Collide

“I am not a child! I am a better warrior than, well… EVERYBODY! You can’t keep me forever!” I scream at my father.

His dark brown eyes stare angrily into mine. His raven black hair sits wildly on his head from the many times he’s drawn his hand through it.

My raven black hair doesn’t look any different. We’ve had this conversation a million times before.

Father always tried to protect me, and I just want to be free.

“If you are not a child, don’t act like one.” I look at my mom for help.

Blue eyes staring at each other, and I could immediately see that she didn’t want to let me go either. “The warriors are strong and they’re not women.”

I’m still staring at my mom, and I can see shock creep over her face. She turns around, her back to me and her angry eyes on Father.

“Excuse you? What exactly do you mean by ‘they’re not women’ huh?!” Dad rubs his face as he lets out a deep sigh.

“Baby, I didn’t mean it like that,” he says with a voice as sweet as candy. My mom, however, is just as fierce as me, or, well, I’m just as fierce as her.

“I don’t think that your very clear words had any room for misunderstanding. You know what? Choose ten warriors for Katelynn to fight. If she wins, she gets to go. If she loses, she won’t.”

My mom’s tone says that there is no room for argument, so my dad doesn’t. He simply nods at her as he dismisses me with a wave.

“You’ve heard your mother. Go prepare yourself, the fight will be in an hour.” I let out a high-pitched scream as I hug my mom from behind.

I run upstairs to my room.

I use my witch power to open my bedroom door, so I don’t have to stop running.

I grab my brush and make a French braid in my hair.

When I’m done, I dive into my walk-in closet to grab some fighting gear.

My pants are leather leggings that feel like a second skin.

A tank top above it, and I’m ready.

When I check the clock, I see only ten minutes have passed.

I pace back and forth in my room.

I would win this.

I don’t even have to shift.

I have seen every warrior train since I was little; I trained along with them.

I know their moves; I know their postures, and I know their surprise attacks.

They, however, did not know mine since my witch training is different from my wolf training.

I check the clock; another half hour.

I decide to go find Lucy, my best friend.

Lucy is the opposite of me.

She doesn’t like to fight; she hates our training.

Her attitude is completely the same as mine, though, just with different interests.

I don’t even bother knocking on her door as I walk into her room.

Lucy lives with us.

She was born one day after me, but when she turned ten, her mother died of cancer.

Her dad is a warrior, so he can’t take care of her all the time, so she moved in with us.

“Luce! I finally did it! Mom did it. Dad said something to piss her off, so Mom allowed me to fight ten of the warriors. If I win, I get to go along patrolling!” Lucy rolls her eyes from behind her desk.

I look at the books in front of her, of course, she is studying. I wiggle myself in front of her to sit on her desk, right on top of the books.

“LUCEEEE. Be happy for me,” I say with a pout. She sighs as she leans back.

“The Mate Founder is next week; do you think your mate is going to let you be a warrior?” Lucy says with boredom.

She has been hearing my tantrums for ten years now. Since I was twelve, I decided I wanted to be a warrior. I trained hard every day for seven days a week.

“I’m not going to find my mate, and if I do, he better not try to stop me. I bet I’d be stronger too.” There’s way too much confidence in my voice, but I do not care.

I am finally here, finally on my way to becoming a warrior, and nobody is going to stop me.

I could have been a warrior at eighteen if my father would have allowed it, which he didn’t.

Lucy’s eyes soften as she looks at me with a smile.

“I hope you get everything you want. But it often doesn’t go the way we think it goes.” She gives me a brief hug before walking to her closet.

Lucy is more girly than me; her closet is full of dresses and skirts. She pulls out a white skater dress with blue flowers at the skirt.

“I will come cheer you on as you kick their asses,” she says with a grin before putting on the dress.

Her curly brown hair dances around her face as her green eyes look at me.

I look at the clock to see that there are only fifteen minutes left.

I jump off the desk and tell her that I’m going down already.

When I walk into our backyard, which is just a huge field surrounded by trees, I see my parents and the warriors already standing there.

Some of the warriors are shifted to their wolf-self, while some of them remain in human form.

I’m not going to shift, I don’t even need to.

I walk up to Marcel, one of the warriors that I’ve become close with over the years.

He is one of the best we have.

One on one, he often kicks my ass, but he has taught me a lot also.

“Hey Rebel, you finally got through to him, ha?” Marcel says with a huge grin. I know he’d be happy for me; he knows how long I’ve wanted this. My face mimics his as I nod happily.

“I’m going to kick your ass this time!” I stick out my tongue at him. “We’ll see, Rebel. We’ll see.”

He walks away to join Father again, and I turn around as Lucy’s scent comes to me. She looks beautiful, as always. I look down at myself and shrug. Well, warriors don’t have to look beautiful.

My father claps his hands to get our attention. Everybody turns to him. I can see that some of our pack members have decided to watch. Nearly forty people stand around us.

