Chapter 99

99 Chapter Ninety Nine

Katie’s wolf, Ashley had been running for what seemed like hours. Well, they both knew it was much less... it was about thirty minutes since she’d shifted. A nagging taste filled her mouth while she ran and she endeavoured to spit it out every time she felt the irritation on her tongue. Thinking back to what might have happened, she remembered biting the unconscious boy in an effort to keep him away from the rogues. His blood was laced with wolfsbane to keep his wolf at bay.

“I wonder why you used to take this stuff intentionally for all that time,” Ashley spoke in their mind. Her legs were beginning to tire, but the wolf showed no sign of slowing down. They had been blocked from turning and leading the rogues back to Brigadia and were now very sure of being led further away from Brigadia. The rogues were getting tired of following growing sluggish as well. Using the honed sharpened senses that Katie had developed as a hunter, Ashley was able to know when it was possible to attack and struck down any rogue that found themselves exhausted and yet still giving chase.

“It’s not like I knew that I was a werewolf. The whole time I thought they were pills that I had been prescribed by a doctor. It was supposedly helping with my health... well, that was partly true considering the headaches I would get if it stopped taking them,” Katie explained.

“Well, I’m glad we shifted without those drugs in your system. It would have been the most excruciating experience,” Ashley sighed.

“Well, it was still excruciating to have to go through that shift without the drugs,” she said.

“Oh, yeah, the first shift is supposed to be like that, but the wolfsbane would have made it worse. And besides, you forgot about all the pain when you smelt Kyle. You even broke out of the underground bunker with sheer strength. No wonder we are exhausted,” the wolf retorted.

“Something’s wrong, Ashley. I have rested enough. Let me take control,” Katie asked the wolf.

“What do you...” only then did the wolf notice what was going on. They’d been running in the same direction the rogues came from for quite some time. In fact, it was the same direction that Kyle was being taken when they got him. In about fifty metres, there was a large clearing that neither of them wanted to reach. Looking back, scores of rogues chased after them. The hunters were finally in their field of detection, but still a couple of miles away from them.

At the pace they’d been running, there was no guarantee the hunters would keep it up either. The closer they got to the clearing, the more fear set into their system. ‘Cole won’t make it in time and I don’t think anyone else can...’ she thought to the wolf.

.....

“What do we do then? The rogues won’t let us turn to take a detour. Well, if I was to fight them, I don’t think I’d last long. Our mission would fail... Katie, what do we do?” the wolf’s legs screamed with exhaustion as motivation seeped out of them. Nothing was going the right way. The clearing was now just a measly ten metres away and fear set into Katie’s limbs as she’d never felt before.

“Damn it... He’s here,” she screamed, getting motivated to move forward and run away at the same time. The moment they crossed the treeline, Katie switched with the exhausted wolf and shifted back into her human form, holding Kyle on her back like the sack of flour he was turning out to be( just seemed like it...)

The rogues that chased halted in their advance at the edge of the clearing, spreading out and continuing beyond the clearing. It was a long way out, but now it was clear what their objective had been. To lead the rogue killer into a trap. She could have run back, but her legs wouldn’t let her. She was still tired. She’d used up all her energy. ‘I’m still weak...’

“No, Katie, that’s not it. You’re stronger than any human can hope for. Don’t blame this on yourself,” Ashley tried comforting the girl.

“That’s not it, Ashley. I’ve been training for years for the moment when I’d be given the opportunity to end this war. I had no idea about the goddess’ plans to stop the war by uniting the two Royal families. That came afterwards. I don’t want to see homes with anti werewolf precaustions to line their fences with wolfsbane before bed. Children aren’t allowed to run free in the forests and hunters spend sleepless nights protecting their homes from attacks.

I have protected Brigadia for four years with the intention of making it the one place where it is okay to run out into the woods and have fun with friends. I want the bridge between humans and werewolves to disappear. Wolves are oppressed by the rules because of their nature and they can only behave and take it in. The Royals have tried their best to remain happy and avoid all the words of hate they receive when they are reminded of the atrocities that were committed centuries ago.

