Chapter 15: The Strength Tournament

After we finished eating, we all went back to our designated houses – Delilah to hers with her mates, and Alfie and I went back to ours with Royce. I had expected us to sleep in the same house before getting to the community fire, but being there, I got that gut feeling that something bad was going to happen.

As I was chewing my food, my chest started to tighten, and it became difficult to breathe. I felt like someone was sitting directly on my chest with all of their weight. My stomach started to churn, and I couldn't get it off of my mind. I wanted to be completely happy and give all of my attention to my now extending family, but I just couldn't. once we all got done eating, I gave Alfie a look that only he would have understood, and he let everybody know that I 'wasn't feeling good and wanted to be alone tonight'.

When we got back to our house and Royce fell asleep, I explained my feeling to Alfie. "Alfie, I don't know how to explain it, I just feel as if someone is going to do something bad and they are going to be punished to the death. It's not going to happen right now, but once we get back to the village something bad is brewing."

"I have felt that feeling since Delilah stood next to you on the stage."

"WHAT! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you say anything at all?"

"I didn't want to hurt you; I didn't want to ruin the beautiful smile that was on your face."

The rest of the night – and conversation – was interrupted by a sharp pain in my stomach following a hard kick to my ribs. We tried our best to get me comfortable in bed to sleep, but I couldn't even fall asleep from the worry. I watched Alfie sleep through the entire night while I played out the worst scenarios in my head.

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Once Alfie finally woke up at sunrise, I had to act as if I had actually slept most of the night. He could probably tell that I was lying, but I was just trying to convince myself that I was okay as well.

My stomach had grown overnight, and I was already showing quite a bit. My anxiety was relieved a bit seeing my baby move around beneath my skin, but I was still worried about the pain I experienced last night. In the back of my mind, I was also thinking about the feeling me and Alfie have been having. I couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with Brian and his hatred towards Alfie.

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After putting on the leopard print outfit and my crown of branches and flowers, we went out to the city center for the start of the Strength Tournament. On the walk down there, we could see many men stretching and preparing themselves for the unknown first task they will be given. As we were walking to the quickly forming crowd, Alfie's father waved us up to come onto the stage where there were four large thrones and one smaller one. We reluctantly walked up to the stage to be greeted by a smiling alpha and his hand extended out to me. I slowly grabbed his hand as I looked at Alfie and a large, cold hand latched onto mine.

I looked in front of me to see golden eyes, but these felt different than Alfie's. these eyes looked like it held many secrets and saw many evil acts that the body attached had done. I could see a darkness behind the beautiful gold color. The darkness wasn't a visible dark, but a darkness that I felt when I looked into them. I almost got lost while looking into those evil eyes – thinking about all the evil acts they had witness. A glance down a saw an evil smirk spread across his face. He looked as if he wanted to eat me.

Or kill me.

"Alyssa, it's nice to finally touch… I mean meet you." He bent down to kiss the back of my hand with his evil smirk still plastered on his face before finally releasing it. My skin finally returned to its normal warmth. "I'm sure Alfie already told you who I am and a few… interesting stories about me. I am called Alpha Damon by most, but you can just call me Damon if you'd like since you are my son's mate."

"Nice to meet you, Damon, the pleasure is mine." I stated with a plastic smile and a slight bow. From the few things I was told by Alfie about his father, I wasn't surprised that his name sounded extremely close to 'demon'.

He bent down to Royce's level as he started to hide behind me. "So, you must be the famous Royce." He held his hand out for Royce to take but he just held on tighter to me long skirt. "You know, it's not polite to refuse a handshake from an alpha." Royce looked up at me, and back at the hand, and slowly lifted his hand towards Damon's. Damon latched onto Royce's hand with such force he nearly fell forward. "That's better. Now, how about you three join us on the stage; we had some thrones built for each of you since you are in the royal family. Speaking of the royal family, Alfie, when are you going to come back to finish your alpha training? Has your temper tantrum ceased yet?" his eyes darted towards Alfie and they narrowed significantly. It looked as if he was going to cut right through him with his glare.

"I have my own village now." He said matter-of-factly as he mimicked his father's glare.

"Well, since your mate is the shifter, you will need to come back at some point. Maybe your speck of a village can move here, hmm? How does that sound?" his eyes narrowed even further.

