Chapter 148

148 Chapter One Hundred Forty Eight

Katie continued to run through the forest on all fours, striking the ground harder each time to push her faster. At some point, it felt like she wasn’t touching the ground. She weaved through the trees at blinding speed in an effort to get to her sister. That’s all that mattered at the moment. Cole had told her everything he’d heard from Honour.

After getting her to relay everything calmly, Honour had told them that Lina was abducted. Katie couldn’t believe it considering she was still dutifully following her sister’s scent. From what she could tell, the girl had not run to the river like Katie had the day before, she had instead run along with it. Katie continued tracking her scent, trying to get to her faster, ‘Curse the headstart I had been giving her...’

Katie’s senses started picking out the sources of danger not far ahead. ‘Rogues within Sirius. What a surprise... And here I thought the fun was in Lycaon...’ Ashley said, allowing her bloodlust to be revealed to Katie.

‘Would you like to take the wheel then, Ashley?’ Katie asked the wolf.

‘Can’t we do this together? We stand a better chance that way,’ Ashley asked, paying attention to their surroundings to keep Katie from getting too distracted by their conversation. At the speed they were running, there was no telling if she would trip on a root sooner or later were her focus to be disturbed. Katie’s ears finally picked up on the voices of the rogues she was looking for. Her sister’s scent was also stronger now that she was closer to them.

She slowed down and started to proceed slowly. ‘Katie, you’ve been running long enough to keep your scent undetectable for now. However, it shall spread in a short time from now. You still have a window to sneak up on them before they sniff you out,’ Ashley informed her.

The snow-white wolf proceeded, sneaking up on the rogues. She was just in time to find three naked men throwing her sister’s still body onto the back of another rogue. A growl escaped the girl before she could stop herself. The men went still for a moment. Having loaded the girl on the dirty grey wolf, they also shifted and faced their intruder. They were taken aback by the blue eyes that stared back at them.

The three that didn’t have luggage stayed back while the last of them ran away, ‘Sometimes I wonder why they run from me,’ Katie thought to herself. Letting out a growl, she rushed to the rogues before her, exposing herself from her hiding place... Before she could get to them, however, her ears picked up the distinct sound of arrows... ‘Damn it, there is an archer...’ she cursed, veering out of the way just in time to dodge four arrows. The arrows were metallic and identical to the ones that had been used against her back in Brigadia.

‘Could it be him?” Ashley asked the girl.

.....

‘Yes, it could be him. The rogues travel fast since they don’t have to avoid neutral territory. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was also here,’ she replied and decided on a different course of action. If she couldn’t fight these rogues, she would have to run after the one that had her sister and stop him from getting too far.

The whizzing sound of more arrows caught her attention, ‘How did he change positions so fast?’ she asked herself, diving out of the arrows’ way. ‘Ashley, we are too big of a target in our wolf form,’ the girl told her wolf.

‘Very well, we shall fight through a half shift,’ the wolf replied and allowed her to shift back. During the shift, more arrows whizzed past her, but only brushed past her as she became small enough to fit behind the cover of the tree she’d used to hide.

“Damn you, Jeremiah,” the girl yelled out loud.

“I’m surprised you figured it out that quickly,” the voice of the male came back, “Surrender and die, mutt...” Was this the same person she had come to know in Brigadia?

The sound of a growl got her attention as a rogue showed up beside her. Katie leapt out of the way and out of her cover. Arrows sang through the air, their aim true... Katie twisted, tapping into her training and caught the three arrows at the shaft before taking cover. She tapped into her Prometheus gift and dashed forward in pursuit of her sister... Using a zigzag motion to throw the archer’s aim off...

“So you can catch arrows, huh. Jackeline taught you well...” Jeremiah’s voice rang through the trees, however, it didn’t go far. The rogues were losing distance, but Jeremiah wasn’t and Katie hadn’t yet been able to tell where he was or how the hell he was keeping up with her, “Do you have to run in that erratic style? It’s only consuming your energy and I honestly won’t miss it just because you’re making sharper turns... Honestly, watching a wolf using a Prometheus gift is disgusting...”

