This chapter is dedicated to LittleLoneWriterGirl, BenevolentMyths and PhoenixCrisin for being absolute fiends (and for providing some excellent motivation for me finish this chapter, even if their methods were somewhat ... unconventional) 😂.

The pack had been watching in eerie silence from the moment Micah had said 'shift.' Now they broke into a chorus of noise loud enough to make me wince. Most of it was murmuring. It was news to them, too, and they were a good deal more excited about it than Micah was.

Liam could have attacked him then. It would have been no small advantage to have Micah reeling from the enormity of it. But he stood where he was. I wondered if it was honour or misery keeping him there. One hand went to his belt buckle and loosened it - a polite reminder that he still intended to shift.

"Hey, Micah," Liam murmured. "It's been a while."

"Yes. Yes, it has," Micah agreed. "You should have stayed dead."

There was a strange peace in Micah now. He understood why he was being challenged and why this random fighter had a wolf strong enough to rival his. He too pulled his shirt over his head and discarded it, ready for the shift.

The figure beside the car had ventured closer since I'd last looked. Nia Llewellyn was leaning against the trunk of a huge beech tree. Her hood was up, her hands were in her pockets, and her eyes were fixed on me. She gave me a slow, lazy wink.

"Where we're standing right now ... it's where Mason killed Adrian. But you already know that, don't you?" Micah said. "It's only fitting, I suppose, that you die here too."

Liam shifted. Micah was almost as quick in following his example. The two silver-grey wolves came together head-on, snapping and snarling. It was as ruthless a fight as I'd ever seen. In the seconds it took them to break apart, both of their pelts were splattered with blood.

And if I'd thought fights in human form were quick, then this was another world altogether. When wolves fought, skill and strength were important, yes, but so was luck. Fights often ended in the first few seconds just because someone got lucky and found their opponent's throat.

The longer it went on, the more certain you could be that the fighters were evenly matched. The two wolves rolled head over heels, locked at the jaws, and I could barely tell which was Liam.

The flockies moved back to make space for them. At some point, Lin and the other girls had found their feet and crept backwards. My legs made the decision to join them of their own accord when the two massive wolves lurched a little too close.

Across the lawn, I saw Nia close her eyes. It wasn't going to be easy for her today. There was a lot of distance between them, and I was willing to bet Micah had his walls up. I would have no way of knowing if she was succeeding or not, but Goddess, I hoped she would.

Because the fight wasn't going all that well. Micah had pinned Liam down. His jaws were clamped around Liam's muzzle, holding him in place, and I could see him working up his nerve to let go and lunge for his throat instead. It was a risky thing to do. But Micah was probably dumb enough to try it.

I felt sick. Like, physically sick. And I was having to fight the urge to bend over and start retching, even though I knew it was just because I was terrified for Liam. All he could do right then was kick at Micah's belly with his hind legs and growl.

Micah used his weight to crush Liam further into the ground. And then he just lay there, panting heavily. If he was waiting for a submission, he was going to be waiting a very long time. He hadn't won. Not even close. And if he felt like he needed to snatch a break like this, then he couldn't have been too confident about the fight going his way. Looking at him now, I could see that his ear was torn, there was a chunk missing from his shoulder, and one of his eyes was closed tight and dripping blood.

The fighters were starting to jeer. Quietly at first, and then picking up the volume as they got braver. Somehow, I didn't think it was directed at Liam anymore. They were seeing borderline cowardice from their Alpha, and they weren't impressed.

And Micah heard them. He released Liam's muzzle and lunged for his throat, but Liam had been ready for him. Before Micah's teeth could touch skin, his brother had caught hold of his lower jaw and crushed it. The yelp that followed was heart-wrenching. Or it would have been, if it hadn't belonged to Micah Vaughan.

Liam used the leverage to squirm free. He was soon on his feet again and twisting around to rip into Micah's belly. His teeth tore through the scars Nia had left, leaving a gaping hole there. A fraction deeper, and we'd have seen his guts all over again.

Micah turned and snapped at Liam's hind leg - the only part of him he could easily reach. Too high up. With his mangled jaw, he didn't have the strength to break a femur. I watched him struggle with it, snarling his frustration, until the blood was running down Liam's leg.

