Page 57 of His White Moonlight (Dominant CEO Shifter Romance #1)

“Fuck!” The word didn’t alleviate the burning sting as I slapped my other hand over my forearm. While it wasn’t my first cut, it was definitely the deepest.

“Get something to stop the bleeding,” Bennett snarled.

“I invoke position preservation,” Miranda called over the sound of my harsh breathing. “I’m not related, and Wrenly’s too injured to fight.”

Someone passed a shirt to Bennett. The pressure helped ease some of the pain as I watched Miranda stride to the center of the clearing.

“What the fuck, Miranda?” Olivia seethed. “You’re siding with the normie?”

“I’m team Wrenly all the way,” she said.

She sure had a funny way of showing it.

“Now, who exactly am I fighting in Wrenly’s place for the position of Bennett’s mate? Or is the female who issued it going to try to slink away with her tail tucked now that it’s a fair fight?”

Milena snarled and stepped forward.

“Five of us issued the challenge.”

Miranda smirked. “Oh, I think I’m going to like this.”

I glanced at Bennett, who wasn’t looking at the females who were joining Milena, but at me.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.

“We need to get you to a hospital. She cut too deep.”

“She cut just deep enough,” Mom said calmly, coming to stand beside me. She was wearing clothes again, and the scratch on her face was healed to the point that it looked like a fading scar.

“The rules for a challenge are clear,” Dad said. “One on one. No interference from anyone. Interfere and you’re banished from the pack.”

“What?” one of the women cried. “Why?”

“To preserve the strength of the pack,” Dad said. “I won’t tolerate members who can’t obey pack laws.”

They didn’t like having their argument thrown back at them.

“You shouldn’t have accepted the challenge,” Mom said from beside me.

“Do you honestly think they were going to stop if I’d said no?” I panted, desperate for the lingering sting and throb in my arm to stop.

“No. We knew they wouldn’t, which was why we were willing to leave the pack. Wulf Enterprises has a global reach. We can move our headquarters and start a new pack anywhere.” She spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Clever woman. She was giving them all a choice. Fight fair, or the Wulf’s will leave.

“Well?” Miranda demanded. “Who’s first?”

Milena spread her arms wide in acceptance.

“Skin or fur?” she asked Milena.

Milena answered by shifting. Miranda was a second behind her, which Milena tried to use to her advantage. It didn’t work. Miranda twisted out of the way as her claws formed, and she raked them across Milena’s face.

Milena yipped and snarled as she tried again. It took seconds for me to realize that Miranda was toying with her. But why? She had four more to fight. She couldn’t afford to—I glanced at them and realized the four women were starting to look worried.

Understanding hit me like lightning. I knew from my own experience that body strength and speed were only part of the fight. The rest was mental.

“If Miranda takes one of Milena’s eyes out, can I have your card for another shopping spree day?” I asked Bennett.

One of the four women paled.

I glanced at Bennett, who was still staring at my arm, or rather, the bloody shirt covering my arm, and stuck out my bottom lip in a pout. He glanced up, and I watched him have a full facial twitch, like he couldn’t decide how to feel about what I was doing.

“Please?” I said softly.

His gaze met mine again, and he looked drunk.

“Anything you want.”

I grinned and looked at Miranda just as she snarled and dove for Milena in a direct attack.

Milena squealed and immediately rolled to her belly before Miranda even touched her.

The chuffing snort that came out of Miranda conveyed her contempt quite well.

“Milena, you’ve forfeited your right to challenge for Wrenly’s position as Bennett’s mate,” Dad said. “Yours is the only forfeit I’ll accept tonight.”

“Why?” someone called out.

“A challenge isn’t a game. Each challenge questions the strength of our hierarchy and destabilizes the pack. We fight until we cannot stand. Now, who’s next?”

The other four exchanged glances. The most nervous of them stepped forward.

“I withdraw my challenge.” She faced me, got to her knees, and bowed until her forehead touched the ground. “I recognize Wrenly as Bennett’s future mate.”

The other two quickly followed suit, with Olivia reluctantly kneeling last.

“This ends tonight,” Dad said. “All challenges to Wrenly’s position as your future Alpha’s mate are open for the next three days.

After that, if her position in this pack is ever again questioned solely based on her race, the Wulfs will leave the pack.

We want nothing to do with a pack that discriminates based on race rather than looking at an individual's contribution to the pack.”

I watched the group opposing my position exchange glances.

“An Alpha who prevents challenges isn’t fit to lead,” one of them said.

