I wasn’t sure how much that comment was the truth and how much was necessary bravado for his kin. Right now he probably needed to look strong and in control even more so than usual.
Aaron set his hand on my thigh under the table and squeezed reassuringly. He leaned close. “Tonight will be fine. Marco’s been through this situation more than once. We all have. And we’re still here.”
I’d have felt more comforted if I hadn’t sensed the worry underlying his words. He wasn’t completely confident either. The rogue’s involvement was a wild card none of my alphas had faced during a challenge before.
The talk all along the table quieted at the scrape of chair legs. A guy at the far end of the table had just stood up. He raised his hands with a smile that looked weirdly giddy. His hair, mixed with patches of dark brown and pale gray, poked up in tufts from his rounded head. I didn’t remember being introduced to him earlier, but his appearance immediately made me think snow leopard.
“With all the commotion, I want to speak up and say how much I support our alpha,” he said in a jovial voice that carried through the room. “Marco has kept us in line and seen us through troubled times no other alpha has had to address. I know he’ll continue to do so.”
He focused his gaze on his alpha and dipped into a low bow. Marco chuckled, smiling back, but the guy’s demeanor made my skin tighten. He seemed too eager to speak. Praising Marco more to ingratiate himself than because he meant it.
Was this some kind of attempt to protect himself? Did he think Marco would punish people who seemed at all in favor of Julius after he won? That didn’t seem like the feline way of doing things.
Marco didn’t appear bothered. “Thank you for your kind words, Phillipe,” he said, holding up his glass as if to toast the leopard shifter. “I know it too. And in an hour, this whole room will know it.”
Chapter 17
Ren
My heart started to thump harder the moment we reached the challenge area. It wasn’t really anything more than a glade in the tropical forestland, a stretch of open grass maybe twenty feet in diameter surrounded by thick foliage. But Marco’s people had clearly prepared it, as he’d said they would.
The grass was trampled flat as if the ground had been pounded as smooth as possible. A green smell like a fresh-mowed lawn hung in the air. A rope hung across the trees around the ring, separating the spectating area from the fighting turf. Lamps hung from a few of the branches, casting an eerie yellow glow over the space. The one near us emitted a soft electronic hum.
Marco walked ahead of me, right into the ring. Kylie and I drifted to the side, the other alphas and Alice surrounding us. Nate rested his hand on my shoulder. “If it’s too hard for you to watch,” he started.
I shook my head before he could continue. “I’m staying. I need to be here for Marco.”
More feline shifters gathered all around the glade. It looked like everyone who’d been at the dinner had come. Why not? The leadership over their kin group might change tonight.
“Where’s the tiger?” Kylie asked, craning her neck. “Maybe he chickened out at the last minute?”
Before I could even dare to hope, Julius came swaggering down the path. He sauntered into the ring across from Marco, flexing his bulky arms. Marco watched him calmly. With a casual ease, he pulled off his shirt, then his pants, folding his clothes one piece at a time on the ground at the edge of the glade. Julius bared his teeth and started undressing as well. Of course, they’d fight as animals.
I looked around the ring at all the faces I recognized. Coreen and her husband, the cheetah shifters from dinner, Silvan and the over-eager snow leopard Phillipe, others I’d met during the luncheon. None of them, not even Phillipe after his impassioned speech, looked all that concerned about what was going to happen. The vibe in the air now was swelling with anticipation.
Were they all sure Marco would win, or did they just not care that much either way who was ruling over them? From what I’d seen of the feline kin so far, I didn’t have any trouble believing it might be the latter.
Kylie must have been thinking along the same lines. “Imagine having that musclehead as an alpha,” she whispered to me. “I wouldn’t trust him not to spend all day chasing his own tail.”
My mouth twitched. I wasn’t so tense that my bestie couldn’t get a smile out of me. “No kidding. They’d be begging to have Marco back in no time.”
Except he wouldn’t be around for them to bring him back, would they? My pulse sped up even more.
I hadn’t asked Marco what happened to him if he lost. I hadn’t wanted to take the possibility that seriously. Would they banish him like they’d banish Julius? Or was the punishment of losing after you were already alpha more severe? The new alpha wouldn’t want to risk you coming back to reclaim your position.
A chill trickled through me. Suddenly I was sure of it. If Marco lost, Julius would kill him. Maybe that was the only way Julius could win.
“The guards are still watching the edges of the estate, aren’t they?” I said to my alphas.
Aaron nodded. “I was there when Marco gave the orders.”
Alice gave me a meaningful look. “If you want the extra security, I could fly around and watch for any groups on the move heading this way.”
A tiny bit of the tightness inside me released. “Yes,” I said. “Please. And come back the second you see anything concerning.”
She nodded and slipped away between the trees. Clothes rustled off, and her eagle form leapt up through the branches. I watched her disappear against the darkening sky.
“I don’t know what they might have planned,” West said. “But I haven’t seen or scented any rogue presence nearby.”
“Neither have I,” Nate put in. “Maybe this is their plan. They’re staking everything on Julius defeating Marco.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t make sense to me. They’ve never played by the rules before. There’s got to be something more to it. But maybe the challenge is a separate part of the plan. Maybe Julius wanted to get that over with, to prove himself in front of his kin, before he has the rogues take on the rest of us.”
Whatever happened, I needed to be ready. And I’d need to protect Kylie too. I edged a little closer to her. “If things get crazy, you stay with me, all right?”
She saluted me. “Got it, dragon queen.”
The smile tugged at my lips again. Then I looked into the ring, and any humor I’d been capable of feeling died.
One of the estate attendants had stepped into the middle of the glade between Marco and Julius. “A challenge for alpha has been called,” she said in a ringing voice. “When my arm drops, the fight may begin.”