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  “I uh…I was just telling her that you have a lot of brothers.” My face is hot with a twinge of embarrassment.

  But Isaac’s smile just gets bigger and he pulls me toward him again, encircling me in his arms.

  “Yes, Cecilia, I do have a big family,” he says smiling, and I feel his arms tighten around me as if to let me know he’s fully aware of the reason behind Cecilia’s harmless inquiry.

  Cecilia’s face stretches into the biggest shit-eating grin I have ever seen. I’ve never noticed how straight her teeth are.

  I wonder if Isaac knows exactly what’s he’s getting himself into, but I just leave it alone. If anything, it’ll make for some interesting predicaments that might be fun to watch Isaac try to worm himself out of later.

  Daisy stands up and is staring off toward the road, but I don’t think anything of it at first.

  The dizziness comes out of nowhere again, but it’s only mild. I reach over and hold onto Isaac’s arm for balance.

  He notices right away. “Adria, what’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing,” I say, letting my vision pull together properly. “Really,” I add because Isaac doesn’t look like he’s buying it, “I’m fine now; just a head-rush.”

  “Oh shit…” Cecilia grumbles. “My brother’s here, I have to go. He’s such an ass—Mom probably sent him out here to look for me.” She puts her hand on Isaac’s shoulder and says with a smile, “Don’t be such a hermit—and bring a brother next time!” And then she scurries off in the opposite direction of the tall, brooding guy walking our way and looking as if he’s searching for someone.

  “Isaac,” Daisy says with her gaze still fixed out ahead, but finally she tears her eyes away from the road and I’m not sure I like the look on her face.

  I look to and from them both as they stand with their eyes locked.

  “What’s going on?” I say.

  Nathan’s Cruiser comes tearing around the corner toward the skate park. I feel Isaac’s hands tighten around my arms.

  “Seriously,” I say, my chest swirling with unease, “Isaac what’s going on?”

  Still, neither of them answers, but I’m getting the feeling that as Nathan gets closer, practically ramping the speed bumps, they are still trying to figure it out themselves and just don’t have a solid answer for me yet. Isaac pulls me along with him toward the parking lot where Nathan squeals his tires into two parking spaces.

  “We’ve got company,” Nathan says from the driver’s side window. He doesn’t look nervous; he looks kind of…excited.

  “Who is it?” Isaac says and I glance carefully over at him, noticing the same sort of excitement hidden just beneath the surface of his face.

  “Not sure yet,” Nathan says. With his arm hanging out the window, he pats his door hard twice with his open palm. “It’s a challenge though—Xavier just called me—so let’s go.” A devilish grin spreads across his face and while I’m still trying to figure out which emotions to activate, I feel Daisy step up behind me.

  “She can stay here with me,” Daisy says.

  “Uhh, no,” I object. “Not this time.”

  Isaac looks over at me and his expression softens, but before he gets the chance to tell me about how I really should stay with Daisy, or that I could ‘get hurt’, I stand my ground.

  “I’m not staying here,” I say resolutely. “I’m going.”

  As Isaac’s face falls, Nathan’s grin just gets bigger. His girlfriend, Hannah, sits coyly in the passenger’s seat looking at me.

  “Oh, let her come, bro,” Nathan says, patting the door again. “They’re not rogues.”

  Okay, so ‘they’ are obviously werewolves and I’m not liking where the word ‘challenge’ is starting to fit into this conversation. And despite them not being rogues, I’m all of a sudden feeling like I should probably stay behind with Daisy anyway.

  But I can’t back out now. Nathan will screw with me about it forever if I do. I’ve already flipped my stupid switch and the only way to come back from it is to stick it out and prove myself.

  Isaac sighs deep and takes my hand.

  “We’ll follow you there,” he says to Nathan.

  Nathan winks at me and backs the Cruiser out fast as Isaac pulls me toward his Jeep.

  4

  “OKAY, NOW TELL ME what this is about,” I say looking over at him from the passenger’s seat.

  We speed out of the skate park, hitting the speed bumps as roughly as Nathan had coming in. Instinctively, my hands come up, bracing my palms against the roof to keep my head from hitting it.

