Noble would have liked to see Harlan beat the crap out of Jake. After all, if anyone deserved a beating, it was him. But there was no way Harlan could take him without at least partially transforming into his werewolf form, and Noble couldn’t let Harlan do that to the rest of the pack.

Noble turned to Argus and flicked his head in Harlan’s direction. “Stop them!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Argus was in the center of the ring of students, standing between Harlan and Jake, blocking their access to each other.

“Get out of here, Argus!” Harlan said. “Let me do this!”

Argus said nothing, and did not move.

“Oh, this is rich,” Jake whined. “You need your big brother to fight your battles for you?”

“Argus, I mean it,” Harlan said, trying to get his brother out of the way, but having as much success as if he were moving a redwood.

“Yeah, c’mon, brother bear,” Jake said. “I promise not to hurt your little brother…much.”

Argus slowly turned, his fists clenching and unclenching. “You looking to fight me, too?” he asked.

“Hey,” he said. Jake raised his arms into the air. “This is between me and Dogface. He wants a fight as badly as I do!”

Argus looked over at Noble for guidance.

There was no way out of this, Noble knew. If they didn’t settle this, it could go on for months…until they graduated high school. Even then it might never end.

“You want to fight Harlan?” Noble said.

“Yeah,” Jake answered. “I do.”

“Fine—”

The crowd of students gasped.

Harlan looked at Noble with surprise written all over his face.

“All right!” Jake said, pumping a fist into the air.

“You can fight my brother,” Noble said, his voice calm, his words measured, “One-on-one with no interference from any of us.”

MacKinnon began to roll up his sleeves.

“But not now,” Noble added.

“What?”

“Tomorrow. After school.”

MacKinnon shook his head in disappointment. “Oh, come on.”

Noble jabbed a thumb to his right.

Principal Terashita was coming up the steps to the school. “What’s going on here?” he asked.

“Just a friendly chat, sir,” Noble said.

The principal’s face suddenly broke into a smile. Noble was one of his favorite students and anything he said was always taken at face value.

“Well there’ll be plenty of time for talk later. Let’s get into the school before we’re all late for class.”

The students began moving.

Jake made his way over to the pack. “Tomorrow, Dogface,” he said. “Your ass is mine!”

When MacKinnon was gone, Harlan looked at Noble with narrowed eyes. “You’ve got a plan, right?”

Noble smiled. “Don’t I always?”

“Yeah. I’m just checking.”

The bell rang to start the school day.

“C’mon,” said Noble. “I’ll fill you in on the way to class.”

Chapter 13