Chapter 10-Wolves at the Door

When the girls arrived at the Bayou, the party was already in full swing. There were wolves everywhere having fun. There was eating and drinking and dancing. A huge bonfire was blazing in the middle of the land.

"Looks like the whole pack is here for this one."

"Yeah, all the pups are on break from school. So, they were all able to come tonight. This should be fun. Why don't you go and mingle with everyone and introduce Josie around? I'll see you two later."

The girl smiled and waved and then walked over to where the teens where hanging out. When they say Hope walking over a group of girls jumped up and rushed over to greet the auburn-haired wolf.

"Hope! Your back!"

"When did you get in?"

"Who is this?"

"Hi girls. I am back. Got in yesterday. This is my girlfriend Josie."

"Girlfriend? Really? Since when do you date girls Red?"

Hope's face fell into a hard line the moment that she heard the voice approaching. Turning slowly, she schooled her expression to one of slight annoyance.

"Yeah-son, you're here. I was hoping that you had drowned by now."

"You know I hate it when you say my name like that! It should be the French, JAY-sən. Why is that so hard for you?"

"Why is it hard for you to remember that I hate it when you call me Red?"

"But you are so hot and fiery like your red hair. The name fits."

"Go away Jason. I don't have time for you and your bullshit. I have told you before not to talk to me. I will not tell you again."

"That isn't what you said last time we saw each other now was it baby? You were happy when I was hanging around last year. We were together all night."

Before Hope could respond, she felt Josie tense beside her. When the older girl looked over, to the taller girl, she saw that her girlfriend was muttering something as she waved her hand. It took her a moment to understand what was happening, but once she did, she wanted to laugh. Smirking, Hope took her eyes from Josie for a moment and looked down at Jason's arm.

"You know what else is fiery about me? My girlfriend."

Hope nodded to the wolf's arm and started laughing. All the girls turned to see that his arm from wrist to elbow was ablaze.

Jason screamed and kept trying to put the fire out. Patting it and screaming, he was running around like crazy. The fire wouldn't go out no matter what he did, so finally, he jumped into the lake.

Waiting to make sure that no one was listening, Hope leaned over to whisper into Josie's ear.

"Babe, did your first move have to be to set him on fire? Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but still."

Josie looked her dead in the eyes and the fire that she saw there instantly had Hope wanting to drag her into the woods. 'Damn my girl is as hot as the fire she loves.'

"Yes, when I could feel the asshat vibes coming off him in waves, and when he is making insinuations about my girlfriend, then yes, my first move was fire. If he comes back, my second move will be worse."

Hope laughed and grabbed Josie's hand dragging her over to hang out with the girls around the table where they were eating.

The two were enjoying the day parting with Hope's pack. They had played a few games, danced a bit, and had lunch with the three girls that had run up to Hope when she arrived.

Josie learned that they were triplets, which is rare for wolves who typically are only children, who Hope had saved a few years ago, saving them from triggering their curses. The girls didn't seem to want to talk about it, and Hope wouldn't say more than it wasn't their fault. Ever since then, whenever Hope is at home, the girls follow her around like Hope is their messiah. It really was adorable.

It was getting later in the day and the sun was going to set soon. Hope said that was when the party really got started.

"Hey, do you want to take a walk by the lake with me and watch the sun set? It is really beautiful."

"Yeah. I'd love that."

Hope smiled and told the girls that they would be back after sunset and asked that if Keelin came looking for them that they tell her. With promises that they would, they stood and headed toward the lake.

Hope took Josie's hand in her own and tugged her close to her side. Josie smiled and tilted her head on to Hope's shoulder. It was a bit awkward with the height difference, however, Hope had taken to wearing tall boots that added a few inches. Josie seemed to have grown fond of flats so that she could not be any taller that she already was.

Hope led Josie into the woods that surrounded the lake. It was beautiful out her. The trees were tall and green and gave off a perfect smell. The lake shone with the last rays of the setting sun. It was truly a magical place and there was no one that Hope wanted to share this with other than Josie.

The moment was perfect. They were there together and alone. Hope Turned her head, looking at the girl that she so loved. This was her moment. She was going to tell Josie exactly how she felt.

"Josie, I…"

The moment was interrupted when a crashing could be heard from behind them. Hope turned towards the noise, instantly on the defensive.

"Look what we have here boys. It's Red and her witch bitch."

Jason and a group of teen boys where crashing over towards the girls. Jason had posed him self to lead and had that cocky grin that made Hope's skin crawl.

Before Josie could blink and register the words that were spoken, Hope was already pinning the boy against a tree. His feet were not touching the ground. She was squeezing slightly on his throat so that he understood that she was seriously pissed in this moment.

"If you boys don't want to end up on your asses you will stop moving forward. Don't think for a second that I can't take all four of you while never losing my grip on this waste of space."

The four other wolves just stood there looking at the older girl and waiting to see what her next move was going to be. To be honest, Hope was wondering that herself. Personally, she would love to rip his throat out and call it a day. He was just like his father, a total ass!

