Chapter 33

To say I felt slightly ridiculous was an understatement. I was dressed in traditional wolf fashion. Pelt skirt and a top. I had to perform a dance for Grayson to wish him luck before the fight with my family that I wasn’t allowed to watch.

Luckily the other women of the pack would be beside me. I think I’d throw up if I had to do this on my own.

“You’ll do just fine,” Elizabeth comforted me as she put my hair up in a braided bun.

I don’t think I have ever been this nervous in my life. What didn’t help was that he would be watching and some of these motions I was about to do felt wrong in front of a crowd.

“Grayson believes in tradition and these ceremonies are always fun for the people,” Elizabeth had told me a day or two before.

Now I had to head out into a crowd of people and dance for my mate.

*Oh and my family will be there. *

My back was bare. I felt the wind trace its finger along my skin tickling me. The ground was cool and calmed me.

Grayson didn’t like the idea of other men looking at me but this he’s okay with.

We walked out to the main grounds and I stood in the middle of the other women. There were drums, guitars, and a flute playing. I suppose it would be alright.

We all got into a formation and the music died down. Grayson was on a throne of sorts, the chair beside him empty. Everyone was watching.

*I just want you to be happy with me. *

The drums started a slow beat and the women slowly moved together. The flute came in and I grabbed hands with the woman next to me twirling around each other.

I pushed my hands up to the sky and spun around moving in a circle with three other women. The beat grew stronger and I grabbed hands again and spun faster. I twirled on my own and moved my arms in fluid motions.

I moved my hips as I encircled another woman. I turned my head quickly and twisted in place I moved with the women to the beat.

So far I hadn’t looked at him and I didn’t want to until the dance was over. Thinking of him my cheeks heated and I faltered my step but recovered before anyone could notice. I stepped slowly in a fancy pattern as the beat slowed.

*It was almost over *

I spun on my own as the other women danced in place and stopped looking at him and panting. The other woman and I finished the dance in our places and I watched him the whole time.

He showed no expression to most people but the corner of his mouth was slightly upturned. He was relaxed too, leaning back in his chair.

The drums stopped as I did one final spin at the front of all the women and so close to where he was.

The audience erupted into applause and he walked down to me. My heart which was already pounding from dancing picked up pace.

Amaria stood from her place beside Grayson.

“I give this to you! The new Luna!” she announced and walked forward to me with a box in her hands.

She opened in front of me. “It was my mother's darling, it will look wonderful on you,” she winked at me.

A golden bridal headpiece was in front of me on a bed of velvet. Small crystals and troops of golden chain.

I had to quickly grab the box and thank her soothe day could move on.

Grayson walked up to me as everyone watched and my skin turned into a smoldering fire.

“Thank you, you did…well,” He spoke softly to me.

I snorted at his choice of words. “I’d ask you to go easy on my family but I think you'll need all the strength you have,” I huffed out in heavy breaths.

“I will come to you after the fight,” he nodded.

The women went into the crowd and I was escorted to the house to wait to know how the fight went.

*He isn't easy to get along with. He rarely says the right thing. He's hurt me in a way no one else has…and here I am hoping he will win against my family so I can be his for the rest of my life.*
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I turned to Matt who wrapped my hands after I watched her go. The dance was not something she was comfortable with, she did it perfectly though.

“They look hungry Grayson. You need to watch yourself,” Matt eyed the opponents I would face.

*We were all full-blooded alphas but they had a much stronger bloodline. A golden bloodline. I would have to not miss a thing while we fought. *

“You be careful darling,” my mom came up and kissed my cheek rubbing her thumb along the other one. “They are nothing you know,” she gave me a shrewd look and stepped back.

I looked over at her brothers. They had wide eyes and bared teeth. They were angry and I was desperate.

I looked at her father. Luna Eva was wrapping his hands and he watched me. There was a sharpness in his gaze, a certainty he had. He looked at me with no fear and no aggression, only a knowledge of what would happen.

“Gray don't let him get in your head,” Brian came up to me.

Slowly I made my way to the makeshift ring. We were in an open space by the main grounds. There was a circle of stones in the soil and that was all we had.

