Chapter 14: Chase of the Century

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Chase of the Century

The rest of that day unfolded like a fever dream written by a caffeinated screenwriter with a grudge against pacing.

After Selena had fled the kitchen in tears, she’d tried to bury herself in work. Laundry. Cleaning. Scrubbing floors. Anything to forget the nightmare that was her sister’s sudden, terrifying "affection."

But she couldn’t last five minutes.

Because EVERYWHERE she went, a shadow loomed. A presence. A woman with a big bag swinging over her head like a lasso, eyes gleaming with unhinged determination.

And so began the GREAT AZURA-SELENA CHASE OF THE CENTURY.

A Bollywood-style spectacle, minus the romantic music and choreographed dance numbers. Instead of lovers playing hard-to-get, it was a traumatized maid fleeing from her reformed-villainess sister who had apparently decided that "proving sincerity" meant "pursuing like a territorial cheetah."

They weaved through corridors. Through the laundry room. Past the library. Around the servant’s quarters. Into the garden.

For HOURS.

"Selena! I told you, you’ve got the WRONG idea!" Azura called out, her bag twirling overhead like a helicopter rotor. "Please just ACCEPT my love—pure and sincere as the tears of the Moon Goddess herself!"

"CAN YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Selena shrieked, hitching up her long maid skirt like an Olympic sprinter preparing for the hundred-meter dash. "I DON’T TRUST YOU! You’re DEFINITELY trying to trap me again! WHO needs those embarrassing clothes anyway?!"

"About the clothes—I’m SORRY! My brain just... it automatically categorized you as..."

Porn novel female lead. Obviously.

She caught herself.

"...a more, uh, ADVENTUROUS dresser! I mean... I FORGOT you’re the sweet, pure type! Of course you wouldn’t like nearly-naked clothes! MY BAD! But don’t worry, I’ll try HARDER to convince you of my LOVE!"

"I DON’T NEED YOUR LOVE! I just need you to STOP CHASING ME!"

The gardeners and servants had long since abandoned their work. They stood in clusters, watching the chaos unfold like it was a midday drama broadcast exclusively for their entertainment.

One gardener was even eating bread, chewing slowly, eyes wide.

"How long they been at it?" he asked, mouth full.

His companion checked his watch with the solemnity of a referee at a boxing match.

"Let’s see... kitchen to laundry room, that was hour one. Laundry to library, hour two. Library to hallway, hour three. Hallway to servant chambers, hour four. Garden? We’re entering hour six."

"Six hours?!"

"Six hours."

"Isn’t Selena supposed to be... working?"

A pause.

"Not that I CARE about her or anything," the bread-chewer added quickly, defensive. "But Elder Luna’s gonna skin her alive if she finds out."

"Ssssttt. Haven’t you heard? Elder Luna’s been bedridden since this morning. Collapsed from the morning’s rumor explosion."

The bread-chewer’s eyebrows shot up. "The one about Miss Azura breaking up with Elder Alpha? Because she’s actually having an affair with—" he lowered his voice to a scandalized whisper, "—HER BOYFRIEND’S FATHER?"

"Bingo."

Silence.

Then, slowly, the bread-chewer’s expression shifted from shock to philosophical contemplation.

"So..." he mused, watching Azura tackle a hedge while Selena vaulted over a flowerbed, "is this a new way to torment Selena mentally? Or...is Miss Azura trying to form a harem? No discrimination? Not caring about genders, ages, or even incest?"

His companion stared at him.

"You’ve been reading those human romance novels again, haven’t you?"

"...maybe."

"Those are rotting your brain."

*

*

From the second-floor balcony, two tall figures stood like gargoyles with existential crises, watching the chaos unfold below with expressions ranging from "I need aspirin" to "I’ve seen things I can never unsee."

The taller one—Adrian—rubbed his temples with the ferocity of a man trying to massage a headache out of existence. His brow was furrowed so deeply it looked like his forehead was trying to eat his eyebrows.

Jonathan, on the other hand, had completely checked out. His eyes were fixed on the sky, unblinking, like he was calculating the exact trajectory needed for his soul to escape his body and ascend to a higher plane where sisters didn’t do... whatever the hell Azura was doing right now.

"Jonathan," Adrian finally spoke, his voice carrying the weight of a thousand existential crises. "I need you to be honest with me. Is your sister... okay? Like, mentally? Emotionally? Soul-ually?"

Jonathan didn’t respond. His soul was currently somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

"Jonathan."

A pause.