Josie slowly walked over to Hope and placed a hand on top of her arm that wasn't holding up the teen. She slipped her hand up to her cheek and turned her face to meet eyes with one another.

"Baby, he isn't worth it. Let him go and let's go back to the party."

Hope smiled softly at her girlfriend. She would do anything for her. Even letting this prick walk away with all his limbs attached.

"Leave now Jason. Don't bother us again."

"Make me!"

Every single person in that circle of woods froze at the words. Save for Josie, each of them knew what the teen wolf had just done. If Hope choose to, this could be the end of him. This was an opportunity that a year ago, she would have jumped on.

"Because you are apparently stupid enough to have said that, I am going to give you a chance. No one but us here heard you. We can all walk away and pretend that you didn't say anything."

Jason looked scared. He was in a shit position in this moment. However, he couldn't back down. Even if no one else was there, he refused to be seen as weak.

"You heard me. If you want me gone, make me leave."

Hope shook her head and dropped the boy hard to the ground.

"Challenge accepted. Meet me in the circle in ten minutes. I will get the Alpha and pack gathered."

Hope took Josie by the hand and led her out of the trees. This was going to end badly no matter the outcome. Since she was the Alpha, having won the challenge, if she lost, Jason would be Alpha and that would be the end of the pack.

If she won, she would have to kill that boy, who while he was an idiot, didn't deserve to die. Her brain was spinning. She needed to think of a way out of this.

"Hope, what just happened? What challenge? What is going on?"

Hope stopped and pulled Josie in for a hug. She needed to feel her close. To feel grounded with her safely tucked into her arms.

"Jason just challenged my strength. By him telling me to make him do something, he questioned my place in the pack. Since I am the Alpha, as I won the challenge for leadership against the Beta, who happens to be Jason's father, That means he questioned my right to lead. If it had been anything else, he could walk away."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't he walk away? You said you fought the current Beta and he walked away."

"That was a challenge to prove that I could step into the role that was mine from birth. That challenge I needed to show strength and win. I wasn't required to kill for that. Just to get the other wolf to submit."

"And this is different?"

"Yes, as I have already gotten the submission from everyone, this is a challenge to my strength as a leader. Basically, calling me weak and unfit. If I lose, I die. If he loses, he dies. I tried to give him a way out. However, since he wouldn't take it, I have been forced to accept, or I lose Alpha anyway, and that leaves the pack open to attack."

Josie pulled backed and looked at Hope. She could see that she didn't want to do this. There had to be another way that they could both keep their lives. There had to be a loophole somewhere.

As they returned to where the bon fire was, Hope stood on a table and gathered everyone's attention to her. Once she was sure that everyone was paying attention she started.

"Challenge has been given. We fight in the circle. It is a challenge given to the Alpha of your pack. You all know what this means."

A big man strode forward. Pushing people left and right out of his way.

"Who would be stupid enough to challenge our Alpha when you bested me?"

"Your son. I offered to allow him to take it back, he refused. I will not offer again. Make the circle."

The whole pack started to make a circle around the clearing. Keelin came over and stood next to Josie marking the head of the circle as she was acting Alpha.

"Isn't there anything that we can do to stop this?"

"Challenge was made and accepted. There is nothing to be done for it now."

Hope stood in the middle of the circle waiting for her opponent to arrive. She was still trying to think of a way out of killing the boy. Why did he have to be so stupid?

Suddenly the circle opened, and Jason stepped inside. He was already shirtless and shoeless. Standing there in only a pair of cut off jeans. He had a cocky smirk on his face, but the sweat was easy enough to spot while looking at him. At least he was smart enough to be scared.

Keelin walked to the middle of the circle, between the two teenagers. She looked first to Jason, shaking her head at how anyone could be this foolish.

She then turned to Hope. She knew that her niece didn't want to do this. She needed a way out of having to kill him. There had to be something. Suddenly, a thought came to her.

"Pack, who is your Alpha?"

As one the Pack answered.

"You are Alpha."

"That is right. I am Alpha here. Even Hope listens to me as Alpha. As such this is not an Alpha fight. It is a pecking order fight and nothing more."

A few groans were heard through the pack. Others were voicing their congratulations on the loophole. No matter what the pack might think, the truth was, until Hope claimed it, she was not the true Alpha to the pack.

Hope breathed a sigh of relief. Why hadn't she thought of that? Oh yeah, she was too busy worrying about killing this boy.

"This is a fight to submission. It will not end until one party submits to the other. We fight as the wolves that we are. Change and let the challenge begin."

Keelin left the ring walking back to where the young witch waited for her. She saw the questions in her eyes and held up a hand. She needed to let the fight start first.

Within seconds, both teens had shifted and were ready to start fighting. Hope was beautiful. A large white wolf that stood tall and exuded power. She was magnificent and Josie wanted to reach out to touch her. Though, she figured that would not be something that she should do in this moment.

Jason was a mousy brown wolf. She stood a head shorter than Hope. In truth, Josie thought looked more like a large dog than the small wolf her was.

