184 Chapter One Hundred Eighty Four

“Wyatt Black...” Trevor spoke in a deadly tone.

“Trevor Waters, it’s been a long time since you’ve thought to cross paths with me again,” Wyatt replied. Liam, for once, stepped back for the two to chat.

“Yes, it has been a long time. We struck a deal not to interfere with each other then. As long as you stayed on the good side of the rules as all wolves are meant to,” Trevor replied.

“Well, my mind’s foggy on the terms that came out of our little scuffle, but I do remember you cutting me a little bit of slack on all the stuck up rules you’ve got stringing up the wolves at the school. We were clear on one thing though. I was not to hurt any humans,” Wyatt said the last part in a dangerous tone.

Trevor’s face contorted into one of anger. He wanted to lash out at the wolf but had no real reason to. He knew they shouldn’t be crossing the gate at this time, but they showed no sign of backing down. Memories of a time he’d crossed paths with this particular alpha still stained his mind like it was only yesterday, “You heard the teachers. You can think of exploring tomorrow... with the rest of the class.”

“Look around, Trevor. We are werewolves, creatures of the wild. That is where we ought to have fun from. We aren’t going to be out till late and that’s fine in my book. And you know I won’t be backing down on this. I say it’s fine that my friends and I go out for an evening stroll, no humans are allowed. Those things are just too fragile,” the conversationalists spoke as though they each wanted to solve this in the least violent way possible.

“Werewolves or not, the rule on relaxing was issued to all students...”

“Trevor, Trevor, don’t push your luck. There are only so many of your rules that I can take before I feel like causing an uprising. We don’t want to cause another incident... We are in a wildlife reserve after all,” Wyatt’s voice had suddenly gotten very low and warning.

The hunter stared at him sharply for a moment. He barely flinched before him. Lina was amazed he was that confident before an alpha when she’d watched Sandra do the complete opposite. Sandra was afraid of alphas and yet she was very skilled as a hunter. Lina knew Trevor wasn’t one to be messed with either, but he was still a junior hunter. However, without knowing what he could actually do, she couldn’t tell how strong he actually was.

.....

“You know you don’t faze me one bit, Black. I have no problem putting down a mutt that steps out of line. You’ll find that the boy you tasselled with a while back is not the same boy that stands before you now...” Trevor spoke. Wyatt remained quiet, his hand balling into a fist as though getting ready to get violent, “Be back before sundown or I’ll be forced to give you the pain to remember.”

With that said, Trevor stepped aside and let the party of four through to the outside of the hotel. “You’ve made a great choice, Trevor.” Wyatt was bright and cheery once more and sauntering out the gates. While he passed the hunter, he whispered, “Don’t forget that you don’t give me orders.”

The wolves jogged off a distance from the hotel, aiming to plunge into the forest once they’d found the right spot to shift. This was an issue for the delta of the group. Crysta found a suitable place to set her clothes and shifted into a sleek grey wolf. “Must be a hassle having to care about shredding clothes every time you have to shift,” Liam commented, letting his wolf forward.

“Only comes to show that alphas are far more superior to the wolves below us,” Wyatt responded, shifting as well. Lina didn’t have anything to say about the grey wolf and only shifted into her white slender wolf. She would have been the biggest wolf given her status, but without the usual bulk of the royals, she was merely the tallest of them.

The four wolves were soon rushing through the woods together. Lina, not wanting to leave the rest behind, kept pace with the rest of them as they raced through the woods. The alphas let loose and rushed forward leaving the two females behind. Crysta wasn’t particularly interested in partaking in their madness. She’d only tagged along to watch the princess and make sure the alphas didn’t try anything before the decided date of their duel.

“Crysta, shouldn’t we catch up?” Lina spoke through the mind link when her ears picked up on the distance the alphas were leaving between them.

“What are you even doing here, Lina? Why couldn’t you just refuse their offer and stay in the hotel?” Crysta snapped at the girl.

“Oh, did you want to come here just the three of you or something? I don’t see any harm in a little run through the woods,” Lina replied, going on the defensive.

