Chapter 180

180 Chapter One Hundred Eighty

“Umm, yeah, I’m a werewolf,” Katie began, getting nervous in front of this girl. ‘Pull yourself together, girl,’ Ashley pitched in.

‘Easy for you to say. You’ve never had to explain that you’re a werewolf and a hunter at the same time. For some people that’s considered serious hypocrisy,’ she responded.

‘Is it really?’

‘No, not really. As long as hunters and werewolves remain on the same side in this war, it will never be a problem,’ Katie replied.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a werewolf run that fast in their human forms. Are you special in some way? I heard Katie Sirius was back in...” the woman stopped talking, “Where are my manners? My name is Angella Sullivan, what’s yours?”

‘Well played, Angella.’ “My name, as you already guessed, is Katie Sirius,” Katie responded.

“Now you must run with me. I haven’t heard anything interesting happen in this reserve in a while. Is that okay with you?” the woman asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine. It won’t hurt to get back thirty minutes late,” Katie replied, unconsciously placing a time limit on their escape from their duties. The two females ran into the woods, tapping into their Prometheus gifts and allowing the rush of running through the wild to take over them. For Katie, this was one of the few ways she could feel free from the different responsibilities she had in her life. Running as fast as she could, or simply running beyond human capabilities and watching her surroundings zip past her in a blur.

“I have tried to run faster than a werewolf would and you can still keep up. I have my suspicions that you’re using a Prometheus gift, but that would be crazy. Would you happen to be similar in talent to your younger sister?” Angella asked.

.....

“Well, no, I’m not nearly as talented as my sister. The answer is simple. I am a hunter as well as a werewolf,” Katie replied.

The woman was quiet for a while. It was a blunt explanation and one that didn’t make sense to her. Katie could read from her expression that she was still deciding on how to take the information that she’d just received. As Katie had now come to know that it wasn’t always good news to tell someone that she was of the two groups. It didn’t bode well with some people. “Why would our patron god decide to make such a decision?”

“I’m not sure. I trained really hard to get where I am. And besides, I didn’t know I was a werewolf back then,” Katie replied. As a source of distraction, she allowed her senses to kick in once more. The voice of the wild was even louder in the woods. There seemed to be a creature all around them. The only reason she still felt safe was the speed at which they were running. She still wasn’t able to pick out what creature was which, but she could know that some were in the trees while others were deep in the ground.

Katie could feel their intentions to be primal and drawn to instinct. As they rushed past them, they would recoil in fear of what had just rushed past them, gauging the enemy to be much more enabled than they were. This gave Katie a bit of confidence as they dashed through the forest. “What do you mean you had no idea you were a werewolf when you were training?”

“It’s a long story. To cut it short, you might want to check the files of hunters. You’ll find a ‘Katie Chase’ within them. Back then, I had no idea I was even royalty. I was just the adoptive daughter of two Chase hunters that had raised me as their own,” Katie explained.

The woman’s expression finally softened, “Oh, so you really are the daughter of the king and queen that was believed to have been killed eighteen years ago?”

“Yeah, that’s me. It was a secret that was kept from me as well. And as I grew up, I was taught to fight. With my wolf suppressed, I needed to learn to defend myself. I never thought I would receive my Prometheus gifts at such an early age. I was a professional hunter long before my eighteenth birthday,” Katie replied with a laugh.

“That’s insane. Normal people get those gifts in their twenties or even their thirties. Looks like you’ve come to turn the White Star Hotel upside down,” the woman yelled excitedly, suddenly speeding up.

Katie’s ears perked up at the name the woman had just said. She knew the reserve had been named after the royal family as most of everything general had been in the capital, but this she hadn’t thought about. “Is that the name of the hotel?” she asked her, catching up to the woman almost effortlessly.

“Oh, were you under the impression it would have some lame name like the Sirius Game Reserve Hotel?” she joked.

“Of course, I thought that. That seems to be what happens to everything in the Sirius empire. The Great Sirius River along with everything else in the capital gets named after the royal family,” Katie groaned.

