Chapter 272: Chapter 272

272 Unexpected Company

The tea party proceeded harmoniously among the four of them. Against all of Cole’s complaints, the queen brought up different parts of his life growing up that she found hilarious and others that she found inspirational.

Katie, who was carefully listening and hanging at her every word, was astounded by what the boy had gone through to learn how to fight.

At first, Cole’s father had done nothing to train him. Instead, the boy had challenged the beta alphas time and time again to duels which he lost plenty of times. Among the embarrassing parts was when the queen thought it would be nice to take the boy swimming.

Cole hadn’t shown any enthusiasm towards the idea even though it was meant to be fun for them and nothing more. As a boy who’d grown up observing the pack warriors, he knew weakness was one of those things he was never to show in his life. In the queen’s words, “Normally, when I would propose something fun for the two of us to do, the boy would jump at the idea, trying to get me to the venue before we even had time to get packing, but this time, Cole wanted nothing to do with me. It was like I was a stranger.”

Eventually, the queen got the boy to the pool, after a lot of persuasions and sweet talking. Cole was not an easy child to convince, however, he had a soft spot for the queen and at the end of the day, she inevitably found out that the boy did not know how to swim.

Hilarious as the discovery might have been, Cole was proud of that story. After all, it was the day he got his first swimming lesson from his stepmother.

“Oh, Katie, why don’t you tell us how you learnt how to swim?” Cole asked her when it seemed she wouldn’t let go of the issue.

“Um, my life isn’t that eventful. You’ll get severely bored,” Katie replied with a tight smile, stirring her tea nervously, “Well, except for the parts with Sandra in them. Those were always fun. There were a few times when we had fun with my adoptive parents, but I was pretty much good at everything by the time we came to having fun.”

Katie hunted through her mind for a time she had had fun with her parents when it wasn’t hunter-related and found that the memories were few. Being a hunter was every bit a part of the first part of her life as breathing. Taking her swimming was just another fitness training and a way to improve her breathing and endurance.

.....

“What about the parts with me in them?” a new voice dismantled the peaceful atmosphere. Katie sighed when she heard Kyle’s voice. As someone who’d intentionally cropped the boy’s parts out of her narrations, this was a very inconvenient situation.

Appalled by the rude interruption along with the several red flags that the sudden intruder raised everywhere he went, Katie’s voice went up several octaves, “What are you even doing here? Where is Caden?” Cole had his arm around the girl, glaring daggers at the boy that had just made his presence known.

While Kyle was virtually incapable of harming Katie, Cole didn’t trust him around his mate one bit. It couldn’t be helped.

“Right here, Luna. And you, prisoner, keep your mouth shut,” Caden ordered the boy who complied immediately, “I only come to inquire about something from Alpha Cole. It couldn’t wait and I didn’t feel it appropriate to interrupt his mind in the middle of this important... um, party.”

“Well, this lunatic can speak while you speak with Cole,” Katie replied, prying Cole’s protective hand from her. She gave him a reassuring look. Reluctantly, the alpha complied and stood up to attend to royal matters.

When Cole was gone, silence surrounded the table. The queen suddenly felt like she was in the last place on earth she could have chosen to be and the air was getting oddly thinner. ‘And when it was I that called on this tea party,’ she mentally cursed.

“Oh my, do we live in the mountains now? The three of you clearly have a lot to catch up on,” the queen excused herself quickly with a cup of tea in her hands, even when Sandra’s eyes begged her to stay. The air was still humid from the rain that had plagued Lycaon for a while.

“Well, I guess it’s just the three of us once again. It’s been a while,” Kyle was the first to break the silence, grinning widely at the two of them. He hovered his hand above a plate of scones and turned to look at his alpha. Katie noticed he was asking for permission and nodded in approval before the boy popped one of the scones into his mouth.

“Yeah, I guess it is the three of us again,” Katie replied, pointing to a spot far from her, “Sit there.”

“I love the hostility... It’s fresh and warm. Like biting into a warm piece of meat,” the boy joked before losing the smile on his face.

“If I had my way, I would make sure you don’t see meat for the rest of your life,” Sandra sighed, “But alas, you need it to be able to protect Katie with every ounce of energy you can offer.”

“Now now, guys, this is no way to have a reunion. Kyle is reformed now, aren’t you, Kyle?” Katie asked.

“It’s not like I have that much of choice in the matter,” Kyle replied, plunging them into yet another awkward silence.

“Kyle,” Sandra spoke up, “Knowing what you know now, would you still go back to the rogues if you were given the chance?”

The boy couldn’t bring himself to look the girl in the eye, “Am I meant to answer that truthfully?”

Glaring at the boy, Sandra spat, “No, you don’t. That reaction answers all the questions I had already.”

Katie was not so easily convinced by the boy’s reaction to the question. The two of them shared emotions and she could tell something was up, “Well then, go ahead.”

Shocked, he asked, “Go ahead and do what, Alpha Katie?”

“Go ahead and answer the question truthfully,” she asked him. Kyle was indeed shocked to hear that she had a question like that for him. He had expected to dodge the question with another question, but she’d seen straight through him.