Chapter Four

 

Cliff hurried outside with a growl of frustration. He ran down the marble front steps, past enormous clay urns dripping with flowers, and onto the front lawn.

Sure enough, his uncle Jerrold was there, with one of his pack members, a big, stupid brute named Junior.

Junior was being restrained by several of Cliff’s pack members, including Truman. A teenager named Alvin, and Alvin’s mother Betty, were cowering behind Cliff’s brother Austin, who was facing Jerrold and Junior with a look of disdain curling his lip.

“You can run but you can’t hide, you little bitch!” Junior screamed at Alvin. “I’m gonna kill you, an’ eat your guts for dinner, and take your girlfrien’ an’—” He stopped screaming and struggling when he saw Cliff, and stared at the ground in sullen silence.

Junior’s father had died a few years earlier in a pointless death challenge. Junior seemed to be eager to follow in his father’s footsteps – no doubt with Jerrold’s encouragement. To Jerrold, bullying equaled bravery.

Not for the first time, Cliff cursed the day Jerrold had been born. He was just as useless as Lloyd had been.

Weeks earlier, Lloyd had finally succumbed to kidney disease after decades of abusing himself with drugs and alcohol. It had been assumed that Cliff would officially become pack Alpha.

Cliff had been the acting Alpha of the Bronson pack for the least three years, successfully running the business and maintaining the profits they needed to pay property taxes on tens of thousands of acres of forestland. Grant was in charge of the marketing department, and acted as the company’s public face.

But then Jerrold, Lloyd’s brother and leader of a small, failing pack, had showed up at the funeral and announced that he was the new Alpha. Cliff had barreled towards him, ready for a fight to the death. Unfortunately, the Pack Elders had intervened.

Jerrold had a legitimate claim. He had the Dominus genes required of an Alpha, providing superior physical strength. He was a blood relative. And of course idiot Lloyd had been too brain-pickled to think of leaving a will establishing a clear path of succession.

Then Grant had stepped forward and announced that, no, he would be the new Alpha.

Since there were now multiple contenders for the spot of Alpha, all with the Dominus gene and a legitimate claim to the position, the pack charter required that every contender compete in the Alpha Trials. They’d start in a few days; pack members were finishing up the obstacle courses that were an important part of the trials.

In the meantime, Jerrold had the right to stay on the property with his pack members. He and his surly group of thugs had moved into a guest house and had been causing trouble ever since.

Betty rushed over to Cliff, tears streaming down her face. She started to grab his arm, then realized what she was doing and took a step back, dropping her gaze respectfully. “Alpha. Junior challenged my son. He’ll kill him. Please don’t let him kill my boy!” she cried.

Cliff looked over the scene. The Elders were hurrying up now – Herbert, Maurice and Juliette, who favored Cliff, and Sylvester, Minnie, and Phineas, who favored Jerrold. Oswald, the oldest of them, who was neutral, was huffing and puffing as he ran across the lawn behind them.

“What’s going on?” Cliff demanded of Alvin.

“He told my girlfriend to suck his…you know,” Alvin protested. “So I hit him. Then I ran away.” He looked down at the ground in shame at that last part. His face was pale with fright. Alvin was physically weak, but he came from a family with magical talent. They were earth witches who helped grow the pack’s crops.

Cliff stalked over to Junior, and Truman and the other pack members let go of him. Junior let out a low, angry whine and inclined his head to the side.

“Did you really say that?” Cliff demanded. “To a female from my pack?” He was disgusted to see that Jerrold was looking at Junior with pride.

“The stronger male has the right to take any female he wants,” Jerrold growled. “If he can win her, he owns her. That’s how we eliminate the weak from the breeding pool.” Herbert, Maurice and Juliette looked at him with contempt. Oscar stood back with a frown, giving nothing away. Sylvester, Minnie and Phineas nodded their approval. They were old-school, each over a hundred years old, and their mores had never evolved with the times. Minnie still dressed like it was pioneer days and thought that women who revealed their ankles were hussies.

It was going to be a long couple of weeks.

“I stand in for Alvin,” Cliff said coldly. “Let’s get this party started.”

