Chapter 19: The Ring

The ring was a circle of salt poured on the courthouse lawn at noon on Saturday.

Every wolf in the valley stood around it.

I walked into the middle in flat shoes and my gray cardigan.

I carried my notebook, because Joanne had told me to.

Ronan stopped at the edge of the salt, because the rules said he must.

His hand closed on mine for a second before he let go.

"Plant your feet," he said, low. "Let them come to you."

I nodded.

The gray hat stood on the courthouse steps with the other seven Alphas in a row behind him.

"Three challengers," he said. "No voice. She stands, or she doesn't."

The first man into the ring was Pine Fork's Alpha, the one who had dropped his soup can at the market.

He didn't look happy about it.

He walked toward me, and then he ran, and I stood and watched him come.

At the last step I did what Ronan had taught me in the barn.

I moved one foot back and turned my shoulder.

He went past me with his arms wide and hit the salt on his chest.

The crowd groaned.

He sat up red in the face, and he looked at me, and he left the ring without a word.

The second challenger was Cold Creek's Alpha, a stout man in a hunting vest.

He did not run.

He stopped four feet away, set his jaw, and looked at me hard.

The pressure hit all at once.

It was the weight I knew, only now it came from outside.

It bore down on my shoulders and the top of my skull.

My knees began to fold.

I thought: if I push back, I'll be using it.

So I didn't push.

I let the weight come and sit on me.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Wolf Who Saved Me Makes Other Alphas Submit. I'm Human. from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.