All hunters know this and we respect the Royals for their patience. However, while rogues still exist in this world, we will always be reminded of the nature of werewolves in the world. Hunters are stronger than werewolves... Where do we get off being the good guys when our strength can be used against humans just as well as werewolves...” tears were streaming down Katie’s face while she explained to Ashley. The essence of her mission in this long fight against the rogues.

Ashley didn’t know most of it and was silenced by the conviction in the girl’s voice. They’d both been pushed to the brink and barely had the energy to stand... and yet they both knew that they were far from done with fighting. In fact, this was the one moment when they needed to fight the most.

“The world is being poisoned by a single soul. One person that doesn’t want peace between the humans and the werewolves... and that is the poison that we are to remove from this world,” Katie said to the wolf once more. It was only now that Ashley was realising why Katie said all this. Her eyes were pinned to the darkness that shadowed the other side of the clearing. The moonlight was brighter in the clearing, allowing them to see clearly what would step out of the darkness.

Katie’s eyes were as sharp as they could be for a human and her other senses were even sharper for her to fight well in darkness, but she needed to see her opponent. From the cover of the trees, two figures emerged, cloaked in black fur. They walked side by side, leaving a gap between them that was big enough for two Royals to fit. The wolves that came from the forest were very familiar. ‘How did they get back here so fast?’ Katie thought to herself.

The same beta alphas that she’d left fighting Cole stood before her. She could now understand that they weren’t normal either. They were powerful enough to overpower even him. At her current state, she wouldn’t be able to fight them... and yet, her body refused to back down. She gritted her teeth, her eyes locked onto the darkness beyond the beta alphas who had now stopped their advance.

From the cover of the trees, something approached them ever so slowly. A black wolf with starry specks of white littered all over its body emerged easily dwarfing the beta alphas. His eyes shone a brilliant blue, identical to the colour of Katie’s eyes. This was the famous Rogue King, in the flesh... He’d shown himself at last... and every nerve in Katie’s body pushed her to do the one thing she’d wanted to do since she got the resolve to end this war... To end him where he stood. Since the start of her training, Katie had never understood the meaning of the statue that resided in the centre of the Hunter’s Agency with the depth of understanding that she did right now.

The three wolves that stood before her were each capable of defeating her on their own and yet, she didn’t have the nerve to back down. It just wasn’t an option. He was right in front of her... and she was going to kill him no matter what happened. The entire war that raged on in the world was because of this one entity...

Ashley shared in her rage and pushed forward, not asking Katie to pull out. The strength that was left in the wolf fuelled that strength the hunter had left. Her ears seemed to grow longer and her canines as well. She was going through a half-shift, the only way she could stand up to these beasts in the state she was in.

Once the union of wolf and hunter was done, she let out a growl threatening any of the three to take a step forward. ‘I must kill him here and now... This is what I have been training for...’ she thought to herself. A whistling sound distinct to an arrow rang through the air reached her ears, but she paid it no head. That was... until she tried to push her right leg forward to attack the rogue king.

A dull pain flared through her thigh while she strained. Another whistling sound followed and this time the dull pain came from her left leg. She looked down and noticed the problem, steel arrows stuck out of both her thighs, black veins pulsing around them. They’d been laced with wolfsbane and from the looks of the arrows, they were made for hunters. She was still standing barely, the weight of the unconscious traitor weighing her down. She made a move to remove him from her back only to hear two more whistling sounds that sent her flying back into the bark of a tree and pinning her there.

These ones had struck her shoulders and were the first ones to send agonizing pain through her system. Kyle’s body was a few metres ahead of her, displayed to the Rogue King and ready for the taking. The adrenaline in her body was starting to leave her. She’d delivered the traitor to the Rogue king himself. ‘Did I just fail?’ she asked herself, ‘No, I have to finish it...’ these were the last thoughts before she noticed a barrage of arrows through the slits of her closing eyes.

“Katie, stay with me...” she heard the distant voice of a woman. ‘Who’s that? I can’t...’ with that, she fell unconscious, having pushed herself to the very limit and finding that she wasn’t as strong as she hoped she was to defeat the Rogue king...