Katie soon got to know the meaning behind his words when an arrow whizzed past her while she turned to make another corner in her motion. He was skilled, even more so than she’d initially judged. “What I don’t understand is how someone like you is working for the Rogue King. Prometheus would never...”

“Prometheus realised the error in his judgement. All werewolves deserve to die. You are the biggest abomination in that regard and a symbol of the revenge he has declared on the werewolves,” he stopped her short.

“You’re spewing nonsense. Is that the crap the Rogue King is feeding you?” Katie tried, tapping deeper into her agility gift to run faster. She was on top of the runaway rogue in no time, however, arrows stopped her from getting her sister from the rogue, “How are you even keeping up with me?” Katie couldn’t help but wonder... That was until she remembered the way Jackeline used to use her bow to travel... ‘Oh, so that’s what you’re doing...’

Taking advantage of her senses, Katie ran back and found the three rogues that were pursuing them, ‘Katie, are you sure about this?’

“Just trust that we have that much strength left in us, Ashley. We can’t let them take Lina,” Katie replied...

“What are you planning?” Jeremiah’s voice called out from ahead. Katie rammed into the last of them, the feeling reminding her of the time she did something similar on the day before her birthday... If she’d used the same strength this time as she had then, the wolf was bound to be immovable. It didn’t matter anyway since the poor guy was going to meet his death anyway... In exchange for Lina’s of course...

Katie held the immovable wolf and dashed forward, past the others and far ahead to the one that was still trying to abduct the princess... ‘Persistent idiots...’ Ashley cursed...

‘Well, we are miles from the clearing. There is no one that can get to use this far out. So this is the perfect opportunity to abduct the princess of Sirius,’ Katie replied, getting a feel of just how far she was from home. The singing of arrows reminded her of the reason she’d brought the wolf along, pulling it by the neck as though it was a banner... Katie raised the wolf above her head and smirked as the arrows that were meant for her went through the wolf...

“What the...” Jeremiah’s voice burst into laughter. It was genuine at first before changing to amused laughter, “I would have never thought of that... Not in a million years, but still... Crap...”

Getting caught up in his laughter had allowed Katie enough time to ram into the other wolf and get her sister all at once. She ditched the other wolf she was holding and turned completely to the right completely veering off the path they were following. ‘Last time, there had been a whole mob of rogues that wouldn’t let me do something like this, but this time it’s different...’

“Ugh, useless henchmen... I guess I’ll have to do this myself,” Jeremiah bellowed. This was not the same person Katie had known growing up. He was different when he threatened to fight her like that. When he aimed arrows at her.

“Did you get so mad at me for turning you down that day?” Katie yelled out as she continued running in a straight line. She merely needed to get to her destination where she would at least be able to draw him out... The river....

“Oh, I’m over that. You don’t mean much to me. I would just like to see you die now...” his cackle filled the air as he confessed his sick desires.

“Well, I’m not dying any time soon, so I would hate to disappoint you once again,” she replied. A bright light came through the forest up ahead. The end of the treeline. She was going to make it...

“So that’s your plan... What a shame! I just made it and you seem so focused on that one destination that you will never be able to dodge the arrows aimed at your back,” his words were followed by the whistling of numerous arrows fired consecutively and extremely fast. He was right... Katie was focused on breaking out of the forest... So focused that turning was going to be a problem if she was to dodge.

Everything seemed to slow down before her. She could tell where each of the arrows was... Her ears had isolated each of them... A total of eight arrows. How he’d fired that many consistently was beyond her comprehension. At her fastest, she would have been able to catch four to five arrows without caring about dodging them. However, she was carrying her sister... facing the river the fastest she could manage... She’d been cornered... ‘Ashley, what do we do...’