15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Tristan gave one of his rare grins. ‘I have a solution.'

I brightened. ‘You do?'

‘Well, more like something that gives us breathing space rather than a solution that solves the whole thing, but it's better than nothing.'

‘I'll take breathing space. What's your idea?'

‘ I challenge Manners,' Tristan offered.

I blinked. ‘That helps us how? You'd just be softening him up for Elliott.'

Tristan grinned. ‘Because you, my clever Queen, introduced a "one challenge a week" law. If I challenge Greg, that gives us a week to work out what to do about Elliott.'

He had a point. Maybe Elliott was just a sore loser and the rage I'd seen in his eyes would lessen once he'd had time to calm down. Maybe a week was all he needed to get his anger under control. Then again, maybe not .

I turned to Greg; it was his life at stake, after all. ‘What do you think?'

He folded his arms. ‘I think I can take Elliott.'

I nodded. ‘I agree, you probably could – but that would make you alpha of the Staffordshire pack.' I kept my tone as even as I could. I wouldn't stop Greg becoming alpha, if that was what he wanted. God knows, he'd be a magnificent leader; in the small hours of the night, insidious voices whispered to me that he'd be a far better King than I was a Queen.

He blew out a breath. ‘You're right, I don't want that. It's an extra complication we don't need.'

Something tight in my chest eased.

Greg nodded to Tristan. ‘Challenge me, and we'll have a little roll around to first blood.'

‘Not here!' Ben said hastily. ‘Dad can't see any of that shit, not now.'

‘He's right,' I agreed. ‘We'd better take it to Black Park.' We didn't want to go home without the challenge being completed or Elliott might somehow pull the rug out from under us.

‘Well, I'm glad you've got all that sorted.' Mum sighed. ‘But what am I going to do about Dennis?' she asked unhappily .

‘Nothing.' Greg gave her arm a sympathetic squeeze. ‘He's made his choice and it's not for us to undo it.'

‘But I'm the one who has to live with it,' she argued grumpily.

‘Mum,' Ben started, ‘you can't blame him for this. It's not his fault. None of it is. Just … don't do anything hasty, okay?'

She gave him a wry smile. ‘I'm not throwing away three decades of marriage for one mistake,' she assured him, ‘but it'll take some getting used to. We'd just started exploring the Other realm together, and now…' She paused then made a visible effort to cheer up. ‘Anyway, he wasn't interested in learning about the healing potions and things like that.'

Her eyes narrowed as she turned to me. ‘Which reminds me – your miraculous survival. It wasn't a new experimental drug, was it? It was magic.'

I stared at her for a moment; I'd forgotten we hadn't revealed the full circumstances of my mysterious recovery from near-death. I'd told Mum that I'd been born a fire elemental and that I'd been turned into a werewolf, but we hadn't actually gone through the ins and outs of the whole thing.

‘When I didn't know about magic, I shagged an incubus,' I started. ‘I thought I loved him.'

Mum slid a glance to Greg before replying carefully, ‘That James chap? You talked about him before Greg came on the scene.'

I coloured. ‘Yep, that's the guy. He broke some rules, and by sleeping with me and using his magic he was slowly killing me. In the end, Jess saved me.'

‘What does Jess have to do with it?'

‘Everything,' I said wryly. ‘She also broke some rules but that was to save me. Werewolves aren't supposed to be turned, we're supposed to be born. You can only turn a werewolf when they're dying from non-magical means. I was dying but because of an incubus, so I couldn't be turned. Jess stabbed me with a magical dagger and brought me to Lord Samuel. I was dying from a non-magical malady so he turned me and saved my life. And the rest is history.'

Mum's eyes were very wide. ‘So we really did nearly lose you.'

‘Nearly,' I admitted. ‘But you're stuck with me now.'

She pulled me into a hug, ‘Thank God,' she murmured into my ear, giving me a fierce squeeze. Then she drew back. ‘You said Jess stabbed you with a magical dagger. What did it do?'

‘It gave me the ability to speak to animals – well, to anything that's alive, really. It meant I could speak to Esme back in a time when people couldn't speak with their wolves.'

She kissed me. ‘I'd like to talk to Esme one day. And Rohan. I should know the wolves that are living in my children's skin.'

I would like that, Esme said warmly and I could tell that she would. She longed for a maternal figure to stroke her fur, and the depth of that longing took me off guard. I should have asked her earlier if there was anything I could give her that she really needed.

‘She would like that,' I said aloud. Then I asked Esme, Is there anything else you'd like that we haven't discussed?

I would like Greg to pet me one time, she admitted.

I tried to hide how much that surprised me. Of course. I'll ask him soon.

We have a challenge to witness first, she reminded me.

