Chapter Six: The Threat

Vuko POV

He's big and I haven't seen him before. I glance at Ana but she's transfixed. Her eyes are wide. I'm guessing she hasn't seen him before either.

The other Alphas have begun to crowd the field. Among them is Didi's father. He steps forward.

"You are not Ironwolf," he says.

Didi--and Silvia's--father was once an imposing sight. Tall with silver hair, he was the only one who ever stood up to my father. Since Silvia's banishment though, he has become stooped, old.

At first I think he is talking to Didi. But he is addressing the giant who will be Didi's champion.

Didi answers for his champion. "No, he is not Ironwolf," he says to his father and I'm relieved that there is still respect in his voice. But he is also resolute, "You need to step aside, Dad. This is a new pack. My pack. You have no jurisdiction over us."

I'm aware of the murmuring of the crowd at the edge of the field. Didi has just declared himself an Alpha.

"I accept," I say, stepping forward. Another instance of my body acting before my mind because my mind is a lot less sure of this.

The field is cleared. Word must have spread of what's happening because it seems to me that in minutes, all of the packs are around the field and there is a low murmur of excitement.

They should not be excited. This is bad. Because I will win and Didi will lose and that will make him more determined. And even though I don't want to admit it, his gang is looking a lot like a pack.

Ana brings me water as Didi refuses to acknowledge the judge the other Alphas have brought forward. He turns his back. He's actually right. First Combat rules don't require a judge. They require one fighter to survive and the other to concede. Or die.

Shit.

When I look at Ana I think she see's what's going through my head.

"Vuko," she says, stepping in close. She has something in her hand. "I don't like the look of this. Take this. If it comes to it, just use it. It won't kill him but ..."

Then she's fastening a leather strap to my wrist. She takes my hand and turns it wrist outwards so that I can see the sigil. I look at her.

"Ana, are you serious?" It's a silver sigil. Deadly to wolves. As long as it doesn't come into contact with a transformed wolf, it will have no effect. This tells me what Anahita thinks is going to happen.

She is pale so pale I can clearly see the blue tinge beneath her skin, the mark of the waterwolf. "Vuko, he means to kill you."

"You don't know that," I say but just then I look up and I see the guy looking at me and I think maybe it's a chance I don't want to take. I'm fast. But I'm not invincible.

Since there is no judge, there is no one to tell us to take our places. I glance at Didi. He knew he couldn't take me on so he used an arcane rule of combat to use a champion on his behalf. Me and Sylvia used to take him swimming down at the lake. I once chased away water spiders for him because they were making him cry.

He doesn't meet my eyes.

The champion takes loping strides toward me and I feel my body take over, Vi just beneath the surface guiding my movements. Steady, I mindlink, This is not yet your fight.

I settle into a defensive crouch, my fists closed and ready. I'm looking for his weakness. But as he increases his pace toward me it looks like he's just going to run right through me. Soft spots? I don't think this guy has any.

My body reacts while I'm still worrying about hitting his soft spots. I use his momentum against him, stepping straight into him with my body loose and ready. He barrels into and over me, landing on his back with a lung-emptying whump.

He should be out for the count but he's back on his feet in seconds, his eyes telling me he's recalibrating. Whoever he is, this is an experienced fighter. Next he comes at me in a flurry of fists and kicks, his movements so fast they blur. I breathe and my breath takes me out of time, so that his movements appear slow as treacle. I duck and dodge the blows easily, stepping around him and and using my straightened hand to land a perfectly aimed strike at his kidneys.

Again, he should be out. But he's not. He turns toward me and I think he's gotta be using magic. Because the freaking hell is he still standing?

I don't even know what I'm fighting at this point. I keep going because what else can I do.  I settle into the earth, I make myself heavy, I need him to do all the work here while I focus  my energy on finding that one spot that will bring him down. Every living thing has it.

Eyes, says Vi, watch his eyes.

I keep using my breath to slow things down so I can see what he is doing. Vi is right. The movement is miniscule, but it's there. When threatened, you will always check your weak spot. His eyes slip down to his feet. His legs are dead straight.

His legs are dead straight. He has no flexibility in his legs. That means his Achilles tendon is compromised. I turn and as I turn I release my left leg, my strongest, and I use the momentum of the turn to give it all the strength I have as I crash my heel into his left Achilles tendon. I hear it rupture with a sound like a thunder clap. He starts to topple and I'm exultant.

I can win this. Now I know I can.

But my relief is nearly my undoing. Even as he is toppling, I am still coming out of the turn and he lets one giant arm loose and I smack right into it.

Somehow I manage to stay upright but only just. I shake my head. My ears are still ringing.

Watch out.

I think it's Vi who calls out but it could also be Ana and I remember the leather strap and the sigil just in time as Didi's champion scrambles to his feet and leaps at me, transforming mid-leap into an enormous black wolf.

In that split-second I don't even think. I bring up my forearm, the wrist facing outwards in front of me as the black wolf opens his jaws, ready to latch onto my throat.

He gets the sigil instead and the effect is instant.

He falls to the ground.

Oh goddess, I think, please don't let him be dead.

That's when Beta Abir--absent all morning--runs up, out of breath.

I don't even speak to him.

He looks at me, looks at the black wolf on the ground. I see the wolf's chest rising and lowering. He's alive.

Then there are pack medics surrounding us, a stretcher for the black wolf and the noise of thousands of pack members replaying for each other what has just happened.

I have eyes only for Didi. If you didn't know him as well as I do, you would think he is unfazed by the defeat of his champion. But I still know Didi. And there's still something of the boy I knew in him. There's a flush to his cheeks and a slight tremble to his voice when he speaks.

"I did not tell him to do that," he says.

"Didi," I say, "If you want to lead a pack, you have to know the consequences of your actions." And I  think for a moment he understands. But then I make a mistake, "Silvia, your sister would ..."

"Don't you dare say her name," he says and the arrogant wannabe pack-leader is back. No more sign of the old Didi. "And consider this a warning," he raises his voice and the crowd quietens, "Consider this a warning to all of you. The time of the old packs is done."

He turns to the fallen champion. "And keep this one. He's one of yours now."

He spits on the ground and leaves, followed by his pack. And it's clear. They are a pack and Didi is their Alpha.