Chapter 297: Chapter 297

297 Captivity

The prince and girl turned to face the new arrival. Drake hadn’t even heard the man approach him. In his hand, he held Crysta’s cell phone and from the looks of it, he had already surveyed the scene, “I came as fast as I could. How many have gone missing?” the man’s familiar voice rang out.

‘Where have I seen this man before?’ Honour clawed through her memories in search of the man’s face, but couldn’t seem to find it.

To her surprise, Drake looked a little relieved instead of startled by the man’s sudden appearance, “I can’t be sure yet. I have confirmed that three are missing, but they are from those I’m aware of. I didn’t expect to see you this far from Lycaon, Thomas Chase.”

The man’s face snapped into focus in the girl’s mind. She’d seen him at the reserve. This was Katie’s guardian and one of the famed Chase hunters.

“Well, I was supposed to be watching the newest member of the Chase family, by my senses have been picking up random pieces of Trouble all over the world. The Chase family has been distributed after only just coming together after a long time. It’s a tragedy honestly,” the man sighed.

“Drake?” the girl spoke out, sensing the power that came from him. She’d never been introduced to the hunter before.

“This is Thomas Chase. He’s Katie’s adoptive father,” Drake replied and the man took a simple bow.

“So you would be Katie’s father figure. The photographer behind all her coveted baby pictures,” the girl responded.

Thomas chuckled, “Don’t start pointing fingers. It wasn’t my idea to take those. I can’t wait for the time I’ll embarrass her with them though.”

.....

“Do you know where the girls have been taken?” Drake asked him, noticing them drifting off-topic.

“No, I don’t know that and I doubt we’ll be able to find out either. The only thing we can do is trap whoever has captured them. If I’d arrived a little earlier, I would have found them, but by the time the plane touched the ground, the trail had gone cold. I could only find one of the last places I detected trouble and this was one of them,” the man explained.

“How much do you know concerning our situation?”

“I was eavesdropping. It seems the rogues know how the power of the Chase family works,” the man observed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the prince asked.

“Well, we can detect the murderous intent of the rogues. If I’m correct, the girl is still alive. And for as long as the rogues don’t kill them, we won’t be able to track them using my abilities. However, that doesn’t keep them from dying from other means like starvation,” the man explained, frustration leaking into his voice, “I was thinking...”

“You have my attention,” the prince gestured for him to proceed.

“You said three people had already vanished. It could be possible that we ca set a trap for the culprits. I had to say it but we’d need bait,” he said to the prince, smirking at the girl behind him.

Honour took longer than she would have liked but when she did, she groaned, “How are we going to draw them out exactly? You seem to have everything figured out?”

“Well, to be honest, I’m only using the information you’ve given me. So far, we only know that the culprit captured the girl that you called Crysta along with her friends. You talked about her guardians and they are unreachable.

From the looks of it, the three victims are all related. I would think the culprit intended to make it impossible to be discovered in time. Is there anyone else that would have been willing to check on her in a short while? Maybe we can pick up on a pattern here,” the man asked.

“She pushed away the only other people that were that close to her in light of recent events. Liam and Wyatt don’t seem to mind where...”

“Have you been able to find her yet?” a male voice interrupted them.

“Talk of the devil,” Honour pinched the bridge of her nose after hearing Liam’s voice, “What do you want, Liam? Didn’t you hear the prince mention you were to move in groups and not once let your guard down?”

“Look at you acting like you’re in charge. I’ll just ignore you and wait for my answer. Have you found the girl yet or not?” Liam dismissed the girl.

“You will treat her with respect, Liam,” Drake spoke to him. The alpha’s eyes widened in shock at the man’s words. They were practically blasphemy to him, but his experience with the royals had taught him more than to get into an argument with them.

“Very well. I apologise for my disrespect. It was wrong of me. Happy now?” he forced a smile.

“Huh, it’s not like you to simply accept, so I’ll take what I can get. As for your question, we don’t know anything... yet. You know she’s not the only one missing?” the prince told him.

“Yeah, I know that, but she’s the only one missing that I actually care about. The ones that followed her weren’t as important,” Liam replied, folding his arms across his chest.

“You can be so heartless and proud of it at the same time,” Honour was amused by the man’s character.

“Look who’s figured it out,” he rolled his eyes.

“Oh Liam, you didn’t really mean all those mean things you just said?” Wyatt shouted from the exit at the back of the castle as he jogged towards them.

“No, I didn’t mean them, but I would be more comfortable to have you take Crysta’s place in all this,” he yelled back at the approaching alpha.

“Haha, very funny... You would probably be captured immediately as well, just like Bree and Ginger to keep the royals from noticing,” Wyatt replied. His voice didn’t mirror the venom in Liam’s voice. It was calm...

and almost hurt...

