Our eyes fell on the Father and Son of the alpha family. Not a word was spoken, and the anticipation weaved through the crowd like a breeze.

Ridge lowered his head out of respect as he was asked by his mom to back up. She held a hand out as the referee of the challenge, taking steps into the arena. Her son remained in his alert posture, staring at the other wolf, intensely.

The alpha was still down, panting heavily. It wasn’t until the Alpha Female had reached her husband, dropping to her knees beside him that allowed Ridge to lift his head and ease out of his defensive stance.

Mrs. Beaumont was whispering to her husband, stroking his bloody matted fur and coaxed him to shift back. Slowly, and probably painfully from the wolf’s whining, her husband changed back to human form. His human skin still bloody of the wounds inflicted on him.

The woman hovering above the alpha turned over with a small groan. He sighed, looking up at her and reached up to touch her face.

Mrs. Beaumont bent her head, cradling his face and kissed it repeatedly after wiping away some of the blood from the claw marks on his face. The man’s face was clawed in every direction, his chest mirroring the same wounds and his shoulder bled from the large bite. It would definitely take a while for the healing process but if tended to appropriately, the alpha would recover in a week. More or less.

With a grimace, the alpha looked up at her as his wife sighed, asking him if he could sit up. Her husband nodded, and the Alpha Female helped him get to his feet. Mrs. Beaumont still had her arm wrapped around his waist with her other placed on his bare chest. She frowned, muttering something inaudible to him.

I looked away from them to the wolf whose gold eyes were already settled on me. My heart rate spiked and I felt the corner of my lip curl up in a relieved grin. My shoulders lost their tension and I let out a long sigh.

Ridge trotted over to me, letting those beside me make room as the Beta approached. He shifted halfway over until he stood as a human in front of me. I felt my brother release me from nervous vibes I felt from him which was why Wade gave me space. He didn’t want to trifle with someone of alpha blood fresh out of a fight.

My gaze fell to the blood smeared on the Beta’s skin. There were four claw marks slashed diagonally on his chest and partially on his neck. Ridge’s right ear was bleeding, as was a scratch on the bridge if his nose, and there was a deep gash on the side of his forehead.

Ridge didn’t look as injured as his dad, despite what was in front of me. I peeked over where the alpha’s face covered in blood still, even though his wife tried to wipe it away with his shirt she held onto.

After taking in Ridge’s appearance, I lifted my gaze back to Ridge’s and my sigh came out kind of shaky. Ridge lifted his bloody-knuckled hands to take hold of the sides of my face. I wrapped my hands around his wrists and swallowed hard, tears of relief blurring my vision.

My mate stepped closer, resting his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes, thankful Ridge was OK.

“Gianna, my love…”

I smiled at the sound of his voice.

Opening my eyes, Ridge was grinning and muttered that he heard me during the fight. I winced, shaking my head in apology. Then I let out a huff that he was crazy to have challenged his dad like that out of the blue.

“I was so scared for you, Ridge! I—I didn’t know what to do! I wanted to run in and help you, but—”

Ridge stopped my panicked scolding with a hard kiss. I stepped closer after he tugged my face to his, and I gripped his bare hips. When he pulled back, Ridge raised an eyebrow that he made a promise to me that he was going to protect me and this was the only way he knew how.

I swallowed again, opening my mouth to speak but then I heard Ridge’s name called by the deep voice of his dad.

We both turned in the direction of the alpha lifting his chin through his frown. Ridge’s green eyes narrowed slightly before being gestured to approach his dad with a silent wave of his hand. Ridge glanced at me a moment and I did the same to him.

Reluctantly, Ridge walked back to where his dad was still by his mom. Mrs. Beaumont looked torn between relief of her husband’s survival and her son’s victory. She handed her son his jeans to slip on though she kept looking between the two of them as the alpha puffed his chest out.

Raising a hand onto Ridge’s shoulder, Alpha Beaumont slowly gave a respectful nod—something I wasn’t expecting whatsoever from him.

“Well done, Son. I could not have asked for a more worthy opponent in a challenge.”

The man took a moment to glance over his son’s shoulder at me before flicking his attention back to Ridge.

“The power of a mate, to us, is beyond our ability to comprehend, but even I felt the change in you once you realized Gigi was here. Your protectiveness came out a bit more savage. It’s only expected…”

The alpha paused, brows furrowed as he swallowed hard then continued, “As she is your mate. And I have to acknowledge my grave mistake in even attempting to approach her.”

Ridge’s frown didn’t waver. He was obviously agreeing that his dad’s move towards me was not the brightest.

The alpha turned to look at his wife who smiled softly up at him. She gave a small encouraging nod.

Turning back to Ridge, Alpha Beaumont cleared his throat, “I just want to add how proud I am of you today.”

