Chapter 36.

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I pushed myself off the ground trying hard not to show how much effort it took and looked at Trevor who was smirking back at me. I had not been doing very well in our fight, mostly just trying to dodge his blows, failing miserably while I tried to gain enough strength to put up a fight.

"Eli, if you give up now, I might decide not to kill you," he said.

"Yeah?" I asked not really minding the fact that he was wasting time talking because it gave me a few seconds to recoup, "Come on, Trevor, we both know if you could kill me you would already have done it."

"Anything to make yourself feel better," he chuckled.

I dodged his fist as he swung out at me and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind before I threw him onto the ground. The entire thing seemed to do more harm to me than him because I was just more exhausted after it. At least I had him off his feet. I got in a couple of punches to his face before he rolled us over and began retaliating. I shielded my face from most of his blows while trying to figure out how to turn it around.

I didn't want to shift. My leg was still an issue and that would be too much of a disadvantage when going up against another wolf. When he slowed for a moment, I lifted my arm to lock it around his neck and twisted my other arm around his. He let out a painful groan and I kept forcing his arm back until I heard his shoulder crack.

"Eli!" I looked past Trevor wondering why Richard would call me right now and saw him standing next to a man I had never seen before, he did not seem to be a werewolf. A warlock? Oh. He had probably stopped the spell.

I shoved Trevor off me and scooted back on the grass before muttering a spell. He instantly clenched his abdomen but still managed to get onto his feet. My magic wasn't as strong as I would have liked, but it would have to do because I had absolutely no energy left to draw from. Trevor attempted to come at me again but I revised a spell in my head and watched the Alpha in front of me go up in flames, stumbling away from me as he began to scream. I didn't bother trying to move, needed the energy I had left to keep the spell going as he fell onto the ground and tried to put it out. Horrific screaming filled the clearing as he continued to roll around without the fire even slightly dying and I felt my body heating at the over-exertive use of my magic. I stopped the spell knowing that I needed what was left of my energy to keep moving and pushed myself off the ground before limping up to him as he tried to put the rest of the fire out. My eyes fell onto his legs. Might as well... He broke mine first, so...

I stepped on his knee and gave a smile as he screamed while my foot crushed it. Maybe I should go all the way around him breaking limbs? I lifted my foot to his other leg.

"Eli," I looked at Richard hearing him hiss again and saw a look on his face that told me to stop messing around. Right, Trevor would probably recover from the fire pretty quickly. I gave a nod before stepping on Trevor's chest.

"I told you," I said looking down at him. He lifted his hands, they were shaking. He was healing fast, his skin barely getting a chance to blister.

"Fine. I give up," he hissed through ground teeth as he glared back at me.

I raised my brows and gave an amused, dry chuckle. Fights for pack leadership were to the death, all Alphas knew that. Did he think I would let him go? No. Especially after Karabo already gave him that chance. I stepped on Trevor's neck and watched his face as he grabbed my foot trying to push it away while he began choking for air as I put my weight onto my foot. His face reddened before I stepped down hard hearing a loud crack. I kicked his chin to rip his head from his body just to be certain he was dead before looking over at Matthew.

"Are you leaving or do you want to die?" He looked pissed. He should have been grateful that I was giving him that option, I wasn't usually so generous when angry. Maybe it was respect for my elders? Nah, I knew he would be incredibly ashamed to run away, and I wanted to see it. "Anyone with him can follow him," I added looking at the other elders and leaders.

Matthew let out a sudden gasp before he stumbled forward. His legs seemed to buckle before he fell to his knees and slumped to the ground. My eyes moved back up to see Richard where Matthew had been standing, his hand covered in blood as he'd gripped the organ from Matthew's chest. He sighed tossing the man's heart onto his lifeless body before looking at the other people that had been watching our fight.

"As he said, leave," Richard said. A couple of elders stood up and disappeared into the trees running towards the pack. Getting their things and their families? Everyone else just shook their heads.

Richard and I looked at each other and smiled.

"You killed him," I said, surprised as I walked up to him.

"Sometimes it's unavoidable." He glanced at the people beside him and they visibly shrunk back before he gasped losing the intimidating face he had just put on, "Oh – Alpha." Richard said and Karabo's mom shook her head handing him a phone.

"I'll have them clean this up. We'll talk later," she said.

I agreed and thanked her before everyone left leaving Richard and me on our own. Bending slightly, I frowned as I felt my leg. Definitely going to have to get it broken again to allow it to heal properly.

"How do you think they did?" Richard asked as I stood back up while he dialled Karabo's number.

"I don't know," I replied honestly.

