The crowd shivered together. I felt my own blood run cold. The mines were notorious, a death sentence disguised as labor. Workers were forced to dig in unstable tunnels with minimal food and water. Most didn't survive their first month.
"You will fight in pairs," the overseer continued. "The winners advance. The losers..." She smiled cruelly. "Well, the mines always need more workers."
They paired us off randomly. My opponent was a young girl, barely eighteen with terror written across her face. Yet beneath the fear, I saw determination in her eyes, the desperate need to survive.
I knew immediately what I had to do. Winning would mean becoming a breeder, forced to bear children for the pack's warriors. The thought made me feel sick. But more than that, winning would risk exposing my true strength. The mines, despite their horrors offered anonymity. A place to hide until I could plan my revenge.
The fights began. Around us, women threw themselves at each other with wild desperation. Some fought with skill, others with pure fear. We could hear the sounds of bodies hitting each other, mixed with screams of pain and triumph.