With a deep breath, the alpha faced the anxious crowd and stepped forward with his arms presented outward and bellowed, “Ladies and gentlemen!”

He turned, gesturing to his son as he proudly declared, “I give you, your new alpha!”

The pack erupted into a cheer of whistles, clapping and excited shouting.

Ridge stood a bit taller with his broad shoulders back. His green eyes scanned the pack with their full support to this new announcement before looking over at me.

I smiled widely, clapping along with everyone else. My mate’s green eyes flashed gold a moment and I blushed at the delighted shivers that sent me.

Ridge nodded for me to come go over. I smiled, running to jump into his arms. My legs wrapped around his waist and held onto him as I kissed him. My Alpha male growled a little, pulling back a bit to narrow those shimmering gold eyes that I was to behave. I grinned, letting my wolf’s blue eyes shine through; silent way of telling him that the Quail Wolf didn’t like to behave.

Ridge smiled, shaking his head with a hearty laugh before pulling my face to his again.

“Not that this isn’t quite a celebratory moment, Darren…”

I stiffened at Alpha Hannibal’s icy tone. I looked behind me after Ridge slowly placed me back down. His arm securely banding my waist.

The older man emerged from the crowd, those of his pack whom had come along in the visit, followed with stoic stares. Our Carmel pack had split down the middle to make room for them.

Alpha Hannibal’s eyes narrowed, shifting away from the alpha family to me. We stared back at one another when he announced, “But I believe the time has now come for me to take what is rightfully mine and leave Carmel.”

My mate growled, pulling me behind him and stated I wasn’t going anywhere.

The older alpha shifted his gaze to Ridge, raising a thick brow.

“Is that so, young alpha? Hmph. And what do you exactly propose will stop me from taking the Gomez girl back to my pack? She already agreed to be the treaty offering.”

Ridge snarled, stepping forward and shot back that as the new alpha he was retracting the agreement.

“She is still on my territory!” Ridge frowned. “Her ties are here and they will remain here!”

Alpha Hannibal’s face darkened. His brooding stare made a few of the crowd step away. The alpha growled out that Ridge was to hand me over immediately. But my mate refused, declaring Ridge was not going to let me be taken to be married off to Alpha Hannibal’s nephew down the line.

“She already has a mate, George.” Ridge’s lip curled. “And that would be me. So I suggest you take your leave—without her. I’m not letting you take her.”

The older alpha grinned, raising a brow. He chuckled, “Oh, my dear boy. You—you think I would still give the Gomez girl to my nephew?”

Our pack looked at one another, frowning. They weren’t the only thrown off by Alpha Hannibal’s response. I looked at Ridge whose frown deepened.

Alpha Hannibal laughed, throwing his head back and then looked Ridge in the eye as he sneered, “From the moment the deal was made, I can tell you, boy, that there was no intention of giving her—” he nodded at me. “To someone in my pack so unworthy.”

His grin widened, blue eyes narrowing further.

“The discovery that she was a Quail Wolf only made the deal so much sweeter. And it is only fitting she be with the only person who could use her kind of power.”

His brows rose, using his hands to gesture to himself while smugly grinning, “Me.”

Ridge growled, lowering his chin as he snarled that Alpha Hannibal was out of line. Ridge was not going to let his mate be claimed by anyone, especially a man three times my age.

This whole time the alpha wanted me for himself. Those stares he’d give me all those times made perfect sense now. How he had found me attractive but with the Quail Wolf status, I was more now.

But according to Were Law, I was a minor. The intentions this man had towards me was disgusting and the alpha was totally unashamed of admitting his lust. And, for him, it had only sweetened the deal of my agreement to transferring packs because of what I was.

And now I wondered… Had Alpha Hannibal known all this time? Did this mean he knew what I was prior to the yesterday when I revealed myself? If he did… how?

Ridge’s arm extended to the side, pushing me further behind him. I looked up at his profile, seeing he still wore a dark look.

When Alpha Hannibal growled for Ridge to step aside and hand me over, the taut muscles in my mate’s back tensed. He stood a little taller, narrowing his eyes and sneered, “Over my dead body…”

The other alpha’s icy stare intensified and shifted to me. It made me feel uneasy again.

The man looked back to Ridge and grinned in reply to Ridge’s warning. “That can be arranged. I assure you.”

I grasped onto Ridge’s forearm when he stepped forward. Ridge frowned, looking down at me and I shook my head for Ridge to be careful. I reminded him that I already made the deal, and that it wasn’t worth harming the people in Carmel over one person.

Ridge stared at me, looking over my face before he slowly shook his head.

“What makes you think you are just one person to me, Quail Wolf? You are my other half, Gianna. The one who is supposed to be at my side, and I am willing to protect you—give my life even. Don’t think I challenged my dad just for the hell of it. This is my way of keeping you safe from Hannibal. So, please, don’t fight me on this.”

