Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 37 - Round Two: Until I Know

Chapter 27- Round Two: Until I Know 

When my match is called, I look straight into Bram's soulless eyes one last time before we begin to walk into the arena. Even his wolf is large, and his coal-colored fur looks coarse.

We stop in the center. I look up into the important visitors section and search for Mateus. He's with James... and Dylan and Vincent. How are those two there? I look back at Mateus. His expression is straight. He's in his intimidating professional persona. Right, yeah, stupid question.

The first bell rings. I take 15 steps away from Bram's wolf.

The second bell rings, and I brace myself for an immediate attack from Bram.

It doesn't happen.

He snarls at me and starts to make a slow circle around me like he's on a hunt and I'm prey he's going to pounce on. The asshole is trying to taunt me. Should I make the first move? Whatever he's expecting me to do, I want to do the opposite.

Yesterday, I didn't attack first, so I decide to attack and begin to run towards him quickly, not wanting him to have time to think. Instead of defending my attack, however, he jumps up to meet me, jaws snapping at me in turn.

I make sure to back up a bit when I put my front paws back on the ground. I can't let him pounce on me, not this early in the match. He immediately tries to bite down on one of my legs, and I have to quickly dodge him. In seconds he's back on me again, going for my side. Having to fight fire with fire, I attack him persistently in return.

It continues like this until I finally manage to get one of his front legs in my mouth. I bite down hard. The bone crunches beneath my teeth, but instead of directly trying to make me release the leg, he shoves the rest of his body into mine. It topples me over. I let his teeth rip through my exposed side in order to stand up relatively safely and not get pinned.

His leg must hurt, but he doesn't show it. I pounce on his back, making my first strike at the neck area, but as soon as I get a slight hold on it, he shakes me off and flips the front of his body around to fight back. It leaves him slightly unsteady, and I kick my front legs up. He falls backwards just enough that I can bite briefly into the fleshy part of his stomach where it'll really hurt. He jumps back up immediately to grab at the front of my body and push me away.

The match goes on similarly, relentlessly, for a bit, but it looks like I'm going to win. I get a lot of good bites in and receive few in return.

I clasp onto the area of a major artery near his hind leg and am about to sink my teeth in and completely disable him when he rolls over and shows his neck, admitting defeat.

For a moment, I'm surprised. I don't know Bram, but this isn't something I feel he'd do. The dark wolf doesn't move, however. His fur is still so black in the midday sun. It soaks up the light entirely.

The bell rings.

I back up, face the middle section, and see my friends smiling proudly.

I did it. Bram is out of the competition. I let my tongue roll out of my mouth to give them a wolfy smile.

I turn and begin to walk back underground.

I'm almost there when I hear him running. I don't have time to turn before he takes hold of my hind leg in his mouth. He pulls it, and I feel my right leg pop out of the socket. I hold in a yowl, not wanting to show any pain for a leg injury if he hadn't, but the leg still falls out from underneath me. Right before I touch the ground, he grabs a good, loose patch of skin at the back of my neck in his mouth and flips me onto my back. I can't get my dislocated hind leg to move, so although I try to push him away with my legs when he tries to pin me down, I don't get a good spring from the back like usual. With his weight, my attempts don't do anything.

I can feel my blood gushing out of my wounds and matting my fur. I struggle, shaking my whole body to try to dislodge him enough for me to get out.

He makes a move to bite down on my neck, a strike that'll kill me if he does it. My blood drips down his canines. I push at him with my front legs to no avail. His paws are firmly planted into my upper chest. My hind leg lays useless underneath him.

My blood on his teeth intermingles with his saliva and drops onto my snout. God, there's so much blood everywhere. I can feel it on my side and the other areas he managed to get small bites in. I can see it dripping down the broken front leg he still manages to keep me pinned down with. His breath smells like my blood as his head descends, angling his muzzle to go for my major artery. He snarls and opens his jaws wider.

I freeze.

The blood. There's so much.

Where are my brothers? Is that their blood on him? Is it mine? The dirt in the cold ground turns spongy under my back, soaking up our own blood as it pours out of us. The moisture of his breath encases my head in a bubble of warm humidity. I can see the mist from the water particles dancing in the night air. The brown wolf hovering over me reeks like rotten eggs and sulfur.

This rogue is going to kill me. Panicking, I'm struggling for air. I shut my eyes in resignation.

I'm going to die, I tell myself, but hey, at least my parents are probably already waiting for me, watching me from whatever life comes after this one.

I don't want to watch you die, Ariadne, Mateus' smooth, even voice echoes in my memories.

Mateus. We practiced this so many times.

I open my eyes, and the brown wolf is no longer there. It's Bram, and the glare of the day's sun enters my pupils. I only froze for a moment, but his teeth are centimeters away from my neck. I've snapped out of it, but I'm still in a precarious position.

Even if I listened to Mateus' plea, even if I tried to submit, Bram wouldn't stop. I know it.

All my senses return to me, and I can hear the angry shouts of the spectators.

There's something much darker lurking than I've already seen in him hiding in his eyes, a violent sort of determination, but I've got determination as well. There is no way in hell that I will let Bram continue in this tournament. I will defeat him for the sake of this pack and my own.

With renewed strength, I edit a move Mateus taught me on the spot. Instead of thrusting my legs up and shoving them downward to give me enough momentum to push my front back up, I coil my back forward and quickly push my pelvis downward. The force rolls up my spine, and I kick out with my paws just as the energy pushes my front up off the ground. It works. Bram's wolf is thrust off me, and finally showing signs of his shattered bone, he struggles to land on all fours, falling on his side instead. I don't waste the moment and clamp down on the same spot in the neck he was aiming for on me. My teeth pierce through the skin, and I don't hesitate. I sink them into his major artery until I feel the strength leave his body, and even then I don't back off until I know he is dead.

~~~~~~~~~~

I have two long ass papers and a major project due this upcoming week. If I don't update on time next week, it's because I'll probably have fallen asleep in a library corner or something. 

Please vote, follow, and/or comment!

What are you all's thoughts on Bram?

┌(˘⌣˘)ʃ