"Why would we need to come back just because I am the shifter?" I butt in, trying to loosen the tension.

"Every shifter has moved to the City of Forms. We are the center of the realm and the shifter needs to be able to be easily accessible for every beast. Have your parents taught you nothing about your true form at all?"

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. What else didn't I know about being a shifter? I couldn't waver my exterior, so I continued looking intimidating. "Sometimes change is a good thing, Damon." Those words definitely put a chink in his armor.

His face faltered and he took a step backwards. "It's getting to that time to start the Strength Tournament, why don't you guys just sit in the thrones I had built for you." He stepped to the side for us to pass and we all sat in our designated seats. The crowd was extremely vast, similar to yesterday's beauty competition. Damon projected his voice, "Today is the start of the Strength Tournament. The first challenge will be a search and return. There are two hundred golden eggs hidden in the forest around the city. Find and bring one egg back to this spot and you will move onto the second challenge. The only rule is that you may only take one egg. You may fight for an egg from another male. Be back by the time the sun hits its highest point. Let the games begin!" he howled at the sky and the males ran to the massive opening in the stone walls and out to the forest. As the men were running, I caught a glimpse of a familiar set of red eyes in the crowd.

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After waiting for a little bit, some of the men started coming into view once again. The first man back was the one that possessed those familiar red eyes. I didn't get a good look at his face so I couldn't tell who it was exactly, but I knew he was someone I had seen before.

Many men came back holding a golden egg, and some of them had severe injuries from fights along the way. The eggs looked about the size of a robin's egg, which surprised me that those men were even able to find them at all. 'I hope what my dad said isn't getting to you' Alfie thought as I was distracted watching the wave of men running into the city center with their golden eggs and a smile spread across their faces.

'What don't I know about being a shifter, Alfie?' I responded. I couldn't stop thinking about what I was missing.

'Just don't worry about that right now. I don't want you to upset the baby growing inside of you. It isn't good for babies to have to deal with stress.'

'I know, I just can't get what he said out of my head. I feel like something is off and I need to find out what it is.'

'If it would make you feel better, we can meet with my father to discuss your true form.' I didn't know how to respond. Did I really want to meet with his father? Was it even safe to meet with him? Was he just lying to me about not knowing something? Would he lie to me if we met? 'Alyssa?'

'Do you think we should?' I couldn't make up my mind, so whatever Alfie said, that's what we would do.

'Even though I hate my father and know how dangerous he is… I think he has a lot of information that may help us better understand your true form as well as Royce's.'

'Then it's settled, we will meet with him.'

'Okay, I'll talk to him after he announces the second challenge; this one should be done soon since there are only two eggs left to be found.' I nodded my head and continued watching as the men who already found an egg stood.

A few minutes later the other two men returned to the city center; they were badly beaten and could barely walk to hand in their eggs. Damon stood up from his throne and cleared his throat to signal for all the successful men to silence themselves. "The last of the eggs have been found, and the two hundred males in front of me will move on to the second challenge." He howled at the sky to signal to the remaining men in the forest that they have failed the first challenge and will not be moving forward. I looked up at the sky and noticed that the first challenge ended early; the sun wasn't even close to its peak and it was probably only around an hour after the first challenge had even started. "The second challenge will be a strategy game. This is the game the last shifter had invented, the one called 'chess'. I thought it would be fitting since we have two shifters in our presence today. Every male should know the rules of the normal game of chess, and if you don't, then you need to figure it out quickly. The only rule I will add is that there will be NO fighting. If any males are caught fighting, they will not move on to the next round. The winners of each game will move on, and if there is no fighting, there will be one hundred males in the third challenge. The people who you gave your eggs to will be the ones pairing you off. Let's begin!" he let out another howl and the men started running to the table where they handed their eggs in. Slowly the men were paired off and went to their designated chess table.

As Damon started walking back to his throne, Alfie got up to speak with him. "Father, Alyssa and I would like to meet with you to speak about her true form."

"So, I was right about her parents then, hmm? I will meet with you tomorrow at sunrise. One of your mother's mates will bring and outfit for her, make sure she wears it. We can't have her looking drab when she comes to the Alpha Tree." Alfie nodded his head and returned to my side. He growled under his breath and his eyes flashed bright gold for a moment.

