Chapter 2 - The arena

“Breakfast is ready Mya. Don’t dally or you’ll go hungry again”. Beth stuck her head round the door. The cook for the manor. Her round face was topped by greying hair in a tight bun. Mya had grown very fond of Beth. She guessed Beth was in her late sixties. Her plump body clothed in a black chef’s uniform and white apron had often held her while she cried for her family. What such a lovely woman was doing in such an evil place she just could not work out.

“You could of at least let me have a bit of a lie in” she said as she walked towards the open door, flinging her braid over her shoulder to hang down her back.

“A lie in! HA! You’ll be lucky in this place you cheeky devil now get on with you or Darren will have both of our heads”. Beth chivvied her off in the direction of the kitchens.

After breakfast the first training session of the day was in the outside arena. Tall stately stone bench’s encircled the arena floor. It reminded her of the Colosseum in Rome that she’d seen on holiday with her parents. Her father had had to ask permission from the local alpha in order to go on the trip. Alphas get a little touchy if you step on their territory without permission. However, this arena was not for the fighting of gladiators. This arena was used for the training of Darren’s minions. Darren is the Alpha of the Midnight Mountains pack. A very secretive pack that Mya had never even heard of until being brought to this place. Victor was his second. Given how terrifying Victor is Mya could not fathom why he was only second in the pack and not Alpha. Darren had never shown any aggression towards her in any way or to anyone else for that matter. Apart from the time back at her home. If anything it seemed like he cared for her. This both baffled and concerned her. Why would her captor care for her?

She was brought back to reality with a huge paw swiping millimetres from her face. She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. Standing opposite her was Finley. In human form he was 6 feet tall, freckly and ginger. In his animal form he was a huge tiger with bright yellow eyes. Mya had never even considered that there would be other were animals. Since being here she had met; a were-tiger, were-leopard, were-bear, were-lion, were-eagle and were-fox. Not that she knew much about them other than their names and animal forms. There was never much time for talking here, much to her frustration. They all stood before her in the arena. All except Finley were dressed in the same dull black on black clothes. Training for Mya consisted of trying to not get beaten to a pulp by them on a daily basis. She jumped back and crouched down waiting for Finley to make his next move. He always toyed with her. Making it look like he was going to go one way but always going the other. It was his eyes that gave him away. They always darted to his next position ahead of his move. He lunged to his left, Mya dove in and met him head on with a two quick punches to his jaw. She ducked out of the way of his reach. She rolled across the floor, spun and stood to meet his next attack. Finley shook his head and turned slowly to look at her. His ears pinned back and questioning look in his eyes. Mya had never been able to connect one of her punches with him before. She stuck her tongue out at him. He roared with fury and leaped for her. Mya flung herself backwards and as Finley sailed above her head she kicked out with her feet tumbling him across the dirt floor. He went to lunge at her again when a quite male voice whispered across the arena “Stop Finley!” Finley shook his head and paced towards Mya. His rage filled eyes glaring at her. “I SAID STOP!” the voice screamed in their heads. Finley paused mid motion as if frozen. His head snapped back. He flew across the arena and slammed into the stone bench’s opposite our group and stayed there, motionless.

Remus walked across the arena. He almost appeared to float his movements were so fluid. The druid looked Mya over and stroked her cheek. She shuddered. “Are you ok my Pet?” he smiled. His perfectly kept moustache curled at the ends. Without waiting for her response he turned to Raina the were-fox. “Begin” he said with a click of his fingers as he went to sit back down on the stands. Raina turned towards Mya. For a brief flash Mya saw fear in Raina’s eyes which was gone as soon as it appeared. Mya hadn’t been training with Raina for that long, she seemed fairly new here.

“Time to play wolf pup” she snarled as she started stripping down her clothes. Clothes don’t tend to survive the change very well. Except for Mya’s, she had a strange tendency to be able to keep her clothes even through multiple changes which seemed to puzzle everyone. As Raina began her change, her long lean figure contorting and bending in a way that never seemed possible Mya turned to Remus.

“Usually I’m only subjected to one fight a day!” she scowled at him, hands on her hips.

He smiled as if her defiance amused him. Not something she ever wanted to do. Becoming amusing to Remus is asking for trouble. He doesn’t play with his toys he breaks them like a child pulling the limbs off of a spider one by one. Why didn’t she keep her big mouth shut? She was forever getting herself into more trouble than usual. He looked behind her and nodded. With that both Jason the were-bear and Lisa the were-lion began their change. Now she’d done it!

