The Alpha's Daughter (25 page)

All this sped through her mind and as she ran
down the steps shouting, "No!" She heard Miz Mary's cry behind
her.

Most of the crowd had turned away. What
started as an entertaining event in their ordinary lives had turned
into something they couldn't face. Their Alpha was about to be put
down.

Jazz stood beside the faltering Alpha. The
wave of power now battered her as well, but she held her ground and
shouted again through gritted teeth, "No!"

She was about to throw herself at her father
to break his concentration when she felt the second surge of power.
Her father's anger tore away from the elderly Alpha and was
redirected at Griz and unlike the wolver of her memory, her grizzly
bear was fighting back.

His head was high. His shoulders were thrown
back and while she knew it was an illusion cast by his power, he
looked like he had grown in size. His eyes were locked on the Alpha
who sought to cut him down. He refused to lower his eyes in
submission to this Alpha.

The sun had long since set and the moon was
beginning to rise. All around her, Jazz could feel the anxiety
heighten as the moon called the wolvers to come over and run as
wolves. They would fight it out of respect for their Alpha, but the
need to follow the moon was there and with so many wolvers
together, the tension became almost a living thing as it fed off
one wolver and passed to another.

Her father's men began to prowl restlessly
about the cars. Both doors to the second SUV opened and the
passengers began to trot toward them.

It was her father who broke contact. He
dropped his eyes and stepped back. Griz stepped back, too, and then
all hell broke loose when her father raised his fist.

There was a burst of light as her father's
men turned to wolf and another as he himself turned. Lips pulled
back over his wolfish sneer, Bronson Phillips stood back and
watched his wolvers descend on Griz.

Her father had deliberately goaded her
grizzly into a test of wills that would deplete the younger wolver
of the magic that fueled his power. He could now claim the
Challenge was fairly met. He would take no part in Griz's
defeat.

"Help him." Her whisper was a plea.

Like paparazzi surrounding a celebrity,
lights flashed and popped as each male member of the Gilead pack
went over the moon. Some of the women moved back, herding the
younger pups into the house and away from the sight of what was to
come.

Jazz felt the glimmer of magic course through
her body as the first wolf struck. The stretch and pull of bones
reshaping and muscles reforming was quickly followed by the itchy
tingle of sprouting fur. The poke of the emerging tail at the base
of her spine always made her jump. It was over in an instant.

Jazz had transformed to wolf.

As
wolf, her first instinct was to run to Griz, to fight at his side.
Her human, however, understood this was wrong. A Challenge had been
issued. Griz had allowed the terms to be set. One or all, he'd
said. Her human grinned in her mind. All didn't have to mean all at
once, did it? The she-wolf chuffed at the cunningly applied
logic.

Overcoming instinct, she flew at the second
attacker. Fueled by her need to protect Griz, she struck before the
wolver could reach his target. He was large and bulky with a dull
brown coat and was used to exploiting his size as a means of
intimidation.

Her first strike was unexpected and the
wolver stumbled as she broadsided him, turning her head and forcing
her shoulder into the soft part of his belly. He snarled and
snapped at her shoulder, but she'd already spun away and his teeth
caught nothing but air.

Moose had promised that her training as a
human would benefit her as a wolf, but she'd never had the
opportunity to test it. She wasn't sure how two legged lessons
would translate to four, but she saw now that it did. Her swiftness
made up for her lack of size.

Her opponent relied on weight and force. He
charged and she leapt, coming down behind his right flank. She bit,
tore, and came away with a mouthful of fur. She could hear the
snarls and snapping jaws behind her and she turned her head to see
how Griz fared. The bout with her father had surely sapped some of
his strength.

Her inattention cost her and this time when
the brown wolf charged, he rammed her squarely in her side. She was
bowled over and kicked out with her hind feet to protect her
exposed underbelly. He snapped and his teeth caught her hind foot.
She yelped at the pain and sliced at his face with the leg that was
free.

