Winning the Legend (5 page)

“Any more interruptions?” Arianna asked the
group. The men all answered with a no. Loan looked relieved to have
his grandfather silenced.

“First, welcome to the Meyer estate. Each of
you has been assigned a room. Your retainer has been assigned the
room across the hallway. There are two main rooms you are allowed
to spend time in. First is the room we are standing in, the dining
room.” The room had a large fireplace on one side with couches and
chairs around it, looking nothing like a dining room. All the
dining tables had been pushed against the wall to make room for
everyone to stand in one row. “All meals will be served here in a
buffet style. Blood is available, so please don’t bother any of my
staff. It isn’t their job to feed you. The second room is through
any door on the north wall.” Arianna pointed behind her. “That is
the training room. Retainers are not allowed in the training room,
but can view the proceedings through the one-way mirror on the
north wall. All heads of families can likewise use the library for
two hours each morning after we finish with the competitions. There
has been a desk placed there for each of you along with one for
myself.”

“That’s not fair,” Nik Katsulas complained.
“What about the rest of us that aren’t the heads of the family yet?
They get to spend more time with you, and that’s against the rules.
We all are supposed to have equal access to you while the
competition is going on.”

Nik was sulking just like the information
Arianna had been provided with outlined that he would. As the
prodigal son of his family, he was used to getting everything just
the way he wanted. Arianna was a little surprised to find all her
readings about him correct. She couldn’t picture any
nineteen-year-old that still behaved like a spoiled brat, but now
she was witnessing it. His younger brother, Polo, stood behind him,
sheepishly looking away. Arianna had saved Polo only a month ago
from a painful demise—blistering to death in the sun. He seemed to
be embarrassed by his brother.

“If you were a head, you would understand.
This isn’t spending time. I have work to get done, and I need both
the competitor, Devin, and his retainer, Gabriel, to assist me.
Unlike you, I’m not here for a game. I still have four clans to
run. So either you follow my rules, or you leave.” Nik glared at
her until Andrew growled from behind. Arianna reached back and
placed a hand on Andrew’s chest. He stopped growling, but not
glaring, at the young man. He could easily rip the young Katsulas
heir into pieces. Arianna flared her power and everyone quieted
down.

“The most important rule throughout the
competition is that you may not do harm to any other competitor or
any of the staff here in the mansion. You’ll be immediately
disqualified, and depending on the harm, you will face judgment in
the dearg-dul courts as we are on dearg-dul land and must adhere to
all dearg-dul rules.” Not a man defied her as they stared at her.
They all nodded in understanding.

“There will be three competitions.” Arianna
continued on. “Before each, you will be given a rank from one to
fourteen. The number has already been slipped under your bedroom
door. The people that rank number one thorough six at the end of
the second competition go on to the fighting matches. Whoever wins
the most matches, wins the competition. It’s that simple.” It was
an unassuming enough contest that Arianna hoped everyone would be
lulled into a sense of security, and not see the tricks they had
planned. Arianna reached back to take the paper Thomas handed her.
“Now to go to your room and find your rank, you must sign this
amendment to the clan of thirteen rules.”

“There has been no talk of amendments at any
of the recent year’s meetings,” the older man complained again.
Arianna had been warned that some like Loan’s grandfather, Harris,
would be a pain for her to deal with and he already was proving
difficult.

“No, but I refuse to allow this to go any
further unless there is change. This amendment states that there
will be no age limitation on when a night human must marry. I feel
this is too much of a one-sided issue as you only call these
meetings when a leading female clan member is unwed by seventeen. I
mean, look around this room. Everyone here is over seventeen and
unwed; yet where were the competitions for each of you? Yep.
Exactly. You only do this when fighting over a female. I want my
competition to be the end of this. So I refuse to proceed any
further until you all sign.”

Arianna looked from man to man. Most
wouldn’t even look back at her. She was speaking the truth, but
they all also favored the traditional way. The rule made it
possible for these men to try to marry someone powerful outside of
their clan. Without the rule, they would actually have to impress a
female, rather than just win one physically.

“I already have the signatures of my clans,
so Devin, Turner, and Ken, you can proceed back to your rooms to
wait for tomorrow’s games to begin. For the first competition, the
rules will be explained before breakfast.” Patrick nodded to
Gabriel, who moved over and stood behind Arianna as Patrick
escorted Devin, Turner, and Ken out of the room. Arianna nodded to
Gabriel as she needed his support if things went badly.

“I suppose I’m already out,” Nate said,
coming up to the paper to sign.

“While you have been eliminated from the
numbers, you may still participate; hoping to impress us so much
that you can earn a number,” Arianna replied. They needed to keep
all the heads around if they wanted to use them as ransom, which
was one of their alternative plans if things got too bad.

“Really?” Nate asked. Arianna nodded.

“You just can’t keep your retainer once you
are out of the numbers,” she explained. They wanted only the heads
and not the men working for them.

“Then, by all means.” Nate took the pen and
signed in his spot on the sheet before leaving the room.

“That makes five clans and four competitors.
This isn’t an open offer,” Arianna explained as none of the other
men made a move to sign. Arianna watched as Rhys pulled away from
his retainer. He bent down and signed the paper, too.

“For my younger sister,” Rhys said to
Arianna and his retainer that followed closely behind. They both
left the room. Six out of thirteen made her close to half. She
needed all of the signatures to amend the rules, but really it
would be a winning situation either way. If the clans all signed,
then no one would ever have to go through this again. If all the
clans didn’t sign, then at least some would be eliminated right
now.