She turned to face them. Raina had finished her change and shook off the remaining tingling from the change. Her fox form was just as sleek as she was in human form. Vibrant red fur with a beautiful white tip to her tail. She flicked her tail and with that launched at Mya’s head. Mya dodged but not fast enough she fell to the ground with a loud thump as Raina brushed past her. Landing a few paces behind and turning on the spot for the next assault. She was so fast Mya could not keep up with her movements. Mya rolled to her knees just in time for a huge brown shaggy paw twice the size of her head to hit the ground where her head had been moments before. Jason and Lisa had finished their change. Before Mya could do anything a large golden paw swiped her across the back sending her sprawling to the floor. There was no way she would survive this in human form. She sprung to her feet and ran to the edge of the arena. She could hear the three of them closely behind her. She jumped up onto the first bench and back-flipped. She changed mid-air into her wolf form landing behind them. She panted. Changing that quickly had taken its toll already. She shook the last of the trembling from her body. She rolled her shoulders and stretched out her back watching them turn towards her.

Her wolf form was a brilliant gold in colour to match her hair with her front right leg being jet black up to her shoulder. A rarity in wolves to have such a distinctive marking. Mya liked to think she got it from her father. She smiled at them, her tongue dangling from her mouth, taunting them. It was all they needed. They ran across the arena towards her, teeth and claws glinting in the sun. This was not a good idea! She waited. At the last possible second she leapt into the air, jumped onto Jason’s back and ran in the opposite direction. No way was she trying to fight them all together. That would be suicide! She ran as fast as she could towards the arena entrance. If she could just make it through the door she may have a chance of outrunning them around the estate gardens. She would never outrun Lisa in a straight race. She’d tried it before. She was almost there when a shout echoed from the top of the arena “STOP!” She carried on running. She couldn’t hear anyone behind her anymore. They had stopped the chase. Mya slowed down to a pace and turned her head. Darren stood at the top of the arena. She hadn’t even seen him there. She stopped and turned. Making sure everyone had stayed put and not continued in their pursuit of her. Darren stepped down the benches towards them clapping slowly. His tall muscular build moving effortlessly, it was almost unnatural the way such a muscular figure could move with such grace but he made every movement look beautifully precise. His black hair tousled messily in loose curls. His green eyes twinkled in the sun like he’d seen something funny. He almost had the surfer look down pat if it wasn’t for the smart businessman suit he always wore and the restrained power just beneath the surface. Mya could feel it the moment he came close to her.

“Well done Mya! A great performance! You’ve really come along well in your training and such fast changes! I’m impressed!” he called to her across the arena. “Come on over, training is over for the day.”

She walked back across the arena towards the group, still wary that they might attack again. She changed back to her human form mid stride as she joined the group. Just out of reach of any swipes they may send her way. She noted that Finley had come back around. Storm and Quinn had changed into their eagle and leopard forms. Why? She scowled at Darren. What was he up to?

“I haven’t seen you around for a while where have you been?” she snarled at him. He usually sat in on her training sessions at least once a week.

“Oh, here and there.” He smiled at her. She looked past Darren to Remus who was sat in his usual position but was mumbling to himself with his eyes closed. She rolled her eyes. Creepy little man! “I thought I’d come back as I couldn’t very well miss your birthday now, could I?” He beamed at her.

“It’s my birthday?” She looked at him questioningly. He was definitely up to something. “How old am I?”

“Don’t tell me you can’t remember how old you are” he cried. “Your twentyfive of course!”

Her mouth dropped. Twenty five! She had been kept in this place for six years! She thought she had been here for a while but not that long! The days, weeks and months had blurred into one. How long had she spent screaming at the walls when they first brought her here? Had her pack stopped looking for her now presuming she was dead? She narrowed her gaze at Darren. “You did this!” She hissed at him.

“Now, now. Don’t be like that darlin’” he drawled in his southern accent. “Don’t you want your present?”

“Present?” she looked at him questioningly. With that he nodded behind her. She turned just in time to see the group of six shifters all attack as one. She turned to run but it was too late. Claws sliced deep into her flesh, teeth sunk into her shoulder and legs. A fire started to burn through her entire body. The world went black.