She has to pay the price.

Ariel was being dragged out of the pack house like a criminal that committed a felony, as she still continuously struggled to set herself free from the strong arms trying to put her at ease and lastly, all her ceaseless struggles ended when she set foot outside of the pack house and into the compound.

Her sight first fell on her father, Alpha Mills seated among the elderly ones.

The butterflies in her stomach suddenly grumbled as she rolled her eyes. What was happening?And why was everyone seated outside under a canopy?Were they all there to witness her execution?Since it seemed like that was what they were all waiting for.

Her eyes went to the canopies placed around the compound, leaving a little space in the middle for whatever show they had going on, and that was when she recalled what today was.

Today was the last saturday of the month whereby duels were always set for the young males and females to test their strength against each other.

"Sh*t" Ariel cursed, still being dragged roughly, forward to the compound even though she had stopped with her struggles of setting herself free, all thanks goes to the mannerless males that had no idea on how to treat a female the nice way.

She was then forced down to her knees in front of her father by Jacob who was now the only one escorting her, after the other two males he brought along with him had gone to fix themselves to their own seats.

Whispers and murmurs filled the once quietened compound after Alpha Mills had declared Jackson the winner and then sent Jacob to bring Ariel out there to the compound.

Ariel, who was still on her knees, with her head bowed and her gaze glued to the floor firmly, could clearly hear the murmuring and whispers of the people around the compound.

Some were calling her all sorts of provocative names, pointing and laughing at her at the same time while some murmured about her crashing her sister's mating ceremony and trying also to snatch away her sister's mate.

"Motherf**kers'' Were the only word Ariel was able to mumble with her face still bowed before her father pulled her face  up roughly to meet him by dragging her hair. Ariel could only let out a pained whimper and shoot her father ferocious glares before he whispered.

"Today will be your living nightmare, Ariel".

Were those words supposed to scare Ariel or what?, Because she didn't even quivered for a bit. Gone are those days when she feared her father so greatly giving him so much supremacy over her.

But Alpha Mills should know that bygones are bygones.

He was actually surprised to see Ariel laughing instead of shaking in her shell like she always used to do and she could see the terror in her father's eyes and then used that opportunity to taunt him.

"No father, you are totally wrong about that" She let out a little creepy smile at the end of her lips, "I will make today your own living nightmare".

Those words of Ariel only got her old man mad as he let go of Ariel's hair and rose to his feet fully aggravated to go announce to the crowd about who was going to duel next against each other.

Ariel felt relieved that her old man had left and then ran some fingers through her hair, soothing that particular area Alpha Mills pulled, hurting her. And after she was done, she then turned to her front to catch the full view of whatever nonsense her old man was about to announce.

"Listen up everyone!" Alpha Mills roared, clapping his hand and successfully drawing the attention of the crowd on him as their murmurs and whispers died down. 

"Without wasting time, I will go straight to the point since we got a lot of work to do today" His tone was calm now, "we already have our next duelers" Alpha Mills stared at Ariel who watched him with a raised brow questionly. 

Why did he drop that statement, staring at her that way, but before Ariel's mind could assume the people her father was going to call up next for the second round of the duel, she heard him say.

"Jacob and Ariel will duel against each other for the second round, please do get prepared yourselves because we have no time to waste".

Everyone present in the dueling ground gasped out of shock, on listening to their Alpha's statement. Was he really in his right mind when he dropped that statement?It would never be possible for an omega to defeat a beta, especially when that omega turned out to be Ariel.

Jacob against Ariel? A strong Beta against a weak Omega?. This second round of the duel would be one hell of a duel and so much interesting for everyone to watch.

Ariel could only chuckle and ran a finger inside of her ear to make sure she heard what her old man announced in front of everyone right now, that man truly wanted her dead by setting her to duel against Jacob.

It was now she truly understood what he meant by today being her living nightmare. A Beta?How was she going to defeat him? And where would she even start from? Her father must have gone insane for real this time for setting up such an absurd duel.

Turning over to her left to check out whether Jacob was still beside her, Ariel couldn't find him anywhere beside her and then she finally found him moving to the center of the compound where the duel was going to take place.

Jacob must have gone inside the pack house to freshen himself up and prepare himself for the duel, he let out an evil smirk on sighting the pitiful look Ariel had on her face at that certain moment he stared at her.

"Not so brave now, are you Ariel?" He mumbled with the corners of his lip lifted, scornfully. 

Ariel bit down on her lips watching the murderous aura surrounding Jacob as he walked up to the center of the compound, preparing himself to battle her and then what was when she recalled the moment she insulted him when he offered to help her escape.

If only Ariel knew this day would have come, then she would have just rejected his offer soft-heartedly without insulting him and now she has to pay the price for that, because Jacob was surely going to smash her into pieces during the duel while her father watched.

"F**k".