I dodged out of the way, grimacing with disgust.
“You can’t fight for shit. Too scared,” jeered Alannah.
Murphy looked like he wanted to reach out and yank her out of the room by her hair, but he couldn’t do that. Nobody fought anybody else’s battles in this pack. Except for me the night I leaped on Declan Byrne’s back when he’d fought dirty with a piece of glass against Paddy.
Murphy faded back to give us room, his expression apologetic when he met my gaze.
“I’ll be twice the Alpha you’d ever make.” Alannah lifted her bond pendant so we could all see the small Celtic knot next to the triad pendant on the chain. I had a knot pendant just like it on my chain. So did Murphy. Fee had given them to us when she backed us as her choice for the next Alpha duo.
Colm winced. “I wish she’d let me announce that myself,” he muttered.
So, it was official. Alannah, Petra and Dane were up for Alpha against me and Murphy. Great. So this fight would have double the meaning. If she wiped the floor with my face, I could pretty much kiss Alpha goodbye. No baby for Murphy and I knew how much he wanted one. Hell, I did too. Now that my wolf was normal.
“You’re such an asshole.” Would she really throw away her shot on one stupid fight? She had just as much to lose as I did. More, because some people in the pack had not forgiven her for being bonded to Declan.
Her new bond mates looked less than thrilled. They were in the front of the crowd. Petra’s face was thunderous with rage and betrayal. Dane glared at me.
“Well, fight her, for Christ’s sweet sake,” he shouted at me.
I calculated the odds. If Alannah won, was it really over? We still had nearly two years to election. A lot of things could shift in two years, including opinions. Especially opinions.
On the other hand, if I lost, Alannah would never let anybody forget it. I was pretty much screwed. So was Murphy, which was worse.
If Alannah were elected Alpha, she would never, ever agree to let me and Murphy run for the next Alpha pair so I’d have to wait ten years for another chance. I’d be forty-three by then, and I might still be fertile, but it was pushing it.
Alannah was already nearly forty and if she didn’t make Alpha at the next election, she’d never have a baby. Babies. Why must so much hinge on them? Why could only the Alphas have them? It wasn’t fair.
At that heretical thought, I froze. Alannah took advantage of my lapse of attention to dart in and land the first punch. A sucker punch right to my jaw.
I saw stars and tasted blood. I’d bitten my tongue. Damn, that hurt. The pain snapped me back in focus. I ducked her next blow aimed at my nose.
“Ah, my God, you don’t know how to fight, do you? You never fought in your frigging American pack, did you?” Alannah’s face crinkled in disgust.
“Stupid us, we preferred to discuss our differences instead of beating each other like fucking barbarians.” I licked my lip. Was it bleeding too? Damn it.
Alannah rolled her eyes. “I won’t hit you again, you poor thing. Just tell me I’ll make a better Alpha than you and we’ll shake hands and act all civilized as shit, how’s that?”
“There’s only one problem with that,” I told her.
“Oh, yeah? And what would that be?”
“You’d make a terrible Alpha,” I said.
“At least I don’t hide behind my wolf and let her fight my battles. What’s the matter, Stanzie? Scared? Why don’tcha let your wolf out to rip my throat open? That’s the only way you know how to fight, isn’t it? Not so fucking civilized when you’re furry, are you?” Alannah smirked.
“I’m so sick of people talking about my wolf.” The red veil of rage descended until everything was tinged bloody.
Front foot forward, I spun toward her and brought my other leg around in a perfect roundhouse kick. My self-defense teacher would’ve burst into excited cheers. I hadn’t spent all my damn time decorating after Murphy left me in Boston.
I took Alannah out, my left foot planted smack into her stomach and she flew backward a gratifying five feet before she smashed, breathless to the floor.
“You bitch,” she said when she got her breath back.
Dead silence around the room for three beats as everyone waited for her to get up.
I gestured for her to hurry up and come get me then as I swallowed a mouthful of blood. Tongue blood was sweet, but damn my jaw hurt.
She lumbered to her feet, her gaze murderous. The room erupted in cheers and screams.
Colm’s grin was incredulous and Murphy looked deliriously proud. Fee jumped around pumping her fist in the air like she was Rocky after the big fight. I would punch her next, I decided.
“Lucky shot,” sneered Alannah and I rolled my eyes. My self-defense instructor would beg to differ. That move had taken me three weeks to even approximate.
“Wanna try again and prove it?” I asked. The crowd went wild. Alannah scowled at them, her expression sour as curdled milk. Could I help it if they were on my side?
“So what does it feel like to kill someone?” Alannah asked. “What did it feel like when you saw their dead bodies after the car crash and knew you’d been the one to smash them into bloody pieces?”
At first I’d thought she was talking about Nate, but when she said ‘car crash’ the red veil of rage strangled me again. In my head, Elena’s scream cut off with the snap of her neck. Grey’s eyes went wide with shocked agony as he was sucked out the open door and flung into space, his spine crushed.
“What does it feel like to fuck a murderer?” I wondered. Alannah’s face went black with absolute rage.
She rushed me with a wild, banshee scream and I let her come close enough so I could grab her arm and flip her over my shoulder. It was all leverage. My damn instructor had been right.
She hit the stone floor hard and for a moment didn’t move or make a sound.
Fuck. I’d killed her. She’d cracked her skull open on the goddamn stone. No. Screw this. She could be Alpha. No problem. I didn’t want to kill anyone else. How did it feel to kill someone? Cold, dark. Like the end of the world was a bullet and I was the one who pulled the trigger.
“You fucking bitch. You broke my back,” Alannah screamed into the dead silence. Her eyes were full of shock and malice. “I’m paralyzed and it’s all your fault.”
“You’re not fucking paralyzed,” I yelled at her. I could see her arms and feet moving. “You wouldn’t be able to yell so damn loud if you were paralyzed. Get up, you baby. Unless you’re done? Are you done? Am I the next Alpha?”
“The fucking pack votes, you don’t get to say who’s next,” she whined.
“Fine. Then tell me I won the fight and get the fuck up. Or do you need help?” I extended my hand and she spat at it. She had to move her neck to do it. Paralyzed, my ass.
“Fifteen second rule, Alannah. You lose even if you don’t say uncle,” Ryan said from the sidelines. He snatched the twenty from Sean’s fingers triumphantly.
“Bugger off, Kelly.” Alannah rolled into a slumped sitting position and gingerly touched the back of her head. “I’m bleeding,” she announced and held up her red-smeared fingers.
“What the hell do you want? A choir to sing you sleep with lullabies?” I grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. She tried to kick me in the shin, the bitch, so I socked her in the jaw.
She flung herself at me