Page 29 of Scapegoat

But not the same control.

Kaia, I thought, shoving the image of her at the wolf. Kaia!

My head lunged forward and I gripped the weaselly fuck around the throat. My teeth sunk in enough that Dave’s growl came out strangled and choked.

“Jayden!” Jack snapped, but the other alphas clustered closer, nodding when they saw what I had done.

“He’s neutralised David,” Brock said.

Dave didn’t like that one fucking bit, his head jerking against my grip, but an ounce more pressure on his throat had that idea dying a harsh death. Atlas was at his rear legs, holding one ankle between his jaws and pulling the leg into a painful extension, but not breaking it as Xavier had his teeth digging into the soft skin of Dave’s belly.

“Well done,” Mike said. “You can let him go now.”

We did as we were told, acting like perfectly trained puppies, because Dave was never the real fight. We didn’t even watch him scramble away, instead keeping our eyes trained on the alphas.

“Return to skin,” Jack told us. And the shift? It spun my head, just like the first one, and I could see the same effect on my brothers, leaving the three of us swaying on our feet. “You are the successful contenders.”

“Yeah, we are,” I croaked out, even as Xavier shot me a dark look. “Sorry ’bout that.”

“Have a drink.” Jack nodded to our dads, but only Jackson stepped forward with water bottles. I wasn’t sure where Greg was. We guzzled mouthfuls down as the alphas moved closer.

“You’ve shown you have control over your beasts, but an alpha is not chosen on the strength of his animal. You’ll spend more time in the form of a man than as a wolf. You have to show that you’ve got the power to rule successfully: maintaining control of the pack is part of that, yes, for sure,” Jack said, pausing for a moment to make sure he had our attention.

“But it’s about more than just the ability to beat someone down,” Mike said, continuing the point that was being made. “Keeping the peace means stepping in, quelling discontent, stopping pack members from brutalising others.”

Like Kaia, I thought furiously, dropping my bottle to the ground.

“You have to keep the peace for the benefit of the pack, not for yourself,” Brock told us.

“So how do we do this?” I asked, smiling slowly.

“For fuck’s sake, Jay…” Xavier hissed.

“We want it,” I continued, ignoring my more cautious brother’s warning. “You know we want it and we’ll do whatever it takes to become your heirs, so…?”

“So hold your own, young one,” Mike said, stepping right up to me, making me wonder what the fuck my smart mouth had got me into this time as I stared up, up, up at him. “Nothing below the belt. No bullshit, no sneaky shit. You don’t even have to show that you can take a hit. Show you can go toe to toe with us and—”

I cut him off with a wild swing, one I knew would never actually hit, but I had to try, didn’t I? See if the element of surprise was gonna work in my favour. Mike ducked out of the way before I even got close, but his eyes shone bright silver when he straightened up.

“Looks like we’re doing this,” he growled.

“And I had a whole speech prepared and everything,” Jack said, right before he attacked.

Fuck.

They were so damn fast. Each alpha looked like he had fists the size of Christmas hams, fists that were hurtling towards my pretty, pretty face as I ducked out the way. And that’s all I seemed to spend my time doing. For big fuckers, they swung so damn quick, barely giving me a chance to rally. In the end, I forced myself to take a hit in my shoulder, groaning as I felt the blow reverberate all the way through me, but I sucked that up and then hit out with everything I had.

Kaia, and all my frustration at watching, waiting, for us to finish school so we could be together. And even then the wait hadn’t ended, because of her stupid fucking mother. We could’ve spent the whole summer like most young wolves did, courting her, showing her how good we’d be, but instead her mother’d had her cleaning the shower grout with a toothbrush, or sweeping the floor with her hair. Then there was that red fucking mark on my girl’s face. My teeth gritted hard, shifting to fangs, fur prickling over my skin, not in a shift, but the wolf fusing with me.

He gave me his strength to augment mine, the two of us working in perfect rhythm to do what we had to. Strike back, neutralise the alpha, prove we were worthy. And when my fist connected with Mike’s jaw? It felt like punching a granite boulder except, somehow, against all odds, the boulder shifted.

Mike’s eyes went wide and he just stared blankly for a moment, my fists held high, ready to counter his attack. But it didn’t come, and he stumbled back and into his brothers. My brothers clustered closer, wound in tight and ready.

“What the fuck did you do?” Xavier muttered out of the side of his mouth to me, keeping his eyes on the alphas.

“And how can we do it again?” Atlas added, his energy spiking high in anticipation at hitting back at one of the alphas.

“Wolf and man at the same time.” That was all the instructions I got out as the alphas quickly rallied, narrowing their eyes as they took us in.

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