‘Get a grip, Honour. Wyatt is not capable of feeling hurt,’ the girl shook off the illusions.

“I can’t believe something useful came from all this useless banter,” the prince sighed, “So they capture someone along with everyone that can tell that they’ve gone missing so that their trail will run cold before anyone has noticed. While this is just one way to look at it, it’s a step in some direction. Why though?” the prince pondered.

“Well, maybe it’s because...” Honour stopped her sentence when a foreign consciousness invaded her mind. It was similar to the time when Katie had forced her to sync with her...

After a short pause, she spoke up, “I think I might be able to lead us to Crysta.” That was all she said before allowing herself to shift for the first time in many moons.

Honour very rarely shifted in her life and chose not to... for her wolf was just as weak as she was. While it was stronger than her physical body, it was nothing compared to the strength of the average wolf.

Without warning, she rushed off into the woods, following the voice and feel of the mind that had reached out to her. ‘We don’t have much time, Drake,’ she yelled through the mind link, ‘She sounds really weak.’

The girl’s frightened voice spurred the prince into motion. In a few seconds, a large white wolf with a black patch on its back stood in his place and darted in Honour’s direction.

“Now we are getting somewhere,” Thomas Sirius exclaimed, using his bow and arrow to launch himself off the ground and send him soaring through the woods and in pursuit of the small(well, as small as a werewolf could ever be) grey wolf that had just left.

Arrows that were tied to strong cords were used in this fashion usually by hunters that didn’t have Agility gifts. When Katie received her gifts, the man had put off teaching her this technique any further.

The man was airborne and tearing through the woods before the two alphas could tell what was happening. They shifted as well and followed, catching up to Honour with no problem at all. The grey wolf’s speed left little to be desired.

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

The taste of blood, the smell of wolfsbane and the throbbing pain that purged her head were the first things that were made clear to the waking delta.

Crysta groaned in pain as she struggled to get up. The sudden motion dosed her with an immense dose of dizziness that had her reeling to empty the contents of her stomach.

Without having had breakfast that day, there was nothing to eject from her stomach and so the girl was only heaving painfully on the ground.

When the painful ordeal was done, she collapsed on the cold hard floor again, the scent of loam floor making its way into her nostrils.

She hadn’t managed to open her eyes yet and she was already feeling her consciousness drifting away. It took everything to stay awake.

Her throat was dry and she was both thirsty and hungry. Voices started to make their way to her ears, “What do you think happened to her?” one asked.

“I don’t know, but she doesn’t look so good. That wound at the back of her head worries me. We need to get her to the doctor quickly,” another came.

“Forget that, Ginger. We can barely move. Not to mention we don’t know where we are,” the girl complained.

This time, Crysta recognised the voices. Her memories hurt to return, but she could barely focus on anything. “Would you two shut up? You’re making the headache worse,” she whispered.

“Crysta, you’re awake. Crysta, we’ve been worried,” Bree yelled to get her attention which was the absolute opposite of what the girl wanted to hear.

“Quiet down, Bree. Didn’t you hear what she just said? Keep your voice down, already,” Ginger tried.

“Oh, blast it. She doesn’t get to order us around after the way she’s been treating us,” Bree yelled back at her friend, “Crysta, how could you prioritise that usurper over us?”

“Are we really going to do this now?” Crysta coughed, this time trying her best to get up without triggering another wave of dizziness. Her muscles hurt so much that she was barely able to hold her weight.

“When else shall we do this? When or if we do get out of here, you’ll just go back to ignoring us and tending to everything that royal wants,” Bree yelled.

Crysta’s head rattled with more pain as the girl yelled at her. She got up and felt something cold at her wrists. Touching them confirmed what they were, cuffs attached to chains that restrained her. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know where they were.

“Lina is my friend, just like the two of you,” she replied through gritted teeth. She held her eyes shut as though keeping her head from exploding from the headache and massaging her temples.

“I wish I could believe that,” Ginger chuckled when Bree didn’t answer her.

Crysta kept her breathing steady for a while, focusing on only that while she tried to think of what to tell her friends. She had indeed been ignoring them for a while and she hadn’t even taken their feelings into consideration.

“Bree, Ginger, I’m sorry...” pausing for a bit before continuing, “I’m honestly nearly at my limit in all this. I was hoping to rekindle the friendship I’ve wanted to restore for years now.”

“What do you mean, years? You’ve shown no interest in Lina since the day you acknowledged she was weaker than you,” Bree snickered.

Crysta sighed, cringing at the memory of the day she abandoned the only person she’d considered her best friend, “And that is the day I regret the most in my life.”