  “When another pack comes to town,” Isaac says, watching the road, “their Alpha catches wind of who runs the place and naturally he wants to challenge us for leadership.”

  “But your father is Alpha here.”

  “No,” Isaac says looking right at me, “my father is Alpha everywhere. No one challenges him. No one since Viktor Vargas has ever challenged my father for Sovereignty.” He looks back out at the road as the Jeep hugs the curves a little too tight and fast for my nerves. “This is on a smaller scale and my father could care less about these kinds of things.”

  “Okay, ummm, so then why does Nathan seem so excited about being challenged?”

  Isaac grins, letting me know that Nathan isn’t the only one who’s excited. I don’t know if I like that or not, either.

  “We live for this,” he says and I swallow hard. I notice too that he’s white-knuckling the steering wheel. “Just stay in the Jeep.”

  I grit my teeth and bite the inside of my bottom lip. “Let me make one thing clear right now, alright?” I glare at him from the side and he looks mildly surprised by my reaction to his words. “The next time someone says to me the words ‘get in the Jeep’ or ‘stay in the Jeep’, I swear I’m gonna’ combust.” I point my finger at him. “I’m not staying in the Jeep. If it makes you feel better, I’ll stand right outside of it and even leave the door open in case I have to jump back in, but I’m not staying in it.”

  Isaac barks a laugh. “God, I love you!” he says, breaking a smile in my serious expression.

  A few more minutes and we’re turning north away from the direction of their house.

  “Just out of curiosity,” I say, hiding how nervous I really am, especially after my little rant, “why is it okay to bring me, anyway?”

  Isaac smiles knowingly. I can’t hide anything from him it seems.

  He reaches over and puts his hand on my thigh.

  “Rogues would have no problem using you to get to us. They have no honor,” he says. “The kind challenging us now would never disgrace their name with tactics like that.”

  “So then I’m perfectly safe?” I need more assurance. A lot more.

  “Yeah,” he says, grinning, “If we win.”

  I feel my eyes get bigger.

  “And if you don’t?”

  Isaac moves his hand farther up my thigh and my body reacts to it instantly. Of course, I don’t let him know that. He’s grinning wider now, full of confidence, which eases my mind somewhat.

  “It’s a possibility,” he says, “but not likely.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I’m still nervous. I doubt anything he says will really change that. “And how do you know they’re not rogues if you don’t even know who they are?”

  “Have a little faith,” he says and then adds as he puts his hand back on the steering wheel, “and they’re not rogues because rogues never challenge anyone; they just attack.”

  I should’ve known that, having experienced it and all.

  We get off the paved Town Farm Road and white dust engulfs the Jeep as the dirt and gravel road extends out ahead. Nathan’s Cruiser is in front of us spinning up even more. I press the buttons to raise both windows but still taste the nuisance coming in through the vents. Our vehicles slip quickly down the bumpy road between engulfing trees on both sides until we shoot out at the end into a clearing. It looks like an abandoned construction zone. The trees have b
een stripped from this place, leaving a small circular landscape of large rocks and white, chalk-like dirt. Parked in the far corner are two bulldozers that look like they’ve been sitting there for months.

  When we get out of the Jeep, I decide to do exactly what I said I’d do by leaving my door open and standing beside it just in case. I’m not doing it for Isaac. I’m doing it for myself. I swallow hard and brace my hands against the door. I’ve never seen all of Isaac’s brothers in one place before, not even at the Mayfair house. When Nathan and Isaac were in one room, Xavier and Seth would be off somewhere else. And it’s been only on a rare occasion that I’ve ever even spoken to Xavier. I’ve never spoken to Seth.

  I glance over into their vehicles and notice a girlfriend in the front seat of each one (except for Xavier’s—he’s kind of a man-whore and doesn’t believe in having one girlfriend). Apparently, I’m the only one with the stupid switch still on. I move a little closer against the opened door.

  Isaac looks back at me once as if to make sure I’m not going any farther. Yeah, there’s really no need at all for him to worry about that.

