Werewolf Baby

Chapter 21.

Blood oozed from the inside of my cheek, pressing past my teeth, over my lips, and down my chin slowly as I panted heavily. Everything hurt. My stomach, my back, my cheek, my legs, my arms, my head, everything. People surrounded us, Reed was chained up off to the side screaming and howling, almost deafening me. The trial or whatever they were all calling this was taking way longer than it usually does. But the contestants are usually of the same species.

"You have nine hours, Renee," Blake had said grimly.

I rolled my eyes at the thought of Blake. Stupid, idiotic, biased, mean Blake who was the one that told me I only had nine hours to train. Nine hours to prepare for a fight to near death. Nine hours to say goodbye to Reed. Nine hours to hate the Nightwalker Pack because Reed's father wouldn't let him say goodbye.

Nine hours to think about how badly Shay's going to beat me.

And she was beating me. Badly. After the second punch, I tasted blood. I had landed on my side where Shay began to kick my stomach and ribs until I felt like I couldn't move. That was when Reed started to fight for me. He shoved, clawed, and screamed until he was almost in the ring Shay and I had been placed in. It was a ring formed by tape and surrounded by both packs. My pack was behind where Shay was placed and vice versa so that no packs could help their pack mates in the ring.

They had finally been forced to use chains with flecks of silver in them to restrain Reed. Each time Shay hit me harder, Reed would start howling. My heart went out to him each time, making me want to comfort him when I was the one that was being beaten ruthlessly. Somehow, I had managed to get in one solid punch right in the beginning. It was the second Reed's father had declared the moon at its full peak. She had barely turned her head all the way around from looking at her Alpha when I punched her as hard as I could.

And it barely even did anything. Shay's head snapped to the right, the direction I punched her, and then right back to me. That was when she punched me back in the face, ten times harder. I had bitten my cheek leaving me to taste blood for the next twenty minutes as Shay beat me nearly senseless.

"Shay, wait," I choked out as she readied her fist.

Her fist froze by her face and she stared back down at me, "What?" she growled.

I rolled up onto my feet with a tremendous effort, still hunched forward, holding my side where she had kicked me one too many times.

Taking in a deep breath I dropped back down to my hip and swung my legs underneath her as hard as I could. I knocked her feet out underneath her, making Shay land on her back. I ponced, wrestling to keep her on her back. She had gotten the wind knocked out of her making it easier for me to match her strength.

The pain that shot up my hip reminded me of the pain that stabbed me through the heart when Reed's father forbade him to see me before the match. Darren had been the one to tell me Reed couldn't visit me before the fight. Right as my dad told me the specifics about everything. If I failed to discipline Shay, I wouldn't be accepted as the Luna of both packs. They wouldn't allow it, either pack. And besides, there was already loads of politics surrounding the fact that I'm mated to the soon to be Alpha of the rival pack and that I'm human. Also, I'm weak and five minutes into the fight, I felt like I was dying.

Shay was up again. Immediately, she was on her feet and standing over me, reaching for the collar of my tight fitting shirt Melanie recommended I wear. Not only did it allow me to move in all the necessary ways, but it also looked nice. A good shirt for my life to be ruined in.

Shay pulled her hand back to her face and struck me. I cried out as I felt my lip split. She let me go and I fell to the ground with a thud, the sound of Reed's screaming in the background. I could feel the eyes of everyone on me, burning holes through my skin. I could practically hear the judgement, disapproval, pity, shame, a mix of awful emotions pouring out of all of them and into me. It all seemed to resonate in the bottom of my stomach. It was like a big stew of nasty feelings brewing and marinating, slowly making its way up to my heart.