So Cruel, yet so Beautiful. [ON HOLD]

Chapter 21 - Preparation

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

*Matthew*

That next morning I woke up alone, Alexandra was already up. I assumed she had a few things to take care of before the trial. So I got out of bed, got dressed and headed straight downstairs.

There Lisa was busy in the kitchen making breakfast with Conrad and Raymond sitting at the table sipping their coffee.

A cup was already waiting for me on the kitchen counter so I took it and went to the table to take a seat. Conrad was talking to Raymond about the trial and who I might fight. Then Conrad turned to me and he said, "We'll have to get you ready for the trial."

I gave him a confused look before saying, "But I've already trained with Alexandra, what else was I suppose to do?"

"I'm not talking about training, I'm talking about your appearance in front of the pack. Your clothes shouldn't be so intact and it'll be suspicious that a rogue that's been "locked up" for weeks to come out with no marks, cuts or bruises. Don't you think so?" he narrowed his eyes at me as if inspecting my face to see where the best place to punch would be.

"You're probably right, but we'll have to do the injuries part close to the time of the trial because if we do it now it'll heal by the time the trial starts. Depending on how fast I'll heal of course, but we can't take any chances, " I tell him and he nods in agreement.

Raymond then said, "I call right side of the jaw."

Conrad groaned before saying, "You know my left punch isn't as good as my right, but fine. Otherwise I'll give Alexandra left and I'll take stomach and back. I bet the chain will help with arms--"

"Okay, that's enough. It's bad enough that you want to hurt him, but do you really have to call who does what? And who said Alexandra will hurt her mate?" we heard Lisa say from the kitchen, who's been awfully quiet this morning.

Conrad muttered something under his breathe which I couldn't quite make out and Raymond just shrugged and took another sip of his coffee.

We sat silently until the front door opened and from around the corner of the hallway Alexandra came. Her hair was in a French braid and she wore a light gray hoodie, black leggings and a pair of sneakers. She greeted us and took a seat next to me.

"Where were you earlier this morning?" Conrad questioned her after she took a cup of coffee from Lisa.

"I went to the elders, I asked them about the basics of the trial. Mostly about the battle between a prisoner against a pack member. They told me all fighting techniques are aloud as long as the prisoner doesn't shift, but except for that everything's aloud," she explained and we stayed silent.

Then she continued, "They also said that there can't be any interferences, otherwise the fight will be unfair. Thus it'll be counted as cheating and depending on which side planned the interference, everyone on the cheating side will be executed."

"But aren't we cheating? You're helping me win this trial and my opponent has no idea what'll happen," I asked them.

"We're not cheating, Matthew. Yes, we're giving you an advantage, but we have a reason for it. And it's not like we aren't ignoring the rules completely, you won't shift and as long as you stay alive we won't interfere. Afterwards we'll tell everyone about us being mates. And if you start losing we'll jump in and stop the battle, but please  if you start winning please don't kill my warrior," Alexandra answered my question.