A large majority of Khan's pack were around his age and were from his father's pack and the platoon he had trained. A few had mates but there still remained a significant number who were mate-less and restless. These wolves craved another hunt, but the mate trials would sage their hunger until another hunt could be organised. If Khan knew these wolves as well as he did the hunt would be in the next few days and the Trials even sooner, there was no prolonging the affair.

It would be done soon and Neema would fully understand the world she lived in, a world where the wolves were ruled by their primal urges and the humans had no defence but submission. She would learn that she lived in a Wolves den now and not a rat's sewer.

Khan's den was made up off some of the best wolves, they were in their prime and as carnal as their leader. They were a blood thirsty lot, males and females alike and they would accept no leadership from a weak leader. Neema would not be given her position she would be tested and her personal trial would begin now, whether she was ready or not. The outcome would likely not be in her favour but Khan could do little to stop it, every Alpha wolves companion was forced into a mini trial of sorts that gave them their rank in the pack.

If Neema succeeded then she would stand by his side as a true leader, a Luna but if she failed she would be ridiculed until she could prove her worth. The blow to her self esteem would see that she depended on Khan, she would have no pride after it was ravaged from her by the fist of his most trusted female.

Neema sat at the long table watching the wolves interact, the younger children were oblivious to the divide of species that the adults felt. Humans and wolf children playing together but their mothers were the complete opposite as they sent daggers her way. Some even snickering in her direction. At first Neema had thought to leave them to be petty, their snide comments meant nothing to her but hen they started to increase in size. What was initially 3 females had become 4 and then 6 until there was a hoard of females smirking and giggling in her direction.

Now that the children were occupied with some of the kids they met at the nursery, Neema could have a chat with the she-wolves who were intent on baring their fangs at her. Striding over to the group of chuckling females Neema felt her anger mounting, she had been through too much to have some idiotic females belittle her and make her seem weak. Typically, she would ignore their taunts but she could not ignore it now, they were becoming much louder drawing the attention of the other wolves in the room. Khan merely stood by with his folded arms as if he expected Neema to deal with the challenge herself and she would. She was not one to forgo a challenge.

"What's the joke? I wanna laugh as well" she interrupted, their laughter quietening down before it picked up with a higher timbre. Words slipping out between their laughs, they made jaunts about the way she looked the way she spoke. How she was uncultured but it was all behind the backs of their hands, none of them brave enough to speak up. To be a true wolf among sheep.

Neema was ready for a fight, she felt adrenalin pulsing through her body as she stood among the petty females, their obnoxious smiles not quite reaching their eyes. Neema would not attack first though instead she would lure the ringleader out and make the female feel confident in her disdain. Then she would strike. She would annihilate any grounds she had for disrespect. They were clearly challenging her right as their ruler and she would show them she was not lacking even if she had no wish to lead among them.

"Well speak up, I'm told I have an excellent sense of humour. Try me" she jeered.

The females had sense, none openly challenged her. Their postures shifted from foot to foot in front of her twittering about like cagey birds but no one answered her question.

The females were goading her into action, she could see it in the way they flickered their eyes to some hidden female among the crowd. They pretended that they wanted to challenge Neema but none of them had the fire to but someone did and she realised that this had merely been a trap for her to fall into.

Neema could take on all of these females before her, maybe not at the same time but individually she could and these females did not want to risk that. So they had goaded her to approach them and then they would disperse for the real wolf to emerge, the real challenger.

"I'm going to assume you all have no tongues, and unless you want that assumption to be made true you should guard them." Neema threatened them in the most menacing voice possible.

Eyeing each female with shroud eyes, one female stood out to Neema as the possible leader of the group where the others were avoiding eye contact this female met her eyes head on. Challenging her with her piercing stare.

She had long, thick, black hair that framed her pale face. She was exotic in looking with her sultry lashes. Neema thought that if this were the old world she would be described as maybe being Chinese, coming from Ansin or what was once called Asia in the old world. Her long, lithe limbs towered over Neema's average height in attempt to intimidate her, she towered over all the females in the room but she was still dwarfed by the men.

Her words must have lacked the timbre it needed to carry the threat because the black haired lady lashed out. One minute she was standing there challenging Neema with cold eyes and the next her body was flying into motion.

Her arm swung out to meet Neema's face, the force beating her skin with the punch of her brute strength. The woman was strong, her attack hitting Neema by surprise and doing more damage than it should.

Staggering back a step, the crowd of people expanded outwards forming a large circle that caged the two women in.

Neema clutched her throbbing face in shock as she watched the rabid wolves, howling and drooling in their hunger. They wanted a show, they wanted blood and carnage and she would give it to them. She only hoped Khan would get her siblings out of here before the blood bath really begun.

Her posture changed showing the telling signs that she was a trained fighter and it was noted by the wolves. Their voices reached a crescendo as the they chanted for a fight, wild and unbridled but Neema was statuesque.

Her eyes gliding over her opponent with a sharpness reserved only for an enemy, picking out any weakness she could find but there were not many. Neema was sure that her opponent could find many on her and she would use those weaknesses to her advantage.

