by G. Bailey
“Look, you know exactly how to do this. You’ve been trained by the alphas of Fall Mountain, who are fantastic fighters, the best that I’ve ever seen. Don’t count yourself out just yet. I know you’re going to be able to do this,” she tells me, and while having a friend believe in me is nice, it’s another thing to actually be able to win this.
“Yes, but I’ve got no idea what she’s going to use against me. I’m only trained in swords. I can’t do anything else. If she picks an axe, how do I win that without losing my literal head?” I ask her, the nerves swimming back to the surface, and I can’t hear anything other than my heartbeat as I walk away and start pacing.
“Calm,” Phim suggests but makes no move to step in my way as I pace up and down. “You have survived this long, I believe you’re not going to die now for some hussy who’s jealous that you’re living here instead of her. That’s no end to your story.”
“Do I have to kill her, Phim?” I gently ask, coming to a stop. “Can’t I just let her live and win somehow?”
“Yes, she must die. It is the wolf way. We are not sheep, and we do not forgive death threats,” she sternly warns me. “If you don’t kill her, then women will just keep challenging you. One after the other, knowing that you’ll give them mercy. Eleline herself will come straight back and challenge you once again, and it will just be an ongoing thing; you have no choice.”
“I’ve never killed anyone.”
“I know, it’s always hard the first time you kill someone. Sex or death, the first time is always shit and haunting,” she tells me, and I blush. She doesn’t comment on it but laughs slightly before she focuses on her point. “The first person you kill always stays in your mind. But remember, she brought the challenge on, and she will try to kill you. You don’t have a choice.”
“Did you have a choice with the first person you killed?” I ask her. Phim looks away, a flash of anger in her eyes, and she crosses her arms.
“Yes, and I still chose to kill him, and that’s a story for another day when I’m drunk and so are you so you’re unlikely to remember,” she states.
“I’ve never been drunk,” I tell her.
“Try it. It’s easy to forget who you are and the past that won’t disappear. That’s why Valentine is like he is,” she tells me.
“We should go,” I say, knowing I want to ask more about Valentine, but now isn’t the time. I wipe my sweaty palms on my tight trousers that are stuck to my skin and walk out the door. My boots are clean, and I refuse to wear anything else. These boots were from Mike. He made them himself, and I need a bit of his strength for what is to come. I wonder what he would think of me right now.
The alphas are waiting in the entrance hall for me, each of them dressed in blue shirts and black trousers with the Fall Mountain Pack symbol on their chests over their hearts. I’ve seen the symbol around the house on random things, it’s a mountain with wolves running in a circle around it, and the middle is filled with stars. The guys look imposing, terrifying, and to me, my solace. Trey is also there, looking equally as nervous as everyone else.
“Can’t you tell her that you’ll just move out or something? Then she’ll stop, right?” he asks, stepping in front of the alphas to greet me first. His voice is nothing short of upset, and it hurts my chest.
“That is a good idea,” I gently tell him. I immediately notice that he’s more frightened than I am, and I need to be brave, even if it’s just for this tiny second. He needs me to be brave because that’s the right thing to do. I take a deep breath, walk up to him, place my hands on his small shoulders, and he looks straight up at me. I realise I’m probably the only real female figure he’s had in the house. Someone who he’s been close to, I mean. Phim might have been around, but I highly doubt she’s much of the mothering type.
“I’m going to be okay, you know I’m going to come back here, and we can have dinner and play chess. I still need to learn what the knights do,” I tell him, making him smile.
“You might die,” he whispers.
“I’m not going down that easily. Don’t count me out yet, Trey. You have hardly known me that long, and you don’t know what I’ve got up my sleeve. I can do this.”
He does not seem to believe me, and I really don’t believe that much in myself either. I plaster on a brave smile and give him a quick hug before walking out the door, the alphas following behind me like it’s a normal thing for us to walk like this.
If I ever tried to walk in front of or even beside a beta, I would have been beaten for it, as I’ve seen many people hurt for accidentally doing exactly the same. Instead, these alphas don’t seem to care where I walk, and it’s freeing. It makes me want to fight to live, for this pack, for the freedom they can give me. We end up walking in a line towards the gates and the steps in content silence, even with where we are going hanging over our heads.
Henderson’s hand brushes against mine, a slight bit of comfort without actually touching me for too long. Even a simple, slight touch of a hand does things to me that I can’t explain. My connection to them grows each and every single day. I’m fearful of what’s going to happen when they do ask me to move out, when I have to leave them and pretend that they’re just my alphas. I can’t stay, because in the end, they will find their mates, and an alpha female would not want me around. I’m no alpha female. I’m not strong enough. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion they would’ve never taken me, anyway. They seem like the type that are quite happy living in their homes and taking women for any pleasure and nothing more. I think I am just here because they don’t want me to die straight away and then have that on their conscience.
“Why are we fighting on top of the mountain?” I ask them.