Loan followed Rhys as his grandfather
trailed in protest, making it seven signatures from the thirteen
clans. Arianna made it past the halfway mark and that motivated the
rest to follow and reluctantly sign also. After each man signed, he
was allowed to leave the room and become an official participant.
All thirteen had arrived, with only one eliminated for being late.
It was going to be a long competition. Arianna watched them leave
until she was left with Thomas, Andrew, and Gabriel.

“Did any notice?” Thomas asked Gabriel. One
of the problems that would change their plans was the clans finding
out that Andrew was already Arianna’s mate.

“Just Nik, but I’m sure his brother already
told him,” Gabriel replied.

“He was staring daggers at me the whole
time,” Andrew replied, slipping his arm around Arianna. “Ready for
some alone time?” he asked.

“Be safe,” Arianna reached up and kissed her
uncle on the cheek. It was his job to make sure Devin, Turner, and
Ken all remained safe for the competition. Judging from the
sour-looking men she had just met, he had his work cut out for
him.

Chapter 6

Arianna walked into the dining room the next
afternoon to find all the competitors lounging around. They sat
around the room with their retainers at various tables. Only her
own men were together; the rest were separated into twos, a
competitor and their retainer. The world of night humans was even
divided when they were all in one room together, except her people.
She had changed that. They were all one group now. Arianna wondered
at this world she didn’t grow up in. It was so strange to her to
find that certain night humans cared about what other types of
night humans they associated with. They all drank blood. Wasn’t
that enough to have in common to at least get along?

All eyes were glued to her as she entered,
and all conversations came to an abrupt stop. Arianna hated to be
the center of attention. She had a year to get used to it since she
had joined her families at her sixteenth birthday. Although she had
a year to get used to it, it was still nerve-racking to have all
conversations stop around her whenever she entered a room. She
couldn’t help but wonder what each man was thinking about her. She
actually had to try to block their thoughts to keep from being
embarrassed even further. She really just wanted to go home and
melt into the life she once had. That wasn’t possible now, but she
wanted it anyway.

‘Good afternoon,’
Devin said in her head, breaking through her
nervous pause. As always, he knew when she needed some
encouragement. Even a month away did not change that instinct in
him.

‘Good afternoon,’
she replied, relaxing a bit. She had missed
Devin’s voice and, even if it was just his thoughts, it was better
than nothing. Andrew appeared behind her and placed a hand on her
back. She drew strength from both of them as she addressed the room
full of men for a second time in less than a day.

“We will start today on our first
competition: agility, ability, and endurance; after we all get a
chance to eat,” Arianna announced as maids began to move into the
room and fill the tables lining the wall with food.

“The competition begins now. How long can
you go without blood? For the next week, you cannot take any blood.
I want to see what sort of night human control you have, and how
powerful you are without blood. If you take blood in any form,
you’ll be eliminated. Each day we will do different tests, and
you’ll get scores. You can use your night human form as much as you
want, just make sure you don’t run out of blood.” Arianna walked
over to the buffet. That was all she needed to say, and it was
better turn her back to the men in order to avoid their stares and
eventual questions.

“That’s not fair,” Nik complained from his
spot across the room. “That favors the day human.”

“No one said I have to be fair,” Arianna
responded, turning back around to answer him. He was actually
pouting. What self-respecting nineteen-year-old pouted?
“Remember—head of the family here making decisions.” Arianna
pointed at herself. She couldn’t help talking to him like he was in
grade school, particularly if he was going to act like it. Arianna
turned back to the food to keep from laughing in his face. No one
said she had to make any of the competition fair.

“What numbers make it through this part of
the competition?” Jan asked, standing close by as he was already
going through the buffet as well. His night human strength came
from blood as much as calories. The draugur night human form
depended on blood to do things such as walk through walls, but the
increase in size and strength come from calories.

“To be number ten or under,” Arianna
replied, moving down the line right after Andrew.

Jan was soft spoken,
despite being such a large man. He was already in competition mode.
Being the oldest of the group, Arianna expected him to be the most
focused, but it just made everything more real. Arianna snuck a few
glances at the large, blond-haired man next to her. Jan was older
than her by over a decade, but he didn’t look his age. In fact, he
didn’t look much older than even the younger competitors. He didn’t
openly gawk at her like most of the men, but was focused on filling
his plate with food. When they reached for a spoon at the same
time, Jan motioned for her to take it and avoided what other men
would have used as a good opportunity to touch her
accidentally.
Surprisingly, Jan wasn’t as detestable as she first assumed
due to his age; not that she wanted to be with anyone but Andrew,
of course.

Arianna walked over to an empty table to sit
down to eat. Rhys’ retainer immediately stood and pulled her chair
out for her since her hands were full. The retainer bowed his head
and waited for her to be seated before moving away. Arianna was a
bit surprised by such gentlemanly ways for a night human, even if
she had heard that the sidhe night humans valued honor above all
else. Andrew sat beside her, and warily watched as Rhys and his
retainer joined the line of people getting food.

‘I don’t trust him,’
Andrew complained. In reality Andrew didn’t trust
anyone in the room beyond her team.

‘We don’t need to trust
them,’
Arianna replied, biting into the
heap of pancakes before her.
‘We just need
to follow the plan.’

‘I know,’
Andrew replied. The plan included letting things
proceed until they got rid of all the retainers.
‘I just hate sitting around here while everyone
gawks over you. You are mine and always will be. I will never hand
you over to one of these gawking idiots, especially not the
vrykolakas brat. He needs to learn a few lessons.’

Arianna smiled up at him as
she grabbed a strawberry off his plate.
‘Three weeks is all you have to put up with it,’
Arianna replied. Andrew offered her another one
rather than having her go back up to the line and stand near the
vultures waiting to get close to her.
‘Thomas has everything worked out to three weeks. Can you do
that?’