Betrothed

Chapter 29: Underway

Willow

I kept sprinting forward my stamina is way better now that I actually have gotten some decent sleep for the first time in what feels like forever. Zooming through the green woods that surrounded me following Arashnic's scent trail for miles without any plan of stopping until I have eyes on him. I hear Brayden's feet hitting the ground behind me. I did not think that I was faster than Brayden; however, I think that this instance proves that I have far more agility than he does. Agility is the one thing that female werewolves tend to excel at more than the males because of the difference in our size it is our main defense and an implement that we use to our advantage.  

Nothing means more to me than finding our place in the future, but at what cost. The Moon Goddess' blessing is starting to seem like a curse since I had to explain it to Brayden. I keep thinking about what Leyna had said about this being a very rare occurrence. Arashnic's scent kept getting stronger as we pursued it. The trail was definitely leading us somewhere I do not remember ever going before. The woods were getting dense as the sun kept rising in the sky. The shadows of the trees were elongated on the woods grass floor. My speed never wavered as I continued to run as hastily as my body would physically let me. 

"Hurry up, Bray Bear!" I yelled loudly, so the air could send the words flying behind me. The words traveling in the slight breeze that came and go as we ran. 

"What do you suppose I am doing, Wills?" Brayden exaggerated. He quickened his pace behind me.

I felt a presence up ahead of the trail. My nose could sense a change in the density of Arashnic's scent as I approached it. We had run about thirty-seven miles since we started this journey this morning. Ash had to be nearby because the scent was at its peak in its dense state. "Where are you?" I thought to myself. He has to be close I just feel it. I slowed down into a jog with Brayden still behind me. He collided into me knocking me off balance. Brayden grabbed my shoulder steadying me and bringing us to a halting stop. He had no clue, I was going to slow down in one set of strides, so I did not blame him for bumping into me. 

He held my shoulder with his one hand and steadied me with his other. If he hadn't, I would have fallen onto the ground hastily. 

"Wills, why are you slowing down unexpectedly?" Brayden pondered the question aloud.

I made eye contact with him causing the monstrous butterflies to attack me again. These feelings are never going to go away are they. Brayden was returning the eye contact making me get pulled away from the question he just thought aloud. His eyes were almost filled with light. His brown eyes were looking bright with the light from the sun rising reflecting off of them making them appear to have a golden hue. 

"My senses are going bizarre. I know Ash is nearby, but I feel like I am being watched." I expressed.

I did not know how well to trust my instincts at the moment especially since these are instincts that have never been real until I became marked by my true mates. As I am still getting the hang of this new relationship reality. I never expected to have any of this happen. How come I was chosen out of all the other many werewolves to be blessed like this from the Moon Goddess? In my strong opinion I am nothing but ordinary. I may have a lineage that leads to being an alpha, but that does not make me extraordinary. I am just a normal werewolf girl that is nineteen years old and loves art, reading, crafts, etc. 

"Well, isn't that because I am here watching you?" Brayden asked. 

I let out a sigh. "Not exactly. I feel like whatever is watching is hovering over me." I told Brayden. 

I heard a faint humming noise. I look straight up and around our whereabouts in the sky. The woods are dense with trees so at any rate the pest will not be able to chase us far if we needed to run.  I glance around again, and the humming noise became lowly apparent again, so I quickly turned my head in the direction of the noise. My eyes followed until they met an unmanned aerial vehicle. It was basically a drone but way bigger. What in the hell is that? Right after I viewed the UAV it started flashing a red light. 

"Brayden, I think we need to run." I was lost staring at the UAV when he suddenly snapped into my view frame. I could not fathom what the hell this huge UAV was doing here or even who was operating it. Lost in my thoughts I heard Brayden lowly as he was talking directly at me. The UAV directly overhead making a lot more noise than before.

"What are you waiting for, Wills? Hurry up! We have to go!" Brayden was yelling at me, trying to snap me out of my thoughts. 

I nodded abruptly trying to snap myself out of my thoughts. I started running away from the UAV. Brayden was behind me catching me as I was losing my senses. 

"Wait, what if-," I yelled to Brayden loudly as bullets started flying piercing the air as they scattered around us, "-watch out!"

Crap! We ran as fast as we could, and the UAV was tailing not far behind. Zig zagging around trees and using the woods around us to cover from the bullets and hoping to cause a poor route for the UAV to follow us. Suddenly, we seen a tunnel in a row of trees up ahead. Not sure where it would lead, we had to go through it. It is the only legitimate option that we have right now. 

"Follow the trees! Ahead!" I yelled to Brayden who was now running alongside me. 

"Alright," Brayden responded. 

We ran towards the tunnel of trees making sure to get there as fast as possible. The UAV was catching up behind us. Hurriedly, we ran until we reached the tunnel dug into the side of what must have been a hill. I stopped running standing next to the entrance of the tunnel and turned to face Brayden. He was as out of breath as I was. I gave the tunnel a quick glance around noticing that it was barricaded to hold the dirt up around the tunnel, so that it would not collapse. 

Our eyes met with a small bit of fear visible. The UAV was getting close as it continued to weave through the taller trees we were around as it looked for us. 

"We have to-" I started to speak to Brayden.

Brayden interrupted me, "I know."

Brayden quickly had his lips meet mine gently with a hint of fierce passion. The kiss lasted a mere two or maybe three seconds before he grabbed my hand swiftly, and we began sprinting down the tunnel. As we reached the middle of the tunnel our footsteps were nonetheless followed by an explosion.