Wild

Chapter 4

Before I had time to think, before I even realized I had shifted into my wolf, I was on top of Alice, sinking my teeth into the flesh of her shoulder as easily as a knife to soft butter. The alpha female fell to the ground with a scream and defensively shifted into her wolf. The heat, the anger I had felt building up inside me earlier today was in full force and I was a rabid animal ready to kill, blinded by rage; my wolf crazed from being supressed for weeks. Alice and I tumbled, all teeth and claws.

I heard someone yelling. Or was it multiple people? I couldn't tell. Instinct had taken over and my human mind was no longer processing information. All that was left of me was pure instinct to dominate and eliminate all threats.
Alice and I were back on our paws staring each other down. I yelped when Alice's wolf feigned to the right and tackled me to ground, biting into one of my front legs. Our muzzles clashed as we fought to get to each other's throats. I managed to get my hind legs underneath her and shove her off me. Before she could recover, I tackled her and dug my nails into her, pinning her to the ground. In a flash my teeth were on her neck.

Check mate, baby.

She let out a whimper of submission.
Yes, I thought overjoyed, finally, I would end it. Before I could sink my teeth into her throat and pull out her jugular, I was body slammed by something. Scott, in human form. I began to struggle but he had me pinned by the scruff. Foolish male. In my frenzy, I bite his arm. He swears.

"Valerie! Stop! You need to calm down!" I squirmed beneath him. "Valerie! You could have killed her!" Good. "Valerie, stop!" I continued to struggle against him, ignoring his commands.

Until I hear a moan.

I come back to myself when I see Alice lying on the ground in human form, covered in gashes, thick streams of dark blood run from her neck. Her eyes looked distance as she grasped her throat, rasping and gurgling to breathe.

"Someone help her!" Scott yells at the pack that crowded around us as he keeps me pinned.

I notice Tara, her eyes as big as marbles. T.J. was there, too, with fear in his eyes. A freight train of lucidity hits me.

What have done?

I shift back to human form, with a look of horror that I'm sure is plastered to my face, and Scott lets off me. "Do you realize what you've done?" He looks at me like he's seeing a stranger. I think I'm going to be sick. He moves quickly to Alice, who is now being tended to by a couple pack members.

I get up, my hands shaking in shock. "I... I didn't..." I try to speak but the words don't come. I can't stop staring at Alice.
What have I done?

"Is she going to be ok?" My tongue feels like sandpaper when I speak. I try to swallow down the leftover blood in my mouth.

Alice's blood. From when I attacked her.

"You better pray she will be," says Scott.

"What in the hell is going on here?" Merrick runs over from the barn with Roy Gilbert and Ellis and Andrew Smith, Tara's grandparents, behind him.

Tara spoke up first. "Val just challenged Alice." A challenge was just a fancy word for when wolves fight for dominance. It wasn't always to establish rank, but because Alice was a higher ranking wolf and lost, it meant something. Although she wasn't the Alpha Female of this pack, Alice was an alpha female. And she just lost to me. An outsider. A half-blood.

"She attacked me," rasped Alice, finally able to speak. Her throat must not be as bad as it looks. It will take a day or two before she is fully healed. It'll help that she can draw from Scott's strength now that they are mated.

"You started it when you insulted her Alpha! That was a challenge," Tara said in retort.

"Her Alpha's dead! She's a mutt outsider who doesn't belong here!" someone yelled.

"Be quiet!" Merrick snapped. He looked at me with disdain. My face flushed. I was still naked from my shift and everyone's eyes were on me. I was doing the best I could to cover up with my arms. I wasn't comfortable enough with this pack to be nude around them.

My discomfort must have been clear on my face because Andrew quietly steps out of the crowd to hand me his trench coat and offers me a weak smile. I start to say thank-you but I'm cutoff by Merrick as he nearly shouts, "You attacked a member of my pack. You're lucky I don't flat-out kill you!"

Ellis Smith gasps at his words.

"Dad...," Scott says.

"That's Alpha to you, son," Merrick snaps. Scott lowered his eyes in submission. Someday soon, now that he was mated, Scott would challenge his dad for Alpha, but until then he would show respect to the current Alpha just like everyone else.

"I got to say, Carlisle, I'm surprised. I didn't think you had it in you."

I hold back a growl at the backhanded compliment. I can handle myself just fine. They just never cared to notice.

"Since you attacked a member of this pack, you'll have to deal with the consequences." Merrick adjusts his cowboy hat as though what he's about to say is as casual as inviting someone to dinner. "And attacking any member of this pack, is a direct attack on me. So I take that as a challenge against me." He smiles wickedly. "Since you want to challenge me, I'm going to grant your request. Tonight you'll fight me for Alpha. But it won't be a fight to submission; it will be a fight to the death."

My jaw almost dropped. Ellis released a cry and Scott sucked in a sharp breath. Merrick just sentenced me to death—everyone knew that I couldn't beat him. It took everything in me to keep my knees from buckling.

I was going to die.