From Beta to Luna

Chapter 14 — The Challenge

Damien

    Raina and I spent the next few hours curled up on the couch together, just talking. I could tell she was feeling a lot more relaxed around me now, and it was the first time I’d seen her genuinely smile in days. 

    She fell asleep on me about an hour ago, but I didn’t mind. I simply held onto her tightly, afraid that if I let her go, she’d run away from me again. As she slept peacefully in my arms, I gently stroked her hair, staring down at her face with a smile on my own. 

    I couldn’t get over how perfectly our bodies seemed to mold together. It was like she fit perfectly in my arms, like she was the missing puzzle piece I’d been trying to find. Her slow and even breathing indicated that she felt comfortable, and I was so incredibly happy to be spending this time with her. 

    But I knew it was getting close to 6PM. I knew I’d have to wake her up soon so we could head down to the challenge grounds on time. 

    I sighed as I gently kissed the top of her head, whispering, “Wake up, my love, it’s almost time to go.”

    She murmured sleepily, but she didn’t make any movements to get up. 

    “Raina, you’re gonna be late, c’mon,” I urged her again. 

    This time she shifted slightly on top of me, and I froze because her leg brushed right over my d**k. I silently cursed to myself as I felt it twitch slightly in my sweatpants, and I all but threw her off of me onto the opposite side of the couch. 

    “Ow, what the f**k!” she exclaimed suddenly, looking up at me with sleep-filled eyes. 

    I scrambled away from her, trying to hide my now raging erection and silently cursed. She didn’t even really touch me, and this is the reaction? Are you f*****g kidding me? Has it really been that long since the last time I got laid that an accidental brush was enough to get me this turned on?

    But I knew it wasn’t because of that. I knew it was because I was in the presence of my mate. 

    “I, uh—” 

    My voice was strained as I struggled to answer her without giving anything away, but I noticed her eyes travel down south and suddenly, she was flushed with embarrassment before she looked away. I groaned and grabbed a pillow to cover myself. 

    “I’m sorry,” I apologized, hoping she wouldn’t hate me and run. “It’s just, uh— It’s really hard to control myself around you.”

    She suddenly laughed a tinkling laugh, her hand moving to cover her mouth. 

    “It’s okay, Damien,” she finally said, making sure to keep her eyes on mine. “I honestly would’ve been more worried if you didn’t have this type of reaction around me. I’m gonna leave you to, uh, take care of that while I go and get ready for the challenge. I’ll see you down there.”

    She leaned forward to give me a quick kiss on the cheek, careful not to touch me anywhere else, and quickly left the room. Once the door was closed, I threw my head back against the couch and groaned. 

    Shower. 

    I needed a nice, cold shower. 

    Once I finished my shower, I dressed in a clean pair of gray joggers and a black v-neck. After I pulled on my black Nike running shoes, I turned to leave the room. 

    There were multiple people making their way down the hallway past me and towards the stairs. Word had spread quickly that the mysterious Alpha that nobody knew anything about was challenging Silver Moon’s Beta, and everyone was excited to see how it would play out. 

    I saw Ethan walking down the hallway towards me, and I waited until he was standing in front of me. 

    “Nervous?” he asked when he had reached me. 

    “I’m f*****g terrified,” I answered truthfully. “We’re just starting to be okay again. I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose her.”

    He smiled at me, clapping my shoulder in a reassuring manner before throwing an arm around my shoulders and leading me down the stairs. 

    “From what I’ve gathered just these past few days, your mate is pretty badass,” he told me reassuringly. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

    “I sure hope so.” 

    I was quiet for a moment before a pang of guilt hit me. I’d been so wrapped up in all that’s happened with Raina these past few days that I’d been completely neglecting my best friend. 

    When we reached the front door, I stopped him and apologized, “Hey, I’m sorry for being so distant these past few days. It’s just been… a lot. I didn’t mean to neglect you.”

    He laughed off my comment and began walking out the door again. 

    “Don’t worry about it, dude,” he easily replied. “You’ve been waiting for six years to find her. I would’ve been more concerned if you were neglecting her in favor of me.”

    The rest of the walk down towards the challenge ground was filled with easy conversation. Once we reached the arena, my eyes scanned the bleachers before they landed on Owen, Xander, and Nathan who were sitting on a front row bleacher. I motioned for Ethan to follow me, and once we reached them, I introduced everyone. 

    Taking the open seat next to Xander, Ethan followed me and took the seat next to me. 

    “It hasn’t started yet?” I questioned. 

    “Not yet. Lucas hasn’t shown yet,” Xander responded, his gaze fixated on something. 