The crowd was frenzied and they quickly followed us to the ring.

I took my stance as Matt explained who I was fighting and that if they won Annette would leave with them. The crowd knew who to cheer for.

*She's mine. This time I earn her. *

I held up my arms and slowly shifted myself towards them.

“Theo left,” Charles called.

Theo charged my left side and I dodged but I was met with the full force of Charles’s uppercut. Theo then swept his leg out and took my left leg down and Charles struck the right side of my face.

I grabbed his fist and punched him in the stomach taking a blow to my ribs from James I think. I swallowed the pending and went after Charles.

I punched his face and he swing at my body again one of the others went for my legs and then Theodore took Charles’s place. I grabbed his legs and pulled him to the ground, elbowing him in his pelvis.

James tackled me to the ground and swung chaotically at my face I used all my force and pushed him off of me and thankfully knocked the wind out of him.

Theodore and Charles cleaned themselves off and nodded to one another but before they moved a foot landed on my back stronger than anything I had felt yet.

I coughed as I landed on my face.

“She's my daughter. This is what I have to do,” He spoke as he circled me.

His blows came like bullets. I put my arms up to shield myself, the crowd jeered at him and my people called for me to stand. He was relentless, hitting my stomach with power and precision. My body came to its knees and I threw up.

I rolled and stood I swung at him in a feeble attempt he kicked but I absorbed it and elbowed James in the face as he came at me.

His nose bled and I knew Annette would be upset with me. I turned my attention back to Alpha Jonathan. He was calm in his assault biding his time.

He was making me come to him but I would go for his son's first. I faked for the father and grabbed Theodore by the hair. I wrapped an arm around his torso and pushed him over my shoulder and slammed him to the ground.


Charles came at me with his father in tandem. James at my back. I grabbed the youngest by his arm and pulled him in as a human shield shoving him against Charles causing them to tumble.

I kicked at Jonathan and swung at his face and then his ribs. I pushed him and kicked him in his stomach. He took the blows as feathers moving in on me somehow and slamming a fist behind my knee and grabbing me in a chokehold.

I felt the air escaping me and rammed my elbows behind me swiftly standing up as quick as I could on one foot. He flew backward.

Charles looked at Theodore unconscious on the ground and James’s bloody face he stood and inched towards me mimicking his father's movements from before.

*Quick learner *

I squared off with him.

James came at my back again before anything happened.

I heard him coming. I grabbed his arms and pushed my foot into him and then slammed a fist into his face.

Two unconscious she will kill me before the day is over never mind her brothers.

Charles raged and ran at me. I huffed and grabbed his shirt, picking him up to slam him down. He extended his claws into me before I could.

I groaned and dropped him. Jonathan came out of nowhere and swung his fist to my jaw and then I was on the ground.

I sat there as the people beside us hushed to whispers and prayers would get up.

I moved to stand dizzy and weak. Charles pushed me back down.

*I won't give up. *

I moved to stand again and the younger slammed a first into my face. When he tried again I grabbed his fist and yanked him out of the ring and onto the ground.

The people screeched and shuffled out of his way.

“You're done, Charles,” Alpha Jonathan called.

I looked over at her father. I hadn't expected this from him. Perhaps I should have.

We squared off again.

“You are fighting so hard for a woman you don't speak to,” He goaded me.

He kicked at me as backed away I swung at him and he evaded but spun and grabbed my head and slammed it into the ground.

“I will always fight for her,” I growled. “Even against myself,” Pushing him away from me.

I wheezed and stood again. My face was now bloody and I was having a hard time breathing with a rasp in my lungs.

He laughed at me.

I stood shocked at his laughter. I had isolated his daughter, knocked two of his sons unconscious and I have barely survived against them.

He lowered his arms. “I believe you,” he walked over and shook my hand.

I took his hand and shook it in return. Then his fist came to my face. “But I'll kill you if she spends even a second of her life doubting you again,”

I spit out blood and nodded to him.

He had conceded. Theodore and James were knocked out. Charles had been thrown.

*I won her. *