CHAPTER 2

Pack Competition

"Danika!"

I shot up from the bed as I heard my name being shouted from downstairs.

Shit! How did I sleep in so long?

I jolted up from the bed, wincing at the pain that registered in the lower part of my body. How did I manage to not hear the alarm go off?

"Danika!" My father boomed again with more intensity than the first.

"I'm coming right down...Dad." I staggered almost to the floor as I forced on the shredded gown I had discarded last night, tamed my bouncing red hair; the only thing I was proud of in my body. It never waned, always looking bouncy despite not taking good care of it.

I ran my hand through my face and without bothering to check it out in the mirror, ran out of the room. I didn't need to look at the mirror to know I was looking like a mess which was why I didn't bother to look in the first place. The less I knew how I looked, the less I didn't feel irritated about my appearance.

I got down at the speed of light, running into the kitchen to see Dad pacing with his hands to his waist, and his face rumpled in fury.

"Where is breakfast?" He asked once his lethal eyes met mine.

"I..i.." I shifted on my feet, fumbling with my hands. "I will prepare it very fast, Dad, I...I_”

He advanced at me menacingly with me backing off. The beating of my heart against my ribs was the only sound audible to me. I couldn't take any beating this morning before going for the competition. The little strength I had gathered from my little respite might dissolve, leaving me vanquished, even before the start of the games.

"Danika, give me one good reason why I should still acknowledge you as my child?" He asked in a cold voice, void of emotions.

My eyes teared up. I was quivering from his icy glare as he appraised me not-so-kindly. "I'm sorry Dad.'' I finally broke down, unable to bear it anymore. I couldn't believe he would actually think of saying that to me.

"You are useless in the pack, useless in using your powers, useless in everything, and now the only thing that you seem to hold together you can't do it well?" He surged further, pain at every word he said to me, cutting through my heart.

"I promise it won't happen again, Dad." I ran to the sink and started washing the dishes instantly.

"I give you just five minutes to prepare breakfast, Danika, or I swear to the goddess, you will get what you are looking for." He threatened behind me.

I was bouncing my head vigorously as he said that. "I will be right out, Dad," I assured him even though I was wondering how it would be possible to wash the dishes and prepare breakfast in five minutes.

Our attention was drawn to the door as familiar dragging footsteps approached. Bianca soon emerged with her hair spiked out of her sleeping bonnet, and her eyes still foggy from just waking up.

Her eyes expanded as she took in the scene before her. "Breakfast is still not ready?"

My father made a noncommittal sound down his throat but didn't say anything as he walked out of the kitchen leaving the two of us to ourselves_which was a bad idea.

"Danika, did you wake up late?" She came further into the kitchen, going to the fridge to pick out a bottle of water which she gulped down. She wavered when she noticed I didn't reply, her face creasing. "You little twat!" she cussed. "Did you just ignore me?"

I continued washing the dishes, calculating the time. I knew this would happen after Dad left. She would try to rile me up so as to get me into trouble.

"Danika!" she screamed and vaulted forth in urgency, picking up a spatula with which she spanked my back, hitting me directly at the same spot I had the fresh wound from the day before yesterday. I shrieked from the spasm and wriggled about as raw pain seared through my body. Tears poured from my eyes down my face as I folded myself on the ground and cried out so hard and loud.

"What's going on here?" Dad soon materialized in the kitchen door, his eyes running from me to Bianca who wasn't one bit moved by what she did to me.

She shrugged and dropped the bottle of water on our kitchen's brown glossy counter and trudged carelessly out of the kitchen.

"Why are you squatting there doing nothing rather than making breakfast?" My Dad questioned with an arch of his brow. If he noticed me crying, he didn't give a fig about it. He knew she hurt me which was why he didn't say anything concerning it. If I was the one that said something bad to her, by now he would be pummeling my body with kicks and slaps.

"I wi...I will finish immediately." I rose from the ground, biting down my lip to hold back the distress as I went ahead to finish my task.

He scowled at me before storming out like an angry bull.

Breakfast was ready in no time since I had settled for a simple cuisine of chicken waffles and pancakes. I served it at the diner and rushed back to get a gallon of milk and a jug of warm water in case Dad decided to take tea.

After scrubbing and cleaning the house till it was sparkling as my father liked it, I finally made it to my room. But before that, I had suffered another round of bruises from Bianca to my eyes, leaving me with the bad feeling that today might not really work in my favor at the arena.

The house was empty by the time I finished preparing and made my way to the arena on an empty stomach. Yes, you heard right. It happened just as usual, Bianca emptied the pot, before I would make it down for breakfast.

Now I'm going with my heart in my mouth, knowing unless a miracle happened today, there was no way I was going to be able to fight. First I was very weak and feeling sick from all my bodily afflictions and secondly, I didn't train properly which was a direct result of the first, as well as my power draining defect, all thanks to Bianca. And to cap it all, I was going on an empty stomach, every energy sapped from me.