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After a LONG hour – I assumed looking at the position of the sun – the chess games were finally finished. Surprisingly, there were no fights that broke out and the full one hundred men moved on to the third challenge. 'Alfie, how many challenges are there? I'm starting to get bored sitting here and waiting.' I asked in my head. All this sitting around and waiting was extremely boring – Royce had gone to play with his friends hours ago at this point – I wasn't sure how anybody could take waiting around like this.

'There are normally only four but looking at some of the changes my father has made to the normal challenges, there could be more or less.'

'What are the normal challenges that he changed?'

'There is normally a hunting challenge first, then comes a speed challenge. The normal third and fourth vary between strategy, strength, cooking, and fighting challenges. Normally the last one is either strength or fighting but a few times it wasn't.'

'I wonder why he is changing them…'

'Probably because you are here; not sure of his intention though.'

"Now that the last of the chess games are finished and we have our one hundred males moving on to challenge three, I will announce what it is that you will be doing. The third challenge will be a strength challenge. In this challenge you will be lifting rocks that get heavier in size and holding them in the air for as long as it takes for a feather to drop." He held up a feather at shoulder height and dropped it. It swung back and forth and hit the ground after five seconds. "If you drop the rock before the feather drops, you don't move on. If you can't even lift a rock, you don't move on. There will be no fighting in this challenge; if you fight, you don't move on. Now make a line at each of the two rows of rocks." He pointed at the two rows of rocks; they started with small rocks and gradually got bigger down the line. There were ten rocks in each row. "When I say 'LIFT' you will lift the rock and I will drop the feather once the rock reaches the middle of your body and you are fully standing. You may lift the rock higher if you would like, but you don't need to." He paused for a minute as the first two men in line move to the first rock. "Now, LIFT" he yelled, and the men lifted the first rock with ease.

After the feather dropped, the rocks did as well, and the men went down the line of rocks. Many men failed at the eighth or ninth rocks, and it looked like there may not even be any men in the final challenge until I saw the red eyed man step up to the ninth rock. His face was in the shadow of the Alpha Tree and I still couldn't make out who he was. He grabbed the ninth rock and held it over his head until the feather dropped. He dropped the rock and moved on to the next, and last one. When Damon said 'LIFT', he lifted the rock above his head again. His arms weren't even shaking, and he looked as if he could lift one double the size. As the feather dropped, he kept the rock above his head. The men behind him failed the ninth rock so he didn't hold back the line. He held the rock up for five feather drops before he set it down slowly and the next man finally passed the ninth rock.

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As the men were lifting the rocks and moving down the line, only fourteen had been able to lift the last rock. Thankfully, this challenge went by faster than the rest, and I was curious to find out who that red eyed man was. Damon stepped up to the front of the stage to announce the last challenge. "Well, that was disappointing. The remaining fourteen males will move on to the last challenge, a fighting challenge. This challenge has only two rules: fight until one submits or dies, and no body can interfere with the fight. If anybody interferes with the fight, the interferers will be banished from the City of Forms and can never return. The fourteen males that are going into the last challenge will go to the place where you dropped off your eggs once again to be given your opponent. Now, let's see some BLOOD!" he howled at the sky one last time.

The first two men stepped up to the now empty area in front of the stage while the audience circled around it. Both of these men had gold eyes and were just slightly smaller than Alfie. The moment they met in the circle they lunged at each other. They clawed and bit and kicked at each other with such speed that I could barely even tell who was going to win. Suddenly, one of the men donkey kicked the other and he went flying to the complete other end of the circle. The man that got kicked was coughing up blood and couldn't even get on his knees. The kicker slowly walked over to him while swiping the dust off of his body. When the injured man saw the other, he said, "I submit!" thankfully he wasn't killed. The next couple of fights were completely unmatched. There were alphas fighting omegas and betas and betas fighting omegas. The strength gap between each was starting to become apparent to me.

The sixth fight had already ended, and I still hadn't seen the red-eyed man. He must have been in the last fight; then, I saw him. The last two men came out and one of them was the red-eyed man and the other was a beta. I finally got a good look at his face. Before I could even tell Alfie, the fight was over. The beta's body fell straight to the ground completely limp and blood strayed from his neck. He killed the man right in front of me before I could even count a second.