Chapter Fourteen

Leo's friends were surprisingly unsurprised when he told them he was planning on challenging the Alpha.

"Shit, finally," Raj said, stretching out on the couch. "I've been waiting for this for ages."

Leo just stared at him. "What?"

"I mean, it has seemed pretty inevitable," Emmett explained. "To us, at least."

"I literally never considered it until maybe an hour before I rang you two," Leo said.

"People have been getting sick of 'Alpha James' for years," Emmett said, the title dripping sarcasm in a way he could only do inside, away from potential listening ears. "The only reason he hasn't been challenged half a dozen times by now is because he had you as a Second, and before he got sick, your dad. You'll be a pack hero once you take him down."

I only want to be her hero, something in Leo said, but he shoved away the thought. He couldn't afford to be distracted by Della right now.

"Tonight," he said out loud. "I'm doing it tonight."

"Why?" Em started, then clued in. "Oh, right. Full moon."

"I'm not waiting another month to make this right," Leo said.

"You could always be a tiny bit less adherent to the traditions and challenge him on a night that isn't a full moon," Raj suggested.

"I'm doing this right, so he can't challenge the result," Leo insisted. "It has to be tonight." He swallowed. "And I know it's a lot to ask, and I won't be upset if you say no, but—"

"Hell yeah, I'll be your Second," Raj interrupted.

"Now wait just a minute," Emmett said. "Who said he was going to ask you?"

"I beat you last time we fought," Raj pointed out.

"I had just finished another fight, and you were fresh," Em protested. "That was hardly a fair contest."

Raj shrugged. "I still won."

Leo thought perhaps it was time to intervene before things got ugly. "I actually was thinking Raj. Em, you ran two training sessions this morning. Plus, we have the same fighting style. If Raj comes in as my Second when I go down—"

"If you go down," Raj interrupted.

"If I go down," Leo acknowledged, "then it'll force whoever James picks as his Second to totally change their style when they're already worn out."

Emmett considered that for a moment, then acknowledged the validity of the point with a slight incline of his head. "All right. But I would've won that fight if I hadn't just finished sparring with Julian."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, man," Raj drawled. "All right, when do we leave? I'm guessing you want to get it all done before everyone comes back from the Apex River thing, to reduce James' choices for Second?"

"Hold up," Leo said. "What Apex River thing?"

Emmett and Raj looked at each other. "Dude, how out of it have you been?" Raj asked. "I mean, I know the whole Della thing has messed you up, but the pack's been talking about this for days."

"About what?" Leo asked, ignoring the stab of pain that hearing Della's name brought on.

"James is making a bid to take over Apex River territory tonight," Emmett explained. "He's sent more than half the pack's fighters down there to ensure they surrender."

Leo had leapt from his chair before he could think. "Is he insane? No one's tried an invasion of territory in… what, two hundred years? And why would he need to? We're already the largest pack in the city." And why the fuck didn't he tell me? Leo thought. I'm his Beta. I should surely know when he's planning a fucking invasion. Or did he, and I've just been so out of it that it didn't even register? Have I failed this pack as their Beta by letting this happen just because I've been consumed with my own goddamned heartbreak?

"Hey, snap out of that," Raj ordered, snapping his fingers in front of Leo's face. "He probably didn't tell you because he knew you'd say it was a stupid, narcissistic, imperialistic thing to do, which it is."

"But what if—" Leo started.

"What if nothing," Emmett took over. "Leo, you're going to be a thousand times better as an Alpha than James is. This is the best thing for the pack. Now let's get it done, shall we?"

"Midnight," Leo said. "We lay down the challenge at midnight. You can bet James will be at Horatio's at that time on a full moon night. And the whole thing will be over by sunrise, one way or another."

"No one way or another about it," Raj said, full of confidence. "We're going to kick their asses, James and whatever fighter he chooses as his Second. We've got this, Leo."

