Chapter 8, the challenge
The council, myself, Lyall, and Raff all went to Crescent Pack territory and the look of “oh crap I’m in trouble now” on Alpha Adolfo’s face was priceless!
“Alpha Adolfo Wolfrik, we the Winterthur Council hereby charge you with double murder and strip you of your title as alpha and are going to arrest you.” I saw Luan and Jaci cuff him.
“Wait, wait! On who’s word?! Hers?!” His efforts of trying to beg were completely useless we all know he did it. Elder Mona was clearly on my side which I was grateful for.
“We have damning evidence against you, so unless you did not commit this crime against the former Alpha Marrok, and Luna Daciana Channing then please tell us who did?” There was a silence like he was trying to come up with a way to blame someone else, but he knew we had him and there was no denying that.”
“I challenge Lyna Channing!” There was shock on everyone’s faces including mine. He must’ve been desperate to do this.
“Alpha Adolfo…come on confess…” I’m presuming it’s his beta and luna next to him. Ouch in front of his mate…that’s gotta be harsh… 6ft5in, platinum blonde almost white dreadlocks that had a couple of beads in his hair, blueish gray eyes, angular facial features. His luna was beautiful no denying that at least he had the decency to treat his luna right, unlike my parents…she was around 5ft9in, long wavy brunette hair, dark chocolate brown eyes, wearing a silvery, tea-length dress and white gold band and white gem that went around her head.
“We’re sorry to do this in front of your luna, but you have to tell us the truth…”
“I’ll still kick your butt anyway, no offense luna,” I interjected with a smirk on my face, but still wanted to be respectful to his luna. Lyall had to hold me back from starting the challenge that Alpha Adolfo wanted to start.
“Alpha Lyna, please refrain from unnecessary comments.” Yeah, no surprise I’d get scolded by Elder Mona, but the smirk she made could tell that she was still rooting for me.
“FINE! I’ll tell you what happened…Alpha Marrok and I had discussed merging our packs and becoming one large one while keeping his name. I didn’t like it but whatever I could deal with that, but as I kept on wanting to do the merge, he started to refuse, and wanted to keep his pack. Months turned into years and I guess he forgot about the merge completely, and when I brought it up again he was vividly angry and said NO I DON’T WANT MY DAUGHTER (I’m presuming he meant you, brat) AROUND AN ALPHA LIKE YOU!” I growled when he had the nerve to call me the brat and imitating my dad like this, Lyall had to hold me back again! “Easy pipsqueak, it gets better. Months before I actually did do it-“
“So, you admit you did it!?” I interject while he’s talking, rude, but I didn’t care!
“Oh yeah, I totally did it. I’m just surprised it took you so long to realize it was me.” With a cocky look on his face, I slapped him right across his face!
“THAT IS FOR TAKING MY PARENTS AWAY! HOW DARE YOU!” I was feeling my wolf about to shift and take over, but Lyall, slowly losing the fight, was still trying to hold me back.
“Easy Alpha Lyna…don’t worry you will have your challenge, and he will be arrested for his crime.” Elder Mona was clearly angry but at least more levelheaded than I was. I was just hoping I could get out of Lyall’s grip so I could have my and my parent’s revenge on him!”
“YOU, ME, IN THE FOREST NOW! WE START THIS CHALLENGE NOW! LET GO OF ME, LYALL! THERE IS NO USE IN HOLDING ME BACK NOW!” Everyone could tell I was angry on the verge of shifting into Emmy and stepped away from me. We all went to an open clearing in the forest. The smell of the pine and fir trees was overpowering for now with winter coming soon, all the leaves had fallen making the ground crunchy. It was undisturbed and dense for now…I hate to mess up the surrounding forest near my home, but Adolfo had this 4yrs coming!
“Just as a reminder for those who don’t know the rules of a challenge:
1. You only have one chance to shift, one and only one so choose wisely when you want to
2. Once you’re down you have five seconds to get back up otherwise the challenge is over.
3. This rule is more for the peanut gallery, NO HELPING PHYSICALLY! This is a one on one fight! You can mind link each other though. I’m sure you want to help physically, but this is their fight (one that has been years in the making I’m sure)”
Elder Mona finished the rules and the crowd let out a groan after the third rule, but they let me stretch to get ready for this fight trying to figure out how to defeat him. I try to remember my training, but it seems like all the training I had just went poof from my head and I start to panic and run to my pack for help.
“Lyall, Conall…I feel like all my training has just went poof, I’m so nervous, I-I” They both offer a hug to calm me down, Lyall then Conall.
“Relax Lyna this is just your nerves getting to you…this is what we have been training for all these years. You can do this; we know you can.” Lyall kissed my forehead and I thought I could hear Conall growl for a moment. I’ll deal with those two later, I guess. I see Elder Mona start walking to where the fight was to begin. Alpha Adolfo and I get into our positions.
