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It’s officially time for Alpha Showdown 2013! You made your nominations and we have 16 of the most badass, alpha characters from urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels locked into the bracket. Only one will be named champion and today’s first bout is sure to end in a knockout.
Round four is sure to be full of dirty fighting. How will enforcer Terrible take on Jane’s Beast? Who will come out alive? Your votes decide.
Read the pitches, then make the call. Who should advance to the next round in the Alpha Showdown? The poll at the end of this post will be open for two days. Remember, alphas don’t share titles. Your votes decide who advances in the Alpha Showdown 2013.
New for 2013! Every (non-spam) comment on an Alpha Showdown post will enter you to win books featuring the final four alphas. So make sure to join the discussion and cheer on your favorite alphas.
Jane YellowrockYou know her from: The Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter
First appeared in: Skinwalker (VBC review)
Supernatural status: Skinwalker
Championed by: Amanda from Vampire Book Club | @amandakbyrne
What’s that? You’re not familiar with Jane Yellowrock? “Have stakes, will travel”? Shame on you. And you better watch your back, because the woman’s as well armed as any one man army and quiet as a cat. She knows her guns, and uses silver stakes to hold back her hair. She’s perfectly capable of saving herself, thank you very much. She’s quick with a blade and a one liner, and she won’t quit until she gets the job done. Even if it does leave her covered in blood and other, nastier things.
Oh, and then there’s Beast. Yeah. Beast, with a capital B. Skinwalker Jane can take another animal’s shape, but Beast is in her mind. Beast gives Jane strength, agility, speed, and heightened vision and smell, and sometimes, she’ll go alpha on Jane and take over her body. Make no mistake, when Beast’s in charge you don’t want to mess with Jane, but when Jane’s drawing from Beast, she’s plenty deadly, too. It’s a one-two punch that packs a lot more hurt than most of these pansies in this tournament. As for the few that have the strength to take her on? Well, she does love a challenge.
TerribleYou know him from: The Downside Ghosts series by Stacia Kane
First appeared in: Unholy Ghosts (VBC review)
Supernatural status: Badass Human
Championed by: Carolyn from Book Chick City |@BookChickCity
When Terrible came on the scene, nobody had met a character like him in any other urban fantasy series. He’s not your typical dreamy looking, squared jawed hunk, but a rugged, built like a brick house, rough and ready dude with a crooked nose that’s been broken too many times to count. He’s an Enforcer and doesn’t flinch at killing someone in cold blood.
But there’s another side to Terrible; a side that you only get to see when he’s with Chess. One where he’s soft, gentle and so god-damn sexy you just can’t get enough of him. He’s complex with a dark past, combine that with Chess’s personality is combustible, and every time they get together it just about did me in. His fierce loyalty and emotional attachment to Chess is one of the reasons why I think – no, I know – he’ll be the outright winner of the Alpha Showdown. Nobody will get even close.
This poll will be open for 48 hours. Alpha with the most votes will advance.
I gots to love me some Terrible. Ya dig?
right up!
Terrible!!!
Terrible.
‘Nuff said.
Terrible!
It has to be Terrible. He’s tough as nails and doesn’t need supernatural abilities to be Alpha. Jane annoyed me to no end and I had to stop reading her series.
Terrible just seems more Alpha.
I have to read The Downside Ghosts series and meet this Terrible dude)))
I have no idea, I couldn’t finish either of these series. Going to have to think on this one….
Terrible for this round!!
I have to go with Terrible. So sad that there’s no estimate on a release for the next book! 🙁
There will be a Terrible novella soon, though!
You have to love Terrible….that’s all there is to it 🙂
This one is a hard choice. I love them both….They are both kick ass but I think Terrible is just a little more alpha than Jane.
I love me some Jane. And I always love an underdog.
I agree, Jane takes no guff from ANYONE. I mean anyone who can punch a big wolf in the nose, twice, and get away with it by standing him down is Alpha in my eyes.
Gotta be Terrible!!!!!!!! I gots the fever! 🙂
Despite having to stop in the middle of Sacrificial Magic, I’m still voting for Terrible. <3
Terrible all the way. For a human he is amazing.
Terrible. No Question. Sorry Jane.
I love both characters but Terrible is… there isn’t a word to describe Terrible.
I have Terrible fever 😀
Terrible all the way!
Okay another round of characters I have not read as yet. But from the pitches above I am going with Jane. You cannot mess with a split personality female. You never know what you are getting. 😉
Jane is bad ass!
Terrible, it has to be!
Love Terrible, he’s got to win!
Jane wins, hands down and feet kickin’!
I’ve not read Skinwalker, but I’d pick Terrible over almost anyone.
Everybody knows that the female is the more dangerous of the sexes. Don’t mess with Beast!
Jane Yellowrock and Beast are pretty awesome, that’s where my vote is going!
Jane, and Beast, are awesome!! Anyone can be a tough guy with a soft side foe a girl, but it takes a real Alpha to be a woman (skinwalker) doing this tough job!!
Let’s go Jane!!!!!!
Terrible FTW!
Jane Yellowrock is the best! No contest. 😀
Jane Yellowrock. A skin walker who if given enough bulk from boulders could potentially turn into our primeval nightmares. Terrible is awesome but not alpha enough to beat a supernatural like Jane
No matter how “Terrible” Terrible is, Jane Yellowrock could pull him down and punch another bump in his many-times-broken nose. Yeah, he may be “built like a brick house”…and get all soft and gushy for his lady…but Jane/Beast has men like that coiled around her paw. She’s fierce, extremely protective of her friends and lovers…and turns into an amazing puma with her own purrsonality. I go JANE!
Terrible hands down!!☺
I love Jane but I have to vote for Terrible. He’s just the epitome of Alpha, in my humble opinion.
Terrible, cos I loves it when he calls her Chessie
Terrible should win this rounds hands down…He just has alpha written all over him…
Jane Yellowrock has my vote!
Gotta give the vote to the Skinwalker!
First, thanks to Amanda for getting Jane on the ballot. Love the speech you gave for our FAVORITE rogue vampire hunter and her BEAST! There is no doubt in my mind. Jane all the way! Jane is a beautiful, Native American skinwalker who rocks with her guns, stakes and her kickass BEAST, she rides a Harley, and she’s a woman. What more do ya need? JANE IS ALPHA!
Jane/Beast all the way
terrible
Based on the pitches, I’ll go with Jane/Beast.
It’s Jane Yellowrock for me. I was introduced and finished the books in one week. I really love the series.
I LURVE me some Terrible!!
This is no contest – Terrible for the win. Like Cristen said, I gots the fever!
Definitely Jane/Beast. Not even “merely” a skinwalker, with the addition of Beast in her psyche, Jane is simply unbeatable. Goldeneyes all the way!!
Never heard of the Jane series, but man oh man Terrible! 😉
Go Jane! Women power!
You have it right!
It,s got to be JaneYellowrock for me. To those of you who say you haven’t heard of the series I say people where have you been you haven’t lived a full life if you’ve never read a Jane Yellowrock book by Faith Hunter. The woman is deadly and sexy riding into town on her “bitsa bike” with her stakes and her Beast, genius that is what the series is true genius.
Come on Jane! You can do it!
A skinwalker is so much cooler 😀
Terrible is THE MAN!