Keelin looked at both fighters and then nodded. With the signal given, the fight started. Hope took the lead and seemed to have ideas about getting this fight over quickly. She lunged straight for the teen wolf's neck and started pressing down.

"This shouldn't take long. Hope is stronger than any wolf that I have ever seen. Everyone here knows that Hope could end this in a moment. The only reason that she will allow it to go any length of time is to allow Jason to not be abandoned by the pack. This pack is all about strength. One of the rules is that if a wolf can be put into submission with in the first minutes of the fight, they are too weak to be in the pack. He must stay in the fight for five minutes. You shall see at the five minute and one second mark, Hope will put him down and this will be over. She isn't going to allow the insult, but she also will not him out of this without making sure that he understands not to do this again."

Josie looked relieved and smiled to the older woman. She was glad that she had been there in the moment. She wasn't sure what Hope would have done if this was made to complete a fight to the death. Yes, she had activated her curse, however that had been an accident. The tribrid would never willing take a life. However, she was always up for a fight to defend and protect.

Josie turned back and saw that the white wolf seemed to be toying with the smaller brown wolf. She would dart in and bite his ear or ram his side to knock him over. Everyone it seemed could tell that she wasn't really trying to fight. She wasn't putting any effort into it at all. The crowd laughed each time Hope made a blatantly obvious move to toy with the smaller wolf.

The brown wolf, however, was trying to attack the white wolf with everything he had. He lunged and jumped, trying desperately to get an advantage. He growled baring his teeth, just for the white wolf to smirk. Now you wouldn't think that a wolf could smirk but leave it to Hope to be able to pull it off.

True to her word, as soon as the five minutes were over, Hope pounced on the Jason and pinned him to the ground with him not being able to move. She had her teeth around his neck and started to squeeze.

"Does this mean that it is over?"

"First he has to submit."

"How does he do that?"

"There are two options. The better option is for him to place his head on the ground as a wolf. This means that he acknowledges that she is the stronger wolf, and everything is over."

Josie thought about that for a moment. That didn't seem so bad, however, Keelin had said that would be the better way, which meant that it was not the only way.

"How else can he submit?"

Keelin looked at the girl from the side of her eye. A small smile spread across her face, something that told Josie that this is what to expect the outcome to be.

"If he lowers his head, Hope has the option to not accept that as enough. If she doesn't, she will bite him hard enough on the neck to cause the natural reaction of shifting back into a human. If he stays a wolf, then it is still over, however, if he shifts back, he will be cased to the lowest pack standing, and he will have to fight his way back up. I have a feeling that Hope will do this. She has a bad history with the boy."

"I noticed that. He is an ass."

"He took advantage of her when she was grieving. He convinced her to wolf out and run the woods. Drinking and staying out late the night before the fight with his father. Trying to make it to where his father would become the next Alpha. Hope came home a complete mess the next morning and had no sleep. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Freya having the best hangover cure and Hope's vampire side allowing her to recover quickly, I don't know what would have happened."

Josie knew that Hope was going to make the boy change. She didn't forgive easily, and this was the only thing it seemed that she could do to the boy in wolf culture to truly make him suffer.

While Josie was talking to Keelin, she heard a scream and turned just in time to see Jason shift into a human. As soon as Jason shifted, Hope released him and tilted her head back in a howl.

Wolf Hope trotted over to Josie, her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth, smiling. She was adorable. Running her had through the white coat, Josie leaned in to kiss the top of her snout.

"Go change back and put clothes on. Come dance with me."

With a bark, Hope ran off to go change. Within a few minutes, Hope was back, dressed, and ready to spend the rest of the party dancing with her girl.

As the two swayed to the rhythm of the music, stealing kisses and sharing longing looks, the rest of the party seemed to fade away into the background. It was just the two of them in the universe.

"You want to get out of her?"

"Yes."

Hope wrapped Josie into her arms and they started to walk away from the dancing. Stopping briefly to tell Keelin that they were going to walk the city a while and would meet her at home.

As soon at they were far enough away, Josie pinned Hope to a tree and kissed her harder and deeper than she had ever done before. It seemed that she was trying to claim the tribrids mouth. Her tongue slipping in easily as Hope wasn't going to even attempt to stop her.

Hands began to roam up backs and into hair. Slipping under the tank top that Hope wore, Josie scratched a trail on her stomach. Causing Hope to pull her closer and bite her bottom lip.

"Baby, as much as I'm enjoying this, and believe me I am, we need to stop before I won't be able to."

Panting, Josie pulled back and rested her hand on the shorter girls shoulder.

"I know. It just that watching you like that in the fight, and then dancing with you. I have to say Hope, you know how to turn a girl on."
The blush that covered the tribrids face was almost as red as her hair.

"We need to go for a walk. I'll um… show you my city at night."

Josie smiled and took Hope's hand in her own and tugged a little.

"I'd love that."

The two set off into the night exploring. This was the perfect end to the day. They were together and that is all that really mattered.

T.B.C.