Rafe and Astrid! Vivian glanced back at Ulf and understood the taut fury on his face. The slut, Vivian thought. She didn't care who she hurt. Ulf now, Rafe later, if she won the bitches' match after the male Ordeal, and earned the right to claim the new leader as her mate.
"Did you see that?" Esmé sat down on the log beside Vivian and nodded in the direction of Astrid.
"Yeah," Vivian answered. "She's old enough to be his mother."
Esmé's lips twitched; then she tried to look serious.
"God, Mom, you don't approve, do you?"
Esmé grimaced. "No. It can only lead to trouble." She paused, the smile returning. "Most of us only fantasize about it."
"Mom!"
Vivian didn't have a chance to continue. Renata strode up. Her shorts were unzipped and a fluff of tan fur already covered her belly. "Astrid's gonna cause blood between those young dogs one day." She wiped the sweat off her upper lip with a hand that tapered into long, long claws. "I'll kill that alley cat if she harms my son."
"Don't worry, Rennie," Esmé comforted. "Gregory's the most sensible of those fools."
Vivian sniffed. "That's not saying much."
Esmé dug her with an elbow and Vivian shut up.
"So," said Renata to Vivian. "Will you dance the bitches' dance? You're old enough now."
"No," Vivian snapped. She wasn't about to make an exhibition of herself to win the favor of whichever muscle-bound cretin won.
Esmé laughed. "She wouldn't want to hurt her old mom, would you, sweetheart? She's gonna cheer me on."
Fat chance, Vivian thought. More likely die of embarrassment.
A hum of interest buzzed around the clearing. With the first pale glimmer of moonlight over the tops of the trees, Orlando Griffin arrived and Rudy with him. They would act as referees this night, to see that the Law was carried out. The pack drew in and gathered around them to wait for Orlando's word. Vivian, Esmé, and Renata joined the others.
Vivian noticed some strange faces. Word of an Ordeal spread, Rudy had told her. Some lone wolves always showed up. One was a big, evil-looking blond with a scar on his cheek. She wondered if he was strong enough to take Gabriel.
The blonds slender male companion seemed more interested in catching Esmé's eye than sizing up the competition. He had a cheeky smile and Esmé made a warm throaty sound of interest. When she didn't turn her back on him, he came over and introduced himself as Tomas. He laughingly told Esmé to "get real" when she asked if he was going to join in.
"I'm too fond of my skinny ass to risk it fighting those brutes," he said. "I don't want to lead a pack. I prefer to hunt alone. Exceptions can be made, however," he added, winking at Esmé.
"The nerve," Esmé said after he left to talk to Orlando about helping referee, but she wriggled with pleasure.
Orlando raised his arms and the last whispers died away. "I will recite the Law," he said.
"When a leader dies by the teeth of a wolf, then the challenger leads the pack. When a leader dies by the teeth of fate then Ordeal is called, for only the swift and strong may lead. All willing adults may stand and fight, and fight they will while they stand. But when the first drop of his blood is shed, a fighter must stand aside. The final pair may fight to the death if neither will yield till he's died. So speaks the Law.
"Brothers, pay your respects to the Moon."
The males began to separate from the crowd, shrugging off shirts, undoing flies, but their migration was halted by another voice.
"And sisters," Astrid said. She marched up to Orlando, and Vivian was outraged and delighted at the same time.
"You are mistaken," Orlando said politely.
"I am not mistaken," she insisted. "Recite the Law again, old man. All willing adults may stand and fight. Where does it say females are excluded?"
"It is tradition," Orlando growled, and the power of his youth burned in his eyes. "No female will fight. This isn't a game, Astrid. First blood can also be life's blood, especially when your opponent is twice your size."
Astrid puffed herself up indignantly, preparing to spit out her next argument, but Vivian never found out what it was because Gabriel spoke.
"Let her."
"What? " Vivian gasped, in concert with the murmur of astonishment that rose all around.
Orlando's jaw dropped in surprise, and a smirk of triumph made Astrid's face look evil.
"She's right," Gabriel explained. "The word of the Law does not eliminate females, though tradition has for good reason. But the bold Miss Astrid is welcome to a practical demonstration why."