  “Where are they?” Xavier says looking with his brothers out at the thick trees encircling us on the ledge. Xavier, being Daisy’s twin, definitely resembles her with that blond hair and soft eyes, but like Isaac and the rest of his brothers, he has that whole savage beauty thing going on.

  Instead of a flat landscape, the area was carved from within the side of a giant ridge. It makes me even more nervous as I stare up and all around me, waiting to be ambushed from above and on all sides. I feel like a fish in a bucket.

  I see Nathan’s chin turn at an angle and raise toward the highest point of the ridge. “There,” he says and his eyes shift black. “Smells like New Jersey.”

  Uhhh, okay.

  A small group of dark figures emerges from the canopy of trees at the top of the ridge. But it’s when they jump the more than one-hundred-foot drop and land in a flawless, crouched position that my breath catches and I let out a tiny yelp. My hand flies up to my lips.

  I count eight brooding guys walking toward us. Their arms are huge. They seem taller than Harry and they look meaner than Rachel. The one in the center is a huge frickin’ black guy and it’s obvious to me by the way the other seven stay a few inches behind him on either side as they approach that he’s the leader.

  Eight. Against four? My nervous levels just went through the roof.

  My eyes dart over to see Isaac, but his back is still facing me. I glance downward to see that his hands and forearms have changed colors to appear more grayish and his blade-like fingernails have emerged from the tips of his fingers. Nathan, Xavier and Seth are also standing ready in their mediate forms.

  What did I get myself into?

  I don’t realize until afterwards that I’ve pressed myself so closely into the corner of the Jeep door that my fingers are wedged tightly between it and the frame. If the door moves a fraction of an inch, my fingers will be smashed.

  The leader stops about twenty-feet away, a treacherous grin frozen on his face. Muscles bulge underneath his t-shirt and he’s wearing loose-fitting jeans, but his legs are so big that they fit snugly.

  He crosses his huge arms and his eyes shift black.

  “Jersey isn’t big enough for you, Treven?” Nathan says, stepping up.

  There is technically no Alpha in the Mayfair house other than Trajan because no one has been named and Trajan hasn’t made Serbia his permanent residence yet. But I guess in situations like this, the oldest automatically assumes the position.

  The brute named Treven lets his grin soften making him appear falsely offended. He has no pupils, but I can tell by the way he tilts his head that he’s referring to the big white guy standing to his right when he says, “For me, it’s fine. For Darren here…well…” ‘Darren’ rolls his neck to one side, cracking it. “…obviously, there can’t be two Alpha’s in one territory. And from what I hear, Maine has no Alpha.”

  Seth steps forward, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “You know that my father is Alpha here,” he growls. “Is…Darren,” Seth’s eyes skirt Darren dismissively, “…here to challenge my father?”

  Treven throws his head back and roars with laughter.

  “Give us some credit, Mayfair,” he says, grinning impishly, “we’re Purebloods—we know the way things work.” He looks a tad more serious now and adds, “And no one here is that foolish.”

  I gather he meant that they would never challenge Trajan, and I find this comforting. Comforting because they don’t seem the type to play dirty.

  Maybe this will be a fair and clean fight.

  The second that thought flits off the edge of my mind, Nathan and Darren run toward each other, claws at the ready and they clash in mid-air. I jump backward, feeling my pinky finger smash a little in the door of the Jeep and I jerk my hand away, but can’t tear my eyes away from the fight.

  Nathan backflips effortlessly over Darren’s head and lands behind him with a quickness almost too fast for me to see. And just as fast, he throws his powerful leg out and buries his foot in Darren’s back, sending his body soaring many feet away. Darren hits the ground hard, throwing dust up all around him, but also effortlessly, he rolls into a crouched position. His eyes are as black as oil, his fanged teeth bared underneath an ever-growing wrathful expression that alone makes my breath catch.

  And then everybody else jumps in.

  My heart is thrashing against my ribs and I finally do decide to be a good little girl and get my ass inside the Jeep. I watch from the front seat as the deadly brawl unfolds in front of me. Black eyes. Black claws. Sharp bared teeth. I can even hear the demonic growls in their voices and in every noise they make from inside the Jeep with the windows up.

