9.

Farryn had attempted to jump out of the way, she was smaller than Chandler, but he moved fast for his size. Chandler’s large hand wrapped around Farryn’s slender throat as he attempted to drive her to the ground, if he pinned her down his weight would be all it took to end the fight. As her knees buckled, she drove her elbow into the inside of his own, the force of the hit folding his arm on reflex and causing him to release her neck. Farryn swiftly hooked her ankle around his and swept his leg out to the side, unbalancing him enough to give her time to back away and put space between them.

Every attempt to inhale was like breathing in smoke, it burned her throat, and swallowing made it worse but as Chandler correct himself and stood up straight, she knew she didn’t have time to worry about it yet. Chandler chuckled as he ran his hand through his hair, the motion trying to hide the shaking in his hands. He was nervous but knew he had the upper hand.

“You want to challenge me for my title? Fine, but we have to do this right.” With disregard for the clothes he was wearing, Chandler shifted, his large grey wolf seeming to look at Farryn with a rather smug expression. He knew she couldn’t shift. Farryn however swallowed back that bit of fear, the instinct telling her to survive she needed to run. She had put herself in this situation for the sake of people she didn’t truly know. Farryn was now stuck on the defensive as the wolf jumped at her.

Farryn had put enough space between them that she was quick enough to move out of the way, but his long body closed the distance quickly. With a loud growl, he swiped his paw quickly as she retreated another step, catching her hip enough to shred through her clothes, tearing into her flesh but not deep enough to do muscle damage. She winced but kept moving, the pack around them beginning to heckle her into shifting. Questioning why she wouldn’t just shift and attack him. Farryn pressed a hand to her hip, the burn was something she hadn’t felt in a long time, familiar yet foreign.

They continued their little dance for well over fifteen minutes of Farryn continuously dodging his large form, just barely keeping out of his reach. Neither one was tiring yet, living on her own had helped Farryn build up a rather large reservoir of stamina. For Chandler this was much more like a game, entertaining the delusional female who thinks they could challenge an alpha. She knew he wasn’t taking this seriously, not like she was, but she also knew he would kill her the moment he caught her. Her hand had slowly begun healing while they moved around each other, enough to the point that she could curl her fingers into fists again.

Finally, Farryn began to slow, the gap between the pair closing with each lunge the wolf made until he was just a few feet away. His muscles bunched as he got ready to lunge. Farryn stopped moving for just a moment, the crowd around them howling in excitement knowing full and well what was about to happen. Until Farryn put her full weight onto her injured hip and swung her right leg out, delivering a well-placed roundhouse kick to the side of his face. The wolf yelped in shock, staggering back as he shook his head but this time it was Farryn who lunged. Punching hard on top of his muzzle to force his head down before wrapping her arms around his thick furred neck.

What she hadn’t been expecting was to miscalculate the size of the wolf and thickness of his fur. Her hands barely connected underneath his head, but she squeezed as hard as she could. The wolf jumped forward, attempting to shake her off but she dug her fingers into his fur and refused to let go, until finally, he rolled over, collapsing his entire weight onto her body. Farryn choked out a scream but still clung onto him. If she was going to die, then she would die fighting.

The sound of his snapping jaws slowly began to be drowned out by the sound of her own heartbeat hammering away in her ears. He had broken at least three of her ribs by rolling onto her. With no weapon and no teeth and claws of her own Farryn had no real way to win this fight. She continued to squeeze her arms around his neck, only further agitating him. The wolf jolted back onto his paws, the sudden change shaking Farryn loose and leaving her on the ground on her stomach struggling for breath.

She lifted her head just as he turned to her, her hands were ready to push herself up to her feet, but he was too close. They both paused, each one debating on who would make the first move. Farryn hadn’t even noticed that everyone had fallen silent again, had been silent from the moment she kicked him and made him yelp. Farryn quickly pushed herself upwards but had only made it to a crouching position before he attacked.

His large paws hit her shoulders, claws digging in as he tackled her to the ground, her head hitting the pavement making her teeth close down on her tongue. She didn’t even feel the pain in her shoulders as he stood over her. She couldn’t as she stared up at him, has she been able to shift she would have torn her back claws through his soft belly, but instead she helplessly pushed her hands at his neck, the only thing keeping his teeth from snapping shut on her small throat.

Farryn panted as she held him back, he wasn’t pushing hard, he was hardly applying any pressure and she knew that he was still just toying with her. The wolf barely lifted one of his paws off of her shoulder before bringing it down hard, her shoulder blade digging into the pavement ached, but she didn’t let her hold weaken. So, he did it again, and again, and again. Until he heard the crack of her bones and her arm dropped. Her blood was splattered along his fur, each time he shoved his paw back down it dug deeper into her ligaments and muscles.

He wanted her to stop resisting, he didn’t want to just kill her for challenging his title, he wanted her to submit before she died. Their eyes met, his blue eyes seeming to question whether she would submit to him, but her other arm didn’t lower, and it certainly didn’t shake. He huffed sharply; it would have been a scoffed had the noise come from a person. The wolf lifted his other paw, and began the same process again, unaware that Farryn healed faster than most. They held eye contact the whole time, even after he broke her other shoulder blade as well. Once her arm fell, she surged forward.

The force of her body going upwards caused his claws to tear through the tops of her shoulders completely, but she didn’t stop as she brought her head forward, smacking her forehead against the front of his nose. For the second time, the wolf yelped, this time jumped away from her in instinct as he pawed at his nose, allowing Farryn to take her time getting to her feet. “I don’t care what it takes.” The wolf lifted his head to look at her.

“I refuse to die.” Blood dripped off of the tips of her fingers as she attempted to bring her shoulders back. The wolf rubbed his nose one more time before shaking his large head, whether it was in disbelief at her stubbornness or to clear it she wasn’t sure, but as he faced her once more she was suddenly brought to her knees from a searing pain in her head. The wolf paused, unsure of what was happening, Farryn cradled her head in her hands as she screamed.

She screamed until her lungs burned and there was no air left inside. Once her screams faded, she gasped sharply before her spine broke in several places followed by her arms then legs as she began to shift for the first time in three years.