My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 259

Nina

I locked eyes with the rogue leader.

He was standing apart from the rest, and his glowing yellow eyes were fixed unwaveringly on me. I knew instantly from the way he looked at me, and the way that my wolf reacted strongly inside of me, that this was his plan all along. He thought that he could kill me while the rest of the rogues ambushed everyone else, but there was a crucial detail that he didn’t know.

He didn’t know that I had come prepared with my own plan, too.

“Nina!” Luke begged as he tugged at my arm. “Hurry! We have to go now! I know you want to stay and fight, but there are too many—”

I suddenly wrenched my arm free and whirled around to face Luke. “Go without me,” I ordered him. “I’ll meet up with you. I have to do something first.”

Luke furrowed his brow and shook his head. He tried to grab me again, but I pulled away and continued to stare at him sternly.

“Go, Luke. I promise I’ll meet up with you soon.”

“Where are you going?” he asked, raising his voice over the sounds of screams, guns, and werewolf growls.

I looked back up at the rogue leader. He was stalking closer to me, slowly, with his hackles raised and his head lowered. His eyes never wavered away from me, and I swore I saw him lick his chops hungrily.

“No,” Luke said, seeing through my plan immediately. “I won’t let you go off on some grand adventure. Right now, you need to listen to everyone else and get the hell out of here.”

I snapped my head around to look at Luke. Behind him, against the treeline that led to the campus, I could see Lori and Jessica watching from afar with wide eyes. They were waiting for me, having realized that humans were no match against these rogues. I shook my head slowly, then turned back to face Luke again.

“I promise I’ll be okay,” I assured him. “Please, just get Lori and Jessica to safety.”

Luke opened his mouth to answer, but I was already turning on my heel and running off down the road. Luke’s, Lori’s, and Jessica’s voices all echoed in the distance, but were soon overpowered by the sound of my shoes slamming against the pavement and my heavy breathing. I threw a last glance over my shoulder to see Luke ushering Lori and Jessica into a truck that someone had pulled up. Jessica screamed as the rogue leader leaped over the truck, narrowly missing all of them by a hair. But it wasn’t interested in them; it was coming for me.

Cursing under my breath, I picked up my pace and pushed my legs harder. I could feel the rogue leader advancing on me.

“Give me the strength I need to run faster,” I urged my wolf, Cora. “Please.”

“I’m on it.”

Cora’s power surged through me. I felt myself shoot forward like a lightning bolt. The wind rushed through my hair and whistled in my ears as I sprinted down the road faster than I ever thought possible. I glanced over my shoulder again to see that I had gained a little more distance between myself and the rogue leader, but he was still following me. That was what I wanted, though. I needed him to follow me so I could isolate him and use the antidote.

There was a break in the treeline up ahead that led to the forest hiking trails. I picked up my speed even more and broke off of the road to go into the woods, crashing through the underbrush. Thorns and tree branches whipped at my limbs, tearing up my clothes and drawing blood, but I kept going.

The rogue bared its teeth in an animalistic grin. It growled almost sadistically as its massive paw stepped out from the shadows.

“Now?” I asked.

“Yes. Now.”

I cursed aloud again. Why now, of all times? Why did it have to be when I needed to be clear-headed? All I needed was to get the antidote out, and use it on the rogue…

I groaned as a shooting pain coursed through my entire body. It felt as though my bones were moving inside of me, growing and changing. A bit of vomit bubbled up in my throat. I gagged, and it spilled out onto the pine needle-covered ground. I felt forward onto my hands and knees, and began to cry out in pain while the rogue stalked ever closer, as though it was toying with its prey.

I couldn’t shift now. It wasn’t the right time. I should have shifted earlier, or it should have happened later. Why now? Why did something always have to happen at the worst time?

The rogue growled again, and finally blocked the light of the moon as it stood over me. I writhed in pain beneath it, feeling my throat constrict as I looked up at it.

“If you’re going to shift, at least do it before it’s too late,” I pleaded with Cora. “Otherwise, we’ll both die.”