Were in the City Ch. 24

"Do you have someone I could spar with ... in wolf form? I need to practice."

Billings sighed, "Thinking about the possibility of a challenge fight are you?"

Jessie nodded, "Yes. As I told you yesterday I'm a newbie to all this. Even though J... my friends ... have been teaching me, and I've been in a few fights, I still have a lot to learn. I need to know as much as I can about how a challenge works and I need to test myself against other opponents. Do you have someone who would help me? I'm afraid my talons don't retract all the way so there's a possibility of being hurt, whoever you ask should know that."

Billings laughed, "Sparring with anyone other than a beta or an alpha would do you no good at all, and if you want to learn then you had better be prepared to get hurt yourself. You won't survive a challenge if you don't give it everything you've got. I'll ask Kyle. If you can't hold your own against him I would suggest you skip tomorrow's Council meeting and run for the hills!"

She sighed, "I don't think Kyle likes me."

Billings nodded, "He's protecting his pack and his pregnant mate. He's the strongest beta I know. He might lead this pack one day if I never have any children to pass my mantle to, though he would hate the politics of the job. He could have had a high ranking position in a larger, more influential pack than ours but I am very glad he and Dora wanted to stay with us ... Ok, Kyle says he'll give you a workout. Meet him at the challenge ring in 30 minutes."

Half an hour later, having gotten the directions to the challenge area from Billings, she stood facing Kyle. No one else was around, thank heavens. She didn't want an audience.

Kyle pointed to a pattern of large stones, "Every pack property has a challenge circle. Once you enter, if you leave it before the fight ends you lose. An Alpha challenge ends with death or submission. The victor may grant their opponent life upon submission ... or may not. Most do not."

Jessie muttered, "Yup, I know that last part already."

Kyle nodded, "Good. You may shift inside or outside the circle, stepping in as wolf or human makes no difference but be wary. The fight can begin as soon as both are in the circle ... no fancy declarations or bowing or other stupid rituals are necessary, so if you walk in as a human and your opponent is already a wolf ... well, you're dead quick."

Jessie sighed, "Got it."

"Don't pull your punches, I want to see everything you can do." Kyle stripped, shifted into a large dark-brown wolf and backed into the circle, his eyes never leaving Jessie. She shifted, keeping her eyes on him, and walked around the outside of the circle putting some distance between them before stepping inside. There was plenty of room to move around but she had a brief feeling of being trapped ... brief because Kyle launched himself at her, fast and furious, and her focus narrowed immediately to staying alive.

She used every move, every trick Jacob and Liam had shown her, every instinct her other half could provide. She got hit, tripped, tossed, torn, bit, stomped, kicked, rolled ... but never pinned. Jacob's first rules, 'Never stay down; Never stop moving', kept rattling around in her head as she worked hard to keep facing Kyle and not get driven outside the circle ... which Kyle kept trying to do, damn it. Wasn't that cheating?!

She managed to get some good kicks to his sides, her talons had left several long gashes, and she had clamped her teeth onto a back leg for a few seconds, which slowed him down a little bit after, but he was bigger than her and solid ... knocking him over was impossible. She'd tried several times to get on top of him and dig her talons in but he always saw that coming and avoid each attempt. Every part of her was hurting, it would be so nice to stop but she would not, could not, submit to a beta. But how could she beat him? It was obvious he was a very experienced fighter.

She let her near-exhaustion show, breathing hard and moving a bit slower, as she let Kyle drive her nearer the edge of the circle. The stones that marked the boundary were spaced about 5 feet apart and were big boulders. Her back legs scraped against a stone and she lunged forward trying to drive Kyle backwards and give her room. He jumped at her, all legs in the air but instead of colliding with her body at the last second she did a very undignified and un-wolf-like pancake onto the ground. He flew over her, scrambling to stay inside the circle. Jumping up, she twisted and slammed him as hard as she could into the edge of the stone. The sound of his leg breaking was horrible as was the loud howl of pain that came right after.

