It was the day before the last game. It felt surreal. Sam had the day planned in detail. Everyone knew the last game was always special and focused on physical strength. Sam had us do some light training in the morning. He and Matilda had planned a nice lunch, and then he forced all of us to take a nap. I was feeling like a kid.
‘Wanna take the nap together?’ Finlay mindlinked me.
‘Don’t even joke about it. Did you see the look in Sam’s eyes when Ramses said he didn’t feel like napping? I’m going into my room and if I can’t fall asleep, I will pretend to snore,’ I told him. Finlay chuckled as he headed for his own room.
In the afternoon, we all went for a run in wolf shape, and then Sam had arranged for the healers to give us massages and rub some kind of ointment into our skin. Matilda had a nice dinner prepared for us. We all assumed it was the end of Sam’s plan, so we headed for the TV. We had just gotten comfortable with our favorite game show when the TV turned off and Sam stood in front of it.
“Time for bed,” he said. We all groaned as one.
“Sam, enough is enough. I appreciate everything you have done and planned for us. It’s seven o’clock, and we have napped for an hour today,” I objected.
“We need to be well-rested for tomorrow,” he insisted.
“An hour of TV won’t kill us,” Finlay told him. Sam sighed.
“Fine! But when we are sleepwalking tomorrow, don’t blame me,” he told us and took his usual place.
“Sleepwalking from going to bed at eight?” Ramses asked. Sam just huffed. I smiled. We all handled nerves differently, and it made sense Sam handled his by training and planning. There was a good reason he was our Gamma. Five after eight, Sam started to sigh. Ten past eight, we surrendered and headed for bed.
‘Last game tomorrow, Red,’ Finlay mindlinked me when I was in bed.
‘I know. Crazy.’
“You know the big formal dinner the night after the last game?” he asked.
‘I know. Meadow had me trying on at least ten dresses for it,’ I told him.
‘Will you be my official date?’ he asked.
‘Took you long enough to ask. I would love to go with you.’
‘Do you want me to get you flowers for when I pick you up?’ I smiled and rolled my eyes in the semi-darkness.
‘Flowers would have been nice, but I think you will have a hard time finding someplace to buy them,’ I pointed out.
‘Right. I will just have to owe you the flowers and get you some when we get back home.’
‘I like that compromise.’ There was a noise from Sam’s room. ‘Do you think he heard us?’ I asked. I could hear Finlay chuckle from his room.
‘I doubt he can hear our mindlink. Quick, tell me something dirty and we will find out,’ he told me.
‘Perv. I won’t chance it. I’m going to sleep. Good night Finn.’
‘Night Red.’
All of us were well-rested as we headed for the stadium the next day. The mood amongst all the packs was nervous. Those who had participated before were talking about the last games they had seen or been a part of. I looked over at Elder. I had talked to him about setting up a meeting between me and James. James had told him he was too busy today. I got it—no one knew what state we would be in after the game—but he hadn’t wanted to book a meeting for tomorrow either, which irritated me.
“Good morning and welcome to the last game for this year. After today’s game, you will have tomorrow to rest, and we will celebrate the ending of the game with a formal dinner. Everyone is welcome to participate. The following day your results will be available. That is always an interesting day. The day after, we will hold the closing ceremony, and after the ceremony, you are free to leave at your own pleasure. We expect everyone to have left within a week. Enough about the formal parts. Time to get on with what we are here for: your final game. The final game this year will be traditional hand-to-hand battle.” The stadium was dead silent. I looked at Finlay; he did not look happy.
‘Are they crazy?’ Sam asked.
“The participants will duel it out one on one. You win by either forcing your opponent out of the fighting area or by holding them in submission for a minute. Shifting is allowed; no going for a kill. To make the fights as fair as possible, we will have five groups, A to E. Group A will be for the strongest fighters, group E for the weakest. The other groups are a sliding scale. Each pack will assign which participant will be in which group. Only one participant from each pack can be in the same group. We will randomly select who will fight who within the groups. The winner from each fight will move on to the next round. In between rounds, you may eat and drink freely, and your healers will be allowed to tend to any wounds. You have ten minutes to decide how you want to distribute your pack members across the groups.”
‘Fuck,’ Ramses said.
‘I will go in group A, Sam you will go B, Ramses C, Jake D, and Amie E, or you sit this one out,’ Finlay told us. Everyone nodded.
‘Wait, no,’ I objected. Finlay gave me a look. ‘No, listen to me. I do not belong in group E. I should be in group C. I’m the Beta.’
‘Amie, leave this to us,’ Sam said.
‘I will kick all of your asses if you don’t stop patronizing me. I’m not kidding. Meadow will understand when I explain, as will Shelly. I have no issues making you all walk funny,’ I told them. They all looked towards Finlay. ‘Don’t look at him, he will be right there with you.’
‘Amie, you can get seriously hurt,’ he told me in our private mindlink.
‘I know. I’m still Beta, and I refuse to be shoved aside.’
‘Amie in group D and Jake in group E,’ Finlay told us.
‘Sorry,’ I told Jake. He shrugged.
‘I’ll just do the best I can,’ he said. As the official came to collect our names for the different groups, he asked us to leave the stadium and follow the warriors to where the fights were to be held. I walked next to Finlay.
‘You have to be careful,’ I told him.
‘Me? Don’t worry, I’m strong and well trained,’ he said.
‘I know, but so are most of the Alphas here. This is the last game. After this, I can officially accept the rejection. Then we will go home, and I refuse to think we have gone through all of this just for you to be injured,’ I told him.
‘I will do my best. I have a date tomorrow I’m looking forward to.’ We were led to an area of the woods where, in between the tall, straight tree trunks, a large number of fighting stages had been set up. It looked to be around fifty of them.
‘I don’t like this,’ Ramses said.
‘A lot can go wrong,’ Jake agreed.
‘Remember, if you think someone is going for your life or to seriously injure you, step out of the ring. We would rather take a low score than lose someone,’ Finlay told us. We all nodded. Five big screens had been set up, one for each group. It showed who was fighting who. I looked over the screens and could see none of us were fighting a member of the Ocean Shore pack—at least not in the first round. That was a relief. I worried about Finlay going up against his brother or James. I was happy knowing my brother would probably be in group B or C, which meant I didn’t need to face him. There was one additional thing that was different from the other games: the support staff were free to move around the fighting stages, which meant the participants weren’t as isolated as before. Matilda walked up to our team and stood by my side. I smiled at her.
‘Matilda will be staying with you,’ Finlay told me.
‘Why am I getting an escort?’
‘Because we can’t stick together in the team, and there are at least two packs I don’t trust at the moment. Just agree with me on this so I don’t need to worry,’ he told me.
‘I’m only agreeing to it because I don’t want you to be distracted.’
‘Thank you.’ It felt strange to split from the team as Matilda and I made our way to the fighting stage where I would face my first opponent.
‘I honestly have no idea what they were thinking, deciding this was a good final game. It’s as if they want to see wolves getting hurt,’ Matilda mindlinked me.
‘Yeah, I’m not too fond of it either,’ I agreed. To be honest, I was nervous. I knew I could handle myself in a fight, but I had only had to use it once. I had insisted I could do this. I didn’t want to be bumped out in the first fight.