Rise of the Makoce Pack

Chapter 7. Steel and Blood

With that declaration most backed away leaving room for those who decided that today would be the day of their glory. Three men and a woman stood straight backed and stared at her with various looks of loathing and disgust. Casey looked over these challengers and shook her head at them as they puffed out their chests and tried to make themselves look bigger. "It's gonna be a long day, Fletcher, but remember what I told you. Only interfere if they try to pull any stunts, I'm in no mood for games this morning." Fletcher nodded at her order and stood just off to the side right at the area where disagreements and issues were fought out. The dirt was packed here, allowing for very little grass to be able to grow with the earth constantly being torn up by claws. As her challengers marched to the fighting arena Casey watched with an observant eye looking for anything that might give her an advantage. She joined them on the other side and clenched her fists, setting her jaw tight and looking positively murderous. "Challengers identify yourselves and prepare to fight." The woman stepped forward first apparently eager to itch the scratch of the fight. I could see her eyes fading from blue to to amber as her wolf neared the surface, I watched as the woman attractively spat on the ground and curled her hands into fists. She sneered as she answered my demand for identification. "Alpha, I am Samantha Graves, daughter of William Graves, he was a former beta to your father. I challenge you for the Alpha title with the belief that if it weren't for your family, my father would have never died. I am here to defend his honor and take what is rightfully mine." I nodded at her claim, she was certainly a bit reaching since a beta's daughter would have no more claim on the title than I originally had. "Funny how things work,huh?" I said to Chay. She parted her feet and assumed a battle stance, lowering her body close to the ground, feeling her center of gravity settle. I growled as my wolf did not appreciate her arrogance and bristled at her disregard for my authority.

I quickly shifted and charged, I had noticed earlier that Samantha limped a bit when she walked, she was hurt. "Foolish girl wants to fight despite injury, that will be the end of her," Chayton promised. Samantha leapt over my charging body and I skidded to a halt as she landed less than gracefully behind me, I quickly side stepped her and slashed at her shoulder, distracting her from my real goal. Her leg. As she snarled at me, I leaned low and wrapped my jaws around her lower right back leg. The onlookers heard a resounding crack as I broke her leg. Spitting blood and fur, I stepped back a bit as she yelped and licked at her leg. The halt in action had some of the waiting fighters edging towards the arena. I whipped my head at them and snarled, "Which of you hard headed mutts wants to die right now?!" Fletcher eased his way over and tried to break the tension, if he didn't defuse the situation there would be a brawl. The eager males snapped their jaws and extended their teeth into fangs, their wolves were pushing hard against the surface desperately trying to feed the blood lust. Fletcher pushed them back away from the edge of the arena and glared at them. I could tell he was a little nervous and I knew that the males could smell it. Samantha was still licking her wounds, it seems she didn't have much fight in her after all. Just as I turned my gaze from Samantha, all hell broke loose.

I watched in horror as the men lost total control of their wolves and charged into the arena shifting in mid air. Samantha's torn shoulder and broken leg drew them to the blood and as the beasts they were they attacked Samantha with a ferocity I could not believe. I raced towards the poor girl,Fletcher hot on my heels, his tawny wolf booking it towards the fight, if we didn't act fast those men would tear her apart.

I leapt into the brawl and snapped my jaws in their faces, but they didn't care, all they could see was the blood on the ground and the vulnerable she wolf injured and unable to defend herself. I yanked one by the scruff of his black coat pulling him off of Samantha's back, another was snapping at her other shoulder, determined to strip it of all its meat. Fletcher was an absolute demon as he snarled and tore through the men ganging up on the poor girl. One of the males grabbed Fletcher by his tail and pulled hard, sending him yelping a few feet away. I charged again at a particularly ferocious male who was close to tearing out the throat of Samantha. I grabbed hold of his back leg and broke it above the knee, distracting him just enough that Sam was able to break free of his grasp. She looked at me in horror, her eyes begging me for mercy. It was a no brainer really, I barked urgently at a young man near the front of crowd, "Xavier get her out of here now, Doctor Matthews will be waiting for her!" The Alpha command bit through the boys fear, he quickly nodded and ran to help Samantha get to the basement. Fletcher was busy taking one the three males, they were circling each other looking for an opening, a weakness to exploit. Out of no where a howl rang out and a man came charging into the arena from the crowd. He was tall and broad, obviously a warrior type from the looks of him and he stood there growling at all of us. At that point I had no idea if he was on our side or if he had given into the blood lust, because at this point the blood was everywhere. I'm sure some of that was mine too, but it didn't matter, it seemed as if some of the pack had too much pent up anger and pent up frustrations, sparking the blood lust to remarkable heights. He howled a battle cry and the crowd sank back clearly fearful of the heightened violence.

He shifted into his tan wolf and had an insane look about his forest green eyes that looked like the definition of a mad man. I had no time to think as he plowed into the side of my body with all of his weight. I lost my breath as I landed roughly on the ground. As soon as I got back on my feet, he was on me again, this time dragging me by my leg as he pulled me towards the center of the arena. The pain in my leg from him dragging me by my already broken leg made me almost pass out. Black spots danced across my vision and I frantically shook my head, trying desperately to find a way to stop myself from giving in. I happened to shift just a bit to get an eyeful of the fight Fletcher had on his hands, three on one was not very fair. Doable for an experienced fighter,but still difficult since he wasn't dealing with your average opponent. These wolves were out for blood and there was no way they would be denied.