Chapter 37
Cheyenne’s POV
The next morning had gone as any other morning had. Jax and I, along with a few others, were down in the dining hall finishing up with breakfast. I had already mind linked him to tell him that his plan to draw the secret note leaving bitch out was in motion, along with the news about the first boat arriving today. He already had someone make up a list of the first wave of people to leave this place. They were lower on the ladder of status so less likely to be noticed that they were missing, least until the dust started to pile up anyways.
Jax stood up and cleared his throat, “Can I have everybody’s attention please?” Everybody went silent and were all staring at him now. “As you all know, I had my chance at a mate. Some of you know how that ended. Second chance mates for our kind is very rare, but I am here to tell you that it has in fact happened.”
Jax looked down at me and held out his hand for me to take. I took his hand and put a big smile on my face and stood up next to him. We stared at each other in the eyes for a moment before he turned back to the people in the dining hall.
“Alida is my second chance mate. Regardless of title or status, I do love her and if anybody shows her any disrespect, they will be dealt with accordingly.” Jax looked back at me and smiled.
We both knew what our smiles and looks meant but nobody else did. It just looked like 2 people who were happy with each other, when in reality I was picturing how I was going to kill the secret bitch. Koa and I were currently debating in my head if we should go slow and painful, or fast and mighty. Some of her ideas had me chuckling to myself.
Some people rolled their eyes and scuffed at the announcement, while others were whooping and hollering in approvement. Jax raised our intertwined hands and then we headed out towards the training grounds.
“So how long you think it’ll take before the bitch shows herself?” I chuckled to Jax once I knew the coast was clear.
“Time will only tell at this point. Let’s focus on getting the first round of people out of here for right now and then we’ll deal with that when the time comes.” He said nudging his shoulder into mine. It was really more his arm into my shoulder because of the height difference.
“Once everybody is on the grounds, send out the mind link for the others to evacuate. You do have someone down there to guide and help them right?” I asked quietly as to not be overheard.
“Relax, I got it all taken care of. Andy is going to get them out and onto the boat and then come back. She’s good at what she does. No need to worry.” He reassured me once again.
“Shit I didn’t tell Gunner what to look for so he knows they’re on our side!!!” I suddenly realized that one little but major detail was never discussed!
Jax just laughed, “Relax. I told you, it’s taken care of.”
“What? How?” I asked in shock.
“Andy and I took care of all that. With your secret stalker we didn’t want to take the risk of you knowing and her finding out.” Jax said as he walked up and hugged me. I knew what he was doing was just to make our announcement look believable about being mates but it still felt wrong.
“Thank you.” Was all I said as I pulled back and looked up at him. He gave me a little smirk and then we went back to stretching and warming up.
Soon after everyone was on the field, Jax called for a sparring tournament. What better way to distract people than to have everyone focused on a bloody fight. This was going to determine who would be promoted up a rank or demoted down a rank. It was an open challenge, so anybody and everybody was fair game but the same person could not be challenged twice.
Once the first fight started I saw Jax’s eyes glaze over for a split second and I knew he was giving Andy the go to start moving the first round of people. Most of them were servants or maids, or single women with or without children.
I didn’t even realize how much time had passed till I heard Jax in my head saying it was done. I looked up at him standing next to me and give him a smile that said thank you and then went back to watching the fight. So far there were only 2 people that had won their challenge and were promoted. The others who had issued their challenges all lost so there was no promotion or demotion. Jax was about to call it a day when a voice rang out from the far end of the grounds.
“I have a challenge!” A female voice rang out and Koa’s ears perked up.
“I know that voice!” Koa and I said at the same time out loud. Jax looked down at me with wide eyes. “It can’t be…”
“How do you…” Jax was cut off by her evil laugh.
“Oh come on. You look like you’ve seen a ghost Cheyenne, or should I call you Alida?” She said as the crowd parted to make room for her to walk through.
“What? What are you doing here?” I asked still in shock.
“Me? I live here. Have my whole life actually.” She said matter-of-factly while checking out her nails. “You on the other hand, do not belong here.” She growled at me.
“What are you talking about? Not like I came here willingly, or do you not remember what happened?” I snapped.