And all the while, Liam was opening Micah's belly even further. It was easy for him to get his teeth in. He was going for the midline, where the muscle layers joined, and I was pretty sure I saw a flash of pink insides exposed before the pain proved too much for Micah. He abandoned his hold on Liam in order to lurch away from him.

But as soon as Micah's teeth loosened in his pelt, Liam turned. His next bite was aimed at Micah's neck. And I watched him close his jaws around the skin there, only to rip backwards. He was aiming for the jugular. And if the amount of blood that came pouring out was any indication, he'd found it.

All the while, Micah was biting at his foreleg and shoulder. He made a series of bloody rents which did little more than sting. The bone stopped him getting too deep there, and there was nothing strategical about it. It was just the only part of Liam that he could reach. He was desperate now - and simply trying to inflict pain.

Micah was off his feet. As the seconds passed, he started to slump. His bites became weak, clumsy efforts, finding thin air as often as skin. Liam kept hold of his neck all the way to the floor. He seemed content to wait there, teeth clamped, for his brother to bleed out.

It would give Nia time to get out of Micah's head, at any rate. A quick glance at her showed me that her eyes were open again, and she was watching the fight with a satisfied smile.

Micah was going still. His legs were twitching from time to time, and a few hoarse whimpers escaped his throat, but that was all. He was breathing fast and heavy, his stomach heaving with the effort of it. And although there was a puddle forming on the grass below him, it wasn't enough blood. Not yet, anyway. He would take a few minutes to die.

Liam realised that at the same time that I did. Carefully, he released Micah's neck, only to find a better grip further up. This time, he tore his throat out properly. His brother was too far gone to react. But all of a sudden, there was a lot of blood. And even as I watched, Micah's eyes began to glaze over.

Silence from the flockies. All the noise had long since stopped, and they were all just ... staring. They hadn't been expecting to watch their Alpha die this afternoon, and they didn't know how to feel about it, I would bet.

This next part was going to be dangerous.

Liam stood up slowly. He watched his brother's motionless body for a few more seconds, just to be sure. And then he turned those piercing dark eyes onto the crowd.

The effect was almost instantaneous. No one wanted to meet his eye, and I could see the body language around the circle changing. Heads bowed, eyes averted, shoulders tense. Even Lilah turned her gaze onto the ground. No one was immune to the force that his wolf was exerting.

No one except me.

My heart seemed to be slowing from its breakneck pace. He looked okay, for the most part. His silver-grey pelt had turned copper, and his blood was dripping steadily onto the ground, but there were no serious injuries. He'd need stitches, not intensive care.

I did avert my eyes eventually - when I saw him start to shift. I kept them averted until he had pulled his jeans on. He had barely got his t-shirt over his head when I threw myself at him. I felt him wince a little as I brushed against his wounds, but that didn't stop him grinning as he took my weight, wrapping me in what was probably the fiercest hug we'd ever shared.

After what felt like a lifetime, he set me down again and wiped away a stray tear with his thumb. I hadn't even realised that I was crying.

"Hey, it's okay," he told me. "I'm okay."

There would be a lot of fussing over him before I believed that, but he was on his feet, and that was a very good start. He'd just got blood all over me, I realised. I couldn't have cared less in that moment. He was alive. And Micah was not.

Liam turned back to the crowd, leaving me to watch his back. The mood on the lawn was ... volatile. This was the moment that risked tipping them into anarchy - as they all decided whether to accept Liam as Alpha. But I wasn't too worried, because ... well ... they were flockies, after all. Defiance didn't come easily to them.

"My name isn't Alex," he said, and he sounded very tired, all of a sudden. "It's Liam. My father was Keith Vaughan, who was Alpha of this pack. And now ... so am I. Unless anyone has any objections...?"

And Liam made sure his gaze lingered on the fighters, who were all finding it hard to stand still as they murmured amongst themselves. A few of them dared to glance upwards, but they couldn't seem to hold his stare for long. I was very glad it was him, and not me, who had to do this part, because I probably would've broken down into pieces with so many people looking at me. It was lucky his wolf was so strong.

"No? Cool." With one last, lingering look at the fighters, Liam went to stand in front of the man who'd been harassing Lin. "How old are you?"

