"Combatant 976," an Elder female shouted my number. "Ring four. Fighting combatant 201."

I hopped from my bench and entered the ring for the final round in the all-female melee that would determine my official placement in the grand free-for-all tourney.

In contrast to yesterday, the morning was calculated and rigorous. I had to wake up early and keep a tight schedule as I earned my way into the top-tier roster. The matches were scattered throughout several temporarily co-oped outdoor gyms and training grounds and because I entered the tournament with zero merits or trophies and persisted in non-stop victories; I made appearances in every division.

This was my last stop. The next round would decide if I ranked First Champion or achieved Honorable Second.

My opponent entered the ring and the sight of her put me in high spirits. It was Kazz'mon!

"Mourning Crow," the beautiful jade-green and canary-yellow doctor nodded and bowed her golden crest of long quills in my direction. "I'm glad to see your mate delivered my hypospray and there were no adverse reactions."

"On time and feelin' fantastic!" I bounced. "He even gifted his most recent contribution in the form of a first-hand demonstration of traditional Zhaguai street-mating in the distillery district last night."

"A most considerate lifemate," Kazz'mon smiled and took her place across the ring with exquisite grace. "Shall we now determine which donor each of us acquires?"

"Combatants," the Elder referee raised her claws. "Fight!"

Kazz'mon moved like a phantom cat with speed comparable to mine. She leaped over my head and landed behind me with extraordinary guile.

One of the wonderful things about fighting Zhaguai women was that they lacked an ulterior motive. It was refreshing facing an opponent whose sole intent was purely to kill you.

I spun and dipped when I heard her claws cut through the air and fly straight at my eyes. Then I deflected her arms and kept up with her tempo.

Of all the women here today, Kazz'mon was the only one poised with a major advantage. She was well-versed in my anatomy and had calculated all of my weaknesses. I could be swift and clever all day and still not make a dent. Defeating her would require creativity and showing her something unpredictable.

I hopped away to the edge of the ring and shifted my stance, throwing my claws out wide with a baritone roar, and bent my legs firmly akimbo.

The referee along with Kazz'mon and several other women crooked their heads sideways in bemusement. She'd been fighting women all day. The last thing anyone expected was for me to debase myself and fight like a large grunting male.

Kazz'mon zigzagged while I stomped forward. She came at me on all fours, ready to pounce and slash me to ribbons. But instead of dodging, I lunged and tackled her to the ground.

I was channeling Eh'kt from last night with his lesson on Zhaguai mating and his use of dominant force to shove me down and bend me over.

She hissed and twisted into a death roll within my arms, but I caught her and lifted her entire body over my head. Then I stood there holding her up high, awaiting her next move.

Kazz'mon contorted, determined to flip around and take hold of my arms, so I dropped her and kicked her square in the ribcage.

Kazz'mon stalled her roll and reset to leap at me all over again.

Once more I roared and I charged, then slammed into her head-on. She scratched, and I ignored her claw. She tried to break loose, but I pushed on, squeezing and gave her nowhere else to run.

One slow, grueling step after another, I persisted and eventually subdued the good nine-foot doctor with pure masculine brute force.

...

The sound of the crowd cheering and the loud pendulating drums thundered from outside. Together, side by side with Kazz'mon, we exited the dark tunnel into the expansive black arena followed by the other women ranking in the top fifty. Each of us wore different colored armbands identifying our status. Kazz'mon's was red and yellow while mine was white and teal.

The arena was low-lit in stark neon white with bright white searchlights dancing in the night sky highlighting hovering ships and several floating bleachers levitating overhead. Across the dirt field, I spotted Dran standing tall in the center of the arena but when he turned to wave at me I noticed his armband matched Kazz'mon's.

Then Dran stepped aside, revealing my partner behind him.

I nearly doubled over with laughter. There he was, a massive bright crimson Zhaguai wearing my matching white and teal armband.

"HAHAHA!" I pointed and hugged my ribs, nearly crumbling to the ground.

"Aren't you mated?" My opponent narrowed his vibrant red eyes and growled in irritation.

Ha! So that's why you changed your mind when you saw Groon's free-for-all roster list. Knowing Eh'kt, he intended this outcome.

"Yes," I hollered back. "But razkurs require two males to propagate and I'm here for a donation. So tell me, Shale, are you feeling charitable?"

The eight-foot Forged Adjutant snarled and flexed his claws. If we had been permitted to wear anything beyond a loincloth, I was confident his axe would have been drawn.

"The rules guarantee a Zhaguai mate," Shale protested.

"Actually," Kazz'mon interjected. "The precise wording is 'Zhaguai-compatible mate', as many of us have had our DNA updated. Rest assured, she rose through the ranks with the utmost honor. I can personally vouch that Mourning Crow has earned her place as First Champion of the Women's Melee."

