Scarred Alphas by Norisha May
Chapter 61

"Nubian Pharaoh, you are up."

Kanda-who stands next to me-grabs her huge axe and walks toward the guard.

I finally feel like I can breathe again.

"You better win, shifter. I put some pretty penny down on you." The guard tells her.

She gives him an unbothered look as she walks out.

The guards close the door behind her and we rush to the small opening to watch-including me. Some paragraphs are incomplete if you are not reading this novel on Narugi.com. Visit Narugi.com to read the complete chapters for free."He called her shifter, she's not a werewolf." She smells nothing like a werewolf.

"Girl, there are different kinds of shifters." Sheril says.

"Werewolves are the most predominant ones but there are also werebears and werecats. Kanda is one of those last two. Never seen her shift though so I don't know which it is. "Oh. I didn't know that."

"Zao likes collecting rare people. To him, we are like animals.

The piece of shit.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have one of my personal favorites. The Nubian Pharaoh. She'll be going against the One-eyed Tiger. Two seasoned champions. This is going to be good." All I can see is just a bit small part of the pit. "I can't really see much from here."

"Yeah, we can only get glimpses from the fight."

Suddenly we hear the crowd cheering. The fight has

started. I can hear the sounds of metal clashing together.

I get glimpses of Kanda and the man fighting. This fight lasts much longer than the one with poor Musa.

From time to time, the crowd roars which I can only assume is when one of the fighters is near death. I can hear groans and grunts as the sound of sword fighting continues. It feels like an eternity when finally the announcer speaks.

"And there you have it! We have a winner! What show!"

I hold my breath waiting to see if they announce it but soon the door rattles and the guards walk in. They push Kanda in who has a few wounds but is alive and kicking. "You did it!" I cheer.

She smiles. "Definitely broke a sweat there but I made it."

"Enough! You!" The guard takes one of the other two girls by the arm and pulls her. "Your turn."

"Oh God! I am not ready!

Please!" She shouts but he drags her out of the room.

Needless to say, that fight ends quickly and she never comes back.

My heart pounds as I wait for the guards to come back but they don't.

"It is break time. After three fights, they take a thirty-minute break." Kanda says as she wraps her wounds in bandages.

"I'm going to die!" The last girl says.

I sit in a corner away from everyone trying to calm myself. There is only three of us left; me, Sheril, and this petrified girl.

Damit! What am I going to do? I had a bit of fighting training with Victor but, is it enough? Who will I go up against?

I touch my face. It is warm until my hands go further up and I touch cold metal.

These people are crazy. Look at what they did to me. I am not sure that even Father would have thought of something like this.

...Father. Oliver killed him. I can't deny that I feel sadness for the sadistic bastard. He deserved what he got but still...he was my father. I do wish I could have gotten to know more about him.

I think of Colt and how much I miss him. Is he looking for me? I am sure he is. I wish he would replace meright now but that is just wishful thinking. I know I am going to fight. The question is, will I survive?

The guard suddenly rushes in. He points at me and throws me something which I quickly catch. "Put that on. Alpha Zao wants to see that on you."

"What...is it?" I ask standing up.

"A mask? I don't know!" He says with anger.

I look at it and it is a tasseled nose and mouth mask. The dangling tassels are made with rhinestones and the bottom part curves into a v-shape that frames my jaw and chin when I put it on.

This is obviously just for looks because it does nothing else. Honestly, it gets in the way when I move and the strands flail around making beaded noises.

"Now come."

I gulp and slowly walk out.

"Good luck!" Kanda says still tending to her wounds. They lock the door behind me and lead me to the field.

I am surrounded by a small mass of people. This is nothing like the Colosseum I have seen on TV from Rome. It is small and made out of wood but it looks dangerous. There are pikes sticking up everywhere from the walls. I am sure that it is so that we don't try to escape. In the crowd, I spot someone who looks familiar but from here, I can't quite make out where I have seen him.

I wonder if my mind is paying tricks on me.

The thing that suddenly really catches my attention is the fresh pool of blood on the sandy floor. I can also see the bloody drag marks of when they dragged the bodies away. I try to cover my nose-though the damn mask won't let me-the smell of the blood is strong.

In front of me, the guards bring a man tall, bald with a scar across his face, and one of his eyes is white. I can only assume he can't see from it. The man bares his teeth at me with a nasty smile.

"What a pretty little thing you've brought me." He mutters to the guards.

The man holds a huge axe who effortlessly rests it on his shoulder.

"Well here is a treat ladies and gentlemen..." The announcer says.