Ridge leaned closer and whispered, “I’m going to fight for your happiness if you won’t.”

My eyes widened as he turned back to the other alpha.

Ridge narrowed his eyes, nodding, “Make your move, George.”

Alpha Hannibal growled as he stomped forward from the parted crowd. His clenched fists at his sides and nostrils flaring the closer he got, the alpha now stood in the middle of the arena. The ground was still splattered with Ridge’s and his father’s blood.

The other alpha raised his chin.

“Looks like it’s another fight, Alpha Beaumont. Only this time…” his eyes flicked to my former alphas with a grin while directing to Ridge. “It’s to the death.”

With a look over of the body structure of Alpha Hannibal, I quickly assessed that he wasn’t an out of shape man. His muscles looked swollen on his huge frame, and a few showed off the bulging veins under his skin. The man was heavily robust in comparison to Ridge who was still quite young despite his muscular build.

Though Ridge was strong and filled out by his age, he wasn’t as robust as a fully grown alpha should be. He still had some years to build himself to that point which is something that my dad had worked on with the former alpha of my pack.

It was why Mr. Beaumont had so much respect for my dad at one point. Because compared to my dad’s training versus Mr. Beaumont’s, the former was more superior. Stronger. And it was a wonder why Mr. Beaumont would train his son on his own or send him off to train with other alpha’s when he never asked my dad to train Ridge instead.

Ridge would have looked like a beast by now.

As for Alpha Hannibal, the man was a walking steroid product gone wrong. There was no telling if Ridge was going to be able to hold off against the alpha when he just finished fighting his dad only moments ago.

I personally know from experience that a sparring match can make you winded. So an actual challenge would drain enough of your energy to make it difficult to participate in another.

Looking over my mate’s tense posture, I knew how tired Ridge was. With him being an alpha now it was instinctual to hide certain weaknesses from others, other alphas especially. But Ridge just got his title. He’s still young and doesn’t have the fighting experience Alpha Hannibal must have.

I know Ridge can fight. I know that. But as his mate, I worry about his adrenaline wearing out. It would leave Alpha Hannibal chances to take cheap shots at Ridge.

This was all my fault. Had I been more careful that day in the forest when I first saw Sawyer, then he wouldn’t have brought his alpha to Carmel.

But then I think about how Sawyer is Cece’s mate. And had the blond man not come to my town then they would have never met. There was a chance of meeting later on, but not as soon as they did.

This seemed to be a constant pattern I needed to get used to by now. Where something good started looking up and then something bad would pop up out of nowhere before the cycle started over again.

Being who I was, I didn’t know how to control the Quail Wolf in me which was why I was so concerned about keeping it closed up. I wanted to keep my secret from everyone because of what could happen to them. Because of what could happen to me.

I thought maybe closing myself off meant I was protecting myself from myself. Did that make sense?

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as Ridge’s words echoed in my mind.

“I’m going to fight for your happiness if you won’t.”

All those times of my sister telling me I deserved to be happy, Wade telling me the same just this morning, Mom and Dad, Eden… and now Ridge, was for a reason.

Here I was, wanting to protect those I loved and cared for, and instead of doing that, they were the ones protecting me. I didn’t ask to be the Quail Wolf but I obviously am for a reason. I may not know how to control it—which was because of my safety mechanism all the years of keeping the wolf side of me under wraps—but it was time for to stop being so afraid.

I needed to be able to stand on my own first in order to protect everyone else.

After my short stare at the ground, I swallowed hard and looked at my dad. His brown eyes had been watching me and suddenly widened after realizing what I was going to do. My silent plea for him to understand was responded with a panicked frown.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but I needed to do this or I’d forever be feeble in everyone’s eyes because they’re always having to fight for me instead of the other way around.

Taking a deep breath, I straightened my shoulders, lifting my chin. I stepped forward and tried to keep my voice from wavering as I narrowed my eyes at the alpha across from me, and interrupted Alpha Hannibal taunting Ridge.

“I’m not going with you, Alpha Hannibal.”

Alpha Hannibal shifted his attention to me. His brows furrowed a bit while he stared at me. But then he raised a brow, sneering as he eyed me.

“Is that so, Miss Gomez? And what makes you think that you have any say in the matter?”

My insides turned and my heart pounded into my rib cage the longer that I stared him down. I was grateful my voice held a bit more confidence than I thought it would.

“Because I’m going to fight for my place here in Carmel.” I craned my neck forward. “I’m going to fight you.”

From the corner of my eye, even from this distance, Dad closed his eyes and my mom snapped her head to him, wide eyed. My siblings muttered in a panic to my parents and the crowd began to whisper.