"This will be our best cycle yet!" Dran grinned at me and Kazz'mon, then he thumped Shale's pectoral. "Good mating to you, my brother."

Shale scowled at the crowd, then paused on Eh'kt standing comfortably in the stadium bleachers accompanied by Groon and several familiar old-timers we met in the bar last night. The crimson Forged turned his back on me to roar at my mate with his chest heaving in fury.

I hadn't given much thought to Shale aside from those few times he stopped in during my lessons with E'pire. He'd kept his distance in all our encounters, and I assumed he preferred watching from afar.

The drums came to a halt, and a holo image of Oru culminated in the sky.

"Welcome, Jahaa!" Oru spoke from her floating bleacher next to her lifemate, E'pire, standing beside her. "Welcome, our Supreme Nexus Matriarchs and the esteemed Council of Ancients!" The Elder gestured to a series of floating holo-screen displaying pleased unknown Zhaguai faces. "Welcome all who have traveled throughout the Nexus!"

The mass of Zhaguai below roared up in unison.

"We come together this hallowed night to expand the eternal bloodline and propagate our legacy, but The Convergence is more than a means of reproduction. For thousands of cycles, throughout countless generations, we unite and give rise to our future, wherever it may take us," Oru turned her gaze down to those of us looking up from the center of the arena. "Tonight, you will fight and breed life from honor and victory. Strength from the ancestors! Strength to the future!"

The crowd burst into a frenzy.

"Is Jahaa worthy?" Oru shouted.

The horde of Zhaguai thundered in one discordant chorus.

"Then show me, my sisters and brothers," Oru called out. "And all the Nexus!"

The arena lights shifted into red and Shale's deep crimson silhouette loomed in the scarlet light like a snarl of hulking rage. He turned to me wearing an expression like he intended to split me in half. The Forged warrior roared at me with his head hunched and his claws tense, then he prowled forward, staring me down with eyes blazing, practically glowing, in predatory hate.

"I will not be gentle with you," Shale rumbled with all of his jagged fangs flared.

"Oh yeah," I remained calm as the red Forged warrior advanced. "Do you also plan to go this slowly?"

Shale's red eyes snapped into berserk mode, then he howled and charged.

He swiped at my head and I ducked in close to let loose a series of left hooks into his ribs. We exchanged punches and kicks, but I kept him in check every time he thought he had me.

Eventually, I gave him an opening, letting him swing both arms and try to club me down. But to his upset, I leaped sideways and spun, delivering a solid uppercut into his chin.

Shale flipped back and landed with a thud on his rear. However, he recovered quickly and swerved for my legs. But I caught his foot and twisted him down into a bizarre leg hold.

"He knew you'd win," I whispered into Shale's ear, then I pulled away, snagging a razor-thin cut across his cheek beneath his Jahaa emblem with my thumb.

Shale rolled up with a roar and then stopped, glaring down at his naked pelvis.

"Yooo-hooo," I twirled his black loincloth on my finger with a puckish whistle then tossed it away. He was still sheathed but royally pissed that I had stripped him down to nothing.

Shale came at me again, this time pouncing in low on all fours. It was like dodging something between a lion and a bull.

Once again, I got a grip when he least expected it. I had him by the scruff of his neck and flipped him across the field.

"Is this what you do to Eh'kt?" Shale sprang to his feet seething, finally realizing that he would have to fight me seriously. "I will NOT submit like him!"

There we go... it's about time we got started.

I let Shale tackle me and feigned a moment of defeat before I crisscrossed my little claw across his lower abdomen and sank them deep into the exact locations Eh'kt warned me not to when I sparred with males.

He hissed when I released him and kicked him off with a smirk as his short quills prickled.

"Go ahead! Test me," Shale bellowed as he wiped the hot little cuts and licked up the seeping blue. "I will prove more than you can handle."

Many of the males around us were already dominating their females, including Dran and Kazz'mon, who were bent over and fully preoccupied with their own mated coupling.

Shale lunged again and darted between the other paired-off couples. He thrashed at me and I gave him a taste of my actual speed. But he didn't yield. He hit harder and took me down in a nasty roll.

"You will bend for me!" Shale shouted, desperate to get a solid grip on any of my appendages. "Or I will break you!"

I bucked him over my head, swiveled him around by the wrist, and somersaulted up and over him; pinning him face down and ass up while utilizing a palm pressure point Eh'kt taught me. I was behind him, my crotch facing his rear, straddling him like the other males mounted over their counterparts before ramming themselves in. Only I stepped back and gave Shale time to stand up and shake out his quills.

"This is a game you will lose," Shale shook his horns and long quills around, and in less than a second, he was on me.