We listened as the phone rang. Were they still fighting? It appeared not when the ringing ended with a light, "Hey, Beta. What happened? Are you alright?"

I tilted my head.

"I... I lost." Richard avoided my eyes seemingly mad at himself and I rolled them. He had done very well. I was pleasantly surprised.

"Don't worry; Ashton did too, as expected – ow!" My brows rose, "What the –?! Seriously?!"

"I nearly beat you." I heard Ashton's voice.

"You thought you nearly beat me," Karabo replied smugly.

"No, I know I nearly beat you."

"Nearly isn't enough, Beta. You should know that. I won, get over it. Ashton's a sore loser, Rich." I felt a smile tug at my lips hearing Karabo say that.

Ashton gave an annoyed growl. "If you didn't make that witch cut all the magic off –"

"He did that too?" I questioned the same time Richard asked, "You did that too?"

Karabo didn't reply and I bit the inside of my cheek knowing it was because he didn't know I had been here. He was still angry, I figured he would be but was he really not going to speak to me? He really was such a child sometimes...

"Guess we think alike." Richard chuckled ending the silence while giving me a questioning side-glance, "You'd never guess what happened, Alpha. Eli –"

"Just a second," Karabo interrupted him. I could hear Sean's voice faintly but couldn't make out what he was saying. We waited, listening to one side of the conversation as Karabo and Ashton spoke to him before until Ashton's voice was directed back into the phone.

"We have to meet with the elders and other leaders," he said.

"We should too. I'll call you later." I said.

"Alright, good luck." I chuckled at Ashton before wishing him good luck as well while reaching to hang up the phone in Richard's hand.

"Did that have something to do with Trevor?" he asked as soon as we were disconnected.

"Not really. Let's go."

"If you two are going to lead together you might want to try not fighting every other minute." Richard gave me a huge grin. We laughed as I shoved him.

"I'll keep that in mind," I said.

With Matthew dead and Richard's performance, I saw no reason why Karabo's pack wouldn't let our merge go ahead. I hoped my dad, Sean and the others thought Ashton had done enough too.

We headed back to the pack and got cleaned up before meeting with the elders and other former leaders who still seemed surprised by the day's events, and mostly Matthew's death. Once they let us go and I'd arrived back at his house, I tried calling Karabo and was shocked when he actually picked up.

"I'm not answering because I want to speak to you; I'm answering to check in on what happened with the Elders," he said. Oh.

"They agreed, we're good." I smiled, "What about there?"

"They agreed," he said. We were silent for a few seconds and I felt my heart sinking because we were supposed to be so damn happy at the moment, celebrating with each other. My breath caught when it sounded like Karabo was moving his phone.

"Don't hang up," I said quickly.

"I wasn't going to, I want to know what Richard thought I would never guess happened. I was waiting for you to explain," he said.

"What would make you think I know what he wanted to say?" I asked.

"Eli," I swallowed hearing the slight annoyance in his voice. Yeah, I really shouldn't have been trying to piss him off at me even more.

I gave him a detailed explanation of what happened after Richard and I fought until the part where Matthew was killed. I was expecting him to be happy or at least proud. He did not sound that way.

"You must be so proud. Defending the pack all by yourself, like always. Congratulations, Eli. I'm sure you looked powerful," I clenched my jaw, "Don't make the announcement to my pack yet. You know, if you haven't already done so on your own accord." My eyes widened at the wall.

"What? Why? Karabo, you can't cancel the merger after everything we've just been through."

"I didn't say I was going to but clearly we have things to figure out before our packs end up as confused as we are. I'll fly over, tell Richard to do the same by tomorrow." I dropped my head with a light groan as he ended the call. When was he going to stop fucking hanging up on me?!

He wouldn't even let me explain anything. I knew accepting that fight without talking to him was wrong but he wasn't even giving me a chance to fix it. It was like he didn't want me to.

Was that enough to make him give up?

I looked up. No, everyone fights, all the time. Even if we weren't both Alphas, we would fight sometimes. We could figure it out. But I did bet on his entire pack... Yet, even if he was livid that I did that, he wouldn't be able to let me go. We already mated, our pull was incredibly strong. It was too late for us to be without each other.

I groaned covering my face.

Alphas could be stubborn though.

This couldn't really make him angry enough to give up on us, could it? Why did I keep messing up with him? It had not been my intention when I accepted that fight, I really didn't want to make him look incompetent, I just wanted to stand up for him. I had to. Any other mate would have been happy and even grateful for that reaction. They would have been so touched and felt so protected. Why did he have to be an Alpha?

I sighed getting up. I was so exhausted but too upset to attempt to head to bed. I decided to find Richard and tell him he needed to fly over to my pack to temporarily distract myself.

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