Magnus

Jason confirmed what I already knew: I had no choice but to admit Opal into my pack. She would be allowed to challenge me for my position before the ink was even dry on her transfer paperwork.

Lachlan refused to leave my side, going so far as to pull a second chair behind my desk. He watched with a stern, neutral expression as Opal cheerily signed her transfer paperwork, her mate watching from the seat next to her with a smirk of his own.

After the papers were signed, I was a little surprised that Opal didn't immediately challenge me; instead, we four headed downstairs to where the pack was waiting. The barbecue I had originally planned to celebrate Lachlan joining our pack was for the both of them now, since I couldn't very well not include her. Lachlan had signed his initiation paperwork without fanfare shortly before Opal signed hers, with Roy as his witness.

I was on edge waiting for the challenge to be issued, but I was also angry. How dare Opal take this day away from me? It was our first official day as mates and this party should have been a happy event, with my pack rallying behind my mate and their new member. Now I was anxious, Lachlan stiff and angry.

We had explained to my family and Roy what was going on and Mel was so livid I had been seriously concerned she would pop a blood vessel. Jason wouldn't let her out of his sight, but even he couldn't soothe her now. Felix had disappeared and I knew he was drawing up more rigorous training plans for me. He had also promised to get his friend, Molly, to see what she could dig up on Opal's fighting prowess and history.

Everett and Griffin were the only people in my family acting totally normal. They were tossing a frisbee back and forth, with Everett shifted in his wolf form and Griffin laughing riotously at seeing his father catch a frisbee in his mouth and spin around furiously to build up the momentum to throw it back. Griffin kept complaining loudly and delightedly about dad drool getting on his hands.

I pulled Lachlan over in their direction, happy to bask in Griffin's innocent play. It was helping me feel almost as peaceful as Lachlan did.

Opal might take away my pack and my position, but she wouldn't take this from me. My mate, my family. Our happiness. Those were mine, and they were far from her reach.

Lachlan and I sat down, enjoying the barbecue as much as we could. After a bit, I went and filled a couple plates of food for us, but we mostly stayed detached from the group. I had meant to invite Lachlan's cousins and Luin, but it slipped from my mind when Opal showed up in my office this afternoon and anyway, I didn't think either of us was in the mood to play host. A while after Everett and Griffin stopped playing and went to get food for themselves, Lachlan stood and said, "Be right back."

I watched as he jogged over to Jason, who was watching my sister storm off in the direction of the training grounds. She was probably going to work off some of her anger, or maybe she wanted to help Felix with his new training plan for me.

I didn't feel like sitting alone, so I got up and headed over to Lachlan and Jason, who were talking about the rules of challenge. Jason had carefully combed through Tourmaline's when we told him about Opal, so he was able to explain to Lachlan that intentional permanent damage was forbidden, as was killing your opponent. Both participants had to be examined by a pack doctor just before the fight, and it would be delayed if either person had any injuries or signs of illness. Any member could challenge the alpha, and unless both parties agreed otherwise, the loser and his or her mate would leave the pack.

I liked that rule, even though I didn't want to leave here. It would be too hard to take orders from Opal when all this was over, too hard to watch her moving into my house and to live every day surrounded by my own failure.

Better to make a clean break.

It also prevented the same person from challenging the alpha over and over again, hoping for a lucky win.

Jason also explained that the fight would happen exclusively unshifted, including partial shifts. It was too hard to follow the no-maiming-or-death rule with sharper teeth and claws. No, this would be a weapon-free brawl until one person was knocked unconscious or yielded.

I shuddered at the thought and no matter what Lachlan said about getting me ready for the fight and believing in myself, a very real part of me was sorely tempted to just hand over my position and run away with my tail between my legs. I could find a nice teaching job back in my old pack, or maybe somewhere totally new, and I would be happy. I knew I would.

Except that I would be giving up my own self-respect, too. Not to mention what Opal might do to my pack when I knew she didn't care about them.

Lachlan and Jason's conversation ebbed and I could feel Lachlan watching me. His eyes were sad rather than worried now, and I was somehow certain he understood the direction of my thoughts. He took my hand and pressed a tender kiss to the back before lacing our fingers together. Lachlan thanked Jason, who nodded and headed back into the crowd – probably off to find my sister.

I looked back to Lachlan, who was studying me with a grave expression. "You were projecting your thoughts to me," he said. His tone was even, but I could sense the unrest under that calm surface.

Instantly, my worried thoughts gave way to a blast of shame. What must he think of me, that I doubted myself so much and had seriously considered an early surrender?