“I’m not preventing all challenges—just the ones issued because of her race.

If you don’t believe she has a place as the future Luna of our pack, know that Wrenly has saved Wulf Enterprises over three billion dollars since returning home.

I used the money she found to invest in Bill’s garage, Emily’s middle school, Carly’s catering, and Winter’s farm.

Cars were purchased for the families who needed new ones.

Your pups’ tuitions were paid. And all of it was because Wrenly found the extra money.

“She’s sitting in the same chair that dozens of other people have sat in and has done more in the few weeks she’s been home than all of them combined, and you’re still saying she’s not worthy?

Why? Just because she doesn’t have fur? What good is fur at the bank?

What good is it when your mortgage needs to be paid?

Only a small portion of our lives is lived in the woods. Get with the times.”

Dad looked angry until his gaze met mine, and he sighed.

“You’re more tolerant than everyone here, and I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to suffer, Sweetheart.”

His sincerity made my chest ache more than the cut on my arm.

“I think I need to go to the hospital now,” I said, looking at Bennett’s bloody hands.

“I’ll drive,” Mom said.

“I call shotgun,” Miranda said, surprising me.

Mom nodded, and Bennett scooped me up into his arms. I hissed at the renewed sting and throbbing in my cut and leaned into him as he ran.

* * *

A layer of taped gauze covered the seventeen stitches in my forearm. I made a face at it, knowing all the future trouble it would bring me. My bandaged palms were nothing in comparison.

“Hey, a little pain now saves you from a lot of pain later,” Miranda said.

I shot her a glare, and she shrugged before turning to watch Mom and Bennett talk to the doctor.

“How exactly are seventeen stitches going to help my long-term goals?” I asked under my breath. It wasn’t soft enough, though. Bennett’s gaze briefly flicked to me.

“My goal was to keep you from long-term hospitalization or death. I achieved it. You can thank me later with a shopping trip. That was a nice touch, by the way, asking for her eye. If she hadn’t rolled over so fast, I would have gone for it.

There’s a designer bag I’ve had my eye on forever but can’t afford. ”

“Are you forgetting that you still have to face any challenges for my position that are issued over the next three days?”

“Pfft. Do you honestly think any of them have the backbone to face me?”

I considered her question. “Maybe not the women from the office but…” I thought of Storm, weighing what I knew of her now, which was very little, against what I remembered of her when we were younger.

Before I could say anything else, Mom and Bennett came back to where I was sitting.

“You look exhausted, Sweetheart. Bennett has all the care instructions and can take you home now. Dad and I will come tomorrow to check in.” She leaned in to kiss my forehead, then faced Miranda. “I’ll give you a ride back.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Wulf. See you Monday, Wrenly.”

I watched the pair of them walk away and then looked up at Bennett. His jaw was tight. Again. Sensing he was a wolf on the edge, I gave him my best sad face.

“I’m hungry.”

He inhaled slowly, and his anger and frustration evaporated.

“What are you hungry for?”

“A greasy breakfast that we have to stop somewhere to eat.”

“Okay.”

He held out his hand, and I placed my good—well, better—one in it to stand. He didn’t let it go. We walked to the car like that, definitely reaching the five-minute time limit. But I didn’t say anything. I just let him open the door for me and got in.

The twenty-four-hour diner he found wasn’t exactly the cleanest and smelled like old fryer grease when we walked in, but I didn’t care. I hadn’t lied when I said I was hungry. It was close to three in the morning.

I ordered the “Big Man Breakfast” and smiled when Bennett did the same.

“What?” he asked when the waitress walked away.

“I thought you wouldn’t eat anything here.”

“Why?”

“It’s not your level.”

“I didn’t know I had a level.”

I snorted. “You wear tailored suits, Bennett, and I’m guessing you make seven figures a year, easily.”

“Wrong on the second part,” he said with a smile tugging his lips. “High income is the way to pay high taxes, so I’m paid in stocks instead.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“Either way, your net worth does not equate to dive-dining.”

“But it equates to you, and you like dive-dining, so that’s what I like.”

“What are you going to do about Miranda?” I asked, preferring to change the subject so I could watch him eat his words once the food was served.

“Give her a raise and hand you my card so you can take her shopping.”

I lifted my arm. “Nothing for this?”

He raised a brow. “Should I give her more?”

“Seventeen stitches, Bennett! Is she even my friend?”

He started to lean back in his seat in his borrowed clothes, thought better of it, and leaned in toward me.