Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Cole stayed still in a defensive stance from the hunter. If Katie chose to fight him at this moment, she would win without a second thought, there was no doubting the power she wielded. This hunter was the real deal, even scarier than most of the hunters that he had met up until this point. He continued to rack his brain for ways to get out of this trouble or at least some form of explanation in case things took a turn for the worst. How had Katie managed to find him? Had she been chasing him the entire time? No, that was not it, this did not feel like it... He had been afraid of the possibility of finding a number of rogues camping out in the woods outside the town, but now that Katie stood before him, that wasn’t something to worry about.

“What’s with you? You’re shaking a...” Katie took a step forward, tripping on a stone so small it could have been dust before she descended heading for the ground with no sign of catching her balance. Cole rushed forward, putting his head beneath her such that she fell on him. Sparks went through his body on every spot on the wolf’s body that she touched with her bare skin. The faint smell of wolfsbane hit his nostrils from her hands although it was not enough to make him cringe. He made a few adjustments, pushing the body of the half-asleep hunter upwards such that he could place her on his back. “Would you really... after...”

“Forget about it. Let’s get you home, Katie, or at least what I call home. It’s really late...” he said before starting the run back to the place they now called home. He felt like slapping himself for having feared her when there was nothing to be afraid of. Sandra was right. Katie was still Katie no matter what she looked like or how powerful she was. And that was what mattered, she was the one person that he felt something for. It was a faint feeling of affection for her that brought him to keep trying to find out more about her. He had never thought he would find out that she was stronger than him, however.

He jogged on till he was back at the hotel that the Royal family had booked for Jason, Caden and him while they studied here. They had booked a whole floor just for the three of them. ‘Honestly, alphas had packs to run and they would rather send those two along with me to act as bodyguards,’ he thought to himself, placing an unconscious Katie by a tree before he shifted back into his human form. The cellphone in his pocket flashed a notification that said he had twenty missed calls from both Caden and Jason. Dailing Caden’s number, Cole called him to come to help him take Katie up to their suite.

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“So where did you say you found her?” Jason asked, whilst he looked at Katie’s face on the couch.

“I found her something like five miles from the town. She was severely weakened by then and collapsed the moment she saw me,” Cole explained from the kitchen while he poured herself a drink. Caden sat on the sofa opposite the one they had placed Katie in along with Ash who couldn’t take his eyes off Katie.

.....

“What do you think she could have been doing that far out? Do you think she was attacked?” Ash asked.

“I doubt it. If she had been attacked there would be scratches or marks on her that showed that she was attacked, even if she was the one who ended up the victor, she would still have some kind of sign. She was knocked out purely due to muscle stress and exhaustion. She has probably been pushing herself too hard for the past few days and now it has taken its toll on her,” Caden said voicing his opinion. Jason, on the other hand, had now switched to drawing funny pictures on her face along with writing words like, ‘I’m the strongest wimp!’ and phrases like that made Katie look like she was from a bullying situation.

“I wonder what she will do to you when she finds out you did that to her face,” Caden pointed out.

“I’ll just say Ash forced me into it,” he said.

“But I didn’t even...” Ash began.

“Oh, come on Jason, leave the boy alone. You have been making his life difficult since we came back,” Caden groaned.

“I was only messing around. How was I to know that he was taking everything I said seriously,” he denied.

“Okay, Ash, from now on. Do not listen to anything that comes out of that guy’s mouth. He is not the kind to get serious at any one point in his life. Sometimes, I wonder how he’s even an alpha,” Caden spoke, turning his attention to the new arrival. It was already coming to midnight and they were yet to catch some sleep. Cole had called on this meeting to discuss what had transpired that day.

Cole took a seat on the sofa that faced the television such that the four of them were on both sides of him and took a sip of his coffee before he began talking, “As we all know, we have been through quite a bit under only a few hours. The rogues attacked when we least expected it and something tells me the story runs deeper than random rogue attack. This was said to be the safest town, but I guess that reputation alone might be open to discussion. I found Katie far from here as you all know and I say she spends the night here since I am in no condition to take her to her house whose location I have no idea of.”

“Can we know what you were doing that far from the city boundaries yourself?” Jason asked him.

“Oh, yeah, that. Remember the scent I told you about on the day when I first...”