“Aww, no! That’s not fair!” Junior whined. He looked anxiously at Jerrold. “You’re not going to let him, are you?”

“You’re standing in for this weakling?” Jerrold looked at Cliff with contempt. “No wonder your pack is full of rejects and losers. When I’m Alpha, I’ll get rid of the trash and make this pack something to be proud of.”

“Well? I’m waiting,” Cliff said, and started to unbutton his shirt. “What’s the matter – you shy?”

Junior took a step back, looking alarmed. He tried to take another step back, but bumped into Truman, who snarled, making Junior flinch.

“But I can’t!” he whined. Then he flashed a fearful look at Jerrold, who had now focused his contemptuous glower on him instead of Cliff. “I mean… I’m not… Why don’t we wait until after the Alpha Trials are over?”

“Spoken like a cowardly little pussy,” Cliff said scornfully, throwing the words out as a challenge. “If you’re too scared to fight, just say so.”

Junior glared at him with hatred, but tilted his neck to the side in surrender. He mumbled something under his breath.

A crowd had gathered now. James was there with his mate Anita and several of his older children, and dozens of other pack members were standing in a semi-circle, watching.

“Can’t hear you,” Cliff snapped.

“I’m sorry for what I said to the girl,” Junior muttered a little louder.

“That’s not enough,” Cliff gritted out. “You insulted a female from my pack.”

He sent out a wave of power and called forth Junior’s wolf. Being forced to shift was agonizing. Junior shrieked in pain as his bones cracked and reset.

His face pushed forward into a ghastly wolfman snout, fingers curling and contracting into horror-movie claws. Fur sprouted over his body in coarse, uneven patches and he staggered on legs with knees that suddenly bent the wrong way before dropping to all fours. His back arched and shuddered as a tail whipped from the base of his spine. His clothes tore to shreds. He fell to the ground, fully a wolf now, flopping onto his back and whining as he exposed his soft belly.

Cliff released Junior, and Junior shifted back with a howl of agony, his clothing now hanging off him in rags.

“Jerrold,” he whined, scrambling to his feet. “My new jeans. They cost me two hunnert bucks!”

Jerrold answered him with a tremendous kick to the ribs. There was the sickening sound of bones cracking. Junior screamed in pain and fell to his knees.

James’ mate, Anita, hurried forward. She was the most powerful healer in the pack.

“Let me help you,” she said, gently laying her hands on his chest. Junior slapped them away, which drew a growl of anger from James.

“Get your hands off me, bitch,” Junior wheezed. “I’m not weak. I don’t need any help. That didn’t even hurt.” Then he cast a fearful glance at Jerrold.

Anita sighed and stepped back.

“Oh, didn’t it?” Jerrold sneered. “That was just a love-tap. Get back to our house, and we’ll have some real fun.” He said the “‘our”‘ in a loud, challenging tone. Staking his claim.

Junior climbed slowly and painfully to his feet and whirled around to face Alvin. “When Cliff’s not here to protect your little bitch ass any more…” he hissed, then hurried off in a pained, half-limping trot. Cliff could hear him whimpering with each step.

Jerrold stormed after him. Cliff knew that Junior could expect a ferocious beating. Even with a werewolf’s accelerated healing, it would take weeks for his bones to knit back together.

While he felt sorry for some members of Jerrold’s pack, who were trapped and had nowhere to go, he felt no sympathy at all for Junior.

‘Alvin’s mother put her arm around her son and they slunk off, hanging their heads. If Jerrold won, it would spell their doom.

Truman hurried up to Cliff.

“Nice job,” he said.

“Did you find anything yet on Taylor Stockdale?” Cliff asked.

“No, sir, haven’t started on it yet. I didn’t realize it was top priority.”

Cliff’s face went hairy with anger, and claws shot from his fingertips. “She’s my mate,” he bit out. “It’s higher than top priority. I can’t figure out what clan or pack she belongs to.”

“She’s your mate and you don’t know what pack she belongs to?” Truman echoed in confusion.

“Did I stutter?”

“I will get on it immediately,” Truman said.