    I followed his gaze to see that he was staring at Raina, who was sitting on a bench talking to some younger wolves that I recognized from Crystal Moon. She was laughing at something they were saying, and they seemed to be hanging onto her every word. 

    I felt the jealousy stir in me slightly but instantly fought it back. There was no need to be jealous. I’m sure they were just asking her for some training tips, or just wishing her good luck or something. 

    There was a hushed silence that fell over the sizable crowd that had gathered for the event, and I looked over to see Lucas walking onto the field, his Beta following closely behind. 

    I instantly scowled at the sight of Lucas. 

    I hated him with every fiber of my being, and a tiny part of me actually hoped that Raina would kill him today so I’d never have to look at his stupid face again. 

    Once Lucas was in view, Alpha John cleared his throat, signaling for silence. Everyone quieted down and waited for John to continue. 

    “Good evening, everyone, thank you for joining us today,” he began. “Earlier yesterday, we had a challenge issued for the opportunity to mate Silver Moon’s Beta, Raina Sterling, by Blood Moon’s Alpha, Lucas Crawford. In an unprecedented move, Beta Raina has accepted the challenge on her own behalf.”

    Suddenly, all the women in the crowd cheered, shouting things like “Yeah, girl, you get him!” and “Show everyone what women are capable of!” I smiled at the effect that Raina had on everyone and looked down at her to see her slightly pink in embarrassment with a shy smile on her face. 

    “Raina, Lucas, if you’d please meet in the middle,” John instructed. 

    They both walked towards the center of the challenge ring, facing each other. I felt a nervous lump rise in my throat when I saw Lucas’s tall frame towering over Raina’s tiny one. 

    Despite the staggering height difference, however, Raina held firm in her stance, defiantly staring directly into his eyes and never once wavering under his stare. 

    “Now, you know the rules,” John continued, looking back and forth between the two. “First, no shifting. The entire fight must be completed in your human forms. Any shifting at all, whether completely or partially, is an automatic forfeit. Second, there are only two ways to win this fight: either your opponent concedes, or your opponent dies. Pins don’t count unless the one pinned concedes the fight. Do you both understand the rules?”

    “Yes,” Raina and Lucas both instantly responded at the same time. 

    “Once the fight begins, nobody will be able to intervene until there is a clear winner,” John concluded. “Good luck to you both.”

    Alpha John stepped away from them and then took his seat at the small table with some other Council members before holding his hand up to signal the beginning of the fight. 

    My eyes snapped down to Raina and Lucas immediately, my breath caught in my throat. 

    Goddess, please make sure Raina makes it out unscathed.

    I watched as Raina and Lucas slowly circled each other, never once breaking eye contact. 

    Lucas sneered at her before taunting, “I can’t wait until I win this fight and make that pretty mouth of yours scream my name in pleasure.”

    My lips curled in anger, and my hands tightened into fists. I knew he was taunting me just as much as he was taunting her, and I hated that he was succeeding in getting under my skin. 

    Raina, however, only smirked in response. “Your name in pleasure? I’d be surprised if you could even figure out how to work the clasp of my bra with how dense you are, never mind actually being man enough to be able to satisfy me.”

    Lucas fully laughed at this, staring her down with a darkened look in his eyes. “You are quite feisty, you know? I can’t wait to break you.”

    Without another word, he launched forward, throwing a punch straight for her face. She easily blocked it, kicking forward with her right foot and knocking him off balance before using the momentum of his swing against him and flipping him over her. He landed on the ground at her feet with a loud thud, and she quickly jumped away, just as he made a reach towards her to pull her legs out from under her. 

    I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. I’d seen her in training before, sure, but actually watching her work in a real fight with real stakes on the line was entirely different. 

    It was almost as if she had anticipated he was going to try that underhanded tactic and knew immediately to get away. I felt slightly embarrassed, knowing that had that been me, I probably would’ve let my guard down for a split moment after he had hit the ground and most likely would’ve been taken down by the same move she had managed to avoid. 

    “She’s incredible,” Ethan breathed beside me, his eyes focused only on Raina. 

    I smiled. 

    Being one of the most skilled fighters in our pack, Ethan wasn’t one who was easily impressed, so for him to say that so easily about Raina was definitely a compliment. 

    “f**k, if that had been me, he might’ve taken me down with that move,” I heard Nathan mutter from beside Xander. 

    “Same,” Owen agreed next to him. 

    At least I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

    Xander didn’t say anything, simply kept his arms crossed against his chest and focused only on the fight. I also turned my attention back to the fight to see Lucas pulling himself from the ground, leisurely taking the time to brush the dirt from his clothes. 

