Page 75 of Oath of Revenge

Wulfric turned to face Brody, and faintly heard Elva say, “Welcome to the Growlers tribe known as the Ironpaws, my dear. I’m Elva the Elder. I’m sure you have many questions, but all in due time. Prepare yourself. It’s–”

Brody roared and attacked without warning, shifting in mid-air. Wulfric reacted and shifted, meeting him head on as a wolf. Brody swiped, but Wulfric was done messing around.

They’d already fought once. It was time to end it for good. He wrapped his claws around Brody’s shoulder and took him to the ground. Brody rolled, and his claws slashed at Wulfric’s ribs.

Wulfric grabbed his paw with his jaws and bit so hard he felt the crunch of bone. Brody yelped and clawed Wulfric’s face with the other paw.

He jerked back with a howl and pushed off Brody. Pain shocked his body once more as Brody’s claws ripped flesh, and Wulfric stumbled away.

Brody leaped off his back legs, one of his front paws held loosely, and slammed into Wulfric. They both tumbled into the fire. It licked at his feet and heels, singing his tail in seconds, and climbed swiftly up his body.

Howling in pain, they rolled out, twisting in the dirt as each tried to put out their own fire.

Brody shuddered and gasped as he swiped his still smoking tail in the dirt, but Wulfric came to his feet first. He patted his body furtively, then took a char-filled breath and pounced, knocking Brody onto his back.

The crack of bone made Wulfric howl in triumph as he rained blow after blow onto Brody’s still smoldering side.

From the corner of his eye, Wulfric saw movement. He ignored it, lifting his paw to swipe once more.

Then someone slammed into his side, and a burst of pain exploded through his body. He slid over the dirt, breathing shallowly as the pain pulsed in his ribs. A wolf lunged for him, but Wulfric blinked and rolled, stirring up dirt and ash.

The snarls and growls of fighting wolves were familiar, but the flash of red in the dusty air made him rub his eyes.

His heart raced as he pushed past the pain and blinked to clear his vision. The magic circle had changed colors to purple, something he’d never seen in an alpha challenge before, and Brody’s two friends now circled Scarlet. They were no longer held by magic but participants. He opened his mouth to yell at the Elders, to ask questions, but her daggers swiped as she spun and slashed at the other two. They toyed with her, testing her defenses and skills.

Wulfric’s mouth snapped closed as he focused on his mate. He had to save her. He circled the scattered fire, looking for an opening to leap in and help when movement to the side drew his eye.

He turned to look but another pain slammed into him. Fuck, love had made him blind. Brody had pounced at Wulfric’s distraction.

Wulfric couldn’t let him win. Not when Scarlet was on the line. He went feral, reaching into his primal nature to find the spark of wildness he needed to win.

Wulfric’s bloody jaws clamped onto Brody’s throat. Flesh ripped and shredded, blood seeped into his fur and filled his mouth as he tore into warm meat. Then there was nothing else but this joy in the snapping of teeth and tearing of flesh. Brody whimpered, but Wulfric flung him side to side, holding tight with his jaws locked, slamming him into the ground hard enough to make his own head pulse.

And still he didn’t release his opponent. A flash of red penetrated the blood-lust haze, and he blinked swiftly, his gaze landing on Scarlet, still fending off the other two Growlers with her twin daggers of death.

The feral mindless bloodlust lifted, and Wulfric leaped into the air, slamming Brody down to the ground with his mouth still locked around where his shoulder met his neck. He felt a snap, then Brody went limp in his jaws.

Something tugged on the edge of his consciousness, and he tossed Brody away. The winds pulled his attention to Scarlet. When a glance confirmed that Brody lay still, he turned to find his mate.

She slashed at one wolf and went low, drawing blood and making him yip as Wulfric jumped over her, landing on all fours behind her. Back-to-back, they each swiped and slashed at the two remaining wolves.

A thump, and the ground shook with magic again. They rode out the wave, and all four of them stopped to glance at the Elders.

Elva stepped forward and lifted her staff. “Brody has failed the challenge. Wulfric remains alpha. When someone is raised to an Elder, we make a pilgrimage to the ruins of the goddess. We each received separate visions from the goddess with instructions once this alpha triumphed in his third alpha challenge. Now is the time for the prophecy.”

The three Elders chanted in the ancient tongue. Wulfric’s hackles rose as the magic swept through the camp like a pulsing wave, knocking those closest to the Elders to the ground.

He shifted back to his semi-human form as he flew through the air, grabbing Scarlet’s cloak to pull her close to his side as they rolled on the ground. She shivered as magic pulsed, and he prayed that she wouldn’t pull away.

Then she turned her head to his chest as the magic washed over them. One arm around her back, one on the back of her head, he breathed in the comforting scent of her. It grounded him, even as the world seemed to tilt and spin. The magic flowed through him and threatened to turn his stomach.

A searing pain in the back of his skull slammed into him, as if someone had taken a pick and hammer to his head. He howled and stiffened.

Scarlet’s hands on his back pressed him closer, and he whimpered, bowing his body around hers. He wasn’t proud of it, but it wasn’t because she still held her daggers in her hands, pressing them into his back.

No, it was the flood of forty-five years of memories. Almost all of them came back like a hurricane. His parents’ shop, his friends from the village carousing at the tavern, wooing his wife, the birth of his babe… He choked down the bile and tears, each memory choking him as his mind spun out of control.

Then the overwhelming feelings receded like a gentle, outgoing tide. He opened his eyes as the glowing magic faded. The circle keeping the rest of the crowd out had dissipated. Scarlet pulled back and glanced over at him. “Are you alright?”

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