Chapter 419

419 Lina’s Campfire Story

“I don’t understand,” Crysta frowned. The delta had heard something concerning the lost princess and animals, but it didn’t relate to what her friend was saying to her. Everyone knew Katie was capable of communicating with animals and had even used this ability to save hundreds of werewolves in the Lycaon empire right before she disappeared.

But that didn’t relate to what Lina was saying. Katie wasn’t with them... How then could the princess feel her sister’s presence?

“Back when we were in the reserve, I was trying to get back to the hotel,” Wyatt ground his teeth at the mention of the reserve, “As you now know, I’m not the best in telling directions, so I got terribly lost.

I got so lost that I entered a cave, seeking shelter. I didn’t know where to go and even the mind link failed me. I had gone too far from the hotel that I couldn’t call out for help. Running in any direction could have even gotten me further. I was scared,” despite the sadness in the story, Lina told it with a smile on her face, “It was only after I had settled into the cave that I realised there was a young bear cub sleeping within it.

I simply needed to walk out before the mother came back and everything would be alright. I knew I was faster than a bear, but when I turned to leave, the beast was already standing there, blocking my way and she was furious. I was done for... With me between the bear and its cub, my situation had moved from bad to downright rotten,” Lina chuckled.

“When did that happen?” Wyatt asked. His voice was followed by a clicking sound. The alpha was holding a lighter up to one end of a cigar that no one had noticed him carrying. After lighting the cigar, he blew up a plume of smoke from his mouth and returned his attention to the princess.

Lina stared at him wide-eyed as he stowed the lighter he’d been carrying in his pocket. ‘The nerve on this guy...’ however, her mood was far too happy to let the outrageous person before her ruin it, “I never did talk about that incident in detail, but that time, someone intervened before mama bear could turn me into a royal dish for the vultures.

Katie came to my rescue. A brilliant white wolf that was even larger than the bear that wanted to kill me. The bear was not shaken by her presence but didn’t attack either. Katie bowed to the bear that day, just like I did earlier and the bear allowed her to take me out of the cave.

That was the time I found out that she could talk to animals and also the time I learnt that animals are not mindless either.

.....

That jaguar we saw didn’t seem to fear me when I ran into it. It simply stared at me like I was another creature it had already been aware of. I couldn’t help but remember what my sister did back then. I haven’t felt this close to Katie since she left,” Lina finished her explanation and silence filled the night, only interrupted by the crackling fire they’d made.

Crysta was speechless from hearing the riveting tale of the Rogue Killer. Many stories had started to circle through the palace on the heroic acts of the Rogue Killer, making her more popular now that she was gone.

Crysta still remembered the time she’d managed to royally anger Katie. Perhaps that’s why she could never completely feel comfortable with the Lost princess. Katie had downed a tree as a result of missing her target. If it hadn’t been for Cole pulling her out of the way at the last moment, Crysta wasn’t sure if she would still be alive to this day.

Katie was impulsive and never cared about what others thought about her. If anything rubbed her the wrong way, the Lost princess approached it directly and in some ways, she acted as though no one was above her... and at the same time acted as though no one was below her either, “She would have made the perfect Luna for the Lycaon empire,” the words involuntarily left Crysta’s lips while she was thinking.

“Will... Crysta. She ‘will’ make the perfect Luna,” Lina cooed excitedly before launching into another tale of her sister. As it so happened, more than Crysta had ever realised, Lina loved her sister dearly and idolised her so much. So much that the past two years suddenly made all the sense in the world.

A week after Katie had vanished, Lina approached Beta Alpha Jackson and asked him to train her. It wasn’t long before the Mighty Warrior Frank Silver started training her as well.

The princess absorbed their lessons incredibly fast, quickly learning different ways of fighting and utilising her abilities. Her incredible agility turned out to be an incredible strength of hers and she was soon assigned another hunter to teach her how to utilise this ability of hers.

'

As the months blew by, the resemblance between the two princesses began to become clearer. It was almost like Lina was going through a transformation and she was looking more like Katie as the days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months.

Honour, trying to train along with her, was growing more beautiful as well as more powerful. Crysta could only keep up as much as her body allowed her to. She’d learnt a lot from the hunter, but not as much or as fast as her Lina was capable.

The limitations of a delta were soon made clear to her. She didn’t have the spark of energy that Lina had from her lineage and was bound to watch her friend grow far stronger than her. ‘That’s the royal I was looking for back then... Who knew you were this much of a late bloomer?’ the thought brought her chuckles.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Wyatt offered when it started to get late, “Sleep well, ladies.”

“No, you need your rest, Wyatt. You were the most exhausted out of all of us. I don’t want you to slow us down tomorrow, so sleep soundly. Crysta and I will handle the night watch.”

With that order and a scoff from the alpha, Wyatt put out his cigar and retired to his tent, “Aren’t you being too harsh on him?” Crysta asked Lina.

Lina sighed and eyed the closed flap of the alpha’s tent in thought, “Perhaps you’re right, but... he hasn’t yet given me a reason not to be either.”

..........

In another part of the woods, a trio of shady wolves dashed through the woods, following a map they’d come to know like the back of their palms. After spending time in the woods, it only stood to reason that they knew the way to the Great Arena and knew all the best places to restock supplies on their way there.

Traversing the wild was nothing but child’s play to these three and they travelled several leagues in a short span of time, stopping either to hunt or drink water. Without the power to shift with their bags, they tied their packs to the strongest of them and made sure to use water sources within the forest that were known only to them. Streams that didn’t appear on maps, but were known to those that frequented this path.

This reduced the number of times they needed to actually use their own water and they barely veered off course in search of water. They made it to the mountains in a shorter time than was normally possible, finally spotting the creature they were in pursuit of.

The shifty-eyed leader of this trio smirked at the sight of their target, suddenly filled with fiendish malevolence.

Cloaked in a white fur coat with a black patch on his back and three black-soled paws, Drake was running along the steep slopes of the mountain. The largest part of the mountain was stone and very steep that the prince could not find a point to cross over it.

The ranges also stretched far in both directions towering high, challenging the skies and intimidating any and all that approached them, blocking passage to the other side. Drake, however, didn’t seem shaken by the possibility of not being able to cross the mountains, ‘He must know of the mountain pass,’ Victor thought to himself, watching the prince running along the steep mountain slope in search of some way to go through.

The rogues stopped chasing after him and came to a stop when their shifty-eyed leader did. The two that were following him stopped rushing and turned to look at him, “What is the problem?” one asked, having shifted back into his human form.

Victor did the same, disregarding the lack of clothes as was the norm among the rogues, “He’s going in the opposite direction of the Mountain Pass. He probably knows of its existence and has started looking for it, but since he doesn’t make this trip a lot, he’s a little lost.

He doesn’t know that yet, however... and we can use that to our advantage. We can make it through the pass before he finds it and be waiting for him on the other side. He’ll be exhausted by then.”

The rogues were thinking for a bit before allowing evil smirks to grace their faces, “I like the way you think.” With that, the scheming began. It wasn’t long before they started in the direction opposite to that of the prince.

‘Vengeance... I can almost taste it,’ Victor mused at his dark fantasies. Delusions of seeing the prince battered and at death’s door. It was almost too good to be true.

......