RUNT

Earning respect...

Serenity

Oh my Goddess, pancakes are great. My wolf purrs as I lick my lips still tasting the sweet treat.

I don’t really like this. The arena is huge, people sat throughout the stone carved stands all staring down at me expectantly. This is more attention than I am even remotely comfortable with. Taking a shaky breath in I glance at the two women, they are tall, fit but not muscular. I know I can take a hit and I am most likely faster than either of them, I have been running for my life for years and these girls probably don’t run regularly. I have fought to survive against rouges, these two shouldn’t be to bad.

If only I could get over my nerves.

My palms are sweating and I can feel muscles twitching with need to hide. I don’t see my mates and a sharp pain shoots through me, longing and fear. What if they are mad about me accepting this challenge? Did they not think I could win?

You need to prove yourself though. My wolf snaps. They can't take our mates away!

Why? Everything gets taken away from us.

They belong to us! My wolf roars in my head and I shudder. We will win.

I just shrug to myself as I glance over at my opponents who are shamelessly stripping themselves down, showing every bit of themselves to the gathered pack members. The two strut around for a moment showing off their tanned skin and smooth curves, the scent of arousal hits me and I gag. This is to much.

Fake Luna one, who I learned is called Cali, steps to the edge of the arena and makes eye contact with someone behind me, blowing a kiss and giving a wink she shouts, “Don’t worry babies, your true Lunas will win today.”

I step into the field and groan as a small kid approaches me. “Miss? I brought you some water and a towel… from the Alphas.”

“Thanks..” I mumble as I crack the bottle open, giving it a wary sniff beforehand.

I stifle a growl as the bitter scent fills my nostrils but I take a drink anyways, its just a mild sedative. It burns the back of my throat as I register the wolfs bane as well. They don’t want me to win. I frown as I again look around for my mates but fail to spot them.

It is useless to try to contact them now, the drugs have blurred our link. Did I come here only to die? Perhaps, but at least I escaped my pack.

“Shift.” A voice announces loudly.

Glancing over I see the two females shift painfully into two matching fluffy white wolves. The stand tall, proud, smug even. I sigh but don’t bother to undress instead I instantly shift into my tiny gray wolf and slip from the oversized garments. I am only a third the females size after all.

My head spins for a moment and I try to push the drugs from my system but fail. This wasn’t going to be a good fight, my body feels heavy. I am alone, but then I have almost always been alone. I stumble forward a bit before the voices start up.

“That is her wolf?”

“What a joke!”

“Those two are going to slaughter that tiny pup.”

I however keep my eyes on the two white wolves who are pacing back and forth waiting for the signal. I don’t move even when the horn sounds, even when the two white wolves begin to charge. I dig my paws into the dirt as one of the two leaps towards me while the other goes low.

Teeth snap and fur flies in a flurry of movement. I know I am wounded but it doesn’t matter as my teeth sink into my leaping attackers neck, my back paws kicking the lower one in the face as claws dig into fur. The warm iron tinged fluid spills from my mouth as I give a violent shake causing more blood to pour out before I let go and dart out of range.

My tail is twisted at a strange angle and I have blood in my eyes but I am still standing which is more than I can say for my first attacker who lay whimpering in a puddle of her own blood. I try to remove fur from my mouth but just end up gagging instead as the second wolf regains her footing, her muzzle and eyes covered in tiny slices from my claws.

She growls at me but I don’t go to move. I might have blinded her. She goes to leap and misses by a good foot before she starts to pace again. Her fur is tinged pink from blood and she looks furious. Her claws rake down my side but I don’t go to move, instead letting her get close.

Teeth snap before my ear is grabbed, hard. I can feel the flesh tear but I remain still, looking around once more for my mates and again finding nothing. Without them here this is pointless. I just have survival.

The white wolf goes for my neck but this time I twist out of her jaw and dig all four paws into her belly, spilling blood everywhere as I open a massive wound. She crumples, falling to the side with a resonating thud.

Surprise rings out through the arena before turning to cheers but I don’t care. My head hurts, my mouth is dry and my wounds arent healing like they should. I register the horn sounding, indicating the battle is over and as people begin to come down from the stands all I can do is growl loudly.

