Quinn
Albus looked at the two of us and waved his right hand down and then blew the whistle, declaring the fight for the alpha hunt open.
Tyrex and I growled and dashed into each other without any more prompt. We didn’t need anyone to tell us what we had to do as she knew it already. We had already been told what to do for years and had been groomed for it.
We charged at each other, our fists going mad at each other. I grunted as he hit me on the face and I growled, packed my punch tight and got him on his jaw. He growled, his eyes rolling back in his head and then I smiled, loving the crack of his hard bones. Watching him in more pain than I was made me feel better about my own.
We were at it for five minutes and eventually I won, landing a jab at his hind leg from behind which made him lose his footing and slumped to the ground. That was all I needed to win. I didn’t need much. I only needed to have the hand of my opponent touch the ground. As soon as his hand touched the ground, I ran out of the room dashing to the next stage without waiting for him to get back up and charge at me, demanding another round to prove that he hadn’t fallen or make me fall down as well.
I shifted the moment I got outside, going into the forest. The second part of the duel was that we had to shift, hunt an animal and bring it back to the elders within fifteen minutes. It was to show that we were strong and able to use time to our advantage in any war. It was one of the requirements needed to be the alpha of the pack as he was going to be the leader of any war that the pack was going to be involved in.
He had to show that he had the strength, wisdom and charisma needed to give victory for the pack. As the loser, I knew that Tyrex would have to compulsorily wait for five minutes before he could run out of the room and dash for the hunt but I couldn’t because of that slow down my pace and think that I had enough time on my hands to be lazy with the hunt. I wanted to get the animal back to the elders within five minutes, even before Tyrex had the time to set out for the hunt.
I wanted to see the hope snuffed out of his eyes before he tried making that attempt. I didn’t hate Tyrex, after all it was just a competition and there was bound to be one winner and a loser but I was determined to make Tyrex that loser so I could get back at Fredo for daring to hate my father and pick on him. I had to win to salvage my father’s pride and Tyrex crumbling down to a shatter was a means to having everything that I desired with winning the duel. I couldn’t imagine how much scorn my father would suffer in the hands of Fedro if I should lose on the position of becoming an alpha.
I couldn’t allow that. I had a lot to protect. With that running through my head, my legs moved faster and I sped into the forest like my legs depended on it, which it did.
Tyrex was just a scapegoat for me to become better and powerful in the pack. I couldn’t imagine the shame that he would have to suffer while being there in the presence of the elders knowing that they were thinking of him as a loser. I was glad that I wasn’t the one who had been struck down and had to wait for five minutes. I could picture already the sneer that was going to be on Jack’s face as he stared at Tyrex in the room back there and I almost felt pity for my opponent.
I came to a stop, my wolf jaws curling to a smile as I saw a deer moving before me. What blessed luck! I was almost convinced that the universe was working on my behalf if not that I had suffered a lot of losses back in the days with all the unplanned and unwanted misfortunes that it had always thrown our way.
I took a step back, flicking my tail in excitement, my tongue wagging out in anticipation of the kill and was about to run and grab at the neck of the deer with my teeth when two wolves suddenly burst out of nowhere and charged at me.
I hissed. I should have known that the universe wouldn’t be so kind to leave me with the deer and make me get it in such an easy manner, certainly not after the stress it had made me go through. It seemed like it wasn’t done with making me go through another.
I sniffed the air to know who the wolves were and chuckled to myself. Those cunning elders. They hadn’t told us of this part of the hunt but I could imagine why they had done it. This could be only to know how we were going to coordinate ourselves as an alpha if we were faced with an unexpected encounter when we were about to get to our goals.
They had intentionally placed the wolves here, giving them an instruction to trail us and attack when we had found our game. I knew that it was five minutes that I left already and Tyrex would have set out on the hunt as well. I wondered if he would have moved far into the forest as I had and be dealing with the wolves that were instructed to delay him.
I didn’t think so. I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think that he would have moved that far into the forest and found a game yet. At the very least, he would be free from the stares and sneers of the people in the room.
I had to dispose the wolves that were nothing but distraction quickly. I had to be out of here with a game before Tyrex found his footing. It would be a colossal mistake on my part to assume that Tyrex would be slow because he had a drawback. I had won over him in the duel and I had to win him in the hunt to call it a victory. I was tired already and couldn’t wait to have the contest done with.
