Alpha Aston and his Beta, Simon, escorted Mala, Ben and 6 of their elite ranked warriors to the Challenge. It was a long drive from the Hollowed Moon Pack, in Colorado to Topeka Kansas, where the challenge was held every year. They left early in the morning a convoy of three cars.
Arrived sixteen hours later, checked into their hotel a day early so that they could get plenty of rest, they were not staying exactly near the arena out on Perry Lake, but in a hotel thirty minutes away, to keep away from most of the other packs. Though even that didn’t really help, they could already smell other wolves here as well.
Mala had been here in the arena before, not much had changed over the years. A few minor upgrades to the seating, and new fighting mats she noted, and a massive screen on the wall behind where the officials sat. Some sort of broadcasting screen, she thought, so everyone could get a better view of the fighting, she guessed, or perhaps it was a new ranking board she didn’t know, but that was what it looked like to her. Other than that, the place still looked as it had back then.
Mala was with Aston and Simon because she had been there before, knew where to go, stood with her Alpha and Beta as he registered his pack and those that would be fighting for his pack. Neither he nor Simon would be fighting, just her and Ben and their six elite warriors.
Mala had already discussed this with them, how it would go, they had two warriors in each of the four tears of the fighting, unlike some packs who brought dozens of warriors to try and help the odds of them winning. They did not do that, brought the bare minimum, a requirement of the warrior challenge, 2 pack members per division. So, eight they had brought, Aston, Ben and Mala had sat and decided on who went into what divisions, she and Ben would be in different divisions to help them with the odds of winning as well.
She was standing looking at the list of packs that were already registered and checked in, along with the team they’d brought with them. They were all posted on a board. She saw that the Glimmering Moon Pack had not arrived yet. Pity she was hoping to see who was on their list of fighters. Who she was going to kick back to their home pack, shamed by her and it would be a full shame to them and their pack. Considering what she should have been to them.
She had announced how much she hated them, that pack, right in the middle of her last fight, it was very disrespectful, hadn’t cared then, didn’t care now. Mala Luca was listed on her packs team, not Tamala Lucas, they wouldn’t know it was her, until she stepped up and out into the floor area, or into the seating area if they were looking for her. Though she doubted very much they would be, she hadn’t seen them, in near on a decade, she’d simply vanished from the wolfen society they travelled in.
Saw the sign-up man look right at her, realised that he recognised her, watched him frown and look at the list of names before him, trying to find her on that list, she said nothing. It wasn’t her original pack either.
Her hair was longer now, though she still styled it much the same, still wore her hair in an asymmetrical bob, only now it wasn’t shaved on one side, and chin length on the other. Now it was chin length on the left side and dropped all the way down to her breasts on the right side, made her look softer, more feminine than the last time she had been here.
Though the last time she had been here, she had wanted to look hard and nowadays didn’t have to, often wore nice clothes, instead of tattered jeans and old crappy tee-shirts. She was currently standing wearing a lovely summer dress, in a soft pink colour with spaghetti straps and white strappy sandals, and was also wearing light make-up. Looked stunning, Ben had told her with a grin on his face as he’d looked her over.
No-one in her old pack would have ever seen her look like this, not since turning sixteen anyway. She had dressed like this just to annoy them, or him. She thought absently. Didn’t really care to lay eyes on him, but if she must, would show him just what he’d lost.
She was beautiful looked just like her mother in every way, with the exception of her violet-coloured eyes. Everyone in that pack had thought her mother was beautiful, stunning to look at envied her father. Her wolf, Suki, was also the prettiest wolf she had ever seen, not that any in her former pack had seen Suki, just him and the gate guard was all.
But he would have had to tell his father what her wolf looked like, she guessed, been demanded to, for him to hunt her down out there in the rogue world. To try and bring her back to the pack after the error of the pack’s ways, where she was concerned. Not that they had ever found her.
Many of the other wolves in her pack told her just how beautiful Suki was, that brilliant red shimmer on the ends of her black fur. Even Alpha Aston and Luna Roberta had stared at her wolf, she was a little on the large side as well, though she was not as big as her Alpha’s wolf, but was the same size as Ben’s wolf Gravel.
They all walked out of the building and over to their pack car, a dark grey Jeep Night Eagle. The spare tire on the back had their pack logo on the specially designed cover to go over it. Suited their mountain terrain coming and going from the pack and the large wolves fit comfortably inside it.
