Chapter 163: Chapter 163

163 Chapter One Hundred Sixty Three

Katie woke up the day afterwards later than they normally did. She looked to her side and found her mate soundly asleep beside her. Looking beyond him, she found that they’d missed the alarm. Either that or the man had decided to turn it off that night. Cole’s hand unconsciously wrapped around her, “Where do you think you are going?” he grumbled, barely opening his eyes.

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, we should be following the others for pack training,” she tried, turning to face him in the bed. The royal made no effort to get out of the bed and showed no sign of letting her go.

“You’ve been exempted from that training considering you completely depleted your energy yesterday,” Cole replied. His tone was commanding. Katie could tell he wasn’t going to back down in this...

“Who decided that?” she asked, letting go of the tension in her muscles.

“The pack doctor did... It was part of her advice to help you heal from what happened,” Cole replied, pulling the girl closer to him. Katie snuggled up closer and asked the looming questions on her mind.

“What happened after I passed out?”

“Well, that might be a long story. I’d prefer you pull it from my memories. I don’t think I’ll be capable of putting it into words,” the royal spoke up bringing his hand to cup his mate’s cheek. The two of them closed their eyes and allowed themselves to meet within the bond they shared. Katie was getting used to this kind of connection the werewolves shared. In fact, she found it to be very handy when it came to relaying the true emotions behind someone’s words.

Katie watched in silence as her mate got angry on her behalf and put a Mighty warrior into a hospital bed. Each time she felt like arguing with him, his emotions assaulted her. It was hard to oppose someone when you felt the anger that they had in the moment that they had it. Cole’s emotions were all over the place and Ashley did nothing to oppose them. In fact, the wolf was supportive of what had happened.

When Katie had reached the point Cole decided to go to the hospital, she asked that they ended the connection. Cole stopped the inflow of memories reluctantly. Katie didn’t want to know what happened after that. Frank silver was in the hospital and that alone was very dangerous to her mate, “Cole, you do realise a royal hasn’t struck a hunter in centuries? Your actions could put an end to all your efforts.”

.....

“You didn’t let me finish,” he tried.

“What’s left to finish Cole? You put the man in the hospital. I spoke with him the other day and found that he’s never actually taken a beating in his life. Cole, what were you thinking?” she spiralled.

“Katie, calm down. Frank is okay,” Cole raised his voice, shaking her to get her attention.

Katie went quiet for a while. Cole was not making sense and at the moment, she was sure of what she had seen in his mind. None of it was a lie or the emotions would have been impossible to fake, “What are you trying to say? I just watched everything in your mind.”

“No, you watched a part of it. Now would you like to watch the rest,” he replied. curiosity gripped the girl’s mind. How could someone that was in hospital with injuries that serious suddenly be okay within the same night. Closing her eyes, she allowed the bond they shared to do its work and let the royal’s memories through. She watched as he went to the hospital and used a power she hadn’t heard of to heal the man.

Katie was quiet all while she watched her mate take the pain of the hunter and restore him to his former state. It was both scary and miraculous to watch. Unfortunately, she felt all the emotions and pain that her mate was feeling through all that and she instinctively hugged him when she felt it. Cole appreciated the gesture and did nothing to fight it... When the memory was done, he let silence take over them.

“Well, you were right about me eating you for breakfast if Frank was stuck in that state,” Katie mumbled to herself.

“I figured... Can I ask something of you, Katie? Actually, it’s two things right now,” Cole asked.

“Anything,” she replied, noting the meaning of her statement, “Except having me marked right here and now. I’m still not ready for that...” she quickly added.

The male nodded in confirmation as his thoughts had already begun to fly through the possibilities of finishing that one thing this one time that he’d got the opportunity. Alas, she wasn’t ready yet which didn’t bother him as much as it used to. Veering back to what he’d meant to say earlier, “You aren’t to push yourself so hard. Not like you did yesterday and you are also to eat enough to replenish your lost strength.”

