“Anyway, Stephen has a rule about fighting. He knows it would be pointless to ban challenges, but he does insist they’re not to the death. He needs us; he can’t afford to have us killing each other, so our challenges are always to submission. Ronnie took all of them apart in minutes.”
“Martina too?” he said feeling more hopeful. Martina was a werelynx and a formidable woman.
“Yeah. Martina was one surprised kitty that day I can tell you.”
“What do I do about her and Darrin? I don’t like the thought of Stephen turning them out.”
“They can join us. You need to stop worrying about the whole wolf with wolf and kitty with kitty thing. Oh sure, that’s the best way when it can be managed, but sometimes it can’t. I mean, how many werelynx or weretiger groups do you think are even in the country let alone LA? Sometimes a loner can’t find an animal group in the area to join, so they become affiliate members of a pack like us. That’s just the way it is.”
He nodded and watched as Ronnie and Georgie circled each other, feinting and lunging but never striking a blow. They were pushing power at each other, grappling invisibly using their Presence alone. He wondered if perhaps Ronnie might win without even drawing blood, but no, Georgie had to die. He couldn’t imagine she would ever feel safe until that was accomplished, and he wanted Georgie dead too. A short time ago, that realisation would have appalled him, but it no longer did. Ronnie wouldn’t be safe with Georgie still breathing, so she must stop that annoying habit and do them all a favour by dying.
Georgie lost patience with the dance first and began to shift, Ronnie stayed in human form and took advantage. She rained kicks and punches into the shifting form as Georgie went furry. It was a vulnerable time for any shifter. When they were between forms, they couldn’t do much but concentrate on the Change, which was extremely painful. Ribs snapped as Ronnie viciously stove them in, but David couldn’t see any advantage in doing that. Georgie was healing the damage instantly as she shifted to her wolf form. Sure it must hurt, but the process of changing form hurt worse.
Ronnie didn’t let up, if anything she forced herself into a frenzy, burning energy in an almost berserk fury of blows. She smashed her fists into Georgie’s face, obliterating the semi-wolf features. Blood flew and splashed upon the concrete. Georgie howled and bit, ripping Ronnie’s hands and arms to shredded ribbons.
“Go for it,” Lawrence growled under his breath, willing Ronnie on as she mauled her opponent.
“Why isn’t she changing too? She’ll be on the receiving end of this when she shifts. She should have changed at the same time!”
“That’s not what this is about. Georgie is healing all the damage as part of her shift, but that takes strength and energy. Healing and shifting are two sides of the same coin. They both work exactly the same way. Exactly the same. By ripping her up and forcing her to heal the damage, Ronnie is making her use up her strength. It will be as if Georgie shifted twice not once. This is going to come down to stamina, and Ronnie is conserving hers.”
“That’s... that bloody brilliant!”
Lawrence shrugged. “Challenges aren’t all about strength. Well they are, but there’s more than physical strength involved. There’s your Presence as well, and tactics in the arena too, but strategy relies upon cleverness. A clever opponent can win against a physically stronger one sometimes. A super strong alpha doesn’t necessarily make a good pack leader. He needs to know how to lead people, and persuade them to do what’s good for the pack a lot of the time, not beat them into submission.”
He nodded; there was another lesson in there. Lawrence was good at telling him things without appearing to do that, and it was no accident. A pack leader’s second could suggest and advise but he couldn’t be seen to be giving his Alpha orders or challenging him. Lawrence was a natural second; he’d slipped into the role as if he’d been doing it for years. It was no wonder Stephen had relied upon him so much.
Georgie was the stronger physically, it was obvious naked as she was, but Ronnie matched her in Presence, and now over matched her in cleverness. She was winning.
