SWNOVELS Chapter Showboating never helps
Climbing the tree, to retrieve her weapons, she starts making her way closer to the pack house, she has fifty minutes left.
Taking a long circuitous route back towards the pack house, she’s decided she’s going for the cheeky win, go big or go home, yes, she acknowledges, this is her being prideful, and pride means a higher risk of getting caught, but she’s already managed to do what she set out to do, now the rest is for fun and she’s intending to enjoy herself, forgetting at that moment, she was supposed to be acting like an Omega.
That’s how she finds herself with thirty minutes to go just outside the line of warriors that ring the pack house perimeter, up a tree while looking at the rear of the pack house.
The warriors are closer than expected, well within firing range, she could probably be thirty to sixty feet (twenty to thirty meters) behind them before firing and still be accurate, especially if they are this close at the front.
The question she has is why, why would they be closer than they needed, granted, it would allow more of them to be out on the hunt, but she’d passed none of them, or did she pass them and just not notice, now that was a scary thought.
‘Think, Think, Think’ she repeats to herself
Are they so sure of themselves that they put all the extra warriors towards the front? Well, that’s where the Royal Delta and Alpha will be waiting, so it’s a possibility, assuming that’s the most obvious direction to come from if she wanted to take the extra prize.
Charlie’s statement about being a green untested pup would back up that supposition, but surely, the fact that three of them were taken down by the ‘green pup’ would mean they weren’t that naïve anymore.
But it may fall into another of her Father’s rules.
‘Rule number six – Let your opponent underestimate you but NEVER underestimate your opponent’
The other option is they planned for her to come to the back of the pack house, which she has, and the reason she hasn’t seen anyone is they are herding her in the direction they wanted, the trap closing behind her.
‘But why would they want me on this side of the pack house.’ She wonders
’Maybe hide me from the Royal Delta, if they’ve worked out I’m an ‘Omega’, maybe they don’t want me to show myself, the embarrassment factor would be too high, a technical loss by not having made it back to the pack house?′ she thinks
That can’t be true though, because the Delta would ask to see her, so they’d need someone to be able to explain how they did it
She has a fifty-fifty chance here, are they underestimating her, or herding her?
The main problem is because they are closer, her plan of getting onto the roof of the pack house is slightly harder, watching the guards for a little longer, she comes to her final decision, sticking with the plan and hoping they are banking on a green pup, she’s already won after all.
Carefully and painfully slowly, she starts to climb higher in the tree, always searching for the next tree she can move to, trying to traverse the guard line one tree at a time. Slow progress is still progress nonetheless, and quick movements are more noticeable.
Being a pup, as they call it, has its advantages, smaller, and lighter, she can use higher branches, plus wolves rarely climb trees so they often forget to look up unless you give them a reason to, she makes her way carefully, trying to mask her movement with the breeze until finally she is in the tree above one of the guards.
How he can’t hear her heartbeat she doesn’t know, but from here, she has just three more trees until she’s in the large oak tree she uses to sneak into and out of her dorm room, with twenty-five minutes to go, she’ll need to speed it up a little and pray there’s no-one in the pack house to see her.
Watching the guard below, he gives her a lucky break.
“John, you got any cigarettes?” he calls softly to the next guard
“Sure, come on over, Mick has moved a little, don’t want to leave a large gap”
“Chill, they need the targets at the front of the pack house, we got the shit duty side”
He laughs as he walks away from the tree
“I wouldn’t call it the shit duty.
We got the chill side.
Stress is all up front where the big wigs can see your every move” John answers quietly
“No smoke breaks around there”
“Reckon it will become hunt the lost pup, not long now and they run out of time”
“You really think a pup got those three, they did a check, and none are missing, I reckon Charlie was mistaken... too much blood to his head from hanging upside down”
Their voices grow quieter as they start to light up.
Moving quickly and quietly through the last three trees, into the mighty oak that grows close to the pack house, she’s on comfortable ground and feeling confident.
At fourteen she has an eight pm curfew, which can feel very restrictive for someone who looked after themselves for two years before she joined this pack so she regularly breaks curfew, getting back into her dorm with this route.
Standing as far along the branch as she can, she makes the jump to the small balcony railing, catching it, she holds her position waiting for her body to stop swinging, expecting to hear shouts raising the alarm, she breathes a sigh of relief at the silence before pulling herself over it.
The next step is to get to the roof, she and James added small handholds in the stone building, done over four days nine months ago, giving them easier access to the roof for sky gazing and picnics, without having to go through the stairwell.
They had tried the stairwell once at James’ suggestion and the security cameras and door alarms had them stopped in seconds, and boy, they’d got a rollicking and extra work for that, her one stain on an otherwise clean sheet, but that was over ten months ago, she’d kept her head down after that.
Today she scampered up the wall as quickly as she dared, the Alpha family wouldn’t be in their quarters, but all out front for the competition, so no worries about them being close to a window or balcony and hearing her, there’s more concern over one of the warriors spotting her, so speed was of the essence, but mostly, and this is their biggest mistake, their eyes are outwards into the forest, always looking forward, never back.
