USELESS?

33

As we reach the arena, we see Dale step from the treeline, followed by a pretty young man about my age. The boy's eyes widen as he looks up and sees us waiting for them. A quiet word from Dale has him lowering his eyes back to his feet. Dale reaches us, and smirks, seeing me standing behind Anthony and my father.

"I believe introductions are in order," Dale sneers.

"Indeed," agrees Anthony. "The gentleman to my right is His Majesty, King Orion Steele of the Silver Dawn Pack. To his right is his Mate, Queen Grace. You already know my mate, Prince Hunter Steele-James. The gentleman to his right is my Beta, Jeremiah Deon, and to Jer's right is his mate, Prince Archer Steele-Deon. And of course, I am Alpha Anthony James of the Golden Moon Pack."

"Quite a crowd you've got." Dale says. "I thought we agreed limited witnesses."

"As you requested," my father interrupts, "The accuser, my son, Hunter, and his mate, myself and my mate, and Anthony's beta and his mate. There is no one else inside the arena. The challenge arena will hold only you and the champion chosen to fight on behalf of the crown."

"Well, then," Dale huffs. "Shall we?"

"Wait," says my mother. "Are you not going to introduce yourself and your mate?"

"Dale Reede, Red Claw Pack" Dale snaps out, then snaps his fingers. "You, boy, introduce yourself."

"I-I'm Kiril Reede, Luna of Red Claw Pack" he whispers, still looking at his feet.

"Good boy," Dale praises, patting the boy's head. "Now let's go. I have a fight to win."

We enter the arena, to see two doors on either side of a short hallway, with a set of double doors at the end. Opening the hallway doors reveals two comfortable looking changing areas, while the double doors lead into the viewing area of the arena.

After My parents, Jeremiah and Archer go through the double doors to find seats, Dale and Kiril choose the changing room on the  left, while Anthony and I choose the one on the right. After I change into a pair of comfortable gym shorts, we head into the arena. My father joins us to give me some last minute advice before Dale shows up.

"Try to stay in human form as long as you can. For wolves like Dale, fighting in human form is seen as weakness, but you're on equal footing to his wolf, even human. Let him get himself worked up, wear himself out and start making mistakes before you shift, and hopefully, it'll be an easy win after that. Let's hope he's not stubborn enough to make this a fight to the death."

I nod, and we wait for Dale to appear. He steps into the viewing area in a thin robe, and it's obvious there's nothing underneath. So, father is right. He's intending to fight entirely in wolf form. He looks around our group, trying to determine who he's fighting.

When he sees me dressed for the arena, he laughs. "You, Useless? Think you can defeat me? This will be a short fight."

With that, he steps through the open door to the challenge arena, drops his robe, and shifts. We wave Kiril forward to collect his robe, and once he's back in the viewing area, I step into the arena and close the door. I hear Anthony lock it behind me.

I stand, facing Dale's wolf. He never introduced me to his wolf, so I don't know it's name. I walk slowly to the middle of the arena, Dale and I still holding eye contact, when he suddenly rushes straight at me.

As he reaches me, I drop to one knee, grab his chest with one hand, and a front leg with the other. I stand and swing my arms, throwing Dale across the arena. He hits the plexiglass barrier, and falls to the dirt. Huffing, he stands and shakes himself. He begins warily circling me, looking for an opening.

After a few minutes, he rushes me again. I drop to my knee, pick him up, and throw him again, this time with enough force to crack the plexiglass. It takes Dale a minute to get to his feet this time. Again, he shakes himself, and begins circling.  He makes a few short rushes, attempting to catch me off guard, but fails. He snarls at me, probably angry that I haven't shifted.

The fight continues like this; Dale makes short rushes, I pretend to ignore them, he makes full ones, and I throw him across the arena. After about an hour, he's tired and limping, and I'm undamaged. Finally, Dale shifts to human.

"Can't shift, Useless?" He yells. "Might as well give up now, then. You may be strong, but you'll get tired eventually."

He shifts back to wolf before I can answer, but I answer, anyway. "I never said I couldn't shift. Angel is chomping at the bit for his turn at you."

Dale cocks his head in confusion, and growls a challenge. I look to my father, and he nods. It's time. Taking a step back, I summon the fire, and shift. Dale tries to take advantage of the shift and attacks, but ends up with his throat in Angel's mouth. Angel bites down lightly in warning.

The threat is obvious, either surrender or die. Dale snarls, and scratches at Angel's chest. Angel swiftly bites down, crushing Dale's windpipe and severing the veins and arteries. Dale is dead in seconds. As he falls, Kiril screams and falls to the floor.

My mother rushes to console the boy, and I step towards the door out of the arena. I shift back to human, and Anthony hands me a wet towel and robe. I clean the blood off my face and chest before putting the robe on, and going to the boy. He's stopped crying, but stares blankly at me.

"Do you know what a Guardian is, Kiril?" I ask him.

He nods, and answers, "you are, Blessed One."

"That's right," I say, "and a Guardian's job is to protect werewolves from rogues. The 'Red Claw Pack' is not, and has never been, a recognized pack. The leaders you knew as 'Alphas' were rogues. From now on, the remains of the 'pack' are members of Golden Moon Pack, so let's go home."

Kiril nods, and we leave the arena, headed towards the pack house.