Emma gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. She had to keep reminding Mal to hang back just a little. She didn’t want to rip the steering wheel off. But she only needed to make it as far as the edge of town. The woods. Then, they would run.

Mal hummed with anticipation. Expectation. He knew what was coming.

Now that Emma had made the decision, things seemed… simpler. She couldn’t figure out why she had kept putting it off. Why she had let Chuck step her down the day Brett had been cured. He probably had his reasons. She had to assume he had his reasons. He was high alpha. Since then, he’d told her she would know the right time. And this moment, this day, felt more right than any ever had.

It was possible that she was emotional. Not possible, probable. And she would let that give her strength. Emotions weren’t a weakness.

She turned onto the side road by her and Jordan’s apartment. It was as good a place as any to leave her car, and she wanted Jordan to go with her. He had been a part of this since the beginning, and she needed him to be there in the end. He was her rock.

Belatedly, Emma remembered to knock twice before she unlocked the door and stepped inside. It felt weird knocking on her own door, but it wasn’t actually her door anymore.

“Jordan? Hey, it’s me.” All the lights were off, and the shades were drawn. Emma’s heart sank. “Jordan?”

The apartment was silent. Mal bristled.

Mal?

He is here.

“Jordan Baker.” Emma frowned and opened the living room shade. Light spilled across the room and Emma’s stomach knotted. The place looked like it had been ransacked. And not by a human.

A low growl rumbled down the hallway by the bedrooms. Emma drew Mal out, bulking up her shoulders. Something was very wrong.

Emma moved to the kitchen, knocking her fist along the wall. Jordan had to know that she was there, but she didn’t want to surprise him. A surprised bear was never a good thing, shifter or not. “Jordan?”

Another growl, louder and more aggressive rolled down the hall and something heavy moved, the thin walls vibrating under Emma’s touch. She hoped to god the neighbors downstairs weren’t home. As she reached the two bedroom doors, Emma paused. Jordan’s was shut, and she could hear muffled breathing.

She knocked on the door. “I’m coming in.”

The expected growl didn’t come.

Jordan was curled up in the corner of his room, naked, face buried in his hands. Emma rushed to his side, letting Mal come forward further, fur bristling from her skin. She reached out to touch his arm.

His eyes flickered with fire.

She pulled back and put both hands forward, palms out in surrender. “What happened to you?”

“Emma, you need to leave.” He wouldn’t meet her gaze.

“Bullshit. What did she do to you?” Emma kept her hands out, but lowered herself to her knees a few feet away from him.

Jordan shook his head, blonde hair falling across his forehead.

Emma had a feeling she knew what had happened. Cheryl needed a successor with the alpha ability of will. There was a ceremony that could be done where someone who hadn’t been born with that ability could attempt to gain it. It was dangerous and hadn’t been done in generations.

“Screw this. I’m going over there.” Emma shot up and spun towards the door. This was a new low for Cheryl.

Jordan reached for her leg, scrambling forward on his hands and knees. “Don’t!” The word came out as a growl.

“Dammit, Jordan,” Emma growled back, pulling her leg free. “This has to end now. Not you or anybody else is going to stop me.”

“You don’t understand.” A shadow of his own voice carried the words, his bear dangerously close to the surface again. “I can’t let you do that.”

Emma took a step back as something shifted in his expression, something primal and deep and dark.

He rose to his feet, propelling off the ground with hands that morphed into large paws with straight, dangerous grizzly claws. He stood erect, the shadow of a grizzly snout protruding from his morphing face.

Shit. Mal surged forward, and the stitches on Emma’s shirt popped over her shoulders. They had to get out of there. She had to get out of there. Emma backed into the hallway. The door to her room stood open and her window faced the woods. Two hundred yards away. A single glance from a mundane at the wrong moment—

Jordan completed his transformation. He fell back to all fours, paws the size of plates landing on the floor with a hard thump.

With one glance at Jordan, Emma turned, her clothes shredding as Mal took over and crossed the bedroom in two strides. Then she jumped right through the second story window.

Mal and Emma ran.

She barely stayed ahead of him on the way to the Elliot lands. She was a smaller grizzly than Jordan. That meant he had longer, more powerful legs. It took everything her and Mal had to stay ahead of him, but she knew that if she fell behind, he would tear her apart.

Something more was going on here than him merely taking the alpha will, but from who?

She couldn’t worry about that.

She broke through the woods and burst onto the front yard. Several cars were parked in the long drive. Great. Another damned meeting?

Jordan leapt on her, his teeth sinking into her shoulder.

She fell to the ground, a loud roar bursting from her mouth, rage coating everything in red. She spun on him, her claws raking his chest, her alpha will surging forward. That usurper wasn’t taking her place. He was taking over her clan, her family.

He fell back on his bear paws, pushing off the ground in a powerful burst, his eyes shooting what almost looked like real flame.

His soul might burn with the power of fire, but he was merely a flame. She was the bonfire. She fueled her clan with the power of her soul, her will, her want, her drive, need.

Desire.

For the first time in her life, Emma knew exactly what she wanted.

Mason and his silly porcupine spirit.

Emma roared her will at Jordan, laying him on the ground as if an invisible force had pummeled him. She dug her claws along his chest, into his abdomen.

He grunted and lay still.

In a fight with a real alpha, that wouldn’t have been so easy.

