Chapter 27: Ick

**Raegan**

The next two days went much like the first day of the conference. Some bickering between me and Zander, and then smooth sailing for the rest of the meeting.

Stone Moon was gathering a lot of support, and a lot of new resources. We'd even gotten a hefty number of offers to trade for extra paws. Some of the midwestern packs wanted seafood in exchange for their wolves, others wanted the favor to be returned at a later date. The packs that offered wolves without asking for anything in return were the international packs. Cassian was the first to offer, then Alpha Renald, and some South American Alphas, and then a British one, followed by the last Alpha who offered help from his pack located in Greece. It was a little strange seeing so many Alphas from so many corners of the world, but it was a welcome experience. The Grecian Alpha had pre-established alliances with a good number of the packs on that side of the globe, and his bode of good will encouraged them to do the same. Not just with Stone moon, but with other American packs too. However, I noticed that more and more of the international Alphas were sitting with Shawn and I during the meal times.

At first just Renald, and then Renald and Tony, and then both of them plus Dimitri, and then them plus Laila, and then Colin with them, and so on and so forth until we had a wide array of nationalities sitting at our table for breakfast and lunch.

The King was ectatic. He loved that so many international packs were taking interest in packs in Western packs.

On the fourth day of the conference, I rematched with Cris. No hang ups this time.

We circled each other on the training mat, he watched me like a predator, with a smirk on his face. A smirk I was more than happy to wipe off.

"What do I get when I win, Rae?" He asked.

I huffed, and continued to circle. He always favored his left side, in every fight we'd ever had it was his left side that was weaker. Today though, I saw no difference in his preference to either side. It put me off, but I knew he was likely trying to throw me. So I would have to go for his right side today first, just to throw him off the way I was. Then I would have an even playing field to match his general size over mine.

"Win and find out," I responded finally. The words that ignited his will to fight. He launched forward, and I dodged him as he pounced. Narrowly, I evaded him.

He cursed as he landed onto the mat, and I quickly spun around to kick him to the ground completely from where he'd fallen into a crouching position. He buckled under the kick, but only enough to give him wiggle room to grab my ankle and yank me down.

I hit the mat with a thud, and he tried to crawl on top of me to pin me. Panic set into my bones, and I brought my knees to my chest before pushing them out into his stomach with all of my might. He grunted, but fell back and I had enough space to get back to my feet and scramble further away from him. He recovered quickly and was back on his feet, diving for me just as soon as his feet hit the ground.

I leapt out of the way and kicked off my tennis shoes before launching myself at his back and gripping tightly to him while dropping my weight backwards. I clung onto him tightly, my arms around his neck, and my legs around his torso as I pulled back.

He grunted, and grabbed my legs, spinning me around and tossing me to the ground. I glared up at him as the wind was knocked out of me. He grinned, and rounded on me, getting ready to pin me down.

Just as he started to get above me to straddle me and hold me down, I rolled, and as he flopped on top of me, he collided with my hip and shoulder bones. He grunted and tried to maneuver me, but I wrapped my arms underneath his to hold onto his shoulders and then shoved him backwards so that I was straddling him. I pressed my forearm into his throat as I kneeled on his thighs and pressed his wrists down above his head with my free hand.

"*Concede!*" I growled into his face.

He was still smirking.

My wolf growled lowly. His eyes raked over every inch of my body available for him to oggle. I grimaced, and pressed my forearm deeper into his throat. His eyes widened a little, and he started to struggle beneath me as his fight or flight kicked in, "concede," I repeated.

He bared his teeth at me, and yanked one hand free. I cursed, and let go of the hold, knowing it wouldn't have lasted long with his hand now free. I pushed away from him as I released him, and by the time he was recovered I was already up and away from him.

He swept his leg out towards me, trying to knock me, but he grossly overestimated how close he was to me, and missed my legs by about two feet.

I grinned, and started to circle him while he rose to his feet, glaring at me.

With every lap I made around him he got angrier, and just as his anger peaked and I saw him coil into himself to spring forward at me again, I launched myself towards him once more. I made sure that my shoulder and collarbone collided with his chest directly as both of our strengths hit the other. The running impact I had was greater than his stationary impact though, and I got him to fall back on his ass once more. He pulled me with him though, and tried to roll on top of me. I jerked out of his grasp, and moved to grab his arm. I shifted upwards to hold it into a Cross Armbreaker. He gasped once as he realized what my hold on him was, and strained for half a second before yelping and tapping on the ground furiously with his free hand.

I released him and sprawled out on the mat, breathing heavily with sweat dripping down the sides of my face.

He sprawled out next to me, breathing just as heavy as I was.

"So, what do you win?" He asked, a little amusment in his voice as he spoke.

"You. In a pregnancy suit. For the last day of the conference. No caffiene. No raw fish. No alcohol. Every rule that an *incubator* has to follow, you'll have to follow."

His face dropped as I heaved the words out. His eyes darted to my abdomen, and then to his, "you're shitting me, right?"

"Nope," I shook my head.

Laughter erupted around us, and I saw a hand extend in front of me. I followed it back and grinned at the sight of my mate sporting his own grin down at me.

I clasped my hand in his and he pulled me up gently, "you managed to kick his ass without ever needing to land an actual punch."

"Punching isn't my style," I smiled. He laid his hands on my hips.

"The night you punched, who was it? Bart? Barren?"

"*Gabe?*" I raised my brows incredulously.

He snapped his fingers as if he remembered it, "that would be the one. Yeah, the night you punched him square in the nose would beg to differ on that count."

"That was a... special circumstance."

"You weren't even fighting anymore."

"Like I said, special circumstance."

He chuckled, and tucked a loose strand of my hair behind my ear, "let's go get you something for lunch."

"Fuck *yes.* I love food. Music to my ears, lead the way, handsome," I gestured towards the door.

He shook his head, and turned around, crouching down a little.

I laughed, "are you offering me a piggy back ride?"

"It's the mode of transportation that all champions use, haven't you heard?" He looked over his shoulder to smirk at me.

I rolled my eyes, but gladly took his offer. "I hope you know, I'm sweaty and gross, and you're going to smell like sweat and gross stuff for offering this."

"How vain do you think I am?" He scoffed, but wrapped his hands underneath my thighs and stood to his full height as I wrapped my limbs around him.

"So vain."

"Yee of little faith," he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

I laughed, and leaned my chin on his shoulder, inhaling his scent while I was there just out of pure oppurtunity.

As we walked, he hummed to himself, and I found myself listening to the soft melody intently.

I didn't recognize it, but it soothed both me and my wolf. Something only Coal seemed capable of doing. I wondered if I had the same affect on him and his wolf.

When we got to the palace he set me down on the island counter, and started bustling around to prepare a meal for me.

We were in companionable silence while he worked around the kitchen. The only audible things going around the room being his melody and the soft breathing of us and the guards.

The simple domesticity of it made me content. But deep down, I knew, all good things must come to an end.