Chapter 55
Amie
e were back at the stadium. Three games remained and I couldn’t waitW for it all to be over. I had been looking forward to participating in the game for as long as I could remember. All the drama and the worry and everything else that kept happening had me feel like I was done with it. I just wanted to go home, shut myself away with Finlay in his house for a week and pretend this month never happened. I couldn’t do that until we had finished the tenth game. So that was my goal. Finlay had told the pack about the new threat and I could feel them closing rank. I should make Finlay go to the different meetings of the packs, I had all intention of forcing him to be social when we got here, but now I hesitated. I didn’t think I had it in me to handle him finding his mate on top of everything.
Which made me a hypocrite. I sighed. ‘Hey, Red. What’s wrong?’ Finlay mindlinked. ‘Nothing, I’m just having a little issue with getting into the right headspace,’ I told him. ‘Do you need to sit this one out? It would be understandable,’ he asked. ‘No. I will be okay.’ ‘When we get back home we will take a vacation,’ he said. I smiled. ‘I don’t think I want to leave the pack so soon again.’ ‘We can hide away in one of the caves on pack land,’ he suggested. I laughed, making others look at me. ‘Thank you, I needed someone to pull me out of my pity party,’ I told him.
‘If anyone deserves to have one of those, it’s you. Let me know if you need another laugh and I will trip Sam or something,’ he said. Before I could respond, the speakers came to life.
“Welcome to the eight game. Today will be a test in agility.”
“That will be it for my brother then,” Finlay mindlinked us. We all tried our best to not laugh.
“The game is to be performed secluded. Ten identical rooms have been set up. By now you know the drill. Wait until your pack is called. Please follow the rules given, if you break them, there will be punishments. We wish you the best of luck.” ‘Time to break out the cards again,’ Ramses said and took out the deck.
We got as comfortable as we could and tried to focus on the cards. Every now and then, Sam would make us move around.
“Blue mountain pack, you are up,” an official told us. We packed away the cards and followed him. He let us inside a room with the instruction to stand within the marked area inside the door. ‘The last time we got that direction, I almost had my head taken off,’ Sam said and made sure we all stayed inside the marked square. The room was again about sixteen square feet and on the other side of it, there was another door with a marked area in front of it.
“Welcome to the eight game. In front of you, you have an empty room.
The room has lasers across it. If a laser beam is broken the red light will light. The objective is for each member of your pack to make it across the room to the other marked area. Once a member is across, a green lamp will be lit. Once five lights have been lit, counting both red and green, the game is over. You have two hours to complete the game. When the two hours are up, a red light will be lit for all members who aren’t standing in the marked area across the room. You can use anything you find in the room or have
with you. Good luck,” the speaker said.
“Can you see the lasers?” Finlay asked.
“No,” Sam said, and the rest of us shook our heads.
“That will be an issue,” he pointed out.
“How do we make them visible?” I asked.
“There are special glasses. Smoke or dust,” Jake said.
“We don’t have the glasses or dust. I’m not that eager to light the room on fire to get smoke,” Sam said. We all agreed.
“How about water?” Ramses asked.
“Um, like filling the room with it? I think that would break the beam. Or
rather refracting it,” Jake said.
“And we do need to breathe,” I added.
“There is that,” Jake agreed. Ramses chuckled.
“I don’t think we need to fill the room. I was thinking more of a mist,” he said.
“That could work. But we don’t have enough water to create a mist,” Jake answered. Ramses pointed upwards. We all looked up and we all smiled.
There was a sprinkler system on the ceiling.
“How do we trigger it?” Finlay asked. “We are not starting a fire,” he added before anyone could suggest it.
“Well, we don’t need to start a fire, it’s usually enough to cause smoke or increase the heat,” Jake said.
“And how do we do that without starting a fire?” I asked.
“We start a small fire?” Jake hesitantly suggested. I giggled when I saw Finlay’s face.
“We will not burn down the council’s game room,” he told us.
“Of course not,” Ramses agreed.
“Just a small fire,” Sam said.
“Which will go out from the sprinklers,” Jake added. I continued to giggle.
“I have to be insane, but go ahead. Tell me how we are going to start a fire?” Finlay said with a deep sigh. There was a moment when everyone looked through their pockets and had a look around the room. There wasn’t much to work with.
