The Arena novel Chapter 19

The next morning, I see him. Troy. He’s walking in with the leaders. So, he’s now hunting his own kind for the humans. And he thought he was Alpha material. I can’t help the snarl that starts in my chest.

One of the warriors puts his hand on my shoulder. My head whips around as I bare my teeth.

“Alpha, if you attack him now, we won’t be able to help all these supes. We all hate him, but we need to keep our heads.”

I look at him more closely as I rein in my anger. He’s right; I need to focus, but not many would have had the guts to say that to me. “Are you related to Bastian by chance?”

“Half-brother,” he says with a smile.

I tuck that knowledge away for later. I need a Gamma for my pack, and this warrior may have just won the spot. I refocus my attention on the arena. Troy is here, and Tana might be here soon. If so, I have to speak to her.

We watch as the spectators enter the arena. “Enjoy what little time you have left, assholes,” one of my warriors says quietly.

When I hear the tell-tale sign of the beginning of the battles, I give the order, and we run in. My men are divided into four groups of 25, each group going in through one of the entrances. Two are left at the entrance, two are left at the cages to start releasing the supes, and the rest of us begin battling the keepers and hunters that are underground.

Once we have killed the ones on our side, we begin to pour through the arena entrances. I order another couple of my men to stay and open the cages for those waiting for their fights.

As I run in, I see my warriors beginning to rush through the other openings.

“Seize them!” I look up to see the Commander has given the order. I roar my defiance and shift. His eyes go wide, but then I see the covetous look that I would expect. A Lycan could make him a lot of money.

I watch as he grabs a gun from the table beside him. I have a moment to see that Troy is indeed in the box with him, hiding behind the bars of their protected seating area. He raises his gun, and I move just as he fires. I rush to the stadium walls under the box. My warriors know to start the fires, but I need to get to the Commander and Troy.

I wasn’t expecting the spectators to have guns and be prepared to fight. But, after we killed everyone in the last arena, I probably should have expected it. As I watch, I see several of my warriors begin to take bullets. I’m sure they are silver, and if they don’t kill my pack members, they will incapacitate them, leaving us severely outnumbered.

I turn back and see Troy sneering at me. If I fall or am captured, he has a better chance of taking back my pack, not that Bastian will let him.

I’m just about to jump on the wall and begin tearing away at the stadium seats when I hear a screeching sound. I immediately cover my ears, looking around for the cause of the sound. A beautiful emerald-green dragon lands in the center of the arena. He screams his anger, roaring and causing the stadium to shake as if there’s an earthquake.

As the spectators are stumbling and trying not to fall, I hear another screeching sound, this one higher pitched than the first. This time, when I look up, I see a ruby-red dragon. She flies over me, and I instantly get the scent of campfires and roasted marshmallows. Tana!

I look around, trying to find her as the red dragon breathes fire on the spectators. I have a moment to flashback to my last day in the arena. I remember hearing a roar. It was a sound I’d never heard before or since until today. But as I watch the red dragon fly over the arena, setting it on fire, I realize this dragon was there. She was the one that caused the fire in the other arena. The heat of her fire is hotter than anything I’ve ever felt before.

“Run, you idiot. Don’t just stand there!”