Page 63 of On A Rift's Edge
Cesmak snarled and charged forward, unable to wait the few seconds it would have taken for Gremory to tie both Kat and Lyall together and drag them off.
Lyall had expected that and managed to wriggle out of his mother’s grasp as she shifted her weight. He didn’t have much of a plan. Remi was unconscious at best, and he had no other way to shift back into his hellhound form.
If he had to fight his mothers as a Scottish terrier to protect Kat and Remi, he would.
He knew how stubborn Kat was, and he didn’t think he would step aside and let Cesmak kill Ari.
The first few drops of water barely registered, but as the dripping intensified, Lyall was forced to look skyward.
All that got him was a splash of water to his face. He blinked, then shook off the drenching shower that rained down upon him. Above him floated a sphere of water, rotating like a top and spraying water everywhere.
Teo, now fully in his hopper form, fell out of the sphere and landed with a splash in front of Lyall. He spread his bulbous fingers out wide.
The shift from Earth natural laws to the Riftworld universe was abrupt. One second Lyall was a Scottish terrier, the next he was a full-grown hellhound, snarling in the face of his alpha.
Lyall knew how to challenge the military leader of his clan for the leadership position. The words, the posture—they had been drilled into him since childhood. He had never wanted this, never thought that a fight that might end in his death or having to kill one of his two mothers was acceptable.
Kat had risked his life to protect Arimanius, a man who had deceived and tricked him, in order to do what was right.
It was Lyall’s turn to do the right thing. Even if it killed him.
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If Kat had been frightened before, it was nothing compared to the fear he had now.
Lyall was back in his true shape and was now face-to-face with another hellhound as large as he was.
A hellhound who was also one of his mothers.
Kat watched as the two Riftworld fighters circled one another. He couldn’t take his eyes off Lyall’s pale fur, stained pink from his own blood. Cesmak stalked around him, her movements predatory. The floating sphere of water above them rotated faster and faster, then dissolved into vapor and disappeared.
“Do you understand, little human?” Gremory, Lyall’s other mother, spoke up right next to him, and Kat jumped. “My son has challenged the alpha of our clan to a battle for leadership.”
“Is this a fight to the death thing, or is pinning the other fighter to the mat enough?” Kat had a feeling he didn’t want to know the answer, but he asked it anyway.
“A death is not mandatory but often occurs.” Gremory stood straight and rigid, and even though Gremory wasn’t human or even from Earth, he caught the undercurrent of grief and worry in her words.
There was no time left to talk. Lyall and Cesmak attacked one another in a vicious assault of teeth and claws. For several moments, neither of the two appeared to have an advantage over the other. Then Lyall’s leg slid out from under him, and Cesmak pounced. She came down on his body, her jaws slashing at the wound on Lyall’s back.
Lyall went limp, and for a second, Cesmak paused in her attack.
That was all Lyall needed. He flung her body off his, then twisted to seize her neck in his own jaws. She thrashed, but he only tightened his hold.
Kat had to remind himself to breathe. Everyone else in the room remained motionless as Cesmak’s movements slowed. Kat prayed silently for this not to end in her death.
If Lyall killed one of his mothers to protect him, Kat would never forgive himself.
He doubted Lyall would forgive himself, either.
Beside him, Gremory transformed, moving with grace on all four legs as she approached her wife and son.
Light rippled over her black fur, like the flash of a meteor in the night sky, and sounds that were at once harsh and melodic came from her muzzle.
Lyall released his hold on his mother and backed up. Both Cesmak and Gremory tilted their heads, exposing the soft underside of their throats to him.
Lyall altered his form back to a human shape, covered in his living leather armor. He was breathing hard and had a swollen right eye. His two mothers changed their shapes as well, with a bloodied Cesmak held up by her smaller spouse.
“It is done,” Gremory told Lyall, keeping a tight grip on Cesmak, who was gasping for breath. “You’re the alpha now.”
