Chapter 7

The plan was for Doyle’s mom and Jack’s dad to go to Gabe’s house and convince him and his parents that he shouldn’t go to the dance.

Stacy’s dad, Scott, and his stepdad were chaperoning the dance, hoping to prevent Tanya from killing Gabe. Kevin was in the dark about how Doyle had gotten well. But when he was shown the drawings, he felt they had enough credence that it was better to be safe than sorry.

Doyle would prowl the school’s perimeter in his wolf form, hoping to intercept Ethan and any of his pack that might appear. If it was just Ethan, Doyle would take him on. If Ethan brought help, Doyle would signal for his pack to keep them off him while he fought.

He kept an eye on the teens as they began to arrive. They were animated with excitement as they came dressed in costumes.

Doyle thought it appropriate that storm clouds had started to roll in. It felt like Mother Nature’s way of signaling his coming battle.

Most everyone was there, and the music had started when he smelled wolves he didn’t know, one of which had something wrong with it. If evil had a scent, that was what it would smell like.

Doyle raced from the front of the building to the back parking lot that backed up to a wooded area. He chastised himself because that was the obvious approach for Ethan and his packmates. He came around the side of the building and spotted the wolf that smelled ... wrong.

It was a red wolf with a hump on its back that looked like a large hyena with its long teeth and drool dripping from the sides of its mouth. Doyle’s black wolf gave a hoarse roar of challenge, which caused Ethan’s wolf to bare its teeth in defiance.

Out of the woods skulked four wolves, all giving him warning growls.

Doyle unleashed a howl that shook the windows of the school’s gym to signal Ethan’s pack’s arrival.

The red wolf never made a sound. He fixed his eyes on his adversary with intense hunger, with an absolute thirst for battle. He never for an instant shifted his unblinking gaze from his target.

A flash of lightning flickered across the sky as if to signal the beginning of the encounter. The two combatants dashed across the parking lot and collided. Fangs lashed out as the two wrestled for control. Ethan sank his fangs deep into Doyle’s shoulder, which caused him to yelp in pain.

The other four wolves slowly advanced to encircle the two combatants who were savaging each other. That way they could be in position to leap in and finish off the young Alpha. That was when wolves came pouring around both sides of the gym, led by a pure white wolf the four recognized: Stacy. She was why they were there, so they turned from the two Alphas and focused on her.

Their concentration was broken when they realized the wolves rushing toward them had at least a seven-to-one advantage in number. Even the most experienced fighters couldn’t withstand those odds. They dropped their ears and tucked their tails in surrender.

Another flash of lightning showed that Doyle was barely hanging on in the fight. He looked utterly outmatched as Ethan’s muzzle was bloody, though the older wolf was missing an ear. Doyle’s shoulder was bleeding freely from a deep bite that would need to be stitched up.

Stacy transformed into human form.

“Get out of your wolf forms,” she commanded.

The four members of her old pack did as they were told. She then turned to the fighting Alphas.

“Doyle, finish him. Fight for your life. Stop holding back.”

The black wolf went on the offensive in a flurry of snarls and snaps that did damage each time he bit the red wolf. Ethan began to give ground but suddenly made a lunge at Doyle. The black wolf had anticipated the move and caught Ethan by the throat. He pinned the wildly wiggling red wolf to the asphalt. The thrashing slowed as the red wolf’s air supply was cut off.

Suddenly, Ethan transformed but still had Doyle’s jaws clamped on his throat.

Scott came running up in his human form. He’d held back because he wanted to ensure everyone knew that Doyle had won the battle alone. He didn’t want there to be any question as to who the Alpha was.