“We can use the Gammas smartwatch to make a short circuit that may ignite the scrap paper and we can then use the paper to light the cardboard box and some playing cards. They should create more smoke and heat than the paper. But we will still need to get it as close to the detector as possible,” Jake said. We all looked up at the ceiling.
“Amie can get on my shoulders,” Finlay said.
“So we are doing this?” Sam asked.
“I guess we are,” Finlay admitted. He squatted down and I got the message and climbed onto his shoulders. He stood up and I confirmed I would be able to reach the sensor. Jake started fiddling with the smart watch and Ramses was making a bundle of playing cards with scrap paper in between.
“Here we go,” Jake said, holding the watch close to the pile of scrap paper they had placed on the floor. ‘If we burn the council's building to the ground, they will definitely force us to merge with my brother’s pack,’ Finlay mindlinked me. I did my best not to laugh and slapped him on the shoulder. Jake gave a cheer as he created a spark that made the paper catch fire. Ramses hurried to hand him the cards and Jake lit it on fire, it looked like a small torch. He handed it to me. It smoked and it was hot. I raised it towards the detector. Nothing happened.
“Give it a moment,” Jake said. We all looked up at it. I could feel the fire creeping closer to my fingers.
“Make another card bundle,” I said. Ramses started to work. I would have to hold out until he handed me the next one. I felt my fingers get uncomfortably hot. Ramses raised a new bundle up to me and then there was a ringing sound and water started to fall down, drenching us all.
“Well, it worked. Now what?” I asked.
“Look,” Sam said. We looked out over the room. Faint lines of lights were seen. It wasn’t like clear ribbons like it was in the movies. But it at least gave us a hint of where the lasers were.
“Let’s do this,” I said, getting down from Finlay’s shoulders. I wanted to get out of this room. The water was cold and the longer we stayed, the colder our bodies would be and the harder it would be for us to move.
“Amie, you are the most agile. You should go first and try to scope out a path the rest of us can take,” Sam said.
“Sure. I’m guessing it would be best to try and find the best gaps and keep close to the floor?” I asked.
“Avoid things that need me twirling like a ballerina,” Ramses said. We all laughed. I brushed water out of my face and looked at the beams. I started moving through them, knowing the others were watching me, trying to remember the path I was taking. Once or twice, I needed to stop to look at different options and ask the others how it looked from their angle. It felt like it took forever, but I landed on the marked area by the second door. A green light switched on.
“Next one!” I called. Finlay was next. He was an impressive Alpha, but he wasn’t built for this kind of thing. He needed to move even slower than me to make sure no part of his large, well built body interfered with the lasers. It was a treat to be able to watch his body as it twisted and flexed.
The water which made our clothes cling to our bodies, didn’t help. A couple of times I had to call for him to stop before he would break the lasers. He made it to my end and a green light turned on. ‘Well done,’ I mind linked him as we focused on Jake. ‘I think we need one of these at home. It was interesting to watch you move through it. We should do it again in a more private setting,’ he told me. ‘I’m game as long as we both do it,’ I agreed. He looked at me. First with surprise and then with a grin. Jake made it through with no difficulty. His more lean build was an advantage here. Next it was Ramses’ turn. I worried about his shoulder and him putting too much weight on it. It was clear he hadn’t regained all his mobility in it.
Ramses had almost made it when he needed to put most of his weight on his right arm. I saw the shaking in his arms and then it collapsed under him, making him go through two lasers. The red light turned on. Ramses swore out loud and walked to our side. I placed my hand on his good shoulder. He looked at me and nodded, letting me know he was okay. That left Sam to go next.
“Just take it slow and easy,” Finlay called to him. Sam nodded and started making his way through. Like Finlay, his build caused him issues. But it was obvious he trained regularly and kept his muscles flexible. It took him a while and we all helped him as much as we could. He landed in a less than graceful manner at our feet and a green light came on.
“Congratulations, four out of five members got through the lasers. Please join the rest of the pack for the remainder of the game,” the voice said. I was happy to get out of the constant rain. We were soaked as we got to the viewing room. Matilda looked amused as she handed us a change of clothes she always had in case we shifted. We stripped and got dry clothes on before taking our seats.
