Chapter 484: Chapter 484 - 484 Suspicious Meeting

484 Suspicious Meeting

Wyatt remained silent for a while, his expression seeming to hold on to what could have been before sighing heavily. It was a story that drained the cheerful facade straight off the alpha’s face, “Almost two years ago, we were inseparable… And then, we weren’t. Liam and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. He’s been by my side and I’ve been by his… in everything we do.

You all know that he can have a bit of a temper and more than once, that temper has gotten him—us into trouble. Even more times, I’ve got him out of it.

But, two years ago, we got ourselves into trouble… or you could say that it was I who got us into trouble this time. You know the story...

I don’t know what to make of it anymore. And maybe he blames me for it. For losing his right to succeed in his father’s place as alpha of the pack.

When he wouldn’t talk to me, we got into a fight. He expressed how much he hated me—which I don’t feel was true. But if he needed to say that before getting to the point and revealing why he was really angry, then I thought it would be worth it.

Unfortunately, he stopped arguing without ever saying what he really mattered. A lot remained unsaid that day.

Now… it’s like I barely know even him.”

“Sounds to me like you’ve not made any progress in the past two years,” Crysta crossed her arms.

“None whatsoever, and it’s been getting much harder. He stopped hanging out in the same places we used to and after a few months, I just grew tired of having to look for him. I figured he would seek me out when he finally came to his senses. But even that didn’t happen,” Wyatt sighed.

.....

“Then what was he doing at your door just now?” Crysta wondered.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I’m feeling sleepy. Might I?” the alpha yawned.

“Oh sorry. We didn’t mean to tire you out. We just came to check on you. Glad you’re making a quick recovery. I was worried,” Lina took a few steps back and dipped her head.

“You sure you’re okay, Wyatt?” Honour asked once more.

“Never better,” Wyatt replied.

Lina was the first out and the rest followed suit and exited the room.

Wyatt stayed in the silence for a while before gritting his teeth and balling his fists. Sharp claws extended from his fingertips, forcing their way through his clenched fists and cutting into the flesh of his palms.

‘You have a strong will. I’ll give you that but it’s only a matter of time. You cannot resist my control forever,’ a deep voice echoed through the alpha’s mind. Shivers shook his body as he turned even paler, as though the blood was draining right out of his face. As though he was suffocating.

‘I’ll resist for as long as I can. Even if I die doing it,’ the alpha replied as an intense wave of pain washed over his entire being. He tried calling out through the mind link but it seemed as though no one could hear him.

His wolf surged forward in an attempt to help but achieved a similar version of failure, ‘How long do you think you can keep me out? I am far beyond your mind’s comprehension. It’s not a matter of who’s stronger but time…’

‘You might be right about that… and you might be wrong. But I don’t give a damn. I’ll do everything I can to block you out. For as long as I can,’ the alpha yelled back into his mind.

‘Ugh! I’m getting tired of all your tough-guy acts. They are getting old… even when you know you’re fighting a losing battle. Is that… perhaps, why you didn’t ask the princess to call that dear friend of yours to visit you? To protect him…’

Fear threatened to shatter the alpha’s resolve but he wouldn’t let it, ‘You’re despicable. You’ll do anything to get into my head. But I won’t let you.’

‘Interesting…’ the deep voice resonated before bursting into a cackling madness.

In the next minute, the voice was completely gone and Wyatt was covered in a thin film of sweat. He’d spent a lot of his energy… and with that, he fell asleep.

............…..

Lina sat in one corner of the lobby, occasionally staring out while she waited for another message. The rest of the day had gone by faster than she’d expected and the night was now upon them.

Miraculously, she was feeling refreshed and from what her friends had said, they were getting better too. Either their healing rates had always been this good or the goddess of the moon was smiling upon them…

‘The irony…’ Lina smirked.

The perks of being a werewolf came in handy sometimes.

Even Bree was healing faster than the princess thought she would. ‘We’ll definitely mop the floor with Cole’s team in the next stage… And I won’t be holding back.’

Lina remembered how holding back had cost them a lot in the previous game. She had felt using her speed would make winning too easy… but that’s not what had happened.

Cole had used his abilities to completely overwhelm Crysta’s senses and render her completely blind. Lina wanted to call it playing dirty… but it wasn’t against the rules. In a real-life battle, victory was all that mattered… no matter what the means… It wasn’t always bound to be fair.

‘My sister probably knew this,’ she told herself, gripping the phone in her hand with conviction.

Vrr, vrr… the endangered phone in the princess’s hands suddenly vibrated.

The princess unlocked the device and read the message, “Come outside. I’m in the parking lot. Jack”

Lina scrunched her eyebrows. ‘Parking lot… What is he doing there?’

“What are you doing there?” she texted back.

“Hiding from fans… you know how it is for movie stars,” another text came almost immediately.

Sighing, the princess stood up and exited the lobby, pulling her hoodie tighter to shield herself from the cold. The walk to the parking lot wasn’t long from the lobby… where they had originally planned to meet up.

She found the entrance to the underground parking lot and froze...

It was dark inside. Instinctively, she opened herself up to the pack link, making her presence and location most known to the royals and her best friends.

