Achilles Heel

Fighting Athena

I looked to Achilles, only his eyes were a different color.  They were an amber, almost red color. 

'Shadow,' Skye all but purred. 

'Oh, so now you're talking again?' 

'We need to prove to them,' Skye smirked, 'Just what we are capable of.  This pack is a dangerous one, Mira.  You know of their reputation.' 

I nodded, looking at the group around me.  A lot of them were extremely muscular and had tattoos and piercings.  Just about all of them wore dark colored clothes as well.  Not a single one of them looked approachable.  They all had this air of intimidation about them.  Janna and I stuck out like sore thumbs.  

'Let me do this,' Skye pleaded.  Without giving the response, I felt my eyes glow, "I accept." 

'I didn't say that.' 

'They were going over the terms of the fight,' Skye said simply, 'I was listening.' 

When Magdalena backed up, I looked at Athena.  She was automatically on the defense.  She was watching me.  Analyzing me.  

'Do we attack first?' 

'No,' Skye smirked, 'first we watch her.  We are testing our wills.  And by the twitch in her eye, she's already getting wary of us to make the first move.' 

She was right.  Athena lunged forward.  Her claws extended as if she was going to swipe at me.  But I used her momentum and swung her over us.  Pinning the clawed hand to the ground, I felt my own hand begin to change, and while I used my elbow to block her other hand, my claws were poking her neck. 

"Break." Atlas called.  I looked up and away from Athena.  She pushed me off her and swiped at my face.  Atlas and Mags raced forward, but I made it to my feet and we both held our arms up.  I backed away and wiped the sweat from my face, only to realize that it wasn't sweat.  I looked at my palm to see blood.  Athena smirked at me. 

'Oh she wants to play like that,' Skye grinned.  

'What do you mean?' 

I lunged at her, and this time she reversed it, throwing me to the ground.  But instead of landing on top of me like I did to her, she landed on her knees.  I rolled through and did the same.  She rushed me, and suddenly 1, turned into four copies of her.  

'What?' 

She zipped around me, beating me from different angles. 

'Her gift...she replicates.' 

I howled, and she stopped moving.  The group behind her covered their ears and began falling to their knees.  She hunched over and began to hold her ears.  Her copies disappeared, and I knew which one was the real Athena.  I ran at her, and baseball slid into her ankle.  She tumbled to the ground and clutched it as I swiped at her face this time, drawing blood. 

"BREAK!" 

I rolled away from her, not wanting a repeat of her cutting my cheek, and sat at the edge of the cleared space.  

'What did we just do?' 

'There are still many things you do not know about our talents,' She smiled.  

'But what was that?' I asked, 'You howled a-" 

'We disarmed her gift,' Skye replied, 'I know and can disarm most of the gifts wolves have.' 

'Most?' 

'We are not all powerful,' Skye laughed. 

"I'm calling it," Atlas sighed. 

"What?" Athena yelled, breaking me from my conversation with Skye, "NO!  I can still-" 

"Your ankle is broken," Atlas responded, "it'll take hours to heal." 

"I can fight," she growled, standing up.  She hobbled over towards me, favoring her other leg, "fight me." 

I looked to Atlas, who was shaking his head and I stood up.  She was glaring at me.  This was clearly something serious for her.  Achilles stepped between the two of us, "she will fight you on a day that you are healed." 

"This is not your battle, brother," she growled. 

"No, but I am the Alpha," he said, an authoritative tone.  I recognized that tone.  That was the one that all alphas had, and used on pack members who wouldn't listen to reason otherwise. 

"I'll fight her," I said calmly.

She smirked, looking at her brother.  I felt my eyes glowing again and Shadow came to the forefront.  Neither one of us said a word, but it was like he felt proud of the fact that I still wanted to fight.  I could feel  a swelling happiness in my chest.  

'He still loves us,' Skye smiled. 

'Why wouldn't our mate love us?' I asked. 

She huffed, 'I did hurt our mates feelings in the car.  You know, when I told Achilles that no one owned us...'

'That hurt Shadows feelings?' 

She nodded.  

"Let's go!" Athena called.  I looked back to Atlas and Mags who shrugged.  It was obvious that Atlas didn't approve of his kid sister still fighting, but the pack was still invested in watching us.  

That's when my breath caught in my throat.  

Athena shifted and lunged at me.  I ducked in time, and rolled out of the way, but she was already hot on my trail.  

'We have to shift.' I said nervously, 'we never shifted.' 

'We can win without shifting,' Skye replied.  Only she didn't sound certain.  I could hear the nervousness in her voice.  

Athena lunged at me again, and this time, she caught my leg as I tried to roll out of the way.  Her claws shredded my leggings, and cut open my leg.  I hissed in pain.  

F**k. 

'It's okay,' Skye said nervously.  I watched as Athena hobbled around, favoring her broken ankle.  Two lunges had done a number on her, and she was clearly in pain.  I got up as she lunged again.  She caught me in the abdomen as I couldn't roll away quick enough.  

I screamed out in pain as my stomach tried to heal itself quick enough.  

'I'm sorry,' Skye whispered.  

Before I could question her a howl ripped through the open sky and all of the wolves covered their ears.  Athena fell to the ground and did the same.  Then all at once, it felt like my body was on fire.  I heard snapping and cracking, and it felt like someone was pouring lava all over me.  I screamed in pain as I felt my body contort.  

"F**K," I heard someone yell, "grab the pack doctor.  She's never shifted before!" 

I felt myself moving, rolling around on the ground as more bones snapped and elongated to move into their proper positions. I howled once more, only this howl felt like it ripped through my body like tissue paper.  It went lower than I've heard before.  

After a second I opened my eyes and blinked.  Breathing hard, my snout kicked up dirt.  I lifted my head and stood on my paws.  Looking around at the Dark Moon Pack they stared at me, clearly shocked. 

'Why are they staring at us, Skye?' I asked, 'Are we ugly or something?' 

"My goddess," Achilles muttered.  His jaw had dropped. 

'Skye, what's going on?' 

'They see me,' she replied proudly.