Some roads can't be retread once you've walked them

In the Beginning: Part Six

Jakkon

Signy didn't fight, she danced.

Like water, she flowed around attacks, defensive in her strategies until she found the moment to strike like lightening. Her maroon dress twirled around her feet, the steps she took graceful and sure as she ducked and wove, not allowing a single of her opponents strikes to do more than graze the fabric she wore. Jakkon was not the only wolf entranced by her movements. Most of the pack had come to watch once they caught wind Signy was in the ring.

Her expression was calm, emerald eyes alert and sparkling, seeming to see her opponent's intentions before he himself knew. Hagbard, however, was growing weary of the dance. Once straight punches grew ever more sluggish, and he shuffled on his feet, growing every more frustrated each time Signy managed to twirl out of his way to deliver sharp jabs to his ribs.

The poor male never stood a chance.

Not as her opponent and certainly not as her mate.

His control was beginning to fray.

Lips peeled back, he bared sharp fangs, eyes glinting with his wolf. If he shifted, the match would be over. Shifting was as natural as breathing, but control was important for those who wished to be high-ranked wolves, they needed to prove they could remain calm and collected in stressful situations, so Alpha Sol had declared this a fight in skin.

It wasn't long before an exhausted Hagbard made his fatal mistake and stumbled down to one knee. Signy took advantage at once. Her foot whipped out kick his chest, throwing the male back into the dirt, and then she was above him, pinning the bigger male to the ground with a hand around his throat, squeezing to stop blood flow rather than oxygen. The male wheezed anyway.

Jakkon smirked as Hagbard struggled, kicking his legs out to unseat the smaller female, but Signy held fast, a growl building in her chest that demanded the male show his neck.

"You will pass out in a few seconds," she whispered at his ear. "There won't be any honour for you in that."

Jakkon wasn't sure many heard what she said, they were too busy hollering and stamping their feet as they watched their future Alpha Female make her first mark.

Eyes bulging red, Hagbard made one last attempt to remove Signy's wrist, and when it failed, rasping breaths turned into a drawn-out high-pitched whine. He lifted his chin as best he could to bare his neck, lowering his gaze and going limp in complete submission.

Signy growled once more, then released the rasping male to stand and accept her victory.

The crowd erupted.

Even Jakkon stood to stomp his foot into the ground, adding his voice to the howls ringing around the trees, scaring birds from their nests and probably all prey for miles around.

Sol congratulated her, embracing her with his scruffy cheek pressed to hers, passing her on to be fussed over by her father as well, before Jakkon got to do something he had been dreaming of since the first time Signy had kissed him. He approached with determined strides, drawn to the glory that shine bright in her smile when glinting eyes met his. In front of the pack, in front of her parents, and their Alpha, he swept Signy into his arms to steal a kiss.

He'd never forget the feel of her arms winding around him, the way it felt to be accepted by her in front of their kin. His delight escaped in a possessive rumble.

Signy laughed against his lips. "Do not be too pleased with yourself quite yet." Teeth captured his bottom lip, nipping before she finished, "It is your turn next."

The sting of her teeth wasn't enough to overpower a wave of dread. He'd managed to push his impending fight from his mind while watching Signy. Now he was alert and wondering who amongst the watching crowd would seek him out.

"Earn your place not just in the hunt, but in the pack," she urged him, circling to stand at his back so her eyes could find those who would gain him good standing should he defeat them. "Show your Alpha you have what it takes to be chosen. Show me, Jakkon."

Jakkon craned his neck to peer at her. "You want me to challenge someone here and now?"

She gave one firm nod of her head. "Yes. Now. Challenge one of the high-ranked who sits with our Alpha at the evening meal. Show the pack you're the dominant male I've always known you to be. Do it and I'm yours, Jakkon." Emerald eyes held his, firm and hardening with steely determination. "Do this, and I will be your mate."

Her purred words lulled him under her spell. Her touch on his bare back, tracing lines of shuddering muscle, imbued him with her belief.

Yes.

It was time.

He needed her.

So he would do what she needed.

When his eyes settled on his chosen opponent - one even Signy with all her visions couldn't have foreseen – he felt the threads of fate being woven. If he didn't make it into the high-rank in this hunt, the chances of him ever being able to rise to Signy's station would be gone. Hagbard would no longer be an option for her either but another male would eventually catch her eye. Now was his chance to seal the deal, to make Signy his, to show the whole pack he was no outcast nor failed hunter, that he wasn't an unworthy mate or submissive packmate, but a male who could lead them.

Filling his lungs with a fortifying breath, chest expanding, shoulders lifting him taller, he stepped forward and called out the name, "Sigar!"

"No, what are you doing?" Signy tugged at his arm, but he ignored her protest and continued to walk towards Sigar.