If Tyrex wins this round, then that meant that there is a draw and we would have to deal with another stage for the elders to determine who the winner was. I was done with the game in my mind and I couldn’t wait for it to be official as well.
I could sense that these were young wolves and that was a warning from the elders not to harm them. That was also part of the test. We had to find a way to get what we wanted without necessarily killing our enemies.
I narrowed my eyes at them and snarled, baring my teeth at them and daring them to come at me. I loved them. They didn’t waste time and charged at me. As I suspected, they were young wolves and weren’t as strong as I that they wouldn’t be.
I didn’t know if the elders underestimated me or they had overestimated the wolves. They were way much weaker than what I was already used to fighting. I had fought with stronger animals than they were without batting an eyelash. I chuckled as I flung the wolves away one after the other, ignoring their yelp as they crashed on their side to the floor. If only the elders had asked for resume before this duel – if only that was one of our tradition – they wouldn’t have done this, bothering to set weak and young wolves to bother me and these poor wolves wouldn’t need to suffer the way they were at the moment.
I would have told them if they had bothered to ask of how I had fought with the dark wizard, fought for my life and to protect my family in the island of Gayalluc and over the sea of death. I would have narrated to them of how I had fought alongside the vampires to conquer and chase off an enemy. If only they knew that I had more experience (physical and supernatural) than the average wolf in the pack, they wouldn’t have gone through this stress of duelling to choose an alpha. Maybe they would have given me the the title already without going through any formality.
I doubted that they would. They didn’t know of the dark wizard, the vampires and all the other adventures that I had gone through. They assumed that I had only been fighting with the humans in their world and a typical werewolf didn’t think anything good of the human world. Their disdain of the human world was going to be the end of them. I really had a lot of work to do when I become the alpha. I wouldn’t let them continue with this throwback mindset. It wasn’t going to help the race in the long run.
I wondered if Fredo didn’t like dad because of his involvement in the human world. He was a military officer in their world and had also gotten married to a human female after the death of our mum. That had to be it. That had to be the reason Fredo didn’t like dad and preferred Tyrex to be the next alpha instead of me.
Tyrien, after all, had little involvement in the world of the humans and his mate was a werewolf. I wondered what Fredo would think of me if he found out that I had acted like dad as well and gotten mated to a human female. I could see him jumping off the handle and throwing a fit if he realized that the Luna of the pack was going to be a human.
I had already won this so I had no doubt that she was going to be the Luna of the pack. Fredo could go and hang himself if he wasn’t fine with having Mia as his queen.
I snorted at the wolves groaning in pain and walked over them, sidestepping them to look for the deer that I had found earlier.
Poor souls. I shook my head at them. If only they had asked well of who they were asked to delay, they would have thought well of the offers the elders had made to them before accepting it. I looked at them, noted to myself that they were going to be fine before moving on. I hadn’t hurt them but only twisted their legs and they would be fine soon but not before I was gone from their midst. If they were young and weren’t used to battles and wounds yet, I doubted that they would have built up the power needed to heal quickly. I guess asking them to launch an attack on me in this duel was their initiation into the pack army. They couldn’t have found for them a more ridiculous assignment.
I noticed the deer lurking around the bushes, its eyes wide open with fear. I grinned, my teeth and eyes widened into a smile as I locked eyes with it. I jumped quickly, giving it no opportunity to run and sank my teeth into its neck.
I sighed with satisfaction as it weakened and went down with a soft thud, the life going out of it. I shifted into my human form, picked the dead animal on my neck and walked back home without caring that I was naked.
I walked back home to where the elders were, grinning as I dropped the animal on the ground and noticed that Tyrex wasn’t back yet. It was enough for me to be happy when I realized that I had won the duel with Tyrex’s absence but Fredo’s annoyed glare as he stared at me and the meat I had dropped on the ground was enough to make me glad that I had won. He kept looking at the door as if it was going to change anything if Tyrex should walk in with his meat.
I had already won and there was nothing anyone could do about that, not even Fredo’s heated glances could change anything. I looked at the faces of the others and they seemed happy.
Dad looked proud, my brothers seemed relieved, the elders except Fredo looked happy and even Tyrien looked resigned. I shook my head at Fredo. If Tyrien, Tyrex’s father could look as calm as he did at his son’s loss, I wondered what Fredo’s problem was that he was determined to hate me.