Chapter 280

280 Daydreaming

It had been a week since the school trip to the reserve and the news of the Lycaon king’s death had reached the kingdom of Sirius. Receiving the horrid account of the events had gotten the usually jovial mood in the Sirius empire completely down and sombre.

The werewolves of the Sirius empire were in mourning. The depressing rain that didn’t seem to have an end to it kept the mood down longer.

It was almost as though someone was making it rain on purpose. Umbrellas had become the one accessory everyone had to carry around with them.

‘Oh, Katie, I hope you’re fine,’ Lina thought to herself while she stared out the classroom window. The rain constantly pelted the glass pane in a rhythmic tone that neither sped up nor lessened.

The loud ringing of the bell snatched her out of her thoughts and brought her back to the present.

“Hey. Daydreaming again, I see,” a familiar voice brought more reason for her to keep going. News of Katie’s condition had reached them only a day after finding out what Honour was.

Her heroic rush to keep the rogue king from escaping was quickly forgotten and replaced with deep worry for her life.

“Well, yeah. I can barely keep myself awake with all this rain,” Lina stretched, covering her mouth to hide the yawn that escaped her. The princess got up from her seat and started packing her things.

“I can’t believe school continued as if nothing had happened at all,” Honour slumped her shoulders.

.....

“Oh? The school was going to continue with or without what happened. I just don’t understand why you had to come to school after the time you had,” Lina regarded her friend with sympathy.

“Come on, Lina. You know you can’t survive school without me. I had to come here to take care of you. Who else would do that?” Honour joked.

“I can think of a few names,” a voice interrupted them.

“I was actually just thinking of only one name, but it seems...” Lina let her sentence linger as she took in the new escorts she was getting.

Ginger and Bree were standing on both sides of the delta. The two girls bowed slightly to acknowledge the girl’s superiority, “How did you even get here so fast? The bell has just rung. It was literally a moment ago.”

Crysta smiled proudly, “When one’s as diligent as I am, time itself seems to bend to get me where I’m supposed to be in a shorter time than...”

“She gets out of class before the bell had even rung. The teacher doesn’t even call after her these days,” Bree cut her off nonchalantly. Lina thought she noticed a glint of disgust, but dismissed it in the next second as part of the paranoia she’d developed towards the three girls.

“You’re no fun, Bree,” Crysta huffed, stepping aside to let Lina through. The royal, recognising her gesture started leading the way to the Den.

Honour walked beside her, narrating all the horrors of a carnivorous flower she’d only come to know about from the library.

Lina was convinced from the start that the plant could only be found in fairy tales as she couldn’t begin to fathom the idea of there being a plant alive that her friend had never heard of.

Nonetheless, the girl listened to Honour go on and on about one of her favourite topics. Before any of them had noticed, they were taking their places in the Den, “Honour, in all your research on plants, have you ever found something that’s resistant to wolfsbane at least?” Lina asked, her mind having stumbled on the random idea.

“Huh, none that I’ve heard of, but if there was ever such a thing, it would probably take even longer for someone to turn it into a medicine,” the girl replied.

“How come?” Lina asked.

“Werewolf anatomy is complicated that most of the drugs they use on us have taken decades to develop. I’ve heard there are labs all over the world that are meant to bridge that gap with next to no success in the field,” Honour responded, “Now if I may take my leave.”

“Honour, you’re eating with us today,” Lina reached for her friend’s hand before she could leave the VIP section of the Den.

“But Lina, I have to...”

“Let them handle it for today. You don’t have to. Please, Honour. Just for today,” the girl begged her friend. Honour squirmed under her friend’s pleading gaze. The word ‘no’, along with all other gestures of refusal had completely vanished from her vocabulary.

Like an angel sent from the skies, a voice came from outside the VIP section, “Enjoy yourself for once, Honour. It’s not like an official member of the staff. One volunteer less won’t make us slower in the job we signed up for.”

“You hear that. You get to stay,” Lina grinned widely. The Fates must have been smiling with her at that moment.

“Wait, this whole time, you were doing that work as a volunteer?” Crysta sounded bewildered.

“Yeah, is that weird?” the girl laughed nervously, taking a seat beside Lina for the first time.

“No, it’s not weird at all. Just disgustingly nice,” an irritated voice interrupted them. Lina finally noticed the alpha seated at the opposite side with his head on the table.

Once again, a cigar was missing from his mouth and he was just as irritable as always, even more so without the nicotine in his system, a drug that seemed to affect werewolves just the same as humans, but with less harmful effects on werewolves.