Sol watched on a few steps away, a smile playing about thin lips as he leaned on wooden staff.

"It is time to settle our differences," Jakkon said.

At first, Signy's sire blinked at him as if he might be seeing things, then exchanged glances with the high-ranked wolves around him.

"Are you sure this is the way you wish to settle our differences, pup?" Sigar asked, holding himself in a way that showed off his brawn.

In truth, Jakkon wasn't sure. It took everything in him not to tremble as his heartbeat kicked up a pace, and the wolf in him watched more keenly. There was no going back now. "If I am to join your family, you must respect me, Sigar. I proven you my loyalty to your female, I have hunted for her to show I can provide, but you have not accepted. This is the only other way I know to show you I am worthy of her."

Or he would fail, and none of it would matter anyway.

***

Signy

Jakkon had lost his mind. It was the only explanation. That or he wanted to back out of being her mate by having her father beat him in front of everyone. But he didn't walk like he intended to lose. His eyes met the gaze of those who watched him, rolling his neck and shoulders, puffing up his chest, walking in a way that made muscle ripple up and down his back. He promenading like a dominant male ready to prove a point, like a wolf ready to join the fight to be Alpha. Once he stood in the centre of the ring, he widened his stance and waited for my father to make his decision.

Unfortunately, Jakkon left my father with little choice but to accept.

No one made a sound as Sigar, Beta male, undefeated in a challenge since he'd taken the position, shirked off his tunic. His skin was riddled with bite marks and scars, some faded to silver and others risen from the skin in pink. Each one showed a victory, or a loss he'd overcome. Each one proof that he was a male unafraid to go for the throat. Heads lowered in respect as he passed. Signy's did not. She gave her father a pleading look but didn't dare voice or act out a protest for the sake of both his and Jakkon's honour. When he looked at her, she could read determination in cool blue eyes.

It took Signy by surprise.

Her father was taking this seriously.

She'd expected now her had the chance to fight the male he wanted to keep far away from her that he would be smug, but as he joined Jakkon in the ring, her father took the measure of Jakkon like he would any other challenger.

"Is that a seed of doubt I see?"

She couldn't bare to face her mother, but she was grateful for her presence, and her touch as her hand held hers.

"This was not what I meant for him."

Torin chuckled and nuzzled her shoulder. "No. Maybe it is what he meant for himself though, my female."

It was time to put her trust in Jakkon as much as she put her belief. He was finally doing what she'd asked of him, so why was she regretting pushing him so soon?

Closing her eyes, Signy begged Freyja for her sight, for a flash of the future that might show her the outcome of this so she could prepare herself. If Jakkon fell now, it would be over. Their plans would fly away like ash in the wind. She had always told him if he failed, she would take another mate, that she would still be Alpha Female of the pack, but her faith in that faltered at the thought of any other male touching her. She feared if Jakkon lost, he would leave the pack; she'd sensed that thought in him more than once. Could she leave with him? Would she be able bare that resentment? Would he?

No. Jakkon was of Odin's blood, she reminded herself. The power she sensed in him was old, from a line of strong wolves, even if he did not know it. The gods favoured her, they would favour her mate as well.

So she opened her eyes and forced herself to watch.

The two males circled each other for what felt like an age before Sol slammed his staff into the ground and proclaimed, "This is no formal challenge, although the rules will still require the victor to claim submission from the other. You may fight in fur, but you must give your opponent the chance to shift as well once you do. Keep things clean."

Signy wondered whose benefit that last order was for. Both males had something to prove today.

Trying to keep her expression neutral, hands clasped tight in her mother's so she wouldn't fret with her hair, she ignored the glances cast her way to maintain her composure. At least, she tried. Until the first blow landed.

The whole pack hissed in sympathy for Jakkon.

Even Signy wouldn't have seen her father's attack coming. He threw the punch with no warning the very moment Sol shouted for them to begin, and all Jakkon could do was brace as his head snapped back from the force. He staggered on his feet, but he'd watched my father fight enough to know another quick flurry of strikes was coming. Instead of fighting for balance, he let his body roll to dodge the blows aimed at his ribs.

Signy let out a whoosh of air, relieved her father had missed, and then tensed once more as Jakkon made his first attack. Sigar managed to block the fist flying towards his face, leaving his other side open for Jakkon to try again with his other. The sound of flesh connecting with flesh was jolting. Sigar snarled and lashed out to create distance between them again, Jakkon allowing her father to catch his breath as they circled each other once more.

In skin it seemed they were more evenly matched than anyone thought. Anyone but Signy. Suddenly her mother was gripping her hands just as tight.