“No, what do you take me for? These are not the woods back home, Lina. Back home, your parents let you run around well beyond the night, but this is different. There are creatures in these woods. Wild animals that only think of survival. What would happen if a snake were to bite you or a lion to think you threatened its cubs?” the girl scolded her.

“I didn’t realise I came here with a chaperone. What’s happening to you? I would think you’d like this sort of thing,” Lina replied before dashing faster, trying to put distance between herself and the girl.

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

Back in the hotel, a hunter lay by her mate with her eyes closed while he continued to work through the different notes, he’d made on whatever information he’d received over the phone. Oblivious to him was the fact that Katie was wide awake and vividly noting the progress of the four troublemakers. They were getting dangerously close to her three-mile radius limit of detection and she didn’t like it. The rogues hadn’t caught up to them yet, at least they weren’t within three miles from them.

Katie could tell that much, however, there was a lot more that could hurt the wolves if they got too reckless. “Just because you have fangs and claws doesn’t give you the permission to put yourself in danger’s way,” the girl thought out loud.

“That’s a lesson I’ve been hoping you’d learn for a while now,” her mate voiced back, keeping his eyes on the papers before him. Katie got up to look at him, partially insulted. She didn’t complain though. There was truth to the words he was using.

“I’ll try to stay out of trouble, Cole, but I wasn’t talking about myself,” she replied.

“Oh, you mean the four wolves that decided it is nice to take a run through the woods?” he asked her.

“Yes, those are the ones I mean. So, you’ve been noticing them too,” Katie observed.

“Well, you might have your mojo, but in this case. If the wolves are part of the pack, I can keep track of them. Your mojo would help better for humans in this case,” the alpha replied.

“I guess that would make sense. Using the mind link to tell the location of lost wolves still gives me a headache. I was holding out on learning that skill in a while,” Katie said, getting up from her place on the bed and dressing up in a better shirt suitable for running.

“I’ll come and help,” Cole said, placing down his papers, “This work was getting boring anyway.”

“Thanks, Cole,” the girl reached for the fiery bow at the dressing table but thought better of it. She didn’t think she would be needing the weapon for what they were going to do.

The couple walked out of the hotel only to find Trevor at the gates wearing a sour look, “What are you guys doing out at this hour? Are you also going out on an evening stroll?” the boy asked.

“When did someone decide to make you a gatekeeper?” Katie asked the junior hunter.

“I decided to fill in for all the junior hunters that came with us today. However, tomorrow, there is an allocation of roles that I made sure to mail to all hunter and junior hunters that are present for this trip,” he spoke formally.

“I was sure the two of you were on bad terms. What happened?” Cole asked, looking between the two of them. He’d held out long enough and required an explanation.

“I’m not sure we have time for all that explanation. We have runaways to catch up to,” Katie urged her mate, trying to dodge the question. ‘To think Frank’s advice worked and got me to be buddies with Trevor of all people...’

“Oh, those troublemakers. How did you know they got out? Were you watching them when they tried to rough me up to get past? Why didn’t you help me?” the boy asked.

“Oh, I wasn’t using my eyes to watch you at the moment. When I noticed that scuffle, I thought you had it all figured out,” Katie replied, feigning ignorance. She’d been aware of the tension. After all, that was what she was trained to detect, “Nothing bad happened, so no harm done.”

“I keep losing more and more trust in you, Katie,” he replied, “Be careful out there. You better take care of her, runt.”

The two walked past her leisurely, the forest as their destination, “Are you going to let him talk to me like that? I have tried so many ways to get him to stop that does not involve dislocating one of his body parts, but he makes it so hard.”

“Both of you better play nice or I will have a variety of disciplining methods to come up with for the both of you,” she replied, “See you later, Trevor. Cover for us if we take too long.”

“Do you think you will take too long?” the boy called back.

“Well, I did mention we were after runaways. They might have wandered a little too far from the hotel than I had allowed them to,” the girl spoke.

Trevor refused to add anything to that as his mind began to ponder the meaning behind her words. Now that he thought of it, she sounded like she was saying she hadn’t seen any of them even leave the hotel. ‘How does she know if they’ve gone too far from the hotel or not?’ he wondered to himself, ‘The only family that is known for an ability similar to that is... It can’t be... Can it?’