"Yeah," Leo said, unwilling to let himself be convinced. He needed to be prepared for anything. For James pulling someone out of the woodwork who could somehow take down both him and Raj. For this mystery fighter doing serious damage to him in the process. For James winning and ejecting him from the pack, forcing him to leave his friends and family behind. Maybe even leave the city, because who would accept a disgraced former Beta who failed in a challenge of his Alpha? Who would even dare anger the city's largest pack—even larger, if they absorbed Apex River tonight—by taking in their former Beta? For Raj being hurt in the fight as his Second. For James punishing his friends and family for his sins once Leo himself was gone.

He had almost talked himself out of the whole endeavour when Raj clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. Get out of that place in your head," he ordered, his tone a stark contrast from his usual goofy good humour. "This is the right thing to do, Leo. It's time and past that we show James we won't tolerate his bullshit anymore. You and I, we can take anyone he throws in our path. We can bring this role—this pack—back to where it's meant to be. We can stop the people we care about living in fear of pissing off the asshole in Horatio's. We can change things for the better around here."

His words were so like those Della had voiced that Leo felt the tether that eternally linked him to her jolt, tugging on him. Raj was right. It was time to be a better man—one who didn't tolerate violence and brutality without trying to counter it.

One who Della wouldn't have run away from.

"Yes," he said out loud. "It's time."

***

There must have been some invisible signal to the wolves in the Blue Crescent Pack when the hour Apex River had been given was up, because they came at the barrier the pack had formed like a rolling wave of fur, claws, and fangs. Della had only seen a werewolf in wolf form once, that day with Leo by the waterfall that she wouldn't let herself think about, and the sight of dozens of them shifting on the fly and streaming across the territory border towards her was an entirely different experience. Unlike Leo on that sunlight-drenched day by the water, these wolves were geared to attack, to wound, maybe even to kill, the pack she was protecting.

She raised her hands and pressed down into the well of her magic. She drew it up in tendrils and sent them out at the attacking wolves, freezing them in their tracks. She kept them still long enough for the Apex River wolves to dart between them, doing damage that made her sick to think about. Enough to stop them fighting, but nothing permanent, Simon had ordered, and she didn't want to look closely enough to confirm they were following his orders.

Instead of watching the fighting exclusively, Della checked on the other witches. Lucy and Viv had hesitated at the sight of the onslaught of wolves, but quickly joined their power to create a wall of solidified air that the attackers crashed into. Adele was doing well at holding the wall to Della's right, as Troy sent waves of fear and despair into the invading pack. Normandy had not only erected an eight-foot-high wall of ice but was also sending darts of flame forwards beyond it that left their attackers dodging and reeling. It was working.

The wolves they'd funneled into the space at the centre of their magical wall met Simon's fighters, some in their full wolf forms, others half-shifted and making the most of their teeth and claws. It was brutal. This was violence as she'd never seen it, had never even considered it—bloody and brutal and un choreographed and real. That was real blood she was seeing spilled on the already-slick tarmac, real cries, and howls of pain as each pack fought for supremacy.

Some fell. A couple did not get back up.

With an effort, Della refocused on her section of the witches' wall. Wolves from the Blue Crescent side still ran at the portion of solidified air she'd created, only to find themselves frozen in place for the Apex River wolves to prowl forward and ensure they were unable to continue fighting. The issue was once the Apex River wolves were on the other side of her wall, they had to fight their way back to the safety behind it. Even with her depth of power, Della couldn't immobilize every wolf that attacked one who belonged to the pack she was protecting—not when she didn't know how long she'd need to hold this wall, anyway. So, she was forced to stand and watch, as the Blue Crescent and Apex River wolves tore each other to shreds in front of her, throwing out a magical bolt every now and then when she could see it would make an important difference.

"Della!" Adele, with whom Della was holding the wall this side of the bottleneck gap, yelled to her over the wolves' growls and snarls and howls of pain. "I can't hold this much longer!"

"Step back!" Della yelled back. "Regroup! I can hold it!"

As Adele drew her flickering power back from the wall, Della drew from the deep well of magic within herself and extended her defense to cover the other witch's section. After all Dane had done to her, the toll the reroot had taken on her, she'd feared it would cut her off from her power forever. Instead, over the course of months and years, she'd found that the power within her grew greater and greater, as though the magic was responding to the assault on it by growing ever stronger. She'd never tested the depth of this well of reinvigorated power, never pushed herself to a burnout, or even close. Her magic was just always there, no matter how much she used it, deep and powerful and purring like a needy kitten for release.

