Page 63 of Dawn of the Pack

So if she really wants it, she’ll have to attack me first.

“Five minutes, Lily,” Jared murmurs behind me.

Okay, I just need to hold her off for another five minutes. We continue circling, but I refuse to let her get closer to Jared than I am at any point.

When she charges the first time, I sidestep the attack deftly, sending her skidding across the dirt surface with her nails. She immediately turns and charges again, and I perform the same maneuver, just clearing her path.

Then she changes tactics, charging toward Jared.

Which leaves me no choice but to jump between them and stop her from hurting him.

I spring forward, my jaws closing on her neck with an angry snarl.

My bite isn’t strong enough, and she twists out of my teeth then immediately attack again.

I meet each of her attacks and keep her from seriously hurting me, but only just barely. My alpha command doesn’t work on her. Despite my desperate attempts to use it, she’s not my pack and I have no power.

And the panic begins to rise.

The only reason I beat Amber was finding my alpha voice and commanding her to stop. It didn’t occur to me to continue training to improve my skills as a wolf. Why would I? They already accepted me as alpha. But now I realize how sadly outmatched I am in a fair fight.

And she realizes it, too.

She’s faster, smarter, and stronger in every way. It was one thing to fight a male, but clearly their pack is like ours in that the females are the better fighters. They don’t realize it, or maybe they don’t care, because they insist on keeping males in the positions of power.

A female like this could lead their entire pack if she was just given a chance.

As soon as I thought it, I banished the idea to the back of my brain. If she were alpha, I wouldn’t be able to unite the packs. For better or for worse, Pack Montrose’s misogyny is actually helping me.

I’m getting tired. My wolf is getting tired. I can feel it in the slower response of my muscles to the onslaught of attacks. But my opponent doesn’t seem to slow down, and I’m in actual danger of losing this fight.

Just as I think it, I move a millisecond too slowly and she sinks her teeth into my neck.

It’s not a killing bite, and I’m able to slip out of it, but she’s drawn blood, and I can tell she’s pleased with herself. It encourages her, and she comes at me with renewed ferocity.

“Lily!” Jared shouts, and I duck under the flying wolf and steal a glance toward the road, hoping against hope that my mates have arrived and that’s what he wanted me to know.

Sure enough, a pair of headlights comes barreling through the trees, and the black SUV screeches to a stop in the tiny parking area, spraying dust and gravel. I jump aside, toward Jared, and the vehicle stops between me and the other wolf.

Landon throws open his door, shouting, “Get in!” and I leap onto his lap without a second thought. I hop lightly to the passenger seat and stare out the window and the Montrose wolf, who’s on her way around the back of the car.

Milo’s already leapt out and helped Jared up, and as soon as they pile in the backseat he yells, “Go!”

The SUV tears out of the parking area like a bat out of hell, and we leave the wolf in our dust almost immediately.

It only takes us a handful of minutes to pass through the sleeping town, and at the border I’m forced, painfully, back to human form. Landon stares at me in horror, likely from the sounds I’m making, and Milo passes me his pea coat for cover. I huddle under it in a cold sweat, completely drained.

We hit the freeway and we don’t stop until we reach the agreed-upon rally point, a 24-hour truck stop thirty miles down the road.

Jared insists he’s okay, that she just knocked the wind out of him and drew a little blood. Richardson checks us all over, agrees that Jared is fine, and offers me a spare uniform he brought for some unknown reason. I pull on the black cargo pants and rough long-sleeved shirt and it’s not great, but it’s better than nothing.

After that, there’s nothing left to do but drive home, disappointed at our spectacular failure.

We didn’t rescue Derrek. We were so close, but we took too long and barely made it out alive.

And to top it off, we lost Azalea. However Nielsen punishes her, it’s clear she won’t be able to help us again.

So we’re back to square one.

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