Alpha Battle (9 page)

Eli couldn’t believe it, he thought he would at least yell at him.  He stood there in shock
, looking on as Baron and Ace made their way toward the front door with his bags in their hands.

“Eli,” Ace yelled, snapping Eli out of the trance he was in.

Eli shook his head, trying to clear the fog out of it as he grabbed the rest of his bags and followed Baron and Ace into the house.  He already had all the faith he needed in him and Jadelyn. He knew they could do anything they put their minds to.  They always worked better together, even when they were younger.  Eli looked up at the house and smiled—they will win the Alpha Battle and the Alpha house will be theirs.  Well, not until Baron decided to step down and move into one of the houses deep in the backyard, where all the retired Alphas in Baron and Jadelyn’s family lived.

***

Ella hugged and kissed her parents and made her way out their front door as quick as she could.  They had been getting on her nerves and smothering her ever since they picked her up from in front of the hospital.  She didn’t even know what was going on with Jake nor was she concerned.  Her feelings for him had changed ever since the death of their tri-mate, and Eli’s mother, Kasey.  Everything between Jake and her were different, especially how he touched and made love to her.  It made Ella feel as though he loved Eli’s mother more than he loved her.  Those feelings caused the love and care she once had for him to disappear.  If anything, she thought Kasey’s death would be the one thing that brought them closer together, not further apart.  Not only did she have to deal with his moping and groaning, but she had to deal with his son’s as well.  She wished Eli and Jake would just disappear out of her life, and she would do whatever it takes to make that happen, and them miserable.

She was a few minutes late to the meeting that would make her wishes happen.  Ella jumped into her
parent's car and flew to the other side of the Isle doing a hundred all the way there while sipping on her coffee.  This was what she loved about this Isle—you can get away with a lot before the police intervened.  She tossed the empty cup in the back seat as she pulled up to the discreet location of her secret meeting.

When Ella parked
, the person she was secretly meeting slid discreetly into Ella’s backseat.  Ella kept her head straight never looking at the person behind her.

“Why are you guys back so early
? This was not part of the plan, Ella.  We agreed you wouldn’t bring them back until after the battle happened,” the mysterious women said to Ella as she laid down on the backseat so no one would be the wiser if they were to pass them.

“I have everything in control on my end
, you just make sure you win the Alpha Battle,” Ella said, finally looking into the backseat through the review mirror.

The mysterious woman in the backseat chuckled.  “Make no mistake
, I am going to win, who is going to beat me?  Jadelyn.  You must have forgotten she is a latent wolf.”

“No
, make no mistake, Jadelyn maybe latent, but her family has not only the strongest Alpha blood, they also have the strongest power in wolf shifter history, and Jadelyn has it on both her mother and father’s side,” Ella said.

“I will beat her and become Alpha
, just watch and see,” the mysterious woman said as she sat up and looked at Ella. 

Ella turned around in her seat
, slipped off her sunglasses and said to the mysterious woman, “Alright, this conversation is over now.  I have to go before my parents start getting suspicious of my activities and asking anyone have they seen me.  Just remember, before you go, you haven’t won the battle yet. And I don’t take orders from you.  I make my own rules. Without me, your plans will not work.”

Ella waited until the mystery woman slid out of the backseat and shut the door before she started the car and pulled off.

Chapter Six

When they walked into the Battle Arena the next night, they noticed Baron was the only one there.  Jadelyn wasn’t the only one who wanted to arrive two hours early to prepare.  This was a good thing since neither Jadelyn nor Eli changed into their
battle wear at her house.  They made their way to the locker room while Ace and Chelsea went to find the best seats they could.  As they walked out of the locker room, they notice a few more Battle Alphas arrived early as well. 

Every
body stopped talking as they noticed Eli and Jadelyn walking out together. 

One of the shifters Eli didn’t recognize called out from the crowd, “Hey, you do know she is a latent, right?  Both of you might as well give up now since neither of you have a chance to win.”  Everyone except for
Ace, Chelsea, and Baron laughed at the guy’s comment.  This pissed off Eli even more.  He growled and charged at the guy as he stood in the crowd and laughed.

The shifter never even noticed Eli charging at him until
Baron caught Eli and pulled him back. 

Baron
whispered into his ear as he pulled Eli back to where Jadelyn was still standing.  “Eli, you have to calm the fuck down and let it all out on the battle field.  So store all the anger you feel for him until the battle and then you release it all onto him and the others.” 

Eli noticed the other shifters watch
ing him as he pulled Jadelyn to the side.  He was beyond pissed because of how they treated Jadelyn.  He wondered if they had been doing this the whole time, and if they would do this in front of the Alpha—what fucking things did they do when the Alpha wasn’t around? 
Shit
, he should have returned when she didn’t write him back.   

Every
body else around Jadelyn mistook the shaking of her legs for fear except for Eli, he knew it was the anger she had bottled up inside her that was now trying to fight its way out.  From the middle of the arena, her father could see her legs bouncing up and down on the ground.  He knew he needed to put her in the ring quickly before she unleashed it all onto the closest person to her.  Baron walked to the announcer, covered the mike, and whispered something into his ear.

“I would like to welcome everyone to the first annual Alpha Battle.  Here is what will be on today’s agenda. 
The first battle will be between two female shifters, once their fight is over, two male shifters will battle and then the mates will fight together.  After the battle, the winner of the battle will go sit in the green box while the loser will move to the red box.  The first round of the battle will be fought in our human form, but as soon as you hear the bell ding again, you are to shift immediately into wolf form to fight in the next round.  At the end of the day, everyone in the green boxes will have tomorrow off while everyone in the red box will have to fight for the right to battle again the next day.  Now to start off, the first battle of the day is with our very own Alpha’s daughter, Jadelyn, against Misty.” 

