Dominic padded towards the elves, hoping that the decisions he’d made wouldn’t bite him in the ass.

  ‘You do know that the canine could just turn around and betray us now,’ Leo hissed at him.

  ‘He could have done that before and he didn’t. Being part of the Pride is no guarantee of loyalty,’ Dominic replied stoically.

  ‘But at least it is an encouragement to work together – earning Prey Points together, benefiting from the Place of Power.’

  ‘And he’ll do all that when he joins again. But it’s too risky for him to be part of a group which is officially allied with the elves. Besides, he’s left the most vulnerable of his females and the cubs of his pack behind – why would he just abandon them?’

  ‘They aren’t his cubs,’ Leo insisted. Dominic had had enough.

  ‘The albuhas aren’t like you. That doesn’t seem to be an issue. I trust Howler. End of.’

  The lion huffed softly, but went silent. Dominic was relieved – he wanted to move on.

  Jaws had also been kicked out while Teeth remained as part of the Pride. Their reasoning was that if the matriarch was somehow able to sense if one of the beasts in her army had offered their alliance to the elves, having only one of the albuhas identified and needing to flee for his life would be acceptable. It might put the rest of the albuhas under scrutiny, but if neither Jaws nor Howler were part of the Pride in any way, even the matriarch shouldn’t be able to spot anything – hopefully.

  They’d even decided that Teeth would return alone, pretending that he had been eating one of the carcasses left behind. Either he would be accepted because they wouldn’t be able to identify his loyalties, or he would be pinpointed as a ‘traitor’ then and there. In the case of the latter, at least they would know that it had been a good idea for Howler and Jaws to officially cut ties with the Pride, and Teeth would hopefully be able to make a run for it. Or fly for it, anyway.

  If his excuse was accepted, however, and he was viewed with no more suspicion than anyone else, he could continue to be the point of contact between Dominic and the other albuhas.

  As for the other beasts, Dominic had decided not to send them back. His decision had been met by a mixture of relief and annoyance – it seemed like several of the leaders hadn’t been keen on returning to the matriarch, but had resigned themselves to it, and the change of plan had caught them off guard.

  It had been very tempting – the plan he had been leaning towards previously had been to infiltrate the matriarch’s forces and take them out one group at a time. Having four of the groups on his side from the outset would have made that easier. But now that he had chosen to throw in his lot with the elves, that was probably not the best option. The question now was whether to play a defensive role and let the matriarch send her beasts at them in greater and greater numbers, killing or converting those she sent until she either ran out of forces or came herself, or whether to take the fight to her.

  Out of the two, Dominic was leaning towards playing a defensive role, at least for now. He had taken advantage of Howler and the four other leaders to find out as much about the matriarch and her army as he could. With the alliance in place, the four leaders had been willing to reveal information to him that he’d hopefully be able to use to win this Challenge.

  All of them indicated that the force which had been sent at them, while a reasonable fraction of the matriarch’s forces, was by no means the majority of her strength. Playing things defensively for now allowed them to stay near the elves who might be able to support them in one way or another and also offered places to retreat to if necessary. And if they could continue to convert more of the matriarch’s forces, the advantage would swing even faster towards the Pride. At which point they could take the fight to the matriarch without the risk of losing too many of their own fighters. And hopefully, by that point, he’d have the armour and weapons promised by the elves to help him overcome the matriarch and whatever champions she still had by that point.

  The group of elves watchfully waiting off to the side seemed to have changed a little. Though five of those present now had been there during the battle, the other six had not. However, five of the new ones were very familiar faces.

  ‘Berion, Talathon, Luthor, Pelir, Ruthror,’ Dominic greeted, his mental voice starting out enthusiastic and then dimming to politeness as he greeted the two who were still not great fans of his Pride – and might never be. Pelir’s mouth tightened along with her grip around her bow while Ruthror refused to look at Dominic, staring daggers at the lion’s Pride. No, at Jenkins, Dominic realised, feeling his lips creep upwards, threatening to reveal his fangs.

  ‘Honoured Brother,’ Berion greeted, swiftly followed by Talathon, Luthor, and then even Pelir, albeit grudgingly. Ruthror stayed silent. ‘Ruthror,’ Berion prompted warningly. The spear-wielder’s lips curled slightly, but he darted an unreadable look at Dominic.

  ‘Greetings,’ he grunted out before his eyes were drawn back to the Pride. Dominic growled, the rumble almost quiet enough to be inaudible.

  ‘You have a problem with one of my Pride? You have a problem with me,’ he told the spear-wielder. ‘Do you want to throw down with me here and now?’ That finally grabbed Ruthror’s attention and he turned a glare onto Dominic, his knuckles going white around his spear.

  ‘Honoured Brother, I’m sure that won’t be not necessary,’ Berion broke in, his eyes darting between the two of them. ‘Ruthror knows how much we all owe you for repelling an attack which would have ripped through our hunters and town, coming during the watch of the night guard and barely after dawn as it was. Hundreds could have been killed if our night guard had been overwhelmed, which, given the size of the army, would most likely have been the consequence. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters…children. All saved by the actions of our Honoured Brothers and Sisters.’ He was technically speaking to Dominic, but the lion was confident that he wasn’t the intended recipient of the message. It was good to know that he’d made such a difference, though.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He did have to wonder why the matriarch had changed her tactics, though. According to what he’d been told before, she’d been sending smaller groups for a while until abruptly attacking with the army which had been at the elves’ doorstep when the Pride had first arrived. And then this time around, another army not that dissimilar in size, though it had been more organised – the first army had been an utter mishmash of species where this one had only contained five.

