any good. There was still a look of disdain on his face. I grew more fearful that Irvine and Vaughn would have to resort to violence. But with so many of them surrounding us, I wasn’t sure if even they could hold them off.
“I have no time for this,” the man sighed. “Leave now or I will kill you.”
“You will just let the Nakas have you then?” Vaughn said.
“What would you have us do?” the man asked. “There are thousands of Nakas. We are a clan of less than fifty.”
“So you will just roll over and die?”
“Don’t question my heart!”
The man stepped closer to Vaughn and put his face to his. The two men growled at each other. I released my grip from Vaughn’s arm and took a step back. Irvine stood in front of me and I leaned in close to him.
“Go back to where you came from, Shadow,” the man said. “Leave now before you hurt yourself.”
There was a woman standing next to the man. She was blonde and beautiful. She had no shame of her body, her breasts bared to the open wind. Her tall and slim physique was something to be proud of and there wasn’t any doubt that she was the man’s Alpha.
When I looked at her, she gave me a resentful look. Her eyebrows arched and her eyes narrowed, forcing me to look away. She moved closer to her mate and slowly started to pull him away.
“Do not waste your time, my love,” she said to him in a scornful voice. “A wolf who spends his time with such human filth is not worthy of your time.”
I looked back up at her and she was still eyeballing me in a way that would make any woman shudder. The pupils of her eyes were red. They were burning fire not like anything I’d ever seen before. I was standing so close to Irvine that I was practically knocking him over.
The tension was thick. Any second one of them could snap and I would find myself in the middle of a circle of violence.
Please… Let this end… I don’t want to be here any longer.
I was pleading with someone I didn’t know with but my heart felt like it could no longer take it. And as if my prayers had been answered, the man slowly started to back away as the blonde woman tugged on his arm.
“Go,” he said. “Run away before it’s too late.”
“If you are unwilling to fight for your territory then I will take it from you,” Vaughn said to him.
“Now you threaten me?”
The man pulled his arm free from the woman and got back into Vaughn’s face. The two growled at one another and I searched for Irvine to brace myself upon him.
“You are no Alpha,” Vaughn snarled at him. “I challenge you!”
“You are not Doras! You do not have the right to challenge for leadership!”
“I’m not challenging you for your leadership. This clan is yours. I challenge you for your obedience.”
“You come into my territory with them and spit on your brethren? Now you insult my honor. I should rip out your throat where you stand!”
“If you will not listen to reason, then I will make you!”
In the blink of an eye, the two men growled at one another and shifted into wolves. Vaughn pounced upon him and the two struggled with one another on the ground.
“Vaughn!”
I cried out and reached toward him but Irvine pulled me back. I looked at him and he shook his head, silently telling me that this was Vaughn’s fight and Vaughn’s alone. I turned around and looked at all of the men as they watched the two wolves struggle with one another. The blonde woman eyed the fight with anger in her eyes and her teeth clenched.
The brown wolf struggled underneath Vaughn, who snapped at his throat. Just as Vaughn was positioning himself on top of him, the other wolf kicked him off. Vaughn quickly worked his way back to his feet and snarled back. The brown wolf charged at him. The loud sound of their teeth snapping at each other made me cringe. Every time it happened, I worried that one of them would be ripped apart.
They clawed each other. Blood sprayed onto the ground. Streaks of red appeared