After parrying and blocking to no avail for another minute, both males must have had the same thought, for in a haze of popping bones and stretching flesh, they shifted to the form of their wolves. Sliding feet became heavy paws with dagger-like claws scraping across the dirt, sharp teeth and fangs becoming the new weapon of choice.

Fights in fur never lasted as long as fights in skin.

Thick dark fur made Jakkon appear far broader than her father, with his sleeker grey coat, but Sigar had experience where Jakkon had the spark of youth.

In a flurry of fur, they leapt at each other once more. Snarls and snapping teeth echoed around, their bodies colliding with a clash like two boulders smashing together, each trying to get the upper hand, to be the one to crush the other. There was no mercy in the claws that raked at flesh. Blood scented the air within the first seconds.

Sol walked closer to the ring, perhaps sensing the significance of this moment as much as she. This fight wouldn't just change Jakkon's fate but potentially the fate of the whole pack.

If her heart wasn't in her mouth, Signy might have made note of the importance of their Alpha spectating, judging, so intently.

When it ended, Signy couldn't tell at first who had come out on top with the way their bodies twisted together. She was suspended between knowing whether everything had finally come together or the further she had seen had just crumbled before her eyes. Nobody in the pack looked certain either, everyone rocking forward on their feet as if to get a closer look. But the winner wasn't about to let us wonder for a second longer.

A growl thundered out in victory, deep and rich in timbre, and unmistakable to Signy.

Jakkon stood over her father's wulven, his maw clamped around his throat, one paw pressed to the older male's ribs to keep him pinned. Sigar didn't give up so quickly, but nor did he stand a chance of displacing the wolf who looked as shocked as the rest of the pack.

No one made a sound.

Not even once fur receded to skin and Jakkon staggered to his feet, eyes a dark midnight blue as he scanned his captive audience, uncaring of his nakedness nor the fresh cuts oozing blood.

Sol's staff hit the ground to end the fight. "Well done, Jakkon. Well done."

The pack let out a collective breath. Maybe they needed to hear it from their Alpha themselves before they believed what they'd witnessed.

Jakkon had taken down their Beta.

If it had been a formal challenge, her father would have fought until he couldn't any longer, certainly. . .if it had been real, Jakkon would be their new Beta.

She wasn't sure who the first to take up the cheer was, Basjan or Ola she could guess, but soon the rest followed. Wolves who had looked at Jakkon with scorn or disdain, who'd now let them eat from the stag he'd brought down and taken in two high-ranked males, now began to stomp their feet with his name on their lips. The few who didn't join in watched on warily. Signy smirked. They were worried for their positions now a new contender was known.

Signy wanted to rush over, to congratulate Jakkon before any other female might decide he was a worthy mate, and to check on her father. He sat in the dirt with an unreadable expression, one that twisted into something akin to pain as Jakkon approached him. Kept in place by her mother, she could only watch in awe as Jakkon offered his hand to her father. Her father, who not only accepted, but embraced the male who'd beaten him. Her eyes narrowed on Jakkon's lips moving by her father's ear but whatever he said was lost the roar of the crowd. What she did hear was the answering sharpness of her father's snarl, and see his expression thunderous as he pulled back...then his expression melted and laughed. He answered with a shove to Jakkon's shoulder that was almost...playful. And whatever her father said, it made Jakkon preen like a peacock.

His swagger was one of a growing ego as he pushed his way through the throng of the pack to get to her.

She'd intended to kiss him, but now, instead, Signy lifted her head and narrowed her eyes, demanding, "What did you say to my father?"

Jakkon's lips twitched. "I asked him a question."

With a huff, she braced a hand against his blood splattered chest and pointed a finger at him. "You will tell me. He looked annoyed, and he said something back to you, what was it? That he still doesn't approve? He believes your win was a fluke?"

"It is between he and I, Signy," he said gently, grasping her hips in his hands. "Nothing you do will pry what was said from my lips, no matter the temptation you offer. You can try to ask your father, but I doubt he will share either." His smile was smug as he reached out to stroke down the slope of her nose. "One day in the future, when I am old and grey, ask me again, and maybe I will tell you how I made your father laugh. For now, I have done what you asked, and you owe me something in return."

Signy's lips pursed but pride for her chosen male won out. Her hand slid up to cup his face, emerald eyes meeting midnight blues as she announced for all the pack to hear. "I am yours, Jakkon. As you are mine. Before the gods, I declare us mated, and our packmates shall know us as a bound pair." The words spoken were like a spell cast. It not only bound them together but it cemented another piece of their future, a vision that made her take a shaky breath. "Jakkon Odinson. . .You have my heart and soul."

He should have known she would take the upper hand from him, bonding them together then and there to the shock of everyone watching. He hoped she would continue to surprise him.

"You are my heart and soul, Signy Sigarsdóttir," he murmured reverently in reply.