    “Impressive, I’ll give you that,” he said to Raina, suddenly a little more serious than he had been when the fight first started. 

    “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” she retorted, and in a flash, she launched forward. 

    She aimed a kick to his rib cage which he blocked, but almost as if she had expected him to block it, she quickly shifted her body and switched to a roundhouse kick aimed for his head instead, which connected. 

    I grinned as the crowd cheered, mesmerized by Raina. I felt my heart swell with pride. 

    That was my mate. 

    That was my Luna. 

    The fight continued on, with Raina landing a few major hits on Lucas, and Lucas barely managing to land any hits of his own seeing as how her tiny frame granted her the speed to quickly duck and weave away from his swings in anticipation of what his next move would be. I could tell he was growing increasingly frustrated as she landed yet another hard kick straight to his rib cage, knocking the wind from him for a moment. 

    She stood back and watched him, panting hard for a moment, and I could tell she was beginning to tire. 

    “Dumbass. He probably thought it’d be an easy win when she accepted the challenge, not realizing what she’s actually capable of,” Nathan commented with a laugh. 

    “I don’t understand how such a tiny person can be so f*****g terrifying,” Owen chimed in, his brows furrowed in thought. 

    “He’s waiting it out,” Xander suddenly said, causing all of us to look at him. “She’s getting tired. He’s waiting for her to let her guard down, and then he’s gonna strike.”

    Almost as if on cue, I heard a loud “Ah!”, and after a moment, Raina came flying towards us, crashing into the wooden stands. 

    “Raina!” I shouted, standing up to grab her, but Xander immediately stopped me

    “No! You can’t touch her! If we intervene, she forfeits the match!” Xander yelled, and I instantly stilled. 

    f**k, he was right. 

    We all stood in our seats to look over the wooden railing to see her crumpled on the ground, her back against the wooden stands, and her tank top torn to shreds. 

    Lucas laughed, and taunted from across the ring, “I’m so sorry, love! I promise next time I undress you, I’ll be a little more gentle!”

    Raina growled in anger before standing up and ripping the remnants of her tank top off her body, leaving her in just her leggings and her black sports bra. She took this time to gather the stray strands of hair in her face and fix it back up into a neat ponytail. 

    “I’m going to f*****g kill him,” she snarled before launching herself back into the fight. 

    The next 10 minutes of the fight—bringing the total fight time so far to a staggering 45 minutes—continued on like normal, before suddenly, Raina made the deciding attack. 

    After Lucas threw a punch aimed for her face, Raina grabbed him by the arm, braced her hands against his shoulders, and used his own weight against him to roll him over her shoulders and throw him to the ground. He landed with a loud thud, and in a flash, she was straddling him, pinning his arms with her knees, as she began assaulting his face with her fists.

    Sickening sounds of bone crunching filled the air as she continued her onslaught of punches. 

    Every now and then, she’d pause and scream at him in between punches, “Do you concede? Do you concede!”

    But when he made no move to answer her, she’d continue throwing punches. 

    After what felt like an eternity, we watched as Lucas feebly lifted a hand, signaling that he had conceded. 

    I saw Raina breathe a sigh of relief and clamber off of his body, falling onto her back on the ground as her chest rose and fell rapidly. 

    There was silence throughout the arena before the crowd suddenly erupted in loud cheers, everyone standing in their seats and applauding. 

    Raina stood to her feet, faltering for a moment in her exhaustion, before straightening to her full height and flashing a victorious smile. 

    However, before anybody could react, a loud growl erupted through the arena. Raina turned to see what was going on, and all of a sudden, there was a gush of blood and an ear piercing scream as Raina flew backwards towards the stand again. 

    I froze, and it was as if everyone froze along with me. We watched to see Lucas standing there, his face slightly disfigured and covered with blood as it was desperately trying to heal itself from Raina’s earlier assault. My eyes traveled down to see that he had partially shifted his right arm, his claws now stained bright red with Raina’s blood. 

    And suddenly, I was blinded by pure rage. 

    I couldn’t control myself; I flew out of my seat and shifted into my wolf form, flying forward into the challenge ring. Before he had time to defend himself, I brought my massive paw down across his body, slashing down his chest and knocking him backwards. I was furious; my vision was red. 

    I wanted this motherfucker dead. 

    There was sudden panic that broke throughout the arena as everyone clambered to escape from the bloodbath that was about to unfold. I paid no attention to them though, because all I could think about was killing the man in front of me. 

    However, before I could continue my attack, Xander was standing in front of me—in between my prey and me—still in his human form. 