“Well, it is said that the kings of Sirius had a habit of being flashy. In fact, that came to be their only flaw in the long run. While Lycaon was a more aggressive royal, Sirius cared more for the way he looked. He wasn’t into wiping out the human race aggressively like his counterpart was those many centuries ago.

When peace finally came about years later, it wasn’t a surprise when he ordered everything built in the capital to be named after him, well, everything that he deemed worthy of carrying his name was immediately adopted. The White Star hotel was an exception considering there is already a hotel in the capital named after the guy. Honestly, how can one person want his name spread that much?” the woman wondered.

Katie was hearing a lot of this for the first time. She had noticed the way Sirius wolves were taken to be more docile than Lycaon wolves, but she’d never looked for a reason behind it. After all, that wasn’t exactly a history about her ‘ancestors’, until they were...

“I wonder if Drake will become as flashy as Dad when he takes over the throne of the Sirius kingdom,” Katie replied.

“Huh, what are you talking about? Aren’t you one of the moon goddesses’ chosen?” the woman asked her.

“Yeah, what’s that supposed to do with anything?” Katie asked.

The woman froze for a bit, thinking through her words, “I thought I read everything about the two of you right. You are from the two different families and the union between the two of you should bring the two families together, shouldn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, I will become the Luna of the Lycaon pack, and the two families will be united through my union to Cole, but that won’t have to mean the royal families get dissolved into one or something of the sort,” Katie replied.

“Huh, I guess I had it all wrong then. If Prince Drake doesn’t end up turning into another snowman, the world will freeze over,” Angella joked, turning back towards the hotel along with Katie in a smooth arc. “Race you to the hotel...”

“Oh, you’re on...” Katie replied adrenaline filtering into her system and pushing her to run faster. Katie let of all her shackles and let herself run free. Unbeknownst to her, Angella fell back behind her, seeing as the girl before she was letting off sounds similar to low-sounding thunderclaps. She was running faster than she’d ever thought she could and made it look so easy and effortless as she did it.

The woman pushed herself to run faster, a smile gracing her face, ‘You have so much potential in you. Your face speaks of happiness and yet your strength only speaks of the pain you’ve been through. You must be the strongest person I’ve ever met.’

It was this same feeling of liberation Katie felt her mate tapping into while she ran straight for the hotel. She was much more aware of his presence in her life and couldn’t think of life without him anymore. Life as a werewolf was starting to get better for her. The closeness between the werewolves was a blessing to have. It allowed them to know when one of their own was not alright and it didn’t matter whether it was emotionally or physically.

This connection was even deeper with mates... Her mind flew back to the days she’d tended to him when he was bedridden. ‘I wonder if I did a good job compared to when he took care of me...’

‘Yes, Katie, you definitely did,’ Ashley replied.

'

The girl finally reached the hotel gates and came to a stop before she came into view of the students. She was panting lightly and her body still pulsed with adrenaline from her run. She could keep this up much longer, but she knew she had other things to take care of. Angella came out from the forest a few minutes later. She was panting a little more than Katie was(more like a lot more) “You’re way too fast. You teenagers... Strong bones...”

“Hey, you’re not that old to make such an excuse,” Katie raised her voice in response.

“Oh, what do you know? My back is killing me. Help me up, young lady...” Angella feigned weakness and collapsed, bringing Katie down with her in a bear hug. Katie merely laughed at her antics.

“You’re hopeless, Angella,” she joked.

“Well, at least there aren’t any rogues that run at that speed in this world,” the woman replied. Katie couldn’t help but remember a report from a subordinate she’d only recently learnt to control. He’d explained that the Rogue King was not slow either. Now that she thought of it, the beta alphas in Brigadia had made it to the clearing before she had... The thoughts brought shivers down her spine...

“Well, the low-ranking ones at least...”

Angella lifted her head to watch the girl’s expression, “You’ve met him, haven’t you? The Rogue King.”

“Yes... I have...”