"It's nice to see you too, Titus." I smile at him. Then I punch him in the face for a second time.
Titus's hand doesn't fly to his face as it would for a normal werewolf in pain. Instead, he allows the trickle of blood to run down his chin as if it was a trophy of strength.
"You bitch!" He cursed, swinging his own fist my way. A few seconds ago he was reluctant to fight, but it was obvious that I wasn't going to back down.
Ducking under his punch, I snarl at the twenty five year old wolf. "Well done. I am a female dog."
Titus doesn't like my remark. He wasn't ugly in general, but the distorted look on his face made him appear as attractive as a rotten apple. He charges forward, head meeting my stomach.
Normally, the blow would not hurt, but with my previous bruises from the fight yesterday, I couldn't help but small pin pricks of pain ache across my body.
His huge figure almost knocks me to the floor, but I use the advantage of his exposed stomach to punch him as hard as I possibly can. My strategy works, and the monster releases me from his grip.
Instead, he turns to punching me. It happens so quickly that his fist connect with my face, right below my eye socket. That would leave a nice mauve bruise.
I begin my attack, ramming my fists into any part of his body I can make contact with. The only fuel that kept me going was the rage within my heart. I was supposed to be alpha. No, my parents were supposed to be leading the Shadow Claw pack. The only reason they aren't is because of him.
I want to rip out his throat. To tear a hole in his heart that is so large that he will have no way in hell of even gasping before plunging to death. I was to take revenge for my parents.
But before I can take the vengeance the beast in front of me deserves, a pair of hands hold me back. They were strong and easily kept hold of my spindly limbs.
Josh pulled me away from the fight, my breath ragged from the struggle. I looked like the rogue I was, but I didn't care. I was a rogue, and it had taken me a few years to accept.
I was thankful that Josh pulled me away before it was too late. God only knows what damage I could have done to Titus, and the Alpha Trials hadn't even started yet. I didn't even consider the fact that I might be the one crippled by the end of the spar.
Josh took me back to the bench, but not before leaning in and whispering something in my ear. "Save it for the arena."
I could feel the handsome boy smile. His words struck deep into my flesh, because in that fleeting moment did I realise that Josh thought exactly like me. Now that's how you make me like someone.
4 | Caged
❝You didn't see that coming?❞
There's always a time in your life when you feel completely and utterly caged. When you feel as though you're snared in the centre of a giant maze with no exit, and no way to escape. When you have nowhere else to go, because everything and everyone wants to kill you.
That's how I feel right now. For me, the Alpha Trials only has two outcomes: death or becoming the Alpha Queen if – and that's a big if – I win.
But I don't want to win. I don't want to be Alpha Queen. I am a Rogue, and always will be. Maybe if I win, then I can resign straight away, but somethings tells me the kingdom won't let me do that. They choose the strongest leader to fight a war, and if it's me, then so be it.
And the other option - death? For some reason, I don't want to die. Here I was, cornered in the place where I thought I would never end up in my wildest nightmares, and I was still alive. I had lived to see daylight.
I don't know why I want to live, but its nature. We are survivors, and no matter how hard we fall, we will always pick ourselves back up again.
"What're you thinking about, Aurora?" Josh asks as he gives me a sly grin. "You were giving me the dreamy eyes for a second, there."
I fold my arms across my chest, but feel a small smile edge its way onto my face. Last night, Josh, Azra and I had chosen a sleeping quarters to share for the tournament. They had gotten to know me, and I had actually made friends.
I ignore his question. Last night he pointed out I had a habit of doing that. Screw habits, this was my personality, and I wasn't going to change it now for some boy, even if he was cute. "Call me Aura."
"Oh, so it's Aura now? I thought you liked the nickname Rogue." He raises his eyebrows.
"It's easier to say." I point out, because it was true.
"Technically it isn't," Josh challenged with a quirk of his brow.
"Stop flirting, lovebirds." Azra scowls from the corner. The room we all stand in is a part of the arena, brick walls surrounding us like a stagnant catacomb. The air was still and cold, the light shining through the tiny windows circling us. The room was filled with all the other competitors, waiting to get a glimpse of who they were fighting against. "Pay attention."
In front of us was a nail, hammered into the wall so that it stuck out at a ninety degree angle. It was strange to think that we were all relying on this one nail, but it was where the battle schedule was to be hung.
A sturdy guard with a greying beard and shoulder length hair steps forward, a huge board clutched within his mighty grip. For some reason, the strange sensation of fear sweeps over me in a fleeting glance. He was huge, and other competitors here were equally so. If I'm put up against any of them, I know that I will die.
