Chapter 147

147 Chapter One Hundred Forty Seven

Katie rushed through the forest, keeping her senses up for anything that might hurt her sister. She didn’t intend to catch Lina immediately as the run she was having was good for whatever she was going through. Keeping up with the white wolf, however, would not have been easy if she didn’t have her Prometheus gifts. Katie followed her for what felt like thirty minutes...A perception of time that she’d trained to be fairly accurate while she was still living in Brigadia.

The time she spent running allowed her to enjoy the thrill of the wind brushing through her fur. ‘Being a werewolf isn’t all that bad,’ she thought to herself.

‘I’m glad you are finally starting to warm up to me,’ Ashley smirked.

Before Katie could answer her, her senses flared up... She could tell they weren’t alone. She’d given her sister a distance of half a mile from her to keep herself from being detected, but this wasn’t what she’d expected when she did this. They were being followed, or they’d already been spotted. Whatever it was, she knew their opponent was going to be attacking them soon. “Katie, where are you?” Cole’s voice came through the mind link.

“I’m following the princess. I’ll soon catch up to her. What’s wrong?” she replied. Her mind was then split between the crisis before her and what it was that had caused Cole to call on her. He sounded panicked and that was a cause for her to worry...

........

Cole lay against a tree, panting after the drills he’d been through with Caden, “Are you getting stronger for some reason? You never used to keep up with me this much,” he asked between breaths.

Caden, who was already starting to catch his breath, replied, “Yes, Alpha Cole, I have been getting stronger lately. I don’t know why, but it’s the same for Jason. Maybe some kind of growth spurt that you are yet to go through yourself.”

“Whatever it is... You’re cheating. Would you stop adding a title to my name? It’s creepy. We are friends, remember,” Cole had tried pushing his friend’s odd behaviour to the back of his mind, but the longer he spent around him, the more it bothered him. Caden had woken up that day addressing Cole with his title and hadn’t once dropped the act, even when he didn’t seem to be minding the title.

.....

Caden, hearing the request, scrunched his eyebrows in thought, “Very well, Cole...”

“What is it, Caden? You want something... Spit it out,” Cole asked.

“Permission to go shopping?” the male asked. Cole blinked once, twice....

“What...”

“My clothes aren’t fitting me anymore. Oh, the same goes for Jason. He’s occupied with his lady which is why he hasn’t asked yet, but we were planning to...”

“You can go shopping whenever you want... I just don’t understand why you have to be weird when asking for something like that. What’s going on with you? What aren’t you telling me?” Cole asked him.

“I don’t know that yet...” Caden had to bite his lip to keep Cole’s title from leaking out of him. A thought came across Cole. He’d seen similar behaviour before, but he couldn’t believe this to be the case and so he overlooked the matter. ‘Maybe it would come to pass...’

“Oh, if it isn’t the Crown Prince of the Lycaon Empire,” a voice interrupted them. Cole took in the new arrival... An alpha that was being followed by a green-eyed wolf. Be it a delta or beta, Cole didn’t have the interest to find out, “You’re looking terribly winded. I would say your henchman here is in better shape...”

“Do I know you?” Cole asked... The boy’s face went blank with shock from the question.

Recovering, “Apologies, your highness. My name is Derrick Ward, Future alpha of the Golden Moon Pack. We met in school yesterday, so I’d assumed you would recognise me,” the boy introduced himself, slumping his shoulders in disappointment.

Cole took the time to think back to the time they’d been in the Den, “Oh, that was you. Pleased to make your acquaintance. You didn’t sound too boastful then. I wouldn’t have matched your faces.” Cole replied.

Before their conversation could progress any further, a large crowd started gathering around two people that seemed to be getting ready for a duel. They hadn’t heard the commotion before the start of the duel, but they were in time to see it start. Sandra took on a defensive stance as a white wolf circled her... The slender build of the white wolf told Cole she was built for speed and not strength and the blue eyes that gleamed from the wolf’s head told him that this was none other than Lina Sirius.

...........

Sandra couldn’t get a grip on her nerves. Her mentor had gone completely bananas, ‘Katie, why would you send me into a fight with a royal. I’ve never beaten Jason even once. How the hell am I supposed to fare against a royal of all creatures. This was the worst assessment she was getting from Katie since she’d become her mentor. How was she supposed to defeat the fastest wolf in Sirius, not to mention the princess...