Good riddance to me.

"Just get ready to be punished this night," I told myself as fresh tears pooled in my eyes.

When I got to the arena, everywhere was already filled to the brim and buzzing with wolves howling everywhere. I wove through the crowd, with a few cussing at me for being late and others jeering at me callously. Someone even drew my hair, sending shots of pain tearing through my skull. Pain, a word that was synonymous with me by now.

After enduring that phase of the assault, I finally made it to the place where my age grades were still practicing for the competitions. I looked like an idiot in their midst. Look at them, well clad in their warrior's dresses, practicing tackling moves which were all alien to me.

I thought of running away and never coming back but that would be like adding insult to injury because I knew no one to go to. My grandma, the only person that loved me had already passed away. I shook the thought away and slowly walked into the center to stretch with the rest.

I suddenly heard some group of girls giggling and flickered my eyes in their direction. It was my sister's friends. The helladise like I called them, ‘cause they personified hell.

"Bianca, look at who we have here." The one called Audrey quipped loudly immediately getting the attention of everyone around. I looked down my feet and shifted about nervously,  not sure I could bear their mockery or their cruelty.

"What form of foolery do you have in store for us today, weakling?" another girl asked and they all laughed.

"She is probably here to make us laugh, as usual, such a curse of a pup." Anastasia, one of our pack girls spurted, making me cringe.

"I will give a special treat to anyone that gets to beat her to pulp today at the arena." My eyes reluctantly met my sisters as she said that, and tears began gathering.

Someone else was about to say something but their attention was distracted from me with the emergence of Liam, our incoming Alpha. He stood at the entrance of the training ground, his eyes roaming around the place with a smug smile engraved on his dashingly handsome face.

"Liam!" My sister cried out and ran across the yard to toss her body at him. He caught her and wrapped his hand around her shamelessly as the other girls gushed and whispered amongst themselves how cute he was and how they would wish they would become his mate.

Liam just turned 20 and would be made the Alpha at the full moon coronation and initiation party that was coming up soon,  and hopefully, he was likely to meet his mate on that day since he was yet to find her. In our pack, mates are found once a wolf turned eighteen and upwards. So once you turn eighteen and don't find your mate, it becomes a problem as was the case with Bianca, which was why she seemed desperate, maybe having hopes that Liam would make her his mate. I was disgusted with their behaviors but didn't judge them because maybe if I turned eighteen and don't find my mate, I might do worse just to get away from home and these hostile people.

The competition soon began in earnest, with Liam being the first to fight, since he was the soon-to-be Alpha, and it wasn't long, he subdued his opponent and the crowd broke in cheers, in adoration of his tactical moves on the battlefield. The second was Bianca fighting with her opponent who she didn't take long to suppress and even went ahead as the evil bitch that she is, to claw at her opponent’s face, leaving an ugly scar. Bloodhound.

It went in that order and I was later to find out that it was going in the order of the results that were compiled from our past competitions. In those competitions, Liam has always emerged as the winner, and Bianca, the second place, which I think is the reason why he liked her and both of them, very close friends even in school. Even now, I couldn't help but feel jealous as I saw how he was looking at her with adoration in his eyes as she jumped about showing off.

My heart was pounding as time drew near for me to be called up, as my turn was drawing closer. I was shaking in fear mostly as my Dad was the moderator of the event and at this point, was looking very excited as Bianca had made him proud. Goddess, how was I going to be the one to devastate his happiness? I closed my eyes and prayed to the moon goddess and even my Mom if she was out there to have mercy on me if only for today, to remove this shame and ridicule from me.

"Danika Michaels and Bentley Jeremy!" my Dad yelled, and to my trepidation, the crowd broke into laughter. The little courage I had worked up was stomped out, leaving me walking shakily to the center of the arena, defeated even before the fight began.

When the bell went off and we commenced fighting, the first punch the girl threw me sent me flying straight to Dad's feet.

Blast me.

I frantically stumbled up, meeting his wrathful promising glare, before preparing myself for another launch from the feral beast, Bentley. She was one of the girls from school who won't stop jabbing at me all the time. This was the right opportunity to panel beat me and maybe win that gift that was promised by Bianca. Tears stung the back of my eyes but I couldn't let them fall.

I was growing sicker and not able to stand properly as my feet wobbled, combined with my blurry vision. Wait, was I going to faint? To worsen it, she was running towards me, or was it my imagination running wide?

"Enough!" Came the loud voice of Alpha Derrick, Liam's father.

That was the last statement I heard as the thought of what my Dad would do to me overwhelmed me, following the angry, disappointed hoot of the crowd, before white spots danced before my eyes, and my back hit the ground, darkness reining in.

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