Warrior

This story will be published on Galatea soon.

There are only five chapter available.

We slump down on the benches in our bloodied armors in the large backyard outside the castle. We just returned from another successful attack. Every single warrior is exhausted after four days of fighting the scary vampires.

The voice of the Beta breaks the blissful silence we so desperately need. “Alexandria, Alpha demands your presence!”

I let out a big sigh and get on my feet. The other women look at me with empathy. Yup, you heard me. All the warriors are women.

In a world where only supernatural creatures exist, every hybrid is deemed a lesser species, especially women, and are trained as either servants, mistresses, or warriors.

All unfortunate pureblood females who can’t procreate are also forced to join us. I’m a pureblood amazon but since no other amazon exists, mating with me is illegal because it would mean I would give birth to a hybrid, so I’m treated as one.

Following Beta Tobias into the packhouse, we go to Alpha Darius’ office. Tobias knocks on the large wooden door and says, “Alpha, Alexandria is here.”

“Send her in,” a bored voice says.

I want to roll my eyes. I hate that it’s a male dominated world of purebloods, but I suck it up. After all, the old Alpha took me in when my mother dropped me off on their doorstep. Sure, it’s a shitty life for hybrids but we have a place to call home. We belong to a pack.

I go into the office and stand in front of the big wooden desk the Alpha sits behind. His cold eyes look at me and he nods. “Report.”

“Alpha, I’m happy to report that the attack was successful with minimum casualties.” He nods again. I’m not happy about it, but it's my job as a warrior. To kill and make sure the threat to my Alpha is wiped out. My allegiance to my Alpha isn’t fierce, but where else can I go?

Alpha Darius looks at me, almost bored. “Anything else?”

It surprises me every time how he doesn’t care about that hundreds of pureblood vampires were just wiped out. I don’t understand why they can’t work out some sort of treaty and live peacefully.

Alpha Darius’ voice snaps me out of my train of thoughts when he says, “General!”

Focusing, I shake my head. “No, Alpha.” He grunts and leans back in the large leather chair before he says, “we're celebrating tonight, but we’re getting visitors so stay in the woods.” I nod without saying anything before I bow and leave the office.

I earned the title 'General' because of my tactical skills and force on the battlefield. It got me respect… But only a little.

Making my way outside, I stop in front of the huge group of women. My girls. My warriors.

“Guests are arriving for the celebration tonight.”

They all know that means sticking to the woods surrounding the large castle. Usually, we get to stay just outside to eat, drink and hear the music, but God forbid that the visitors should see us.

It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re too tired to party and don’t really want to join in the celebration.

The women get up and we go to our homes to rest and heal from our wounds.

Just as I reach my small shack, the voice of my sweet, old neighbor breaks the silence. “Hey, sweetheart. How did it go?” I give him a tired smile and say, “as usual, Jerome.”

His chocolate brown skin wrinkles on his forehead and his warm, brown eyes always looks at me with concern when we return from an attack. Even though he's a pureblood werewolf, he chooses to live among us warriors.

He was the adviser to the former Alpha, but his age forced him to step down and be replaced with a younger wolf, even though he’s only ninety years old. Werewolves only get about a hundred and fifty years old.

Still concerned, he asks me, “are you hurt?” I shake my head. “Nah, nothing too serious.” Even though I got a rather nasty deep wound on my thigh, I don’t consider it a big deal.

He nods with a loving smile on his lips and says, “always the badass.”

Just then, a healer appears. Her blue eyes look me over before she nods. Jerome turns serious, and he points a finger at her before he says, “take good care of my sweetheart.” She chuckles at his usual remark. “I will, Jerome. Don’t worry.”

She ushers me inside my small shack and orders me to strip out of my brown leather armor and lie down on the bed.

“Now, let’s see what we have here,” she says while she looks at my body, locating the different bruises and wounds. I heal just as fast as a werewolf, but some wounds, like the gash on my thigh, takes a day or two to heal.

After patching me up, she gives me some painkillers and antibiotics. “I would prefer if you would rest, but I know you won’t,” she says. Her stern look makes me chuckle. “You know me to well, Gloria.”

When she leaves, I decide to take a nap before the food arrives. That’s one perk of being a warrior. We get plenty of food because we need to stay strong and healthy.

A knock on my door wakes me up, so I scramble out the bed and put on a shirt before opening it. Jerome’s grinning face greets me. “The food is here.”

“Go ahead. I’ll get dressed and be right behind you.” He nods eagerly and jogs into the forest. Shaking my head with a tired smile, I get dressed.

