Chapter 410

410 The Trials... and Sudden Change of Plans

Lina had chosen who she was going to take with her on the Trials, but that didn’t ease the tension in the pit of her stomach. Whether it was because of the headstart her brother was getting or something else was beyond her comprehension.

“Do we have everything we need?” Lina asked the girls.

“I’ll double-check just to be sure,” Crysta replied, removing her rucksack from her back to start the check.

“No, that will take a lot of time. We need to catch up with my brother. Just make sure you’ve packed the map, we need to go,” the royal stopped her anxiously. Somehow everything around her seemed to be moving slower and slower.

Crysta’s reaction time and actions seemed overly relaxed and... slow. ‘At this rate, we’ll find Drake fat from stuffing himself while waiting for our arrival at the Great Arena,’ the girl thought to herself.

Crysta packed the map like she’d been instructed and the three Trail candidates approached the Farewell banner where a large crowd of werewolves and hunters had gathered to see them off while they left.

Students from the school they’d attended, pack warriors that had watched them prepare for this very day and many other groups of people that Lina could mention at the tip of her tongue.

Her arduous training was not the only thing that had changed for her after Katie’s departure. Lina was also more outgoing now that she didn’t have to worry about being shunned by her fellow werewolves.

After defeating Liam, she was even more respected by her peers and more so by the elders. Lina knew many more faces than she thought possible. The princess felt warm at the sight of everyone who’d gathered to bid them farewell. In the world before Katie, their focus would have been on the prince alone.

.....

A chorus of cheers came from a less organised group that Lina soon recognised to be her former schoolmates, ‘Make us proud, Jeanie.’ ‘We believe in you, Lina.’ ‘Show him what it feels like to land on your face.’ Lina giggled at the Liam reference.

“What a send-off?” Bree exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah, quite indeed. Did they have to be that loud though?” Lina chuckled to herself.

They waved, flashing smiles at the group before turning to the looming forest before them, “Any of you guys feeling like our odds at winning the Trails aren’t as high as we would like them to be?” Bree was the first to voice her concerns when she peered into the darkness of the woods.

The Trials... Every four years, The Royal Games were held between the two empires. The game to be played would be completely random, but the venue was the same every time. The Royal Games would be played at the Great Arena located at the border of both empires.

To remember the long journeys made by the first to Werewolf Kings, Sirius and Lycaon, the royals taking part in these games would have to test their might through a journey through the wild. A journey to the Great Arena.

It was this journey that was then named the Trials. During this journey, the royals would prove their might against the elements and dangers of the wilderness and they would only be allowed a maximum of two helpers for this journey and no more.

It felt like the forest had gone creepier when they turned to start the journey.

“Maybe two years ago, but it’s been a long time since then. We’re not the same pups we were back then. I...” the princess’s speech was interrupted by another voice.

“Hey, Lina, wait...” a male voice called out to them.

The three girls turned back to witness a red-eyed male jogging up to them. Wyatt’s dimly lit red eyes beamed in excitement, “I can see you’re a bit understaffed,” he observed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Crysta regarded him coldly. She was currently standing with two other candidates for the Trials... or was the alpha finally snapping a fuse?

“Exactly what it sounds like, your Highness,” the alpha shrugged, glancing towards Bree.

“And your solution is?”

“Well, I think that is obvious. I would like to take Bree’s place- no offence Bree,” the alpha replied, switching his attention to the princess.

“You’ve got some nerve, Wyatt,” Crysta spat, but when the princess didn’t react in a similar manner, the delta turned to her, “Lina, you can’t be thinking about switching out Bree for this...”

“Crysta,” Bree stopped the delta in her tracks, “The Trails aren’t about you or me. Do not forget that. I want to come along with you on this trip, but... well, the prince has already got a large headstart. I would only slow you down.”

“What? Bree, no...” Crysta panicked.

“I think we’ve all come to the obvious conclusion. I get to switch with Bree and this whole expedition can go much smoother and faster. Rejoice, Crysta, I’m not usually this generous... and try to keep up with us. We wouldn’t want you slowing us down, now would we?” the man snickered.

