The Making of a Dark Gamma - Book 1
Return of the Royals

An hour later Alpha Vincent and Delta Cole enter the cells, with Delta Cole brandishing a cane.

“Stand up Antonia”

The Alpha’s voice is clear, echoing through the cells; he’s dropped the Trainee Gamma title so she knows he’s here to make her feel small.

“For disrespecting a ranked wolf, you will take five strikes with the cane as a Trainee you have no right to assert your authority over a ranked Delta.

Additionally, for bringing the Royal pack back as you are their ward, you will take a further five strikes, do you understand?”

“Yes Alpha”

Toni bows her head, the more she has to bend to this Alpha, the more she despises herself, deep inside her she hides the hate she feels for herself and the Alpha, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t burn brightly, growing each time he decides to punish her, one day she knows she won’t be able to contain it, but for now, she has to look like she’s compliant.

Growing stronger in each passing month, she knows he’s aware of it, but her father’s first rule comes to mind

’Rule number One – the most important rule, Always appear weaker than the one in charge. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

It reduces the beatings you will take, if they see you as a threat, you won’t live longer, but they will make it seem like that.’

She misses her parents in that moment, more than she has done in years, but she can’t stay in the moment as Delta Cole’s voice snaps her out of her thoughts.

“Strip”

He’s using his command on her, the sickening smile pulling at his lips makes it to his eyes revealing the truly gross soul inside his body

While Toni knows she could resist his command, she’s proven that already, the Alpha is stood behind him and disobeying will bring a more public punishment once the Royal pack have gone and, she’s fine with nudity, having had Tyra for almost ten months, publicly stripping to fight and run have become normal parts of her day.

The difficulty she’s having is with the internal fight with Tyra, as she takes her clothes off, she wants Toni to stand up to Cole, as does Toni, but the reality is, the command is backed up by the Alpha, this is not the time nor place to do so, but she won’t forget, hell no.

Cole comes in binding her wrists tightly, his gloved hands making sure the ropes are tight enough to dig into her skin, his eyes are roaming over her body trying to make her uncomfortable.

All she can think of is that a nineteen-year-old is perving over a fourteen, well almost fifteen-year-old's body, the taste of bile in her throat keeps her focussed on the here and now.

The rope has been infused with wolfsbane, she can tell from the slight burn she’s getting, but since being back in the pack, she’s been dosing herself with daily in small amounts to build immunity, so it’s far less painful than it could be.

She’s well aware that her role here comes with its own risks of poisoning, so while it can’t stop all the effects it has on her, nor stop a massive does killing her, it lessens it and leaves her wolf in a good way, this level of wolfsbane will mostly just damage her skin.

Hoisting her arms up above her, leaving her just able to touch the floor on her tiptoes, using the hooks in the cell ceiling, Delta Cole slowly walks around her.

“Not looking so cocky now, are you?”

He’s enjoying this far too much.

Toni fixes her eyes on the wall in front of her before answering him.

“No Delta”

He’s forgetting that one day she will outrank him as his Gamma, and Tyra is looking forward to keeping her eyes out to make his life hell, payback is going to be a bitch, she thinks but it’s the one perk in this role, especially where he is concerned.

Focussing on the concrete wall ahead of her she sees a small crack and that’s what she stares at, repeating to herself.

‘I am not in my body, I am in the crack, there will be no pain’

He’s walking around her, tapping his hand with the cane, the only benefit of being in this cell is there isn’t room for the whip, he’s trying to prolong Toni’s stress response to both the position she’s being held in and the idea of the punishment.

But she’s not there in her body, she’s in the crack in the concrete, exploring it grain by grain, to take herself away from the stress.

Hearing the cane whistle, it strikes across her back with a thwack, that reverberates around the cells, she doesn’t flinch, letting her body swing from the force of the hit, not trying to stay on her toes, knowing without looking that will annoy the Delta and take some of the heat out of the hit.

The next hit lands across the back of her thighs, followed by the third in quick succession on her calves, his hits are weak compared to those the Alpha and Beta have dished out in the last eight months when she missed her impossible targets.

