The Gladiator Wolf King - Book 3

Chapter 6 – My Reality

KELLEN

The morning after they stuck me in the back of the neck with that large needle that made me feel like my brain was an inferno, I found myself being transported again, with the same three men, the Beta, the Omega, and the mute rogue.

This time they had ushered us into an open-back truck, with our little sack of supplies. They had put silver cuffs on us again, thankfully without the spikes this time.

The truck slowly moved through the town, down the dirt and stony road. The truck bounced and jarred us around and the hot sun beat down upon our bare skin, causing the skin on my still healing back to be pulled tight. The dried blood and skin pulled tightly and caused me slight discomfort.

I lifted my hand to the back of my neck, feeling the hard, small lump that sat just below the surface of the skin. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what they injected into me, but by the feel of it, it was a kind of chip, maybe?

I could feel Conri stirring in the back of my mind but his communication with me was limited and I wasn’t sure if that was by his choice or not. I was just thankful he was there. If I could feel him then I knew he was still with me.

Ranked wolves had better communication with their animal spirits, unlike omegas or rogues. We were able to have more open communication with them, and a closer relationship with our counterparts. So to feel Conri like this and not have that closeness made me wonder if this was what Omegas experienced.

I wiped the sweat from my brow as the truck jerked and I looked around at my surroundings as we passed them by. We were definitely in a wolf pack, I determined, as my nose had caught the scent of pack wolves.

Behind the truck, trailing us, one guard sat with us in the open truck bed and two more trailed behind on horses, carrying the dreaded cattle prods as they sat high and mighty on the backs of the beautiful animals.

As a shifter, I never bothered to ride a horse. There was no need, we either took a car or shifted, our animals being able to match the speed of a horse easily. I have seen them used in the human towns in our kingdom, on the fields, but I have never seen a shifter ride one before. I pondered at the thought of why they would be riding the horses, utterly confused. I wanted to ask them but they didn’t seem very friendly and I really didn’t want to get shocked again.

We passed several buildings, all built with the same red clay and sandstone as the rest of the place I had already seen, the buildings were all single story and low to the ground with red-tiled roofs. The residents mulled around shopping in the market and the ones that passed by us shrunk towards the wall of the buildings as if in cower. I raised an eyebrow at their odd behavior.

One man dared to look as we rolled by him, he had stopped talking on his phone and stared at us, more particularly at me. His mouth hung open slightly and strained to remember if his face seemed familiar. It did not.

What caught my attention the most was his lavish clothing, not a suit but a thin silk coat with gold trim and a pair of fine cotton white pants. So different from the clothing we wore in my kingdom. Even the women seemed to wear a strange fashion of long light-colored dresses with a pinafore of some color over their cotton attire.

I heard a cry from behind me and turned to see what was going on. On the side of the road stood several young women, completely naked, a man was beating one with a stick.

“Good for nothing w***e!” he shouted at her while cracking the lithe stick across her legs and ass. “You take it and accept it. Next time you bite you f*****g half-breed, you will be sold to the Delta house!” He screamed at the poor girl as she whimpered and coward from him.

I looked at the guard in the back of the truck with us and raised a brow at him.

“Fuckin’ half breeds need to know their place” He laughed and showed me a smile full of rotten teeth.

Half breeds I thought. I tried to catch a scent from the women but we were now too far. “Half breeds?” I dared to ask him.

“Yeah, human shifter hybrids, ain't good for nothing but f*****g” he laughed again.

“Humans?”

“Quiet Slave! Before I use this on you!” One of the men on the horses came up beside the truck and threatened me, waving the cattle prod at me threateningly.

I bit back the growl that was ready to leave my chest, and I felt my wolf stir at the disrespect this guard had shown us. I would love nothing more than to tear the disgusting prick shreds, yet something in my gut told me to not lash out. I could only assume my gut feeling was Conri.

A short while later, after passing through the town and a few miles away the trucks, us and the one holding a few females that were ahead of us, along with the guards made our way to a very large and very tall wall, that seemed to span for hundreds of feet. The wall looked to be constructed in the same sandstone as the buildings from the town.

On the far side of the wall, sitting high up, the roof kissing the cloudless blue sky sat an elaborate building, something akin to a palace, with several spires. The structure looked smaller than the royal palace but larger than a pack mansion. Yet it was too far away to determine its true size.

I noticed no flag or colors flew from the spires.

It appeared like the palace was inside the walls of this place.

We came to an abrupt stop outside a small door in the wall. This was not the main entrance. That I could tell just by looking at it.

“Out, out!” The guard hustled us.

We were pushed towards the metal door that looked out of place against the plain texture of the wall. The door opened and led to a long dark tunnel. I was thankful for the darkness, as it was much cooler than the harsh rays of the sun and my body began to cool down instantly, my eyes adjusting to the darkness as we ventured further into the boundary of the imposing wall.

“Keep moving!” A guard bristled prodding a few of us as we passed by him, to make us move a little faster. Either that or the guy just wanted to be an ass.

At the end of the dark tunnel, I saw a bright light illuminating the entrance, and when I thought about it, it gave me a sense of doom. The stories that people describe about a light at the end of the tunnel, before they meet the moon goddess, seemed a believable notion at this moment.