“Any last words to each other?” Elder Mona looked at us with a serious look on her face.
“My parents and I will finally get our revenge…” I look at Adolfo in the eyes as I say it.
“Bring it on pipsqueak.” I was ready, he was ready like he was going to charge at me before Elder Mona told us we were supposed to start. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. I could feel my parents there in the forest cheering me on as if they were here.
“Elder Mona, at least let Alpha Adolfo say his goodbye to his luna…I at least want them to have something that my parents didn’t have a chance to do,” I ask Elder Mona with some tears in my eyes that this could be the last time they see each other because of me.
“Yes, I can grant that if he wants to.” He walks back to her and she kisses and hugs him, I hear them say their goodbyes. I’m surprised that the rest of his pack aren’t here to see this and say their goodbyes.
“Elder Mona, where is the rest of Crescent pack?” I look around and see that no other members have shown up from his pack besides his luna.
“I mentioned the challenge to them and it didn’t seem like-“ As she was about to tell me her answer the rest of his pack show up, and say their goodbyes. His beta, Sterling, and his Gamma Gunnolf said their goodbye, and a whole bunch of other people showed up presuming the rest of his pack. At least they got to say their goodbyes, and my pack got to say their goodbyes. I took another deep breath looked back at Lyall and Conall, and I walk to my fight and in the next few minutes could be my most exhilarating or my last, and I will join my parents.
As I go to my spot in the fight, I look back one more time, let out a deep sigh, and got mentally ready. Elder Mona and the rest of the council stood in between Adolfo and me as we heard her final remarks.
“Well, here we are. We have said our goodbyes and had our hugs. Now this will be the end for one of you, and for the other, they will take over the loser’s pack and the title of Alpha, in your case Lyna you will be Alpha until you find your mate, and then you will become Luna. I want an honest, clean fight, remember peanut gallery NO HELPING, and remember you only get one chance to shift into your wolf form. Good luck to both of you and I will see you on the other side. Ready, set, FIGHT!”
My mind goes blank and I tone out everything just like I was taught. I try to attack first, but he tries to come at me in the front but with the heel of my hand, I broke his nose…
“OW! Damn kid not a bad start! OW! Did not expect that.” Distracted by me breaking his nose he tries to stop the blood from gushing out of it.
“Not bad for just a kid?” He doesn’t pay attention to me and attends to his nose. Why do I even bother trying to talk to him…well, that was gross blood all over his face and only 10 seconds into the fight. He hollers in pain to the fact that his nose is broken and distracts him for a minute while he composes himself. Guess he didn’t expect me to be so good, serves him right to underestimate me. While he’s distracted by his nose I try to attack again, but he got to me first and threw me against a tree. Ow…that’s going to leave a mark I’m gonna feel that tomorrow. I can feel the pieces of bark and a couple of sticks going down my back. Blood and dirt mixed with strawberry lip gloss was a strange taste indeed, note to self don’t put lip gloss on before a fight.
“How about that one, kid? Now you get a taste of what I did to your parents before I shot them!” I growl at him for even mentioning my parents in this! Now he was going to pay…I stumble to get up but while I’m down I give him a nice nut tap while he’s standing over me. He groans from my tap for a couple of seconds with a couple of tears in his eyes, but I charge again and knock him against a tree. He groans for a minute probably to get some more sympathy from his pack, but I was ignoring them. While down from being thrown I stand on top of him, grabbing him by his shirt, and give him a couple of left hooks to the jaw, enough to hurt but not necessarily kill him.
I grab a stick nearby and try to hit him with that along the back to knock him down some. His attitude needed to be knocked down a peg or two as well. I can hear Emmy begging me to take over to finish this jerk and I let her, I take my one shift. As I shift into Emmy, I start to plan how to fight him with her. I could easily go for his neck and end this right here and now, but what fun would that be. Adolfo shifts into his wolf too and holy crap he’s big…course what do you expect from an alpha!? I can hear my pack cheering me on and I look at them hopefully not for my last time. He tries to lunge at me, but I’m too quick for him and dodge him. I try to run at him and even with him weakened by a broken nose and a stick to the back he’s still strong. I call for a break to regroup myself and come up with another plan cause whatever I’m doing doesn’t seem to be working.
Mind link
“Guys what do I do!? This guy is too big for me! Breaking his nose, and a stick to the back seemed to have done nothing to him, except losing a little blood.” I almost panic and had to call a break to recollect myself, which I can hear Alpha Adolfo and his goons smirking and snickering at me.
“No, he’s not Lyna, you fought me, Raff, and Conall. You can do this! A broken nose was a great idea. It distracted him for a little bit, and same with the stick.” Lyall was always good with the pep talk.
