Golden Alpha System: From Wolfless to Billionaire

Chapter 6: The Pit

Ethan didn't sleep.

He sat on the floor of the apartment with his back against the broken door, Lily asleep on the couch under his jacket, and stared at the blue panel glowing in the dark.

[Seal 1: BROKEN.]

[Rewards unlocked.]

[Strength: 3 → 9 | Speed: 4 → 8 | Senses: 2 → 10 | Vitality: 1 → 7]

[New Skill: Alpha's Will (Passive). Host cannot be forced to kneel by any command or aura.]

[Memory Fragment 1/?: "The Bride."]

He read the last line again and again.

The bride. The silver hair. The dagger.

The woman who killed me.

He had died. Somehow, impossibly, in another life, he had been someone, and that someone had been murdered on his wedding night by the woman he loved. He could still feel the cold of the blade if he closed his eyes. He could still feel the joy that had come right before it.

"Who was I?" he whispered.

[Answer locked. Break more Seals.]

"How?"

The panel shifted.

[Daily Missions refreshed.]

[1. Run 10 km before sunrise. Reward: Speed +1.]

[2. Complete 300 push-ups. Reward: Strength +1.]

[3. Eat 3 full meals. Reward: Vitality +1.]

[Main Mission: Save Grace Cole. Time limit: 6 days. Reward: Seal 2 progress +30%, ???]

Ethan stared at the last one.

Save his mother. The System knew. Somehow it always knew.

He looked at his phone. The hospital's message was still there. Treatment suspended. Six days until she lost her bed. Eighteen thousand dollars he didn't have, a night job he had lost, and a day job at the house of a woman who had smiled while he wiped her floor.

He stood up, laced his taped sneakers, and went out into the dark to run.

***

He ran ten kilometers in fifty-one minutes.

A week ago, he would have collapsed after two. Now his lungs burned, but his legs kept moving, and the city blurred past him in the grey light before dawn. When the panel chimed, [Mission complete: Speed +1], he laughed out loud on an empty street like a madman.

The push-ups took longer. By the two hundredth, his arms were shaking. By the three hundredth, he was lying face down on the kitchen floor with Lily standing over him in her pajamas.

"Are you okay?"

"Never better," he said into the linoleum.

"You're being weird." She handed him a piece of toast. "Since last night. You're being really weird."

"Eat your breakfast."

"You eat your breakfast. You're the one doing push-ups at six in the morning like a gym bro."

He ate the toast. [Daily Mission: 1/3 meals.]

***

The gate of Hale Estate was closed when he arrived for his shift.

Mr. Graves was waiting on the other side, holding a cardboard box. Ethan recognized his spare uniform folded on top, his old phone charger, and a framed photo of his father leaning against Mrs. Hale's black car.

"You're dismissed," the butler said flatly. "Effective immediately. Alpha Reed called the household office this morning, and Mrs. Hale agreed. You and your mother are no longer staff."

He pushed the box through the bars.

Ethan didn't take it. "My mother worked here for twenty years."

"And now she doesn't." Graves's mouth twisted. "You embarrassed the Reeds at the Moon Assembly. Did you really think there wouldn't be consequences? The Reeds are Mrs. Hale's most important partners. You're a houseboy." He leaned closer. "Take your box, Cole. And don't come back."

Ethan's hands curled into fists.

[Warning: Host's heart rate elevated.]

He made himself breathe. He could break the gate. He could probably break Graves. And then he would be a human who had attacked Victoria Hale's staff in front of her security cameras, and Lily would be alone.

He reached for the box.

Graves's phone rang.

The butler glanced at the screen, and his face changed. He stepped back from the gate and answered with a straight spine.

"Yes. Yes, Ms. Vale. Of course." A pause. His eyes flicked to Ethan, confused. "I understand. The household office gave the order, but if security requires— Yes. Immediately."

He hung up. For a long moment, he just stared at Ethan.

