Chapter 29

Gael and Garrison paused in their attacks and I turned my head towards where the sound came from.

Justin.

The crowd went completely silent. You could hear a pin drop.

Well, everyone will know that he is my mate now. There is no hiding it.

‘Justin…look at me. I am fine. Only a little injured. I will take care of them. Relax.’ I linked him.

He looked at me and I could see the anger in his eyes. He didn’t want to back down. I could tell he wanted blood, specifically Gael and Garrison’s. I watched his expression turn dark before he nodded his head at me.

‘Are you sure, Kat? I cannot stand to see them injure you,’ he finally linked me back.

‘I understand, Justin, but I promise I am fine. I can and will handle the remaining eight of you.’

He nodded his head at me and I used the distraction that Justin had caused to throw Garrison off me and to lunge at Gael’s throat. I caught Gael off guard as I wrapped my teeth around his throat and squeezed him. As I had my teeth on his throat, I used my right claw and swiped at his side, causing his blood to gush all over my fur. Gael slowly tilted his head in submission.

Three down…seven to go…

The crowd erupted in cheers when Gael submitted to me. Once I released him, I turned my full attention to Garrison.

‘Ready to play,’ I linked him.

His wolf laughed.

‘You have no idea, baby,’ he responded.

I laughed at Garrison. He is lucky that I like him enough not to kill him every time he calls me baby, but I have learned that Garrison is a big flirt and he calls most females baby.

Garrison lunged at me and I twisted my body out of his way before he could attack me. Shit that was close. I lunged towards Garrison and knocked him to the ground. I felt someone coming up behind me, so I kicked my hind legs backwards, knocking them down. I heard a quiet grunt and realized that it must have been Jessica. I was wondering what happened to her. She had been out of most of the action.

I lunged back towards Garrison, aiming for his side, and I bit down, hard. I heard the crunch of at least one of his ribs, his blood gushing everywhere, when he whimpered. I released his hand and aimed for his throat. Before I could catch his throat, he shifted to his human form and bared his neck to me.

Fuck, it looked bad too. I could see his bone from where I bit him. That was definitely going to take some time to heal and it was going to hurt him like a bitch.

Four down…six to go…

I was almost halfway there. Just had to continue a little longer. I was starting to feel the fatigue set in.

Jessica and Amir rushed at me, both in their wolf forms, and I was not able to dodge both. Jessica was able to wrap her teeth around my left flank and I whimpered loudly.

Fuck, it hurts. I heard the bone crunch under her teeth and I growled loudly, giving both of them pause.

I tried shaking her off, but she would not budge. I take my front paws and make an effort to swipe at her face. I was finally able to make a small swipe and it distracted her enough for me to dislodge from her mouth. Just as I broke free from her, Justin lunged at me, aiming for my throat. I was able to move enough for him to miss my throat. Instead, his mouth latched on to my jaw and I cried out in pain.

Fuck. I heard the crunch of my jaw breaking. Shit I had not realized that he shifted into his wolf.

When Justin realized that he had my jaw, he immediately let go of my jaw and he whimpered at the pain he caused me. He backed up slightly to allow me to get my bearing.

He forced the link, ‘I am so sorry. I aimed for your throat, love. I am trying not to hurt you.’

‘Don’t apologize. I am fine. You are doing what you are meant to do. Don’t take it easy on me because I am your mate. Prove to them I am worthy of my title.’

The Elders would not have let Justin participate if they knew he was my mate. This is why mated couples typically do not fight. They struggle to harm each other. Justin is the perfect example. They cannot stand to see their mate in pain or to get hurt, especially for something as pointless and futile as this.

As soon as I closed the link, I lunged at Jessica and shifted into my human form at the last second, landing onto her back. I tightly wrapped my arms around her neck and squeezed, cutting off her air supply. I ignored the excruciating pain in my arm and continued cutting off her air. She struggled and started lashing back and forth, trying to get me off of her. Finally, the fight leaves her and she slumps to the ground. She passed out.

Five down…five to go…

Liam and Caleb used this as the perfect opportunity to come at me in the same way. I punched at both Liam and Caleb, hitting them in their trachea. Caleb made a retching sound. While they were distracted, I grabbed both of them by their wolf’s ear and I slammed their heads together. Caleb lay on the ground and I gave him a minute to see what his next move was before he, surprisingly, tilted his head at me in submission. I looked towards Liam and saw he was tilting his head towards me in submission too.

Seven down...three to go…

I looked at my remaining opponents. Justin, Amir, and Elias. Elias looks pretty injured and so does Amir. The only one that has minimal damage is Justin. I picked this time to go ahead and shift back to Skye. I looked at the glazed look in their eyes and realized they were linking to each other.