Pulling herself up once again, this time onto the roof, she does a time check, she’s still got time to spare, but the faster she gets this done, the better, crawling up to the apex of the roof, she peeks over.
Keeping her head down and eyes lowered as much as she can, so there’s no reflection, she surveys the scene below her
The Royal Delta, standing calmly facing the forest, making himself a target, he’s not as bulky as her Alpha, but he’s well built with an air of alertness in how he stands.
His hand runs through his ash brown hair before he crosses them again, he’s surveying the forest before him, not distracted, almost impatient.
The Alpha is like an older version of Lance, with dark blonde hair, and blue eyes, although you can’t see them at the moment, pacing a little, but he’s doing it in a fixed pattern, that works for her.
Her last dilemma is whether she shoots from the prone position with a horizontal bow, giving less accuracy but it is a stealthier move, thinking it through they probably won’t be wearing body protection, so if it goes wrong, the arrows, though blunt, could still cause issues.
Training helps with accuracy and she trains daily, albeit in secret, using her homemade bow and arrows hidden in the forest, but this is two high-ranking wolves and getting it wrong has consequences, but then again, they are all looking out to the forest, not behind them, confident the ring of warriors can’t be breached, she decides she can stand.
Taking out two arrows, she nocks one and quietly, slowly, moves to a crouched position, holding the other arrow between her fingers, ready for the same speedy reset she used before, exhaling, she stands, once again waiting until her body stills, she lets the first arrow fly.
Shifting position slightly, she fires again quickly, watching as the first arrow lands between the Alpha’s feet as he comes to the end of his pacing pattern, the second not long after hitting the ground at the Delta’s feet.
Even from the top of the pack house, she can hear the gasps as people, following the angle of the arrow, look up behind them, then silence, before the Royal Delta starts to clap, slow and rhythmically.
“Come on down Hunter twenty-three” the Alpha calls loudly
She nods respectfully at the Alpha and walks carefully to the edge of the roof closest to them, lowering herself over one of the Alpha’s balconies before dropping down onto it, she still has five floors to go.
She grins, she’s about to do a little showboating, and in reality, going back the same way gives away her little pathway to the roof and she’d rather they don’t find it.
Taking a rope from her bag, she threads it around the railings on the balcony, knowing the pack is watching her every move, this will probably look all the more dramatic to them as the rope is wet, meaning it will give more against her weight, leading to a speedier descent, but hell, it should look good.
She passes the two ends of the rope through her legs, around her left hip then across her front over her right shoulder and then around her back before finally going under her left arm, pulling it tight, she ties the bow to one end and then lets the ends drop to the ground.
Standing on the balcony railings, she jumps off the edge of the balcony, letting herself drop in a controlled way, the gasps as she jumps amuse her, werewolves are strong but five floors are too high to jump down without damage and almost no one has seen a wolf do this, well not in this pack, apart from one.
“By the Goddess, no way”
James’ voice carries up to her, recognising the impromptu rappel technique from some adventures they’d had last year.
She’ll admit it’s not the most comfortable way to rappel down a building, but it works and having a wolf, well, the minor rope burns will heal quickly; throwing off the ropes once she is safely on the ground, she pulls on the end with the bow and the rest of the rope snakes down to the floor in a pile, like magic, no evidence left on the Alpha’s Balcony to annoy him later.
Removing the bow and remaining arrow she places them carefully in front of her, before doing the same to the single dagger they’re allowed to carry for protection, finally digging into her inner pocket she draws out her trophies, the three armbands, taken once all of her targets were ‘down’ placing them all together on the ground she steps back.
All done with ten minutes to spare, Toni is grinning, not that they can see her face under the hooded cloak she’s wearing.
Stepping forward Elder Morris walks over and checks the items off his list, then walks over holding his hand out, she peels off her armband, passing it to him.
“Hunter twenty-three has successfully completed the competition and has presented their weapons and all three bands of the hunted.
For the final challenge, a shot was landed at the feet of our Alpha and esteemed guest, Royal Delta Alek, all arrows used matched the remaining one.
You may present yourself to the Alpha and Royal Delta.”
Elder Morris’s voice carries across the pack, confirming she has relinquished her weapons, no one stands in front of an Alpha armed.
There’s a buzz in the pack, it’s clear the person standing in front of the Alpha is no warrior, a pup in their eyes, if they only knew that she’d never really been, what they consider a pup, in her life, well not until she’d joined their pack and even here, she was deemed ‘strangely mature’.
Their clean sheet last year and consistently good record is the reason the Royals sent one of their Deltas this time and not an ordinary pack representative.
Granted, she hadn’t expected the Delta to be here, much preferring an ordinary low-ranked wolf, all she’d wanted was to take part and try and win.
Taking a deep breath, she steps over and stands in front of the Alpha and Royal Delta, her back to the pack, head bowed.
“Reveal yourself Hunter twenty-three” The Alpha’s voice carries across the pack.