I hear footsteps getting closer and I take off, panic setting in. My mates didn’t come, I was poisoned by their pack, and I am surrounded by strangers. I smack into a stone archway as I flee the arena and I know I broke something but I just keep running until I am away from everyone. I climb a large tree and shift back just as my vision goes black.

Pain is the last thing I feel before nothingness overtakes me.

Gabriel

The second horn sounds and I look over at my asshole brother. He had pulled us from the arena after one of our two guests called themselves our true Lunas. He was upset but I had still wanted to be there to support our little mate.

“Christian, we should go check on her..” I grumble, feeling irritated.

Christian looks up at me and his eyes are filled with sadness, “I can't… she isn't…”.

“What?” I snap, my brother never acts like this.

Tears fill his red eyes as he whimpers. “I can’t feel her..”

Shit. He's right. I don’t feel her through our link.

“Maybe she is just unconscious..” I try to assure him as I pull us both out the door and towards the arena.

If she had died we would have felt it, right?

Yep, she is still alive. My wolf states and I relax slightly but increase our pace.

I can hear voices filled with both confusion and concern as we pass through the archway. Christian stops but I hurry down to the field only to be greeted by our pack doctors loading up two white wolves. I look around expecting to see our mate but she is nowhere to be seen.

The clothes we lent her lay in a pile next to a neatly folded towel and half a bottle of water, blood stains the field. It must have been quite the fight.

“Alpha Gabriel, she won.” Scion pats me on the shoulder with a smile.

“Where is she?”

“Um..” our beta lowers his head and rubs the back of his neck. “She was acting…odd. When the fight ended she got aggressive then took off running. I thought she had run to you two.”

Christian walks up beside me and scoops up her clothes, but when he touches the water bottle he drops it immediately with a hiss. I turn to him looking for an explanation but he just growls. Scion shrugs and goes to grab the bottle as well.

“Don’t touch it!” Christian roars and suddenly the arena is quiet. “Its poisoned.”

“What?” I gasp, our mate was poisoned.

“Wolfs bane…” Christian growls out as his eyes flash black.

“Which way did she go?” I demand from Scion who just points to the archway dumbfounded.

Christian stomps away but stops at the arch and wipes some blood from the stone. His brow furrows as he takes a sniff and shifts, shredding his  clothes as he does. His massive silver wolf glares back at me before taking off at full speed.

“Well shit… somebody is going to pay for this.” I announce loudly.

‘I will find our mate. You find who did this.’ I hear Christian through the link, his voice a bit desperate.

‘Bring her back to us.’ I respond firmly. If she is nearby he will find her.

I look over the remaining pack members and frown. “Our Luna has been poisoned. I need to know what happened to her. Who gave her the water?”

There is a lot of mumbling and heads being bowed before I feel a small hand tug on my pants. Looking down I see one of the pack children with tears in his eyes, his pudgy cheeks flushed red. I force a smile as I bend down to his level.

“Hey kiddo, what’s wrong?”

He sniffles before full on crying, “I..I…I  gave her the water..”

“Can you tell me who gave it to you?” I try to keep my calm as to not scare him but I am livid.

“Some ladies.. they said the Alphas sent them for her….” The little boy whines as tears fall from his cheeks.

“Whoa there. Its okay little man.” I calmly say. “Did they say anything else?”

The boy shakes his head rapidly but then pulls something from his little pocket and hands it to me. “They gave me this..”

I uncurl my hand and look down at the cold metal ring in my hand with a frown. The tarnished ring was black in places, the blue gem at its center was cracked down the middle and there engraved in the side was my name. This is my fault.
I turn to Scion and force myself to do my job. “Send out the trackers. Find Kandi and Sienna… and whoever else they have recruited into their little hate group. Put them in the dungeon, I will deal with them later.”

Looking back down at the boy I sigh. “Thanks kid.”

“Will she be okay?” the boy whimpers.

“Why?”

He looks up, eyes sparkling. “She was so cool in that fight!”

I hear others agreeing with him before everyone starts to ask questions.

“Is she really our Luna?”

“Whose mate is she?”

“Why is she so small?”

I grunt, annoyed. “I will answer your questions, but can someone tell me something first? How hurt was she?”