Dante Romano

The Day Of The Match

BLOOM

Daria and I trudged forward towards the medical station of the rink with bags of medical supplies.

"This is just stressful. I should give up on this job soon and find an easier one" Daria complained. She had been saying so for two years now and never made one single move towards actually finding another job.

I had just made the final turn to get to the medical station when I bumped hard into a girl. Any other wolf my age wouldn't have fallen but with my wolfless body and my bag of supplies, I stumbled backwards and fell to the hard floor.

"Ouch" I winced in pain before processing the shattering sound that had followed. I quickly opened my bag and bit my lip hard in regret as I found out that some of the bottles of liquid medicines had shattered.

Before I could even think about what to do or sort it, the sound of a slap filled the air. I turned my head quickly towards the direction. Daria had just slapped the girl I had bumped into.

I had been so focused on my drugs that I hadn't even looked at the girl I had bumped into.

"Daria!" I called her name in a raised tone, letting the bag off me so I could get up.

"I am so sorry, Miss. I am really sorry" The girl fell onto her knees and then I saw it, the collar of her cleaning uniform was red indicating her status, she was a slave wolf, a member of the defeated Bright Night Pack.

"You are sorry?? That's going to fix the mess you just made, uh?" Daria scolded while the girl already had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Daria, you shouldn't have hit her. It was a mistake" I moved to the girl, helping her up from her knees while she tried to remain on her knees.

"You have too much empathy, even for these low lives. She could have been careful. Look at the mess she made and she even had you fall to the floor" Daria raged on as I finally helped the girl back to her feet.

"I am really sorry, Miss. Please, please spare me" The girl begged, bowing her head multiple times.

"You may leave" I dismissed the girl.

"Who is going to clean up this mess and pay for the wasted drugs?" Daria protested.

"I will. I will clean it up and pay for it. You may leave" I reiterated and the girl scurried ran off, her sobs fading away.

"You are too nice to those low lives" Daria huffed.

"And you are too harsh." I said and Daria rolled her eyes.

"They are just low lives, what's the point in being nice to them?"

"Daria" I grumbled her name.

"Ugh, fine. Maybe I shouldn't have slapped her but you should definitely have let her clean this up and pay for this with her wages"

I didn't respond to Daria anymore and just walked back to my bag, wondering how this was so normal. Everyone did it, hitting, maltreating and being completely horrible to the slave wolves but I just couldn't stomach it.

Watching it happen made something twist inside of me in the most unpleasant ways but many times, I had to just stand still and watch it happen even when the urge to save them was strong.

But how could I even think of saving anyone when I was wolfless?

*

"There she goes with her bag of drugs. She is so in love with being in charge of taking care of the boys, giving her a chance to try to get closer to Hunter"

"She could be working anywhere else but she chose to work here at the rink, we all know exactly why. I just wish she would give up already after all, everyone knows Hunter would never actually fall for someone like her. She's worse than the slave wolves. A wolfless orphan at 22."

"Hey! Would you all keep your fucktraps shut?!" Daria raised her voice at the girls talking.

I grabbed Daria by the arm and nudged her to be calm.

"What? Are we saying anything wrong?" One of the girls yelled back at Daria.

"I am going to come over to you and I will slice your insides open. And guess who the only person who can actually save you around here is? The wolfless 22 year old!"

"Daria" I pulled her arm again. "Why should you care about the nonsense they spill? It's been years already, it shouldn't piss you off anymore. It happens at every single match"

"They are fucking fools. The both of them. Everyone in the pack knows they have a huge crush on Hunter and go around picking on everyone who actually has a chance with Hunter" Daria huffed.

"I know and that's more reason why I don't care about what they say"

It was a lie to say I don't care about what they say. I always tried not to care but knowing that I was truly the only girl around here who hadn't found her wolf at age 22 made it difficult not to care.

But before I could think any deeper about it, Hunter and his team skated onto the rink. My face brightened up with a smile that I flashed towards him but unlike every other day, Hunter wasn't smiling.

He always did. At the beginning of every match, Hunter was always smiling. At me. The crowd. Or at his teammates.

But today, he wasn't smiling at all and the smile on my face slowly vanished as well.

What exactly was it about this match that worried Hunter so much?

"What is it about this match that is worrying Hunter so much? Is there some huge prize attached to it that I have no idea about?" I asked Daria but she just adjusted her medical personnel vest and shrugged.

"Whatever it is, the match is about to begin and we are about to find out" She replied and finally the Clarion team skated into the rink, their black uniform contrasting sharply with the blue uniform of the Bleerds team.

The entire rink suddenly went quiet, eerily quiet and as I looked at them closely, I found out why.

Their Captain.

The captain of the Clarion team had changed and the man standing there in place of the previous captain was one I still recognized but was close to being unable to.

My body froze the moment I saw him as if my body had no idea how to process the moment so it decided to simply freeze.

He was taller, way taller than I remembered. Certainly bigger and with shoulders broader than I had ever envisioned him to be.

He skated to a stop in front of his teammates, his movements confident, appearing simple yet skillful and then he looked right at me, like he already knew exactly where I was going to be standing.

Dante Romano!

He smirked.