The very thing that I love's killing me and I can't conquer it

It was a challenge.

She had the faculties to recognize that, and some primal need to come out on top, or bring the smaller bitch down with her, governed her actions. Instinct made her pull her head up, snarl a foamy warning, and gather her shoulders into a hump on her back. She couldn't get her black-dipped feet beneath her, but that didn't mean the Alpha was going to bow down so easily.

When Ptarmigan was nearly on her, blazing forward with a speed that Jinx could not have matched in her best days (but surely lacking strength), the rabid animal lashed wildly out and upward, hoping to catch any part of the Endore with her lethal bite. A broken howl tore from her throat and then she gagged again, spewing foam and twitching violently.