Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 36 - A Way with Words

Chapter 36 - A Way with Words 

The morning of day two begins the same as round one. Vincent and Dylan join the crowd while I go underground to wait for the list to be announced. We'll be fighting in our wolf forms for round two with the same rules as yesterday. Once again, the winning competitor will move onto the next round. By the end of the day, there will be 14 of us.

The matches are announced by the heads of the tournament to the audience and displayed on the televisions underground to us.

"Bram Azazel," I hear the announcer state the name of the heartless ex-rogue as a competitor for match 12, and I immediately pity the person put against him.

"Versus Ariadne, our foreign competitor."

My stomach drops. With my luck, I should've expected this.

I feel everyone in the rooms eyes on me. I went from the person pitying a competitor to the competitor being pitied. The eyes that catch mine, however, aren't full of pity. They're emotionless and absolutely depthless, flat orbs so dark their irises almost blends in with their pupils.

I don't want to be the one to look away, but I do. Bram's stare is unnerving.

I sit in my spot like a statue as the matches begin. Ours is 3rd to last, so it'll be a while. My brain replays the match I saw yesterday, over and over again. I try to pick out the weaks spots in his fighting, which may or may not be helpful to me considering today we won't even be in the same fighting form. I mentally prepare myself for a way harder fight than my match yesterday. I'll have to stoop low, fight dirty, whenever I can. Bram will certainly fight me with as little respect as he fought his opponent yesterday. I've still got this, I tell myself. You've trained so hard. Now it's time to show it.

I reach into my bag to pull out my water bottle and see my phone screen lit up. I have 65 notifications. I scroll through them. They are all messages/missed calls from Dylan with an occasional one from James. There's even one from Mateus.

I move to one of the back locker rooms and call Dylan first. He answers almost immediately.

"They won't let me come down and see you," Dylan says. I can hear him say to someone near him, "It's her."

"I'm fine. Stop worrying."

"Fine? You're going to be fighting that monster."

"It'll be a good challenge."

"A good challenge? Ari, you're batshit insane. Look, as an alpha, James was given a list of pairs a bit before the announcement. He says you weren't supposed to fight Bram. Someone changed it."

Confused, I ask, "Why would someone do that? Dylan, they probably noticed a mistake last minute, just decided to change all the matches, and didn't release the new list to that section before they announced it."

"I think someone's trying to arrange it so the odds are against you. James noticed that Alpha Thomas was too delighted at the announcement."

"It's a random process. You can't find foul play in it."

"Well James is here with me trying to talk to them."

"Most of the matches are already over, Dylan. They're not going to change it now. That would be unfair, and besides, I really don't mind anymore. I'm prepared"

"Bram is vicious. I don't think anyone can prepare themselves for that."

"You forget, Dylan. Both you and I have had to deal with vicious before."