The Alpha and the Fox

Chapter Twenty-Five

     Damion's huge wolf barreled across the yard while Maverick turned his back towards the attack, willing Jason to hurt him rather than risk putting Ryan down. It was clear that Damion would not make it in time, even his huge wolf could not make it across the yard to stop an attack from a few feet away. However, nobody thought to pay attention to the fragile human girl that had already been walking up to Maverick before Jason lunged.

Maverick hesitantly turned around when no contact was made and couldn't stop himself from bursting into laughter. Maria, who's mama bear instincts had kicked in, had tased Jason mid attack. He lay in a groaning heap at Maverick's feet.

"How strong is that damn taser?" Maverick asked between fits of laughter. Now that the initial shock had passed many others were chuckling right along with him.

Maria had the audacity to look sheepish, "Honestly, I don't know. I told the guy I would be camping and wanted the strongest one he had."

Damion had ignored Jason's crumpled heap, stepping over him to nose at Ryan's form, still tucked against Maverick's chest. Once he deemed that Ryan had indeed been unharmed, he turned his barely contained fury on the boy. Grabbing Jason's scruff in his teeth he dragged his body through the yard until he was in the middle of the crowd, who had formed a large circle. Jason dropped to the ground with a harsh huff. Damion growled loudly at him which seemed to annoy Jason. He climbed to his feet and snarled in Damion's direction.

"Jason! Don't do this!" his mother, Ella screamed. Ella was holding her twins in her arms but looked like she wanted to go out there and drag him away. "This isn't a fight you can win, you already know that. He's not your mate no matter how much you want him to be. I love you but this has to stop. Don't challenge him, he'll have no choice but to kill you."

Jason looked like he considered her words for a moment before turning to Damion and snarling. Damion shifted into his human form, completely comfortable naked in front of his pack. Jason shifted as well.

"Jason, your mother's right. It doesn't have to come to this. If you challenge me for my Alpha title, I will have no choice. I don't want to have to do this Jason. I'm sorry you were hoping that we would be mates, but the fact is we're not and I love Ryan very much. I'm sure your mate is out there somewhere."

"I, Jason Riles, challenge Damion Andrews for the title of Alpha."

Ella gave a soft sigh and retreated with her set of twins into the pack house, unable to watch her son be killed. It was nowhere near a fair fight, and everyone knew that, unfortunately he had brought this upon himself.

They both shifted and prepared for a fight. Jason assumed that since he was smaller, he would be faster. A bad assumption. He tried to run underneath Damion to shred his underbelly, but Damion had Jason by the scruff before he could even get slightly under him, and shook his head around like a dog with a toy before releasing him, launching him across the circle.

Jason tried again, sprinting as fast as he could across the area and jumping for Damion's throat, unfortunately leaving his own exposed. Damion grabbed him through that opening and pinned him to the ground. This is where he should've snapped Jason's neck to end the fight, but he didn't. He held him there giving him the opportunity to surrender as if it was a fight during training. Jason refused to take the out Damion was giving him.

While Damion held Jason down, he mid-linked others throughout the pack asking their opinion of the situation and the response was unanimous. He had tried to stop the fight before it started and he tried to give the kid an out now, he's not taking it and it's a challenge for his title. The pack agreed he would have to kill him. They all assured him they would not be angry or think of him badly and that Jason had brought this upon himself. With a sad huff, Damion quickly ended him.

Ryan had shifted into his fox form in Maverick arms when the fight started and now wiggled to be put down. When gently set on his feet he shot across the yard insanely fast, pouncing on Damion's wolf. Damion moved away from Jason's body and laid down. Ryan jumped onto his back and began to comfort him, clearly able to feel the sorrow coursing through his mate, with gentle licks to the back of Damion's ears and the top of his head.

The head warrior wolf and a few others took Jason's body and buried it. Damion stood up and carefully picked Ryan up by his scruff, carrying him over to where Henry, Maria, Maverick, Damion's mom Ava, Alex, and Noah were standing. Noah had arrived with Alex at the tail end of the fight. Damion carried Ryan directly to Noah, who gently took Ryan from him with a shocked look on his face.

"He wants you to check on Ryan and confirm that he's not hurt." Alex explained to his confused mate. Noah nodded in understanding and carefully checked Ryan for injuries. "Was he a part of the fight?" Noah asked.

"No," Maverick answered, "Jason had tugged on his arm before the fight started but he wasn't touched other than that. Damion's wolf has gone into protective overdrive. They cleared the area of rogues earlier and none of us ever suspected that a pack member would be the cause of the danger. Even though Damion knows the rest of the pack adores Ryan and wishes him no harm, the fact that this attack was a pack member has his wolf on high alert. With them not being fully mated they cannot hear each other's thoughts like pack members can, which makes it harder for his wolf to calm down."

Noah nodded thoughtfully as he finished checking Ryan over. He walked up to Damion, "He's perfectly fine. Not even a bruise will be there. If you shift back I will hand him to you." He could see the struggle going on in Damion's eyes between leaving his stronger form in case another fight happens and wanting to be able to hold his baby.

After a few minutes he was able to calm down enough to shift back to his human form and take Ryan from Noah's arms. Alex leaned towards Noah and whispered, "Damion's wolf is still in control. See the way the gold swirls in his eyes?" Noah nodded in response and whispered back, "That's so fascinating, can you do that too?" Alex nodded instead of answering. Damion could clearly hear them talking about him but ignored them in favor of cuddling Ryan's soft fur. Ryan's content purrs and scent were helping him settle further.

"Hello, Baby." Damion's wolf murmured, his voice deeper than Damion's usually was. "My name is Zelos." Ryan shifted back to his human form to reply.

"Hi," Ryan whispered back, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Love I am okay now that I am sure you are. Although I will be staying out for a while. I wish to be near you but also because we are both a bit unsettled at the event that occurred today. I am sorry that Jason broke my promise to you. Everyone else loves you very much and are very happy that we have found each other. I am also sorry that I wasn't closer to keep him from even getting his grubby little fingers near you."

Ryan placed his tiny hands on Zelos's cheeks, "It's okay, I'm not mad and I didn't get hurt." Zelos nodded and took a few deep breaths to keep himself from getting worked up again. He turned his attention to the rest of the pack, "I am sorry that we are going to cut the BBQ short. You are all welcome to stay and mingle around however, my family, mate, and I are going to retire to their house for the night. I hope you all understand."

Everyone nodded and wished them a nice night as they headed to their vehicles and drove back to Ryan's house.