    I growled lowly in warning and almost killed him for getting in my way, but he looked over his shoulder at me, and ordered, “Shift back. Go to her, she needs you. I’ll take care of this.”

    I hesitated for a moment, but when I heard Nathan yell out in a worried tone, “Oh Goddess, Xander, it won’t stop bleeding! There’s so much blood!” I knew he was right. 

    I shifted back to my human form, taking the emergency basketball shorts that Ethan always carried for me and hurriedly threw them on before I made my way over towards Raina. 

    She had her head in Owen’s lap as Nathan was using the shirt he had been wearing to try and stop the bleeding. She was conscious, but barely, as she suddenly coughed up bright red blood. 

    I wanted to vomit as my insides twisted inside me. 

    She had four deep s***h marks beginning from the top of her right shoulder, traveling diagonally down her torso, before stopping at the top of her left hip. Her sports bra was torn to shreds, but in that moment, I didn’t care that anyone else could see her; I just cared about whether or not she would be okay. 

    “You take one more f*****g step towards her, and I’ll rip your f*****g throat out,” I heard Xander threaten over my shoulder. 

    I turned to see that Lucas had been attempting to make his way over to us, but he dared not move in fear of Xander actually killing him like I’m sure he wanted to. 

    Lucas sneered at Xander, an almost manic look in his eyes, as he asked, “Do you wanna hear a story?”

    “Does it look like I wanna hear a f*****g story!” Xander bellowed, and I almost cowered at the pure rage in his voice. 

    Alpha John was suddenly beside us, ordering Owen and Nathan to take Raina to the pack doctor immediately. I felt both of them quickly make haste to pick her up and carry her off to the pack doctor, but I was more interested in what Lucas had to say for a moment. 

    Ignoring Xander’s words, Lucas continued, “A couple of years ago, I lost all the claws in my right hand in a duel against a nasty Alpha because I tried taking his Luna for my own.”

    My lips curled in disgust. 

    Of course he had a history of doing this. 

    He slowly took his shirt off and began wiping his claws clean as he continued in an amused tone, “So I got them replaced. With pure silver.”

    Realization suddenly dawned on all of us. 

    That sick bastard. 

    I WANTED HIM DEAD. HOW DARE HE? 

    He laughed maniacally as he taunted, “I’ll be honest, I really didn’t think she’d beat me today. But if I can’t have her, then at least I can sleep easy at night knowing the b***h is dead, and nobody can have her.”

    I launched forward suddenly but was restrained by both Alpha John and Ethan. I growled in anger, wanting desperately to rip his f*****g head off, and I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let me kill him. 

    “Damien, no! If you kill him right now, it’ll start a war between our packs!” Ethan yelled, trying his best to keep me under control. 

    “I don’t care! Let me go, so I can rip him to shreds!” I snarled, pissed that he had the audacity to try and stop me. 

    “Damien, let me handle this,” Alpha John ordered firmly. 

    His voice held such calm authority that I had no choice but to listen. 

    Standing up from us, Alpha John stood, a fury I’d never seen in him before completely overtaking his very being. 

    “Alpha Lucas,” he stated, walking forward to stand beside Xander, “you have embarrassed yourself and your pack. You have tarnished the laws of our people. You have disrespected both my pack, and the Silver Moon Pack, and every pack that has attended today as part of the Northern Allyship. Your request to join this Allyship is officially denied. Please gather your pack members and leave my pack lands immediately. If you are not gone within the next thirty minutes, I will put out the order for every wolf under the Allyship’s command to hunt you down and kill you.”

    Lucas simply laughed at this before responding, “That’s perfectly fine by me. I only wanted to join this conference this week to see if I could find out anything interesting about you all, and I surely did find something interesting. Mark my words. If she lives through this—although I highly doubt she will with her pathetically slow healing abilities—I will come back for her. And don’t think you can hide her from me because I will know. Now that I’ve had a glimpse of what she’s capable of, I don’t think I can give her up quite yet. This won’t be the last you see of me.”

    And with that, he turned away from us and quickly disappeared into thin air. 

    I blinked in confusion. 

    Werewolves can’t do that. That must mean—

    “That bastard partakes in dark magic,” Xander spat angrily, answering my thoughts for me. 

    My breaths came in quick pants, my chest constricting painfully. I couldn’t fully wrap my head around everything that had just happened, but I only had one thought in my mind now: Raina. 

    Getting up from my position on the ground, I took off running in the direction of where I thought the pack hospital might be. 

    Goddess, please, make sure she’s okay.

    Raina, you promised me. You promised me you’d come back to me in one piece. 

    Please come back to me in one piece.