If it were just the two of them in the room, Toni knows she’d sneer at him but her sense of self-preservation kicks in, with the Alpha here, it would get her punishment increased.

By the time he hits her with his eighth strike, she can feel the welts rising already across her body, pulling taut the skin around each strike point, but there’s been no skin broken, she’s hiding her wolf deep down, not letting her start the healing, not yet.

It’s a way to convince the Delta that his hits are worse than they are, she’d smile but that would earn her extra strikes. he can see the result of his handiwork, but what he can’t accept is that she has not flinched nor made the slightest noise.

As his anger increases his aura is coming out, it should be dark and threatening but to her, it feels weak and it gets harder not to laugh at his frustration.

Delta Cole walks around to face her, he’s grinning as he lets the last two strikes go across her stomach and chest respectively, if he’d known what he was doing, the base of the feet would have been his target for maximum pain, ten strikes in a small area would do far more than spreading them around, but that’s not something he’ll learn from her

“Don’t worry about it Delta, she’s a hard one to break.”

The Alpha’s voice cuts through the silence

“You can see the welts you’ve left; she has a strong wolf and normally they would be disappearing already, you’ve done well.”

There’s something almost prideful in his words but Toni detests the Alpha even more than the Delta, even if she hides her feelings well, but they are both stupid if they don’t realise her wolf was pushed down to stop healing from occurring.

“Leave her strung up for the night, see how she likes that.”

The smirk in the Alpha’s voice is clear as they leave the cells.

Even on the balls of her feet, her body weight is pulling on her wrists and shoulders, the dull ache helps her stay awake; every now and then her body droops and takes a step towards sleep, but after just a few seconds searing pain blasts through her wrists, spiking down into her shoulders as the overstretched joints briefly take her whole weight.

Ironically, the chill in the cells helps reduce the times she drops off to sleep, the shivering acting as a stimulant to keep her awake, soothing the injuries from the strikes, like a cooling shower.

Her wolf is hidden deep, sleeping, needing to be ready to heal her when she is released, too early and it will be wasted, healing muscles for them to tear a little bit, to be healed again, that’s how deep muscle scars are formed, all her previous training in medical aid so that she's self-sufficient is being put to good use.

Robert and Michael have ensured they aren’t looking in her direction, giving Toni some form of privacy, they are good people, just in the same shitty situation as she is.

While the group has never hung out, it’s not surprising Toni thinks, when she left she was eleven and they were fourteen and fifteen, and when you are that age, three and four years feels like a lifetime.

Even now the age difference feels a lot, not that mentally they are that much older, but they are technically adults, while she is still a child.

But she gets the feeling they are thinking of her differently, after warning them about the wolfsbane and even the fact that her backpack is fastened around the silver bars had made them copy the action themselves, a little silver burn isn’t bad, but silver doesn’t soak into bags, wolfsbane does.

Just before midday Toni is released from being strung up, having missed the paltry meals that were served she dresses carefully, while the Delta stands admiring his handiwork, the welts still angry and red, the muscles in her wrists and shoulders scream every move she makes and the burn marks are hidden by the wrist bands she puts on.

Calling Tyra forward to start healing the muscles and joints as a priority, as they are led out into the town square.

Delta Alek from the Royal pack is standing in front of a group of twenty warriors she doesn’t recognise, assuming they are from his pack, Delta Cole goes to stand in front of another group and finally Delta George is in front of the last group.

Each of them is handed a red elasticated band, she stretches it idly between her hands, Toni looks for a tracker, before looking up, each of the squads are wearing coloured bands.

Alpha Vincent looks over to them before speaking

“The first part of this year’s assessment is forty-eight hours of surviving solo outside the borders of our land, you will be driven to the gates, and from there you will be treated like rogues.

After a ten-minute head start, the warrior group aims to hunt you down and bring you back in chains, they and you, are allowed to use reasonable force but not kill or permanently injure.