‘We should go.' Tristan interrupted our conversation. ‘We need to get this challenge wrapped up and the longer we remain here talking about magic, the longer we risk your father overhearing.' He was right. We were going to have to be careful from now on. Ugh.

Ben went in to speak to Dad for a few minutes and then we took our leave. Archie, Liam and Mack were waiting for us, talking quietly on the doorstep. ‘Everything okay?' Liam asked.

‘Fine, but we're going to Black Park so Tristan can challenge Greg.'

Archie's eyes went wide. ‘What? Why?'

I shrugged. ‘Testosterone.'

As much as it sucked, Liam and Archie were still on my list of potential Domini moles. I really didn't think it likely, but I was going to be sparing with essential information just in case. I didn't need anyone knowing Tristan and Greg's fight was little more than a ruse.

We folded into the two cars and Mack took to the skies. It didn't take long to reach the pack's favourite hunting grounds in the forest. It was helpful that it backed onto a film studio because anytime Common realmers saw weird shit, we could just yell ‘And scene!' and pretend we were in the midst of filming. It worked every time.

We parked up and walked into the thickest part of the woods to the place where we had a small shack for storing clothes. Next to the hut was a clearing; it seemed as perfect a place as any for them to have this little skirmish.

Greg reached down to pull off his T-shirt but Tristan held out a hand. ‘Wait. There's no rule that says we have to fight in wolf form. How about we do it on two, man to man? The wolves don't always have to get the fun.' Plus, Tristan was a martial arts expert.

Greg grinned. ‘Let's do it.'

Both men removed their weapons; this was a friendly bout but it was clear that they were taking it seriously. Tristan's smile faded and, as he circled Greg, I recognised his urge to prove himself. I understood it, but his need was misplaced. Tristan was a martial arts teacher but Greg? Greg was a martial art. The only thing that Tristan was going to prove was that he bled red. I rocked back, waiting to see what would surely be a spectacular fight.

The air was thick with tension as they faced each other. Their eyes locked and they assessed each other. Impatiently, Tristan moved first, his body a blur of motion as he closed the distance with a swift, powerful roundhouse kick towards Greg's head.

Greg was still grinning – he was enjoying himself. He ducked just in time to narrowly avoid the blow. Without missing a beat, he sprang back up and launched a hard jab at Tristan's ribs. Tristan twisted his torso, absorbing the blow with a grunt but maintaining his balance.

The two men broke again and circled, their feet shuffling on the ground, each looking for an opening. Tristan feinted a low kick in an attempt to draw down Greg's guard, but then he pivoted and launched a fierce elbow strike at Greg's temple. Greg didn't fall for the feint, and when Tristan struck he'd already raised an arm to block the blow. He retaliated swiftly with a knee to Tristan's midsection but Tristan was ready and deflected it with his thigh.

Greg's grin had faded as fierce concentration took over. Oh boy. Despite my initial expectations, the men seemed to be pretty evenly matched and they traded blow for blow for several minutes. Then, in the midst of the fight, both of them started to smile again. They were enjoying themselves.

‘Come on!' I called. ‘We don't have all day. Wrap it up!'

The smiles vanished. Greg stepped things up a gear and they exchanged a flurry of punches, then he lunged forward, grabbed Tristan's wrist and pulled him off balance. In one fluid motion, he spun behind Tristan and locked his arm around his throat in a chokehold.

Tristan struggled, his free hand clawing at Greg's arm as he tried to break the hold. Greg tightened his grip and his muscles strained as Tristan's movements grew more frantic. It was all kinds of wrong that I was getting a little hot under the collar watching how effortlessly Greg was holding his opponent in place.

But Tristan wasn't done yet: he threw back his head and attempted to smash it into Greg's nose. Greg turned his head in time to avoid it. Tristan tried again to punch his beta but Greg still didn't let go of his hold; instead he shifted his weight and dragged Tristan to the ground with him.

They hit the floor hard in a tangled mess of limbs. Tristan bucked and twisted but Greg's grip was still iron clad. Greg shifted his position to wrap his legs around Tristan's waist and squeezed tighter. Tristan's struggle weakened; his breath was coming in ragged gasps.

‘First blood,' I reminded Greg.

He gave a minute nod, transformed his hand into a claw and nicked Tristan's skin. Blood welled up. I blinked in surprise: I didn't know Greg had also been working on achieving a partial shift. Nice work!

He gave one last squeeze before letting Tristan go, then rolled away and got to his feet. Tristan lay on the ground heaving air into desperate lungs. Respectfully, we gave him a minute to regain his equilibrium.

When he stopped panting, Tristan did a neat little flip to a standing position. He nodded to Greg and his eyes held a little more respect than they had before. They had fought in the past but as wolves, and evidently he had thought he could beat Greg on two. With that question finally settled, any residual tension between them was completely gone.

Something good might have come out of Elliott's presence after all.