~ MACK ~I swore loudly as I yanked the steering wheel so the car tires squealed, sliding around the corner, then careened up the street.I’d driven like a devil to try and get back, but those fucking rogues followed and I’d had to evade them more than once—and now I was hours past when I was supposed to be back.At least my wolf reflexes were still good when I was in human form—I could feel the weight of the car and even in a slide, know how to adjust. But I couldn’t take the time to appreciate the fun of it in that moment. I kept reaching out for the others, searching the link for them, but even though I was finally back in town, they were still out of range.Fuck.I glanced in the rearview

~ RIG ~When my father touched Cara, I didn’t even think. I just leaped towards him.Cara screamed through the link, obviously thinking I’d lost control. But she underestimated me. I knew him even better than she did. I knew he didn’t have any attraction to her. He was baiting me, alright. And even though I was a little calmer knowing she wasn’t unconscious, it still freaked me out. The only thing that stopped me shifting to take his throat on the spot was the knowledge that I needed to do this right. If I didn’t take him in a formal challenge, with witnesses, he was going to weasel out of submitting to me. I knew it.I had to do this right.So, I leaped for him—and his enforcers came for me—but I drew up short, right in front of

SOUNDTRACK: “Be a Hero” by Euphoria and Bolshiee.*****~ NATALIE ~I stood alone on the dirt on the challenger’s side of the arena as the bleachers began to fill. At first it had been so heavily weighted in Rig’s favor because we’d notified the lower ranked wolves first, that I was gaining tentative hope that perhaps his father wouldn’t have the support we’d thought.But as the ticked and word began to spread, the steady trickle of wolves on the Alpha King’s side became a river, and then a flood.And my chest ached.I was shaking, but I couldn’t seem to stop. I couldn’t stop looking at the rows and rows of wolves on the other side of the ar

~ CARA ~'Cara, are you okay? Are you hurt?' Rig sent for the third time since we’d backed out of his father’s driveway so fast the tires squealed on the cobblestones.Charlie drove and Rig sat in the back of his big truck with me, gripping my hand and staring in every direction like he was certain we'd be ambushed at any second, even in the moving vehicle. Mack was behind us in his car with Avery, and Jack drove ahead in the Jeep. No one was talking. Even Charlie was pale.'I'm fine. I'm telling you, Troy is on our side, Rig. Or at least, on mine. He wants a family. He wants his own pack. He's sick of your dad's control.'‘He didn’t

~ RIG ~My father was huge as a wolf, his ruff so thick I wondered if my jaws would be wide enough to penetrate it. As he surged forward, launching himself towards me, I swore, then shifted myself, hearing Cara gasp, because I really had grown.I was brimming with a new strength, a new energy. My power had surged again when he shifted so quickly—by doing so he’d recognized my strength, which weakened him a little in the eyes of other wolves, and risked the wavering of their belief in him.But that just meant he was so confident, he thought he could lose a little of their power and still beat me.Cocky bastard.As the noise of the wolves cheering and howling swelled to shake the rafters, I threw myself across th