“We are here for a little contest. Ten warriors will fight my daughter, Katelynn. If she defeats them all, she will start as a bottom warrior. However, we’re going to do things a little differently now. She will fight all ten warriors at the same time.”

I hear a few gasps, and some members look at me in pity. I hold my head up high while I wear a scowl. As if I can’t handle them all at once.

“Let the games begin,” my father ends.

The ten warriors are lined up.

Every other warrior is shifted into their wolf-self, while the rest are still their human-self.

I stand about 100 yards away from them.

I hold my head up high, grinning wickedly.

I see them eyeing me with care.

I bet they’re not fond of hurting the alpha’s daughter.

I stick out my finger and gesture to them to come at me.

Marcel is the first to step forward as his human-self.

Two wolves step with him.

They divide and circle me.

I stand still as I use my nose to track their location.

They move silently over the grass.

Marcel charges forward to me.

He jumps and holds his fist out.

I have seen this move many times on him; he uses his whole weight to punch.

I drop on my back and put my hands up.

A force of wind knocks him away.

I can hear the rest come forward too.

It’s a game of ducking and rolling as I try to shield myself from their punches and bites.

I throw punches at the human-selves, using my magic to make them crash harder.

Within minutes, four of the humans are knocked out, and I am once again being circled.

This time by five wolves and Marcel.

They move in unison, all taking steps at the same time.

I slowly walk a circle, grinning at every one of them, my hand to the floor as a wall of fire appears.

One of the wolves, a younger one, whines and backs away.

I know he is afraid of fire after burning his arm.

Two wolves on opposite sides jump through my wall, and I duck, making them crash into each other.

I quickly roll back before they crash on me.

A pain shoots through my leg as one of the remaining wolves sinks his teeth into it.

I quickly thicken the firewall around us to prevent Marcel and the other wolf from coming in.

The wolf lets go of my leg as he crawls over me.

His teeth sink into my shoulder, causing more pain.

I let out a growl as I squeeze him hard around his neck with my arms.

I bury my head at the side of his face, and then I shift.

Before the wolf realizes what I’m doing, I already have my teeth in his neck.

I use my back paws to roll us over.

I use my weight to keep him down on the ground while I sink my teeth even further into his neck.

He whines, and I can feel his body change under me.

Once in his human form, I step off of him and throw him through the firewall.

The fire lessens as he hits it.

I don’t want to hurt any of them permanently.

When I look back, Marcel’s legs are already on my neck, making it hard for me to breathe.

The last wolf bites me in the same leg.

I let out a howl, getting mad at being hurt.

My howl is cut short as Marcel squeezes even harder.

I kick the wolf at my legs in the face while I lie down on Marcel.

I quickly stand up, throwing my head up and back down as Marcel smashes into the ground.

The blow has loosened his legs, and I use this to turn my head a little and bite him in his side.

I quickly let go again as I realize the wolf is jumping.

I turn my head towards him and howl, the howl carrying my magic, and he too is hit by a force of wind.

I turn around as I can see that Marcel is just grabbing his side, trying to control the pain.

I use my high position to growl at the last wolf.

The wolf bows his head in submission.

The cracking of bones grabs my attention, and I turn back to see Marcel has now shifted into his wolf.

His wolf is a little bigger than me.

The only sound I hear is the wind as Marcel and I stare into each other’s eyes.

No witchy stuff. A fair fight, you and me.

I nod my head in agreement at his mind-link and take position to attack.

I jump towards him, and this time he turns on his back.

My teeth sink into his neck while his sink into mine.

I can feel the pain go through me, so I bite down harder.

We spin over the floor a few times, him trying to stay on top and me doing the same.

We end up with him being on top of me.

His teeth in the left side of my neck, while I hold him at the right.

His paws at either side of my head.

I quickly let go of him to bite down at his front paw, breaking it.

He whimpers in pain, letting go of me.

I push him off of me as I now sit on top.

I could have sworn I can see him wink, but before I can ask, I hear my father’s voice.

“STOP!” I get off of Marcel to face my father. Shifting back as I look at him. “Katelynn, you have won,” he says with a defeated voice.

The pack members around us begin to cheer.

Lucy pulls me in a tight hug, a little too tight for my pained body, but I don’t care.

I have the biggest smile ever on my face, and if my legs didn’t hurt so damn much, I would have been jumping around.

A hand claps my shoulder, and I turn my head to see Marcel.

I let go of Lucy and quickly heal his wounds.

Marcel pulls me into a big hug.

“You’re welcome, Rebel,” he whispers in my ear. I pull away and look at him in confusion, but he is already off to his mate who holds out clothes for him.

My mom comes to me, showering my face with kisses as she says a million congratulations.

She holds out sweatpants and a tank top that I quickly put on.

I have won!

I am a real warrior!

Oh gosh, I can’t wait.