Chapter 44: Chapter 44

A tear flowed down Aunt Marie’s face as she watched the door Katie had only just exited. “She’s gone now,” she yelled when it had been five minutes. A set of footsteps sounded after that, walking towards her. Hands wrapped around her in a tight hug allowing her to weep silently into the warm embrace of her husband, the one person she ever allowed to peer into her emotions. A fellow hunter she’d been partnered with years ago to save a group of children that had been abducted by rogues.

She’d fallen in love with the hunter not long after. One thing led to another and the man gained the name of the prestigious Chase family. Their family had gained enough popularity to gain the rights of usurping the rule of a woman inheriting the man’s name. They were ranked like nobles in the world that they lived in.

“I’m sorry you had to face her by yourself. I couldn’t...”

“It’s okay. She wouldn’t have been ready to hear what it was that we had to say. Where are they?” she asked.

“I got them a suite in the same hotel that the Lycaons are residing in. The only images they have of Katie are those on her Hunter profile and the ones that I was able to get that was of her. I made sure I didn’t give them the chance to meet her now that all this was occupying her,” he explained.

“Let’s go and meet them. I’m sure they would want to see us together at least after the journey they have heard,” Aunt Marie told her husband.

“Yeah, I guess so. The last time we saw the queen was when she handed us Katie when she was an infant. It’s been a long time, but it feels like it blew over in a flash. Thinking back to when she took her first steps and the numerous hospital visits we took her to so that she could be checked up, just because she never used to cry,” he reminisced.

.....

“Yeah, that girl didn’t know the purpose of parents. She made our lives easy and difficult because we could never tell if she was sick until she either passed out or went numb with body weakness,” Aunt Marie chuckled.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

After wiping her tears, the two walked out through the back door and got into the SUV that had been hidden from sight at the back in the cover of trees. She got in the passenger seat and enjoyed the peaceful drive to the prestigious Brigade Hotel. Everything in that town that was named after it was maintained and kept at the best standards possible. Though this was easy since most of them were owned by resident hunters who had the money to run the facilities.

The ride was a short one as they got there in ten minutes. Tension gripped Marie as she saw the entrance of the hotel. Expensive cars littered the parking lot indicating the presence of numerous important people that occupied the hotel. They walked in and up to the reception. Tom spoke with the receptionist who called the suite. After being cleared of entry, they got into the elevator and punched in the one-time passcode that would give them access to the level they were going to.

The elevator doors opened up to reveal a lady who flew straight into Marie’s arms engulfing her in a tight bear hug, “Oh Marie, it’s been so long.” The jumpy human being that was being cheery was the queen. Her beautiful voice rang out like a beautiful melody draining Marie of all of her worries and tension. She reluctantly but thankfully returned the gesture and hugged her back.

“It sure has been long since we last met, Martha,” she replied, taking the time to enjoy the moment with her friend.

“So that is the Chase you entrusted our child to eighteen years ago,” a voice tore through the peaceful moment.

“Oh honey, how many times should I apologise for not informing you about the arrangement? I already told you that I was instructed to keep the meeting to myself and my handler at the time until everything settled down,” she said, finally letting go of Marie.

“I’ll introduce the people before you. This is...”

“She already knows our names, Tom. Who in the world hasn’t heard of King Davin of the Sirius family?” the king said smirking as though he was in the spotlight. Tom couldn’t help but smile at the man’s aptitude for flair. He was dressed to kill in an expensive white suit that fitted him perfectly and did nothing to hide his muscular build.

“Yeah, about that... we made sure not to tell her about your Royal lives so that she wouldn’t grow up watching the faces you displayed in the media. It would be better if she got to know you personally and not from the news or television,” Marie said. The air grew tense when she revealed this.

“Well, that makes sense. I would also want to know my little sister without having to hear her go on and on about the news she would have heard about me on the news,” a new voice came tore through the tension damaging everyone’s opinion of the matter.

“Name’s Drake, I’m firstborn of the Sirius family. How is my little sister doing?” the boy... well, more like the twenty-two-year-old male that made his presence known introduced himself, dressed in a similar outfit to his father except that he had his coat off and stayed in just the shirt and white tie. ‘Yes, the entire suite was white-themed with luxuriously designed gold pieces littered on its shoulders and chest, a pricy part of the coat.

“Yeah, I also want to meet Katie. She sounds like fun. How is she?” a young girl made herself known from the cover of the sofa that looked to the television in the living room of the suite. As such, she was out of view from Tom and Marie.

“Hey, Lina, can’t you get over her and greet our guests in a more princess-worthy manner?” Drake yelled.

“I’m not joining you and Dad’s dress up game. It’s childish, besides, I don’t see how princely it is to yell at the top of your voice in front of your guests,” she yelled back.

“I know that, but isn’t that part of your plan to destroy Dad’s plan?”