There was a roar and suddenly her attacker
was gone, tossed to the side by a furious Griz. A tornado of snarls
and fur whirled beside her as Griz tore at the wolf who had hurt
her.

Blood spattered across her face and chest.
She heard bone crunch and a howl of pain, saw another of her
father's wolvers circle behind Griz. It was a tactic every wolf
understood. The circling wolf's intention was to hamstring her
grizzly, thus crippling his hind leg. If the ploy succeeded, the
fight would be over.

Jazz rolled to her feet. Pain lanced up her
leg from the injured foot. From the corner of her eye, she saw
another wolf tearing toward Griz. Friend or foe? She didn't know
the Gilead wolvers well enough to instantly recognize their wolves.
Her wolf didn't care. Anyone charging in Griz's direction was
foe.

Her leap intercepted the circling wolf as he
darted in to attack. She did little more than knock him off course,
but it was enough. She turned, teeth exposed and mouth open to face
the second charging wolf. It sped past her to block yet another
attacker. Another defender arrived from another direction and the
two Gilead wolves held the fourth attacker at bay with snarls and
snapping jaws.

The second brown wolf limped away from Griz
with a whimper of defeat; one front leg held gingerly above the
ground and a bloody gash along its side. Eyes blazing, nostrils
flared, strong sharp teeth bared in a muzzle covered in blood, Griz
now turned to take on the third attacker.

Jazz spun and spun again, searching for the
next point of attack. There wasn't one. She watched in amazement as
Griz dove under the third wolf, lifted his mighty head and tossed
the badly injured creature at the feet of her father's gray wolf.
His head came up and he stood proud and defiant and ready for his
next battle.

Her father snarled and flashed to human and
the wolf beside him flashed, too. It was Moose, her father's second
and the man who'd taught her how to fight. He stared at her for
only a moment, but Jazz thought she saw a spark of recognition and
approval before his eyes went dark and dead.

Silence descended over the crowd which was
now half wolf, half human. Inside the house, a child whined.

Moose touched her father's arm and whispered
something in his ear. Her father shook him off, snarled and raised
his hand. The fourth attacker flashed to human and ran for the
SUV.

From the fast-forward motion of the battle,
time suddenly went to slo-mo. Neither beast nor human moved as the
man threw open the back door to the SUV and reached inside.

A shotgun blast rent the silence and
everything was once again in motion. Women dropped to the ground.
Wolves snarled and snapped and milled in a protective flurry while
they searched for the source of this new threat. Someone screamed.
Even her father and Moose ducked.

"You step away from that vehicle or the next
blast gets your boss," a single voice screeched.

The next voice was Donna's. "Good God, Ezzy!
You could have killed someone!"

A collective sigh passed through the
pack.

"Nah, I only shoot to kill them damn birds
that’s always hanging about my boys," the woman declared as she
lowered the barrel and pointed it at Alpha Phillips, "But I might
change my mind iffen that feller don't get away from that
vehicle."

"Leave it alone, Hank." It was Moose who
called out, not his Alpha.

The Alpha Phillips' fists were clenched as
were his teeth. His face had turned an odd sort of purple in an
effort to control the power that was waiting to explode. He glared
at his second.

"It's not worth it, Alpha. She's not worth
it. Leave it alone," Moose said in a harsh voice. He, too, was
furious.

Jazz, who had turned and bared her teeth at
this new threat, judged it harmless. This feeling was definitely in
conflict with her human who recognized the gun and the peculiarity
of the creature holding it. As happened more and more often lately,
Jazz the wolf ignored Jazz the human.

The creature was fascinating. Her hair was a
mass of gray and black snarls and her heavily creased face was
brown from the sun and toughened by weather. Her dress was too
large for her scrawny frame and hung down to her ankles over bare
feet as dirty as the dress. Several teeth were missing. None of
this mattered to the wolf.

It was the creature's smell that drew Jazz's
attention. Jazz loved the smell of good earth and green things and
fresh running water floating on the breeze. Griz smelled like those
things and being close to those smells made the wolf happy.

