I get one good stomp in before Rook grips me by the shoulder. “Hang on there, little lady. Wait until you’re well away from the compound to lay into him, huh?” He chuckles. “Coming here was hard enough for him. He doesn’t need the humiliation of getting disciplined by a human female on top of it.”
All of my anger deflates, and I’m back to feeling guilty. I just don’t get why he’d make the exception for me. I didn’t even have to push. It was his idea to come here. “Fine. It can wait.” I won’t really do it now, though. I’ll probably just ask him about it nicely. “So, what is this social you guys were talking about?”
“Our monthly pack social is next weekend,” Alpha Toth says, puffing up his chest and smiling proudly. “It’s a dance.”
“And a dinner,” Rook adds. “Usually a cookout with a big bonfire. It’s a hell of a party.”
“Would a dance work for you?” Alpha Toth looks at me.
It takes me a moment to understand what he’s asking. “Oh!” I said I needed reasons for skin-to-skin contact. “Actually, yes, your social sounds perfect, as long as our thief shows up.”
“Oh, he will,” Rook promises.
“The monthly socials are mandatory,” Alpha Toth adds.
Huh. “A mandatory monthly party? Wow. Pack life sounds interesting.”
Rook laughs and places a hand at the small of my back, urging me toward the clubhouse. “It’s a blast, most of the time. No better life than that of a werewolf in a stable pack.”
“That’s why it’s so important we find these thieves and stop them quietly,” Alpha Toth mutters, walking up the path behind us.
“No problem,” I say. “I already know who one of them is. Pointing him out and finding the other next weekend shouldn’t be too hard. Seems like an open-and-shut case.”
“I hope you’re right, Miss Jacobs. I really—”
He stops talking to frown at a text, and then he sighs. After the dark look he gives Rook, I know I’m missing something important again. I look to Rook for the answer. He echoes Alpha Toth’s sigh. “Jeffrey’s challenged Wulf.”
Challenged? I don’t like the sound of that. “Who’s Jeffrey?”
“Jeffrey Bean is my second-in-command, my beta,” Alpha Toth explains in a tired voice.
He picks up the pace a little, and Rook grabs my hand, dragging me through the clubhouse. I’m surprised by his thoughts. He’s not worried about his brother getting hurt, but he is worried about his brother killing the pack’s beta. He’ll never be allowed back again if he does that. Not that he’ll want to come back after this. Rook’s angry—no, he’s furious—at Jeffrey. Jeffrey’s too hotheaded. This dumb power play was completely unnecessary, and all it’s going to do is complicate something that didn’t need to be difficult.
We hurry out the front doors of the clubhouse to find a ring of people crowded around two wolves on the front lawn. I gasp, unprepared for the sight. The fight looks so vicious.
The two wolves are huge, and they’re snarling and drooling everywhere as they circle and pounce on each other. Both of them are showing red, but one wolf is a lot bloodier than the other.
The people standing around aren’t cheering or screaming or stepping in to help. They’re simply looking on with fascination and morbid curiosity. It’s a very controlled, if one-sided, fight. Still, Rook puts his arm around me and pulls me tightly to his side in a protective manner, and it’s clear he’s not going to let me go until he hands me over to his brother. Thank heavens Wulf didn’t make me take my T-shirt off to train today. I’m totally gross after my workout, but at least I’m not hearing Rook’s thoughts.
The bloody wolf gets a good slice of his claws into the side of the bigger wolf. The bigger wolf howls, and the air in the fight shifts. The bigger wolf has just been putting up with his attacker thus far, but he’s done messing around now. He bucks the bloodier wolf away and waits. The second the smaller wolf lunges again, the big wolf dodges the strike and goes for the kill. He grabs the smaller wolf by the throat and slams him to the ground. He doesn’t let go of his hold. The smaller wolf is beaten, but he’s refusing to submit, so the larger wolf pinches his throat a little harder. He’ll kill the smaller one if he doesn’t let go soon.
“Enough!” Alpha Toth’s voice booms across the scene. “Jeffrey, you’re beaten. And you’re an idiot for picking that fight. Both of you, change back. Now.”
I barely have time to register what he means by “change back” before the bigger wolf lets go of the smaller one and the wolves morph into men. Wulf and a short, stocky blond are both standing butt naked in the middle of the circle. Both are bloody, though Jeffrey is a mess and Wulf only has four long gouges in his side.
I can’t look away, and it’s totally not the blood I’m looking at. I feel bad for perving, but Wulf is beautiful in all his natural glory. I don’t breathe, or even blink, until someone hands Wulf his jeans and Rook quietly clears his throat beside me. My face flames, and I glare at a smiling Rook. “I’ve never seen a wolf change before.”
“You look like you’ve never seen a naked man before,” he teases.
I roll my eyes, but my gaze drifts back to Wulf. “I haven’t seen one like him before,” I admit. I was caught staring. May as well own it. It’s not like Wulf isn’t drool worthy.
Rook chuckles.
When the two fighters are dressed from the waist down, the circle of spectators opens to let Alpha Toth, Rook, and myself through. Rook still has his arm tightly around me, as if he expects someone to challenge me next. The way some of the people are gaping at us, and especially some of the females are glaring, I wonder if that’s a possibility.
Alpha Toth steps forward, and though he talks directly to Wulf and Jeffrey, he’s speaking to the entire group. “Wulf, you have won the challenge. The position of my new beta is yours.”
The group looks as if they expected this, but Wulf sighs and Jeffrey snarls. “But, sir! He’s not even pack! He shouldn’t have been here!”
“You lost the challenge!” Alpha Toth snaps. I think he’s throwing some alpha mojo around now, too, because people are squirming and my heart is hammering in my chest in a way it wasn’t before. “You know pack law. Wulf has always been welcome to join this pack, and the spot of beta is rightfully his now. You shouldn’t have challenged him.”
“I respectfully decline the position,” Wulf says calmly.
Alpha Toth frowns, disappointed, but not the least bit surprised. “You won the challenge, Wulf. The position is yours automatically.”
Wulf groans, as if he’s being inconvenienced in the worst possible way. “I have no interest in being a pack beta.”
“Then you shouldn’t have fought—”
“I had no choice. The asshole jumped me without warning.”
Alpha Toth’s jaw clenches, and he glares at Jeffrey. Jeffrey glares back, standing proud and puffing up his chest. “He’s not pack! He wasn’t supposed to be here.”
Alpha Toth sighs and throws a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes. “He had permission,” he says tiredly. “He was bringing someone dear to our pack to visit.” He removes his hand from his face and waves it my direction. “Everyone, meet Nora Jacobs, the brave human who rescued Maya and the others last month.”
The crowd gasps and erupts into cheers, clapping and whistling for me. I’m a bit shocked by the reception, and flash an awkward wave.
“I had hoped to introduce her as an honored guest at the pack social next weekend, but now that we’ve bloodied her escort, I’m not sure she’ll want to come.”
“A little fight isn’t going to scare her off,” calls a familiar voice.
I scan the crowd for the face I know is out there, and grin when I spot it. “Hey, Maya.”
“Hey, girl!” Maya flashes me a wolfish grin. She looks a lot healthier than the last time I saw her. I almost don’t recognize her. “Welcome to the compound. It’s good to see you again.”