Then I look in the small mirror and try to brush my unruly light blond, bordering on silver, thick hair. I haven’t showered yet so I give up halfway through brushing it. I know the other women haven’t either, even though we're still covered in mud, dust, and blood. We’re just too tired to care.

Not bothering to lock my door, I make my way into the forest where the food is. Large wooden tables and huge grills fills the space. The smell of meat makes my mouth water.

Two women wave me over to sit between them. They already made me a plate of food.

Smiling at everybody, I sit down and scarf down the food, making small talk between bites.

“How’s your arm, Clara?” I ask. The woman on my right dries her mouth with the back of her hand before she says, “it’s good. The healer patched it up nicely.” Nodding, I take another huge bite of the lump of meat in front of me.

“I don’t know how you can eat that, Alex,” my friend Karen says. My eyes shoot up to look across the table before I swallow the meat. “What, this?” Lifting my plate a little, I meet her mischievous eyes. Karen is half witch, half fae and just as I’m about to hurl the plate at her to start a food fight, I hear a twig snap in the bushes behind me.

In one swift move, we all pull out our hidden knives, jump up, and get ready to fight. A man comes out from the bushes with his hands raised in surrender. “Sorry, ladies. I Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Scare us? We’re not scared. We’re ready to kill!

“Who are you and what do you want?” I ask. His deep blue eyes locks on mine and he smiles before he says, “my name is Chase. I just came by to say hi.” I look at him suspiciously. He must be one of the guests visiting the Alpha. He shouldn’t be here, so I say, “you should go back to the castle. That’s where Alpha Darius is.”

“I know,” he simply states. He takes a step closer to me, but I don’t put my knife down. I keep it pointed at him.

Hybrids being raped are often heard of. Most purebloods see us as trash and think they can do whatever they want to us. Even if it is illegal to be with a hybrid.

I narrow my eyes at him. I know I’m supposed to respect purebloods and he exudes the pride of being one but he's a stranger who could want trouble.

“Then why are you still here?” I ask. He smiles and says, “just wanted to show my respect to you warriors.” That makes my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline.

Nobody has ever done that before but that doesn’t mean I trust him, and I can feel the women behind me feel the same way.

I know we can’t attack a pureblood without severe punishment or getting killed, but that doesn’t mean we won’t. We’re not supposed to show disrespect either and we should look down in submission too, but still.

“You’ve officially shown it. Now leave,” I say. His deep blue eyes keep eye contact with mine and he chuckles. “Fine, I’ll go."

He's about to leave, but then he stops, looks over his shoulder, and locks eyes with me again. “Just so you know... I’m going to challenge you.”

My eyebrows shoot up again. I’ve never been challenged before, but I knew it would come eventually. Every hybrid can be challenged by a pureblood and if the pureblood wins, they claim you and you have to go with them to their pack, coven, or wherever they want you to go. They can’t change your position, so if they challenge a warrior, they have to use you as a warrior.

“Understood,” I say, and he grins. “Good. I’m staying here for the rest of the week, and I will challenge you the last day.”

With that he leaves. We all stay in attack positions for a moment longer before we lower our knives.

Still shocked, I slowly sit down and stare at the food on my plate.

“Well, shit.” Karen says.

Everybody sits down and we’re all silent for a while. A challenge is a serious thing. It should be taken seriously, and I do.

He looked well trained but so am I. I should be able to take him in a fight. Not many warriors are challenged. It's happened twenty-nine times here and only two warriors lost, but they were injured before they got challenged. It’s common to challenge servants and mistresses but not warriors.

“What are you thinking, Alex?” Clara asks. I sigh. “I don’t know. I guess I’m a little shocked.”

“You can’t let him win, Alex. We need you here.” she says. I slowly nod. I don’t want to lose. I don’t care for my Alpha, and I often dream about being somewhere else, but I can’t leave my warriors. They're my friends.

I don’t want to lose because I don’t know what my life will be like without them. Don’t know where the pureblood will take me, or what it will be like with the new warriors. It could be worse than here.

I look at the food on my plate and find that I’ve lost my appetite.

“Don’t worry. He won’t win,” I say.

With the happy mood gone, we eat in silence, and all go our separate ways when we’re done. Jerome catches up to me and we walk back to our shacks.

When I’m about to open the door to mine, he calls out to me. “Alexandria.” I turn around and look at him questioningly because when he calls me by my full first name, it’s usually about something serious.

“You’re strong,” he starts. “The strongest warrior I’ve ever seen. You can win... If you want to.”

With that he goes inside his shack, leaving me feeling shocked.