“Interesting tactics,” Matilda said. “This is turning out to be ‘how to kill yourself in a small room’ game,” she continued. We watched the ten screens projecting the other teams, one was black. The others showed different solutions to see the beams. Everything from fires to turning off all the lights in the room to using the sprinkler system. Some just tried without seeing the beams. I moved a little closer to Finlay. Even though I was a werewolf and ran hot, a little over an hour in cold water had chilled me. And Finlay was a nice space heater.
‘Are you cold?’ he asked. ‘A little,’ I confessed. He put his arm around me and pulled me closer.
“This will be interesting,” Hugo said. We looked at the screen he was watching and saw Finlay’s brother walk into the room with his gamma and two warriors. They started to talk, there was no sound so we couldn’t hear what they were saying. But they clearly didn’t agree on something. One of them pulled a lighter and some cigarettes out of his pocket. It was rare to see a werewolf who smoked. It messed with your sense of smell. He lit a cigarette and exhaled the smoke towards the beam. The smoke revealed it.
He left the pack of cigarettes and the lighter behind and started to move through the beams. His massive size was a disadvantage as he needed big gaps in the beams to get through and he wasn’t graceful. It took longer than he expected and in the middle of the room, his cigarette went out. ‘What will they do now?’ I asked the others in a mindlink. ‘They need to get another to him,’ Jake said.
“That will risk breaking a beam,’ Sam said. ‘One of the others should make his way to him with extra cigarettes,’ Hugo said. ‘If he moves faster than the first, they could use the lit cigarette to light two more,’ Jake agreed. We all watched as the Gamma took the pack, put the lighter into it and threw it to his pack mate. ‘What the fuck?’ Finlay asked as the red light turned on, indicating a beam had been broken. The warrior in the middle of the room took the pack, threw it back and walked to the other side of the room. ‘They are one man short, they should be more careful,’ Ramses pointed out. ‘It almost looks like they have already given up on this game,’ I said. In the end, the Ocean shore pack walked out with one green light and three red ones. ‘He won’t be in a better mood after that disaster,’ Finlay mindlinked me. ‘Probably not,’ I agreed. ‘Do you think we should expect something?’ ‘I think we are already alert enough as it is. I have been looking forward to this game since I founded the pack. Now I just want it to be over,’ he said. His words mirrored my own at the start of the day. ‘I felt the same way,’ I confessed and leaned a little more into his side. ‘You have changed your mind?’ he asked.
‘We are doing so well. It’s kind of fun to kick everyone’s ass,’ I told him.
Finlay chuckled. Someone loudly cleared their throat close by. We all looked up and saw Alpha James standing at the end of the row of seats we were sitting in. He was staring daggers at Finlay.
“Alpha James, I hope the game went well,” Finlay said in a tone far more relaxed than he was. From the corner of my eye, I could see Elder standing up and making his way towards us.
“Do you think that is appropriate?” James asked, pretending Finlay hadn’t asked him a question. At first I was confused, then I saw him looking at Finlay’s hand resting on my shoulder.
“I do. Amie was cold after spending an hour being sprayed by cold water.
Since we aren’t allowed to leave until all packs have finished the game, this is the best solution to warm her,” Finlay calmly said. James was about to say something, it wouldn’t be something nice by the look in his eyes, but Elder had managed to arrive just in time.
“Thank you for looking after my little sister, Alpha Finlay. Really Amie, did you have to drown yourself?” my brother said in a joking manner.
“I did. How did you make the beams visible?” I asked.
“Easy, smoke,” he said, casually leaning his arm on James’ shoulder.
“Right. Better to suffocate than being cold,” I told him. We looked at each other and laughed.
“We need to get back to our pack, Becky has sandwiches ready. Take care, little sister,” Elder said.
“You too, big brother. Give Becky a hug from me.”
“Oh that is something I’m more than willing to do,” he told me, wiggled his eyebrows and turned to walk away.
“Gross,” I called after him and I heard him chuckle as he more or less towed his Alpha away.
“Nicely handled,” Matilda told me and gave me a cookie.
“Thank you,” I said and happily munched it down.
“What about me? I should get a cookie for not killing the Alpha,” Finlay whined. Sometimes I could swear he was five years old.
“Yes, you should. It was very nice of you,” Matilda agreed and gave him a cookie as well. When he wasn’t looking, she rolled her eyes at me, making me giggle. ‘What’s funny?’ Finlay asked in our mindlink.
‘Nothing,’ I told him. He looked down at me and smiled, but didn’t ask me for more details.