He stared down at his feet, visibly nervous. He didn't understand why he was being singled out. "Uh, twenty-seven, sir."

Liam nodded slowly, and then he jerked his head towards Lin. "And how old is she?"

I reckoned the man was starting to guess what direction this might be going. He swallowed once, risked a glance up at Liam and then rubbed the back of his neck. "Sixteen ... which is legal, by the way."

He clearly thought that was enough to get him off the hook, but Liam's stare grew colder still. "Have you touched her?"

He must have noticed the red marks on her arms, too. And the tear in her shirt. The guy looked towards Lin, his eyes wide and fearful as he faced up to the consequences of his actions for the first time in his life. "Yeah, this morning, but only because she wouldn't-"

"Turn around."

He used the fighter's own handcuffs to cinch his hands behind his back. The whole time, he bleated out excuses which were firmly ignored. Liam wasn't gentle about it either. The fighter let out an audible yelp at one point as his arm was wrenched backwards. His friend was next to be cuffed - with the exact same song and dance and grovelling. And I was enjoying myself a little too much.

Liam motioned for one of the older, more sensible-looking fighters to come forwards. "Take them to the cells. Anyone else who wants to get violent with women can join them. Consider this your first and only warning."

Oh, this had been worth waiting for. All these weeks, I'd been dreaming of revenge, and now I was getting it in spades. Just one look at the crowd was like a dream come true. Most of the men were frowning and exchanging wary glances, while the women wore tiny little smiles.

There was the slightest of hesitations. The slightest tremble in his resolve. And then the older man did what he was told. A few of the fighters broke away from the crowd to help him. The rest stared at the dirt, some sullen and some just nervous.

***

"Me or Seth?" I asked Liam. He was taking his shirt off, somewhat gingerly, because the adrenaline was beginning to fade and he was feeling the full extent of the pain for the first time. He was also jittery, but that was pretty common after a fight. The worst injuries were across his shoulders and back, which would make this next part tricky. I'd had him sit down on the steps to make them easier to reach.

Liam turned his head just far enough to look at us, quiet all of a sudden.

"You," he said.

I nodded. Seth took a few steps backwards, resigning himself to helping. We'd treated Liam enough times during training sessions that he knew the drill by now. We kept the physical contact to an absolute minimum where he was concerned.

The first thing I did was wash out the wounds with saline. They were caked with mud and gravel, and all of it had to come out before he could heal. The whole time, I made sure to stay in Liam's line of sight. He didn't like having people behind him. Every touch came with a murmured warning, especially when I reckoned it was going to hurt.

Lilah was one of the few flockies who hadn't dispersed yet. She was staring at us, I noticed now, and there was a horrible wariness in her eyes which I hadn't been expecting to see. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I was beating myself up for it. Of course she was going to be wary of us now. Micah was dead, yeah, but she would never be safe in this pack as the mate of a dead Alpha. And in the space of five minutes, we'd gone from her biggest allies to the biggest threats against her and her children.

Liam had noticed her, too, and he beckoned her over while I was refilling my syringe. She came with visible reluctance, dragging her feet every step of the way, and then she stood before him like someone waiting for their turn on the gallows.

He only had to look at her with those big, sincere eyes for some of the tension to leave her body. "I'm going to call those idiots off. They won't be following you anymore. You're welcome to stay at the cottage, or the pack house, or anywhere, really. And if you decide you would feel safer elsewhere, I'll put in a transfer request to any pack you want."

Lilah blinked at him. And it wasn't long before I could see the astonishment shining on her face, plain as day. She hadn't been expecting this, and she didn't really know how to react to it now.

"Is that what you want?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Me to transfer?"

"Honestly?" Liam asked. "No. That's not what I want. I'd like to know my niece, but most of all I want you all happy, and if that means moving packs, then I'm not going to stand in your way."

She let out a shaky breath, taking a moment to absorb that before continuing. "And ... if the baby is a boy? You won't mind?"

"Of course not," he said quietly. It never ceased to amaze me how he could be so reassuring without even, like, trying. "I don't want pups of my own. Could be that yours end up inheriting this pack."

I'd moved onto dressings now. Seth always told me which ones to use, and I just applied them dutifully. The good things about bites was that they rarely needed stitching. We could just wash them and cover them and let our healing do the work.

