Page 24 of Ruthless Alpha (Nightfire Islands Alphas #3)

Despair was pointless. The shape of Rosie’s absence might loom large, dogging my every step, but I couldn’t let it consume me. I had work to do. If my plan was going to work, if I was going to bring her home, then I would need to be sharp.

It started with gathering my friends—a feat which had grown more difficult with every passing year—to ask about rule enforcement and how their attitudes toward females had changed over the years.

It took over a week to get everyone over to Ensign, but their presence soothed the incessant, demanding growl of my wolf.

Noah was conspicuously absent, but the others all had something to offer; Ensign might not be ready to take the kind of steps Lapine had in recent years—with Cal gearing up to announce his daughter as Heir over his son—but it was possible to write their safety into the laws of the island.

That was where Leo came in; when he’d taken on the mantle of Alpha, high-ranking males had seen almost all females as their property to do with as they pleased, but after only a few years under his leadership, Argent had become arguably the most peaceful island on the archipelago.

We’d talked from sunrise to sunset, but by the time Cal, Leo, and Ethan were ready to make the run home, we had a plan.

“Hey,” I said, my hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Don’t mention any of this to Rosie, okay?”

“Sure,” he agreed easily. “I can’t promise the same for Julia, but I’m sure she won’t say anything.”

“You could just not tell her,” I said, and he gave a single barking laugh.

“Good one.”

Then he was gone, and a hulking gray wolf was in his place. Jace and I watched the three of them race off toward the Argent bridge, lingering on the porch despite the chill of the evening air.

“You should go, too,” I told him.

“Sick of me already?”

“If this goes badly for me, then I don’t want to leave you in danger.

” The new laws we’d drawn up were solid, but enforcing them was going to be another matter.

If I got through this with fewer than twenty challenges for my position, it would be a miracle.

It would be worth it, though, for her. If I had to fight a hundred of my own shifters, it would be worth it to create the kind of home Rosie wanted.

Jace yawned, stretching his long arms above his head.

“I’ll pack up in the morning,” he conceded.

“Dad’s been nagging me to come home anyway.

” He made a face, and I felt a pang of sympathy.

Jace was now almost as old as I’d been when I came to power.

It was difficult to be a grown man with Alpha blood in your veins, still beholden to the whims of a father.

“And if you want to test out the prototype in your fights to the death,” he continued, “it could use a test run.”

“I’ll let you know how it goes, if I live.”

“If you live, I look forward to hearing about it.”

For all his joking bravado, Jace fussed over me like a mother hen the entire evening.

He forced me to eat twice as much as I usually did and reviewed the various release mechanisms in the Telaxis prototype incessantly.

He was still oiling the leather and the clasps when I went to bed, giving me a distracted wave goodnight.

Despite the looming dread of what I would face in the morning, my sleep was deep and easy.

No matter how much the Pack pushed back, I knew that I was doing the right thing, both for them and for myself.

If I pulled this off, I would be the Alpha of a Pack I was proud of, and I would have my mate by my side.

The morning dawned bright and clear, which I took as a good omen.

Over on Ferris, the sun would be shining on Rosie, too, turning her blonde hair a bright gold.

I imagined her walking the familiar paths of Ensign on a day like this, free and unencumbered by fear.

I would make that vision a reality if it were the last thing I did.

Jace was waiting for me in the kitchen when I came downstairs, cooking bacon and ready to go through the functionality of our prototype again.

I didn’t remind him that I’d helped develop the thing as he showed me where all the clasps went and where the release mechanism was and how to pull it.

He was reluctant to leave once we’d demolished our breakfast, but I sent him on his way, asking one last favor: to spread the word that every Pack member who could be spared should be in the training hall by ten o’clock.

“You got it,” he promised, clasping my hand tight as I bid him goodbye.

In the end, I left the prototype where it rested over a chair in the kitchen.

The challenges that came today would all be from idiots who thought they could take me at my strongest. The real contenders would let me tire and accumulate small injuries from earlier fights before making their play.

It wouldn’t do well to let them see how my secret weapon worked before I really needed to use it.

Still, I felt oddly naked as I left the quiet of the house behind me. Surely I should have something with me as I walked toward my judgment. My wolf had no such qualms; he might not know what exactly was going on, but he could feel my nervous energy, and he was raring to be let loose.

His excitement only mounted as he saw how many people were pouring into the training hall ahead of us, and I pushed him down, needing him to be calm for now.

Until the inevitable challenges came, I had to stay steady.

If I looked ready for a fight, the Pack would know something was up immediately, and they’d be getting ready, too.

By the time I slipped into the training hall, the room was almost entirely full.

Equipment had been pushed to the sides of the room and piled on top of each other.

I took advantage of the weight bench that had been pushed up against one wall, stepping up onto it to address my Pack.

My heart was pounding like a war drum in my chest. This was it: the moment I’d been planning since I left Rosie on Ferris.

Whatever happened next, I would go down in Ensign’s history.

“Listen up,” I bellowed, and the room quieted almost instantly. “There’s going to be some changes in the way we operate around here. Other Packs consider us savages. They might fear us, but they don’t respect us. It’s time we all remembered that we’re shifters, not animals.”

A murmur ran through the crowd. The guys and I had agreed that it was better to frame the upheaval as an inter-Pack relations effort.

If they thought I was doing all this for Rosie, then they’d accuse me of being weak and her of having too much influence.

With any luck, by the time Rosie returned to the island and I announced that we were mates, anyone who might care would already be gone.

“First, if you’ve got a problem with someone, then you fight it out here, under supervision by me or one of my Betas,” I announced.

The murmuring grew louder. Already, I could see discontented faces—all the ones I’d anticipated—but a few nodded in agreement.

