Princess Arya was forced to marry the winner of the tournament her father had held to stop the war. King Kohl was the strongest among all alphas and she despised the fact that the barbarian had won her hand and future title. She hated him and and hi...
He smelled the heavy scent of sweat. Scents of men who were oozing testosterone out of their pores. Alphas.
When Kohl and Arya were in town yesterday to visit the blacksmith, Kohl had smelled this familiar scent from miles away already. Fighting men. He loved that smell, he could breathe it in all day.
This morning, while Arya still slept, Kohl snuck out to go back to the place of the heavy scent again. He suspected why those odors were there in the first place and his hunch turned out to be true.
It turned out the odor came from a fighting pit where alphas fought against each other and people could place bets on each fighter. Kind of like the big arena, but then a much smaller version in some old barn where it was rather dark and hot.
Luckily, nobody recognized the alpha that used to be King. How could they? They had never seen his face and this town probably belonged to Oprela, but Kohl didn't know for sure.
The fights that were held in the pit were rough as no form of protection was allowed. That meant no armor, shields, or helmets. Weapons were allowed, but you needed to bring your own and since Kohl had brought nothing with him, all he had to offer were his hands and legs.
The fights were till the death, that was the only rule. Further, everything was permitted. You could bite, kick between the legs, throw sand in the opponent's eyes, stab him in the back. It might be without much honor to stab someone in the back, but in the end, the one who lived won.
Of course, not everyone wanted to participate in such fights, but Kohl wanted to join the battles for two reasons. The first reason was simple: He missed fighting. He just liked to do it and he was good at it. It was the one thing where he could shine, always.
The second reason, and maybe the most important one if Kohl was completely honest with himself, was that he wanted to earn some money. And he will goddamn succeed in it even if it was the last thing he did.
~
The former King stood in the ring for the fourth time today. He had killed three other alphas in the last few hours and now will be his final match. The two best alphas of the day were going to battle against each other till the very end.
While the crowd was oohing, aahing, and screaming around him and his opponent and the sand felt wet underneath his bare feet from the spilled blood, he looked at the giant in front of him. The other alpha was two times as broad as he was and more animal than man. Rufus was his name, the one who had never lost a match in two years.
He also fought without weapons.
The man had a very strong masculine odor, a brave odor, not a weak one like most. Kohl could appreciate that.
He knew this probably wasn't going to be an easy match because he just witnessed the man slaughter another alpha by ripping the guy's head off with his bare hands. Kohl knew that that took some power. He knew this well because he'd done it himself in the past. One needed to pull with so much force to break the neck and tear the flesh and muscles.
Nobody had set their money on much skinnier Kohl, only he had. He'd gambled Isoldi's ring for this match and if he would win, he shall receive a small fortune.
He wasn't scared. He had seen men like this before. Maybe he would get some hard punches, but that was ok. He was looking forward to it actually. His emotional feelings were all over the place the last few days, especially when it came to his wife, so to Kohl, it felt good to feel some physical pain again. He wanted to get punched in the face, to get into a good fight. It was what he did best.
A loud sound of the horn was echoing through the barn, a sign that the match had started, and Rufus screamed like a mad beast before he attacked. Kohl instantly received a huge knock to the head, making him fly through the air and land on his back.
Rufus came again, giving Kohl no time to get up and he kicked him against the head and stomach. Kohl nearly got knocked out.
This man had some power in his body. Unfortunately for Rufus, such a big body took time to move and Kohl was much quicker. When Rufus was lifting his leg to give another kick, Kohl swung his foot against the other's calf, making him trip backwards and fall on his ass.
Kohl then jumped up and kicked Rufus a few times in his face before he wrapped his legs around the man's neck and rolled him in a position where Rufus was absolutely helpless and getting strangled.
But the brute got out of Kohl's strong grip and the fight was far from over...
━━✥◈✥━━
Arya was pacing back and forth in front of the small window.
Yesterday, after their argument in the woods, Kohl and she hadn't really talked to each other.
She felt a little guilty for her harsh words yesterday because they weren't completely true. At the beginning of their marriage, the words would have been true, because she did think that Kohl was disgusting and vile back then. But in the last period, things got better and she shouldn't have said what she said. However, Kohl also still had never properly apologized to her, and the way he had taken her virginity was disgusting and vile.
She sighed.
When she had wakened up today, there laid no alpha next to her. Now, it was already late, and still there was no alpha. It would get dark soon and she was beginning to get a little worried. What if Kohl had just left her?
Was that something to feel grateful for?
Her inner omega was crying for her mate and she felt restless. What if something had happened to Kohl? What if he was in pain?
This afternoon, she had searched outside but she couldn't find the man anywhere.
She walked back to the black pot and stirred the big spoon in her homemade soup. Right at the moment she wanted to take a sip, the door opened up and a blood-stained Kohl walked inside. One of his eyes was so swollen it was shut and his body was covered in bruises and blood while he limped inside.
"Jesus! Kohl, what has happened to you?"
Arya hurried to Kohl to guide him inside and sit on one of the chairs.
"It looks worse than it is," Kohl replied.
Arya quickly collected a bowl of water and some pieces of cloth, and she started cleaning his injuries.
"What happened?" she asked again. Kohl really looked in such bad shape.
"I fought."
"What? Where? Why?" Arya asked, panicky.
Her husband's wounds looked so bad and so painful.
"In town. The pit, it's called. Sort of an arena but less luxurious."
Arya cleaned off the red and luckily, the wounds weren't as bad as she thought they'd be now that most of the blood was washed away. "Why? How could you just leave like that?" she asked.
"To get money," Kohl said. Even his voice sounded hoarse and painful.
"Why would you risk your life for some money? We have food and a horse and soon a sword. We can reach Oprela with what we have," Arya frustratedly said. "We don't need money."
Why did Kohl do this? That horrible man made her worried for this? He could easily have announced that he was going to town!
The alpha reached into one of his pockets and laid an object on the table. "Because I needed money for this."
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