They both rose at the same time and made their way to the center of the arena.  It was hard for Jadelyn to keep her eagerness and excitement contained on the inside.  Before they could make it to the center of the arena, Misty
accidently
bumped Jadelyn twice, trying to get a rise out of her.  Jadelyn ignored Misty instead of giving into the response she was looking for.  Once they were in the middle of the arena, Baron and the announcer stepped back, and the referee took their place.  The referee was there to break up the rounds before one of the battlers killed the other one.

Immediately following the referee
’s countdown, the bell rang, signaling the first round.  Jadelyn felt the adrenaline rush as she stepped back and waited for the right moment as Misty charged at her with an explosion of rage.  Jadelyn avoided everything Misty tried to throw at her, letting her tire herself out before the next round.  When Misty would strike at her, she would lean slightly the other way to avoid her punches, and the spinning kicks she threw her way as well.  By the time the bell dinged for the second time, Misty was having a hard time catching her breath, but it didn’t stop her from shifting immediately—she just knew this round would be hers.  It took Jadelyn a second before she semi-shifted; it was the first time anyone besides Eli would see how she looked when she shifted.  The whole crowd gasped when they saw Jadelyn’s semi-shifted state.  Her claws on her hands and paws extracted while her muzzle slightly formed. 

Jadelyn thought it was best to fight smarter instead of harder since she would have to fight two more shifters today.  She knew there was no way she was losing this
battle.  She watched as Misty circled around her as if she was Misty’s prey. 

The crowd sat on the edge of their seats as Misty made the first move.  Eli was getting frustrated as he watched.  It looked like Jadelyn was just going to let Misty take a chunk out of her hand with her canine teeth.  He sighed in relie
f as he watched Jadelyn grab Misty by her muzzle and throw her across the room before she could bite her. 

Misty growled as she charged at Jadelyn with a stronger determination,
she wasn’t going to let this latent show her up in front of the whole shifter community
. 

Right before Misty could leap on her, Jadelyn jumped backwards and landed on the rail dividing the
battlers seats from the arena.  As soon as she landed on the rail, Misty’s mate, Tate, tried to push her over into Misty’s waiting mouth, but before he could, Eli was up and knocking his hand down.  Not letting just what happened bother her, Jadelyn stood up, did a back flip off the rail over Misty, and landed directly behind her.  Jadelyn knew then it was time to end the fight when she noticed she was beginning to become exhausted herself. 

This time, Jadelyn was the aggressor in the fight.  She quickly approached Misty, hitting Misty in the nose, breaking it and causing her to stumble before falling over.  The bell rang signaling the end of the fight.  The Referee carried Misty to the red box while Jadelyn walked to the green box with her head held high as the crowd whispered
in confusion throughout the arena. 

They couldn’t believe she had won against Misty.  They were all staring at her now with shocked looks on their faces as Jadelyn sat in the winner’s circle.  They were all still in shock when Eli
’s battle against Misty’s mate began and didn’t hear the bell as it rang signaling the first round.

Eli was ducking and dodging his opponent’s punches with ease
, frustrating his challenger in the process.  It was starting to look like a boxing match to those around them.  When the next punch came, instead of ducking, Eli blocked his face and took it.  He didn’t give his challenger time to celebrate the contact he made.  Instead, Eli lunged at his opponent, pushing off with the back of his left foot while punching with his right hand.  The force of the punch caused his challenger to stumble back a few feet, but he recovered quickly.  The challenger swung with full force to the side of Eli’s head causing him to lean all the way back to avoid the punch.  The bell rang signaling the end of round one and the beginning of round two. 

Before anyone could blink their eyes, they both had shifted into their wolf forms waiting for the other to make the next move.  Eli was stuck
—he couldn’t move, see, or hear.  It was as if a magical force was holding him back.  By the time he was able to see and move, his challenger had his ear in his mouth, biting down hard.  He could hear Jadelyn growling as his hearing slowly came back to him.  Eli raised his paw and struck his challenger with enough force that his challenger had no choice but to release the hold he had on his ear.  His opponent growled as his body hit the ground with a thud.  Eli waited until his opponent got back up before going in for the kill.  He didn’t want to chance someone claiming it wasn’t a fair battle.  The other shifter was embarrassed since Eli knocked him down in front of the entire shifter pack. 

The other shifter had to prove himself as Alpha to the others.  He leaped into the air planning to land on Eli, using the force of the impact to knock him out.  Just as he was about to land on him, Eli lay on his back and pushed out his hind legs with so much force it sent his opponent flying back into the air.  He tried to land on the ground upright, but he was soaring through the sky so fast he couldn’t right himself. 
He got the wind knocked out of him from landing on the ground with so much force.  The announcer called the fight after Eli’s opponent laid on the ground not moving for over two minutes.  Eli headed to his place in the winners box sitting right next to Jadelyn.

Eight
battles later, four other couples landed in the winner’s box with them and it was now time for the couples to fight together.  “Up next, we have the Couple’s battle, where each couple will fight together against another couple.  The same rules apply as the previous battle and the last two couples standing will be going straight to the Battle Finale next week.  Starting off the Couple’s battle, we have Jadelyn and Eli against Greg and Treasure,” the announcer announced as both couples made their way to the center of the battlefield. 

Before the
battle began, Jadelyn made eye contact with Treasure to be sure and turned to whisper in Eli’s ear.  “I have all the confidence that we are going to win the title as Alpha and so do they.  They are just going to bow out of the fight to us.  I, as well as them, would like for them to be our Seconds in Command.”