Spiral of Need (The Mercury Pack 1)

In any case, the mated males then invited Ally to their lodge so that Kent could show her how beautifully he’d styled the interior. He was horrified that Ally hadn’t added any personal touches to her lodge. The fact that she was only a guest was irrelevant to Kent. In his mind, she should have put some kind of stamp on the place, marked her territory in some way. Surprisingly, Shaya agreed. But when Ally explained that interior design wasn’t really her thing, Kent begged her to allow him to do the task for her.

So after Shaya dropped Willow off at home for her midday nap, Ally was ushered by Shaya, Kent, and Caleb to the males’ lodge to see how great Kent was at interior design. When they were almost there, they stumbled across Derren having a training session with the enforcers in a clearing. She and the others paused to watch, and Ally had to admit that the enforcers had very good techniques. When Jesse put Bracken flat on his ass, Shaya, Kent, and Caleb all winced.

Ally, on the other hand, wanted to ask why the hell Bracken had let Jesse win. When all eyes zoomed in on her, she smiled weakly. “I said that out loud, huh.”

“He didn’t let me win,” Jesse growled at her, rotating one shoulder.

“What makes you think Bracken did that?” Derren’s tone was curious, not doubtful.

“Jesse has clear tells,” replied Ally. “It was obvious by the way Bracken watched for them that he knows what they are. But sometimes he didn’t dodge Jesse’s moves, even though he’s fast enough to do it.” Recalling Shaya informing her that Jesse was still recovering from a recent illness after his wolf had hunted a poisoned animal, Ally wondered if Bracken had therefore taken it easy on his pack mate.

“Very good,” Derren commended, sounding genuinely impressed.

Jesse whirled on his Beta. “I won that round fair and square.” His glare returned to Ally as he sniped, “You’ve watched me fight a couple of times and now you think you know my technique well enough to see if I have any tells?”

“Yeah, I do,” Ally said simply.

Jesse sniggered. “Well, if I’m really easy pickings—”

“That’s not what I said,” interrupted Ally with a bored sigh.

“—why don’t you come over here and we’ll have a little one-on-one.”

“Jesse, leave it,” Derren bit out.

But the enforcer didn’t. He shrugged innocently. “It’ll just be a friendly spar.”

“I don’t spar,” Ally told him. “I fight—no rules, no limits, no holding back.”

A smirk from Jesse. “Then this will be fun.”

Derren put a hand on Jesse’s chest to stay him. “Drop it.” The words came out guttural as his wolf lunged for supremacy, wanting to protect Ally. If the guy harmed her, Derren would have to harm him in turn. Since the night Ally had given him some home truths, he’d chewed on the things she’d said, and he’d had to face that he’d unfairly been an ass to her. He knew he was irrational when it came to Seers, but it was no excuse. Like she’d said, power corrupted, but it depended on the individual and not their status.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave her banged up.” Jesse’s smile was all teeth. “I don’t abuse women. But I can tell that she’s strong. I want to know how strong.”

Shaya turned to her. “Ally, are you sure about this?”

“He’s not going to back down. And neither am I.” That wasn’t who Ally was. She took Bracken’s place opposite Jesse, her feet braced shoulder-width apart. “Normally, I don’t give warnings. But you really don’t want to fight me, Jesse.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I will defeat you. I will enjoy it. And I will crush your pride, which has already taken a beating this morning.”

His smirk widened. “Take your best shot, little Seer.” He took on a fighting stance, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

Fighting to keep his prowling wolf from surfacing, Derren went to stand by Shaya, asking, “You’re not going to stop this?”

She looked as anxious as him. “If I interfere, it would be the same as saying I don’t trust her to protect herself. Things are tough enough for her here as it is. She’d be respected more for rising to the challenge and losing than she would be for backing down.”

He knew Shaya was right, knew that any interference would only serve to undermine Ally and piss her off. Even his wolf understood that, though he was too angry to settle down.

Derren watched as Ally kicked off her shoes and stood still, alert, her eyes glued to Jesse. Then the enforcer moved, his fist flying toward Ally’s jaw as he went for a knockout punch. The move was fast and hard . . . but Ally sidestepped him, twisted her upper body, and stabbed her claws into his side. There were no fancy, practiced moves with Ally. Every punch was dirty and pitiless, and Derren saw Cain’s influence in each one. She didn’t claw at Jesse as he aimed blow after blow at her; she used her claws like they were knives—slicing, stabbing, and carving without mercy.

A bleeding Jesse repeatedly came at her with uppercuts and impressive kicks, but she evaded most of them . . . letting Jesse tire himself out, become weaker with lethargy and blood loss.

Derren was impressed. His wolf? Not so much. The animal was livid with Jesse, which worsened when the male delivered a hard kick to her ribs. It was—

“Holy Mother of all that’s blue, how the fuck did she do that?” exclaimed Bracken.