EMILIA POV
“Emilia.”
The loud boom of Alpha James’s voice made me flinch before I stepped forward until I got to the middle of the court, waiting for my challenger.
“Is there anyone from another pack who would like to take on our very own Emilia here as an opponent?” Alpha James questioned, looking at the crowd of people, some of who looked down at me with mock pity or eager eyes.
“I will.”
The familiar voice of my mate travelled into my blood and froze everything over, making me want to run out of the court and never look back. Why would he want to fight me?
“Alpha Lucas,” Alpha James cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It almost felt as if he was nervous for me. “Why would you want to use up your strength? Your soldiers are still available—”
“You know how I am, Alpha James,” Alpha Lucas interrupted, standing up. “I don’t find fun in simply sitting and drinking. I would like some action.”
“Perhaps, I could find you another volunteer who could match up to your strength. I mean, she’s not—”
“I am quite alright with this arrangement,” Alpha Lucas argued, walking forward until he stepped in front od me. “Unless, of course, you want to back down.”
I didn’t know why, but my eyes instantly travelled towards my uncle, and his gesture told me that if I backed out of this fight, he would do worse things to me than this Alpha in front of me intends to do.
Out of fear for my uncle, I looked back at my mate and simply nodded. “I’ll fight.”
“Perfect.” Alpha Lucas clapped once, taking his jacket off and looking towards Alpha James for his approval.
After much hesitation, Alpha James sighed and announced into the microphone.
“This is a match between Alpha Lucas and Emilia. This match can only be won by tap out or submission. No biting, no touching of sensitive body parts. When one opponent is knocked out or rendered immobile, the other opponent is considered the winner by default.”
The words played in my head on loop, over and over. The last thing I heard was Alpha James yelling out the word “FIGHT” before I was kicked in the abdomen.
I grunted, doubling over and holding my stomach in pain. The mate bond went haywire in my chest, and I started to wonder if I was the only person feeling it until I looked up at him and found his brows scrunched.
“Fight back,” he ordered, using his right foot to push me back as if trying to get me angry so I could fight back. “Let me see what you’re made of.”
I instinctively looked at Carlos, and he was on the edge of his seat, waiting for me to do something to turn the tables around.
I raised my hand in an attempt to land a right hook, but Alpha Lucas caught it before it could reach him.
“Too slow,” he commented, twisting my arm so that I would turn around and face the crowd as he pulled at the arm, putting me in pain.
Left with no other choice, I put my leg up and kicked him in the shin, causing the crowd to gasp.
In pain, he let me go and stretched out the leg I had kicked.
I turned around swiftly and slapped him right across the cheek, but I yelped as the mate bond tugged hard at my chest and caused a sharp pain to stab me right in the heart.
Alpha Lucas chuckled and grabbed the hand that had slapped him on the face.
“Is that all you’ve got?” he challenged, grabbing me by the neck and throwing me so far and powerfully that I found myself landing on top of a table with dishes on it. The table shattered into two, causing me to fall down against the hard wood.
I saw almost everyone standing up to get a better view of me, but my vision of them was blocked by Alpha Lucas’s legs as he stood in front of me and pulled me by my hair.
He dragged me back to the middle of the court and said, “Now, you will surrender to me in front of your people. Are you ready?”
I took a deep breath, almost laughing at how comical he sounded without the knowledge that I had been trained by a general not to surrender, no matter how much pain I was in.
I felt him lift my hand up into the air in an awkward pose. Then, without warning, he pulled my hand back as far as he could.
A scream, louder than I had ever let out, ripped out of my throat as the pain felt like a thousand hammers being used to hit the same spots in my arm without end.
Coupled with that, the mate bond started to stretch and snap as violently as possible, almost breaking inside my chest. It felt as though someone was reaching into my chest with a knife and stabbing my heart, repairing it as carelessly as possibly, and stabbing it again.
The first and the last words I spewed in the fight had the bell ringing loudly in my ears.
“I SURRENDER!”
In no time, Alpha Lucas let go of my arms, and I collapsed against the floor as tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t feel my arms, and I watched disappointment and anger flood Carlos’s face.
He was going to kill me.
“Shouldn’t I get a prize for winning, just like everybody else?” Alpha Lucas questioned Alpha James as he stood beside my limp body, the total opposite of me; strong, confident.
“What would you like? I could give you my finest wine. It is well-known that I have an exquisite collection,” Alpha James suggested.
Alpha Lucas only bent low and picked me up, supporting my weight as he announced what he wanted to the crowd.
“I’ll take her as a prize.”
