Chapter 26


    The entire group was gathered by the back mountain soon.


    The Back Mountain was a rtively dangerous area in Riverside Pack. It shared boarders with the


    rogues up north and inhabited many dangerous species in the woods.


    Only strong werewolves dared to hunt in this area.


    J had finished the prep work and was standing at the start–up point with Kass and Balvina.


    “Gamma J, I promise I won’t let you down,” Kass said excitedly while rolling his wrists. “If there


    is any danger, just hide behind my back.”


    Balvina burst intoughter, “Oh please. Your Gamma is stronger than the two of usbined. You


    probably want to hide behind her back when something dangerous happened.”


    “I won’t behave like a coward,” Kass said solemnly. “They’ll have to step over my dead body before


    they get to Gamma J.”


    “Nobody will be dead,” J smiled.


    “You are such a nerd Kass…Oh shit.”


    Balvina’s eyes traveled behind J’s shoulder, and she snorted, “Herees the clown.”


    The three of them turned around and found Harper walking across the crowd of people.


    Among all these soldiers dressed in uniform or sportswear, Harper stood out with her low–cup top,


    short skirt, and skinny high–heels.


    She carried a basket in her hand and walked up to the group of Alphas and Gammas at the front.


    “Hey, I heard that you are having apetition today. So I prepare some snacks for you,” Harper


    opened her basket with a big smile. “Would anyone like to have a try?”


    “Seems nice!”


    Jeff and Steven immediately came to her side.


    But when they saw clearly what’s inside, they became hesitate again.


    “Please take as much as you like. I’ve made quite a few,” Harper encouraged.


    She gave a sheepish look at Daran and added with a shy smile, “Not to tter myself, but I’m quite


    good at cooking. And I’m trying to get better at it because it’s the duty of the future Lun-”


    “Are you seriously giving us these?” Balvina cut her off abruptly after taking a look


    at the basket.


    Harper seemed offended, “If you don’t like it, I won’t force you to eat my food…”


    “Sure. But I’m just saying,” Balvina shrugged, “You made chocte muffins, French fries,


    panzerotti…all of these contains lots of fats, sugar and carbs. We try to keep a low body fat as


    warriors. Nobody here would like to eat it.”


    Harper’s face quickly turned red.


    “I–I don’t know…” she murmured, “I just want to do the good thing here-”


    “But don’t you have a nutrition ss when you were in school?” Balvina raised an eyebrow at her,


    “You skipped diving lesson, and you missed nutrition as well? How on earth did you get your


    graduate certificate?”


    Harper felt a surge of panic.


    Of course she didn’t get her graduate certificate. She spent all of her teenage life messing around


    with her high school boyfriends.


    So in the end she had to force J to scrape off her name off her graduate certificate and put the


    name “Harper” on it.


    Later when J married Daran, J was even mocked to be “the Luna without graduate


    certificate.”


    But Daran knew none of these. She couldn’t let Daran find out!


    “I–I forgot,” Harper quickly covered her basket and put on a forced smile. “Let me run back and get


    you something else.”


    “There’s no need.”


    J reached into her backpack and took out a box of protein bars.


    “Thepetition is about to begin,” J said coolly. “If any of you is hungry, take my snack here.”


    Everybody swarmed in for a protein bars. They seemed much more enthusiasticpared to


    earlier when they saw Harper’s snack.


    Harper gripped onto her basket as rage building up in her.


    She looked over to Daran and found him gazing at J, with a small smile on his lips.


    Harper was furious.


    She made 5 maids to prepare these foods within a short time. She even made her way across the


    dusty training field‘ in these hells carrying this damn heavy basket- Yet all those efforts couldn’t


    evenpare to J’s cheap, pathetic protein bars?!


    She wanted to fucking kill J so much!


    But J didn’t notice her angry re at all.


    She had finished her protein bar and was ready to begin thepetition.


    “Attention, all teams!” Jasper announced loudly, “Thepetition is about to begin. Are you ready


    —”


    Property belongs to N?vel(D)r/ama.Org.


    All teams were fueled up.


    “GO!”


    With some rustling noises, all 5 teams–15 people–lunged into the forest at full speed.


    J had discussed their tactics with Kass and Balvina.


    The hunting was not just about the speed, but about skills and patience.


    So they didn’t n on wasting their energy at the beginning of thepetition. They also didn’t


    want to go to those hot hunting spots and fought over preys with


    other teams.


    They nned to take a detour and go deep into the forest, which had less people and more


    chances.


    The three of them ventured into the dense woods quiet and steady, like three experienced


    predators.


    The forest in Riverside Pack seemed dreary,pared to Blood Moon’s ever–green woods.


    The color of the trees was muted shades of green and brown, which gave the forest an eerie and


    foreboding atmosphere.


    Now each step they took made a crunching sound on the bed of fallen twigs.


    The branches of the trees twisted and turned, forming eerie shapes like gnarled, ancient arms


    reaching out to grab them.


    “Christ,” Balvina rubbed her arm and groaned, “This ce seemed so off. Don’t people get


    depression living in a ce like this?”


    J brushed a branch away from her face and replied deeply, “Not if you are used to it.”


    She was thrown into this forest many times by Hellen and Paul when she was little.


    It was the cruelest kind of punishment for a kid.


    J would cry hours and hours, but nobody woulde to her rescue.


    Hellen probably wanted her to be killed by a bear. But magically, J managed to crawl back


    home each time alive.


    Gradually, this forest stopped being so dreadful to her anymore.


    “Hey. I’ve been meaning to ask you


    J turned around to Balvina and asked, “What happened between you and Casper the other


    day? Were you two kissing in his room?”


    Balvina’s face quickly turned red, “Oh that–well, yeah…we were.”


    “Really?” J cried excitedly. “Why didn’t you tell me? How long have you been going out?”


    “…We are not going out,” Balvinaughed bitterly. “We just…hooked up. It doesn’t mean anything


    serious for Casper.”


    “…What?” J rounded her eyes in shock and anger.


    What the hell?


    How the fuck did Casper be such a fuckboy!


    J wanted to keep asking but she was interrupted by Kass, who just returned from the front


    carrying a deer on his shoulder:


    “Gamma J, look what I got! A dear!”


    “Good for you,” J gave him a smile.


    “Let’s not talk about it here,” Balvina whispered urgently into J’s ears. “We should focus on the


    race for now.”


    And they kept traveling north, deep into the forest.


    Half an hourter, the three of them found themselves at an intersection.


    ording to the map, if they took the left, they’ll soon arrive at a stream, which was the hydration


    spot for many animals like rabbit, dears, and horses.


    It would seal their position as the winner.


    “Let’s go us.”


    then!” Kass urged them excitedly, “I bet other teams were all way behind


    But then he found J studying the map closely..


    “What’s the matter Gamma J?”


    “Nothing…Let’s go.” J put the map back to her backpack.


    There was a scraping mark on the map as though somebody had tried to change the detail…


    But she was probably being too suspicious.