“Is something wrong, Lina?” Queen Martha’s voice came through the mind link.

“I don’t know yet. Just thought I would as well…”

“Are you doing something dangerous?”

“No, nothing like that, mother. Just meeting an old friend,” Lina calmly replied.

“Okay then… Pass our greetings along then,” the queen responded, going silent. The necessary members of the mind link had listened to this dialogue and didn’t ask any further questions, leaving Lina to her thoughts.

With their minds aware of her whereabouts, the princess felt safer. Lina descended the ramp and walked into the parking lot. The lights underground were dimmer than she remembered them and for a while, she couldn’t find the person she was looking for.

Everything was quiet… too quiet. White fur sprouted from the princess’s hair, mixing with her dark locks. Her ears grew to tapering tips, drawing in more sound. Her canines extended as well as her claws, a rush of energy flooding her system.

“L-Lina, is that you?” a familiar masculine voice caught her attention.

Lina turned to a dark green car and noticed a familiar blonde peeking from behind it. Jack emerged from behind the car, dressed in a black turtleneck and tight-fitting black jeans.

Compared to how he used to dress, this was rather simple.

However— Lina squinted—, he looked to have lost some weight. Not malnourished, but not as muscular as he used to be.

Lina’s claws and fangs immediately retracted, returning the princess to her human appearance, “Jack! Hi. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“You… Scare me?! Pfft!”

Lina raised a brow at him, “I’m the one with the fangs here.”

“Yeah! Yeah!” Jack chuckled, “How have you been? You’re looking well. You’ve grown taller too… and more… beautiful,” Jack’s breath hitched as he blew through the compliment.

“Thanks. I’ve been… training for a while now.”

“Don’t you train normally?”

“No, this was a little extra. Is there something you wanted to tell me specifically? This place… It’s suspicious,” Lina waved her hands at the setting with which he’d met her.

“Well… I do have reasons. I just don’t know how to say it… Hmm, let me see,” Jack rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “Do you think you could perhaps… end the Royal Games and have everyone go home?”

Lina stared at him dumbfounded for a few seconds, “I’m sorry, what?”

“Everyone here is in danger. I was hoping you could… stop the Royal Games and save so many lives. You’re the only person I know who has that kind of power. So I came to you with this,” Jack replied.

“What makes you think people are in trouble? The Great Arena is the most heavily guarded place on the planet right now. If you ask me, letting people leave here in panic would only expose them to more enemies,” Lina argued, “If there is any danger, to begin with.”

“No… you don’t understand…” Jack stopped himself and buried his head in his hands. His jovial demeanour was gone… replaced with a look of hopelessness.

“What have you been doing all this time though? How has your show been going?” Lina asked.

“Oh! The show! We put it on hold for a while,” he replied.

“Oh? What happened?”

“I-I needed some time off,” Jack rubbed the back of his head nervously, then stole a glance at his wrist, “Oh, would you look at the time? I have to be going. It’s been nice talking to you again, Lina. You really have grown more beautiful and powerful than anyone could have ever predicted.”

“Thanks… again,” Lina replied as she watched Jack retreat, leaving her alone in the underground parking lot.

As she left the parking lot herself, she couldn’t wipe one thought from her mind. This thought seemed to be a nexus of many suspicions that were too premature for her to solve, ‘But Jack wasn’t wearing a watch.’

As the girl rounded the bend heading back to the entrance to the hotel, she collided with someone familiar. His crew cut and striking resemblance to Thorrin and Tom Chase was too hard to miss.

While he looked younger than Thorrin, Lina knew she couldn’t forget the face of Micah Chase. “Apologies, princess. I didn’t see you there.”

“Such an odd thing for a Chase hunter to say. What happened to always being aware of your surroundings?” the princess asked.

“Sorry… I was focused on something else. But it seems to have vanished before I could… Wait.” The man looked back to where the princess was coming from, “Did you see anything in the parking lot? Anything at all.”

“I saw Jack Boggle,” Lina mentioned, “Nothing else out of the ordinary though.”

“Jack… Jack Boggle! Phony Survival Hunter Jack Boggle!?” Micah asked.

“Yeah, the very one.”

“That’s odd!”

“How come?”

“He’s supposedly missing. Did he do anything or say anything to you?” Micah asked.

“He asked me to… Get everyone out of the Great Arena. That everyone was in danger and that’s the only way he could think of to save them,” Lina explained, “But when I refused, he looked down. Then quickly left.”

.....

Micah stood still for a moment, thinking through the princess’s words, “That’s definitely odd. But without seeing the man myself, I can’t say if he was hiding something from you.”

“I got the feeling that he was.”

“Okay then. The next time you meet him, try keeping track of him until we can question him more. In the meantime, I’ll ask the hunters to be on the lookout,” Micah sighed.

It seemed whatever the hunter had been looking for had escaped him. Lina pulled her phone from her pocket and typed out a message: ‘Where are you?’

Before hitting ‘send.’

An hourglass image started to rotate on her screen and she stared at it, normally expecting it to say ‘Sent’ before she put away the phone.

One minute… Two minutes…

‘Failed! Network error!’