"It seems," Graves said stiffly, "that Ms. Vale's office needs a driver for the security fleet. Night shifts. Mrs. Hale's head of security has requested that you be kept on." His lip curled. "Apparently your father's record speaks for itself."

He unlocked the gate.

Ethan didn't move. "Ms. Vale? Why would she care about me?"

"I have no idea," Graves said, "and I'm not paid to ask. Get inside before she changes her mind."

***

Ethan spent the day washing the security fleet: eight black SUVs in the underground garage beneath the east wing, under the watchful eye of a camera that never blinked.

He saw no sign of Ms. Vale.

But twice, he caught the faintest scent on the cold air of the garage. Roses. And rain.

Both times, he spun around. Both times, there was no one there.

[...]

The System stayed silent.

***

At six, he called St. Mary's.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Cole," the administrator said. "Without the staff program, your mother's account needs eighteen thousand, four hundred and thirty dollars by Friday, or she'll be moved to the public ward at County General."

"County General doesn't have a cardiac unit."

"I know." A pause. "I'm sorry."

He hung up and sat in the dark garage with his head in his hands.

Six days. Eighteen thousand dollars. A job that paid him almost nothing. A System that could make him stronger, but couldn't print money.

His phone buzzed. Toby.

Toby: Heard you didn't get fired after all?? Dude what is going on with your life

Ethan: I need 18k in 6 days. Legally or not. Any ideas?

Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.

Toby: Ok I'm going to say something and you have to promise not to do it.

Ethan: Say it.

Toby: There's a place under the old rail yard. Wolves call it the Pit. Underground fights, big money bets. Five grand a win. Twenty if you beat a ranked fighter. It's mostly young wolves blowing off steam and rich guys gambling.

Toby: Humans don't fight there. Humans get carried out of there.

Toby: You promised not to do it.

Ethan: I didn't promise anything.

The panel chimed.

[Optional Mission: Enter the Pit.]

[Reward: Strength +2, Combat Instinct Lv.1.]

[Warning: Opponents will be werewolves. Host is human.]

Ethan looked at the warning for a long time.

Then he stood, pulled on his jacket, and walked out into the night.

***

The Pit was louder than he expected.

A disused rail tunnel had been turned into an arena, with a ring of chain-link fence lit by hanging work lamps and a crowd of two hundred werewolves pressed shoulder to shoulder around it. The air stank of sweat, beer, and blood. Money changed hands in thick wads.

"I knew it. I knew you'd come."

Toby pushed through the crowd, red-faced and out of breath, still wearing his work polo. He grabbed Ethan's arm.

"Dude, I was joking. Okay? I wasn't serious. Let's go home."

"I'm not going home without my mother's money."

Toby stared at him. Then he groaned, pulled a crumpled envelope out of his pocket, and looked at it like it had personally betrayed him.

"Three hundred bucks. My entire savings." He swallowed. "If you're going to do something stupid, I'm going to be stupid with you. The odds on a human are going to be insane."

"Toby—"

"Don't. Just don't die, okay? I can't afford a funeral."

A bald man with a clipboard and a gold tooth looked Ethan up and down.

"You lost, kid?"

"I want to fight."

The man sniffed the air. His eyebrows shot up, and he laughed so hard he had to hold the fence.

"You're human!" He turned and shouted to the crowd. "Hey! We got a human who wants to fight!"

Two hundred heads turned. The laughter rolled through the tunnel like thunder.

"Fine," the bald man said, wiping his eyes. "Sign the waiver. If you die, it's your fault. Who wants the human?"

From the far side of the cage, a figure stood up. Seven feet tall. Shoulders like a truck. A face crisscrossed with scars, and a grin full of teeth too sharp to be human.

The crowd went silent.

"That's Brutus," someone whispered behind Ethan. "Ranked number three. He put the last guy in a wheelchair."

Brutus rolled his neck, and it cracked like gunfire.

"I'll take the human," he said.