  Isaac’s skin has turned grey all over, the muscles in his arms twice as large as normal in his mediate form. Are they going to Turn fully? Here in the mid-afternoon not so very far from human houses and human life? Surely not….

  Isaac and the Alpha, Treven, crash into one another, Isaac grabbing onto Treven’s neck and lifting his body in the air. In a split-second, Treven is soaring across the landscape and before he even hits the ground, Isaac has run in behind him. Treven tries to hit the ground rolling, but Isaac drop-kicks him square in the back much in the way that Nathan kicked Darren. Treven skids across the ground face-down and his landing isn’t as graceful as Darren’s was.

  Treven stands up slowly and cracks his neck to both sides. He snarls at Isaac and spits a wad of blood and saliva onto the ground.

  Game on.

  I wish I hadn’t come.

  Treven rushes Isaac like a raging bull and in the half a second it takes Isaac to see his mistake, Treven whirls around behind Isaac, grabbing him around the throat and taking him down.

  I yell out, though no one can hear me where I am and little good it would do if they could. My hand has become a permanent fixture against my chest, the other over my mouth.

  Treven and Isaac roll across the white dirt, both of them taking turns reining blows one after the other until finally Isaac gets the upper-hand again and ends up on top of Treven’s massive form. I see Isaac’s deadly hands come up and he wails on Treven, his fists barreling down on Treven’s face in a series of rapid, ferocious blows. I try to look away when Isaac pulls his hands up once and I glimpse the blood dripping from them.

  Seth and Xavier are being ambushed by six others.

  I don’t think I can watch this. My nerves are shot all to hell and my hands are shaking against my body. I try to tear my eyes away, but I can’t. It’s like some sick and demented part of me wants to watch.

  Nathan and Darren continue to exchange blows, but I can tell that Darren is starting to lose his way. The last time when Nathan hits him, Darren hits the dirt and doesn’t get up as easily.

  Treven is charging Isaac again and I notice that he seems to do that a lot. Maybe Isaac notices this too, because it’s as though he can easily calculate Treven
’s every move now. As he rushes in, Isaac spins his body in the air and comes around in front of him, hammering his fist just under his chin causing his body to flip backwards and land hard. Treven shakes off the stun and rolls backward into a crouch. He leaps up like an animal, but Isaac is too fast and catches him by the throat, plunging him back down violently against a bed of rocks.

  Two have left the fight with Xavier and Seth and are now heading straight for Isaac. My first instinct is to open the door and shout out to warn Isaac, but they are on him faster than I can even get my hand on the door. I shriek when the black-haired one pulls Isaac off of Treven and body-slams him. In obvious pain, Isaac still manages to roll sideways and out of the way before the black-haired one’s foot comes down on top of him.

  Isaac rushes him now, spearing his head into the black-haired one’s stomach and both of them soar at least thirty feet through the air before crashing down.

  They’re all getting closer to the vehicles and suddenly I don’t feel so safe in here anymore.

  And then bam! crunch! A body hits the windshield and the glass caves in toward me, the fractures spreading out in all directions.

  Oh God…flashback…this is not happening to me again.

  I fumble for the door handle, finally getting it open and I just let my body roll right out of the Jeep and onto the dirt. But before I can even get to my feet, I feel an arm around my waist lifting me up.

  “STAY AWAY FROM HER!” Isaac roars. His face is full of blood and fury. He pushes me behind his body and I can feel his death grip on my wrist.

  Seth was the one that hit the windshield and the brown-haired werewolf that pushed him into it backs off instantly, his chest heaving and his eyes swirling like black, endless pits.

  “I’ll kill you,” Isaac says in a lower, more gravelly voice. I can tell the way the words came out that his teeth are bared and clenched in a terrifying show. “I will…kill you,” he says once more, just to emphasize how serious he is.

  “Back off,” I hear Treven say from behind, but as he walks up, I’m relieved to see that he’s not talking to Isaac, but to his friend standing in front of Isaac. “Darren’s been defeated and this challenge was only about him. It’s not a fight to the death.”