Chapter 260: Bad Timing


    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 n 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 hade prepared with my own n, 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 n 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 mming against the pavement and my heavy breathing. I threw ast nce 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 wasing 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 nced 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 iste 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.


    Just a little further, and then I could get the rogue leader alone and use the antidote…


    But then, suddenly, I felt something change in me as I leaped over a fallen tree. I lost momentum,


    slowing to a normal speed, and felt Cora’s strength go elsewhere.


    “Cora?” I said out loud, breathing frantically. “What’s happening?”


    My wolf writhed inside of me, her strength fading in and out. At the same time, my own vision faded in


    and out of ckness, causing me to stumble over an exposed tree root and trip. I tumbled onto the


    ground, rolling down a small slope a little ways, and groaned as I dug my fingers into the dirt and tried


    to regain myposure. But the world was spinning around me, and I was certain that I would fall off


    of the face of the earth at any moment.


    “Cora?” I called out again. My voice was choked by saliva. I spit, and a wad of wet dirt sprayed out of


    my mouth from the fall.


    “I… I think…” Her voice was strange, as though it was fading in and out. One moment it was too loud,


    so loud that it rang in my ears and made me wince, and then the next moment it was so soft of a


    whisper that I could have easily mistaken it for the wind.


    What was happening? I had never felt this before… Was the Luna putting another spell on me? Was I


    going to lose my wolf again?


    I could hear the sound of the forest being destroyed as the rogue leader crashed through the


    underbrush searching for me. Groaning, I rolled up onto my feet and stumbled forward, using the trees


    to bnce myself as I half-ran through the woods to put more distance between myself and him.


    But it was no use. I lost my bnce and fell again, scraping my arm and my cheek on the rough side of


    a tree. I mped my hand over my mouth to muffle the cry of pain, but as I heard the rogue slow its


    pace and then saw its glowing yellow eyes appear through the trees, I knew that it had found me


    anyway.


    “Cora, I need you,” I pleaded.


    “I… I think I’m shifting,” she said.


    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?


    Content ? N?velDrama.Org.


    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 toote,” I pleaded with Cora. “Otherwise, we’ll both


    die.”