"...Jonathan."

"I heard you, Alpha," Jonathan said, his voice hollow. "I just... I was hoping if I stared at the sky long enough, the Moon Goddess would take pity on me and strike me with lightning."

Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose. "The rumors about Azura having an affair with my Dad caused him—who JUST recovered from his illness this morning—to relapse. He’s back in bed, coughing up a lung. My Mom? COLLAPSED. On the floor. Like a Victorian woman who just received scandalous news. And now THIS—"

He jabbed a finger toward the garden, where Selena had shifted into her wolf form in a desperate attempt to escape. It didn’t work. Azura was still chasing her, bag swinging, eyes gleaming with the fervor of a televangelist chasing a donation.

"She’s been playing TAG with Selena for SIX HOURS. Normally, your sister looks at Selena like she’s something stuck to the bottom of her shoe. But NOW? She’s chasing her with the enthusiasm of a golden retriever who just discovered the mailman."

Adrian turned to Jonathan, his expression desperate.

"Is this some new psychological warfare?! Did she read a villainess manual and decide ’slow, agonizing tag’ was step one?! What the hell is going on?! Since last night, she’s been DIFFERENT—like, DIFFERENT different! Did she hit her head? Did someone swap her soul? Did she get possessed by a benevolent ghost who REALLY likes charity work?!"

Jonathan let out a sigh so heavy it should have carried a freight train’s worth of emotional baggage.

"Alpha... my sister has indeed become... different." He paused, choosing his words like a man trying not to step on landmines. "I was planning to take her to the pack hospital later. For a brain scan. Maybe an exorcism. But she insists she’s fine. She claims she’s repented. That she’s forgiven Selena."

Adrian’s expression twisted like he’d just bitten into a lemon coated in betrayal.

"Azura... FORGAVE Selena?!"

He laughed. It was not a happy laugh.

"Azura hated Selena more than anyone! She tormented that girl for YEARS! Do you remember one of reasons why Selena moved out of your house?! Because Azura REFUSED to live under the same roof as ’her father’s killer.’ And now you’re telling me she’s FORGIVEN her?!"

"That’s why I suspect there might be something wrong with her brain," Jonathan admitted. "Even her wol—"

He stopped.

His mouth snapped shut like a trap.

He couldn’t say it. It wasn’t his place to reveal that Azura’s wolf was currently in hibernation mode—functionally making her no different from a wolfless human. But Adrian would notice soon enough. When he got close to her. When he sensed the change in her scent.

He sighed again. He was doing that a lot today.

"Alpha, I think you should talk to my sister tomorrow. You both need to have a serious conversation. About the rumors. About Elder Alpha. And about Selena."

Adrian frowned. "Why not talk NOW?"

Jonathan pointed with his finger.

Down at the garden, where Azura had somehow acquired someone’s bag and was now dual-wielding them, running after a wolf that looked like it was reconsidering its life choices.

"Do you really think TODAY is the right time to talk?"

Adrian opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Then slowly, reluctantly, he let out a defeated sigh.

"...You’re right. Better talk tomorrow."

Suddenly, both of them froze.

Their eyes glazed over. Their bodies went still. Someone was mind-linking them. And whoever it was, they had a lot to say.

When the message ended, they looked at each other.

Then, they moved like men possessed—not by spirits, but by the sudden, terrifying knowledge that their peaceful time of watching a sisterly chase scene was about to be interrupted by something that required pants-shittingly serious attention.

Their shoes thudded against the marble floor as they strode toward the main entrance, their earlier exhaustion replaced by the crisp, cold alertness of wolves who smelled trouble on the wind.

"Alpha," Jonathan said, his voice low as they descended the grand staircase two steps at a time, "our border patrols reported some unfamiliar scents lingering near the eastern perimeter. Do you think it’s the rogue group we’ve been tracking?"

Adrian’s jaw tightened. His eyes, which had been glazed over with existential confusion just moments ago, now sharpened into something predatory.

"I’m not sure." He pulled open the heavy oak door, the air rushing in to greet them like a cold, unwelcome messenger. "But there’s a high chance it’s them. They’ve been circling our territory for months like vultures at a buffet. It was only a matter of time before they got bold."

He stepped out into the dusk, the last rays of sunlight casting long shadows across the manor’s front lawn.

"Let’s go."

And with that, the two wolves disappeared into the treeline, leaving behind a manor full of confused servants, a collapsed Elder Luna, and two sisters still locked in an eternal game of tag that showed no signs of ending.