The Tribrid War

Chapter 7

Ravenna pulled up to the tavern and looked around at the crowd. She smiled when she noticed more spectators in the parking lot than usual. Her eyes wandered toward the door and saw the line out the door of people waiting to enter the arena.

This ought to bring a good payout.

She thought as she smiled to herself and dismounted her bike. She grabbed her duffel bag and quickly entered the building. Although once she was in the tavern, a few men made passes at her, she ignored the catcalls and drunken pickup lines and went to the ladies' room. She quickly changed and headed downstairs to locate her manager, Titus.

"There's my star," he flamboyantly yelled in her direction.

"What's the deal?" She asked as she walked up to him and sat next to him.

"Dunno, a big announcement is supposed to happen tonight. I was requested to bring all my fighters."

Ravenna scanned the room; there wasn't an empty seat in the house. The crowd was loud, and the Bookies ran around left and right as they tried to get their client's bets on time. The bartenders and the servers were frantically trying to get drinks served and people to quiet down as the patrons were letting off steam from their hard day.

Ravenna ordered a glass of water and began to watch the current fight between two humans. This fight was brutal for both contenders as they only fought with brute strength. One contender named Brick had a broken nose and one eye swollen shut, while the other contender, Javier, had blood streaming from the numerous gashes on his face.

This fight is boring; can we get to the announcement already? She thought to herself as she swirled the straw around in her water.

"Will I be able to fight tonight," she asked Titus excitedly. "I've got a ton of aggression to let out!"

Titus smiled; he knew he always made good money when she had aggression to let out. "I'm not sure yet; let's wait for the announcement."

Finally, Brick won the match by knockout after one ferocious full-body slam. Raven clapped for the winner as she looked at the human in awe. She knew that move required a ton of strength and patience. As the doctors pulled the knocked-out Javier to the ring's apron, the announcer walked into the ring and took a deep breath.

"It's about time!" Raven said to Titus.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Midnight Rose Arena this evening; I have an unfortunate announcement. As many of you know, our beloved Queen was murdered as she was sleeping two nights ago. So, as a result, per the royal decree, the Midnight Arena and Midnight Rose will no longer be open to any species but humans. So please collect any winnings we may owe you and go home!"

Raven's jaw dropped; she spun around and looked at Titus in disbelief. "I need this! Fighting is my life," she screamed as she fought back the tears that wanted to fall. She took a deep breath knowing this day kept getting worse as it went on.

Titus looked sadly at her; he knew his meal ticket had just got expelled from fighting. "I'll try to bribe a few people; many don't know you are a wolf, but maybe it will work. Give me some time, and I'll call you with updates."

She nodded, stood up, gave Titus a two-finger wave, grabbed her bag, and headed up the stairs. As Ravenna headed towards the door, she didn't miss the drunken screams about the Werewolf that killed the Queen, and she sighed loudly because things now finally made sense. She took one last look at the tavern and watched dozens of shifters leave, upset over this announcement. She walked back to her bike, sad and in disbelief, mounted her bike, and looked at her phone. She had 33 missed calls and 25 texts from Patrick and her sister. The texts she had received all had the same theme:

Get home now!

Emergency!!! Get home quickly!

Are you ok?

She figured it was essential and knew there was nothing she could do here. So she quickly got on her bike and headed home.

***

Serena quickly paced the floor of Ravenna's room and constantly glanced at her phone to check the time. "Dammit, where are you?" She yelled as she grabbed her phone. She began to dial Ravenna's number to call again when she heard the shuffling of the leaves in the tree outside.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN," she shouted as Ravenna climbed through the window.

"Well, MOTHER, I just got back from getting some of the worst news of my life," Ravenna retorted as she placed her hands on her hips. "What is wrong?"

"Well, while you were trying to fix your hurt pride, I had to stop Patrick from asking for a transfer and watch as our border guard's heads rained down on the ball!" Serena exclaimed, walking behind Ravenna to close the window she had just entered.

"Wait... What?? Who did that?!" Ravenna demanded, spinning around to face her sister.

"Someone that was trying to make a point. Look, I'm not going to argue; get some sleep. Dad will be calling another meeting tomorrow." Serena informed her as she turned to leave the room.

"Serena, wait... I figured out what was going on with the humans earlier at the mall," Ravenna dropped her eyes and looked down at her hands.

Serena turned and looked at a visibly upset Ravenna, "what's that?"

"Rumor going around the Rose was that their Queen was murdered a few days ago. I didn't miss that a wolf killed her," she said, looking up at her sister.

Serena gasped in horror. "You have to tell Dad right away!"

"And give up the fact I've been tavern fighting for years? You know I can't do that!" Ravenna retorted as she threw her arms in the air. Then, she defiantly stomped to the other side of the room and stared at the wall.

"Raven, we are in a constant war with the Rogues, Blue Lake is trying to wage another war on the Vampires with no complaint from your bodyguard, and now the humans could attack at any point. But you won't tell anyone because you don't want to give away your alternate personality!"

"ALRIGHT, I GET IT!!" Sharply she turned around and glared daggers at her sister. Ravenna was mad because she knew that Serena was right. However, she was still hesitant to tell because there was a lot to lose if her father reacted how she figured he would.

"I'm sorry; I know this is a lot on you. Get some sleep; we will discuss this tomorrow." Serena turned and left the room and left Ravenna with only her thoughts.

Nighttime brought only restless sleep for Ravenna as she tossed and turned in bed. She knew she needed to tell her father the truth, which was the easy part. However, the hard part was getting the courage built up and telling him. She knew he would force her to stop fighting. But, if by some minor miracle Titus could get her back in the ring, she would take it. As the night continued, her head began to hurt from all her thinking. Finally, her eyes flew open, and she looked at her alarm clock, which showed 3:30 am.

"Ugggh, tomorrow is going to suck!" She said to herself in a defeated and exhausted voice. Finally, she decided to force her eyes closed and clear her head until sleep finally took over.