185 Chapter One Hundred Eighty Five

The four ‘runaways’ rushed through the forest without a care in the world. The leader was Liam as he seemed to be the only one who knew where they were going. He led them through the forest, through clearings and creaks. Lina allowed herself to feel the freedom of running through the forest as part of a pack. Fitting in had been hard for her since she shifted. She’d been shamed by so many that every time she thought of this same thing, she got angry when the memory of one person came to mind. Honour... the princess of nature had been trying to get the girl to realise just how beautiful her wolf was.

Without realising it, she’d begun accelerating into the lead, drawing closer to Wyatt. The alpha noticed the wolf’s glazed expression and smiled inwardly. The only thing this runt was good for, running faster than the wind. “You’ve always been faster than the rest of us,” he spoke through the mind link kicking her out of her thoughts.

The girl looked about and realised who had just spoken to her. Slowing down, she allowed him to take the lead once more. The alpha took the lead and made an effort to keep the pace so that the girl wouldn’t get too bored. ‘You might be a weakling, but your speed has always been something the rest of us envy about you,’ he thought to himself. His thoughts were shielded from everyone and he meant it to stay that way.

They were running for a while, barely taking the time to rest. Okay, they didn’t rest a single bit until they reached Liam’s desired destination. The sea...

Lina skidded to a halt as they broke through the treeline to meet the edge of a cliff metres away. The scene before them had the girl completely frozen. For a moment, she seemed to fade from existence. The slender white wolf walked as though in a daze closer to the cliff to get a better look. In the evening sun, the sea was a dazzling sight to behold.

The setting sun cast kaleidoscopic rays onto the water and lit the sky in a flurry of colours. The sea roared with an energy that was contagious to the girl. It was like it was calling out to her. The salty sea breeze blew into her fur blending her more into the nature around her. For the other three wolves that were watching, the girl had never looked more like one of her kind. Lina’s eyes closed as the wind blew into her.

She wished she could be here forever. A screech in the sky caught her attention, snapping her blue eyes open. The enhanced vision of the wolf caught sight of a Great Eagle in the sky taking an evening flight. The two hunters were of one mind. She spotted the subject of the eagle’s attention, a fish swimming unsuspectingly within the waves.

It was as though the wolf’s eyes zoomed in and watched as each of the eagle’s feather’s pressed against its body as it folded its wings and angled into a nosedive. The King of the skies skilfully plucked the unsuspecting fish from the water and spread his wings, taking to the sky, back into his domain with his meal in talons. “I could be here forever and never want to leave...” the girl didn’t notice she was speaking out loud.

Liam and Wyatt shrugged off the obvious marvel before them and walked off to the edge of the cliff, “It’s a steep drop,” Liam mentioned. Lina looked down from the sky to take note of their subject of interest.

.....

The white wolf inched forward and took a look at the bay down below. The harsh waves crashed onto the side of the cliff making the loudest of noise while they did. Sharp rocks jutted out of the water looking up at them. The waves constantly crushed onto the rocks, chipping away whatever small part of the weathered rocks they did, sharpening them even more.

“A deadly one too... Talk of skewering,” Wyatt replied. It was a drop so steep it was dizzying to look down.

“It’s deadly enough without the sharp rocks,” Lina answered unconsciously. It was the first time she was speaking to them directly since they came.

The white wolf sat to brace herself while she stared down at the roaring waves. Crysta finally snapped out of the trance she’d been set in watching the white wolf. She didn’t like what was happening at the moment. These two alphas were never without an ulterior motive, “Best to leave the edge then,” she told the princess, urging her away from the cliff. When she finally had the entranced wolf away from the edge of the cliff, she turned her attention to the alphas.

“Why did you bring us here, Liam?” she asked the alpha.

“Can’t a man just come to see the beautiful scenery and enjoy nature with a few friends?” he asked, faking an innocent pout.

“No, not in your case,” she responded, shielding the princess from the two males. Lina was not stupid to think the two of them were just being nice. She had hoped Crysta would be a little less direct though. Going against them without any hint of caution wasn’t something she was used to. The hunters could stop fights between werewolves and humans, but that was all they could do. A fight between werewolves was out of their jurisdiction.

This is what had gotten these alphas their reputation. Werewolves wouldn’t cross them and that was common sense. Crysta herself wasn’t fond of crossing them. In fact, until only a few days ago, she was one of the people that cared nothing for what they did even if it involved Lina. Liam’s cheery mood dropped all of a sudden, “Why do you have to go and ruin all the fun? We could have had a fun evening without any trouble. Now you’ve gone and ticked me off,” he began.

Lina had heard the same tone with Wyatt when he was speaking with Trevor. The two were ticking time bombs only waiting to blow off. “Ticked off or not, I still asked you a question.”

“I came here to make a proposal. The runt is to step down from the fight or something very bad will happen to more than just her when she loses. You know how we treat weaklings in our pack. Especially those that act like like they are entitled to anything when all they truly are is a waste of space,” Liam spat.

“I only see one waste of space here and he’s standing right before me,” Crysta spat at him.

“Watch your tongue, Delta. You will know your place. I have no challenge in place for you. I might just lose my temper and choose to teach you your lesson right now,” the boy black and white wolf that was Liam snarled.

“What makes you think you scare me, Liam? I did just call you a waste of space. I don’t call just about anyone that unless I’m sure they are indeed wastes of space...”

“Woah woah woah, let’s calm down here. We didn’t come to create more unnecessary violence,” Wyatt got in the middle of them, “We’re not barbarians. We only came here to make sure the princess knew what she was getting herself into. Speaking of the princess, she hasn’t said anything about the fight since we got here. She’s the one we wanted to ask these questions.”

The two males turned their eyes at the white wolf behind Crysta. Lina hadn’t thought she’d be pulled into this argument so soon. Her heart had been pounding from fear of the violence that was about to happen before her. She tried so much to get her mind into the whole violent thing, but every time she tried, her mind wouldn’t let her go through with it. She understood what it meant to fight one another. There was the possibility of injury and that’s what she’d been up against in Brigadia. A real fight against rogues was nothing like what these boys were trying to put her through.

The more she thought about the fight, the more she realised something about it. It wasn’t a way for her to teach Liam a lesson... He seemed far beyond redemption. She saw that fight as a way for her to prove herself worthy of being called a protecter of her pack. After all, that’s what it meant to be in a pack. They look out for each other, not push each other down.

“Lina, do you have anything to say?” Crysta called her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, yeah, I will be there in the fight tomorrow. Wasn’t that supposed to be obvious though?” she said without thinking through her words. Her words angered Liam even more than he thought they would. They were barely filled with fear. Instead, the girl sounded confident that she could beat him.

“You really think you stand a chance against me when you barely lack any strength in that body,” the wolf argued.

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Lina noticed the anger in his voice. She felt it come off him in waves. He didn’t like the way she looked down on him. However, Lina was tired of all this. The colour of his eyes suggested she was meant to be stronger than him and yet, he looked at her as though she was a new werewolf that was even beneath those that possessed amber eyes. It frustrated her. ‘I guess Katie is rubbing off on me...’

“Yes, I think I can...” she replied, with the same tone of confidence.