“Cole, I thought we talked about you...”

“I know, I know, Caden. I have been heard that my entire life. I just want to hope that she is still out there. It is not unheard of a second chance mate to appear once in a while,” Cole spoke indifferently. The scent that had been plaguing him was similar to something that had been described to him before, but he also had reason to believe it didn’t mean the same thing to him.

“That is true, but they don’t happen when you are still this young,” he replied.

“I don’t know guys. My wolf was excited... I couldn’t let the owner of that scent slip away from me and so I gave chase. They must have been moving too because no matter how much I closed the gap between us, they continued to evade me. Until the scent just went dark like there was nothing anymore. “Do you think that scent belongs to a rogue and Katie was in pursuit when you found her?” Caden asked.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the rapid vanishing of the scent.”

“It is possible if the rogue had those pills on hand,” a small voice said in the room.

Cole turned to Ash, “What pills?”

“The ones we used to use to suppress our presence,” he explained.

“I had forgotten about that. Locking up your wolves, that must be hard on the wolves within you,” she said.

“Yes, that is true. Many of them died because their wolves simply wouldn’t let themselves be silenced. One is required to communicate with their wolf side before suppressing it otherwise, they will be plagued with a minimum of a huge headache and dizziness,” he explained, pulling his knees close to his chest and wrapping his hands around them, memories plaguing him while he remembered his form life.

“Hey, Ash, try not to think about it too much. You are safe now. No one is going to force you to do spy work anymore.” With that, he led the boy away from the living room and to his room to sleep. Something that the lot of them ought to have been getting.

“What happens to Katie?” Caden asked pointing at the unconscious hunter on the sofa.

“We’ll put him in my room,” she said.

“No argument there. Don’t get naughty though,” Caden said, lifting the hunter off the sofa and walking off with him in the direction of Cole’s room. Cole stayed in the same spot sipping her coffee, her mind moving back to a memory that had been trying its best to surface, but she had blocked it. Now she let the memory take over her.

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

Cole was twelve years old when he was finally tired of hearing words of pity whispered behind his back about how he was mateless. It didn’t make sense to him that people would know such information about him when he was only twelve years old and it angered him every time he heard someone speak of it.

The morning of that day, he snapped during his morning training and a fight between him and one of the pack warriors broke loose. ‘None of them have a right to make a decision only the moon goddess can. It had taken three of his comrades to keep him from disfiguring the wolf’s face any more than he already had.

‘Why don’t you ask your father about this rumour? That should clear up your suspicions,’ Caden had told him. Apparently, this rumour was well known to be a fact all over the palace. Hearing this from Caden made his blood boil with anger. Nonetheless, he heeded his advice and began the walk to his father’s office on the fourth floor of the colossal Lycaon palace.

He didn’t bother knocking at the door and just burst in, his anger becoming somewhat hard to contain. “Father, I need to talk to you.”

His father looked up from the paperwork before him, taking in his son’s state and closing everything accordingly. “What seems to be the problem, Cole?”

“There is a rumour going around... something about me being... mateless,” the word was repulsive even as it rolled off Cole’s tongue.

“Well...” his father sighed, finally noticing the blood on Cole’s knuckles, “Now might be a good time as any... you might want to take a seat.”

“Just tell me if it’s true or not,” Cole yelled, a yes-no answer seemingly the only thing that could make sense to him.

“You aren’t mateless because that would mean the moon goddess did not choose a mate for you or that she decided you were not to have a mate,” he said.

“What are you not telling me, father?”

“Much as you aren’t mateless... your mate is... dead,” he reluctantly confessed, “I wanted to hold out from telling you for...”

“You can’t know that... I’m not eighteen yet. The moon goddess has not yet...”

“Calm yourself, Cole. The moon goddess revealed your mate well before you were born. The two of you, chosen by the moon goddess herself to bring forth the end of this war, but not everyone was too happy about that. A few nights after she was born, you as well, the two palaces were attacked by rogues. We were able to fend off the attack, but the girl was... killed,” he said.

“You mean, Katie Sirius, the daughter of the other Royal family that was killed when she was still an infant,” Cole asked, remembering a story one of the werewolves he heard was gossiping about.

“Yeah, Katie Sirius was meant to be your mate... I’m sorry, Cole.”

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