Katie stared at him for a moment. Despite wanting to keep Cole happy, “We need to adjust those conditions,” she grimaced. It was heartbreaking to have to disagree with Cole. The royal furrowed his brow in annoyance.

“In what way exactly?” he asked.

“Well, I have to push myself if I’m to make it to where I want to be. On the other hand, I can promise to slow down a bit,” she replied.

“That won’t do. You won’t train with him again if you are going to push yourself that hard, Katie,” his voice held a hint of finality. Katie had almost forgotten that Cole had banned Frank from training her any further than he’d already done.

“That’s not fair, Cole. You know its necessary,” she replied. The male didn’t reply. He only stared at her, “You can’t force me to agree to something like that. You might as well stop me from training altogether.”

“I’m quite sure your adoptive parents didn’t train you to push yourself this hard either. You aren’t meant to hurt yourself. Every time you do that, you leave yourself vulnerable. What makes you think the rogues will stand by and watch you reach your weakest points before they make a move against you,” Cole replied.

“We are in the capital, Cole. There are no rogues this close to the castle,” she tried to reason, but the man was far beyond reasoning with. For once, the girl wanted to push herself out of his grasp despite the overwhelming weakness that overtook her when she was with him. Slamming her fists weakly on Cole’s chest, Katie noticed him wince if only slightly. It was clear to her that the small gesture of frustration had physically hurt him. “Cole, are you okay?”

He sighed before answering, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Don’t lie to me, Cole. I can tell you are in pain,” she replied, her voice going up a few octaves.

“Among the side effects of me healing someone is that my healing speed is reduced. It will take me a bit to get back to normal,” he explained. Katie froze at the revelation. He’d seemed so fine when he woke up.

“How many side effects are there as a result of using that power?” she asked him.

“Well, I get the injuries of the person that I heal and my healing is slowed. It might be faster than that of the person that I healed, but it isn’t as fast as it normally is. I lose a lot of energy and remain weakened for a few days. Oh, I can’t heal a fatal injury. That would kill me as well and leave the person I have healed perfectly fine,” he explained.

“Oh, I see... Did your powers come with a user’s manual or something?” the girl chuckled.

Cole chuckled along with her, “No, they didn’t, but with research, one was made.” It was a white lie and Katie saw right through him. Cole had been hiding something from her, but she hadn’t pushed him to tell her what it was. She would wait for him to tell her. Maybe this had also been a part of it.

...............

Crysta stood in the training fields waiting on the person she’d officially booked for the morning training sessions. The she wolf knew that she could learn a lot from Katie, but couldn’t get over her pride to admit it. Unfortunately for her, the girl never showed up and she didn’t want to use the mind link to contact her since it would have made her sound like she cared (which she did not... obviously...)

The girl walked up to Lina and Honour who were still going through the morning aerobic drills before Jackson gave his orders, “Hey, runt, where is your sister?” she asked Lina, “The one that doesn’t suck as much as you and is too nice for her own good that it’s even disgusting.”

“Did you just call Katie nice?” Lina wondered.

“Well, considering I was hanging about her mate and bullying her sister and yet she doesn’t show a single sign of hatred towards me. Not to mention the fact that she got you of all people back into the den, yes, she is too nice for her own good,” the girl replied.

Lina hid the smile that graced her face, “Well, Katie was told to take the day off after what happened yesterday. The same goes for Cole, so you might not be seeing her today.”

“Hey, Crysta...” a voice came from behind the girl. Lina’s smile fell when she saw the source of the voice. Liam stood behind the girl, folding his arms, “Ah, I see you’re speaking to the runts again. What are you trying to prove?”

“Can you mind your own business, Liam?” Crysta replied, standing between the two groups.

Liam noticed the defensiveness that came off Crysta and scoffed, “It’s like you want to make me sick. Anyway, I’d come to ask if you’re free. I don’t see that prissy princess around, so I thought we might train.”

“What happened to your usual training partner?” she asked him.

“I think I might have broken him. Now don’t make me repeat myself. You and me, now...” he commanded.