Chapter 108
CADE
Hannah had been silent all this time as the tears just kept flowing down her cheeks. But now there was something swirling in the depths of her eyes that made me terrified of her for a moment.
It was anger. Pure, undiluted anger.
It was the anger of a girl humiliated all her life. The anger of a girl forced to listen to people call her father a traitor. It was the anger from being faced with the same fate as her father.
"I'll duel with Julia," Hannah said, wiping her tears.
"Hannah," I said, almost shouting to be heard over my brothers protests. "This is a bad idea. Think of what you're about to do-"
"They should have thought about it before falsely accusing my father and then trying to kill me," she said in a cold, detached voice.
"It's not like there's an alternative to this," Dawson said, raising his voice to summon the guards as my brothers and I tried to lunge at him. “Either she fights for her life here or faces the fate decided by the pack council.”
We fought, tried to break our way through to our girl we had all sworn to protect, but we were helpless against so many of Dawson's guards.
Hannah turned away. There was a resigned stoop to her shoulders I had never seen before.
The moderator excitedly hurried over to take the stage but Dawson impatiently shoved him aside.
He looked at the crowd, let the tension build until it was almost unbearable then he said in a loud, carrying voice, "Let the blood duel begin!"
He had hardly stepped back to the stands when there was a harsh, rending sound. Julia's wolf exploded out of her. And then she was running at Hannah who stood there with nothing more than a knife to defend herself. I felt mind numbing fear, the kind I had never felt in my life.
At the last moment, Hannah ducked. The crowd moaned then cheered as Julia skidded to a stop and charged at Hannah. Again. Hannah got out of her way just in time.
Jace and Chase on either side of me gripped my tightly. Just like me, they were wondering how long Hannah would be able to hold out without shifting. Julia looked crazy with rage. From her eyes, I knew she wanted one thing: to kill Hannah fast.
"Here she comes!" someone whooped excitedly.
It was Asher.
Julia growled as she came at Hannah for the third time. She raised her massive paws and before Hannah could roll out of the way, she had sank her claws into Hannah's back, deep enough to almost expose the bone of her spine.
Hannah's agonized screams were drowned out only by the crowd's cheers and Julia's excited howls at being the first to draw blood.
Jace turned frightened eyes to me. "Julia is going to kill her."
"No. It won't happen," I whispered, wondering if I believed it myself. Hannah would fight her, Hannah would have to fight her.
Hannah stumbled to her feet, and closed her eyes. I wondered if she was giving up or trying to weigh her options. Then I felt a sense of indescribable power building. I blinked in the same instant that Hannah's wolf exploded out of her.
In that instant, silence fell across the entire arena that I could hear the breath whisper in and out of my lungs. Then someone screamed. Another scream followed. At the back of the crowd, there was a stampede to get out. For some reason, I couldn’t tell why they were running. Ten minutes ago, they wanted to be entertained.
Dawson and Edward sprang to their feet, mouths open in identical expressions of shock.
"Impossible!" Dawson cried, somehow forcing out the words.
Asher and Lucius were cringing away, the way people do when they get the full blast of the sun in their faces.
I felt terrified that Hannah's secret was out in the open for all to see. But more than that, I felt pride, the kind that inflated my chest and made me feel on top of the world.
There was my mate, the white wolf, the best and most powerful of them all.
This time it was Hannah who charged. Julia turned tail and ran. Hannah's claws tore open Julia's back as she landed on her.
"Stop the duel! Stop them!" Lucius shouted, jumping up and down. And then he dashed toward them, hoping to stop the fight.
"A blood duel cannot be stopped!" I shouted back. I turned to Dawson with a smile. "I told you someone would die, but you thought it was Hannah, didn't you?"
The words were hardly out of my mouth when a piercing scream echoed from the middle of the arena.
Hannah was staring down at a bleeding, lifeless Julia, ripped apart mercilessly.
The duel had ended. Our Hannah had won, and Julia was dead.
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