Page 12 of The Alpha's Temptation

CHAPTER 8

LIVIA

When I entered the arena,the green thicket of jungle from the previous match slowly disintegrated around me, leaving nothing but blood and a single corpse on the sandy ground. Spectators cheered on the victor as he departed through an exit gate to the south.

I stepped over the dead wolf, my heart pounding inside my chest.

They called these games Mortal Combat for a reason.

Sure, competitors could surrender, but most didn’t. At least, that’s what I heard.

The entrance gate shut behind me, and my stomach twisted into knots. Training and competing were two different sports altogether. There was no feeling equivalent to stepping into an arena with someone else who had a similar skill level as me, knowing that he, or she, was going to try to kill me.

Was this what they did back on Earth? Fought to the death?

“Next up!” the announcer roared, his voice traveling throughout the arena through his crystal tablet. “Fighting out of Dreadmire, Livia from Whitecrown Pack! She’s the daughter of the pack’s beta.”

I swallowed hard and continued toward my designated spot, the side of the arena where the previous victor had left, clasping my hands to keep them from twitching. In the band of my thigh strap, I had stuffed a silver dagger this morning.

Usually, shifters in the Dreadmire region were severely allergic to silver, but it didn’t bother me. I just had to hope–no,prayto Lycos–that whoever my opponent was, he hailed from my region too.

Because… Caelan and Dad were right. I couldn’t shift.

Spectators screamed and shouted around me, the sound filling my ears with fear.I couldn’t shift.For the first time in my entire life, those words seemed to finally set in. I couldn’t shift, and I’d entered myself into the Mortal Combat games.

Why was I here? What was I doing? If that lower-ranked wolf could shift and still died, what was going to happen to me? And who was I going to fight? It had to be a beta wolf or stronger… maybe even an alpha.

“Also fighting out of Dreadmire,” the announcer said, waiting for the cheering to start, “Elijah from the Whispering Pines Pack. He is the son of the alpha!”

When Elijah, the man who I had been flirting with last night, walked through the arena gates, everything seemed to slow. My stomach dropped, and bile burned the back of my throat. Him? I was fighting him?

I wiped my clammy hands on my bare thighs. How was I going to defeat the son of an alpha? And not just any alpha… but our enemy. What was I doing here? Why had I signed up? Did I really want to spite Caelan that much?

Elijah stretched his arms out to the audience in full confidence, tossing them one of his handsome smirks, and everyone cheered, louder than they had cheered for me. They wanted him to win.

He was the fan favorite. And I was a nobody.

“This should be a good one,” the announcer said. “These packs are sworn enemies!”

Once Elijah’s eyes finally found mine, there was a slight pause in his step, but he continued forward, heading to his designated area. I stared across the arena as it transformed from a sandy landscape into an open field with tall grass and no trees for cover.

Fuck. Fuck, I am screwed!

“Place your bets now!” the announcer shouted. “We will start momentarily.”

Elijah stared at me from across the arena, and I looked back, my heart racing inside my chest, probably so loud that he could hear it. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. How was I… how was I going to kill him?

There was no way that he would surrender, so I would. But I had to fight first, or else I’d embarrass my entire pack. I was already a disappointment because I couldn’t shift, and if I surrendered now, before the fight even started, it’d get so much worse.

“Who’s ready for another fight in the Mortal Combat games?!”

While I couldn’t see them, I could hear the crowd going wild. Elijah shifted into his ginormous wolf and howled to the moons above. I swallowed hard and waited for the announcer to officially start.

But he waited.

Everyone waited.

For me. To shift.

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