The wolf ran at her with a sweeping arm aiming for her head a second time, Neema struck her foot out in an arch kicking the angry female in her stomach. The force strong enough to send her staggering back a few paces. Her victory was short lived as the woman came at her with aquick succession of punches, her moves much more calculated as she attacked with full force.

The length of her arms allowing her to make contact with Neema's body without receiving much counterattacks. Blood spurted from Neema's body as she was forced to go on the defensive, her arms up as she tried to guard her face and body.

The woman kept coming at Neema and her defence was wavering, her arms were no longer blocking the bows from her face, her mouth was swollen with the taste of her blood. Neema dropped her right arm leaving her guard open to more blows that found its mark open. Her guard arm struck out and blocked the blow that was coming towards her face and her right fist swung round with its own counter attack.

The movement so fast the punch left the she-wolf reeling from the blow she received to her face, the first trace of red Neema had drawn from her and it would not be the last. Neema's foot struck out and stomped on the she wolfs knee causing her to drop to the floor, her body lower and easier for Neema to attack. Her foot struck out again to stomp on the woman's face but the she wolf recovered in time to grab Neema's leg, a hint of claws as she yanked on her leg with a force that nearly dislocated it.

Grabbing a fistful of her long black hair, Neema crushed the females face into her knee repeatedly until the wolfs hold slackened and she was able to hobble back a few steps.

The woman stood slowly, her face was shrouded in red as her blood trickled from every pore in her skin but she was still determined to fight. Wiping her eyes on her sleeve and spitting a ball of blood traced mucus she licked her teeth and bared her fangs. The wolves started howling as they chanted the wolfs name, Lian, Lian, Lian.

Lian charged at her like a raging bull, her eyes alight with vengeance. Her leg kicked out for the first time sending Neema tumbling to the floor, her foot stomping down and just missing her face as Neema rolled to the side and stood up. Her arms quickly rising as she blocked her face from another one of Lian's blows, the first not as strong as it was before.

Dropping to her knees Neema dodged a low punch and wrapped her arm around Lian's knee, the female grabbed Neema's hair in an attempt to drag her from the floor but Neema held tight and started pulling. Her arms dragging the leg further and further towards her chest.

Lian grabbed Neema's hair with a new urgency once she realised what her intent was but it was too late.

The sharp crack of her shattered bone silenced the growling wolves and signalled the end of the match. Lian crumbled to floor in awe as her bone poked out of her skin, the white standing out against the gushing red.

The sharp hush filled the room as Neema stood to her feet, her body moving back away from the scene she had caused.

"Finish it" whispered a wolf, the sound climbing and climbing as more wolves began chanting for Neema to kill one of their own kind. One of their females.

Her hands shook as she stared at the blood thirsty creatures before, their love for violence so strong they had no care to what they wished of her. Demanded from her.

Nodding her head, she resolved herself for what she was about to do knowing how it would end.

She marched back over to Lian and gripped the female wolf's hair in her hand, wrapping her fingers around the lock she gave a test pull before tightening her hand. She could feel the hot gaze of Khans eyes on her back as he stood by and watched the blood, sweat and tears drip from her body as she yanked Lian's head back further. The woman's body strained from the ground and a whimper slipped from her mouth.

Fisting her hair tighter, she grabbed Lian's neck and bellowed, the sound forcing the wolves to quieten instantly.

"Her death is not needed when I have her submission" she growled as Lian's head lay in an awkward angle, her neck bared in her submission and eyes lowered to the ground.

Roughly releasing her head Neema marched from the circle and made her way through the crowd of howling wolves, their hands reaching out to pat her. Some even displaying their necks in submission to her as she made her way to Khan. Khan who had found his way on top of a table and stood with his hands across his chest like he was a king.

His eyes were a dark black that told of his arousal, his body puffed out in his pride of the female before him. He gripped her waist and yanked her up the table and into his arms as he shoved is snout into her neck taking in the scent of her victory, blood and sweat.

Her small hands pushed at his chest but she was too tired and bruised from the fight she had just taken place in to really put up strong resistance. He nibbled and sucked at her neck as his wolves continued to screech with their acceptance of his mate. When she gathered enough strength she moved her body from within the embrace of his arms and took her place beside him.

"This is Neema, my mate and your Luna" he howled over the sounds of the wolves whose screeches rose over his call. Their voices now chanting Luna over and over again as some shifted in their half form, their howls echoing around the room.

As Neema stood along the table and watched the wolves become wilder and wilder she could not help but imagine what the outcome of the mating trials would be. If this was her test then she could only imagine the gruesome trial that would face all those humans who dared to love freely. Dared to choose.

Blood would not be spared and neither would lives.

Though she had passed one of the first tests an Alpha ever learnt which was to forgo death if submission was given, she had a feeling that the wolves would not react the same way to their human opponents when the trials commenced.

She had shown them that she was a wolf among sheep but deep down she knew that when she entered the wolves den her clothing would seem false.

Because real wolves killed even in the presence of submission.

They bathed in the blood of their opponent.