Shy One (Completed)

Chapter 21

"A-a duel?" I stuttered, staring up at the guard as he gave me a sad smile. 

"Yeah, kinda," He rubbed the back of his neck as his lead me through different corridors, "You're gonna fight a rouge." 

"W-with these?" I squeak, my voice failing me badly and doing me no favors in hiding my fear. I lifted my shackles, the chains clinking to prove my point. 

"Yeah." He took a deep breath, "Sorry." 

I stared at the ground.

I'm so dead.

So soo dead. 

"D-do people actually defeat the rouges?" I was so quiet that I couldn't even hear myself but somehow the guard heard me. 

"No." He answered bluntly, "Well some do, mainly our older testors." He looked down at the ground, noticing the dried up bloodstains, "Our younger ones are usually eaten before they realize what's happening." 

I gulped. 

The bile rising in my throat.

"Wait, you there, halt!" An elderly voice who belonged to I believe was Axel's great grandfather shouted from the back. 

The guard and I stopped and turned slowly to see the old man approaching us. He really did look like Axel, but had much bigger eye-bags and white hair. As he got closer he seemed smaller that Axel, in both height and muscle mass. Nonetheless he can probably crush me with his thumb. 

"Yes Councilman Brinks?" The guard stood straighter, looking more dead inside than when he was speaking to me seconds ago. 

"I can take her from here." He open his already gloved hand to the guard who hesitantly put the chain attached to my collar to the Councilman. 

Axel's great grandfather was smiling at the two of us warmly, and before the guard left he shot me a worried look.

He was one of the nicer and younger guards I met here. 

Axel's great grandfather waited for the guard's footsteps to fade before he turned slightly to me.

But I was absolutely terrified.

His smile was gone, replaced with a frown and completely cold eyes that froze my whole body. I couldn't even react when one of his hands shot towards my neck and grabbed the collar. 

"Listen hear girl," he spat out, actually spitting on me in the process as he lifted my collar up until my toes couldn't even touch the ground. "I do not want a black wolf tainting my bloodline." 

The collar wasn't choking me because it was so loose but it was rubbing the back of my neck raw. It was a process of my neck healing then being scratched up by how poorly my collar was made. 

It didn't help that this collar smelled like other people's bodily fluids. 

"Don't worry." I found my mouth and voice working on their own, even if they were strained how the collar was pressing against my jaw. "I probably won't survive today." 

His mouth turned into a malicious smirk as his eyes grew colder, "I won't worry." He dropped me, watching with sick satisfaction as my legs buckled from the sudden force and I collapsed onto the hard stone ground. "I made sure to give you our most vicious, feral, and hungry rouge." Pulling on my chain, he made me stand weakly back on my feet while pulling me up high enough so he could whisper in my ear, "You will die today regardless if you survive or not."