Georgie finally completed her shift to full wolf form and attacked. Ronnie backed off, bloodied but still very strong. Her hands and arms were shredded, but she let the blood spatter upon the ground not bothering to use her energy on healing. Georgie’s wolf charged and ripped into Ronnie’s leg in frenzy. David paled at the sight thinking something was wrong, but no, Ronnie wanted her enemy in close. She reached down almost casually and grasped Georgie around the neck, heaving her into the air and throwing her contemptuously across the arena. Georgie rolled back onto her feet and charged back in the blink of an eye, absolutely furious and raging with no thought in her head but blood lust and a need to kill.
Ronnie was ready.
David might have missed it, but Lawrence had seen it before and was waiting for the move. He hissed in excitement as Ronnie shifted her arms and hands. Suddenly they were no longer bleeding or human either. They reached down below her knees now and wicked claws sprang out as she flexed alien fingers. She stood her ground as Georgie leapt and David cried out an involuntary warning.
Ronnie caught the wolf easily in her new powerful arms and said almost gently, “Goodbye, Georgie.”
Her wonderfully sharp claws sliced the wolf’s throat open and ripped its trachea away. She threw the disgusting mess on the floor, and before the dying wolf could begin to heal, twisted its head all the way around and pulled with all her strength. Flesh tore and the head came free in a fountain of gore. The twitching body fell away. Ronnie held the head up before her, staring into its face until the still glowing eyes dimmed and flickered out, glazing in death.
Jonas’ coyotes yipped and barked in that spine-crawling call of theirs.
David shivered. They were all in human form, and that sound coming from ordinary men and women’s throats was just plain unnerving. Alien. Ronnie threw the head and Jonas caught it. He lobbed it like a football to one of his boys who caught it with a laugh. David felt his gorge rise as it shifted back to Georgie’s human head, but the coyotes continued playing catch with it and laughing all the while.
“Keep it together,” Stephen whispered. “Show no weakness here or anywhere if you can avoid it. This is your new reality. Embrace it, or learn to fake embracing it. I would advise the former for your own peace of mind.”
He swallowed bile keeping his expression neutral as the shifters had their fun tossing the human head from one end of the arena to the other in a sick game of catch. Georgie’s body had turned human too now, and Ronnie stepped over it, not giving it a glance. She was untroubled by the coyote’s antics. He watched her approach. She was so damned primal, bloody hands and naked body splashed with gore. She was so beautiful to his hot eyes, but how would he ever understand her or his new people?
Georgie had needed to die. It was necessary and he was glad Ronnie had won, but it was obvious she had no qualms about anything that had happened. Survival was all that mattered to her, and she was full of her victory. How could he live that way even with her? The answer was he couldn’t, but he would have to or change the reality they had to live with. He was determined to try, but it would take time.
Our She, Mist said with pride as Lawrence handed Ronnie her clothes. Ours.
Ours, David agreed, still seeing the moment she ripped her enemy’s head off. She was theirs, the goddess help them.
* * *
24 ~ NSPCL
“Be on your guard. I don’t say you will be challenged immediately upon our return, but you cannot know for sure,” Stephen was saying. “Lawrence will advise you, but I know shifters at least as well as my own people. None of us like uncertainty. You will have to prove your dominance, probably more than a few times during the coming weeks. The others will insist upon knowing where they stand in your pack. I ask that you maintain the challenge to submission rule, at least while on properties I own.”
David nodded and tried to concentrate upon his pla
ns. The limo had regained I-215 now and the tyres hummed quietly over the pavement. It was dark outside and traffic was lighter than earlier. He had been staring out a window while the others discussed things, seeing Ronnie’s fight over and over again in his mind. How could he be attracted to that, be turned on by that? He was. He could pretend disgust at the violence and blood, but it really would be just pretence. When he thought about it, really concentrated upon it, he wasn’t disgusted at all. He was excited. It was that knowledge that actually did disgust him, not the violence itself. It wasn’t civilised. Civilised behaviour was one thing he’d thought he was certain of; it was something to believe in and base his plans upon, but now when he imagined Ronnie killing Georgie all he felt was Mist’s pride and sense of ownership.