"This is my home. Always has been. So yes, I'll stay for as long as you'll have me. But ... can I ask you something?" Lilah said. She was quiet - almost shy.

Liam had stopped eyeing me so closely now that I'd put the syringe away. He braced his arms against his knees and looked at her properly. "Shoot."

"You planned this, didn't you?"

Dangerous. If he said yes, he'd implicate himself in more than just today's instance of wilful fratricide. We'd been here two weeks, and in that time, two of his brothers had been killed, and there had to be a part of Lilah that was starting to wonder if that was a coincidence. And the way she was looking between us, like it was a question for us both ... well ... I didn't like that.

"Not really. We talked about it, after Mason died, but ... I didn't think it'd go down like this. We were going to wait and see how shitty he'd be as Alpha. Turns out ... very." Liam sighed then, running a hand through his hair, which was still shorter than he was used to. "Do you know if Lin's okay?"

That girl was something else. Not only had she been eavesdropping on the conversation, but now she came sauntering over at the first mention of her name with like ... zero shame whatsoever.

"Oh, yes. I am now," she said, beaming. Someone had given her a hoodie to cover her torn shirt, and I had a sneaking suspicion it had been one of the boathouse girls. "Thanks, Alex. Or Liam. Or whatever."

It was a little too needling for my liking. When I looked up from the dressing I was applying, I saw that her eyes were focused on me and very slightly narrowed.

"I knew you were hiding something," Lin told me.

I shrugged at her. "Yeah. You were just really wrong about what it was."

She paused for a moment, only to nod at me. "I'm sorry I was so..."

She couldn't seem to find the right word, and while several came to mind, I didn't offer any of them aloud. It wouldn't have been helpful. Instead, I just shrugged at her. "It's okay, I guess. I forgive you."

"Can we, like, start over?" Lin asked me, almost too quiet to hear.

A smile was tugging at my lips, because I'd loved her when we'd first met, and it felt like a second chance. Those didn't come around all too often when it came to women. I'd never been sure which was stronger - the love that girls shared as friends, or the hatred they were capable of feeling for each other when that fell apart.

"Yes, please," I said.

Lin stepped forwards to wrap me in a quick, clumsy hug. She had vanished again within a minute or two - going with Lilah to help her fetch her belongings and the toddler from the cottage. Those two were happier than I'd seen them in a while. They skirted around Micah's lifeless body as they went.

Seth passed me a pair of syringes. One was painkiller, and one was antibiotics - bite wounds weren't the cleanest of injuries. I put both of them into the muscles of Liam's arm. He hardly seemed to notice that. It was only when I had to step behind him once again that his breathing got uneven.

I didn't always understand why some things were okay and others were not. And sometimes I reckoned even he didn't understand it. It was so hard to predict that I had long since worked out it was better to let him initiate physical contact, if and when he felt like it. He was usually okay with playfighting, actual fighting and, as I'd recently learnt, most activities of the romantic variety. But all of that changed on a bad day. And today was going to be a bad day - I could tell that already.

I didn't even try looking at the wound on his thigh. It wasn't as filthy as the rest of them, having been inflicted last, so we'd just have to chance it. It wasn't worth the fuss. I didn't want to push him too far and have him puke on the front lawn.

"This one up here ... it's bit deep," I murmured, tapping against one of the bite wounds that Micah had inflicted in his dying desperation. "And can I see your knuckles real quick?"

He nodded absent-mindedly. He was bracing his right arm against his knee, keeping his hand hovering in mid-air where it wouldn't accidently brush against anything. And his fingers were still enough that I knew something wasn't right.

I took his hand gently in mine while I looked closer. The skin was split, of course, and there was an awful lot of redness there. In a few hours, I was willing to bet it would all be black and blue and very swollen. And most worryingly, one of his knuckles was a different shape to the others.

"Oof," I said. "Something's broken. Is it okay if Seth takes a quick look?"

He glanced up at Seth, who was still keeping his distance and only creeping closer to hand me things when I needed them. He was very patient, even when playing at being assistant to his own assistant. Liam didn't look very keen on the idea. He'd been bouncing his leg the whole time that I'd been there, and he was usually better with me than strangers, so this might go poorly.

