The Forsaken Mate

Chapter Twenty- Two.

“And I don’t even know how I survive, no I don’t even know if I’m alive.”

I have no idea how long I’d been in this hell hole; but I knew that I needed to get out soon. Antonov as I had found out was his name, had been running out of punishments every time I refused to fight or disobeyed and not only was he running out of new ways to hurt me, but he was also losing control of the other wolves the longer I was here.

Scars littered my body from the silver they used on me regularly but lately I had noticed that the effects of silver had begun to fade; I was becoming more tolerant of the damned stuff.  Occasionally I caught chatter through the pack link but I wasn’t immune to the silver enough to communicate with them.

I had become thin though, so thin that bones poked out of my skin and I knew that I would probably look like death warmed over. The only way I’d been able to survive was because of the single guard who snuck me food when he could; he hated the hunters as much as I did for some reason.

The cranking of gears snapped me out of my thoughts and my tail twitched in annoyance; that’s all this situation was to me now, an annoyance.

I could hear the faint buzz of the electric prongs they used to herd us out of the cages and I growled when they stick the prong into my cage. I snapped at him and sidestepped the stick; after all, it only reached so far.

Soon enough my cage was surrounded by hunters with electronic prongs and I was forced to move forward into the arena or face being burnt to a crisp from the inside out; I’d already been electrocuted five times and each time was enough to make me black out.

I growled and bared my teeth at the nearest hunter and charged him, snapping my teeth and stopping just before the bars and cattle prod. He jolted back, his face white with terror and I smirked at him; a truly terrifying thing as a wolf.

“Get her into the ring!” Antonov yelled as they poked me with the prongs; voltage turned down. It hurt though; boy did it hurt. Eventually they got me into the ring, probably with many scorch marks marring my coat.

The moment the gates shut the crowd fell silent and I knew that I was meant to die today; too bad I wouldn’t, not today. I walked around the ring with my head held high, eyeing the people above like the vermin they were; after all, they’d come to watch innocent wolves die and I wouldn’t ever condone that.

The gates around the arena, under the raised seats slowly opened with a groan. Slowly, one by one, four huge wolves prowled out, eyeing me like a juicy piece of meat. They were all bigger than me and much better fed; each was built like a tank and I knew I was in for the fight of my life.

They took their time, circling me, watching me, assessing me. All my senses were strained and I stood ready to pounce in the centre of the circle, watching as the circled me with furious blue eyes. I challenged them, daring them to make their move; for it would end in their demise, that I was sure of.

I watched as the muscles of the wolf in front of me tensed and I ducked just as a giant body flew over my head, snapping its jaws where my head had just been.

I sidestepped the next wolf and ducked under the third, moving out of the fray. These wolves were obviously driven by the thought of blood, so focused on it that they would do anything to get it; they were mad and it could be the one thing that saved me.

As they fought between themselves for a second I took the chance and jumped on the back of the nearest one, wrapping my jaws around his neck. This put me at a disadvantage though, as my body was unbalanced and he used that against me, bucking me off him and into the fray of claws and teeth.