This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,74
at the front of the room, eyeing them warily.
What is this behavior? Are they trying to establish dominance? Pack hierarchy?
If so, it’s no wonder Helen told Tristan to keep me apart from the pack last night.
Too much sensory input, my ass.
Helen knew—Tristan knew—they’d come after me.
I was always an outcast among my own pack, my status determined right from the start—from the moment my mother slapped me, to be exact. From that moment on, every other wolf was above me.
Now, I’m a grown wolf who has entered a new pack. I guess the women need to know where they stand.
I’m aware of Tristan pacing at the side of the room, more twitchy than I’ve ever seen him. He’s agitated, shoulders hunched, stepping toward me and then back, as if he’s having a mental war with himself.
He can’t get involved.
If he comes to my assistance, I won’t gain any respect at all. I don’t know much about pack law, but I do know that.
So far, I haven’t needed my wolf’s energy, but I’m prepared to access it if I have to.
Just as the two women force me out into the open, a group of five women emerge from the elevator. The behavior of the first two is like a trigger. The newcomers immediately drop their gym bags and begin to circle me.
Great.
“Prepare for a walloping,” Bridget says with a nasty grin.
I should be calm, but I’m not. The past is my enemy. I’ve trained with Iyana for months, but the real fight is in my head. My last battle, which I was also forced into, ended with my father’s death. His voice was always a constant reminder inside my head. Hide your wolf. Don’t show your strength.
Now, for the first time since he died, my wolf is my friend.
As quickly as I can, I pull at the straps keeping my gloves on and pitch the gloves over the top of the women’s heads into the combat ring, as if I’m chucking split wood.
Keeping watch on the seven women as they circle me, I rapidly unstrap my hands. They seem content to wait as I prepare for the fight. I guess they figure that the delay gives them more time to psych me out.
They have no fucking idea how many times I’ve faced down pain and hurt and dealt with it.
I breathe deeply. I’d love to release my wolf, but that’s a secret I won’t reveal until I need to.
One of the women suddenly breaks from the others and leaps at me, her fist raised. I drop, avoiding the punch, and land a hit to her stomach, hearing the breath leave her body before I spin and kick the legs out from the next woman coming at me. Rising to my feet, I respond to the rapid punches of the third woman by blocking and hitting back with a quick combination that busts up her nose.
Blood streams down her face. She gives a howl, but I feel no regret.
Spinning to the next woman, I put all of my strength into a kick that connects with her chest and sends her flying backward. My wolf’s energy rises inside me, a response to the violence around me, making me stronger and faster.
Exchanging rapid blows with another woman—a blonde—I duck and dodge to evade an attack by a woman behind me at the same time, aware of yet another elevator full of shifters emerging into the room—some male this time.
The women in the new group immediately run to join the fight against me.
Oh, for fuck’s—
I stop defending and start attacking, ripping one woman off her feet as she runs toward me, smacking her with my fist and using her own momentum against her to knock her out cold. I duck through an assault from three others to target a fourth woman, flipping her off her feet and kicking her spine.
She screams, but again, I feel no regret.
They picked this fight, not me.
I kick, hit, punch, swing, and flip my way through the rest of the attacking women, until only Bridget is left standing.
She’s ranked the highest. I see that now. The others were following her lead. She’s not Tristan’s beta, but she must be some sort of delta.
My chest heaves and sweat drips down my face, but I haven’t sustained a single wound from the altercation.
She was cocky in the beginning, but now she’s wary, eyeing the eleven women groaning on the ground around us as I prowl toward her.