Vivian could see the fight on Astrid's face between pride in being named bold and anger at Gabriel's dismissal. "She doesn't stand a chance of winning," Vivian said to her mother quietly. "Why's she doing this?"
"I bet I can guess," whispered Esmé. "She thinks if she can knock out some males, she'll already have a lead, over us. That it'll be a much more impressive show of strength than beating up some weak little bitches."
Gabriel gazed steadily at Orlando, waiting for his decision.
Orlando finally spoke. "Does anyone object?"
People looked at each other, but no one answered.
Orlando shook his head as if with regret. "So be it," he said.
There was a disturbance on the other side of the circle from Vivian. Rafe pushed through, the rest of the Five behind him. "What about us then?"
Orlando's expression grew thunderous. "Will you dispute the word adult now?" he asked.
"Yeah," Rafe answered, sticking his thumbs in his belt.
Ulf's eyes flickered around the circle nervously; the other boys glared defiance.
"Having a hard-on doesn't make you an adult, boy," Gabriel said, and some of the grown males laughed.
Orlando waved them quiet. "The Law is specific in this matter, Rafael. Bone and flesh, flesh and bone, a man takes time to grow them. Two-five-two number the moons that it takes for a man to know them. Till then he is not the match of a man, and a man is not bound to match him."
"That's twenty-one years for you slow students," Bucky pointed out. Finn gave him the finger.
"How do I know you didn't make that up?" Rafe said to Orlando.
A collective growl went up around the circle. Ulf cringed.
"The voice of the Law never lies," someone shouted.
"Give it up," someone else called, and others took up the cry until Orlando raised his arms again.
Sharp, silver light etched the old man's wrinkled face into a craggy landscape as ancient as the moon's itself. "This is the Law " he said in a voice that was the Law. "You will obey or die."
The males moved silently through the crowd toward the Five, encircling them. Ulf looked this way and that, his teeth bared in panic. The smirks left the faces of Gregory and Finn. Then Vivian could see no more, for wide backs and shoulders obscured her view.
"Come on, Rafe," she heard Gregory's voice plead. "Another time, okay?"
"Yeah," Willem joined in. "We'll get other chances."
There was silence for a minute.
Finally Vivian heard Rafe speak. "Fuck you." It was a curse of defeat.
The tight wall of males relaxed, and Vivian caught a glimpse of the Five slouching through the crowd.
Gabriel slapped Bucky on the back and said something that made him laugh. The men turned to leave the circle as if this was a cue. Bucky passed the joke on to another. As Raul passed his wife, Magda, he grabbed her and kissed her deeply. A squeal caused Vivian to turn to her right and see Rolf and Renata in a similar embrace. Esmé stared at the ground, and Vivian knew she longed for someone to kiss for luck.
"Come on," Vivian whispered, tugging at her mother's T-shirt.
When they reached the edge of the clearing, Esmé pulled her shirt over her head. Vivian took off her own blouse and slid off her shorts. In no time they were both as naked as the others who gathered in a semicircle facing the clearing.
The combatants lined up in the center of the clearing, their backs to the watching crowd, their faces to the rising moon. Astrid, standing at the end of the row, looked absurdly small beside the others, like a child mimicking her elders. There were seventeen males in line, and some of them were anonymous from behind. There was no mistaking Gabriel, however. He was half a head taller than the tallest of them, and only the blond newcomer matched the width of his shoulders.
Esmé was playing who's who. "That's Jean next to Raul," she said to Renata. "I'd recognize that tight little butt anywhere."
Renata choked back a laugh. "Shhh!"
For a moment only the creaking and chirping of insects filled the air.
Then a rustling began in the woods across the clearing, beneath the rising moon. Closer and closer it came, and with it groaning. A pale figure took form in the darkness, and out stepped Persia Devereux dressed in silver robes. In her hands she carried a silver bowl, as ripe and as full as the moon. She sang a moaning soft song that throbbed like the heart of a beast. Aunt Persia was far away, but the music thrummed in Vivian's ears. She swayed to it.