If you are caught, you are deemed to have failed the assessment, how you survive is up to you, but you may not cross back over the border until midday two days from now, each of these warrior groups will be tasked with tracking one of you.

Delta Cole will be tracking the Trainee Gamma, Royal Delta Alek the Trainee Beta and Delta George the Trainee Alpha.

Once they have caught their assigned target, they are free to choose who else to hunt, or indeed, split their squad if multiple candidates are still at large.

You will each be given proximity trackers, which will vibrate if you are too close together, this is an assessment of your capabilities, if you are found to have spent significant time together, you will fail the assessment.”

His words are delivered calmly and in reality, the three of them are all aware that failing equates to punishment.

“Once the the time is up, you have three hours to get back to the pack house there are three bells, white for the Alpha, Blue for the Beta and Green for the Gamma, ring the bell to end your run.

During this time, you will be hunted by the three packs of warriors you see before you, but they are free to focus on any of you, the individual assignments will not carry over.

The point is you are to evade or neutralise them, staying only in human form, treating them as an invading force, being captured means you failed the assessment.

A specific uniform will be supplied, wear it only in phase two of the assessment, it’s a step up from the blood bags worn for the annual competition, using electronic means to identify and inform you, and the observers if a fatal hit is taken or delivered.

We have been selected as the first pack to try out this new technology, so let’s make it a good test.

Each of you can choose your weapon or weapons for the evade part of the test, these are dummy weapons and will not help you in the first part of your assessment.

You have ten minutes to select and try them out on the weapon range.

For each part of this assessment, you need to work alone, teamwork will be penalised.

Any questions?”

“Alpha, if I may ask one?” Toni ventures

“Go ahead, trainee”

“If I were to see one of the others fighting in the second phase, am I allowed to try and take out some or all of the guards that are left to add to my tally or is that classed as helping?”

“Overconfident much” Delta Cole chuckles quietly

“You may, as long as you don’t provide any help with releasing them from bonds, providing weapons, or supplies to your fellow competitor.

Are there any more questions?”

Silence from the three of them gives the Alpha the answer he is looking for.

“Everyone involved will be wearing armbands and once the two days exile is up normal pack members will be confined to the town for four hours to ensure there are no mistakes made to non-combatants.

Reasonable force by all participants is allowed, including knocking out opponents, as long as no permanent damage is made.

Your ten minutes start now.”

Looking at the selection of weapons, she’s going to go for her favourite weapons, the simple recurve bow and throwing daggers and then a selection of arrows, tossing two of the daggers in her hand, the balance is off, comparing them against the others and they are all the same, interesting she thinks, almost as if it were purposeful.

Holding each of the arrow types, Silver, Wolfsbane and Normal, they have different weightings, which is normal, but she’s confident of how they will fly differently, even if they aren’t real arrows, they have a good balance to them and a straight shaft, fletching even and well balanced.

She takes one of each arrow and a knife, the knives are rubber and lighter in the blade than the handle, not the usual balancing she works with and it feels uneven in the blade. Holding the blade, she throws it just to the right of the centre target and it bends landing further than expected hitting towards the left of the centre target, quite the unbalanced knife, but she compensates on the second attempt watching it hit square and true before bouncing off.

The arrows fly true, so she takes twenty of each arrow, the recurve bow, and six throwing knives, sensors all registered to her. Walking out to the truck, she can see the others have taken guns and ammunition, they look over smiling at her traditional choices, there’s a reason she’s been trained in bows and daggers, quieter and harder to trace.

Before long they’re dumped outside the pack line, before being given a proximity alarm to ensure they don’t spend time together, stripping and bagging her clothes, Toni puts on her rucksack, changing the clips to her wolf form ones.

“Have fun guys, see you at the bells in two days” Robert smiles

“Have fun Alpha, Beta”

She calls as she shifts and heads off towards her hunting grounds, watching them both peel off in different directions

“Call me Robert”

“and Michael”

She hears them call back.

Her wolf smiles, a little bit of acceptance from them, Tyra gives a small howl in acknowledgement before loping off, tongue hanging out looking forward to forty-eight hours of freedom.

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