We are one. We are pack. Our She is pack. Lawrence is pack.
As if that explained anything.
He shook his head trying to understand the changes within himself. They were ongoing. He hadn’t stopped changing since the attack and his first day as a shifter. They were gradual, those changes, or they had been until now. His acceptance of Mist as a real person or entity in his head had only been the first of many. His lost career and relationships, his realisation at conclave that he really had given himself to Stephen, or his loyalty at least, and now things were going to change again. He was Alpha of the Blood Drinkers, mate to Ronnie if she ever let him close enough, ally to House Edmonton... what else would happen in the coming days? So many changes, yet he didn’t want to change so much that the old David died completely. He didn’t want to turn into some ravening beast. He was a man, not an animal. He wanted to remain a civilised man, and become a civilised leader to his people.
Do not fret so. We are together. We are pack. We are one. The others will challenge us, but we are strong. We will protect the pack, protect the den, protect Stephen and our She.
Stephen was still talking and David tried to concentrate on his words.
“Do you not agree, Lawrence?”
Lawrence nodded. “I don’t think there’s much choice.”
“Wait, what?” he said. He had lost the thread of the conversation.
“The little packs in Stephen’s... our territory need to be folded into the Blood Drinkers.”
“By force?”
“If necessary.” David didn’t like that and his expression gave him away. “It’s kinder.”
“How can force be kinder?”
“They will face challenges. We all do, but until now no one has bothered with them because they lived in Stephen’s territory. They were considered his, and were left alone for fear or respect for House Edmonton. His threat was enough to keep them safe, despite his disinterest in them.”
“I was not disinterested in them,” Stephen qualified. “I just didn’t see the benefit of trying to negotiate terms with so many individual groups when I was strong enough without them. Besides, they would compete with each other to see who could gouge me the deepest!”
Lawrence grinned.
“You’re saying that if I don’t take them in hand, outsiders will? Who, Pederson?”
“Not Raymond,” Stephen said. “His pack is big enough already. I doubt he wants to add more uncertainty into the Alley Dogs right now. New recruits have to be brought into a pack under controlled conditions. You don’t want too many challenges all at once; it would destabilise your power base while the hierarchy reorders itself. It takes time for newcomers to settle in and find their place within the pack’s power structure.”
“But the territory is yours,” he protested. “The Blood Drinkers will share it as we agreed, but we both know who really holds it. You do. Why won’t the status quo remain as it always was?”
“You don’t actually want that.”
“Why?”
“He’s right,” Lawrence said. “You are too, but Stephen is more right. The Blood Drinkers needs to make its rep. A new pack has no threat at all. Stephen could do the work for us by keeping things as they are, but that won’t be good for the pack. We need to make our mark before other packs start thinking they can take our territory.”
“I would not allow that,” Stephen said, “But Lawrence is essentially correct. To outsiders it should seem that shifters living in our territory are your responsibility, while vampires and my business holdings remain mine. The reality can be whatever we decide it is privately, but my preference would be a full partnership, not just an alliance based upon defending the territory. It’s in both our interests for outsiders to see a strong House allied with a powerful pack, not a strong House propping up a weak pack. Weakness will be exploited.”
“And leaving shifters unaligned in my territory will be considered a weakness?”
“Outsiders will see it that way. They won’t consider your preferences. All they’ll see is a pack unable to exert control over its territory. They will nibble around the edges, trying to erode the borders. They do it now and always have. It will get worse for a time as you set your own pack in order.”
He turned to Ronnie. “You agree?”
She nodded.
“And you?”
Lawrence nodded as well. “Challenge and counter is a way of life for us as individuals, but it’s true of things in general too. Vampires do it and call it the Game of Houses. Outside of LA it’s a way of life for them and not questioned. Actually, they probably enjoy it. They look at us here in LA and want to take us over, but they’re also puzzled by us because of the way we live together. We have our moments, but not like what you’ll find outside our borders.”