But eventually he nodded, and Seth and I changed places.

With nothing much to do, I let my eyes wander. Nia's car was still parked on the roadside, much to my confusion. She'd had plenty of time to get out of here. What the hell was she thinking? A flat battery, I would have understood, but she wasn't even near the car. She was still standing beneath that beech tree, like she was waiting for me. Bloody hell.

I couldn't go right then. One of the elders was coming towards us. He was in his seventies at least - bent over, fighting the stiffness in his joints for every step he took, and with a milky film over both eyes. He must have had some eyesight left, because the way he was looking at Liam made it very clear that he was afraid for his life.

Seth stopped what he was doing under the pretence of finding bandages. I reckoned he just wanted to give Liam some peace for what was likely to be a difficult conversation. I'd never really understood the elders' role in the pack, but I knew it was important.

He stopped in front of Liam and fixed his gaze firmly on the ground before he dared open his mouth. "We witnessed the fight, of course, and we're satisfied that it was fair. But there are a few little details to iron out. Like, uh, administrative technicalities, since you are technically still, uh, on probation and not a pack member."

He almost whispered that last part. It was a very timid way to call Liam's claim to the Alpha position illegitimate, but that was exactly what he was doing. He just had a way of packaging up that accusation in so many apologies that it didn't sting.

"You don't have to worry about that," Liam told him. "I'm on the pack register. Mase added me last week, and I'll show you as soon as the doctor's finished with me."

"Oh, great. That's ... great. Thank you. And sorry for bothering you. We, um, will also need some proof of your identity. For the records, you understand?" the old man went on. He seemed to be losing volume ... and his nerve ... with every word that came out of his mouth. "I believe you, of course. It's just a matter of documenting the transition of power properly, so there are not any issues further down the line. I can come back later, if this isn't a good time, though. There's absolutely no rush."

All the while, another of the elders had been coming up behind him. This one I recognised. It was John, who was Seth's grandfather and the founder of the Crochet Club. I noticed him exchange a business-like nod with his grandson before coming to a halt right behind the first elder.

"Goddess' sake, Owain," he barked. "What's the matter with you, man? Speak up a bit. I'm a little deaf these days, and he's not going to bite your head off. This is another of the Kendrick boys, don't forget. He hasn't got a temper."

Owain seemed to jump out of his skin. He clutched at his heart as he turned to scowl at the other man. He opened his mouth to complain, only to close it again. John seemed to have rendered him speechless.

"Advisors aren't much use to me if they're too scared to tell me the truth," Liam told him quietly. "Don't bother sugar-coating anything. I'm not Micah. And I'm not Mason either."

That last comment seemed to be aimed at John, who stared at him for a moment before inclining his head. The other guy said nothing at all. He wasn't convinced. I understood it ... to a point. He had just watched Liam kill a man, and now he was having to approach him while the blood was still drying on his hands and tell him something that was likely to piss him off. It was probably just self-preservation on his part, but ... that didn't make it any less exhausting to watch.

John eyed his colleague now, hoping for a spark of courage to make itself known, but eventually, he made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat and spoke to Liam himself. He had been a Delta in his youth, I remembered, so he didn't scare easy.

"I'm going to be frank with you," he said. "We do need to see that pack register, and we need some solid proof that you are Keith's son. I'm afraid there is no standard procedure for someone coming back from the dead, but I cannot in good conscience allow you to lead this pack without at least trying to verify it. It shouldn't take more than an hour. After that, my colleagues and I will be happy to confirm you as Alpha."

"Sounds good," Liam said, so casually that I was sure he didn't really care either way. But both of the elders looked visibly relieved.

Packs were used to having young Alphas. They generally made the swap at the point when a son began butting heads with his father to avoid unnecessary conflict. Now, I wasn't convinced that it was a good idea to put an eighteen-year-old in charge of anything important, but it seemed to work for them. Mostly because those young Alphas were well-trained beforehand and relied very heavily on the elders' advice for the first few years of their rule. But Liam, of course, would not be doing that. We had our own agenda here, and I was pretty sure it was the exact opposite of what these flockies wanted.

"If you don't need me for this next part," I told Liam in an undertone, "then I'll go and see our friend. See what's keeping her."