“Oh? What happened to your twin then?” Crysta asked him, crossing her hands over her chest, seemingly unbothered by the braggart’s words.

“The other two alphas know better than to try and pry you from the princess’s clutches. Liam had no interest in coming with you. Derrick, on the other hand, wanted to come here and offer his hand, so I wrestled him for the opportunity to join this team. You can already guess who won that duel,” the man scoffed, his face holding a look of disdain at the memory.

“This is no time to argue. Lina is already late as it is,” Bree smacked the two bickering wolves, “And you will apologise to Derrick the next time you see him.”

They both rubbed the back of their heads, regarding the girl for a moment before turning to her new object of attention. Oddly enough, Wyatt didn’t argue with Bree on the matter. Whether he’d taken her advice seriously or not was left to time.

Lina had been quiet, weighing her decisions and trying to choose between going with an alpha and Bree. It made all the sense in terms of speed and efficiency, but none when it came to who she trusted more with her life.

‘Lina, if you’re thinking about my feelings in the matter, I’ll make it easy for you. I want to see you beat your smug brother in the Trials and I know that you can do that if you have Wyatt with you and not me,’ Bree’s voice came through the mind link.

'

‘But...’

‘Madeline, Honour and I will be cheering you on the entire way. A goddess wished you good luck... and one of the goddess’s chosen bound Wyatt because of going against you. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was trying to get his sentence lifted... Do your best... even though I’d like to say ‘Don’t lose,” Bree didn’t give the princess a choice in the matter. Her mind was made up.

Lina pulled Bree into a hug, “We’ll win the Trials, Bree. You can count on that.”

“I have no doubts, Lina. Make us proud,” the girl quoted one of the fliers she’d seen their schoolmates holding up in the fray.

Lina finally let go of the girl and watched her return to the ranks of supporters. ‘I have awesome friends,’ she thought to herself as she turned to her travel companions.

“Hey, Crysta. Hand over your bag,” Wyatt asked the delta.

“Why would I do such a thing?”

“Deltas don’t have the power to shift with their clothes on. If you shift with the bag, we’ll have to tie it to your back so you can run with it and that will slow us down,” Wyatt argued, “That is supposed to be obvious.”

Reluctantly, the girl relinquished her rucksack to the alpha along with Bree’s... which was now his. “You didn’t come with a bag of your own,” she observed.

“I’ll be fine as I am. Let’s just get this journey underway,” Wyatt slung both bags on each shoulder and shifted into a black wolf with white paws and ears. The bags, as he’d said were nowhere to be seen. It was a power that was only reserved for alphas and royals and one they would be needing a lot on their trip.

“Boys can be so... foul,” the delta turned away from the alpha and regarded the palace one more time. By some odd twist of fate, her eyes glided to the magnificent towering spires.

She wasn’t sure why or how it was there, but she noticed an eagle perching on one of the palace spires. Towering above the forest, the eagle had a view of everything and Crysta thought she imagined the eagle’s gaze locked with hers before it took to the sky.

“Crysta, are you okay?” Lina asked her.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go,” the delta replied, shifting into her own grey wolf. Taking this as a hint that they could start the journey, Lina shifted as well.

Unlike the rest of the werewolves who spent an average of thirty seconds shifting into their beast forms, it seemed as though her body vanished and was instantly replaced with that of a magnificent powerful slender snow white wolf.

...The same colour as that of her lost sister’s wolf.

Crysta was about to say something over the mind link when the white wolf vanished from sight, leaving behind her a gust of wind that blew nearly caught the grey wolf off guard, “That never gets old,” Wyatt chuckled before starting the journey with a gentle trot.

“Don’t encourage her. Lina, wait...”

While the princess’s speed was exactly what they needed to catch up with the prince. In fact, if they could all run at her pace, catching Drake wouldn’t pose a problem in the slightest, but that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was entirely different. There simply wasn’t a wolf alive that could keep up with Lina after two years of training her unnatural speed... and the nickname of Jeanie had finally caught on. ‘Does she realise we won’t make half the journey at that speed?’ the delta cursed in her mind.

.........