Cane laughed. Slow and mocking. His stench was overpowering - the rot, the self confidence, it filled me with a sense of dread.
I blocked it out. I needed to focus.
You are going to have to let me out Selina. The static, I mean my wolf - still getting used to that! - demanded. She purred hungrily.
These were not new sensations - I had felt them for many years - but the understanding of them was new.
If it comes to it you have my permission. I told her inwardly. No word of a lie after seeing Elias the thought of it filled me with dread, but at the same time, the sense of power that could be unleashed was something I was excited to see.
It might be painful at first but just submit to it. Do not get distracted. She told me.
I took a deep breath and cracked my knuckles. Cane whistled, low yet sharp, commanding.
I smelt her before I saw her. The air curdled with the scent of charred oak, stagnant swamp mud, and the sharp, biting sting of wild garlic. It was truly foul. But I was not going to let that distract me. I took a deep breath, processing the stench deep within me, then slowly breathed out, letting it go.
A woman stepped out. Her long greasy hair was matted, and her face was covered in scars. Her eyes were what struck me the most - one green, one brown - a contradiction of each other. She glared at me as she began to edge towards me. She seemed scrappy, unpredictable and definitely dirty.
"This is Rix - our top female fighter. Remember, the only rule is no killing. The fight is won by surrender."
Rix didn't step out of the shadows; she seemed to untangle herself from them. She didn't bow. She didn't even blink. She just looked at me like I was a piece of meat she hadn't decided how to cook yet.
"A Blackwood princess?" Rix spat, her voice like grinding stones. "I've cracked sturdier bones than yours for breakfast."
I turned to look at Finn. I could feel the 'Silence' humming between us like a live wire. Finn was a statue of pure, repressed violence behind me, his knuckles white as he gripped his blades, his chest heaving against the invisible cage of my command.
Rix didn't wait for a signal. She lunged with a speed that blurred the edges of my vision. I felt the 'Silence' still holding Finn back - a heavy, pulsating wall of my own making - but the tether between us was screaming. Every muscle in his body was coiled like a spring, his golden eyes pleading with me to let him go, to let him kill for me.
But I didn't look back. I couldn't. Every hit was not only a physical blow to myself but I could feel the pain that Finn felt reverberating through the bond every time a punch landed. It was distracting me. The tether of our bond was no longer a hum; it was a scream. Every time Rix bared her yellowed teeth at me, I felt a spike of Finn's protective fury vibrate through my own marrow. I needed to focus.
I'm coming out Selina. I hope you are ready. It was a statement not a request.
I took a deep breath - steadying myself for whatever was about to happen.
My vision snapped into high-contrast silver, the world slowing down until I could see the individual beads of sweat on Rix's brow. My jaw ached with a sudden, sharp pressure, my canines lengthening until they grazed my bottom lip, tasting the first drop of my own copper-sweet blood. She smirked at me as she lunged. With my sharpened vision the fight seemed fairer now. I dodged her punch and grabbed her arm, sinking my new found fangs into her shoulder as she yelped in pain. She threw me off and stepped back like she needed a second to regroup. She came at me again, visceral and raw.
I went to grab my knife but as I looked down at my hands I realized I wouldn't need it. My fingers had curled into claws, the nails turning a predatory obsidian. When Rix lunged again, I didn't cower. I met her mid-air, a snarl ripping from my throat that sounded more like a landslide than a girl from a cabin in the woods raised in isolation.
I looked over to Finn again, his eyes still pleading with me to let him go. There, in that moment, I wouldn't even have known how. My heart lurched and that was when Rix took her chance. She lunged and grappled me to the ground.
I was pinned, her weight crushing the breath from my lungs. But then I let the Fog out. I didn't say a word; I just pushed my aura into her face. It was like hitting her with a physical wall of scent - burnt ozone and ancient silver. For a split second, she froze, her wolf recoiling from the sheer weight of my bloodline.
Seizing my opportunity I grabbed her throat. Her eyes bulged as I pushed all my weight into it, flipping her over by her neck. Her head hit the ground with a hard thud. Blood trickled from a cut at the back of her head and she looked at me wide eyed.
I tightened my grip. "Submit!" I commanded. She stared at me, white with fear, her eyes bloodshot now from the pressure. The sound of the taps drowned out everything else. One tap in the dirt, a second slightly harder and a the third definitive.
"I... Submit..." it was almost a whisper but it was enough. I released her and pulled myself up. She ran.
"Well, well little princess," came Cane's reply to our display. "I guess we had underestimated you. On behalf of Malakai, I grant you safe passage." He turned and disappeared into the shadows.
Well done princess. The intrusion was brief. Malakai's voice wasn't like the Static. It didn't buzz; it smoothed over my mind like cold silk, leaving a trail of frost in its wake.
I turned to Finn. "I don't know how to make to stop." I spluttered. "I didn't even know I could do that."
"You have to command it," Elias explained. "It's the Alpha spark. As pack leader you have control. You have to mentally release him."
I focused on Finn. "Release," I commanded.
I visualized the invisible tether holding him - a glowing, strained wire of my own making - and I cut it. The release wasn't a fade; it was a violent snap, like a high-tension cable fraying until it whipped back into the void, a sharp crack of power retreating. The air rushed back into Finn's lungs with a sound like a dying fire, and then came the roar. It wasn't a hero's cheer; it was the sound of a predator who had been pushed too far by the person he was sworn to protect."
He stalked toward me, the heat radiating off his body so intense it made the damp night air shimmer. He didn't look like my mate in that moment; he looked like the Hound who had been denied his hunt.
Then he looked at me, his golden eyes burning with a mixture of awe and absolute, unadulterated rage that reverberated deeply into my soul.
"Don't,' he rasped, his voice raw. 'Ever. Do that. Again."