“Someone is in a bad mood as always,” Lina raised her voice so he could hear. Wyatt lifted his face so he could look the royal in the eye through the narrow slits made by his eyelids right before slumping his head back down.

There wasn’t another word from him after that. Liam never showed up to the VIP section that day... as it had been for days on end since the trip.

The two alphas never talked to each other anymore and Wyatt was always grumpy. Whether the reason was his friend ignoring him or something else entirely was not known by anyone around him.

After all, he was known for caring about nothing in his life. He just did as he pleased and everyone let him be. Perhaps that lifestyle was finally catching up to him.

The day proceeded in high spirits for Lina and her friends as their goal was to continue having a normal school life.

Every once in a while, the moment of that decision would rattle through Lina’s mind. The day they found out about Honour...

***

“Lina, what are we going to do about this? Are we to remain quiet or tell the king?” Crysta had asked her while they sat in the car on their way back to the palace that night. They spoke through the mind link to keep the driver from hearing their conversation and even then made sure to keep their conversation hidden from the pack link entirely.

“No, we cannot let father know anything about this just yet. Honour still has almost two years with us. If people were to find out what she is, there is no telling what will happen,” Lina said to her.

“I know that. Keeping quiet helps Honour continue living a normal life, but then what happens to you and her? I’ve never seen Honour in a mood to be alone even from you,” the girl continued asking her questions.

Lina wanted to scream into her ear to shut up, but the more the girl spoke, the more Lina got a grip of what she was supposed to be thinking about. Without her obnoxious guidance, the girl would have gotten herself stuck in a loop of worry for her dear friend.

After giving it some thought, the princess replied, “Fine, this is what we will do, Crysta. We will let her know that her secret is safe with us...

... lastly, we will continue our lives as though she didn’t just receive the worst news from her parents. We will help her live out the rest of her life as a werewolf in happiness. It will be our mission to help keep her mind off all of this,” Lina told the girl.

Crysta took a moment of hesitation before smiling in contentment, “Yes, your highness.”

“Try not to call me that...”

......

“Lina... Earth to Lina,” the girl snapped out of her thoughts once again, “Honestly, it’s like you’re daydreaming most of the time,” Crysta sighed. Looking around her, Lina noticed the class was already empty.

'

“Did I miss the bell?” she asked.

“You seemed to have missed a lot more than the bell,” Honour replied. Your notes are not even complete.”

“Oh yeah,” Lina exclaimed, taking a look at the notes in her book that had stopped making sense half a page from her hand. Her handwriting had stayed alright even though she didn’t understand what she’d been writing.

A purr and information dump in her mind later told her that her wolf had taken over for her during the session.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to do more research on the matter when I get home. That’s if I remember to do it at all,” she said to herself before getting up from her seat.

The group of five walked out of the school building, brandishing umbrellas and started their way to the car, “Crysta, you get Bree and Ginger back to the palace. I’ll walk Honour home.”

“The car can take all of us where we need to go, you know. We could drop Honour off at her place and...”

“I’d like to take the scenic route home today,” Lina cut her off despite the obvious raindrops that pelted her umbrella. Crysta took the hint in her voice, nodded with a slight bow and led the two girls into the car without another word.

“Don’t make me come looking for you, Lina,” the delta yelled out before entering the car herself. As a parting gesture, they waved at them while the car drove off.

When the car had gone, the two friends began their walk, “This rain doesn’t seem natural,” Lina cursed.

“Well, that might just be because it isn’t,” Honour replied cheerfully, “Why did you feel like walking today?”

“I wanted to talk to you privately. Lately, it’s almost as if Crysta is always around me and I don’t know if you would tell me what I want to hear with her around,” Lina voiced her reasons.

“Oh, I see. So that’s the reason I’m standing out here in the rain,” Honour chuckled.

“Yeah, are you mad?” Lina asked her, the humour failing to reach her.

“No, Lina, I’m not mad. I’m not bothered by the rain. One of the perks of being a goddess I guess. Makes sense why I’ve never been sick in my life,” the girl explained, letting her umbrella fall to the side so the rain would reach her directly. Lina rushed to protect the girl, only to stop when a sound came from the forest to their side. The two girls turned at the same time...

Lina’s wolf urged her forward and she complied. Right when she was about to reach the first tree, a dark-haired girl, drenched from head to toe in rainwater stumbled out of the woods barefoot and fell to her knees, her legs seemingly no longer able to support her body.

Her face was pale and held a ghostly expression. Her clothes were torn in random places and she seemed to have cuts all over her body, probably from the woods. “Someone... help... My mother. Rogues...” not much else came out of her before she collapsed on the ground before them.