“Kids, can you behave? You’re embarrassing yourselves in front of our guests,” King Davin spoke up, rubbing his temples. Martha couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Follow me to the living room. We’ve been expecting you,” Queen Martha said to them. Unlike the suit her husband wore, she was dressed in an ordinary crop-top and shorts. She looked the same as she did eighteen years ago, something humans envied about the werewolves. On one side of this coin, this was an ordinary family that had come to meet their long-lost daughter, but at the back of Marie’s hunter mind, this was the largest collection of Royals. The strongest kind of werewolves who were descended from the very first Royals... the most direct connections to the Sirius bloodline.

These thoughts were however drowned out of her mind by their warm outgoing nature. The werewolves in the Royal families were doing all they could to keep the memory of their ancestors’ crimes buried and in the past. As it was now, it was becoming common knowledge to know that behaviour like that was not to be expected from a wolf that wasn’t a rogue. Martha, Davin and Drake led them to the living room where a sixteen-year-old lay in a three-seat sofa watching the television with a sheet covering her bare legs.

“You shouldn’t wear clothes that are so revealing, my dear,” Martha said warmly.

“Mum, we are in our home. They came in, not me. You don’t see me walking around the town dressed like this, besides, I have a sheet... I have a sheet,” the sheet seeming to act like some sort of driver’s license when Lina emphasized its presence.

“Okay then, at least take on less seating space. If you haven’t noticed, you aren’t in the palace anymore. This place can’t contain you, Drake and your father,” Martha spoke again.

“Oh, mum, I love your honesty. I thought you weren’t going to rope my father into this,” Drake said, taking a seat. Lina sat up and took the appropriate seat covering her legs more appropriately before greeting Tom and Marie.

Tom and Marie sat together in a two-seater while the King and Queen sat beside their daughter. Lina switched muted the television but left it on to provide her with an alternative object to look at if things got weird and she didn’t want to look anyone in the eye. “Katie is going through a lot right now. That’s why I didn’t want you all to meet him while she was in the middle of this.”

“What is she going through that’s so urgent?”

“She is currently in the middle of an investigation that puts her in a terrible position if she doesn’t get results,” Marie said.

“What kind of investigation?”

“A murder investigation,” the statement caused the tension in the room to rise rapidly. The king and queen were not pleased to hear this.

“What happened?”

“One of the werewolves at the school was murdered with one of the blades that belonged to her. It doesn’t look good at all. Keep in mind that she’s a hunter,” she said.

“How is she a hunter?” the queen laughed at hearing the information.

“Tom, I thought you told them all of this,” she asked.

“They were tired from their flight here and I didn’t want them to have to hear all of this while they were in that state,” he said.

“What aren’t you telling us?”

“We trained Katie to be a hunter so that she could protect herself if need be. At the time, we were training her to become strong and not a pushover. The plan was that all would be revealed once she was about to turn eighteen and she would stop her training to join the werewolves, but we never could have foreseen what happened,” Marie spoke.

“What happened?” Drake asked. Lina turned off the distracting images that flashed on the television screen to hear the tale of her beloved lost sister.

“She took in everything she was taught and advanced through her training at an astonishing speed. She just kept learning faster and faster. Improving in everything she was taught, it was scary at times how fast she learnt. She quickly surpassed the other junior hunters and began to even challenge the skill of some of the pros. Of course, they were stronger than her because of having Prometheus gifts. This was until she was witnessed taking down an escaped rogue.”

“What do you mean by escaped?” King Davin said.

One day while she was training with her best friend, Cassandra, a few rogues were being transported to the Hunter’s Agency and there was an accident. The rogue escaped and ran in a random direction, but its route led it straight to the two little girls. We were in time to watch Katie snap its neck,” Sandra was scared out of her mind.

A few days later, Katie started exhibiting signs of increased abilities and not long after we realized she had been granted what we thought was impossible. She had Prometheus gifts.”

“You say it in the plural sense. Is that a mistake?” Martha asked.

“No, it’s not. Your daughter, Katie Sirius, possesses both gifts of strength and speed and continues, to this day, to make them even stronger,” Marie said.

“That’s a lot to take in,” the king said, looking down in thought, “What is this about a murder investigation? Did a wolf kill a human after losing control?”

“No, worse than that... an undercover rogue stole one of her weapons and silenced another that had passed a Prometheus evaluation,” she said.

“Okay, hold on, you’re blowing my mind. Start from the beginning... How did we get to a Prometheus evaluation?” Martha said, rubbing her temples. Drake rushed to the kitchen and humbly returned with a bowl of popcorns.

“Little sister has a very interesting tale. She sounds scary,” he said, throwing one into his mouth.

Marie took a deep breath, “Fine then, I’ll start from the point that seemed to pick up from... the arrival of Cole Lycaon...”