Amber’s POV


    After work, I brought some medicine back to the hotel for Julian to take. Within a few doses, she should start to feel some of his aggression ease. It wouldn’t solve everything, and would gradually lose effectiveness over time, but for now, in lieu of renewing our mating bite or mutual rejection, it was the


    best solution I could offer him.


    Yet, when I presented him with the medicine, he thanked me but made no effort to open the bottle. Was he going to wait forter? Why? Wouldn’t he want to cure himself as soon as possible?


    “Aren’t you going to take some?” I asked.


    “Oh,” he looked down at the bottle again. “No, not yet. Not until after the challenge, anyway. I think the rage might help give me an edge in the fight.”


    I frowned at him. “You are going to prioritize the fight over your wellbeing?”


    “Normally, I wouldn’t,” he said. “But this is one fight that I can’t afford to lose.”


    “This is ridiculous,” I said. Huffing an annoyed breath, I walked away from him, toward the kitchte, wanting to put some space between us. “You should just forfeit the fight.”


    “Absolutely not,” he said firmly, a bit of annoyance rising in his voice now too. “Do you know what will happen if I do that? I lose by default. It won’t get rid of the stakes we made. I will have to back off <b>of </b>you, allowing room for Roman toe in.”


    I didn’t want that. While I wasn’t ready to be with Julian – our rtionship just kept hurting us and


    others I wasn’t ready to be without him either. And I certainly didn’t want any kind of romantic


    –


    rtionship with Roman. At most, I wanted our friendship back, but that didn’t seem to be enough for


    him anymore.


    A silence fell between us for a moment, before Julian continued, his voice much softer than before, “<b>Do </b>you want to date Roman?<b>” </b>


    “No,” I said at once.


    “Then I have to fight,” he said. “Not just for my sake, but for yours.”


    “Don’t pretend like you are doing any of this for me,” I said.


    He came closer. Though I wasn’t facing him, I could feel the heat of him standing behind me, warming the otherwise cold space at my back. He wasn’t touching me, but I still closed my eyes,forted by the warmth despite myself. I wanted to be angry with him. I was angry. But that wasn’t all that I was.


    “I won’t let him have you, Amber, especially if that’s not what you want,” he said. “When he loses, Roman


    will be bound to the agreement, and he will be forced to leave you alone, at least romantically. I won’t


    stand in the way of a friendship, if that’s what you want.”


    He made it sound so simple, but I knew, with challenges, nothing ever came easy.


    Roman wasn’t some pushover. He was the Alpha of his pack for good reason. He wasn’t going to give up this fight lightly.


    There was a very real possibility that Julian could lose, whether he wanted to admit that to himself or not.


    “What will happen if you lose?” I said.


    “I won’t lose,” he replied.


    Julian’s POV


    I wasn’t going to lose, and to be sure, I went to the gym, again, after dinner.


    As before, most of the gym patrons seemed happy to see me. They all wanted a good fight, it seemed, and


    were excited that I was taking this so seriously.


    Some even offered advice, most of it bad, but others not so.


    A few of the women of the gym seemed particrly inspired. One even came closer to me, flipped her


    hair over her shoulder, and told me, “Fighting for love is so beautiful,” she said. She touched my arm,


    overly friendly.


    As I slipped my arm away from her touch, I wished Amber could see things as this woman did, to understand that I was fighting for love. I wanted to protect Amber and her honor, while also was fighting


    for the right to keep pursuing her romantically.


    Truly, I only had one option now that the details of the challenge were set and epted.


    I had to win and defend Amber.


    There were no other choices.


    “I just hope you know what you are getting into,” said one of the other men there, a gentleman ten years or so my senior. “Roman has fought and won these kinds of things before.”


    “Oh, yeah,” one of the women chimed in. “Didn’t that one fight go viral a few years back.”


    “What are you talking about?” I asked. I knew Roman was a burly sort of guy, but I hadn’t heard of him being a fighter. Every Alpha was in condition for it, so I knew not to underestimate him, but this was the first I was hearing of any actual fights.


    The man loaded a video on his cell phone and then brought it over to show me.


    “Ready for this?” he asked and pressed y.


    On the screen, Roman and another man circled each other in a ring. This wasn’t the kind of crude makeshift ring that would indicate an impulsive challenge like the one we hadmitted ourselves to.


    This ring was more permanent, more professional.


    Roman juked left, causing the opponent to throw a punch wide, leaving his side open. Roman stepped back in, taking advantage of the opening, and absolutely pummeled his opponent, fists flying so fast they


    were barely visible on the screen.


    “Where is this?” I asked. “Is this a challenge?”


    “Challenge? No,” the man said. “Alpha Roman, in his younger days, used to be a professional fighter. And he was quite good at it.”


    For the first time since epting the challenge, a hint of doubt in my own abilities started to flicker to


    life inside of me.


    The man watched my face. I tried to mask all emotion but he seemed to notice a bit anyway. “You didn’t know? Son, you picked a fight with the Mad Wolf of the West.”


    He even had <i>a </i>nickname? Gods.


    “I need to get back to training,” I said.


    The man nodded. “Yeah, I think you probably do.”


    “Train hard, Alpha Julian!” said another woman. “We want to see a good fight.”


    “At least don’t go down in one pummel of hits like that guy in the video,” said another. “That whole fight


    I swallowed hard as I moved to the punching bag. Suddenly, I started to feel self–conscious about my punches. Was I putting enough strength in them? Or was I putting too much in them and leaving myself


    open?


    Gods, that video was getting into my head. I was d to have seen it, so that I could more fully understand what I was dealing with here. But at the same time, this was all almost too much.


    Was I really out of my league here?


    No. Or rather, it didn’t matter if I was.


    Roman might have been a professional fighter once, but he wasn’t any longer.


    And I was an Alpha, not some nobody with no strength to back up my im, or my half of the challenge.


    And even if I wasn’t, I still had love on my side.


    For Amber, I would fight like hell to win this fight. I wasn’t going to lose.


    I couldn’t.


    Or I would lose Amber.