She shifted and approached him, apologizing, "I'm so sorry, I was hoping to just knock the wind out of you. It's bad isn't it? Have you called for help?"

Kyle kicked her viciously with both hind legs and she hit the ground gasping and retching. Luckily she still had enough sense to watch him as he shifted, his bleeding arm with a broken bone protruding from it pulled close to his chest. When he moved to stomp on her leg she rolled away and tried to get to her feet. A solid punch to the side of her head put her on the ground again.

"You want to claim a leader's place in our world do you? The youngest pup knows more than you do. You lose an Alpha challenge you die. NEVER stop fighting until your opponent is dead or submits to you ... NEVER!"

Kyle knelt down, wrapped his good arm around her neck and squeezed. "Submit, you foolish little wannabe. You know nothing, you are nothing. You can't survive here."

Jessie gasped out "Fuck you!" and grabbed his bare arm with both hands. "The pain in your broken arm is agony and your whole body feels the same way."

His body shaking, Kyle groaned and slumped sideways to lie twitching on the ground. Jessie sat up, keeping a hand on his shoulder and looked in his eyes. "No more pack talk."

He gasped, "What the hell?"

She sighed and coughed, her diaphragm aching and her head pounding, "Now, will you submit to me? ... or shall I tell you to stop breathing?"

His eyes showed pain and confusion, but he clamped his mouth shut and made no move to present his neck in submission.

"Fine. We'll just do it the other way. You can't move or shift."

Jessie got to her feet, thanking her lucky stars that they were not too far from the edge of the circle, hooked her arms under Kyle's arms and started dragging him to the boundary. He was a big man ... it was not easy and she was straining all sorts of herself that were already in pain ... but she kept pulling and jerking him along until every part of him was on the other side.

She lay down beside him, feeling dizzy and nauseated. Touching him, she managed to say "You may move, shift, talk again and the pain is normal. I win asshole." before she closed her eyes. Her victory felt hollow. Maybe he was right, maybe she couldn't survive in the pack world.

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Alpha Robert Billings' POV

Hundred Lakes Pack

He was talking with Dora down by the main barn, reviewing how everyone was doing with the new guard shifts, when he heard Kyle howl in pain. Dora gasped and started towards the sound.

No, wait ... Kyle? What's happening?

She broke my arm! Bloody hell! Give me a few more minutes to finish this, then send over a medic please. We are both going to need some care.

Billings nodded to Dora, I'll have Brett and Dora meet you there with a med kit. Dora, find Jessie's friends and bring them along so they don't get spooked. That should give Kyle the time he needs. He grinned, She broke his arm ... so she's got some skill. That's good news.

Dora groaned, So very glad you are pleased ... but you are not the one who will have to listen to Kyle complain for the next few weeks while it heals.

Less than ten minutes later a variety of people had congregated at the circle. Jessie had cold packs on a few places, including her face ... the bruises there were not going to look good tomorrow and Billings couldn't decide if that was a positive or negative thing for the Council meeting ... and both her male pack members were stitching up various wounds. Kyle's arm was a real mess, they were going to have to take him to the clinic to get that taken care of. Dora and Brett were stitching up his other wounds. Kyle should still have been in a good mood but he wasn't ... something was wrong.

"What's going on Kyle? You keep looking at Jessie like she ... well I hate to say it ... you look like she makes you nervous."

Kyle took a deep breath, "Yes, she does. She's dangerous. Stay away from her."

Billings saw Jessie look at her pack members, all three nodding at her. She looked at him, "I would not hurt any of you." She looked at Kyle, "You said you wanted to see everything I could do. You're a beta. I couldn't let you win could I? If it makes you feel better, the unusual things I can do have limitations. They are better as a surprise ... I don't know how useful they'd be if everyone knew about them."

Kyle grunted, "You could not have won without them. You have some fighting skills in Were form but very little training or experience. You've had no combat training in human form have you? You were thinking though -- a good sign that you can get better. Trouble is, your gryphon body shape and size are no good against a full-grown alpha or beta wolf. You are an Alpha in a smaller body ... that's going to be a problem. Those feathers around your neck and down your spine are not good either, thick fur protects those vulnerable areas better."