“Oh I remember it very clearly. I was part of it, and let me tell you, I hated every minute of it. If I had my way, you would’ve been dead a long time ago.” She was now staring daggers at me.
“Part of it? You were supposed to be my best friend. I trusted you! You are nothing but a fucking traitor!” I growled out.
“The crown was as good as mine till Daddy found you, and then sent me to keep an eye on you.” She snapped.
“Daddy? Wait…” I was trying to put together what she was saying but it was hard to focus when I had Koa growling loudly in my head and Jax getting defensive next to me.
“Kira what is this about?” Jax growled out getting tired with the bullshit.
“This is about me and her sweetheart. She took what is rightfully mine! I warned her and she didn’t follow directions. So now she must pay!” Kira grinned a grin that only the devil himself could achieve.
“That crown was never yours Kira! It’s always belonged to her!” Some other people were starting to get involved now from the sidelines.
“Enough! Let’s get this over with shall we?” Kira smirked again, “Alida, I challenge you for your crown and alleged mate here.” She pointed towards Jax.
Jax looks down at me with shock in his eyes but tried to not let it show. I returned the look with determination in my eyes and a look that said I would be fine.
“Accepted. Also, I would like to add a stipulation.” I smirked and raised an eyebrow at her.
She had already begun to strip down to her sports bra and shorts. “This is to the death. No tap outs, no knockouts, no submissions. We finish this once and for all.” I said as sternly as I could.
“Perfect.” She grinned while coming back to the center of the field.
“Jax, baby, push everybody back for me please. This is going to be nasty.” I said grabbing his hips and pulling him close to me. I knew exactly what I was doing and that was to piss her off. It doesn’t matter who you are, you can’t focus when you’re that pissed, and if you can’t focus you can’t fight.
Jax caught onto what I was doing also and leaned in and turned his back to her and made it look like we were in a deep passionate kiss. I had to refrain from laughing at his cover up, but it worked like a charm. He stood me back up straight and then I started walking towards Kira while Jax ordered everybody back.
“On my order then.” Jax looked at Kira first, “Ready?” and she nodded her head. Jax then asked me if I was ready and I growled in response. “GO!” Jax yelled while running back to the sidelines out of the way.
I don’t know if she had been watching my training with Jax or not or just how much she knew herself. So I decided to let her make the first move. We circled each other for a minute before she lunged at me. Normally I would duck left or right but I figured she would expect that, so instead I just jumped straight up and she went right under me.
She caught herself before she faceplanted in the now muddy dirt, and when she turned around she was glaring pissed. “Oh little Princess has tricks huh?” She said tauntingly.
“What did you just call me bitch?!” I growled.
Before she said anything else, she came lunging at me again, and this time I did duck right. She faceplanted in the mud and screamed and punched the ground before getting back up.
“Enough child’s play. Either fight like a real Queen or lay down so I can kill you and be done with this shit already. I have more important things to do and you’re wasting my time.” She growled out.
“HEY BABE! I THINK SHE’S TALKING ABOUT YOU!” I hollered out and everybody started laughing. Kira just growled at me and came full on running at me.
When she was close enough I wrapped her up in a bear hug and body slammed her ass backwards. I heard the wind leave her lungs and thought to myself that I could just end her here and be done with this.
“But I haven’t even had the chance to play yet!” Koa whined in my head and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Didn’t your mother teach you not to play with your food?” I retorted back sarcastically.
“She won’t be my food so that means I can play all I want.” I could see her wolfie grin in my head with her tail swishing back and forth while she pranced around like she just won the Miss USA pageant or something. I just lowered my head as I shook it and chuckled. I was walking away from Kira’s body still on the ground gasping for breath.
I figured it’d be a few minutes before she could get back up again, so I took my time getting back to my defense position. When she finally got back up, I could tell she was madder than hell. Her wolf was fighting for control at this point but for some reason she was holding back. Why was she holding back? It didn’t make any sense. If she shifted it would force me to shift because challenges have to be fought on the same levels. A wolf could not fight a human.
“Koa, did you see that? She’s holding Miah back for some reason. Be ready.” I said quickly.
“I see it.” Koa said and I felt her push forward just enough for my eyes to glow in warning. Kira saw it and she stopped in her tracks for a second before proceeding towards me.