Snarling, Emma turned toward the house on all fours, padding forward, searching for her mother. She pushed Mal toward the back, shifting into her human self, rising on her hind legs until they became long and graceful. She continued up the hill, minus the protection of her fur. The air was brisk against her skin, but she didn’t care.

Chuck stepped out of the crowd, studying Jordan behind her. “What have you done, Cheryl?”

Cheryl sneered as she stepped through the throng of people. “What I had to.”

Chuck’s nostrils flared. He tipped his head for a moment, and then turned his blue gaze toward Cheryl in alarm. “Tell me you did not do this.”

Cheryl gave a slow blink, shifting her eyes toward Emma.

Emma was going to beat that smug look off that bitch’s face.

Chuck kept his attention on Cheryl. “You put him through the alpha trial.”

Cheryl shrugged.

“After I specifically forbade you to do so. He is a beta, nothing more. He lacks the will be more.”

Cheryl licked her lips, baring her teeth.

“You infused your will onto him.”

Emma stopped, the full power of what Chuck said slamming into her hard. To infuse an alpha’s will on another ensured the other had no ability to make his own decisions. It stripped away the other’s will completely.

Chuck balled his hands into fists. “You went too far this time.”

Emma took another step forward, her bare toes sinking into the soft grass. “Cheryl Elliot, I challenge you.”

Chuck raised his head, meeting Emma’s gaze before nodding with almost a look of relief. “Observed and noted.” His tone was the coldest Emma had ever heard from him.

Cheryl looked toward Jordan.

Emma couldn’t look at him. If she did, she might lose her resolve. She might not, but she couldn’t chance it. Jordan was Emma’s best friend and he lay bleeding on the ground by her own hands.

“He cannot accept the challenge for you,” Chuck said, his tone icy. “You shall face your daughter on your own.”

Cheryl gave him a dark look. “You know.”

He tipped his head in acknowledgement. “I do and do not accede.”

Cheryl snarled and started to undress. “Fine.”

Emma had no idea what the two were talking about and she didn’t care.

Chuck motioned to a few members of his pack that she’d seen before but didn’t know. They moved behind Emma.

Presumably to care for Jordan.

Or to make sure he didn’t attempt to join the fight on Cheryl’s inflicted will.

Emma had only scored him with her claws. She hadn’t killed him. His abdomen was damaged, but he was a shifter and would heal quickly.

She took a moment to look at the others circling around her. They were unfamiliar faces.

The new clan?

Great. She wasn’t just challenging her mother for alpha. She was doing so in front of a strange, invading bear clan.

Excellent.

Naked, Cheryl stepped into the informal ring of people, raising her head high.

Emma did the same, challenging her mother, issuing defiance. This was going to be a fight for her life and her freedom.

And the better treatment of her clan.

Right. Yes. That too, of course.

Cheryl shifted in a blink and attacked.

Emma dodged, dropping to all fours as her skin slipped into fur, her human muscles lengthened and grew larger, her fingers padded together, her nails extended into claws.

She swiped with one paw, catching Cheryl across the face.

Cheryl fell back, roaring in pain. She rose on her hind legs, her front paws spread wide, her mouth open.

Emma gathered her power in her haunches and leapt, forcing her alpha will into her muscles, into her bones, her claws.

Her teeth.

She bit down hard on Cheryl’s arm, tasting blood on her tongue.

Cheryl growled, dropping her weight onto Emma and pushing them into the ground.

Emma’s thick skin shielded her from the hard ground, but not from the weight of her mother pressing against her ribs. Cheryl was a large bear, one of the largest females in the clan.

But Emma wasn’t going lose by being sat on.

She infused her will into her claws and dug them in, pressing harder and harder.

Cheryl’s skin broke. Her mauve eyes widened.

Emma continued to push her will onto her mother, fueling it with the power of her anger, at the injustice that had been forced on her. She bunched her feet beneath her and pushed with all her might, propelling her mother backward. A roar of rage built inside Emma and erupted in Cheryl’s face.

Emma’s will.

Emma’s might.

Emma’s anger.

Not… Cheryl’s.

Cheryl staggered backward, raising her head.

Giving Emma the opening she needed. She clamped her jaws onto Cheryl’s neck, and bit with all the coveted power she had been born with.

“Emma,” Chuck called, his will cascading down around her, pulling her from the blood fueled edge. “Enough.”

Emma released her hold on her mother and stepped away, shifting smoothly into a human. The regional high alpha had spoken. Cheryl had no choice.

Yet, she charged in bear form.

Emma raised a hand, braced for the impact, her heart powered by so many years of pain and rage. “Stop.” With that simple word, she forced her will upon her mother.

Stopping Cheryl in her tracks. She stumbled and staggered, then shifted. She stood in the middle of the ring, naked, ragged, bleeding, and aged.

Emma straightened, forcing herself to stay tall as a force rolled over.

Names.

Faces.

Memories.

Emotions.

Each person in her clan surged through her, feeding her will with theirs.

She took in a breath as the wave settled. She met Chuck’s gaze.

He nodded once. “Cheryl,” he said, sliding his gaze toward her. “You are banished. You will leave. Now.”

Cheryl didn’t attempt to say anything. She closed her eyes and turned.

The clan was Emma’s.

She’d won.

Freedom. At last.