*****
I lifted my hand to meet Richard's halfway and we gave each other a firm handshake.
"Good luck," he said.
Before heading out to the clearing, I had declined breakfast from Karabo's mom – I don't like eating before I fight – and then received an hour-long call from Ben to listen to him whine about not joining me on this 'trip' so he could see Paige again. It was crazy that he even had that much to say without actually saying anything, the call was draining and I felt sorry for how whipped Ben seemed... Was I like that too? Nah. Though, I wanted to get the fight over with so Karabo and I could meet at whichever pack and never be this far apart again.
"You better not disappoint, Richard," I replied.
He laughed as we stepped back slightly and I furrowed my brows feeling strange. I looked at my hand while snapping my fingers trying to create a flame but chuckled to myself when nothing happened. So he found a witch and they were making this a spell-free fight. I almost felt proud he thought to take that precaution, especially because witches in this part of the world were hard to find. They hid from everyone because they feared being taken advantage of.
"Begin." I glanced over at Jayden's mother as she spoke.
Most of the pack wouldn't get to see the fight, did not even know about it but she was their Luna, after all. The elders from earlier were also watching a distance away from me and Richard.
I dodged Richard's swift tackle and turned as he stumbled past me to kick him in his back. He fell onto his knees but was barely on the ground for a second before getting back up. Still, I heard snickers from some of the people watching us.
"You have to do better than that," I muttered.
"Just making sure you're focused, Alpha," he replied straightening up.
I watched him as he turned to me. It would be just like training with Ashton, wouldn't it? Except more brutal, hopefully.
I decided to try and get the fight over with as quickly as I could and launched at him with full force, he didn't seem to expect a strong attack so soon into the fight and went down easily. I heard him gasp as he landed on his back with me on top of him but didn't give him time to breathe before I began throwing punches into either side of his face.
Needing to be assured that he was strong enough to handle the responsibility we were trying to give to him, I did not plan on going easy on him and was putting all my strength and speed into the punches, he could not seem to keep up or get me off of him. I found that to be quite a problem, I had gotten the upper hand on him so easily.
I jumped back as my eyes suddenly stung with pain when a bright light flashed into them. Immediately after I had moved from Richard, I felt his foot slam into my stomach. As the force sent me falling back, I grabbed his ankle, my eyes still shut and threw him aside with as much force as I could while I fell onto my back. I heard him smash into something across the clearing and rubbed my eyes as I climbed back onto my feet but even after I opened them, I couldn't see clearly. Around me, behind a white cloud masking most of my vision, all I could see was the silhouette of the top of the forest trees against the sky. I couldn't make out any details, could not see where the elders were seated, couldn't even see my hands right in front of my face.
Did he use magic? They didn't have magic. Did someone else? The fight was only supposed to be the two of us. No. I knew he was much too proud to cheat. So how...? What did he do to my eyes?
It didn't really matter. I had practically lost my sight. I almost laughed at myself.
That's what you get for running straight into a fight like that, Eli.
I stood still focusing on Richard's scent and listening to his movements. It sounded like he was still across the clearing, recovering from being thrown. I decided shifting would be best because my wolf would be much better at hearing him and sniffing him out. I shifted quickly, still my eyes didn't clear. Richard groaned lightly and I followed the sound, sprinting towards him. My head ramming into his stomach made it clear he was still human, he must not have noticed that I had shifted, it was an incredible advantage because I was undoubtedly way stronger than he in his human form. He tried to block as I went to bite him and I ended up with his arm in my mouth. I broke it immediately, figuring that it would not be a good idea to attempt to rip his arm off; I did not want to hurt him that badly. He let out a shout as he forcefully kicked his knee into my side but I didn't let go. He began to shift and slipped his arm from my mouth easily as his bones broke and morphed. I attached him again while he shifted trying to find his arm again, but something hit against my eye making me wince back as pain shot through my head.
What is that? It felt cold. A jewel. That's it!
I stumbled back as if confused or hurt, baiting him and winced as his teeth sunk through my side, I knew where the arm was now, but wasn't interested in it. We tussled for a bit as I tried to fight out of his jaw and eventually did so, he must have thought I would immediately jump at him once free because he immediately pounced to dodge me. I heard him pause for a moment, probably surprised that I had not attacked, and then he must have figured he could use my blinded confusion to attack me again. I heard him dive back at me and moved just slightly so his teeth ended up sinking into my shoulder instead of my side. Turning my head, I brushed my snout against his neck to bite at the jewel and it from his neck, I bit back a howl when I felt him rip the flesh from my shoulder. I dodged his teeth assuming he would go for my neck and sprinted away from him towards where I could smell the supplies we'd brought with, it was easy to create distance as his arm was still injured and I shifted before throwing on a pair of shorts we had kept ready.
