The Luna Cure

FIFTY-FOUR

A man stepped out from the mass of tall, black-clad men. Man wasn't even the proper term to describe him. At least a foot shorter than Dante, with a blemish above his eyebrow that was clearly due to a popped zit, and gangly, as if he were growing faster than he could handle. Wide eyes, although the hard set of his mouth showed that he was trying to drown the fear.

Magnus's smile grew wider somehow, and his hand extended to introduce the boy.

"Holy shit. Holy fucking shit."

I was sure I understood what was going on, but I really, really didn't want to. This kid was no older than fifteen. There was no way.

I need Shane to confirm it. "What? What's happening?"

"That's his Beta. The challenger. Magnus brought a fucking teenager for Andrew to kill. Shit."

There was no way—for anyone other than Magnus.

"He won't kill him, right?" My arms crossed to hug myself. Andrew seemed good, and no way Dante would allow his Beta to kill a kid. That would be really, really bad.

Clearly, these sentiments were shared down on the field, as Dante, Andrew, and Justin all clearly started speaking to Magnus rapidly. Dante especially looked enraged, pointing a long finger at Magnus and then at the boy.

Andrew was shaking his head, but like a good Beta, he let Dante do the arguing.

Magnus looked very pleased with the response, those yellow eyes lighting up with humor.

"Okay, so Dante obviously is opposing this. He basically said no child is going to fight to the death on his pack ground, and Justin is being his crony and going along with it. Dante is mad, like I can't even try and mock that voice for you—well, have you two fought, like big fight yet? Maybe you already know this tone."

Her stupid comment flew right over me as Magnus smugly responded, so fast that I didn't care to try and read his lips. "What did Magnus say?"

"He said he didn't realize his Beta would scare the competition so much." Magnus spoke more, and Shane was clearly trying to listen first, summarize later. "Okay, so Magnus said Dante, as Prince, should know better than anyone else that the challenge must be respected regardless of age or anything, and he's basically challenging Dante to break werewolf tradition. Uh, like, longtime werewolf tradition."

Dante shook his head, looking pissed as all hell, but gestured a hand to the other side of the raised fighting arena, which took up an enormous expanse of the yard.

Magnus nodded, turned his head to the boy, gave him a quick 'Go,' and then the rest of his posse left to where Dante had motioned towards. This left Magnus on one side with Dante, Justin, and Andrew opposite him, with a few more of Dante's pack members scattered on the yard behind him.

Dante then turned his head to his two closest men, nodded at them, and just as quickly as the other group, Andrew and Justin made their way to the other side of the fighting arena, speaking intensely as they went.

Now, only the two Alphas were left, and the air around them seemed to crackle with even more energy than it had when everyone else was around them.

"Goddess. This is way more exciting than it usually is." Shane commented, shaking her head.

This wasn't exciting, this was awful. That kid was going to get beat hard, maybe even killed—but there's no way Andrew would kill a kid, right?—and things between Dante and Magnus didn't look nice.

My thoughts were kept from roaming any further as Magnus spoke again, that glint of humor in his eye replaced with a poorly-covered rage.

He seemed to be holding back a snarl as he spoke, and my bones chilled the longer he spoke.