Chapter 3: Survive

Instead of getting to know each other, like the girls had planned earlier, they had become increasingly busy trying to solve papers that the Alpha had assigned each room, in order to train the girls about operating behind the scenes when in need of a shift. They had to answer questions and give detailed reports of a passage they had been give.

"Let's drop this for now and get to know each other before our brains die," Rose groaned and fell back on the sofa with a huff. Iris rolled her eyes but clicked save on Artemis' laptop before shutting it down.

"How about we all ask a question and everyone has to answer?" Iris asked.

"Sounds good," Artemis said stretching up from the floor before plopping down on a bean bag chair.

"How were your trips here?" Iris asked. "Mine was OK, I slept through most of it,"

"My driver was super nice and my flight, I watched guardians of the galaxy 2," Rosalind said happily.

"Mine was crap, driver terrible, I slept through my plane ride and the journey was way too long," Artemis grumbled opening a pack of Flamin' hot Cheetos.

Iris and Rosalind laughed making Artemis pout.

"Oh cheer up, you're from England, your accent alone will make the male guards drool then your looks will do the rest," Iris told her.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. All the boys at my school barely ever spoke to me,"

" 'Cos you're hot, they were intimidated," Rosalind shrugged. Artemis considered this, boys didn't speak to her because they were too intimidated by her? She wasn't surprised by the intimidation but the fact it due to her looks were completely absurd but she decided not to push the subject, it would only bug her if they persisted on with their assumptions.

"Siblings?" Rosalind asked. "I've got an older brother, he's married with three kids,"

"How old was he when he found his mate?" Iris asked.

Rosalind shifted I'm her seat. "He never did, he's never shifted, he doesn't even know about... you know... us." She pulled her knees closer to herself and Artemis felt slightly bad for her. "He thinks I'm going to a boarding school," she told them, keeping her eyes down.

Iris gave her a small sympathetic smile. "If you don't mind me asking, how does that happen, I mean I know your animal gene doesn't get activated unless your fight or flight instinct goes on extreme mode... but if he's older than you... than how... did yours?"

"He was away at a school camping trip and two men broke into our house while my parents were at work. I thought I was going to die when they found me under my bed. It didn't happen straight away but when they began ripping my clothes off, it just happened... you know? It was so quick and I couldn't control my actions and I nearly killed them," Rosalind explained, Artemis could see that in her head, she was reliving the whole situation again. "The court ruled them crazy when they told the judge that they saw me turn into an animal," she gave a half-hearted laugh, "Then they were locked up," she seemed genuinely happy about that and Artemis gave her a smile.

"What about you?" Rose turned to Iris.

Iris bit the inside of her cheeks before answering. "I grew up in a neighborhood which wasn't the safest... you could say. My dad got involved with a lot of shit and he started disappearing at night. It got to the point where my mum and my younger and I saw him once every month. He always came home stoned and drunk. One night he came and he was sober, which was surprising to be honest but he panicked and said we had to leave. He barely gave us anytime to process before he began yelling at us to pack our shit but he wasn't quick enough. There were men that came to the house who all looked murderous, they didn't even look at us before they shot my dad in front of us and then I don't really remember the rest of it." 

The girls took this in silently. Artemis hadn't always been open minded to people or their stories, she hadn't really cared before but she never would've guessed Iris was the type of girl to go through something like that, or Rose for that matter.

"How many siblings do you have?" She turned to Artemis, Iris shifted her position too, to face her.

"Just a little sister, she hasn't shifted yet but she knows about us,"

Iris' eyes widened. "You told her?!"

"What? No! I would never do that but... she found her mate at 13,"

"Oh," Iris suddenly looked unsure of what to say. "Sorry about that... it's just... I have a little brother too and I would never wish this on him unless we were forced to,"

Artemis gave her a sad smile. "I know, I understand,"

"How old is her mate?" Rosalind piped out, breaking the small tension that had been created in the room.

"22 now, it's been three years," Artemis didn't miss the way that their eyes bulged out of their head.

"A sex year difference?" Iris gasped. "That's the biggest I've heard of. How'd he take it?"

"Not good, they barely talk, it's a lot on Liza but she's handling it well enough,"

"Well for the sake of the game, I only have a younger brother. He's five, so him being annoying is the worst thing I have to deal with," Iris sounded glad.

Artemis gave a small smile towards nothing in particular. She decided her packet of Cheetos weren't spicy enough but her mind snapped out of her thoughts when their door received a knock. Iris was quick to pick herself off the ground and go to the door. As soon as the door swung open three extremely heavily dressed men entered the room and completely ignored the presence of the three girls in the room and went straight into Artemis' bedroom.

"Hey!" she was about to protest when they emerged holding suitcases, none of them belonged to Artemis and silently exited the hotel room. Even after the men had left, Rosalind and Artemis sat on the sofas looking clueless while Iris stood there with the door open with the same clueless expression.

"What just happened?" Rosalind asked after a while.

"Uh... I think they just took all of Helena's things," Artemis managed to get out.

Iris blankly closed the door and plopped herself down on the sofa when their TV flashed on making Rosalind give a yelp of surprise. It showed a man's torso standing in front of a microphone with his face covered with a hood.

"Welcome, contestants to the competition," there was a pause where it sunk into the girls' spines. They knew exactly who this was and what this meant. "There are 500 of you competing and 6 have been spent home because they have imprinted, except these unfortunate few who have been replaced, congratulations to you all for entering the competition. Please repeat this message to any newcomers that may stay with you," he brought out a small card from an envelope that must've been on the podium he was talking from.

"This card will be given to every room tomorrow with the same clue, and the clue will give you directions around the place, please feel free to roam around, our parameters go for thousands of miles for this competition." It sunk into Artemis that it was too late to back out now, hearing his cold and almost mocking voice, she realized this was her life for the rest of the year.

"The first challenge will be a treasure hunt with four hundred and fifty tokens at the end to those who will finish it, this means that fifty of you will be eliminated tomorrow,"

Artemis swallowed the lump in her throat.

"The competition has begun... all you have to do is survive,"