Chapter 122

122 Chapter One Hundred Twenty Two

After explaining everything that had occurred, Katie was able to catch him up to speed with their current situation and the reason why they seemed too far from the castle. He took in most of the information without any hesitation except for one thing that bothered him, “I don’t think I could have been taken out that easily,” he complained once again, drawing a sigh from his mate.

“Cole, he wasn’t human or werewolf. He was much more powerful than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the power behind his fist was actually meant for you to sleep deeply,” she said.

“You suspect some kind of magic in play now?” the man mused.

“We’ve seen a man that runs and breaks the speed barrier releasing the sound of thunder and you find magic to be surprising,” Katie countered.

“Yes, I find the magic to be surprising. Just how much chaos do you think the world would have if such a thing were to happen normally. Soon enough we’d be flying about on dragons,” he threw his arms into the air. Katie couldn’t help but laugh at how fast his mind had rushed to the extremities of magic.

“It doesn’t have to be drastic for something to be called magic, you know...” to this, he did not answer. After walking for a bit in silence, “Have you finally cleared your mind?”

“Thankfully, yes... I guess I just needed a ride from my mate and a visit from a diety to set me straight,” she replied, giggling at her own phrasing.

“Yeah, I guess so... Let’s get back to the palace then. You have a party to attend,” the alpha said, shifting into his giant black wolf.

“Have I ever told you that you have a beautiful wolf?” the girl said to him while they rushed back to the palace. With the wolf’s enhanced sense of smell and hearing, Cole could tell where the city was and the rest was obvious to him.

.....

“You keep that saying things like that and you’ll be marked before long,” the man replied through the mind link. Katie had only heard the word a few times and it wasn’t one of the things that she had never thought of that would happen to her.

“Wait, when you say ‘mark’, you mean...”

“What else do you would come to mind when I say something like that?” he asked her, his voice was serious and yet keeping its usual calm tone. She wrapped her hands through the wolf’s fur and allowed herself to rest on him.

“Maybe not just yet...”

......

The palace of the Royal family of Sirius was built with more space behind it than was in front. Mainly because that’s where several events were held within the pack. Most of the pack members were still wondering what the fuss was all about. The king and queen had drafted an entire program that was to be followed to the letter. A barbeque was being held... (well, werewolves and meat, even after centuries of development, remained inseparable...)

The betas and the alphas of the Royal pack milled about ordering those that could to help get things ready. Different people took on different tasks like setting the bonfire, hunting and everything else that was needed to get this barbeque going.

“It needs to be perfect,” Drake could be heard from one side of the backyard as he supervised everything that was going on. Lina couldn’t be bothered to help the rest with whatever they were doing. After all, with all the manpower they had, there was nothing she needed to do to help them. She walked past her brother, having seen preparations and satisfied with everything going on, walking on to get a sneak peek at her phone in her bedroom.

Coincidentally getting a whiff of an odd scent that she’d never smelt before, she started to follow it. It was not her mate’s scent, for she knew the anticipation her wolf would have had for a miracle that gigantic, but it was peculiar and her strong sense of smell (some could have called it too strong for her own good) picked up on it.

Walking through the halls, she heard hushed voices coming from one of the rooms. Maybe it was curiosity or her sheer love for gossip, she didn’t know what pulled her closer to the door and strain her ear to find out what was being spoken about...

“How did you get your hands on it?” one of the voices said.

“Why ask? You want to get a sample. This will definitely get results this time,” another voice said. This one she could recognize immediately to be none other than Crysta.

“But Crysta, it’s not right to spike one of their drinks. You could get into big trouble if you were discovered,” another hushed voice spoke up, sounding timid in comparison to the others.

“Oh, come on, Bree. Don’t be a wet blanket. Just imagine me becoming next in line to be Luna. Our lives could be so different,” Crysta said, sending Lina’s heart into shock. She’d always known about Crysta’s obsession with men in power, but she was never around long enough to know just how bad it was, but the more she thought about it, Crysta would have never told another royal about her plans. It wasn’t because Lina didn’t spend enough time with her friend... it was just because of the colour of her eyes.

“Crysta, why do you want to become a Royal? They have so many restrictions that they are basically powerless,” one of them said. A sad truth... They had power because of what they meant in the werewolf community and they couldn’t be overthrown because of the fear of their power. As a result, they remained in power, like it was supposed to be. Those who knew how to use the law knew how to walk all over them without tripping over any alarms.

“Every time she walks up to us, she mocks us with how low we are,” the girl began, her voice filled with malice and hate. Lina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. There was only one female in the palace that interacted with Crysta, “Then there is that new one that has come. She looks down on me even when she’s crippled... A defective royal to me,” she commented.

“What kind of werewolf rides in a wheelchair?” one of them giggled, “Did you notice the ramps they added to the stairs to cater for her movement? It’s got to be embarrassing. The way Cole ran after her. It was like he was taking pity on her.”

“After tonight, Cole will know who he deserves to be with. It’s only a matter of time now,” Crysta’s voice came. Lina chose that moment to leave the room alone having learnt what she needed to. Crysta had a sinister plan in mind and Lina couldn’t help, but giggle at the foolishness of whatever hopes the girl had. She did get one thing right though... She was the right age to have a mate and any claim she made on a male was to be taken seriously... Well, that would be until everyone would discover if she was lying or not...

‘This might just get interesting...’ no one could blame the girl for wanting a little bit of drama on the day her sister returned to the palace. In her mind, it was only a way to teach the girl who to associate with and who not to...

“Hey, Lina, aren’t you going to help out?” someone called out to the girl. The girl who’d called her carried a flowerpot of roses, probably for the ceremony. She was the daughter of one of the pack warriors who liked to work in the palace, dressed simply in floral dresses and didn’t mind what anyone thought of her.

“I was... going to my room,” Lina groaned, after receiving a glare from the one person in the entire castle that she could call her ‘best friend.’ “Oh, come on, Honour. You know I don’t like heavy lifting.”

“Come on and help me do the decorating. You can tell me all about Katie while we do that,” Honour replied, ignoring the princess’ complaints, “Well, tell me... How is she? Rumours are going around that she actually used the Royal tone on Crysta.”

“Yeah, Crysta had it coming. I actually knew my sister would snap at her one day, but I who would have thought it would happen the moment they met. Personally, I thought it was hilarious even though laughing at her would have made her situation much worse.

“What are the King and Queen going to do about it?” she asked.

“They spoke to Beta Raymond. She’s been forgiven although it sounded like it was the last warning...” Lina explained, giving her friend a side hug as she took the flower pot out of her hands. Honour, just like Lina didn’t inherit much of the strength that came from being a werewolf. That didn’t stop them from trying their best to help the pack. Being an ordinary werewolf, however, wasn’t the same as being a royal and that made Honour much weaker than Lina.

“I envy that strength of yours, Lina,” she said, wiping sweat off her brow.

“Just keep that flower shop going and you won’t need to have it,” Lina giggled at her friend. The two proceeded with the decorations, taking on the gigantic order that the Royals had issued to the flower shop. Lina regretted her slacking goals when she realised just how much work her friend had to get done before the barbeque... ‘When will you learn to depend on me for more help?’ she wanted to say, but then again... she liked that about Honour.