The smell of blood permeated the yellow sandstone of the Colosseum earlier than the morning mist. As Alyssa carved the last thorn tattoo below her collarbone, the night shadow wolf in the iron cage was gnawing on the leg bones of the previous trainer. Minced meat splattered on the bronze wolf head relief at the base of the stand, and fresh human blood was dripping from the beasts' mouths that had been open three hundred years ago.
"Next! Cripple or blind?" The judge kicked the iron cage at his feet, and rust mixed with blood fell on Alyssa's taming whip. She deliberately let the tip of the whip get a little saliva on it - a fake whip with the smell of rotten leaves, perfectly covering up the unique lily of the valley scent of the silver wolf bloodline.
The iron cage gate suddenly rose. Dark red lines floated under the dark fur of the Night Shadow Wolf, as if someone had poured lava into its blood vessels. Alyssa's tattoo suddenly became hot, and the thorn pattern squirmed under her skin. Damn, this beast can smell the smell of curses.
"No more than three minutes to live." The sound of crystal glasses clinking came from the VIP seats. Alyssa didn't need to look up to know who it was - Lucien Silvermane, Cain's half-brother, was kicking the guardrail with the toe of his moonstone-studded boots. He always liked to bet when the first victim appeared.
The moment the Night Shadow Wolf pounced, Alyssa swung out the taming whip. The three strands of beef tendons soaked in corpse oil precisely wrapped around the wolf's mouth, but the hidden silver thorns avoided the fatal spot. Can't kill it, if you kill it, you can't win the bet. Can't hurt it, if you hurt it, it will expose the instinct of the silver wolf. The burning pain of the thorn tattoo intensified, and she took advantage of the sideways movement to grab a handful of sand and soil - mixed with the broken nails and molars of the predecessors.
"You're quite good at acrobatics." Lucien's sneer was cut off by the wolf's howl. Alyssa's boot heel rolled over a bump in the sand, and the bronze button triggered the underground mechanism of the Colosseum. Seventeen stone pillars engraved with howling human faces broke out of the ground, and the claws of the Night Shadow Wolf scraped blue sparks on the stone surface.
Right now.
The taming whip wrapped around the protrusion of the third stone pillar, and Alyssa used the force to swing into the air. The nail of her left hand pierced the tattoo on her collarbone fiercely, and the severe pain caused the thorn pattern to ooze black blood - blood mixed with curses dripped into the wolf's eyes. The Night Shadow Wolf suddenly stood up, and the dark red lines under its fur formed a vague crown shape.
The stands burst into applause. Gold coins rained down on the field, but Alyssa stared at the pattern on the wolf's back in a daze. She had seen that pattern on the tapestry in Kane's bedroom, and in the nightmare of her mother dying in childbirth...
"Name?" The magistrate's trumpet touched her bleeding collarbone.
"Lila." She uttered the pseudonym she had prepared, her tongue grazing over her deliberately blunted canine teeth. "A wanderer from the north."
The Night Shadow Wolf suddenly crouched down at her feet and licked the blood on her boots. Lucian's emerald ring tapped on the edge of the stand, a gesture to summon a servant. Alyssa tightened her neck - three silver needles were hidden in her braids close to her spine, soaked in hemlock juice that could suffocate vampires.
"A reward for you." The young lord threw a bag of gold coins, and Alyssa deliberately missed it. The bag of money hit the fangs of the wolf head relief, and several coins with Kane's profile rolled out of the crack. It was really a temptation with bad taste.
The thorn tattoo suddenly twitched. Alyssa knelt on one knee to salute, and took the opportunity to press her right hand, which was stained with wolf blood, into the cracks in the stone bricks - there was a familiar sweet smell there. It was the remnant of the blood feeding ceremony. At least three children were sacrificed here within three days.
"Can you train a Moon Howler?" Lucien lifted her chin with the toe of his boot. "My caravan needs someone who can shut up the beasts."
"It depends on whether the reward can make me shut up." Alyssa let the end of her voice carry the rough accent unique to the North. She saw the judge tearing up her fake pass from the corner of her eye, and the fake wax on the edge of the parchment began to melt.
The Night Shadow Wolf suddenly growled at the northwest corner of the stand. Alyssa's tattoo suddenly froze - Kane's black iron scepter was hitting the pillar of the stand, and sparks jumped half a foot high on the imprisonment spells. He should have been patrolling the Blood Wolf Legion at the border.
"You dare to touch my people?" When the tip of the scepter was against Lucien's throat, Alyssa saw that the chain mail under Kane's cloak was blue-black - it was the trace of being soaked in the blood of the silver wolf fetus. What was he guarding against?
"Brother, you want to steal even the toys in the Colosseum?" Lucien's laughter slid across the glazed tiles like a poisonous snake. Alyssa's taming whip silently wrapped around her waist, where the bone whistle she had taken from the second victim was hidden - engraved with the smuggling route totem of the Silver Wolf Clan.
Kane's scepter suddenly turned. The cold light of the black iron reflected the thorn tattoo on Alyssa's collarbone, and the patterns were twisting under the skin into the posture of a tortured person. He sneered: "Northerner? The stench of blood on you can be smelled through the city wall."
The Night Wolf suddenly sprang up without warning. The moment Alyssa leaned back to avoid the wolf's claws, she saw Lucien flick his fingers and sprinkle some purple powder into the beast's eyes. The enraged beast turned to Kane, but the scepter pierced its throat and nailed it to the Howling Stone Pillar. The dying wolf's claws scratched across the ground, leaving five bloody grooves - exactly where Alyssa had sensed the blood feed residue just now.
"Deal with it." Cain pulled back the scepter, and the wolf's blood drew an arc in the air. A few drops fell on the back of Alyssa's hand, and the blood vessels under the tattoo suddenly boiled. She bit the inner wall of her mouth tightly until she tasted rust - this was a sign that the Eclipse Flame was about to get out of control.
Lucien's handkerchief fell into his palm with the aphrodisiac floral scent. "Be at the Westgate Warehouse before midnight," he leaned over and whispered, his lips almost touching her bleeding tattoo, "bring your best animal taming whip."
Alyssa was stuffing the bone whistle into the pocket of her belt when Cain's dark iron scepter smashed the stone pillar. As the rubble crumbled, she saw a flash of the Crown of Thorns on the end of the scepter—exactly the same pattern under the fur of the Night Shadow Wolf when it ran rampant.
The howl of the Moon Howler came from the direction of the warehouse, mixed with the cry of a newborn baby. Alyssa's tattoo began to absorb the wolf blood on the back of her hand, and the thorn pattern spread new branches toward her heart. She kicked away the gold coin with Kane's profile at her feet, but crushed a black beetle that crawled out of the cracks in the stone -
The insect corpse oozed blue blood, drawing a crooked crown on the sand.