Chapter 3 is here! I also did some updating to chapters 1 and 2, nothing big, just grammar mistakes and run on sentences and stuff like that. Thinking up a new summary that isn't so bad, but I can't promise it'll be good. If you've got any suggestions, drop me a line, please! Read and review.

Ch 3.

Underwood cleared the hill, the Demeter twins inches behind him, and shot by us, running for all they were worth.

Damian held up his hand, staying us until the trio were the right distance away. I kneaded my paws in anticipation as they got further and further away. Five feet. . . ten. . . fifteen. . . twenty. . .

My wolf senses were working overtime; I clearly heard every heavy footstep, every labored breath, could smell their anxiety and relief, mixed with Underwood's fear, for he had certainly smelt us. We were monsters, after all.

Mokkan and I were like rubber bands, stretched as taunt as we could go, longing to be released on our prey as our eyes followed them as they fled.

"Wait for it," Damian hisses at us, "wait for it. . ."

Underwood hears, and his head snaps around to look behind him, his pupils turning into slits in his terror.

"Go!" Damian yells, and before the word has even left his mouth, Mokkan and I have exploded out of the trees. My predator instincts kick into play as I run, straining to achieve maximum speed, as Mokkan is doing beside me. Damian steps out of the trees behind us, running just far enough for the magical border to be within shooting range, but I hardly notice.

The scent of fear floods my senses and brain, fueling me to greater heights. Ahead of us, the daytime sentries at the pine tree are yelling encouragement to Underwood and the Demeter twins, calling out for archers to pick off Mokkan and me.

My prey is panicking as they bolt for the border, making them clumsy and increasingly desperate. I'm running as fast as I am capable of, and the distance between me and the twins is quickly decreasing. Mokkan comes up beside me as we gain on them, his tongue lolling and tail wagging madly. I too have forgotten all dignity as my senses relish the kill that is to come.

The sentries at the pine tree are scrambling to save the twins and Underwood, but I know the archers aren't going to make it in time. A tall, muscular girl with stringy brown hair, probably a kid of Ares, steps forward towards the borderline, drawing her sword.

There is a loud hiss from behind me as Damian lets an arrow fly. It hit's the magical border and explodes with a loud bang, not three inches from the girl. Had she passed the border, Damian's excellent arrow would have nailed her between the eyes.

Looking furious, the girl screeches to a halt. She gets the message: stay there, or else. But she isn't happy about it.

The two demigods are merely feet in front of Mokkan and me and still about twenty feet from Camp Half-Blood. Underwood is slightly ahead of them, looking ready to pass out and screaming for help.

There is quite a crowd gathered under the pine tree now, and I fling myself to one side as someone throws a knife at me. Mokkan pulls ahead and, with a triumphant howl, lunges for the nearer of the twins. His teeth latch around the boy's arm, and both demigod and hellhound fall, rolling in the grass.

I continue running, and several of Damian's arrows screech by above my head as the demigods at the tree go nuts, and explode against the border in quick succession. The remaining twin has ten feet left to the border when the Camp Half-Blood archers get their act together and open fire on me. I begin to zigzag, but that wastes precious time, so I drop it and trust to luck and Damian's uncanny aiming to keep me alive.

One arrow gets me in the back left paw slowing me slightly, but all the others either miss or are thrown off course as Damian collides his own arrows with the enemy's celestial bronze-tipped ones.

Underwood throws himself across the border.

The boy is inches behind him.

Hands reach out to haul him to safety, but then Zane's warning flashes across my mind. I fling myself wildly forward and feel my fangs sink deep into the boy's ankle. Immediately I whirl around, yanking him out of Underwood's grasp and dragging his upper body back across the border, into the open. Debris rains down on me as Damian's arrows explode against everything they hit, blinding me and singeing the fur on me ears.

But I have the boy.

He is drug along behind me as I flee, his fingers digging into the soil as he tries to slow down, but it's not much use in the end.

"Shoot 'im!" I yell at Damian around a mouthful of ankle. He hears me and leaves off covering my back long enough to aim at the boy. I hear a juicy thunk as an arrow enters the boy's neck, and he goes limp.

I drop the carcass and run unhindered for the safety of the thicket I started from. Damian and Mokkan follow, all three of us cackling in mad delight.

Panting, we throw ourselves into the trees and disappear from view. "The other one?" I ask, my tongue lolling.

"Toast," Damian replies. "Mokkan made short work of him."

I pull the arrow out of my paw with my teeth. "We should get out of here," I say between ragged breaths. "That lot'll be after our blood."

Damian throws a glance back at the milling, mourning crowd back on Half-Blood Hill and nods. "Yeah," he pants. "We can go out the back of this thicket--there's a park on the other side. Mokkan can shadow travel us back to camp from there."

Mokkan, looking exhausted but willing, wags his tail agreeably.

"Great show by the way, Christine." Damian grins as we jog through the trees. "Shoulda had a video camera."

"Show?" I ask. "That was a close one! I nearly lost him."

Mokkan whines.

"Yeah, you did good too," I say. "I missed most of your action though."

"It was great," Damian says. "The kid shrieked like a girl before Mokkan took his head off."

"I love it when they do that," I agree.

We make it to the park without getting spotted, and Mokkan finds a nice shady spot to shadow travel into. I know it's exhausting for him, and get the feeling that he'll be sleeping for quite a while after out return. After morphing back into a human and glancing around to look for anyone who might have seen us, I slide up onto Mokkan's back behind Damian, and the three of us vanish.