I stopped holding back and we charged at each other and it was an all-out brawl. We both landed a few solid blows to each other while throwing each other all over the field. I was bleeding from my lip and had a few cuts on my torso. Kira had cuts all over her upper body and her eyebrow had a good gash in it.
I was going in to land another blow to her face when she turned her head at the last second and everybody heard a sickening crunch. She stumbled backwards and grabbed her face. Blood was pouring from her nose.
“You bitch! You broke my nose!” She whined.
“Oh shut up and let’s finish this. That will be the least of your worries when I’m done with you. Hope you’ve picked out your burial site.” I said before I ran towards her and caught her off guard and landed my knee to her gut and everybody winced when they heard ribs breaking.
I tossed her body across the field again and then heard a loud growl. I turned around to see she had shifted into her wolf. Everybody gasped when they saw Miah. Yes she was beautiful, but she was a wolf. Not a lycan.
“Koa your turn.” I said grinning. Koa didn’t say anything just started leaping for joy in my head. Everybody has already seen Koa so I wasn’t worried about what they would think of her.
Miah came charging at us covering the ground fast. I started running towards her in my human form and when we were about to collide, I jumped over her from the shot of energy Koa sent me and we shifted in mid-air and landed on all four paws and then quickly whipped around so we were facing Miah again.
Everyone was staring at Koa at this point. I’m not sure what the fuss was about because they’ve seen her before. Not like it was something new. Koa dug her back paws into the ground and sprang forward and charged at Miah before she even knew what was happening. Koa tackled her to the ground and was taking chunks out of her shoulders and hind quarters. After Koa got her fill of toying around with Miah, she backed up to give her room to get up again.
“You think I’m going to let you kill me twice?” Miah snarled.
“ I didn’t kill you back then. I just ended your suffering. They killed you because scissoring excited you and that wasn’t allowed and you knew it. I was showing you mercy!” Koa snapped back. Everybody was in shock at this point. Two talking wolves?!
“Is that what you call it?! Mercy!!!!?” Miah growled back lowering her head getting ready to attack.
“You always were and still the drama queen. That’s the one and only crown you will ever wear! Now time to finish this! I got 42 ways to deal with your bitch ass.” Koa growled showing all her pearly white teeth. I did have to chuckle on her word play because wolves generally have 42 teeth.
They each charged at each other and collided with Miah on top of Koa when they landed. Miah was snapping at Koa’s neck while Koa had her front paws on Miah’s chest holding her back. Koa managed to get her hind legs under Miah and launched her to the other side of the field. Koa jumped up and ran towards her prepared to end this once and for all.
Koa grabbed Miah by the neck and started shaking her around like she was a rag doll. Miah was whimpering the whole time until she wasn’t. Koa drug her to the center of the field for all to see when she looked up towards the top of the building.
“You want to play games? I will win again just like last time, so this is just for you!” Koa shouted towards the figure standing on top of the building. I don’t know how long they had been there or who it even was. I could only assume with what Koa said, it was the King.
Koa put her large paw on Miah’s neck while still looking towards the figure. Miah started to stir again and caught Koa off guard. Miah pulled Koa down on top of her and sunk her teeth in Koa’s neck. Koa let out a howl that was so loud, everybody cowered down and covered their ears.
“End this Koa! Now!” I shouted in our head.
Koa sunk her claws into Miah’s chest and we felt Miah let go of our neck. Miah then howled but it was a kitten yawn compared to the one Koa had just let out.
“This is for you, your majesty!” Koa shouted before she pulled her claws up and ripped Miah open. Koa stood up and stood behind Miah’s lifeless body and looked up towards the King and let out the loudest growl I had ever heard. It almost sounded like a lion roar. Is that even possible? Then the King disappeared.
I heard someone call Koa’s name and they sounded worried but they sounded so far away at the same time. Koa looked towards where the voice came from. It was Jax and he was running towards us.
“Koa!” He yelled again. All of a sudden we felt weak. Koa stumbled sideways before falling to the ground.
“Jax!” I tried to call out threw the mind link but before I heard a reply everything went black. Last thing we saw, was Jax kneeling over us hollering out orders to other people.