Chapter 19 - Challenging The Alpha

I barely had time to turn away when Damon leapt into the air and landed as a fully formed, huge, pitch-black wolf. Luke then moved across the crowd and grabbed my hand, yanking me away from Jacob. The crowd grew more dispersed, leaning back against tables to create space for the wolf, which was far too big to be inside. I gasped and let Luke drag me out of the way. Jacob had also transformed into a somewhat smaller, dirty brown wolf than Damon's in a matter of seconds.

"What's going on?" Luke continued to take me away even after I screamed at him.

"They're going to perform a death battle."

"What does that mean?"

"Jacob wants to be alpha, he's been threatening for weeks that he's going to challenge Damon for the spot-"

"He's going to kill Damon?"

"He's going to try, the last one standing is the alpha."

Luke was unable to provide more context since Jacob had already initiated the first blow by jumping up and biting off the chandelier's hinges. He threw the hefty object at Damon, who was knocked down by its force, using the enormous instrument. Despite my doubts that Jacob would be even worse than Damon, I harbored hope that he would kill him.
He obviously despises humans as well, maybe even more than Damon.

Evan and I would no longer have easy access to killing the werewolf alpha if Jacob were to kill Damon today. Either leader would destroy the human race. A human would have to kill Damon to prove to others what we are capable of.
Not today, not at the hands of another wolf.

"Are you not going to help him? He your alpha!." A adjacent table was demolished by the two wolves as I yelled at Luke, making him wince.

"This is tradition, if I interfere now, it will make Damon look like a coward."

"However, he is drunk! He will not survive this."

"What's not wrong? already having feelings for him?"

Rather than responding, I just stared in horror as the two wolves sank into each other, rolling across the blood-stained marble floors and crashing into the bar in the room's corner. For an instant, nothing could be seen but broken glass fragments. Biting an empty whiskey bottle out of his shoulders, Damon got to his feet. He attacked Jacob right away, who was still having trouble standing with glass protruding from all directions under his paws, and I gasped as the blood burst.

At last, Damon had the upper hand. He parted his lips as wide as possible and buried Jacob's head within.
Everything fell silent for a little moment. Beneath his veiled head, Jacobs's body strained. Even though Jacob's wail was muted, it still caused a tremble in the room as Damon tightened his jaws on him. Damon stepped back gently, and suddenly the entire crowd gasped. Jacob's wolf went slack. Damon had beheaded Jacob entirely and carried his head like a bleeding trophy, with his teeth still between his fangs.

Luke let out an amused chuckle, "I never doubted him."

I had a sigh of relief.
Not long later, Damon shifted. While some were already beginning to tidy up the mess, they hurried him onto a stretcher.

With his back to Damon's stretcher, Luke said, "I'll take care of things here until you're all better, boss."

"There will be others like Jacob," Damon muttered, "make sure to have extra patrols, he should have never gotten inside."

"I got it, and i'll take care of her for you too, she was pretty stressed out you were going to die, I told her not to doubt it."

When Damon looked at me, I felt my face redden. He seems taken aback by my fear of his death. We watched as the paramedics hauled him away, and he barely managed a nod.
When Bullet brought me home that evening, I hurried back to the phone and informed Evan, After he failed to return my call, I went to bed questioning whether I could trust Maria given the information he had given me.

The following day, Damon remained in the hospital. Maria was standing by the phone in the kitchen, so I decided to inform her since I knew she would eventually find out.
"Did you know that as soon as Damon gets enough votes, hes going to order that every human is killed in every single prison camp?" Over coffee with her, I muttered something casual. Her gaze lifted from the newspaper she was perusing.

"What?"
"Did you know—"
"Stop, I heard you! Who told you?" she asked, peering around as if frightened someone was listening.

"Evan, in Akbur Hills-"

"Don't you dare tell anyone else!"

"So you know?"

"Obviously, I am aware—I receive his mail! Africa sent him a message during the gala last night, indicating that they are still deliberating, so he needs one more vote."

"So that means that all he needs is one more alpha to sign off and he can make the order."

"Don't worry, you'll be safe, at least until you deliver his baby, unless he keeps you around until he makes more-"

"He'll kill my father, he'll kill you and Tessa."

She did not say anything and carried on reading, so I did too.

"Evan has a plan."
She hardly gave any indication that she was interested, yet her eyes twitched just a little.

"Evan says if we kill their Alpha, they'll know what we're capable of if they tried to get rid of us."

Maria snorted," do you have any idea how difficult it would be to kill an Alpha?"

A recollection to last night suddenly came to me, "Evan knows someone in Akbur Hills, a woman who can make a poison."

Marias eyes met me," I knew her, and her poison took months to make, not to mention you need silver, and the wolves have destroyed any that they can find-"

"We can do it, Evan will get the recipe from the lady in Akbur Hills, he can make the poison here, well get supplies from town-"

"How are you going to return to Akbur Hills and deliver the items to him? Numerous werewolves are stationed to guard it."

"Not if Evan comes to us, you said you were looking for a gardener."

She hesitated for a time before stating, "I'm going to recruit someone tomorrow. Are there any means by which I may contact him?"

"I have his phone number," I frantically nodded.