Lachlan reached up and cupped my cheeks. He leaned in to kiss me, but for the first time, I turned my head so his lips landed on my cheek instead. Despite myself, even that little bit of contact and affection from him worked to smooth my emotions. "Everyone's thoughts get away from them," Lachlan said gently. "I know you, Magnus. You're going to take on Opal's challenge and you're going to do your best."

Tears filled my eyes and I bit my lip in a useless attempt to keep a lid on my emotions. As Lachlan looked up at me with such faith and love, I felt unworthy but mostly, I felt honored.

--

Every single day after that, I waited on a knife's edge. Opal integrated into the pack cheerfully, and it seemed like she was everywhere. She helped with dinner at night. She joined in the training sessions and even taught our warriors a fighting style they weren't familiar with, one that her father's pack used. I saw her building a new fence, tending the garden, and even painting doorframes – which had admittedly been looking dingy.

It all set me on edge. I knew what she was doing – ingratiating herself with the members of Tourmaline so that when she challenged me, she wouldn't look like a villain to them. And they ate it up. I even saw her playing in a field with a bunch of the pack children while the daycare workers had them outside.

Every time I ran into her with Lachlan by my side – which was frequent since we only separated when we had to and since Opal was everywhere, Lachlan would wrap his arm around my waist or squeeze my hand or press a kiss to my cheek. His comfort helped keep me from doing something rash. I wanted so badly to tell everyone what she was up to – that she didn't really want to help them, that she was just pandering.

But I had no proof, and... well, even though it felt like Opal was doing all this as part of an elaborate plot, I didn't actually know that she was. Maybe Opal really did just move here to be with her mate – whom she met right after he joined us. And maybe now that she was in the pack, she saw that they were okay under my leadership and maybe she wasn't actually planning on challenging me at all.

I voiced that theory exactly once ever. It was while Lachlan, Mel, Jason, and I were eating dinner. Lachlan choked on his food and Mel snapped at me and called me a bleeding heart while Jason pounded on Lachlan's back.

Then Lachlan had looked at me with his eyes all soft and affectionate and he said, "Magnus, I love that you try to see the best in people, but you're grasping at straws here. What I think Mel meant to say is that we don't want you to let your guard down around her. We have to assume she's here to challenge you and that she'll do it when she thinks you're at your weakest."

I didn't respond to either of them. In fact, I kept my eyes on my food after I looked up and caught the pitying look Jason was directing at me.

But as time passed, it was harder and harder to believe that a challenge was actually coming, and I started to have bigger worries. Anita finished up with her interviews and research and headed back to the Summit. Jason had finished putting together his plans days prior and had just been hanging around to be with Mel. A date was set for my hearing, the Saturday after Anita left. It was a week and a half after Opal joined Tourmaline.

Roy would stay behind to lead the pack in my absence, but Lachlan insisted on coming with me, exposure be damned. I was too nervous to argue with him. Felix was coming, too, since he wasn't needed to run the pack. I didn't like taking him away from Everett and Griffin, but he insisted and to be honest, I didn't put up much of a fight. Mel couldn't get off work, which put her in a nasty mood for days – between her worry for me and the upcoming separation from Jason, she was... let's say she was touchy. Her temper was on a hair trigger that made her kind of hard to be around, no matter how much I loved her and understood her worries.

I felt awful not trying to be there for Mel, but I was just too anxious to take on her problems too.

With the hearing scheduled for Saturday evening, we were flying down mid-Saturday morning. I got up early and spent the pre-dawn hours of the morning in my office, painstakingly getting everything set up so Roy would have as little to do in my absence as possible. I knew he was as up-to-date on the workings of the pack as I was, but he shouldn't be left with my backlog of e-mails and the stacks of reports that formed a haphazard pile on my desk.

Meanwhile, Lachlan dozed on the couch in my office. He was still in his pajamas since he had insisted on sticking by my side today for comfort but was not an early riser.

I was just shutting down my computer and clearing off my desk when the door to the stairwell opened and I heard footsteps as Opal's scent drew nearer. Lachlan and I exchanged worried looks seconds before she strolled into my office and swept appraising eyes over it.

Her eyes flicked toward Lachlan and amusement sparked in them, there and gone so quickly I almost thought I imagined it. Then she set her gaze on me. "I challenge you for the role of alpha," she said.

I froze, unable to do anything but take in the awful confidence she had as she gleefully stared me down, already assured of her victory. Lachlan leapt to his feet and came to stand behind my chair, his hands braced on my shoulders. His touch was enough to unfreeze me, and I tilted my chin up in my best approximation of confidence. Meanwhile, my mind was scrambling.

