Chapter 24 A Survivor's Game
ELARA
The arena is a beast holding its breath. Thousands of wolves stand in silent, disciplined packs, their banners a forest of silent threats. An ancient wolf, an Elder with eyes like chips of flint, stands on a raised platform in the center of the field.
“The first trial is The Hunt,” his voice booms, amplified by some unseen magic. It echoes off the stone walls. “Within the forest beyond the northern gate, fifty enchanted tokens have been hidden. Your task is to retrieve them.”
My team stands in a tight knot. Kael is on my right, Anya on my left. Rhys shifts his weight from foot to foot, a coiled spring of muscle and impatience.
“Each token has a point value, marked by its color,” the Elder continues. “Bronze are worth one point. Silver are worth five. Gold are worth twenty. The most valuable tokens are in the most dangerous, difficult to reach locations. The trial ends at sundown. The three packs with the highest scores will gain a significant advantage in the next round. Good hunting.”
He strikes a large bronze gong. The sound is a deep, resonant clang that signals the start of the war.
The northern gate groans open. Chaos erupts. Packs surge forward, a wave of fur and ambition, each Alpha barking orders. The race is on.
“The scent trails are already forming,” Rhys says, his head lifted, his nostrils flaring. “Dozens of them. The strongest is northwest. I say we follow it hard and fast. Grab the easy bronze tokens before anyone else can.”
“No,” I say.
The single word stops him cold. He turns to me, his brow furrowed.
“No? What do you mean, no? It’s a race, Silver. We don’t have time to stand around talking.”
“It’s a trap,” I say, my eyes scanning the treeline. The way the other packs are moving. The frantic, disorganized energy. “Think about it. The organizers know how we hunt. They know we follow scent. The strongest, most obvious trails will lead to a few bronze tokens and a lot of wasted time. They want us to fight each other over scraps.”
Anya looks at me, her head tilted. “So what do we do? Ignore the scents entirely?”
“We ignore the ones they want us to follow,” I say. “We hunt differently.”
Kael is silent. He is watching me, his expression unreadable. He is letting me lead. He is trusting me in front of them all. The weight of it is immense. I will not let him down.
“Everyone is heading into the thickest part of the forest,” I say, my voice low and urgent. “They see the trees and think ‘hidden’. We go the other way. Toward the river.”
“The river?” Rhys scoffs. “There’s nowhere to hide a token out in the open. It’s a tactical dead end.”
“Exactly,” I say, looking him right in the eye. “Which is why no one else will go there. The best place to hide something isn’t in the dark. It’s in plain sight where no one thinks to look.”
My three years in the city taught me that. The safest place to be a monster was on a crowded street in the middle of the day. You become invisible.
“I’m with Elara,” Anya says, her voice firm. She trusts my logic. She sees the survivor in me.
Kael nods once. “The river it is. Move out.”
We break from the frantic pack, our small team heading east while everyone else charges west. I can feel the stares. I can smell the condescension from the other teams. The fools. The strays. Going the wrong way already.
Let them think it.
We reach the riverbank in minutes. It is a wide, fast moving current, bordered by slick, grey stones. The forest is sparse here.
“Now what, genius?” Rhys asks, his arms crossed. He is trying to sound skeptical, but I can see the curiosity in his eyes.
I do not answer. I close my eyes. I tune out the scent of wolf and pine and ambition. I listen.
What are you doing? Luna asks in my head. The hunt is with the nose.
The human hunt is with the ears and eyes, I tell her. Be patient.
I listen to the rush of the water. To the wind in the sparse trees. To the caw of a raven circling overhead. There is a rhythm to it. A pattern.
Then I hear it. A note that is wrong. A sound that does not belong. Under the roar of the river, there is a low, rhythmic hum. Faint. Magical.
My eyes snap open. “There.” I point. “Under the waterfall.”
Anya and Rhys stare at the cascade of churning white water about a hundred yards upstream. “There’s nothing there but a wall of rock and a lot of water,” Anya says.
“The hum of the enchantment is coming from there,” I insist. “It’s a high value token. I can feel it.”
“I’ll go,” Kael says, already shedding his pack. “The current is too strong for anyone else.”
He shifts. The change is a silent, powerful ripple. His massive black wolf form emerges, a creature of shadow and strength. He doesn’t hesitate. He plunges into the raging river.
We watch, our hearts in our throats, as he fights the current. He is pure power, his muscles straining as he swims toward the falls. He disappears behind the curtain of water.
Seconds stretch into an eternity.
Then he emerges, a flash of black against the white spray. He has something in his jaws. Something that glitters.