“Understatement of the millennium,” Stephen said dryly. “And he’s right, we do enjoy The Game. Not much else can hold our attention for centuries or millennia. The four Houses of LA are unusual in that we do not play against each other, but we do still play against the rest of the Republic. We have little choice when outsiders insist upon coming here and trying to establish themselves. We keep their Houses out of our combined territories, and police the occasional individual who is either too stupid or new to know why he should stay away. House Lochlain is especially important in that area. Gavin’s reputation and age is a strong deterrent.”
“This challenge and counter thing extends to packs?” he asked already guessing that it would. It would make his vague plans harder if it did, so of course that would be the reality. “There’s no way around it?”
“None,” Ronnie said.
“There’s conclave,” Lawrence disagreed. “Challenge and counter is part of The Way, but conclave is a counter too. War is banned in LA and enforced by all members of the conclave not just the shifters. We still have our feuds over the borders—little skirmishes kept out of sight of humans—but wars? Absolutely not; not anymore.”
Stephen nodded at that.
No war was a good thing, and it might open a way for his idea to work. He considered revealing it now, knowing Ronnie would ridicule him for it, but she had to know eventually. Besides, she wasn’t just going to be his future mate, she was co-ruler of their pack too.
“You said at the meeting you would release everyone from your service to join my pack.”
Stephen raised an eyebrow. “I did.”
“I don’t want you to do that. Their loyalty to you is extraordinary. At least it seems that way to me. I’m new, I know that, but looking around I haven’t seen devotion like it anywhere else.”
“I’m gratified you think so, but I’m not sure I see the purpose in perpetuating a fiction.”
David frowned uncertainly. “A fiction?”
“A pretence then. Why pretend they remain in my service, when in fact they will be in yours from now on?”
“I don’t want anything to change at the club, and I have some ideas that I want to try.”
“Such as?”
“I want to set up an NPO for shifters,” he said and Stephen’s eyebrows disappeared into his hair. “Survival isn’t enough. I don’t want to live from one day to the next wondering if I’ll still be breathing tomorrow.�
�
“It’s his damned crusade,” Ronnie said and sneered. “The pack is all that matters; the pack and survival.”
Lawrence nodded.
“And I told you that day I don’t believe that. I will change it.”
“There’s no changing it. You’re a fool to think otherwise. We’ve lived this way since the first of us turned furry. Ask the elves, ask the dwarves or even the dragons. They’ll tell you there’s no way to change the fundamental nature of things. We are what we are.”
“I’m a man first.”
Ronnie’s voice lowered and she said almost kindly, “Don’t lie to yourself, David. I felt you while I fought in the arena. I felt what you were feeling.”
He flushed and faltered under her knowing gaze. He glanced at Lawrence and received a sympathetic grimace and a nod. Stephen smiled and nodded as well. Well... damn! So they felt him getting off on Ronnie’s fight. Big deal. It didn’t make his idea unworkable. Maybe it needed refinement, maybe there were things he hadn’t thought through, but he had time to fix snags.
“I still want to try.”
“Exactly what are you proposing?” Stephen asked. “You don’t want things to change at the club; I have no objections to that. It makes things for Edward infinitely easier if he continues overseeing my interests as before, but what about this NPO? What purpose will it serve?”
“I want to create something a bit like the Y,” he said and flushed as Ronnie burst out laughing. “Shut it,” he growled, his voice deepening and his eyes flaring to amber in the dark of the car’s interior.
Ronnie’s eyes flared golden, but she did quit laughing.
Taking an interest now are you? About time you got with the program!
Our She tests her boundaries, Mist said with pride and approval clear in his thoughts. We must let her run, but not too far or fast. We are Alpha to her as well as the pack. She must respect us, as we must respect her.
He could agree with that at least.
“You want to create a YMCA for shifters,” Stephen said carefully, not laughing but obviously wanting to. “And you feel this would be beneficial, why?”
Shifter Legacies Special Edition: Books 1-2 Page 32
