Page 78 of Violet Moon
“It won’t be like the last time,” Parisa repeated, more to herself than to Sera.“Everything is different now.”
“You aren’t alone.”
“I know.I was wrong to keep everyone out.And even though I allowed you to be there physically, I didn’t let you support me, not in any real way.I focused only on what I could do alone, which was less than I thought I could do.”
“You would have won last time.I know it.If I hadn’t —”
“If you hadn’t interrupted, I don’t know what would have happened.I was surprised and overwhelmed from the start, always playing catch-up.”She paused.“I was furious with you for not trusting me, but truthfully, I didn’t trust myself in that moment.”
“You would have won,” Sera repeated.
“I will this time.”Parisa’s gaze was intense.“There will be no question about who is the stronger Alpha when I’m finished.”
twenty-four
“Youready?”SeraaskedParisa, but she already knew the answer.
Parisa was shedding layers, face twisted in determination.“Ready,” she growled.Gone was the softness from last night.In her place stood a woman who’d been tested time and time again and come out on the other side stronger than before.
She was dauntless in the face of her challenger.Jason was jumpy, itching to fight and hurling taunts across the clearing.Parisa didn’t dignify any of it with a response until she’d finally had enough.
“Stop wasting my time,” Parisa called out.“Are we talking or are we fighting?”
She turned towards Sera, placed a hand on the back of Sera’s neck, and pulled her in for a kiss.Parisa grinned.“Now I’m ready.”She played with the short hairs at the nape of Sera’s neck.“Keep your eyes on me.”
“Always.”
“I love you.Don’t worry.”
“I love you, too.”
Parisa stepped back, stripped, and shifted into her wolf.She was confident before, but there hadn’t been this self-assured calm in her actions.She moved around the edge of the clearing as though she’d already won.Perhaps, in her mind, she had.
Jason snapped his teeth and growled at the other end, his gray and white fur standing on end.
Parisa didn’t wait for him to attack first.She went on the offensive from the beginning, barrelling into him and knocking him off his feet.He flew back into his witness, but got up, angrier than before.He rushed to retaliate, but Parisa was ready.She lunged at him before he could reach her, going for his neck.He dodged at the last second and she only grazed his side, but she’d still made contact and her message was clear.She wasn’t backing down today.
Jason’s rage grew with every slash of teeth, every time he was knocked to the ground.He moved with a desperation to prove himself while Parisa was smooth and in control with every step.Jason became harder to predict as his anger boiled over, and Parisa misstepped, giving him an opening to bring her down.
Sera clenched her hands into hard fists at her side.Her pulse was racing as she was forced to watch and, despite what Parisa said, worry.For all the faith she had in her Alpha, it was still hard to watch her go through this.
Jason dove in towards Parisa’s neck.Sera gasped, staggering forward, but Parisa growled and shoved him off, flinging him to the side as she stood.He crumpled when he hit the ground and he had deep gashes in his skin as proof that Parisa had gotten the best of him more than once.Parisa bore her own wounds, but far fewer and they were shallow enough that they were already healing.
Jason snarled as he tried to stand, but Parisa was already on him, pinning him to the ground as he attempted to bite her legs.Parisa sunk her teeth into his neck as a warning, but Jason refused to give up.
“Yield!”His witness called out from the edge of the clearing.
Jason let out a sickening growl.He snapped his jaws, still trying to tear out bits of Parisa’s fur, but it was futile.She had a hold on him and he was growing weaker from blood loss and exertion.Parisa had won from the very beginning.It was clear to everyone except Jason.
Parisa bit down harder and he howled in pain.
“Yield!”his witness shouted again.
Parisa gave him one final shove into the ground and backed off, giving him space to breathe.Jason stood on trembling legs, still trying to dash forward, but stumbled and fell before he could reach Parisa.He started to shift back, yelping in pain as his bones cracked and reformed.It wasn’t a planned transformation.It was his wolf retreating.
His witness rushed over to tend to his wounds and Parisa walked over on all fours towards her pile of clothes.She let go of the wolf and emerged as her human self with a heavy sigh.She got dressed in the loose-fitting dress she’d worn here and finally turned to Sera.
“I told you not to worry.”Parisa’s chest heaved with the need for deeper breaths.