He makes it back to the bank, shaking water from his thick coat. He drops the token at my feet. It is a smooth, heavy disc of gold, humming with a faint magical energy. Twenty points.
Rhys’s mouth is hanging open. “By the Goddess. How did you know?”
“Because I wasn’t listening for a wolf,” I say, picking up the token. Its warmth sinks into my palm. “I was listening for a trap.”
We move with a new purpose after that. Rhys no longer questions me. He is a loyal, focused weapon at my command. We work our way along the river, finding two more silver tokens using the same method. Listening for the unnatural. Looking for the thing that is out of place.
Then we see them. Across the river, crashing through the underbrush. The Silver Creek team.
Serena is in the lead, her nose to the ground, a look of fierce concentration on her face. Damon is right behind her, his eyes scanning the trees. They are following a scent trail. A strong one. A decoy.
The fools, Luna sneers. They follow their noses like pups.
I watch from the shadows of a rock outcropping. They have no idea we are here. They are loud. Arrogant. They think this forest belongs to them.
“They’re going to walk right into the bog,” Anya whispers beside me, a grim satisfaction in her voice. “The scent trail leads them straight into quicksand.”
We watch as Serena raises her head and lets out a triumphant howl. She has found something. They charge forward, disappearing into a grove of sickly looking trees.
A moment later, we hear an enraged snarl. Then a furious shout from Damon. They found the trap. Their prize will be a few bronze tokens and a lot of lost time pulling their warriors out of the mud.
Damon emerges from the trees, his face a mask of thunder. He looks around, his senses finally telling him he has been played. His gaze sweeps across the river, and for a heart stopping second, his eyes meet mine.
He cannot possibly see me in the shadows. But he feels me. The ghost of the bond, that rotten string, hums between us. His expression darkens. It is no longer just frustration. It is a possessive fury.
I do not move. I do not look away. I let him see nothing. A shadow among shadows.
“We need to go,” Kael’s voice is a low rumble in my ear. He has shifted back, and he is standing so close his warmth is a shield against the chill of Damon’s stare.
We slip away, leaving them to their muddy failure. We have one more token to find. The sun is getting low in the sky.
“There’s a legend about this forest,” Anya says as we move quickly through the darkening woods. “About a raven’s nest at the highest point. On a cliff face they call the Needle. They say the wind is so strong there, no wolf can make the climb.”
“And that’s where the last gold token will be,” I finish for her.
We reach the base of the Needle an hour later. It is a terrifying spire of sheer rock. The wind howls around it, a physical force that tries to push us back.
“No one can climb that,” Rhys says, his voice full of awe.
“A wolf can’t,” I say, my eyes on the cliff face. “But maybe a ghost can.”
I see the path. Not a path for climbing. A path for leaping. A series of small, precarious ledges. It requires speed, agility, and absolute trust.
“Kael,” I say, not taking my eyes from the rock. “I can make the first three jumps. But the last one is too far. I’ll need a push.”
He understands immediately. “I will throw you.”
Rhys looks at us like we are insane. “Throw you? You’ll be smashed against the rocks!”
“He won’t miss,” I say. My faith in him is absolute. It is a physical thing, more real than the rock in front of me.
We both shift. Luna is a coiled spring of excitement. We are a flash of silver and a shadow of black. I make the first three leaps, my claws finding purchase on the tiny ledges. The wind tears at me, trying to rip me from the cliff.
I reach the last ledge. The final platform is a dozen feet away, across a sheer drop. Impossible.
Kael is below me. He has taken a running start, his powerful form launching up the side of the cliff. He hits the ledge below mine, his momentum carrying him forward. He is a blur of black fur.
He collides with me. Not a tackle. A launch. His strength propels me into the air. For a moment, I am flying. The wind is a roaring monster in my ears.
My paws hit the final ledge. I scrabble for purchase, my claws scraping on the stone. I hold. I am safe.
The final gold token sits in the center of the platform, nestled in a ring of raven feathers. I pick it up in my jaws.
The horn sounds across the forest. The trial is over.
When the scores are announced, a stunned silence falls over the arena. Third place, the Iron Coast pack. Second place, the Shadow Ridge pack. Both ancient, powerful bloodlines.
“And in first place,” the Elder’s voice booms, laced with a note of disbelief. “With a score of seventy points… the Crescent Moon pack.”
A wave of shocked murmurs ripples through the crowd. Heads turn. They look at our small, simple banner. At our team of five. At me.
I look across the field. Damon is staring at me, his fists clenched at his sides. Serena’s beautiful face is a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred.
He thought I was a liability. He thought I was playing his game. I am not. I am playing mine. And I am just getting started.