If I don’t, well, maybe she was dumb for believing in me.
Maybe they all were.
I shoot one last glance at Red. She’s no longer being held, instead standing strong and bright. She nods slowly at me, silently encouraging me.
There’s just one last person I need to see before this fight goes down. Aunt Germaine. I find her in the crowd and she stares at me with tears in her eyes, but she nods encouragingly. I know this is what she wants, what she hoped for. My aunt has always believed in me. Even when she didn’t think the Alpha was as bad as I said, she believed in me to make the right choices. Now I’m making a choice that’s going to save a lot of lives and save a lot of trouble.
I’ll be a good leader.
I just need the chance to show my pack I can be that man for them.
Jeffrey is moving towards the center of the circle slowly, biding his time. I know he’s trying to come up with a plan for beating me. We’ve sparred a few times, but not in a long time, and I know he’s trying to remember how I fight.
Do I fight dirty?
Am I straightforward?
He’s trying to remember so he knows how to take me down, but I don’t have time to worry about that. I look around the crowd, seeing the different faces. There must be nearly 60 wolves out tonight, including a few little kids, and I hope their mothers make them leave before the fighting really starts.
“So it’s come to this,” Jeffrey finally snarls as he nears me.
I nod, slightly. I’m not about to let him distract me with a lengthy dialogue. That’s how battles are lost.
20.
Red
I can’t see.
Nash and Jeffrey are about to fight and I can’t see.
I pull away from the man who was holding me and stick out my tongue. Very mature, I know, but I’m pissed. Who does he think he is that he can hold me against my will?
Now the battle is about to begin and I’m scared. I’m trying so hard to hold it together for Nash, but I can’t help but be a little bit worried.
This is my man we’re talking about.
Yeah, he’s mine.
As much as he likes to think he claimed me as his own, the truth was that he’ll always be the one who saved me after my grandma died. He’ll always be Wolfy, the one who stayed with me when things got tough. He’ll always be the one who took care of me, fed me, clothed me.
He’ll always me my protector.
And now he’s about to battle my brother and I sure as hell know he doesn’t fight fair. What’s he going to do? I have a feeling he’ll try to have one of his buddies grab me and use me as a distraction so he can kill Nash, but I don’t plan to give him a chance.
I move slowly, pushing through the crowd. I need to see what’s happening. The entire pack is here for this event. They may have come out for Jeffrey’s announcement about Nightfall, but they stayed for this fight. They won’t be slaughtering their fellow wolves tonight, but that doesn’t mean these guys don’t want to see a little bloodshed.
I just have to wonder: who is it they’re rooting for? Nash or Jeffrey?
I’m almost to the edge of the crowd when I feel a hand grip my arm and I turn, ready to break free, but my eyes connect with a pair of gentle ones.
“Aunt Germaine,” I say. I just know it’s her. This is the woman who raised Nash, who took care of him for all those years. This is his mother figure, the woman who loved him before I showed up.
The female wolf shifter looks like she’s in her mid-50s. Her short, grey hair is curly and wild, just like her eyes. Wolf eyes.
“Yes, child,” she says, and yanks me through the crowd. She pulls me to the front row and lets me stand there. Somehow, I know that no one is going to be able to touch me with her by my side.
“Why did you help me?” I ask.