Chapter 95

95 Chapter Ninety Five

Katie finally realised what the voice in her head was trying to tell her. ‘I’m not sure I can control you if I let you out...’ she said to the wolf.

‘Of course, you can’t. I can handle all this on my own. I would just need to borrow your trinkets. What do you call them? Prometheus gifts... Yeah, those...’ she said.

“What would you need those for? Don’t you already have your physical enhancements?’ she asked the wolf, wondering what more she was going to have to give up to her alter ego.

“Well, I haven’t eaten much, soooo... I don’t have enough energy. Your gifts would provide me with that. On the bright side, you would get to relax,” the wolf said.

“What do you mean you have not eaten? Do you have any idea how much I was forced to stuff myself with today because of you?” I asked.

“I have no idea what you are talking of considering you decided to pull a Thunderclap and burnt through all the food I had stored up. Such a waste,” she sighed.

“You know that I had to save that...” Katie paused to swiftly slash the neck of a rogue that she noticed her running through them. With one swift near silent motion, the rogue was dead and she was nowhere to be seen by those that noticed it go limp, “Damn it, now you’ve made me get sloppy.”

“That is not my fault at all. You have your own killer thing going on... I don’t even know how you do it,” she replied, adding an attitude to her tone. ‘Where did I get a wolf with this kind of personality?’

“You know I can hear you right?”

.....

“Of course, you can. You can hear everything in my mind,” Katie groaned.

“I think we got off on the wrong foot or something. Considering we are going to be together for a very long time,” she said, her voice sounding familiar, but Katie couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Okay, what do you propose? And make it fast because I don’t have much luxury left. I’m almost catching up with Kyle,” Katie replied.

“Well, I was thinking I should introduce myself. I don’t know how much good that would do, but she told me to...” the wolf said.

“Who told you to?” Katie asked.

“The moon goddess... When wolves reach the right age, they develop in mind as well and gain personalities. Not all can speak, but some of us can... My name is Ashley,” the wolf said.

“Ashley... as in Ash...”

“No, Ashley. I don’t think Ash is a feminine name so I will not let you call me that,” she said. Many questions swarmed the hunter’s mind, most the wolf could not decipher for they rushed by too fast for her to notice, however, the image of a boy, who was obviously a girl pretending to be a boy kept flashing through the girl’s mind.

“Who is this girl supposed to be?” she asked.

“Never mind that... Ash is there... If I get too tired to keep going, you are going to have to take the wheel,” she said to the wolf, “But if I ask you for control, you give it to me.”

“Very well... That’s fair. I’ll just be doing a bit of stretching exercises up in here,” the wolf said before beginning the ridiculously nagging stretching exercises within Katie’s mind. ‘This is not normal...’ she mentally facepalmed before locking her eyes on the boy that rode on a dirty grey rogue at top speed. There was a destination in mind with the way the rogue ran in a straight line. If not, they were merely trying to get out of her radius.

Katie was next to the rogue before it could realise what was going on. Kyle’s triumphant smirk turned to a look of his despair when he learned of the new developments. One swift motion lopped off the rogue’s front paws and had Kyle sailing through the air. Katie grabbed him mid-air and struck the back of his head with the hilt of the katana she held, knocking him unconscious before she’d landed. The rogues, at this point, noticed everything that was going on and stopped in their efforts to back up alpha Chad.

Kyle was more important in the eyes of the rogue king. ‘I can’t take all these rogues. They must be numbering into hundreds...’ she thought as they swarmed her on all sides, snarling and barking at her. She was completely surrounded.

‘You’ve got that right. They might even be able to hit one thousand in number. I admire their determination,’ the wolf said.

‘That’s easy to say when all you have to do is get a front-row seat to the action that’s happening before you,’ Katie complained, through gritted teeth.

‘Focus, Katie,’ she closed her eyes and looked for the thinnest part of their defence. To her dismay, that was in the same direction that Kyle had been going. The rogues that stood between her and the other hunters were so numerous she couldn’t believe where she was. ‘I can’t kill those many,’ she said.

“Well, then, you go the other way,’ the wolf said.

Katie wouldn’t have done anything else either as the rogues lunged at her only seconds later, leaving one option for her. She would continue running in the direction Kyle was headed. Leaping out of the rogue way, she unleashed the power of the agility Prometheus gift and downed the rogues that blocked her way, totalling four in number.

‘They are chasing us now...’ the wolf in her mind spoke, looking back as though she could see them through some back window, ‘Wow, this ability of yours is quite handy...’

“Of course, you can use that as well,” Katie groaned... ‘Is there anything you can’t do?’ she thought to herself.

“Apparently, I can’t convince you to let me take the reins. What’s your plan now?” she asked.

“Well, to be honest, I was planning to keep these rogues following me and even make them rotate a bit until the other hunters realise that I’m the one being chased. They would all just swoop in and kill the rest of these mutts,” Katie said, smirking at her plan.

“Oh, that sounds swell,” the wolf said, allowing the girl to marvel at her brilliance, “If you had the energy to pull it off. Feel your legs, they are aching from the strain. You are about to collapse, Katie. You can’t keep this up much longer. You’ll get tired and your whole mission will have failed,’ she said to her.

It was true... everything she said was true. Katie was in no shape to keep this up. After spending nearly half her energy in the near-impossible of Claire, she was running low in her reserves. But why then wasn’t she let the wolf take over? Memories of the times that she’d reached her limit and forced herself past it flashed before her eyes. Her whole life, she’d been the only one that she could count on to protect, to get the job done.

Why now would she give this all up and hand it over to... “Katie, listen to me... I am you and you are me. We are different in some ways, but we are the same in others. If you die, I die. If you get happy, so do I. If I’m sad, you’re sad and vice versa. If we kiss Cole, we both enjoy it...”

“Did you have to bring that up?” Katie groaned.

“Oh, come on. You can’t tell me you don’t want to. I know you dream of...”

“Okay, you made your point. How do I give control over to you then?” she asked the wolf.

“Now, we are talking... Okay, follow my lead. You can feel me in your consciousness. Reach out to me and I’ll do the same,” Katie did as she was told, “You’re doing great. Now you are going to feel some parts of your body asking to run on their own. It feels like they are being assisted. One by one, let go of those body parts and I’ll take over from there.”

The explanation was easy enough, but once she was done and no longer in control of her body, she marvelled at the fact that she hadn’t shifted yet, “I thought that was how shifting was supposed to work.”

“Oh, that’s another procedure. If you want to learn it, I’ll teach it to you. Although I don’t see why. I could always give you control once I’ve shifted,” she replied, tossing the boy’s body into the air. Katie watched in awe as her body began to change in mid-air into the majestic form of a mighty White wolf. Energy filled her limbs... even though she wasn’t in control of the wolf, she could feel the strength between each paw strike.

Catching Kyle, however, seemed trivial as the boy continued to sail lifelessly through the air. A rogue took the chance to try and snatch the boy from the air. In one violent manoeuvre, Ashley leapt up and bit into Kyle’s hand slinging his lifeless body violently onto her back and dashing forward faster than any of the rogues could have anticipated, leaving them behind and taking a sharp right... the wolf was enjoying her run so much that she let out a loud howl that shook the night air... reaching the ears of all creatures of the night that were out that night... A New Royal had just been announced... and her power threatened that of the Royals that were present that night... Her howl bore no violence, but insurmountable power...