Enrica paled. Ochoa just looked smug. “For your information, not everyone on this board approved that disastrous show of force.”
Disgust rose inside him, and he didn’t try to hide it. “Don’t pretend you give a damn about the people they hurt. It’s insulting.”
The man flushed. “You’ve got a smart mouth, kid.”
Nick’s father stepped between them. “Jorge, that’s enough.”
Dragging himself back under control was a formidable test of willpower, but Derek managed it. Nick caught his hand and gave him a reassuring squeeze.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and Derek tensed as the sandy-haired man returned, leading three hulking men who were obviously guards and the man he assumed to be Noah Coleman.
He was large. Not as large as John Peyton, but almost as tall as Derek himself and a little wider. He looked to be in his forties, which meant he was probably in his sixties.
Coleman stared at Derek for a moment and shook his head. “You’re just a damn kid.”
Cold rage rose up inside him, narrowing his focus to Noah Coleman. “So?”
“So nothing,” he said flatly. “I hear your challenge, and I accept.”
Pure exhilaration. Derek wanted to throw back his head and howl. The wolf paced anxiously, ready to break free, and Derek didn’t try to hide the rush of power.
As the challenger, it was his right to pick the time. No more waiting. No more wondering. With his humanity fading, it was a struggle to remember the words he’d been taught. “I don’t require any time for preparations. Choose the method.”
Coleman’s stare went hot and feral. “We face each other as wolves.”
It had been too much to hope that Coleman would accept the fight in human form, and John had warned him not to expect it. “Where does this happen?”
John Peyton jerked his head toward the far wall of the room. “There’s a clearing about a quarter-mile back in the forest. The traditional grounds.”
“And we go there now?”
“We go there now.”
Nick’s hand went stiff in his. The others filed out of the room, but she hesitated. “Derek.”
He waited until they were alone to turn to her. “Nicky?”
She folded her arms around his neck and kissed him hard, then whispered in his ear. “I love you.”
It firmed up his resolve, among other things. “You can love me all you want tonight. My instincts are a little riled.”
She licked his ear. “I’ll show you how we celebrate a victorious challenge.”
Now all he had to do was win.
Nick had never been more terrified in her life. When Coleman had burst into Aaron’s cell with a gun in his hand, she hadn’t had time to be frightened. Now, she’d had days to imagine the ways this challenge could go wrong, and it scared the hell out of her.
She released Derek as they approached the clearing, and her father caught her arm and urged her to stop. “When he steps into the circle, Nicole, he has to go alone.”
She knew that, but it didn’t lessen her need to stay beside him. “He can do this.”
Derek turned to look back at her. “Damn right I can, sweetheart.”
She nodded slowly, acutely aware of the appraising gazes. “Yes.”
He was full of hungry, dangerous power and leashed strength that made her want to rub against him, to show him all the ways she could sate that need raging inside him.
He smiled, and she wondered if he knew what she was thinking. “Be right back.” Then he turned and walked into the circle.
Coleman had already shed his clothes and knelt on the ground. In a seemingly effortless moment, he shifted, gray fur covering his body. Derek stripped off his clothing as well, still poised on the edge of the circle as he dropped his shirt and his pants. The change came more slowly for him, but when it was over the dark wolf she remembered from their run together stood on the edge of the circle, tall and strong.
Coleman bristled, his tail twitching jerkily as he paced in the center of the circle. His lips lifted to bare his teeth, and he growled.
Derek pounced.
It was fast, so fast that he was on Coleman before Nick registered that he’d moved. Teeth flashed, and his snarl rose as he snapped his jaws shut where Coleman’s shoulder had been a heartbeat before.
Shocked murmurs rose from the gathered onlookers, but the gray wolf facing Derek stared him down with gleaming eyes. The attack had been aggressive, and it must have seemed carelessly so to Coleman.
Derek didn’t give him a chance to regain his composure. He attacked a second time, and a third, forcing Coleman to bend his body out of the way, to defend.
It was everything her father had told Derek. Stay on the offensive. He’s a decent fighter who can match your strength, but he tires quickly. “Is this going to work?” she whispered softly.
Her dad’s hand came up to rest on her shoulder, the weight warm and reassuring. “He’s fast and he’s tough. Jacobson’s not a bad teacher.”
“No, he isn’t.” Alec’s influence showed in every feint and snap. Derek’s fighting was quick, dirty…and effective. Over and over, he drove Coleman back, and once almost took him off his feet.
But it didn’t take long for his opponent to realize that Derek’s aggressiveness left him no room for a defense of his own, and every lunge left him open to retaliatory attacks. The next time Derek snapped at Coleman’s side, the older man let him, taking the minor bite as he turned into Derek’s body. A heartbeat later deadly sharp teeth sank into Derek’s shoulder.
He wrenched out of Coleman’s grip and recovered quickly, but his next attack was just a little more cautious, a little more restrained.
Nick stepped forward before she could stop herself. There was nothing she could do, but it didn’t help the fear. The truth of the situation, the gravity of it, trembled through her all over again.
Derek could die.
She could barely speak. “What happens if Coleman wins?”
Her father’s voice dropped to the barest whisper, too soft to be heard by anyone else gathered around the circle. “Coleman is stripped of his rank and sent home in disgrace. But if he’s willing and able to challenge his way back onto his council, he could take his old Conclave seat back.”
Nick shuddered, though she barely felt the tremor. Coleman had everything to regain by winning. It would make him viciously determined to do so.
He bit Derek again, focusing his attack on the same spot as before. Derek threw his weight behind a lunge that toppled them both onto the ground as loud snarls rose above the quiet murmur of voices.
They broke apart and came to their feet, and Derek charged before Coleman caught his balance.
By now, the fight had evened out. They each had an idea of the other’s style, and it became a tense exchange of attacks and dodges, or glancing blows and bites.
Derek was young, tough, but his shoulder began to bleed freely when Coleman managed one more tearing bite. Nick clamped her own teeth on her tongue to keep from crying out, but she refused to look away.
The constant attacks on his wounded shoulder began to take their toll. Derek stumbled with his next lunge, but Coleman was beginning to tire. He didn’t move fast enough to take advantage of Derek’s unsteady footing, and when he did move forward, Derek whipped around and caught his opponent’s back leg in a bite hard enough to wrench an enraged snarl from Coleman’s throat.
They both went down in a jumble of flailing limbs and snapping jaws. It took a minute for Coleman to break away and stagger to his feet. Derek followed, favoring his injured shoulder as the wolves circled.
Behind Nick, her father tightened his fingers on her shoulders in silent reassurance. But the longer they fought, the harder it was to watch.
She caught sight of Conrad Hoffman. He stood on the far edge of the circle, eyes narrowed and a slight frown marring his usually mild expression. When Derek snarled and attacked again, driving Coleman back, Hoffman’s frown deepened.