Sly as a Fox {Book One}

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Challenge

noun

-a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation or fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength

-to dispute especially as being unjust, invalid, or outmoded

-exposure of the immune system to pathogenic organisms or antigens

-to confront or defy boldly

The crowd buzzed with a frenzy of hushed whispers. This wasn't the show they had been expecting, but they were still as enthralled with the dynasty feud that had erupted on stage as if it had been a play; the only thing they were missing was popcorn.

Blithe felt his canines protruding from between his lips before he realized they had grown at all. The wolf was high in his veins and his voice was more of a horrifying bellow than it was human, "What?!"

From the front of the stage, Raphael turned back to look at his little cousin with that signature yellow eye. His lips parted and he grinned devilishly at Blithe with an arrogance that was not unfounded: He won and he knew it. With his eyebrows pulled low over his vision, Blithe moved his gaze to his father. Monroe refused to look his son in the eyes as he turned away from his family, still holding onto the podium to steady himself from the regret that filled his soul. Blithe threw out his arm to the man that had betrayed him on every level of his being, "How could you?!"

Monroe violently twisted his head forward and snapped his teeth at Blithe when he yelled, "I had to!" The Alpha retracted his head from a more animalistic hunch and tried to compose himself. "You left me with no choice!"

Blithe growled and his mouth frothed with the savagery he was just barely keeping at bay. He was fully aware that an onda-shift coupled with a bloodlust was growing more and more probable with each passing second, but the only reason he didn't lose himself to his basal instincts was because he didn't want to be arrested again; there was no way in hell Monroe was going to bail him out this time. Even with the threat of being arrested, though, Blithe knew his restraint only went so far. "Well, I reject it!" Blithe tried to reason with the Alpha, "I'm the legal heir, I have the right to-"

Monroe shook his head carefully. He was full of anger at what his son had put him through, but it still broke a piece of him to deny his pup of what he had always dreamed of him doing. He had promised the Alpha position to Blithe since the day he was born and to take that dream away from him - and from his late wife - was killing him faster than the actual cancer was. "You forfeited it when you signed those papers."

"What papers, dammit?! I would never do that!" Blithe thought his father was bluffing in front of the crowd to keep up his image as a noble and honest Alpha, but what was more terrifying was that Monroe was telling the truth: Blithe had signed his name on the dotted line of a form without paying much mind to the paper's contents and Monroe had taken advantage of his son's inattentiveness.

With tired eyes, Monroe looked down at the ground that separated him from his son and said with something akin to shame, "I held onto that document for days afterward and prayed I wouldn't have to submit it, but once I confirmed my suspicions, I knew I had to." Those black eyes moved up and met Blithe's unblinkingly, "You're not the Alpha, Blithe. You never were." The finality of those words struck Blithe with enough intensity to wane his fury, if only for a second.