‘Kat, we don’t want to fight you anymore,’ Elias said to me.

I laughed. Of course, they don’t. Why would they? Both Elias and Amir tilt their heads in submission to me. I guess that was easy. They just leave Justin…

Nine down…one to go…

Justin and I stared at each other as if we were having a staring contest.

Justin rushes at me and I am barely able to dodge him. I could tell I was losing a lot of blood from my wounds. I was starting to feel lightheaded and dizzy. I need to end this now.

I decided to use Justin’s weakness against him. It was cheating, since his weakness was me. He was held captive by this bond of ours…a bond that I did not want…right?

Justin turned back towards me and lunged for my throat. I rolled on the ground to dodge out of the way and I whimpered from the pain. Justin looked at me and I could, with that one look, Justin did not want to continue.

I lunged at Justin and aimed for his throat. I wrapped my teeth around his throat and gently bit down. His wolf sighed with relief as he slowly tilted his head towards me in submission.

As soon as I acknowledged Justin’s submission, I collapsed.

*********************

**Justin’s POV**

As soon as she collapsed, I rushed to her side and caught her before she could hit the ground.

I knew she hurt…I didn’t want to fight her while she was that injured, especially after I accidentally broke her jaw.

Christopher, the rest of the Elders, and the Alpha rushed over to us as I started to walk Kat to the pack doctor.

“When were you going to tell us you were her mate,” Christopher demanded of me.

“It was none of your business. It was not information that neither one of us had to divulge to you. She was not ready to tell anyone and, quite frankly, neither was I. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go get my mate looked at.”

Christopher glared at me. “Who do you think you are? You cannot talk to an Elder like that without being punished.” He said while looking at Alpha Michael. “If we had known you were her mate, we would never let you anywhere near this challenge. You could have ruined everything.” He then turned to the Alpha, “I demand to see Justin punished for lying to us and for his blatant disrespect of me.”

The Alpha scoffed before replying, “He did not lie to anyone. You never asked any of the warriors if they had a personal connection with Kataleya. He is only being disrespectful to you because you are disrespecting him and his right to privacy.” I nodded my head towards the Alpha and continued making my way to the pack doctor, Leigh. I finally spotted her trying to get through the crowd to reach us. She had a stretcher with her.

“I know that her hand was broken, her jaw was broken, she has some pretty nasty bites and gashes.” I told Leigh as I gently laid her down on the stretcher.

“She has capable hands, Justin. I promise I will make sure she is okay for you.” She assured me before she wheeled my mate away.

“That sure was a tough fight. I was shocked you outed yourself as her mate. Everyone was shocked about it.” The Alpha told me.

“I saw red when Gael was stalking towards her. I wanted to protect her and I didn’t want him touching what was mine. I lost control and I regret it because I knew she did not want anyone to know that she was my mate. I could not control my behavior.” I told him as I stared at the area the doctor had Kat.

“I do not blame you, Justin. You are a better man than most. Most would not have been able to do what you did. Most would have snapped the minute that Elias and Caleb attacked their mate. I applaud you for the restraint that you showed.”

At that moment, King Lucas and Luna Everleigh chose to walk up. I bowed my head to both of them as they stopped to talk to Alpha Michael.

“Justin, is it?” King Lucas asked me.

“Yes, sir.”

“I just wanted to commend you on your performance out there. We were all waiting with abated breath the moment that Kataleya got hurt for you to snap. You see, Luna Everleigh has a special gift. She can see mate bonds, even if they have not officially acknowledged their bonds. From the moment that we had met Kataleya and then saw you on the field waiting, she told me that she could see your bond. We were shocked that you were chosen as a warrior to fight against Kataleya. It was just a few minutes ago we learned the only reason you were out there was because the Elders did not know that Kataleya had found her mate.”

“Kataleya has been struggling to come to terms with our bond, so she asked that we not tell anyone and that it stay between us. I thought I could do this and it would be fine. I did not think I would lose control, but when I saw Gael gunning for her, I lost it…”

King Lucas nodded his head, “It is expected, young man. No one expects you to be able to attack your mate or even watch her be attacked and not want to defend her. We saw your shock and horror when she moved and you ended up catching her jaw instead of her throat. Even my Luna cried a little at the pain you must have felt at that moment. If you ever choose to, I have openings on my personal guard, and I would not mind having someone of your caliber on my team. You are definitely a strong warrior. ”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate the offer, but I think that I am going to remain where I am at a little while longer. I want to see where this goes with my mate. Plus, she is slated to be the next Alpha and I would not be able to handle leaving her, even if she chose to reject me.”

At that moment, I received a link from Leigh. ‘Alpha. Justin. Both of you need to come and see me. We had to move Kataleya to the pack hospital. However, I will need both of your consent.’