We wrestled upright. He tried to lift me and crush me, while I made a point to nip and scratch at his chest and short quills. Blue was smeared everywhere, and then I spotted my opportunity.

I leaped up and kicked him back, slamming him into the arena wall. That's when I leaped on him and blocked his escape. My prey was pinned flat against the wall between my arms and legs, hooked firmly into the black concrete.

Shale stood there roaring, trying to rip me off his chest. Then he glanced down with a jolt to see his thick red dick, hard and fully exposed.

Before he could growl in protest, I ripped off my loincloth and folded in fast, keeping one leg straight, supporting my weight with the other hooked over his shoulder.

Holy Fuck, he was huge!

I had to steady my breathing to take him all in.

It's a good thing these Zhaguai dudes self-lubricate.

Shale groaned and dug his claws into my hips, not to throw me off but to force me down.

He was bigger than Eh'kt, but lacked my mate's patience and attentiveness to detail. Nothing was calculated, and I didn't taste rainbows. Shale was pure raw power, like a maelstrom striding across black water; complete with shark-infested riptides and blazing red fire.

It wasn't clear who won or lost, only that each progressive thrust was rattling right through me.

"That's right, take all of me," Shale salivated with a low chitter.

His red eyes fixated on that tight little spot where his shaft was railing into me over and over. He wasn't pierced but the ridges on his shaft were thicker, all of it plowing me into a state of euphoric purring.

"You feel me, don't you," Shale thrummed at me with a bestial smile. "Enjoy it now, pale one, because this cunt won't ever be the same."

He cupped my ass and pushed me up to drive me down harder, each plunge swirling and rearranging my insides. His steel-hard cock felt like a white hot hammer clanging onto an anvil.

"Where's your piece-of-shit mate now?" Shale scoured the arena bleachers. "I hope he's watching!"

Every muscle in this overgrown Zhaguai's well-sculpted body contorted in unison to fill me to the hilt. His stamina was relentless and I wanted all of it.

"Shit, your soo tight!" Shale pinched my thighs with his claws, watching the dimples bounce back without a scratch. "Your cunt is strangling me like a constrictor-collar."

His speed was sadistic. I had to sink my claws into his shoulders in order to grind on him and keep up with his brutal pace.

"I may not be your lifemate, but you won't ever forget me!" Shale tugged my waist close, snarling with cool, sinister laughter. "Eh'kt's a fool to sit on the sidelines and let me reshape your pussy."

Shale's lungs pounded out rugged pants while his massive hand groped over and around to my underside. He pressed his fingers against my strained lower lips to savor the sensation as he entered and exited.

"What the shit?" Shale growled at the crowd.

I followed his gaze and saw Eh'kt standing stoically in the same spot. We were closer now and my mate was wearing his helmet.

"Is that sick fucker recording!?" The crimson Forged snapped.

Just when I thought I had taken all I could stand, Shale pumped faster and expanded.

"You want this? You twisted fuck!" Shale barked in Eh'kt's direction. "Then have it! Watch me flood your mate's cunt!"

My brain sizzled like water bouncing off hot grease. Then Shale roared as he burrowed himself deep.

Damn. The force of his cum made me wince and let out a squeak.

I didn't know those things doubled as projectile weapons!

My whole body compressed and I grit my teeth.

YES!

In a blur, my mind and the whole world slipped away.

Shale was squeezing me and dragging his tongue up my chest. I clutched his head and arched back, letting out a long huff as the little claws on my straight leg cut a long gash into the wall.

Next thing I knew, I was floating in that lovely place with twinkling lights and colorful sounds. Everything was warm, and I wished just for a moment I could share the sensation with Eh'kt.

Eh'kt...

Shale...

I'll hurt him...

UP! UP!

Wake the fuck up!

The lights dimmed, and I awoke to Shale's blurry head shape whipping back and forth between me and Eh'kt.

In the distance, my mate was holding his palm up to signify patience.

Good, Shale comprehended the hand signal and didn't try to pull me off.

Finally, I relaxed and let him slip out, followed by a steady flow of warm, viscous goo dribbling down my inner thighs.

Shale, still pinned to the wall, slid down and slumped to the ground. Poor fella was utterly drained, and all tuckered out.

I flicked my ears to find that the other couples were meandering around and watching the show long after long, completing their own skirmishes.

I wagged my ears to perk myself up then I hopped off Shale's lap and patted his head. "Thank you, Shale."

The lethargic Forged jerked his head up, but lacked the energy to speak.

"You did well," I flicked a stray limp quill off his face. "Let's call this one a tie."

.

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Author's Note:

Thank you for reading. If you're enjoying please remember to click the ⭐star⭐to vote and help others discover this book. Wattpad counts votes for each chapter. And as always, comments are most appreciated.