I have no idea why he mentions ladies when there are only men here.

"Here we have one of our veterans, The Caspian Rogue against our very new Persian Princess."

I roll my eyes. This is just so ridiculous.

Did he say, Rogue? How in the world am I supposed to take this man down without shifting?

I notice that he has a collar with spikes that go inward towards his neck and now thinking about it, Kanda and a few others have it too though theirs was smaller because they were all smaller in statue than this man. I can tell that if he shifts, those spikes will kill him.

I see. So Zao doesn't want us to shift. They didn't put one of me and I am sure that it is because of the mask.

My eyes replace Zao at the top of the wooden stadium. He talks with some men and has a smile that pisses me off.

This is all just a f**king game to him. This man is third on the list of people I hate. Ezra is first and Oliver is second.

The guards let us go and run away. Suddenly, the Caspian f**ker swings the big axe at me. I was not ready for it but somehow I barely managed to doge going backwards.

The axe hits the ground, lodging itself on the muddy sand.

People in the crowd roar with excitement.

As the huge man tries to take the axe back with both hands trying to use his strength, I swing my daggers and slice his arm up. He immediately pulls away but with that momentum, he manages to take the axe with him and swings the axe at me. I twirl around, dodging the close encounter with the sharp metal.

As I had intended, I rely on my speed which works well against this man. He has a heavy weapon and is much bigger so he is slow but one hit is all he needs to get me. I dance around him trying to stay far away from his weapon.

Thank you, Victor. Those lessons did come in handy. I would not have been able to last this long if not for what he taught me.

At first, the cheering of the crowd was a distraction but soon I replace myself forgetting about it and concentrating on the fight.

This man continues to swing the axe and I continue to doge it but then he does something I do not expect. As he swings the axe, he lets it go. The axe flies a few feet away but now with his bare hands, he grabs me by the hair and then he swings his other hand and hits me on the chest, making me fall and hit the ground. It takes all of my air out and my daggers fly from my hands.

As I try to replace my breath, the man swings his giant foot and plasters it on my chest.

He puts his whole weight on me and it almost feels like he is going to crush my chest in.

As if he has won, he puts his arms up in victory, and the crowd screams with excitement. My chest starts to hurt and I can feel he is about to break some bones.

I am very surprised when from nowhere, Sheril appears and kicks him in the chest. He staggers back and finally, I can breathe.

The crowd goes wild.

"Suprise my people!" The announcer says. "It is a fight of two against two. Enter Lady Death for the female team and another new recruit for the male team, The Chieftan."

As he says this, Sheril immediately offers me her hand which I take. She lifts me up and motions to the other new contestant running in.

Two against two. The crowd goes crazy.

Sheril swings her spear at the Caspian guy I was fighting.

I look at the man who is rushing in our direction with every intent to hurt us.

If I think about it too much, I will psych myself out.

I grab my knives and rush the man that runs in our direction. He is smaller than Caspian-I am sure that is not his name but I don't know it so that is what I call him. The man has momentum but so do I. I jump in the air with knives at the ready-which he was not expecting- and wrap my legs around his waist, then I start stabbing him on the shoulders, n*ck, and back where my hands reach. The man has no time to do

anything, he holds his bleeding n*ck-where I sliced at the jugular, and just like that, he falls on the ground with me on him. I get up and do not look at him. I know that if I do, it will haunt me for the rest of my life...I just deliberately killed a man.

The crowd started booing me instead of cheering which I don't really give a shit about but it does confuse me.

I look back and see Sheril locked in battle with Caspian. Shutting all my emotions, I stride towards them, looking for an opening and when I replace it, I dip in and lodge my knife into Caspian's back. This surprises him and distracts him enough. He reaches back with his hands trying to grab the knife that is still stuck on him. Sheril takes advantage of this and immediately digs her spear into his chest.

Caspian stumbles back and then falls to the ground, dead. Some cheer and some boo us.

"What a twist!" The announcer cheers.

Sheril and I are ushered back to the barracks by the guards.

"Damn. Good job." Kanda says. "You live to fight another day."

As she says this, the guards take the girl that is left but she doesn't go quietly. She screams and stomps as they drag her.

"Thank you." I say to Sheril.

"That brute had me."

"You have luck on your side, girl. This is the first time that they do a two against two."

I don't know how lucky I really am, I mean being in this kind of position does not seem so lucky to me but if that out there was luck, then I'll take it. However, I killed man. He probably had no choice but to fight too and maybe he didn't even want to. I took his life do easilyand now...this will haunt me.