  Was she just testing different tactics? Was she hoping that with fewer species to jockey for position, they would have more success overall? The presence of the albuhas was to make sure that at least someone would return to inform her of what had happened, making them a good source of information about both her allies and her enemies. Perhaps she’d sent decent fighters – but not her best – to get an idea of the force which had somehow defeated the largest number of beasts she had sent so far.

  Or perhaps it had something to do with the System? Since this was a Challenge, perhaps she had limitations on how many she could send and of what type of beast – certainly, although there had been scrins and hyenas in the first force they’d fought, there hadn’t been any of the ullas, albuhas, or some of the other beasts that the matriarch apparently had as part of her faction. It was also interesting that the matriarch herself had never appeared in an attack – and apparently hadn’t even watched from a distance as she had done in the fights against Domnic’s pride.

  Fortunately, Berion’s words seemed to have got through to Ruthror as the spear-wielder diverted his fiery gaze to the ground.

  ‘We thank you, Honoured Brother, for your intervention,’ he said mechanically, his words ground out more than a little unwillingly. But he had stopped glaring at Jenkins, so Dominic would take it as a win.

  ‘I’m glad I could help,’ Dominic said honestly, Berion’s words sobering him slightly. In all his thoughts about why he was helping the elves, the fact that the town was filled with families just trying to live in a world gone mad hadn’t featured. And now he felt pretty guilty about that.

  After all, his reasoning had been all about how he and his Pride could benefit. And while he didn’t think that that was wrong so to speak – not in this new world where personal power was even more quantifiable and necessary than in the old – he did need to consider that his decisions, for better or worse, impacted far more people than just himself and his Pride.

  Helping the elves to win their challenge would mean that hundreds, possibly even thousands of non-combat elves would survive who would otherwise just be ripped apart by bloodthirsty beasts – like him – who were only interested in gaining more Prey Points to increase their personal power. At the same time, fighting the beasts might mean that hundreds of them would die too, many of them probably sapient by this point – which was a difficult thought in its own right.

  But at least the beasts had chosen to be part of the beast wave. They had followed the call either consciously or unconsciously and obeyed the matriarch in attacking the elves. The elves, on the other hand, had done nothing but live in their homes. Heck, given how little they were able to defend themselves, they probably hadn’t even done much killing since the arrival of the System. They may not be innocent in the usual sense of the word, but they certainly didn’t deserve to die or lose their home to a whole load of beasts just in search of power.

  Though Dominic couldn’t exactly fault the beasts for their choice – he knew all too well that fighting and killing was the main way for their kind to increase their power. He found himself hoping that the Pride members he’d left behind at the Place of Power would have found the two dungeons there by the time he got back – at least knowing that the beasts there respawned removed any sense of guilt over killing them.

  ‘Berion,’ he said, shaking himself out of his thoughts – self-reflection certainly had its time and place, but this was neither. ‘I need to speak to Elder Alwen. Can you take me to her? My Pride will stay here and guard against enemies.’

  ‘Of course, Honoured Brother,’ Berion answered. ‘Will it just be you?’

  ‘I won’t bring the Pride,’ Dominic confirmed, seeing a hint of relief in Berion’s face. ‘Give me one moment to inform them where I’m going.’ He looked back and quickly communicated his intentions to his Pride.

  ‘I wish to come,’ a voice said firmly as a slim yet powerful body slid next to him, apparently not contemplating a refusal on his part, or determined to come regardless.

  ‘I’m coming too,’ another voice said, equally decided. Dominic eyed the two lionesses now book-ending him with amusement and more than a hint of warmth.

  ‘Can the Pride even survive without you two there?’ he teased lightly. Sekhmet immediately flicked him with her tail in reprimand.

  ‘Isis and Simbi have our Pride well under control,’ she told him easily.

  ‘And most of my pack is away anyway,’ Jenkins added mournfully. Then she brightened a little. ‘Though I look forward to getting to know the new members when we return.’

  Looking past them, he saw Nyx gazing at the small group with a wistful look on her face.

  ‘Do you want to join us too?’ he asked her. ‘The more the merrier.’

  Nyx hesitated, looking between the city and the Pride.

  ‘I will stay here and protect our Pride,’ she decided finally.

  ‘Alright,’ Dominic told her warmly. ‘Thanks. With you watching over them, I know they’ll be safe.’ She didn’t respond, but Dominic got the idea that she was pleased.

  Dominic looked up at Berion, noting the way Ruthror was clearly glaring at the ground and Pelir’s cool look towards the lionesses. Perhaps it would be a good idea for them to come with him for more reasons than just his personal preference – leaving Jenkins in particular in the same area as Pelir and Ruthror without either him or Berion present didn’t seem like the best idea.

  ‘It looks like it is the three of us going. Are you ready?’

  Berion eyed him with a measuring gaze that probably saw more than Dominic might expect. Then he tapped his right fist to his left shoulder.

  ‘As you wish. As the Elders are probably checking on their responsibilities right now, I suspect I know where Elder Alwen might be. For the sake of reassuring the population who are aware that we were being attacked by beasts, I ask you to remain behind me at all times. I would not wish for any…accidents to happen.’

  From someone else Dominic might have taken that as a threat, but from Berion, he could sense the sincerity of the elf and smell the slightly apologetic scent wafting off him. It wasn’t like he asked for much – he wasn’t trying to convince Dominic to wear a leash or something. Leo’s revulsion at that very idea matched Dominic’s.

  ‘We will follow closely,’ Dominic confirmed, making sure that the two lionesses would do just that.

  Together, they headed into the elven forest town.

  here!