Settling disputes with violence was a time-honored Ensign tradition, but we lost good fighters to it every year, and there were plenty on the island who thought it was wasteful.

This way, I could keep that tradition alive but mitigate the loss of life.

It was a good starting place, but my next order of business wasn’t going to go down so well.

“Second, if I hear that any ranking shifter has forced himself on one of our females, he will lose his rank effective immediately.” The murmur grew to a roar, and I had to shout to make myself heard as I continued, “If I hear of any unranked fighter doing the same, he will be relegated to dorm cleaning. Repeated offenses from any member of this Pack will result in a direct challenge from me.”

I had known this would be the most contentious announcement, and I tried to ignore the sickening disdain for my own people that curdled in my stomach as I watched the faces of several males contort with rage.

I recognized several voices among the protests that rose from the crowd, but I didn’t care what a single one of them had to say.

“Quiet!” I thundered, my voice heavy with Alpha authority. The room went silent, not a single Pack member able to ignore the command.

“We are a Pack,” I told them. “Every resident of Ensign should feel as though their Packmates have their back, not as if they could be violated at any moment.”

In the relative stillness, I took a second to scan the assembled males again.

More looked angry now, but a few were looking purposefully neutral, and a few brave souls looked actively supportive.

One of the older males toward the back gave me an approving nod, and I straightened up to announce the final change.

“Third, over the next six months, we will be working to build several smaller dwellings designed for family units. Everyone—females included—will be involved in this effort. Anyone who wants to volunteer to lead the operation is invited to discuss this with me.”

Following the uproar over the previous announcement, this one was intentionally underwhelming. I wasn’t convinced it would stop anyone from challenging me, but it cooled the temperature of the room just enough for me to ask,

“Any questions?”

For a moment, Ensign Pack was collectively too stunned to speak. The first voice was one I’d known I would hear, and unfortunately for him, I was more than ready for it.

“I got a question,” said Harris, sauntering to the front of the crowd. He looked me dead in the eye, insolent and far too cocky. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“I think I’m your Alpha, and you’d better watch how you address me,” I said evenly, but Harris only laughed.

“Thing is, I don’t reckon you’re gonna be Alpha much longer.”

He might be right, but if I were getting supplanted, he wasn’t going to be alive to see it.

“Is that a challenge?” I asked, and he grinned.

“You bet.”

It took longer than it should have to clear space for the fight, but as the sea of people parted, loyalties began to reveal themselves; almost every female in the hall rallied behind me, along with more males than I’d anticipated, including almost all of my Betas.

It was a surprise, but a welcome one, and I looked forward to telling Rosie that she’d been right: there were plenty of males on Ensign who were happy to see a change in the status quo.

The other side of the hall was more sparse, populated by young hotheads and a few of the older fighters who weren’t going to like any change I tried to enforce.

I judged that maybe thirty of the males standing against me would actually present a challenge; the rest were either too old or too young to pose a threat, or were smart enough to know that they weren’t good enough fighters to stand a chance.

Harris was not smart enough to know this. He might get the edge on the other males of his rank by sheer brute force, but he was no match for me, and he should have known better.

“Think I’ll move Nessa into the big house when I’m Alpha,” said Harris as the ring began to take shape around us. There were no ropes here, only the press of bodies to push back anyone who fell.

“Sure, champ, you do that.”

I was done with his posturing, ready to get this over with. This would be my first fight of many, and I wasn’t in the mood to waste time talking.

I cracked my neck, stepping forward and raising my fists in invitation. Harris scoffed.

“I don’t think we need to bother with foreplay,” he smirked, and then he shifted.

That was his first mistake. His wolf was lanky and rangy, while mine was a hulking beast. No doubt he was arrogant enough to think that bloodlust and speed could win him this fight, but I wasn’t an unseasoned fighter like Tyler. I wouldn’t let him get the better of me.

His first move was obvious—darting forward to go for my throat—and it was easy to dodge, sending him careening past me, and I nipped at his back legs as he went.

The males on my side jeered, and Harris snapped at them.

Distracted as he was by his wounded pride, it would have been easy to sink my teeth into one of his back legs, but I wanted him to see his death coming.

Demanding his attention with a low growl, I waited for him to turn before I went for his face.

He swerved—only just in time—but he was off balance from the shock of my attack, and I swiped at him as he went.

Blood bloomed from the three deep lacerations on his right haunch, and several of the onlookers hissed.

Both sides knew which way this fight was going to go.

Harris, with a limp, was even more predictable.

Despite his half-hearted attempt to feint on his bad leg, he attacked again and again from the left, growing more and more frustrated with every miss.

I was playing with him, but the fucker deserved it.

He’d hurt Rosie—would have done much worse if Cole hadn’t stepped in.

I lashed out, striking the left side of his ribs and drawing several more red lines on his body.

He yelped in pain, but managed to stay on his feet.

Refusing to learn from his past mistakes, he snapped at me again, earning another gash across his muzzle.

Desperate, he went for my underbelly, but I was too fast for him.

He snapped at thin air, and I went in for my final blow.

Harris toppled with a single push, and then he was on his side beneath me.

Slowly, I leaned my entire weight on his ribcage, watching his eyes bulge as he gasped for breath.

I wanted this to be slow, wanted him to know the magnitude of the mistake he’d made when he came for my mate.

He made a rattling, gasping, gurgling sound as blood began to bubble at the corners of his mouth, spilling out and over the floor as his ribcage collapsed entirely beneath my weight, and the light went out of his yellow eyes.

The hall was silent as I shifted back to my human form, nodding at my loyal Betas to remove Harris’s body. Splatters of blood decorated my chest, and I was ready to take down every motherfucker who tried me.

“Alright,” I said. “Who’s next?”