Into the Arena

Chapter 16

When I finally woke up everything was suddenly dark, and colder. The fire had been put out, and if it weren't for my heightened vision I would have been completely blinded from the dark. The only light that shone was from the opening of the cave, which had been slightly filled with piles and piles of snow. Mostly likely the women trying to hide us from whoever was on the hunt.

Kaden... I know it's him. I swear I can almost feel his energy as he prowls around the Arenas grounds. If he's searching, I have to get out of here or these women are as good as dead.

I escaped my thoughts to try and observe my surroundings, I had been naked after shifting, but I was now laying in clothes that had previously been in my pack. And my stick of beef jerky was nestled next to my pack, where my head had previously laid. I could see Talia and Hadley asleep on the wall adjacent to me, and the other three girls were closer to the door.

Of course, nobody was guarding the entrance to the little cave. I get not wanting too, it's scary to be first in line in the case that you saw something. But it would be worse if we were ambushed while everyone was still sleeping.

I scowled as I glanced back over at Talia's sleeping form. She was supposed to be a head warrior, daughter of a high-ranking wolf. But she didn't have the sensibility to set up a guard rotation? Especially when she knows that there are males out looking, right now.

Being as quiet as possible, I tore open the package to my food and ate in silence, trying to hear for anything outside that could be suspicious. I needed to leave, basically immediately if I no longer wanted to endanger these girls. But if I left without eating even something small, I'm afraid I'll pass out again from lack of energy. I don't know how long I slept for, but hopefully it was enough that I'll be able to stay awake.... for the rest of the Arena.

Okay, if I tip toe out quietly, I can just dig my way through the snow, and hopefully that won't disturb their barrier.

The snow was covering at least half of the entryway, I felt bad for tearing it down. But also, if anybody came around and saw that, it would look so suspicious. It might even just be better to tear it down. My head snapped to my right when I heard small muffled sounds.

"How are you feeling?" Talia whispered as she quietly made her way over to my spot on the floor.

"Better, thank you for your help. How long has this been happening?" I whispered back, motioning towards the barrier.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared away. "After you passed out we heard a lot of howls. I think the men are out on the hunt, looking for the rest of us. I'm surprised the Alpha is in such a rush, honestly."

My eyes twitched towards her face and then immediately back towards the door, trying to look not suspicious, and very much failing.

"Why wouldn't he be in a rush? I can understand wanting to get all his affairs in order before the week is up."

Talia sighed, "I can see that too, but I wish they would just stop being so ruthless about it. It seems completely unnecessary. What they think we don't also want our mates? We do, we just don't want to die as a consequence that ours might not be here."

My eyes shifted downward, she had hit a chord. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"You know for sure that you don't have a mate in the camp?"

Talia shook her head, "I don't know for sure, when I was there the Alpha rejected me and then raced after his mate who was nearby, I guess." She shrugged. "After that me and a few other girls just ran for it, we didn't bother to wait and try to find any of the other males."