The old woman offered each fighter the bowl. "Drink of the Moon," she said. And as she passed down the line, backs furred, limbs twisted, ears sprouted tufts. Vivian felt an answering crunch in her spine - sharp pain, sweet pain - and a warm rush of blood in her veins that swept to her hands and feet, causing her nails to pop and grow.
Aunt Persia reached Astrid the last. The lone female was already foxy red and, though she still had fingers to steady it, she lapped from the dish with her muzzle like an Egyptian god feeding. As Astrid lifted her head, a pearl of liquid suspended on her black lip, Aunt Persia cried out a guttural word in an ancient tongue and tossed the bowl over her head.
Vivian howled the answering word she had learned as a cub and fell to all fours.
She expected the center to burst, but the males stepped back as if they danced to a well-known tune, and Gabriel shot down the line, his legs evolving. He curled out a lengthening arm and swiped once, twice. "First blood," he boomed in hollow tones from the echoing cavity of his changing mouth.
Astrid reeled and her snout, dripping red, curled back to a woman's face with the shock. "Cheat!" she screamed with human lips, then made the full change and went for his throat. He tossed her aside like a rag.
Rudy and the skinny stranger, unchanged, ran to retrieve her and tried to drag her from the field of combat. She escaped their grip, tearing Rudy's side. Another male jumped her and she ripped his throat, sending him yelping back in surprise. The other males stared as she growled a challenge, unsure of what to do, until Gabriel grabbed her and threw her once more to the ground, and whatever he screamed in her ear as he pinned her made her collapse. He got up and stood over her, showing his canine long teeth, until she rolled onto her back to present her belly, eyes narrow with rage. When he retreated a few paces, she flipped over and slunk to the edge of the clearing several yards down from where the other females stood.
Vivian, like the rest, growled as she watched Astrid go. She knew if Astrid set one paw wrong they would all be on her. Astrid knew, too. She sank down to lie with her nose on her paws, but a ridge of fur down her spine still bristled.
A howl rose into the night.
Vivian pivoted to see an ancient grizzled wolf-creature keen at the moon, a pile of silver robes at her feet.
The males, all in their fur, answered - deep and baying.
Then the clearing erupted in a seething, snarling mass of fur.
Chapter 16
16
Four males were eliminated before Vivian could blink twice. Spat out of the fur maelstrom, they staggered their separate zigzag routes to the sidelines with bloody flanks. One dragged a damaged leg. Another burst from the rumble and fled into the woods, tail between his legs.
Rudy and Tomas, still only partly changed, dove in to drag a brindle stranger out from under scuffling claws. The stranger lay motionless under the bushes, but he stayed in his fur, so he was still alive.
The remainder wove an intricate Celtic knot. The object was to wound and not be touched. To be wounded was to be disqualified. Jaws snapped, paws danced, bodies lunged, then rolled aside.
Vivian noticed the brothers, Raul and Rolf, on opposite sides of the fray. They would avoid each other if they could. Bucky had no such qualms about the two buddies he usually hung with. He feinted at one, then veered and sank his teeth into the others throat. Gabriel took the first one by surprise when he ducked Bucky's feint, and ripped a hole in his shoulder; then Gabriel turned his fangs back to the blond stranger, who retreated quickly.
Bucky brought his opponent down. They rolled, a growling mass of fur and spume, but Bucky kept his grip, forcing his teeth through the thick pelt. He must have tasted blood, because he released his hold, scrambled to all fours, and raised his muzzle in a brief triumphant howl. Vivian found she was howling, too. She choked it off in surprise.
Bucky spun around to protect his back. It wasn't wise to savor victory long. His defeated friend slunk toward the edge of the clearing, his belly close to the ground.
In the center, Gabriel and the blond stranger circled each other warily, their hackles spiked and their teeth bared. Rolf edged by them, intent on a gray who stood momentarily disengaged, his sides heaving.
That was a mistake.
The blond lunged, savaged Rolf's nose, and swung back to Gabriel in a snarling heartbeat.
Meanwhile, someone took out Raul; Vivian didn't know who, but she saw Jean lay low the gray, who had only made it this far from dumb luck.