This female creature smelled like that and
more. There was very little human in her scent, but what there was,
wasn't tainted with the irritating scents of soaps and lotions and
shampoos. This female was wolver and if it wasn't for her two legs
and five fingered hands, Jazz would have thought the creature ran
wild.

Miz Ezzy smelled of squirrel and rabbit and
deer and other creatures that were unfamiliar to the desert grown
Jazz. She smelled of leaf decay and stagnant ponds with a hint of
other rotting things the human Jazz would turn away from. To the
wolf, however, this was the aroma of life in the forest and she had
never smelled so many varied scents carried by one creature
before.

Griz's growl reminded her that pack came
first. Further inspection of this creature would have to wait. She
turned her attention back to the Alphas.

Her father slammed the door of the limo
behind him and waited silently behind the heavily tinted windows
for his men to retrieve and load their dead and wounded. It took
another few minutes for them to decide who rode where since they
were short a driver. When they were finished, Moose gave Jazz a
brief and unsmiling nod before closing the hatch of the SUV. The
three vehicles drove away to the sound of the celebratory yips and
howls of the Gilead pack.

Not all were in the mood to celebrate,
however. The Alpha sat by the side of the road, his grizzled muzzle
slack and tongue hanging. The Mate had her arms around him, taking
his weight while stroking his ears and murmuring into the graying
ruff at his neck.

She only pulled away long enough to call to
the pack. "I'm sorry ladies. There'll be no running for you
tonight. The Alpha is exhausted and needs his rest. We'll run
tomorrow," she said, though her voice lacked the confidence it
usually held.

Griz, too, ignored the goings on behind him.
He stood with hackles raised and lips pulled back in a snarl as he
watched the tail lights disappear down the road. Cho and his fellow
observer followed the vehicles out, but Griz didn't move.

Jazz moved up next to him, wagging her tail
in invitation. Her human pushed forward urging caution but Jazz,
the wolf, had other ideas and pushed the human down, deep inside
where she belonged. This was wolf business, not human!

She'd already recognized him as a prime alpha
male and he had proved it today. He had stared down an Alpha and
fought off the enemy. She, too, had proved herself worthy of such a
magnificent beast.

He had no stink of other she-wolf on his
coat. He was unclaimed and so was she. She turned and bumped his
muzzle with her hind end, a blatant offer…

…
And got a stinging nip on
her behind for her efforts.

Hey!

Jazz tucked tail and scooted away, answering
his snap with one of her own. Thick headed wolf. Did he think she
made this offer to any male with four legs and a tail?

She felt a little better when other wolves
began cavorting around him in praise of his bravery. His reaction
to them was the same, snap and snarl. Pissy wolf.

Jazz circled the outskirts of the pack,
waiting and watching to see what he would do. They had won the
battle and now she wanted to run, to play, to explore. They all
did.

The Alpha raised his head and barked, calling
them away from the hero. He approached Griz with a growl, saying he
would not put up with the younger wolf's nonsense. Griz bowed his
head in respect and response, willingly offering his submission to
this Alpha where he'd refused the other.

Jazz found this curious. She sat and cocked
her head and studied the pair. The Alpha was no longer prime. His
muzzle was gray. His teeth were worn and weak. His coat was dull
with age. If he offered, she would not mate him. Weak sire, weak
pups. It was a good thing the Mate was old, too. No pups.

Griz would make fine pups. Strong, smart,
cunning. He could be the Alpha if he chose. Her tail thumped the
ground in a canine laugh.

Her human was shouting again. It was
annoying. Jazz snapped at the air, the same way she did at the
buzzing of a fly.

Griz snarled, too, not at the Alpha, but at
something the Alpha wanted. He spun and took off for the woods.
Others tried to follow and he turned on them, driving them
away.

Jazz felt the Mate approach and while she
never took her eyes off Griz, she chuffed a greeting. She liked the
Mate. The Mate was good.

"Follow him," the Mate said and a picture
formed in Jazz's mind. "We need him. You need him."