he’d risk it. “Calvin,” he called out. The group of wolves behind him shifted and out stepped a man who had to be at least seven feet tall.
“Guess they grow them bigger in the hidden wolf packs,” Peri said and Jacquelyn snorted.
“Go, give your challenge and fight the pup.” He must have been Calvin’s alpha or else he wouldn’t have been giving the huge man orders.
Calvin started forward. He walked through the opening that had been created, but the second he passed the last of the group, his huge form dropped to the ground like a bag of bricks. Everyone stood in silence as, like Fane, they waited to see if he would move. But he didn’t.
“You may come forward and collect your dead,” said the Great Luna. “But every wolf you send forward in challenge shall meet the same fate. There will be no challenges until after a period of mourning for my children. After the new year, then your challenges will be accepted.”
The alpha wolf motioned for two of his wolves to get Calvin’s body, and then he snarled at the goddess. “Who are you to dictate to us?”
The Great Luna’s glory grew until Fane and everyone else had to shield their eyes. Her voice reverberated so strongly that he felt it in his chest.
“I am the one who gave you life. I take it away just as quickly. It is not you who makes me who I am. My dominion will reign whether you give me your loyalty or not. Your path is already decided as your heart has hardened to any reasoning. You will either obey my decree or you will watch your pack members die. Go back to where you came from, and do not return until the appointed time.”
“There will be more,” the wolf yelled. He looked at Fane. His eyes glowed a bright green and were filled with rage. “So many more than you can even imagine. You will fall, pup, and then all you have will belong to one more worthy.”
Fane saw Jen move forward from the corner of his eye, but Decebel had been ready. His arm was around her mouth, pulling her back against him. Fane almost smiled, but his attention stayed on the threat.
“They can try,” Fane said, his voice loud enough to carry. “But I am not going anywhere. These are my people, my pack, and any who tries to take them from me will be met with my teeth and my claws dripping with their blood.”
The wolf laughed. “You don’t get it. You’re already dead.” Then he turned, at the same time phasing into his wolf. His pack did the same, and then they took off into the forest.
Everyone began to speak, but the Great Luna wasn’t done. “Silence,” she said with a sharp bite.
“My protection will stand,” she told them. “You need not worry. But when the time comes, there will be many to challenge Fane. You cannot fight for him,” she said looking around the circle that had once again closed in. “But you can help protect his pack and continue to work toward ridding the world of the Order of the Burning Claw.
“A new era is coming. It is time for the races to join as one, to remember who you are and where you came from. I have been waiting for you to be ready.”
She turned back to Fane, and he felt the eyes of every person fall on him. “You are the chosen leader for all my children.”
Fane’s heart skipped in his chest as her words resonated inside of him.
“You have and will face unimaginable strife. You will bleed. You will lose, and you will win. But through it all, you will stand as one with your pack around you,” she said, her gaze boring into him.
Fane thought back to all the struggles he had faced, nearly losing his mate multiple times, facing the possibility of going feral over the trial from the In-Between, facing death before he’d even met his child, seeing his mate and child in the hands of his enemy, helpless to protect them. He remembered feeling the bonds of his parents ripped from his soul as quickly as they’d been ripped from this life. He had been torn down. But he had not stayed there. He had not wallowed in the defeat that at times seemed more than he could bear. And he had not done it alone. Beside him, his mate stood proud, always, as had his