It was subtle enough that our company wouldn't suspect a thing, but I made the words slow and pointed enough that Liam would know exactly which friend I meant. I watched his gaze slide to where Nia had been - and still was. He looked as confused as I felt that she hadn't left.

"Yeah, go on," he said warily. "You can meet us when you're done. You remember where the office is, right?"

I absolutely did not. And that must have been written all over my face, because Liam laughed at me and shook his head fondly. "It's okay. I'll come find you."

"Thank you."

Nia started grinning as I came closer. There was nothing visibly wrong with her - just a smudge of blood under her nose that wouldn't stop her from driving. So what was she still doing here? She pushed herself away from the tree trunk and came to meet me.

"What are you playing at?" I hissed. "It ain't safe here. Someone could see you."

There was a spark in her eye that I recognised well enough. Mischief. And when she opened her mouth, there was no doubt left that she was finding this very, very amusing. "No, it's cool, actually. I'm not trespassing. I'm friends with the Luna."

I didn't find that as funny as she did. Probably because it took me an embarrassingly long time to connect the dots between the word 'Luna' and me. I hadn't really had time to process it yet.

"Maybe you know her?" Nia drawled, because she just couldn't help herself. "Short kid. Kinda scrawny. Face like an ape's backside."

I was having to fight to keep a smile off my lips by then, so my glare wasn't as convincing as it should have been. "I mean it. You need to get off the territory."

Her eyebrows flew upwards. The look of scandalised delight on her face was flawless, and she folded her arms across her chest as she regarded me with an entirely new kind of mischief. "Ooh. And what if I don't, flockie? What are you gonna do? Arrest me?"

No one had ever called me a flockie before. And I did not like it. But because she was being so very dramatic, I couldn't help playing along a little. "Maybe I will."

Nia's grin intensified. "Do you think you could?"

No. Probably not. She would make a dangerous prisoner, given her talents, and getting her down into the cells in the first place would have been damn near impossible, even with an entire pack at my command. I was very glad that we weren't enemies, to the say the least.

"I think it'd be funny to try," I said. "But maybe not today. We haven't even got the pack under control yet."

She nodded distractedly. "Let us know when you do. We're going to take the Fletcher boys to challenge their uncle tomorrow, and we'll need your vote at the packmeet when that happens. They're not doing it legitimately like you did. They're just going to kill him."

It was about time. If they managed it, that would mean that we had three packs. New Dawn, Silver Lake and now Ember. It was almost a majority, and as long as we could tip just one of the remaining Alphas in our favour, we would have won. For the first time in a while, I let myself truly smile.

"Thank you for helping with Micah," I said. "I won't forget that."

Nia rubbed at her jaw ruefully. "Don't thank me. I didn't manage to get past his walls. He was dumb, but he was also very single-minded, and that makes it difficult. I'm sure I distracted him a little, but the rest ... it was all Liam."

Oh. Goddess above. I was glad I hadn't known that during the fight itself, or I'd have probably burst my little heart from the stress of it. But he'd won anyway, so clearly I should never have been worried. He had an Alpha's blood and a rogue's upbringing, and that was a dangerous combination indeed.

"I'm hoping he'll cope better," I said quietly, "now that his brothers are dead, I mean."

"I hope so too, but I doubt it, somehow," Nia sighed. Suddenly, her eyes were on me with an unusual intensity. "Was it him who killed Mason, too?"

I shook my head. Softly, I said, "No. That was me."

It was hard to miss the way her eyes widened. I'd surprised her. And that felt ... like ... good? I had killed an Alpha in my pyjamas, and no one could ever take that away from me now. It made it a little easier to cope with other mistakes. The more of that incapacitating fear of failure that I lost, the more I felt like it wouldn't be the end of the world if I tried my best every now and again.

After all, I'd done the hardest part already. And now that I was a Luna ... of an actual pack ... even a little effort on my part could have far-reaching consequences. With a handful of words, I could alter the course of this war. And with some real, concerted effort, I saw no reason why I couldn't win it.

***

Hey! Hello there! Hi! Hope you are having an amazing day! I know I usually put author's notes at the beginning, but I wanted to add in this adorable drawing of Eva and Liam after the fight for you all to enjoy. All credit to LittleLoneWriterGirl!