The Alpha's Shadow

Chapter 6: Closer to the Truth

The raucous crowd noise hit Luna like a wave as she slipped in through the fight club's side door. Nearly a week had passed since their last visit pursuing leads on Gio's potential connections here, but tonight the illegal venue seemed even more packed and chaotic as the lunar solstice approached. The pheromonal energy and anticipation were palpable in the humid air. Luna swallowed her apprehension along with the cloying smells of blood and musk, determined to finally make progress with her inquiries tonight. She had to, with tensions in Avaloria nearing the boiling point and solid leads frustratingly elusive so far.

Edging into the spectators surrounding the makeshift cage ring, Luna cast her gaze around for the lone wolf who had deigned to speak with her last time. Her pulse skipped when she noticed him leaning casually apart from the rowdy crowd in the same shadowed spot by a pillar. The memory of those piercing golden eyes threatened to bring heat to her face, but Luna schooled her expression to calm neutrality as she approached.

The noise and jostling bodies faded to background static around them as he watched her approach with an inscrutable gaze. Dipping his chin slightly in greeting, he remarked, "Unexpected to find you wandering this den of violence again. Most with sense flee after one look at our fangs."

Luna lifted her chin, refusing to be intimidated. "I don't scare easily when the cause demands it."

His eyes gleamed with interest. "And justice alone drives you to walk such dangerous roads?"

"Protecting my city does," she countered levelly. "These fights only cheapen noble werewolf tradition for profit and status." Luna saw his eyes flash at the bold statement. Holding his piercing gaze, she softened her tone persuasively. "Help me stop those twisting your customs to sow violence between humans and werewolves. No one profits from hate."

His stern expression remained guarded, but Luna sensed him turn her proposition over carefully behind thosewolfish eyes rather than reject it outright. Her pulse quickened with tentative hope. Before he could respond, though, raucous jeers arose from the crowd as one of the brawlers hit the cage floor, teeth bared but clearly submitting to the larger wolf above him. A hulking enforcer stepped in to roughly drag the loser from the ring, tossing the dazed werewolf to the crowd's feet.

Luna barely stifled a gasp as the assembled spectators proceeded to savagely kick and beat the already-dazed werewolf. "We have to stop this!" she hissed to her companion.

His stony expression didn't waver, but she thought she glimpsed a glimmer of sympathy in his wolf eyes as he watched his fellow suffer the crowd's merciless brutality. "Intervening would only bring their fury upon you as well," he rumbled flatly. But Luna didn't miss the subtle shift of his shoulders angling toward the chaos as if to shield her from it. The protective instinct heartened her, as did the confirmation he cared more than his stoic facade suggested. She pressed that perceived advantage now.

"Then help me stop the ones pulling these cruel strings," Luna urged him, closing the distance between them to lay a tentative hand on his forearm. His muscles tensed beneath her light grasp but he did not pull away. "No more pointless violence in the shadows. Not if we expose the truth and stand united." She poured all her conviction into the whispered plea, willing him to believe they could end Avaloria's vicious cycle.

A thunderous roar shook them both as the next pair of combatants were loosed into the ring. The Test of skill and ferocity played out only feet away, but Luna kept her focus fixed steadily on her guardian werewolf's face. His stern facade seemed to crack, uncertainty and longing flickering across his angular features as their gazes locked. Luna held her breath, sensing his resolve wavering on a knife's edge.

After an interminable moment suspended between them, he released a harsh breath and grasped Luna's hand where it still rested lightly on his arm. "Very well, stubborn she-wolf. We will walk this perilous road a while longer, if only to prove peace yet has a chance in these fallen lands." Despite his solemn words, Luna glimpsed warmth in the depths of those luminous eyes after so long guarded and cold. It kindled an answering glow in her heart as she nodded gratitude too expansive for words.