24. Sadie #2
Once again, my feet fell out from beneath me as the ground shook, and I was transported yet again into a different realm.
There was heavy gray cloud cover and no sun in sight. The endless rain and gloominess told me where I was.
It was the beast realm.
However, there were no towering skyscrapers, just small pebbles covering the ground as far as the eye could see.
The armor-clad military marched across the horizon. Thousands of soldiers, catapults blazing, spears at the ready.
It was raining.
But instead of the chaos, this time, what appeared to be an air fae floated in front of a standing military of hundreds of half-naked men and women.
Drums sounded.
She pointed a sword toward the oncoming army and screamed.
At the sound, the people behind her shifted into beasts of all types—they were all alpha shifters.
Snarling monsters.
The armor-clad army marched in the thousands over the horizon, but this time, it wasn’t a massacre.
In a clash of steel and animal roars, the shifters ripped the armored heads off the soldiers as they ran through their ranks.
This wasn’t a massacre.
This was war.
I opened my mouth to ask a question, when suddenly I was back in the crisp lake.
“What was that?” I asked aloud, my voice echoing unnaturally in the dark waters.
That was an eon ago, in the last battle. Time has spun, and war has once again arrived. As it always does. You are my champion. You must survive.
A tear slipped from my eye and floated up through the dark waters.
I didn’t know how, but I knew in my bones that the numb wasn’t lying. Everything I’d seen was true.
There was something so cruel about having to fight when all you wanted to do was die.
I’d never had any choice.
The pain of my existence had always been decided for me.
There would be no peaceful walk in the valley of the sun god.
“Fucking fine. I’ll fight,” I grumbled like the moody twenty-one-year-old I was. “You couldn’t have found an older champion to lead you?” I snarled at the numb that was apparently some type of entity.
Low-key, I was way too young for this.
This was child abuse.
My champions are not chosen; they are made. We have run out of time. You were made for this purpose, and thus you will rise. We are out of time…
Before I could argue back, I hurtled back into my consciousness.
The alpha above me laughed, cigarette hanging from his mouth, as he casually slammed his foot into my cracked sternum.
He tsked with glee. “Another failed initiate.”
My neck was turned, and blood burned my eyes.
Across the gym, chaos reigned.
The men were desperately trying to escape their rings to get to me, fighting against the dozen alphas that had climbed in to stop them from escaping.
They screamed my name.
I sighed heavily as another kick cracked my ribs and sent agony rattling through me.
There were three options.
I could lie here and do nothing and just hope I survived long enough to stand up at the last possible moment.
I could infect my attacker with my blood and risk being found out as a half-breed.
I could stand up and fight like a warrior.
The bald alpha laughed as he kicked me.
There was only one option.
I levitated a tiny droplet of the blood pouring from my nose and discreetly slammed it through his foot as it reared up to kick me.
“Stop,” I whispered.
Immediately, the bald alpha stopped midkick.
He was paralyzed.
There were loud screams and shouts as everyone in the club was preoccupied fighting against three enraged alphas and one unwell omega.
As quickly as I could—I was moving at the pace of a dead ant—I staggered onto broken legs and gripped the ropes along the side of the ring.
“Pretend to fight me,” I whispered, and the alpha threw a weak punch that I shakily dodged.
I distantly noted through the wind-tunnel sensation in both my ears and blood filling my vision that it was dead silent in the gym.
Everyone was watching us.
I channeled the girls and put on the performance of my life.
“Ow!” I yelled brokenly as I let the alpha back me into the corner of the ring and pretended to take punches.
Under my persuasion, each punch stopped millimeters from my skin.
I flailed back and forth and pretended I was rocked by hits that never landed.
There was a hiss across the ring, and the loud sound of smacking, as Cobra realized what was happening.
Suddenly, the gym was filled with Cobra’s shouts as he fought, creating a distraction away from me.
What a king.
Fake fighting drained me. With every pretend flinch, agony slammed through my broken bones as my body moved side to side.
Ten minutes was a lifetime.
When the gong finally sounded, I discreetly pulled out my droplet of blood.
The bald alpha staggered away from me in fear.
I gave him a small smile and tried to act nonchalant.
His eyes were wide as he realized I’d overtaken his free will, and he stalked at me like he was going to rip my head off.
I closed my eyes and flinched.
However, the blow never came.
“Hunter, the fight is over. Back away,” Molly said as she crouched in front of me and shoved him aside.
He looked like a Hunter.
Bald and unwell.
Z’s voice sounded, “A record, six of the seven initiates have passed the second trial.”
Alphas bellowed and chanted with excitement.
Terrified, I scanned the room.
I slumped with relief when I saw James’s broken body lying in the ring, unconscious.
Betas dragged him off, and I winced as I realized I was happy that someone was being murdered.
But all I could feel was relief that it wasn’t one of my men.
Finally, I passed out.