“So, what’s the bet about?” Mara asked them.
“Buddy here thinks I can’t pin him down.” Silver replied.
“Well can you?” Mara asked sceptically and Silver huffed.
“Thank you so much for the vote of confidence, Mara.” Silver said sarcastically and folded her arms.
“Well. I’m sorry but I don’t know the level of your fighting skill. And this would probably make his pride swell even more, but the truth is Derek is a badass fighter. There’s a reason he’s in charge of combat in the pack.” Mara said with a shrug.
“I’ll let you know that I’m the unbeaten warrior champion in my pack. No other wolf has surpassed my combat records yet, and I was out of commission for a few years.”
“Out of commission? What does that mean?” Derek asked with a quizzical look.
“It’s a long story that I’m definitely not interested in sharing.” Silver replied.
“Well then, this fight should be interesting.” Another she wolf said as she joined them.
That was the downside of staying around wolves with incredible hearing, they tended to not mind their business.
“What’s going on?” A male named Jace asked as he walked in.
“Derek and the new girl have a bet going on who can pin the other down.” the she wolf that had recently joined them replied to him.
“I definitely want to watch that.”
The others gave them a wide berth so they would have space to spar.
“I’ll give you one chance to back out and save yourself from being embarrassed after bragging so much yesterday,” Silver said to him as they circled each other.
“I could say the same about you, Silver.” Derek smirked.
“Accept defeat, you know you’re no match for me.”
“Eww! Less talking, more fighting.” A male from the small crowd that had gathered around them said.
As they attacked each other, Hayden paused his punching to watch them like everyone else in the space. He had wanted to feign nonchalance, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
“Wow! She’s really good.” Carl said to Mara after a few minutes of watching Silver and Derek.
“Good is an understatement.” A male beside them replied before Mara could. Nosy wolves.
As Hayden watched, he was filled with pride, and he remembered how they had met at the full moon pack. His wolf on the other hand was filled with lust, his mate was strong and he wanted her by all means. Fierce arousal rushed through him, and he growled lowly. The others were too busy to notice his internal battle.
Derek tripped Silver, and straddled her. He smirked triumphantly, but before he could blink, he was underneath her with his hand pinned above his head.
“Stay.” She ordered with a guttural voice, female and wolf.
Derek immediately went lax under her hold. Only a strong Alpha’s command could do that to another strong wolf with Alpha traits.
She stared at him with faintly glowing white eyes for a few seconds till her wolf receded and her eye colour returned to normal.
“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” Silver smirked down at Derek.
Hayden frowned deeply at the proximity between Derek and Silver. And he could smell the male’s arousal even though he was trying to hide it from the others. Derek was attracted to Silver, and so was his wolf. He turned away from the both of them and began hitting the punch bags with renewed vigour and rage.
“You did that intentionally.” Derek frowned.
“Yes. You’ve learned a valuable lesson today. Not every opening is an opening, some are traps in disguise. I let you think I was exposed so you would take the opportunity to either trip or punch me. While you were distracted with that, you didn’t notice me getting the rug out from under you till it got to this point.” she said, and Derek smiled.
“Why are you smiling?” Silver asked with a suspicious look on her face.
“Nothing really. I just thought of another fun activity we could do in this position.”
A loud sound reverberated through the space as Hayden punched the bag so hard that it flew across the room and smacked against the wall, almost taking off someone’s head with it.
Everyone turned to face him, but he turned away from them. He didn’t want anyone to see the intense jealousy that he could barely conceal at the moment. He only had himself to blame for this.
Silver got off Derek and extended a hand to help him stand.
Beth walked to Hayden with a towel and a bottle of water. He sat down and guzzled the water down like it could somehow cool the volcano of rage that was so close to erupting within him. Beth bent over to dry up the sweat on his skin with the towel in her hand.
“Is she always this obvious?” Silver whispered as she turned away so Hayden and Beth wouldn’t hear her. Her wolf was still on edge after the fight, and her adrenaline was up. She really wanted to claw Beth’s eyes out for daring to even look at her mate.
“Basically, she’s not satisfied with just being the Beta of the pack, a position that many would kill to have. She wants to be the Luna of the pack. There’s more power attached to that title” Derek whispered.
“She just refuses to see the handwriting on the wall. He never pays her advances any attention.” Mara said.
“But she feels entitled just because they slept together once.”
Silver had to hold back her growl as she heard that, and she had to restrain her wolf so she could ask calmly.
“He slept with her?”
“He had just lost his mate. He was broken and dead drunk. Just imagine the amount of alcohol he must have consumed to get to that point with our fast metabolism. It’s safe to say that she took advantage of him.”
“She’s a good Beta, and an amazing fighter. But her desperation just stains all her good records.”
Suddenly they heard Beth cry out in pain and turned towards the sound.