“Our people in the pack believe the top of the mountain is where the gods can see all. People go up there to pray for a miracle, to party in celebration of the gods, to make love for the blessing of a child,” Ragnar tells me, his voice poetic. “Everything is done up there, including fights to the death for anybody that we kill for any reason and challenges.”
“We believe that their soul can travel straight to the gods with nothing in between them,” Valentine says, and we all turn to him, the usually silent one. He looks away and takes a long drink from a bottle of god knows what he has brought with him.
I nod, wanting to understand. “The gods are always in the stars, right? That’s what I was taught.”
“Maybe they came from the stars, but I don’t believe they live up there anymore.” Silas’s indifferent response surprises me.
“What does that mean? They can hardly be down here with us.” I all but laugh.
“Why not? Why do you think the gods are not walking this earth right now with us?” Silas counters. Ragnar, Henderson and Valentine give him a sharp look, which I know means they want him to shut up. But why?
“They would lead all of us, and they wouldn’t let alphas rule if they could themselves,” I reply. “The gods are all-powerful.”
No one replies to my comment, making me feel almost stupid for my answer, even though I get the feeling some of them want to say something. We walk in silence out of the gates and down the steps towards the path to the stairs that lead to the top of the mountain. I hear the drums first, slow beating drums that go on and on, filling the air with tension with every single beat. The drums even seem to match my own heartbeat, which is beating hard in my chest, making it so hard to focus on anything. I carry on up the stairs until we come out in the clearing, with Henderson at my side, Silas and Ragnar coming out afterwards, followed by Valentine, then we all stop, standing in line and looking at everything. There’s a large crowd of at least thirty to forty people gathered around the edges, here to see what exactly happens. The drum players are at the back, five massive fire torches circling them. The lit torches line the sides of the mountain top, their embers flickering around in the air.
Most of the crowd are female—I get the feeling that most of them are love interests or want the alphas or they�
�ve had the alphas—and therefore want to know whether challenging me straight afterwards is going to work if I let Eleline live. I know I’ve got to prove myself today because these women will tell the pack every little detail or fight me to the death. My eyes flicker towards Phim, and she nods once, confirming my suspicions about these women, reminding me that I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to stand up on my own and fight for my life. I just hope no one ever challenges me to a shifter fight, considering I can’t shift yet. And I highly doubt Silas is friendly enough to just offer me his permission to shift. I haven’t gotten close to cutting him in our practice fighting, but I’m hopeful for the day that I do.
I take a deep breath and walk straight to the middle of the clearing. The ground is rough, meaning that it’s going to be hard when I fall. I walk straight to where there is a stone table that looks old, and it has six different weapons resting on top of a pile of flower petals.
Two swords, two daggers, an axe and a bow with arrows. Each of them looks dangerous and old. But thankfully, Silas has made me hold each one of these weapons this week. First of all, we know that I’m crap with the bow as I can’t aim. We know that the axe is too heavy for me. I’ve got no chance of picking up the daggers because they are too lightweight and mean I have to be really close to her. I also don’t have the aim enough to throw them. But swords. Swords is where I am good at. Even if these swords look heavy. But I’ve been training with heavier swords today, and I know that I will be able to fight, using them with at least some ability.
Eleline is dressed in pretty much nothing but tight black shorts and a very small black top showing off all her flat and toned stomach with zero curves to her hips. Her hair is braided, and she has warrior marks all over her body, from her cheeks to her arms to her stomach, all in the shade of red, which I think is meant to portray blood. My marks are black, which are here just to represent the pack. To represent the forbidden god and hope for his personal blessing today.
Ragnar leans close to me. “You’ve survived worse than this, you can survive this, I know you can.”
Silas gently touches the back of my shoulder. “We’re going to be here for you. You don’t let me down, okay? I have not trained you to lose, and between us, you have shifter strength now. You’ve had it for days, so you are not fighting alone. Your wolf is with you.”
I glance back at him, meeting his gaze. “I know I’m not alone.”
But I wonder if he realises I mean him and the other alphas.
Silas is going to take it personally when I get beaten up and lose. If I get beaten, he’s got a point. I’ve got to stop putting myself down. Part of winning something is believing in me. So here I am, believing that I can actually do this.
I meet Valentine’s eyes, and he looks away, taking a long drink. He is going to be drunk by the end of this. Henderson just looks at me once, his whole body shaking with the need to take this fight for me. To step in, to make me safe again. But we both know that can’t happen this time or ever. I need to stand my own ground. This is a fight between girls. It’s a fight that’s coming directly at me, and I’ve got to do it. Silas moves to stand in the middle of us. He looks straight at Eleline, who is already staring at him. “If you cancel now and walk away, there will be no payback for this.”