Josh squeezes my shoulder in anticipation, and I roll my eyes. I didn't need reassurance, and physical contact felt weird. He was being nice, but this wasn't me. I was a hundred thousand miles outside my comfort zone.
I hear Josh take in a sharp breath and I turn back to see his flared nostrils. "What're you so worried about? It's just some names on a crappy board."
"Yeah, but those crappy names could knock me out of the competition." Josh sighs as the guard begins hanging up the board, heads popping up as people try to get a glance of their opposition.
It was strange to think that tomorrow, only half of us will be standing here. Tomorrow, half of us will be gone or dead. We weren't supposed to kill, but there was no rule saying we couldn't. And if I lose, I will definitely die.
"Why are you so dependent on this, Josh?" I ask bitterly. Everyone was acting strange about this whole prospect. "What is so important about these trials?"
Josh turns a puzzled face my way, as if I didn't belong on this planet. "Are you kidding me, Aurora?"
"Aura." I remind him firmly.
"Fine, Aura." He retorts, rolling his eyes slowly. "This competition decides who is the next Alpha King or Queen. This is the first time in one thousand years they've had to hold such an event. To win is a huge, huge honour."
"Wow." I say sourly, perhaps more than I had anticipated. "Who filled your head with all that crap?"
Josh shakes his head. I wonder if he regrets choosing to be my friend. "It isn't crap. If it was, you wouldn't be here. You would've decided to be beheaded if it was pointless. We're all here for a reason, and I'm here to make my pack proud."
Someone coughs next to me, and a small smirk edges its way back onto Josh's face. "That's why we're here." Josh concludes, draping an arm around his Azra's shoulder.
I nod. I can understand where he's coming from. Pack wolves were very proud creatures, and winning the Alpha Trials gave the pack wolves more pride and recognition than they could ever ask for.
"I understand why you're doing it." I defend myself, eyes diverted to the huge board in front me. "But I can't afford to think like that. Tomorrow, I could be dead."
A hand clasps onto my shoulder, and I am spun around to meet Josh. "Don't say that," he growls, teeth bared in a protective manner. "You will be here tomorrow. You won't die."
"They'll kill me if I lose."
"You won't die." He insists. "We chose to friends with you because you looked fearsome. You had that look on you face, showing that even if the world would collapse beneath your feet at that very moment, you would clasp onto anything to gain life. You're not a loser, Aurora. You're a survivor."
I stare at him. Was I really that r
eadable? It felt as though someone had simply opened me up and read me like a book, the font being size two hundred. I feel completely and utterly bare as if I'm not wearing any clothes.
"This just got really deep." I comment.
Josh rolls his eyes, but I can see a smile form on his face. "Shut up and pay attention to the board." He replies with a wink, leaving me hanging from a thin line, waiting for him to continue.
I turn back around, the gloomy darkness making it near impossible to read the names on the wooden board. The light was orange, casting a strange sunset shadow over the handwriting.
I flick over each name, until I find mine. It looks as though it's been written by a five year old.
Then I see the line joining me to my opponent. William.
William. Of all names, William. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just... old. And boring. And it made me think of an ancient werewolf king who I had learnt about in my old pack.
I swivel on my heel to face my new friends. They both look unfazed, Azra's jaw clenching and unclenching as she continues to stare at the name paired with her own.
"Good? Bad?" I ask, nodding towards Josh. The brief and meaningful conversation we were having a minute ago seems to have spontaneously combusted into thin air.
Josh looks uncomfortable as he shifts on the balls of his feet. He looked as though he didn't belong in his own skin. Scrap that, it looked as though he wanted to shed his skin and grow another one.
"In the middle." Josh scans the room as other wolves saunter around, barely talking to one another or looking anyone else in the eye. Josh points to a slender wolf. "His name's Jasper. Extremely skinny, but extremely fast. You?"
I shrug my shoulders. "No clue. Is William good or bad?"
"Crap." Azra curses as she listens in to our conversation.
I twist my head so that I can gaze her in the eye. "What?"
Azra nods her head towards a werewolf who stands a few heads taller than me. His face was lined with greasy tresses, and it was easy to say that he was at least thirty or so. Not only that: he was a giant. His arms were guarded by chunks of muscle, and his size was staggering.
"That is William." Azra says, and I gulp.
I give Josh a side glance. "On second thoughts, you might lose. You know, just a one in a million chance of winning," Josh states.
The news hits me like a wrecking ball. My opponent was the size of Mount Everest and looked as though he was a Viking brought forward in time by a time machine. I was not going to win.
"This was a stupid idea." I say, and begin to stagger out of the dim room, the darkness snaking around me as I follow the cobblestone footpath. "I need to get out of here."
