I smiled as I walked toward the training ground, each step deliberate and confident. The crowd parted before me, their whispers following in my wake. My voice cut through their murmurs, firm and unwavering.
“I’m here for the Gamma selection. I haven’t even taken the stage yet, so how is Victoria already the Gamma?”
The pack members exchanged glances, uncertain how to respond. Victoria, still in her enhanced Beta form, shifted back to human and quickly dressed in the robe provided to her. Her previous smugness was replaced with calculated caution.
“What perfect timing, Alexis,” she said, her voice carrying across the grounds. “You can witness my victory ceremony.”
Hearing my challenge, Victoria remained outwardly calm, but I caught the flicker of unease in her eyes. She tilted her head and asked me coolly: “Lexi, it seems you don’t have any elixir to compete with, right? Stop causing trouble here. You’ve already
embarrassed yourself enough.”
Several pack members nodded in agreement, looking at me with pity and disdain. Richard stepped forward, placing a protective
hand on Victoria’s shoulder.
“Alexis, the selection is over. Victoria has proven herself worthy of the Gamma position. Perhaps it’s best if you leave now, before you make things worse for yourself.”
As expected, Victoria could sense all the elixirs I had brewed. That connection between us remained, though she couldn’t
understand why I wasn’t panicking.
I truly didn’t have a single elixir left now. I had destroyed them all, one by one.
However…
I opened my mouth and smiled, feeling a warmth spread from my core to my eyes. From the gasps around me, I knew what they were seeing–the red glow of an Alpha wolf flickering in my eyes. A power that couldn’t be brewed or stolen.
“Who said I need an elixir?”
My words hung in the air like a physical force. The crowd fell silent, all eyes locked on my glowing gaze.
Upon seeing the red glow in my eyes, Victoria’s face instantly turned pale. The blood drained from her cheeks as she stumbled back a step, colliding with Richard. Her eyes widened with terror, her composed facade crumbling completely.
“You… you…” she stammered, pointing a shaking finger at me.
Richard’s grip on her shoulder tightened, his knuckles white. “Alexis, you’ve gone mad! What have you done?!” His voice cracked with panic, a sound I’d never heard from our respected Beta before.
The crowd began to murmur again, confusion and awe spreading like wildfire.
“Her eyes…”
1/3
+15 Bonus
“That’s impossible!”
“Only Alpha wolves have that glow!”
I felt Willow’s presence stronger than ever, no longer a separate entity fighting for control but a part of me, completing me. With
a deep breath, I let the transformation take me.
I shifted into my wolf form, bones cracking and reshaping, fur bursting through my skin. But this wasn’t the same wolf form the
pack had seen before. This wolf stood taller, more powerful, with a silver–white coat that seemed to capture and reflect the
sunlight.
I approached Victoria one step at a time, my claws leaving deep impressions in the packed dirt of the training ground. Even in
wolf form, I was still smiling–a predator’s smile that showed just enough fang to make my point.
“I plunged into the rogue wolves‘ territory,” I said, my voice somehow carrying clearly despite my wolf form. Another Alpha trait
-the ability to speak while shifted. “During the battle, my wolf died and was reborn. That’s when I discovered my wolf is actually
an Alpha wolf.”
Victoria tried to step back further but found herself pressed against the training ground wall. Her enhanced Beta form suddenly
seemed inadequate, a child’s costume compared to the real power radiating from me.
“Though I don’t understand what method you used to make all my brewed elixirs work only for you,” I continued, coming to a
stop just inches from her, “now, why don’t you try to see if you can still make my Alpha wolf submit?”
The challenge hung in the air between us. Several pack members backed away, giving us space. No one wanted to be caught
between two powerful wolves–especially when one was an Alpha.
I thought back to my decision, the moment that had changed everything. Since every wolf that drank my elixirs would
inexplicably submit to Victoria, and Victoria always knew real–time information about my elixir brewing process, I had needed
another way.
Even if I brewed a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand more elixirs, the outcome would be the same. I would always be the thief,
the failure, the one who submitted.
I might as well embrace death to find new life, no longer obsessing over brewing elixirs to enhance my strength, but instead
improving myself through real battle–the oldest, purest way of the wolf.
Standing outside the rogue wolves‘ gathering place that night, my legs had been weak with fear. I remembered how my heart had
pounded, how every instinct had screamed at me to turn back.
How could I not be afraid? Twenty or more rogue wolves against one—it was suicide. But some things are more frightening than death. Like living a lie. Like letting Victoria win again.
I wanted to live cleanly and honorably, to stand on my own four paws without tricks or deception.
Not labeled a thief, becoming someone everyone wanted to beat. Not dying in a silver pit, forgotten and unmourned.
2/3
+15 Bonus
When the rogue wolves had surrounded me, I needed to see them lunging at me, to remember this moment of desperation. To
burn it into my memory as the moment I chose my own fate.
Then, bite by bite, I tore into those rogue wolves. The first fell to my jaws, surprised by my ferocity. The second and third came at
me together, ripping into my flanks as I fought with everything I had.
My wolf was covered in blood during the battle, both mine and theirs. For every wound they inflicted, I gave back twofold, but
they had numbers on their side. Eventually, I collapsed, my strength gone, fighting until death claimed me. I thought this was the
end, my vision dimming, the pain fading.
But it turned out to be a rebirth.
After the rogue wolves left my broken body, considering their work done, something miraculous happened. My wolf’s corpse began to emit a silver light, pulsing with ancient power. All my wounds started to heal, bones knitting back together, torn flesh
mending.
I gasped back to life, stronger than before, filled with a power I had never known was mine.
I realized I had always been an Alpha wolf, but somehow my true wolf form had been concealed–suppressed by something or someone. Only at the moment of death was all my potential unleashed, breaking whatever chains had held my true nature
captive.
Now, standing before Victoria, I let her see that power in full. No more hiding. No more submission.