I took a deep breath, not because I was scared. Far from it. It was more the anticipation of what I would find at the end of the tunnel. In truth, I was pretty curious, despite my situation, about where I was and what was in for.

I kept my eyes wide open and alert as we emerged from the darkness into the bright and heated light of the day. The sun caused my eyes to squint for a few seconds until they once again adjusted to the stark contrast.

“Line up slaves!” A new Guard bellowed at us. “My name is Baron, you will call me Beta or sir. Is that clear?” No one said anything “I SAID IS THAT CLEAR SLAVES!”

A whip cracked behind us making the omega jump “Yes sir” the omega and Ajani said in unison.

“You!” The Beta pointed at the rogue “You will address me as Beta or sir!” The rogue bowed his head to the Beta. “Speak you, i***t!” The Beta spat at him then backhanded the rogue.

The rogue stumbled slightly but squared his shoulders as he stood straight and looked up past the Beta, not daring to make eye contact. I saw another guard come up behind the rogue with a whip and lifted it, ready to strike.

“Beta Baron, sir!” I called out. The guard paused his action, his handheld high, poised, and ready to administer a lashing. The Beta turned to me and in two strides was in front of my face. “Beta Baron, the rogue has no tongue, he is mute. His bow was to acknowledge your words.” I said in desperation in an attempt to hopefully stop the rogue from taking an unnecessary beating.

“You dare to look me in the eye pretty boy?” He sneered. “I should give you a lashing just for the audacity.” His eyes wandered over me, looking me up and down. A look of pure disgust on his face and when he began to push his aura out I stood tall. His rank and aura did not affect me, even in my wolf’s weakened state.

I stared into the poor excuse of a Beta’s eyes his own Murky blues glaring at mine. I called on Conri, hoping to exert a little of my power, and luckily for me, he responded and I pushed my aura slightly towards the Beta, all the while still holding eye contact.

The Beta huffed and dropped his eyes from me, I didn’t fail to see the surprise in them before he averted his gaze back to the rogue. A look of bewilderment sat on his features as he took a step back. I internally smiled; pleased that he now knew my rank was higher than his.

Even though I couldn’t do anything about my predicament at the moment, I knew it was just a matter of time. It would be foolish of me to try anything right now, I was outnumbered and still had no idea where I was, or what kind of slavery I had been thrown into. Everything about this was so bizarre and I needed all the facts before I could make a move and attempt an escape.

“Slaves, welcome to the Sandstorm Royal Pack. You are now the property of Alpha Vargr! He has purchased each of you. Henceforth this day you will be a slave to this pack and serve as entertainment you will be known as Gladiators.”

My head snapped up, my eyebrows knitting together. Gladiator? Did he just say, Gladiator? Surely I must have heard wrongly?

‘We did not.’ Conri’s voice filled my head and it was a welcoming sound making me breathe just a little easier.

“Tomorrow you will face your first challenge. Tomorrow you will either live or die but today is the beginning of the rest of your lives. Do well in the games and you will be rewarded. Follow the rules and you live an easy life as a slave. If you try to deviate from the rules you will suffer or you will die.” The Beta bellowed, his voice droning on.

As he spoke, I looked around. Taking note of every entrance and exit, and every guard and their position. It was only then I noticed that we were standing in a large open arena. On the north side of the arena were a vast number of stone steps, arranged like continuous bleachers or seating for an outdoor auditorium.

The internal walls hosted various entryways, like the one we walked through. I wondered where each of them led to. On the south wall, there were archways, like windows with bars across them, either to keep someone out or more likely to keep something in. On the west and east side of the arena, the entryways were either open or had a metal door blocking off the passage that lay behind them.

As I stood there, still in the same pair of black boxers I had been kidnapped in over a week ago, I couldn’t help but laugh. This couldn’t be real, could it? I felt like I had been transported back in time, to an age that was briefly brought up in history, to a place that was something straight out of a movie.

I knew what a Gladiator was, but surely this man who calls himself a Beta couldn’t mean the same thing?

Still, in a daze, my mind not comprehending the rest of Beta Baron’s words, I felt Ajani nudge me. I looked at him and then at the guard who was leading us towards another entrance on the south wall, towards the structures with the barred windows.

We took a step or two down into the covered building that lined this side of the arena. Still holding my sack of supplies I followed Ajani down and inside.

It was dark, with only a limited amount of light reaching inside the building, just enough to see and not be shrouded by darkness. It smelt musty and damp, coupled with the scent of old sand and wood shavings. There was the distinct smell of blood. Some fresh and some old, the coopery tang to the blood permanently ground into the floors and walls of what looked like they used to be holding cells.

The loud bang and clanking of a barred door brought me out of my observance. I looked behind me to find we had been closed in, the way out barricaded by a cell door.

“These are your new digs. Find an empty cot or sleep on the floor. You will be given three meals a day, eat or don’t eat.” One of the guards yelled to use through the bars and then turned away and left the four of us to discover this place for ourselves.

I looked at my three travel buddies, the omega’s eyes were wide and I knew he could smell the underlying scent of death that surrounded us. The rogue ventured forward, I assume to find a cot and Ajani had a perplexed look on his face, which I was sure, mirrored my own.

I walked further into the building and started to realize we were not alone.