again, but her parents stood by her, bravery in their eyes.

Dammit, he just wished he was alone, the only one who could get hurt. His overconfidence had gotten him into this mess, and now he had to find a way out.

He focused in on his collar, trying to draw any power out of him that he could, and when he felt a tiny spark of light, he pointed a hand at Bryson and sent a shower of sparks that exploded in the air in front of his eyes.

Bryson stumbled back with a howl, hopefully blinded temporarily.

The wolf put his head to the ground and scratched desperately at his eyes as Citrine flew over to stand in front of Robbie and her parents and hopefully convince them to go.

He turned to Robbie and touched her shoulders. “I’m sorry I got this wrong. You need to run. Please.”

“No,” she said. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Go,” he said sharply, but then he saw Bryson regaining his footing, eyes red and irritated but focused again.

He turned around and ran toward Bryson, not sure what he was going to do when he got to him. Bryson lowered his head to take him in his mouth again, but Citrine jumped up, landing on his head between his ears, and grabbed a handful of fur to steady himself as he punched the huge animal rapidly on the head.

Screw the alpha challenge. Right now he was just trying to get this beast back in control.

Bryson howled, snapping his head around, trying to catch Citrine, and Citrine laughed as he continued punching him. He was small but strong, and his punches were surely landing.

Then he felt Bryson throw his head forward, sending Citrine flying to the side of the arena and into a rock.

It dazed him, and he felt his wings retract as he tried to stand up dizzily.

He stumbled back to the arena and saw Bryson taking a thundering step toward him. He raised a hand, ready to use whatever power he had inside him, when he saw a brown wolf dart into the clearing, blocking his path.

He knew immediately it was Robbie and cursed himself for letting her get involved.