As she walked to their car, she saw him, Hudson getting out of his pack car, with his Beta Jet. They weren’t looking this way, saw him stand tall and stretch himself out, was six foot four with dirty blond hair, that was now a little longer on top and shorter on the sides, still fit and looking strong she noted, narrowed her eyes right on him, no mark on his neck she noticed.
Got in her car as his Beta looked right at her, frowned and then she was out of his sight, hopefully before he could recognise her, “Everything alright Mala?” Aston asked her as he got in the car. Heard the way she’d snapped the door shut, quite hard.
“Yes.” She stated simply.
“You looked long and hard at that wolf.”
“Hmm, I guess I did.” Seems it had not escaped his attention. “I’m not interested Alpha, if that’s your concern.” She commented and turned to look out the window away from where the Glimmering Moon Pack was parked. She did not want them to recognise her at this point. Though it was a pity they had come here after her own pack to sign up, she did want to know who she would be up against.
You didn’t get to fight your own pack members here in this challenge, so had not been able to all those years back, give them the beat down they all bloody deserved in her eyes.
Smiled to herself, fully intended to give it to them all now, each and every one of them were all going to get a beat down from her where it was possible. Wondered if she would get to fight him herself. Would she get the chance to put him down, here right in front of everyone? That wolf registering packs had recognised her, would know which pack she had been with the last time she was here.
Probably thought she’d died or been banished for disrespecting her old pack, but now she was back, and she was stronger, leaner and meaner at that, when it came to fighting. She was going to enjoy bringing down the Glimmering Moon Pack. No-one here had seen her in 9 long years.
Now here she was and with a wolf no less, ready to fight with all she had for her pack, her Alpha. The strongest in her pack, and Hudson had probably thought she’d run off and died, heartbroken for him or something like that. But no, Mala was much stronger, she had survived and thrived inside her new pack.
“Alpha, is your home pack here?”
“Yes,” he nodded “The Crescent Blood Moon Pack is here. One of the first to register I noted. My brother is here, signed up to fight as well, I saw.”
“Well, Alpha, if I get the chance I will bring that bastard down to his knees for you, lower if possible.”
“I’d like to see that, Mala.” He stated flatly,
“Do you doubt me, Alpha? My ability to do so?”
“No Mala, not at all. I’m just not particularly looking forward to seeing him, is all. Much like you and your ex-Mate, I suppose.”
“Will render that prick unconscious if I get the chance, perhaps worse.” She muttered and looked out the window.
Her Alpha said nothing more and neither did she, it was a very quiet drive back to their hotel, both she and her Alpha each with their own thoughts on the subject of coming face to face with their own past, she guessed.
This was their first real introduction back into the wolfen society, since either of them had left their packs and made new lives for themselves. It was also going to show all the other packs just how strong they were. Out of the eight fighters they had brought, six of them were women.
That was going to speak volumes to the other packs, either they would think The Hollowed Moon was a complete joke or they would understand that they were a full warrior pack. Likely, after the challenge was over, they would know it was the latter. Could well find Aston fielding calls for alliances after this, everyone wanted alliances with strong warrior packs.
Which is exactly what they were, everyone fought. If war came to them, the invading pack wanted to bring more wolves than The Hollowed Moon had in its entirety or they would be going home in full retreat, if they weren’t slaughtered first, of course. Mala and Suki would fight with everything to protect their pack, the life they had been given to live, a life she liked and was never going to relinquish to anyone.
If the invading pack retreat and there weren’t that many left, she was going to take her elite and hunt them down. Kill them all make a full statement to show any other pack out there that they were not to be messed with. Make them all think more than twice about coming and attacking The Hollowed Moon Pack.
They all sat together ate dinner in the hotel’s dining room, and they weren’t the only wolves here either, there were currently four other wolfen packs here, at the hotel. All were here to eat as well, and no one, it seemed, knew who they were, and she could hear the chatter amongst them about which pack they were.
It was clear that those four packs knew each other and were holding conversations across the tables they were sitting at, seemed friendly enough to each other, there was a little fighting banter, and taunting but it seemed, more on the friendly side than nasty side of things, likely they all ran in the same circles. Why they were all staying here in the same hotel, could well be all alliance to each other, for all she knew.
There was speculation amongst them, that they were The Hollowed Moon Pack, from the other packs, they all seemed interested in the ten of them, not that any of them approached her Alpha to ask him.
None of her pack attempted to talked to those other wolves, though they did look at them curiously and watched them back. Interaction or fraternisation was not what they were here for, a show of strength to The Crescent Blood Moon Pack, was why they were here.