Chapter 87 Break Her… If You Can

Chapter 87 Break Her… If You Can
"Yes," Shax replied in a low, firm voice, shattering the anticipation in the air.
He stared straight at his Alpha, his brother, his eyes unblinking. "I don't like your decision, Alpha."
A slow, savage grin spread across Sylas’s face, amusement flickering in his eyes. "Why?" he drawled. "Don’t tell me the rumors going around the pack are true. That you’re actually… in love—"
"You’re stealing my fun, brother." Shax cut him off, jaw tightening as the words came out colder than he intended.
He stepped forward, closing the distance between them, tension snapping tight in the space they shared. "You said she’d be mine to punish." His voice dropped, edged with something darker. "And now you throw her into the arena like this?"
His brother should have known better. The humiliation still burned under Shax’s skin, how he’d lost his memory, how he’d followed her like some obedient dog, blind and stripped of everything that made him who he was. It was a disgrace he couldn’t erase.
And Michelle, that woman, had been at the center of it.
A bitter taste rose in his throat.
If Madam Miriam had woken from her coma, the whole pack would’ve known by now. Every humiliating detail. Every moment, he’d been reduced to nothing.
His gaze hardened. Of course, Sylas knew. Or at least, he knew enough.
This?
This was just another one of his games. Another way to mock him. Like always.
A low laugh rumbled from Sylas's chest. He shrugged casually, gesturing toward the noisy arena below. "You can still do it, Shax. Go fight her in the ring. Show everyone how you punish her."
Shax clucked his tongue, looking away with a mock disgust. "Sharing my toy with someone else? No, thank you."
Besides, Shax thought to himself, she wouldn't last long in that ring if it were a fight for her life with a fellow sinner. She was too weak.
Shax cursed under his breath, shooting Sylas a resentful glance. His chance to punish Michelle in his own way had finally evaporated. If he wanted to, he could hack the dungeon, kidnap Michelle tonight, and punish her in the privacy of his own home.
But if he did that rashly, the rumors about him spreading among the pack would only intensify. He couldn't risk being seen as openly defending Michelle.
If people became suspicious and dug deeper, they might discover the truth he'd been protecting most: that Skai was his flesh and blood, conceived with Michelle, not Sylas's heir.
Not yet, Shax thought, suppressing his unsettling wolf.
'Later, when everything is in its rightful place, I will claim Skai as my son, as I should. And Michelle... will pay her dues.'
Attention was drawn to the arena as the gates creaked open. The sinners, ranging from pack members who had dared steal from the Alpha to rogues, were being herded into the field. A loud, boisterous cheer echoed from the stands.
The jeering only grew louder, sharper, and uglier as Michelle stepped out from the shadowed gate.
Pathetic.
That was the first word that crossed Shax’s mind, cold and immediate.
Her clothes hung off her in torn strips, barely clinging to her frail frame. Strands of her ginger hair were matted and tangled, sticking to her face and neck as if even the wind refused to touch her gently. She wasn’t walking, she was being dragged, her feet stumbling uselessly against the ground as two massive warriors hauled her forward like she weighed nothing.
And she was nothing. The only woman in the arena is an omega.
Worse, an omega without a wolf.
A ripple of excitement surged through the crowd at the sight of her. Laughter broke out, cruel and unrestrained. Voices shouted over one another, placing bets, not on whether she would lose, but on how fast she would break. How many minutes, or seconds?
From the balcony, Shax watched intently as Michelle was thrown into the center of the arena. As Sylas announced the rules, it was clear how the other sinners immediately fixed their eyes on Michelle. Their gazes were hungry, viewing the slender woman as the easiest opponent and a free ticket to their freedom.
The draw began to determine who would fight whom. A wooden box was brought to the center of the field.
When it was Michelle's turn, her trembling hands pulled out a green ball. The crowd's breath seemed to hold for a moment as an opponent with the same color ball stepped forward. It was the rogue, the ferocious wolf without a pack, who had tried to disrupt Black Fang several months ago.
The one the Alpha himself had to handle in order to put the collar around his thick neck.
The crowd erupted in deafening cheers. Sylas was no less excited, his laughter bursting into the air.
As for Shax? He could only groan under his breath, veins bulging out on his neck and face.
To keep the excitement going, the Alpha unhesitatingly announced that Michelle and the rogue would compete for first place.
Shax clucked loudly. His eyes were sharp like a hawk, constantly tracking the movement below as the bell rang.
The match was completely unequal. Michelle was being knocked back from the very first second. The rogue attacked her mercilessly, swinging claw after claw, but also leaving room to toy with his prey. Michelle was clearly going to lose; she couldn't even transform into a wolf. All the woman could do was duck, roll, and desperately defend herself.
Until a fatal blow missed her face, but managed to tear through her tattered clothes and slash Michelle's chest. Fresh blood sprayed into the air, staining the dusty ground of the arena.
"That's—" Shax's eyes widened.
Unconsciously, his feet had already taken a step forward, nearly leaping over the balcony railing onto the court. His wolf howled in anger. But sanity pulled him back. Shax halted abruptly, turned around, and faced the arena.
"This is ridiculous."
He had no interest in seeing the predictable ending.
However, just seconds after he turned around, the crowd suddenly erupted in cheers, far more hysterical than before. The cheers were no longer jeers, but screams of surprise. Simultaneously, Shax felt a strange and intense surge of energy. A new, powerful wolf aura suddenly exploded from the court, sweeping through the air.
His instincts responded instantly. Shax quickly turned around.
His eyes widened in disbelief at the sight in the center of the ring. The thin, frail woman had vanished. In her place stood a large wolf, her fur a shade of ginger brown glistening in the moonlight.
The she-wolf stood firm, baring her sharp fangs, and hissed with a menacing sound that shook the arena toward the rogue.
Shax's breath hitched.
"That's... her?"