EMILIA POV “I don’t think I understand what you mean,” Alpha James replied to Alpha Lucas.“I’ll take her as a prize for my win. She doesn’t seem to be worth much to you all in this pack, don’t you think?” He raised my hand and shoved it from side to side to prove his point on how frail and useless I was.“I don’t think—”“Who is her guardian?” Alpha Lucas questioned, ignoring and interrupting Alpha James like he had done for most of the night.“I am,” Carlos stated, standing up. His eyes were cold and hard as he looked at me, and there was only one thing I could read from them – you have brought shame upon my name for surrendering.“Do you have any much use for her? Will you let me have her as a prize for my win?” Alpha Lucas requested.I expected Carlos to be a bit reluctant about letting someone take me to a pack I had no idea of, but he simply sighed and cleared his throat.“Unfortunately, Emilia has brought nothing but shame. She has not improved throughout the years since I hav
EMILIA POV My body froze at the strange greeting I received from the sister of my mate.What did she mean by hell? Was she just pulling my legs to see how I would react? Was it a threat of some sort?She pulled away from the hug, smiling widely at me.“You seem to overthink things a lot. What I meant was, my brother is a hellish person to deal with, so welcome to the hell I have to face everyday.”I heaved a quiet sigh of relief, smiling back at her for the clarity.“You must be tired. Should I show her to her room?” Katarina turned to Alpha Lucas, who had been standing and watching our exchange the entire time.“Not yet. Just take her bags up. I’ll show her to her room later,” he instructed her, beckoning for me to follow him.“It’s not your room just yet, and you can’t be my Luna if your fighting skills are as poor as they are. Last night, you did nothing but kick me in the shin and slap me on the face, is that seriously all you’ve got?” he questioned, and I nodded in response.“Fo
EMILIA POV “What… What is…” I couldn’t form a fully comprehensive question. My mouth was opening and closing repeatedly, and I was trying hard to wipe the image out of my head, but it didn’t help that my mate was standing there, putting his shorts back on as if he just couldn’t care less. For a second, I wondered if my genuine surprise was validated. If my mate was cruel enough to take me to the Omegas’ quarters, why should I be surprised about him being with someone else? “Emilia…” He sighed, rubbing his eyes and walking towards me, taking me by the arm and leading me out of the room. “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice low. “What are you doing?” He countered as if I was in the wrong, taking me aback. “You should be in the Omegas’ quarters, why are you out here in the middle of the night?” “I came here because I thought you could help me.” I hoped he could hear the disappointment and hurt in my voice. I hoped it would do something to him, but it only hurt me more that he did
EMILIA POV“Oh, goddess!” Katarina exclaimed as the soldier finally led us into the town, where a lot of the pack members gathered in front of their houses, holding the bodies of their loved ones.“This…” I placed my over my mouth to mask how shocked I was by the view.There were tens of dead people we had seen so far – about twenty or more, and they all looked like they had died from the same thing.But nobody knew what had killed them.Their bodies were pale, almost gray, and the palms of their hands were completely reddened.“This is bad. Find someone to go track Lucas and bring him here this instant!” Katarina ordered the soldier, who took her word and ran off.We walked towards one of the many people who were sitting outside and bawling their eyes out over the death of their loved ones. This woman was holding a teenage boy to her chest.“Please, save my son! He was fine last night, and I found him like this when I woke up and went to check on him. Please, Jacob! Open your eyes. Y
EMILIA POVThe soldier that had been yelling at me for the laundry launched himself into one of the rooms, returning with weapons and running down the hallway and out of the house.I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell if I was expected to join in on the fight as I watched soldiers running from one room to another and down the hallway, and I was too scared to ask them as they all looked ready to kill anyone or anything that stood in their way.“Hey, what’s…what’s happening?” I stuttered as I got out of the house and met one of the Omegas wiping a knife with a piece of cloth.“A rogue attack. We haven’t had one of those in a long time. I wonder why they’re here,” she mumbled, seeming more concentrated on the knife she was wiping clean.“And us? Are we supposed to join the fight?” I questioned, wondering if the knife was hers and she was preparing for the battle.Her eyes shot up so that she could examine me for a moment. Then, she stood up with a sigh as a soldier rushed out of the
EMILIA POVWe all shared looks with each other, wondering if this soldier had lost his mind and was trying to trick us into believing some mindless joke that they had all planned on their way back from the war.Seeing that none of us was moving – in fear or in doubt – the soldier raised his voice and boomed at us: “I want to believe that you all have functioning wolf ears! Grab whatever you can and join us on the battlefield! Nobody will be having your back! It’s a full war. You either die alone or you assist us to win this! Orders from the Alpha!”The soldier turned around and shifted into his wolf form, racing out of the house and leaving all of us in the room to scramble and wonder what to do next.Some people had made it into the kitchen to grab knives while some of the others were sure that they could take out a few rogues with their wolf forms.Unsure of what I was going to be doing, I blindly followed. There was nothing else I could do but hope that if we reached there, they wo
EMILIA POVI looked at Katarina, confused at her words. What was there to say about me so much so that a seer would summon me and Alpha Lucas to see her.“I don’t understand. What truth about me is there?” I questioned, not liking the way Lucas was staring at me with suspicion.“I guess that’s what the seer wants you to find out. Come with me,” she said, taking my hand in hers and walking forward so that Lucas walked behind us.There was silence, and I couldn’t help but feel Lucas’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. I wondered what it was that this seer, who was most likely not a true one, had in mind to tell us.I had been raised not to trust seers or wolves who delved into spiritual. Carlos used to tell me they were nothing short of witches and would take the side of witches if there was ever a need to fight against werewolves with them.As we walked towards the seer’s place deep into the woods of the pack, Katarina and Lucas stopped at the same time, causing me to stop an
EMILIA POV“We’re being attacked!” was the last thing I heard someone announce to the rogues who were still in the kitchen before all hell broke loose.Someone pushed me to the back, standing in front of me.“You’re already injured. You can’t fight right now,” she said to me as they clashed with the rogues.I couldn’t stand there and watch just because I had an injury. I ran into the kitchen to grab a sharp knife, getting back into the living room as the Omegas had all shifted and we’re pushing the rogues back so that they would all be outside the house.I found a rogue on top of one of the Omegas, snapping its teeth and trying to find something to bite. I took its distraction as an opportunity to lunge for it and stab it right in the neck.Blood squirted out of its neck, but it didn’t relent immediately. It thrashed around wildly, running for me and trying to attack me as well, but I used my feet to kick it back until it got weak enough that it fell to the ground with shallow breaths