“Just imagine you’re fighting us in the training room, and soon this will be over with you hopefully victorious. Come back to us Lyna! We can’t lose you too…” Conall was sweet to me. He and I have gotten close and bonded overtraining and walks in the woods. Anyway, can’t get distracted by my guys no matter how cute they are…I need to be victorious…new game plan is to try to get onto his back and get my claws into his neck. He tries to shake me off, but my claws dug too far into him that I’m not getting off!
We get back into position and since we’re still in our wolf form it was easy to strategize. He tries to come at me again, and while I dodge him, and bite onto one of his legs may be biting a hamstring. While down from the bite I climb onto his back and sink my claws into him. I hear him cry out in pain, but I knew it was almost over for him.
“This is for my parents and the suffering you put us through!” I try to say that as loudly as I could in our mindlink so everyone could hear me. Now that he was in my claws, I bite his neck…hard once near the nerves of his throat to make him twitch. With a howl in pain from him and I can feel him dying underneath me. I bite him again near the artery and I let out a howl in victory…finally, my parents got their justice, and I was victorious. With Adolfo dead, his pack is now mine. I shift back to myself and walk over to councilwoman Jaci to hear the victory speech, while Adolfo’s luna grieves over the loss of her mate.
“What a fight! With Wild Forest Pack and Alpha Lyna being the winner you now get some new pack members whether they like it or not. Congratulations Lyna, you trained well, now go see your pack doctor and make sure your injuries aren’t too serious. As for Crescent Pack…sorry for the loss of your Alpha and mate…maybe next time you won’t mess with someone else’s alpha and luna and just let them live in peace. Now because of your former alpha’s stupidity, you don’t have your alpha anymore, but you have an alpha now that you’re apart of Wild Forest now. Beta Sterling, I would talk to Alpha Lyna whenever you can and talk to her about details about joining them. Whether you keep your separate locations or become one large pack is up to the two of you. Oh, and luna…sorry for your loss.” We all went our separate ways, for now, to recover from the fight. My pack went on ahead to celebrate our victory, while I stayed behind to console the grieving luna.
“Sorry for your loss, but it had to be done!”
“No, it didn’t! You could’ve just left this alone! Now my mate is dead because of you!” I see her crying draped over the body of her dead mate.
“Well, now you know how I’ve felt for the past 4yrs without my parents! Adolfo was the one who wanted this challenge!” I let that sit in the air for a moment.
“I’m sorry for the loss of your parents, and yes he was stupid for killing them. I tried to stop him from doing that, but he didn’t listen. For most of our relationship, he wasn’t the loving mate that I expected him to be…he was cocky, narcissistic, and selfish. He only expected me to fulfill his needs and not mine…so in a way yes, I’m sad that I lost my mate, but in a way, I’m not. Maybe I’ll get a second chance at love and find a new mate. One that will respect me the way our son and I deserve.” Hearing her talk made me sad for her. Who would treat their mate like that?! And for a son to grow up with a father like that…yuck hope he took after his mother…
“I hope you find your second chance…”
“My name is Griselda Ulrich. I didn’t bother changing my name when we got married since I somehow knew that his cockiness and narcissism would be the death of him. I didn’t even want to be associated with him; guess you know you have a bad mate if you don’t want to take his last name.”
“Yeah…well, Wild Forest is open for anyone from your pack who wants to stay with us. I’m sure a change of scenery would be nice and to start fresh.”
“I’ll keep that in mind Lyna…thank you…despite what my former mate has done to you and your pack I’m glad he didn’t break your spirit. I was secretly hoping you’d win this so I could finally break free from him…if you hadn’t killed him, I probably would have.”
“Well glad to put you out of your misery, and as I said you and your son are more than welcome to come and live with us. A fresh start and no lingering memories of your horrible mate and father.”
“I’d like that…we should talk it over with my Beta, Sterling but I think he’d agree to a fresh start. Adolfo really was a horrible alpha and I don’t even remember why we voted him as alpha in the first place.”
“Well, he’s not your problem anymore. I better get cleaned up and checked out. Make sure none of my injuries are too serious.” I try to massage my back from him pushing me into a tree…ugh. Just as I was about to leave, she hugs me.
“Thank you…really you have no idea how much this means to us. Now we can be a better pack without him.”
“You’re welcome, we’ll talk later.”
“Alright, go get cleaned up you smell like blood, dirt, tree sap, and bark along with a hint of strawberry lip gloss.”
“Hey, gotta keep some femininity in a world filled mostly with guys! Once the dirt and bark got stuck to it, I realized it was probably a bad idea to have it.” We laugh a little at that and start to head back to our respected homes.