“You can still survive this,” I whisper, and her eyes snap to me, whatever calm was there bleeding from her eyes into pure anger as her eyes take on a red tint. Her eyes look up at him once more. I can tell she really thinks she loves him. But it’s not love, not the love I’ve read about in books and heard in Mike’s voice when he speaks of his dead mate. If you love someone, it’s painful, it’s consuming and the most dangerous thing in the world. It’s dangerous because you have to put them first, even when it rips your heart out. You have to let them go. You have to let them be with someone else if that’s what makes them happy. You don’t force them to be with you. And you certainly don’t try to kill the person they’re with. That’s just not going to get you exactly what you want, and it’s no way to show someone that you love them. At the end of the day, you have to let them go sometimes, and Mike told me it’s hard to be in love. I’m yet to fall in love with anyone, and a part of me fears it as much as I want it.
It’s exactly why being around these alphas is so dangerous. They make my soul move and my heart beat like no other.
I take a step forward, and Eleline looks to me again with such hate, hate that has likely been brewing since we met. But I don’t think she will stop until I’m dead—and every woman is dead who goes anywhere near the alphas she thinks are hers. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m not the first person she’s challenged for being anywhere near them. I sense she is powerful from how long she can hold eye contact with Silas, how the women here look at her. She could have been a beta with that kind of power, like Phim, but now she can’t.
“The challenge will continue,” she says. My heart feels like it drops in my chest, and my blood goes cold, knowing for certain that there’s just no way out of this other than me killing her or her killing me, and I really don’t want to die yet. I was given a second chance at life, and I just can’t die right now. I’m well aware what that means for this day.
Eleline picks up one of the swords, brushing her body against Silas, and something like a growl leaves my lips, shocking me and her. Silas raises an eyebrow, making his point very clear. My wolf is fighting with me. I feel a bit of relief that Eleline took a sword as I walk and grab the second sword. She’s definitely got the better one of the two. It looks lighter than mine, but mine is okay to fight with. It’s gold plated, and the tip is extremely sharp. The handle is made of some kind of soft leather, and even though it looks heavy, it’s quite lightweight and balanced. It fits nicely in my hand when I hold it up. Silas walks into the middle of the clearing, while Eleline and I go on the other side, and we stand a respectful distance apart with him in the middle of us. Silas looks up at the stars above us, the stars that light up the sky so bright, it really is beautiful for a tragic night. Midnight under the stars, with the gods watching as a life is taken.
It’s at least a lovely place to die.
“May the gods judge this challenge and rightfully find a winner. May you play fair. The alphas have accepted this challenge.”
When the last word leaves his lips, he walks past me and back to the other alphas, his eyes staring at my face until he can’t anymore. I don’t look at him, because I keep my eye on the person I know is going to attack me any second.
She lets out a very low growl, a warning threat, before she swings around her sword in her hand and comes a little closer to me.
“You could run away, you know? You sure you didn’t run away from your first pack and tell that little rumour you made about being the alpha’s rejected mate?” She laughs a little. “No one believes it, by the way, did you know that?”
We circle each other, and I make sure to stay a good distance away from her. Hold my sword ready for her attack. I try not to let her words get to me, but it’s hard. She’s obviously picking things she knows can irritate me. “Did you have anybody you care about back in your old pack? Were you just happy leaving them behind?”
She tries to catch me with her sword, but I jump out of the way, making her smile. “You know, if you actually were the alpha’s rejected mate, I bet he killed anyone who knew you and was close to you. I bet he killed and tortured them.”
“No,” I bite out over the heavy sound of the drums.
“That’s all your fault. Do you know that? Do you care about anybody other than yourself?” Her words get to me this time, and I end up shaking in anger without really thinking about it. I run at her, attacking her first with my sword as she blocks it effortlessly and elbows me hard in the stomach. I gasp, all the wind leaving my lungs as I fall backwards. She swings her sword hard at me, hitting my arm but not doing too much of a deep cut as I slide out of the way. I breathlessly straighten myself up as the wind harshly blows around us, whisking escaped st
rands of hair into my face.
Eleline just smirks and twirls her sword in her hand.
I know what her plan is, how she’s going to win. She is expecting me to attack every time, hit her again and again until I’m too weak to defend when she finally attacks me. This is not what I planned for with Ragnar and Silas. This is not what her weaknesses are. She’s meant to be weak because she hits from the right all the time, and she’s not as athletic as she looks because she’s too strong, muscled, so she can’t be flexible. But that’s not her plan today. She knew Ragnar would tell me that, so she came up with a new plan. To bait me. To make me mad. And of course, I’m taking the bait.
I grit my teeth in annoyance as she keeps on talking. “What’s it like being the alphas’ whore? We all know you are. No way have they just kept your pretty blonde ass in the alpha house without expecting you to be on your knees for them or bent over their beds.”
Hot blood drips down my arm from the cut as I try to block her out, to try and calm the storm of anger building in my chest. I want to kill her, I sharply realise. I want to end her when I take a calming breath and a way to spin this, to win, comes to me.
I cock my head to the side. “I’ve never been on my knees for them, but I know you have, and apparently they didn’t like it, because they certainly didn’t come back for more, did they? You were forgettable.”