It reveled in the moment of liberation when she extended her area of defense to cover Adele's, almost as if it were a separate being to her, a leashed animal within her that had suddenly been given free rein. She extended her wall to cover Adele's space with almost surprising ease, feeling as much as seeing the Blue Crescent wolves who thought they'd dodged her area of influence slam into it and find themselves frozen at the mercy of the Apex River wolves who fought to reach them, to ensure they were unable to continue fighting.

The Blue Crescent attackers were thinning, concentrating on the bottleneck gap. Their plan was working.

But the witches couldn't hold the wall much longer. With the constant challenges of wolves slamming into their defenses, their power was fading. Della could feel it in the echoes of power from the other side of their wall. Troy was all but burnt out, but still sending weakening waves of terror into the Blue Crescent wolves who still fought through the gap in the wall. Viv and Lucy were visibly leaning on each other, holding their portion of the wall, while Normandy was struggling to keep her ice barrier frozen.

Some part of Della that was more than the identity she knew reached down into the well of her power. Down, down, down. And still, she did not reach the bottom.

She could do it. She could hold this wall.

"Troy!" she yelled, her voice magically amplified. "You're too close to burnout. Step back and recharge, I'll hold it."

"Can you?" he called back.

"I've got this!" she shouted. She pushed her magic across the bottleneck gap, where wolves were slashing at each other with teeth and claws, and covered Troy's section. Her magic reveled in the unfamiliar degree of extension, and the euphoria rising in Della almost made her question what she was doing. This sheer joy of testing the limits of her magic… surely, it was out of place in a territory war. Surely, she shouldn't be gaining this much satisfaction from every attacking wolf who slammed into her wall of power, who found themselves immobilized by her magic. But as she extended herself to cover for a burnt-out Normandy, then Lucy and Viv, until it was only her holding the entire defensive wall, the well of magic in her rejoiced. Finally, it seemed to call, she was diving down into it, exploring the depth of magic given to her like a gift to compensate for the years of Dane's abuse.

Della held the wall. Standing to the side of the bottleneck battle, muscles straining against an invisible force, Della held. Wolves crashed into her defenses, trying to break through, and she immobilized them with darts of fire and ice and solidified air made as sharp as a blade. The magic in her pulsed and rejoiced, seeking an outlet, seeking freedom, reveling in the moment it was released. She sent out her magic to cover the Apex River werewolves as they burst through the bottleneck gap to engage the final standing Blue Crescent wolves, and something in her wanted to howl at the moon as they did when they defeated an opponent, wanted to become the most primitive version of herself that she could, relishing this release of her power overcoming an enemy.

She was so deep in her magic that she hardly realized when no more attackers were hitting her wall. She hardly noticed that she was no longer immobilising the Blue Crescent wolves, until a tap came on her shoulder, and she slammed back into her physical body, breathing deep into lungs that felt suddenly starved for air, dropping her aching arms. Finally seeing through her wide-open eyes—seeing the fallen combatants surrounding her like a halo of carnage, the Apex River wolves howling their victory. The attackers limped away from the place they'd been beaten. Wolves shifted back into their human forms, their fur disappearing to reveal slashed skin on limbs and abdomens, some needing to be carried away from the battle ground.

It was Simon's hand that had landed on her shoulder, bringing her back to herself. He certainly looked like he'd been in a war, blood running down his face, slices marking both his arms.

"Della," he said, his voice awed. "Della, it's done. You can stop now."

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking at the retreating wolves around them.

"Don't worry," Simon said, his hand still on her shoulder. "I have guards in place along the perimeter. If they try to launch another attack, we'll be ready. But I don't think they will."

"Why not?" Della asked.

"They've already been defeated once," Simon said, a glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes. "No one wants to lose two fights in a row. And we've just shown them that with our allies," he gestured to her, "they'll have to do better than that to beat us."

"I can't believe we won," Della murmured, the muscles along her spine finally relaxing so she sagged.

"Me either," Simon admitted quietly. "But before we take the time to celebrate, there's something I need to do, and I was wondering if you'd come with me."