One of the twins (oh why did her pack have to include de Vries rogues!) spoke up, "She has to attack right from the start, inflict enough damage immediately to give her an advantage. If she is forced to defend she'll tire fast."

Billings could see Kyle found Jessie's situation an interesting problem. His Beta was the pack training master and had met almost all the current Alphas and Betas over the years -- if anyone could help work out a strategy for Jessie to win challenges Kyle had the knowledge to do it.

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Mark and Stephen Richard's POV

France

"They are all still alive?! Jack said they were gone. How the fuck did this go so wrong?!"

Mark stared at the image on his phone, a long-distance shot of the other twin and Beth Parker getting out of a car at Hundred Lakes.

"And how the hell does a rogue walk up to the gate at ANY pack property and get welcomed like she's a long lost relative or something! Not just her but the fucking de Vries twins ... and they are not in chains. I want that idiot Billings dealt with before this is over ... and Jenkins too. Those two are giving others ideas that I want suppressed quickly."

Stephen sighed, "We'll get to that. Right now though we have to decide what we are going to do about the Council meeting tomorrow. There's a good chance Jessie Taylor has enough proof for her claim. How should we let it play out?"

Mark started pacing, "If she's got enough proof to be convincing we give it to her ... for now. She's doing our work for us, getting her mantle on record. She only gets one vote. I want every Alpha who voted against the rogue proposal squeezed -- it cannot be as close a result the next time."

Stephen nodded, "That is already happening believe me. We also have to deal with her accusation against our new Algonquin Alpha."

Mark shook his head, "She has no proof, how could she? She's guessing. It was a quick way to remove his votes in the moment but it can't stand. The Chairman will demand proof tomorrow and when she can't provide it our Algonquin man is back."

"Now, Helen's little show a few nights ago has given me a wonderful idea of how to deal with her. I want it ready to go after the Council votes to finish her tomorrow."

Stephen sighed, "You are sure she wasn't making a real point?"

Mark laughed, "No way it's real. If she had that kind of power, the numbers she claims, why hasn't she used it before now? She's desperate and trying to make the Council afraid to deal with her. Probably had a few people in place for years, ready to use that play if she had nothing else left. And she doesn't have anything left. I will be so happy when that fucking thorn is removed from our sides, I can hardly wait."

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Alpha William Jenkins' POV

Jenkins Pack

There had been more than a few times in the past couple of weeks when he wished he'd said a firm 'No' to Jessie Taylor when she'd ask if he wanted to make a part of the Were world a safer, better place. He liked his quiet, small corner of the world where his family and his pack were safe and secure ... as long as he behaved, as long as he went along with things he hated. He had tried hard not to let the things he knew were happening to others depress him but they had, his mate had noticed and had worried about him.

Now he was smack in the middle of the storm. He wasn't sleeping well, he'd never done so much politicking over the phone in his life, and he was more than a little scared that at some point he and his pack were going to be made an example of. He'd done everything he could think of to keep everyone safe, every pack member had drilled more in the last month than they had in the last few years. He just hoped it would be enough.

He was sitting at his desk, nursing what had to be at least his eighth cup of coffee for the day, when his phone rang. The caller ID just said "Unknown". Even so, he answered it ... having had quite a number of such calls lately from wolves who wanted to remain anonymous.

"Alpha Jenkins?"

"Yes, I'm Jenkins. Why are you calling?"

"It's Gordon ... Gordon Brooks. I am supposed to call you."

Jenkins was tired and impatient, "Why?"

"Will you do as she promised? Will you make sure my mate is safe?"

He suddenly remembered who Gordon was. Fuck, it seemed like eons ago when Jessie had sent Gordon back to the Algonquin Pack as a spy.

"Gordon! Yes ... yes ... we will help you. Tell me what you know. Tell me everything!"