Challenges had to be carried out the day they were issued unless a pack doctor found some reason to delay. Opal wouldn't have challenged me if she were injured or sick, and I knew I would pass the physical. That meant there would be no delaying this – and if I didn't hurry, I would miss my hearing.

If I was even still alpha at the end of the day.

"I'll meet you in the training ring in one hour," I told Opal. Normally I would have set the fight for later in the day. I could have spent some time with my family and with my mate, letting their confidence and presence keep me grounded. There was no waiting, though, not if I wanted to make it to that hearing.

Opal nodded, though there was a spark in her eyes I didn't trust, and she left the office without saying another word. I pulled out my phone, already scrolling to Roy's name so I could call him. "Call Felix," I told Lachlan. He nodded.

The phone rang so many times, I started to worry that Roy wouldn't answer and I'd have to hunt him down with what little time I had. Just before I was about to hang up, though, he answered sounding sleepy. Weird – he was usually awake by now. "Alpha?"

Not for long. My eyes watered and I cleared my throat before speaking. "Opal challenged me. I set the fight for eight. I need you to switch us to the latest flight you can that would still get us to the Summit in time."

"On it," Roy said, sounding much more alert.

I hung up without saying another word and dialed Kayla, the pack doctor. There were actually three certified doctors in the pack, but the other two worked part-time for us. Most of their time was spent in the clinic they shared in town, and their part-time status meant that neither of them was officially a pack doctor, so neither could perform the pre-fight exams.

Kayla didn't answer her phone, but hopefully she was just asleep or already set up in her office and didn't have her cell on her. Though as our main doctor, she was usually really good about answering her phone – she had to be in case there was an emergency. Of all the times for her to be MIA, this was a bad one.

Lachlan tapped my shoulder and said, "Felix and Everett are on their way here. They're leaving Griffin with Everett's mom."

I nodded. That was good. No way did my nephew need to see this fight go down. "Call Mel next. Make sure she loops Jason in. I need to go find the pack doctor."

I didn't even wait for Lachlan's response before I darted for the door, but Lachlan grabbed my wrist and yanked me back against him. "Kiss first."

I had to smile at that, just a little bit. Lachlan kissed me sweetly, without any demands or heat. This was about comfort and solidarity. He was reminding me that I wasn't alone. I had Lachlan on my side no matter what. It was something to cling to, a rock I sorely needed right now when I was feeling panicked and frankly, kind of terrified.

If I lost, we would have to leave the pack by tomorrow. You always got an extra day as a grace period. Time to pack and to say goodbye. We would probably be lone wolves for a little while, or maybe we could go back to Lakota, the pack I had grown up in. My family would follow us, I was sure, and I really didn't want to make them uproot their lives – but they would do it without me asking, without hesitation.

My eyes welled and I grabbed Lachlan's waist, tugging his body closer to mine while I swept my tongue along his lips. He opened them and our tongues met. His twisted and caressed mine, and it was somehow as soothing as a hug. Lachlan gently pulled away and pressed our foreheads together. "I love you," he said solemnly. "It's going to be okay."

Lachlan's eyes fixed on mine, waiting for me to accept his words as truth. Slowly, I nodded. "I know. I love you too."

Lachlan grinned suddenly and smacked my butt. "Now, go find your doctor. I'll finish calling in the cavalry. Meet you in the kitchen?"

"Okay."

I ran out of the room, sprinting down one flight of stairs and stopping in front of Kayla's room. I pounded on the door but she didn't answer and her scent wasn't very strong from out in the hall. If she were home, it should have been stronger. Heart pounding, I ran for the staircase again and this time went down to the infirmary on the first floor. It was left unlocked as always so anyone in need could access basic medical supplies – bandages, gauze, antiseptic cream, et cetera. Kayla's office and the exam room were both locked and empty.

Where else could she be? I didn't actually know Kayla that well since I hadn't had much need for her services and she was usually really busy. Being the only full-time pack doctor meant that there was always work for her to do, and she only delegated to the others when she absolutely had to. I saw Kayla occasionally at meals and even more rarely at pack functions, and that was it.

All of this meant that I had no idea where to even start looking for her. She could be in someone's suite, doctoring them there instead of here in the infirmary. She could be out for a run or sleeping over with a friend, or she might not be on pack lands at all.

I couldn't have my fight without her.

I couldn't leave for my hearing without having the fight.

I leaned back against the wall and tugged at my hair, squeezing my eyes shut and letting myself panic for just a minute. Then, I promised myself, I would get my wits together and figure out a plan.

I just needed a minute.