Why hadn't I tried already? Surely there was one way to escape, no matter how vast the castle, or how extensive the amount of guards was.
Azra grips onto my shoulder, stopping my actions. "Aura, there's no way out. Security has tripled due to the Alpha Trials. You can try, but they'll kill you in the process, and we're not going to let that happen."
"Remind me again when you two became so protective over me?"
"When we decided to make friends with a rogue." Azra replies. Ok, that hurt a tiny bit. I was a rogue, but it wasn't like I was a completely different species.
"Josh and Jasper into the ring!" The same guard who put the wooden board up shouts, the bold voice reverberating off the walls of the stone chasm.
I glance at Josh as he nervously gulps. He wipes his sweaty palms on his shirt, but his forehead has already become beaded with the substance due to nerves.
Azra gives her best friend a hug before I can say anything. "Good luck." She says into his chest, but her voice held out. She didn't sound as though her best friend was about to be put through the most traumatic event of his life. "You can do it. Aim for the throat. Use whatever weapon they give you."
Azra and Josh exchange smiles as I stand around, the awkward third wheeler at the back of the group.
Finally, I make eye contact with Josh. The moment I look into his mocha irises, I know that he can do this. He was an alpha, and he would prove that today.
We don't exchange words: only a basic, majestic nod.
And with that, Josh disappears out of sight into the unknown.
"Come on." Azra tugs at my arm, pulling me to the pathway lining the arena. Here we were below the stands, but there was a gap of about half a meter that enabled the competitors watch their competition fight.
Josh and his opponent – Jasper – stand opposite one another as the crowd roars above us like an eternal beast, devouring the moment as if they wanted to preserve it until the end of time.
The guard - or rather the enforcer - steps forward and bellows, "Fight one, Round one of the Alpha Trials. The match will last until one of you is unable to continue. The winner will move onto the next round, and the loser will be sent home. The guard pauses, raising an arm in the air. "Good luck," He mutters as his arms comes down, and the fight begins.
The spar blurs before me. One moment Josh is being knocked in the face, and the next Jasper is held in a head lock. The crowd above me continues to yell, scream, bellow at the top of their lungs as if there was no tomorrow.
Finally, after the haze, I manage to pick out Josh standing above Jasper, delivering a monumental kick to the other boy's skull. The was the battle over. Josh had won.
Azra lets out a sigh of relief beside me, and I send a small smile her way, thankful that he was ok.
"Aurora and William into the ring!" The same guard shouts, my bones turning to ice, becoming so fragile that they would surely shatter.
Everyone turns my way, and I stand as still as a statue, afraid that if I move in the slightest, the world will come crashing down. Now I understand why rabbits freeze when they're caught in headlights: it's as if every cell in my body is screaming please don't see me. Please don't see me.
But of course they can, cold stares snaking through the general tranquillity of my brain.
Azra pushes me from behind, edging me forwards. "Good luck," she whispers, but her tone is shallow because she knows the outcome. We all do.
The participants around me part like the Red Sea for Moses, eyes glaring, eyebrows raised, heads all turned in my direction. They whisper as I slowly go past, the murmur of my name, the faint buzz of a chuckle. They thought that I couldn't win, but maybe, just maybe, I would live to see these disgusting, dank walls once again.
I see Damien somewhere in the crowd. He doesn't make eye contact with me, but I can feel his eyes piercing the back of my skull, as if he was trying to open it with the power of his mind. I shudder. I didn't know why I was so bothered about him so much as looking at me, but it felt strange, even in this world.
I reach the entrance to the arena, the sunlight only a few steps ahead. Dust motes prance through the air as Josh walks past me. Once again, all he needs to do is bow his head, meaning the same thing yet again: good luck. But it also means something else: goodbye.
Next comes Jasper, dragged out by two guards, his feet dragging carelessly along the gritty floor. His head lulls from side to side, evidence that he was still unconscious.
Beside me, the alien noise of clicking knuckles alerts me to another presence. Hands large enough to cover my head continue the snapping noise, and then shake off the feeling as the huge man saunters and takes his position next to me.
The guard is next, leading us into the arena. I try to force my legs not to move, but they don't obey. They seem to have a mind of their own as they try to protect their owner from a painful punishment for not even walking into the ring.
Sunlight blinds me as I gaze around, seeing the huge arena surrounding me. Hundreds of faces peer at me, all cheering for the other werewolf standing beside me. Beneath me, sand threatens to infiltrate my boots, the arena so wide and circular that it will be hard to corner my opponent.
THE ROGUE WOLF Page 4