Clutching the jewel, I crushed it in my hand and my eyes cleared instantly. I tried to create a flame again but still couldn't use my own magic. His witch probably made the pendant for him, it had to be a quick fix to not being able to use magic himself. Oh well, at least I'd gotten that out of the way and was no longer blinded.
Being distracted by trying to figure out what was going on cost me the chance to attack Richard's injured wolf and I didn't notice that he shifted back until I felt his foot smash into my leg resulting in a sickening crack. I was momentarily surprised by how fast he could actually be in human form but brushed that away to grab his injured arm and twist it hearing it break again as it had begun to heal.
He cried out but used his other arm to punch me in the face and stumbled away from me once I let him go. I cursed climbing onto my right leg as the left was broken. It would heal completely in about an hour, I just had to make sure he didn't get another clear shot of it.
I gave a chuckle suddenly feeling like the Karate Kid and Richard stared at me weirdly, I guess he quickly realised what I was thinking as he glanced down at my leg because he rolled his eyes with a slight smile and launched back at me.
We fought back and forth, shifting and making each other bleed and I was incredibly surprised by the fight he was putting up, especially since I had to keep using more of my strength and thinking before I moved because he always had something planned.
I could tell that he was exhausted though, and though I was too I knew I could keep up for a few hours if needed. I guess he knew he wouldn't be able to, so he tried to end it by putting all his energy into one final head-on attack. It would have worked if I hadn't expected it. I led him on letting him use all his energy and purposely getting punched really hard in the process to make him think he was winning so he could keep going. I didn't do much back and he sent me falling onto my back with his last punch before he climbed onto me and began trying to knock me out with weaker blows. I easily rolled us over and returned all the blows he had just given me until he stopped moving and I could tell he was barely even conscious anymore. I stopped before even hearing Jayden's mother call for us to end the fight.
Feeling quite relieved, I let myself fall off of him landing painfully on my back. My leg still hurt, it had not healed all the way yet but was definitely not healing properly. From what I had seen, neither was Richard's arm.
"Good work," I mumbled sliding my hand along the grass for him to fist-bump because I was too drained to lift it.
"You won," he muttered covering his face with his good hand. I bumped his elbow anyway and he laughed, "Come on."
We pushed ourselves off the ground, him making sure to use just one arm before he wiped the blood from his already healed cheek. He looked like a mess in his ripped up clothing covered in bloodstains, grass and dirt. I probably looked the same.
"Good job." I raised my eyebrows when Matthew said that, surprised that he did not seem to be being hostile at the moment. I looked at Richard expecting him to be just as surprised but his eyes were narrowed in suspicion as he stared back at Matthew. The elder hadn't moved from his seat. "Ready, Eli?"
My head snapped back towards him. Ready? For what?
I looked behind me feeling a stronger presence than any of the people in front of me and internally cursed seeing an Alpha. I didn't know where he was from but knew why he was there. I should have known... They knew I would be pretty beat after the fight and they were going to make me defend our joint pack immediately afterwards, against an Alpha from another pack.
"You are?" I asked making it come across as if I was unfazed by his arrival.
"Goliath's Alpha, Trevor," Richard answered me.
"What is this?" I heard Karabo's mother speak. No one replied.
The Alpha Karabo let go back when his pack was attacked... I looked at Richard trying to hide my surprise but found him glaring at Matthew. Did Matthew have something to do with that attack? This was messed up. Richard didn't seem surprised... Did he know? If he knew, Karabo probably knew and maybe they were planning on dealing with him differently. Is that why he was mad at me? Or was he extra mad because of that and my not talking to him about it...?
Agh. I don't have time to be thinking about why he's mad right now!
"Begin." Matthew sounded smug.
I stepped aside as Trevor came sprinting at me. Richard quickly moved away from us and I turned to face Trevor as he began his attack again. I didn't run or try to dodge again; I took his punches to deliver some of my own. He was visibly less fatigued than I was, but I wasn't going to back down and I could not lose this fight.
He must have watched my fight with Richard, because he had gone straight for my leg and every other weak spot I still had healing from that fight.
It reminded me of Nicholas, I felt weak and was trying to convince myself I wasn't and that I could take him. I was sluggish and slow, landing fewer blows on him and getting more from him.
I still couldn't use any magic; it would have been a great advantage at the moment since most werewolves were trained for close combat.
I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't see it coming when he tripped me and I slammed onto my back on the ground, knocked out of breath as I bit back a groan in an attempt to hide how much pain I was in. I stared at the sky trying to catch my breath. I could not lose. I never lost and I really could not at that moment. Karabo was still counting on me to fix the mess I created. Or he created? Since the trouble with Trevor seemed like a mess they had before I arrived at their pack... But it had been his mess to fix.
It didn't matter now. I had to figure out how to kill the guy or lose half our pack.
*****