Alpha Hannibal raised his brows, the smile on his face was more amusement than impressed at my bold words. He laughed, throwing his head back.

The man shook his head, sighing, “Oh, my dear girl… You thinking you can take me on is a dream. I am an alpha.” His smile disappeared when he said that last line, craning his neck forward. “Quail Wolf or not, you are still just a girl! You don’t know how to control yourself, you wouldn’t be able to defeat me.”

My jaw clenched, along with my fists at my sides and he noticed this. He flicked his gaze back to mine.

The man badgered me a bit more as he grinned, “How embarrassing it would be for you, Miss Gomez, to have your previous pack see you so vulnerable. To have your mate… see what a weak counterpart he’d been given.”

A low growl seeped through my closed lips. I made a reply with a shake of my head that if anyone was going to be embarrassed it was Alpha Hannibal after I put him in his place.

His chauvinistic ass was going to learn today that he may be stronger physically, but I was just as strong in a different way. I was determined to show him that he wasn’t going to get the best of me.

“Do you accept my challenge?” I demanded, tired of his teasing. “If I win, I stay here in Carmel and you leave. No treaty issue, whatsoever. But… But if I do lose, I will shut my Goddamn mouth and leave with you to your pack. But only… if you win.”

The alpha was silent, mulling over what was at stake.

Should I win, he’d be losing out on not just any bride, but a Quail Wolf bride. And I wanted to make sure that was exactly what would happen. There was no way in hell I was going to let him touch me like Ridge does.

Alpha Hannibal pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes back at me.

“You seem so sure of yourself, Miss Gomez. Are you sure… you can even stand a chance against someone of my caliber?”

The man snorted when tilted my head, deliberately keeping silent. I knew it would bother him. Just a little.

“Fine,” the alpha sneered, agitation in his voice. “You want a fight…? Then a fight is what you’ll get. It’s best to put you in your place now then having to stress about it at home.”

Home. He said it like it was mine too. But Carmel was my home. My family was too. Ridge was my home.

Ridge suddenly took hold of my forearm, turning me to face him. His green eyes wide, fearful.

“Gianna, are you out of fucking mind?!”

He glanced behind me as I sighed before urging Ridge to understand that I had to do this. That it was the only way to make sure Alpha Hannibal doesn’t come between us any longer.

I raised my hand, touching his cheek. His brows furrowed, tilting his head as he whispered my name.

Letting out a small sigh, I nodded, “I know you are willing to fight for me. And I love that so much. But you’re right about what you said last night. It’s time I learned to fight for myself instead of letting everyone else do it for me.”

Ridge’s face softened, his green eyes turning gold and I allowed mine to switch to blue as a silent understanding between us.

“Go on then, Quail Wolf,” my alpha mate offered a small smile. He cradled my chin, his thumb caressing my bottom lip. Ridge nodded and encouraged, “Prove to everyone why you are more than just my Alpha Female.”

A spark of light filled me at his words. I smiled widely, pulling him down for a chaste kiss before stepping away from him and facing my opponent.

Alpha Hannibal narrowed his eyes at the man standing behind me, sneering. He purposely voiced that once he was through with my humiliation, the visiting alpha was going to take his time rubbing it in that Alpha Hannibal was in possession of another alpha’s mate.

I could hear Ridge’s growl rumble out of his chest. I used that and everything the other alpha was saying to ignite what my dad trained me and my siblings for.

Alpha Hannibal stood up straight, his shoulders rolling back and cracking his neck to the sides while keeping his icy glare on me.

Inhaling through my nose and exhaling out through my mouth, I had to try and simmer the jitters I was having. I made a quick look over where Dad held Mom at his side. His brown eyes shifted from worry to the encouraging fire of a Warrior.

Dad gave me curt nod and I nodded back before looking to my opponent again.

“Well then… Shall we?” the alpha teased, scrunching his nose as his neck craned forward.

My jaw clenched again. My eyes narrowed as my shoulders rolled back. I pushed my feet apart to get in a good defensive stance.

I bounced lightly on the balls of my feet, already calculating Alpha Hannibal’s posture of standing sideways with his upper torso slightly facing me. I knew he was also calculating me, and I needed to remember who I was fighting. To remember I was not an evil person nor was I going to let this man make me become one.

I was not Alpha Hannibal.

With the crowd on one side and the alpha family behind me on the other, I was feeling the pressure. Every single eye was on me and I knew they thought I was crazy for doing this. But like I said before, it was time for me to stand up and fight on my own.

Alpha Hannibal decided to not prolong the fight. With an angry growled snarl, he pushed off his back leg to rush at me.

Swallowing, I shook my head and muttered under my breath, “Shit… What was I thinking?” then charged at the angry alpha.