Lina didn’t wait for Sandra to make the first move and dashed in to make the first move. Sandra’s training kicked in as she evaded the wolf’s attacks. Seeing the girl’s nimble movements, Lina increased the speed of her attacks and rammed into the hunter. It was a simple attack that was meant to knock the wind out of her opponent.

However, Sandra saw the opportunity and began what she’d been taught all the years she’d been with Katie. Hunters had to rely on everything they could use to achieve their goals and Sandra was not about to give up. She’d noticed Lina’s attack and breathed out just as she was hit. This allowed her to recover faster than the wolf had expected. She slid around the wolf, using her soft fur as a handhold, she got herself tangled in the wolf’s legs, tripping her.

The two tripped and began to roll off. There was a struggle in which Sandra expertly twisted out of Lina’s focus and got her more tangled. Before Lina knew it, Sandra had her completely restrained in a position that didn’t allow her to move without breaking something. She’d underestimated Sandra completely and been publicly shamed before the wolves of the Sirius empire.

Her wolf pushed forward in anger, trying to get the better of her... to the wolf, this human deserved to die for what she had done, but Lina knew the rules. This was the aim of the exercise after all. Jackson ran up to them and checked that Lina had been defeated. Before the girl could descend into a rage, she noticed Sandra’s shivers. The junior hunter’s heartbeat only sang a song of fear. ‘It was completely self-defence, huh... Katie has a promising student...’

After being declared the winner, Lina shifted back into her human form, having been let go. Her eyes scanned through the crowd for someone she didn’t want to have seen this disgrace of a fight. Unfortunately for her, there she was. Standing beside her best friend with a look of annoyance was Crysta. The delta could not be any more disappointed in the display she’d just watched. If she’d fought Katie and lost, there wouldn’t have been a problem, but Sandra was still a junior hunter...

The thoughts were all halfbaked by the time the girl ran from the clearing and straight into the forest. Cole watched his mate follow her soon after. After all, there was no one else there that was capable of keeping up with Lina Sirius. Sandra walked back to her former partner and embraced him in a hug, shivers taking over her...

“Still think you don’t have a chance of catching up to Katie...” Jason tried.

“Oh, shut up. I only used the element of surprise that I still had. Lina had never seen me fight before and didn’t know the full extent of my abilities...”

“You won, Sandra. Celebrate that before you spiral down into the statistics,” Jason stopped her and hugged her a bit tighter before letting go. It was only then that they noticed Cole walking up to them with Caden eyeing the scene before them in disbelief, “Hello, Alpha Cole...”

“What did I just watch?” Caden asked in wonder, “I’ve never seen a human that agile before.”

“Oh, shut up, Caden. I was trying everything I could to survive,” Sandra cried.

“You had me fooled. You handled that like an expert. Is that what happens when an Agility gift is used right?” Caden continued to ask.

“More flattery... Jason, help me,” Sandra turned to the alpha holding her.

“I hear no flattery,” Jason huffed. Cole laughed at the three before congratulating Sandra on her victory.

“It’s not every day that a human bests a royal in a match even if the royal is not taking things seriously. You might just be the first...” Cole voiced his own praise, turning the girl even redder...

“You guys are mean...” Sandra huffed, shifting her eyes to the ground in an effort to avoid the eyes of the three men that had her cornered. A scream filled the air catching their attention... They turned to see a girl crouching away from Crysta. It was Honour and she was keeping her face hidden from Crysta as though shielding herself.

Crysta scoffed at the girl and walked away, having had her fill with whatever she had been doing, “Maybe I was wrong about you,” she said as she walked away from her.

Drake was by the girl’s side before anyone else, anger in his eyes. Before he could snap at the girl that was walking away from her, Honour held his face in her palms so that she could relay a message, “Don’t get mad at her. It wasn’t her fault. I just lost focus during our training drill...”

“That doesn’t mean she had to continue beating you mercilessly even after you asked her to stop. That is no way to train...”

“No, Prince Drake, that’s not it. She normally does that until I get back into focus, but this time I couldn’t, so I screamed. Please do not be mad at her. Instead, listen to the source of my distractions,” she tried.

Her words finally reached the royal who’d almost decided to abandon reasoning with her, “What are you talking about?”

“Lina... She’s in danger and I don’t know how to get to her,” she announced... The information made Cole’s blood go cold at the information he received... ‘Didn’t Katie follow after Lina?’