The Alpha's Prey [Alpha-series (I)]

Chapter 10

I shot a wary glance at Caleb. We had walked about half an hour along a hidden path that had morphed into a mountain trail by now, leading us to the entrance of a big cave.

“In horror movies, that’s usually the moment when the seemingly good guy turns out to be a crazy serial killer”, I joked.

“Would be a pretty stupid serial killer then, bringing his victim to a place where so many witnesses are within earshot.”

He pointed towards his ear, indicating for me to turn on my wolf-senses.

Lucy?, I reached out to my wolf.

Got it!

Caleb was right. From within the mountain, I could hear at least a dozen voices talking and screaming.

“The training ground is inside a mountain?”

“We had an actual arena once, but when the humans started to frequently use airplanes that got too dangerous”, he explained. “My great-grandfather then decided to tear the arena down and built another one, hidden from the human eyes in the sky. We used the already existing cave system here and expanded it. That’s how this place came to be.”

Burning torches led the way inside the darkness. The daylight quickly faded, making the fire the only source of light. As we wandered along the dark path, I ran my hand over the rough stone wall surrounding us.

“We really are inside a mountain”, I whispered in awe. “That’s so cool!”

“You haven’t even seen the best part yet.”

Soon one could literally see light at the end of the tunnel again. The path opened into a ginormous cavern with a crevice on top, wide enough to bathe the whole space in sunlight, yet small enough so anyone who would look at it from above would only see a gap between trees and rocks. What they wouldn’t see was the stony arena that lay beneath. Stands for spectators had been circularly carved into the cavern, covered in moss and grass here and there. Some additional lights had been installed into the stone to guarantee good visibility for everyone, regardless of the weather or the daytime. We stood on the highest stand, looking down to the battleground. I could easily picture eight hundred people in here, if not more, watching the contestants fight. It was breathtaking.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

“It’s just … Wow!”, I agreed, being at a loss for words. “It must have taken you forever to built this!”

“Every male in the pack helped whenever it was possible, but it still took years. My father was a young man at the time. He helped my grandfather to coordinate this project. Never mention this to him or you will be tormented with endless anecdotes of that time”, Caleb warned me.

“Thanks, I’ll try to keep it in mind”, I grinned.

“Come, let’s greet the guys.”

While we went down the stands, the men started to notice our presence and paused their training.

“The warriors take turns to practice here, so the arena is usually used all day long. Our pack currently has hundred and twenty-five warriors”, Caleb informed me.