Chapter 303

303 Another Side to the King

The convoy of vehicles followed the white wolf through the city, following the scent of the missing musician for almost thirty minutes. Katie would sometimes hear the wolves talking and take note of what was useful to her.

As it seemed, they’d passed the stadium that the girl was supposed to be performing at a little while ago. As they continued through the city, stopping only to ask the bare minimum of questions, Katie eventually stopped running when she reached an alleyway. The scent was faint, but she was certain it was the one and was sure of where they were.

The white wolf silently rolled her eyes when she heard one of Bella’s controversial comments. The pack warriors moving with her urged her to remain quiet lest she risked angering the king.

“Katie, the cars can’t proceed from here,” Cole mentioned through the mind link.

“That’s why I stopped for you to give the next order. They’ll have to go on from here on foot,” the girl said to him. A hand settled deep into the fur on the white wolf’s head startling the girl and forcing her to flinch at the sudden contact.

Looking beside her, Katie noticed Thorrin Chase, the Perfect Warrior and someone she was meant to consider her uncle.

“Hey, relax, it’s just me,” the man chuckled, before patting her head once more. The white wolf was easily taller and bigger than him, but from the power he exuded, it was as though she was only his pet. Katie nudged him and projected her thoughts into his mind, “Uncle, stop petting me. That’s embarrassing.”

“I find your wolf form far too adorable... even though you’re a little too big for a wolf. You’ll just have to deal with it. I can’t resist. Seriously, who gets to see, no less touch a wolf this white and fluffy?” the pack warriors pretended not to be watching this conversation and hid their snickers in coughs and sneezes, for those that really couldn’t keep it in...

Except for Bella... the beta was grinning from ear to ear. However, what happened next had her scoffing...

.....

“You know, he is right. You are one fluffy wolf,” Cole confirmed.

“Cole, don’t encourage him,” Katie gave up on the hopelessness of the two males that accompanied her.

“Are they through here?” Thorrin asked her.

Katie nodded before starting the walk through the alley, “They are. I don’t know where exactly though. I just know that this alleyway is the only way to get there. Her scent is strong here. She definitely went through here,” the girl replied.

“I can pick up a few signs of life in here, but nothing malicious. I don’t understand this at all. Ever since he left, I’ve been picking up senses of trouble, but nothing too definite. It’s new territory for the Chase family,” Thorrin cursed. His hand was still deep within the girl’s fur, gently caressing the white wolf’s fluffy head.

The war between sleep and embarrassment was starting to shift in tide... and when Thorrin finally stopped petting the girl, she wasn’t so sure which was worse anymore... ‘Ashley...’

‘Don’t you dare blame me for giving into our nature,’ the wolf was quick to defend, having seen this coming a mile away. Katie was developing a habit of blaming her for everything she didn’t understand that happened to her.

At the end of the alleyway, they found a door locked with chains. Thorrin easily snapped the chains with his bare hands making them look similar to merely strips of tape that had been used to lock the door. ‘Katie, we can’t proceed from here in our wolf form. The ceiling is too low,’ Ashley replied.

Taking note of the difference between the door and their form, the girl asked, “Can’t we... change size as we did back at the reserve?”

“That needs more divine energy since it’s one of our abilities and umm... we are running low on that,” the wolf replied sadly.

The girl shifted back into her human form, but not quite completely, her ears and the top of her hair remained white. The fur that sprouted from her head overlapped the black and made her look as though she was wearing a white helmet since the rest of the hair that flowed down her back remained black. The girl continued following the scent, Cole already at her side in his human form.

She could tell he was ready to defend her in case of anything and with the impervious nature of his body, she couldn’t think of anyone better suited for the task.

The building was quiet and dark for the most part as there was barely a window that let in any light. Katie continued walking through, following the scent of the girl. She picked up other scents, but couldn’t quite distinguish them. The scent of dust was also thick. Her ears darted in all directions in search of sound, until... a heartbeat that was completely out of place reached her ears.

Looking around, she realised it didn’t belong to any of the people she was leading through the building.

Katie strained her ears to locate its source but found that she didn’t have to do so much. The heartbeat got louder the more she followed the scent. Her eyes widened when that one heartbeat turned to two... and two turned to four. Soon enough, she heard several heartbeats echoing from the direction they were following.

Her own body tensed and she barely noticed when she began to increase her walking speed.

Cole’s hand grabbed hers as he noticed her sudden need to move faster, “Where?” he asked through the mind link. The girl point to a door at the end of the hallway.

Thorrin, however, was already on his way to the mentioned door. The wolves followed the Perfect Warrior to the door and waited quietly as he opened it.

Tension filled the air as they tried to keep their element of surprise. There was no sign of movement inside the room, but they couldn’t afford to let their guards down. Cole stepped forward to shield his mate from whatever awaited them within the room. Katie could only squeeze his hand more... ‘He doesn’t have to protect me from this far out...’ she yelled in her mind.

‘I’ll protect you any day, Katie. Powerful or powerless, that will never change,’ Cole replied to her thought.

‘Stop reading my mind.’

‘You meant to tell me that, but you probably didn’t realise it. Katie, don’t push yourself. No one decided you were to protect the entire world. Allow us the chance to protect you for a change... as you have done for everyone else for a very long time,’ the king said to her in a loving voice. It was hard to stay mad at him when he spoke that way.

The door creaked open and Thorrin walked into it as though there was no threat waiting for him inside the room, “Alpha Cole, call an ambulance... or many for that matter,” he yelled, startling the entire group of wolves.

The group rushed through the door and found a staircase leading to an underground floor. At the bottom of the stairs, was a door that led to a room containing a large number of hospital beds. Each and every bed held a body, “Uncle Thorrin, are they...”

“No, they are still alive, but barely. If nothing is done soon, however, they will...” before he could finish his statement, a screen glitched to life.

“My my my, would you look at that? You accidentally found my lair,” Katie felt anger boiling within her. The last person to have done something of the sort had been Kyle, but she had found Kyle and that had been different. This one was someone else, “I believe you all know my name. I am ‘The Boogeyman’ as I’d like to call myself and my speciality is stealing dreams... and causing nightmares. The young people in this room all had their hopes and dreams shining brightly ahead of them.

The looks on their faces when I’d captured them and let them know they were never going to go to that concert or be the alpha of the pack they had been told they were destined for. It was priceless... Nevertheless, I didn’t intend to kill them. No, not one bit...

In fact, I meant to let you know that I had captured them so that you could come running and save them. Well, it was kind of a win-win situation for me because, if you saved them, then you would get my message, but if you didn’t, their dreams would be crushed and mine as well.”

“Don’t listen to him, get all these people to the hospital,” Cole yelled at the top of his voice.

“Oh, this is only a recording, by the way. I am not actually in the room that you see me speaking from. This was a happy experiment though. I have heard... no, we have heard stories of the Rogue killer, so we wanted to test her for ourselves and to be honest, it was all a lie,” the man burst into an evil cackle.

Through his dark laughter, he continued to speak, “We picked them off one by one and she didn’t even notice a thing. The legends were all make-believe. Well, I guess you really can’t believe the word of a traitor.” This time Katie felt anger coming from someone else. Kyle could barely contain himself as he listened to what the man was saying.

“The beta alpha moved up to the screen and looked about it, feeling for its different sides until he found what he was looking for, a flash drive stuck in the side of the monitor. The moment it was out, the screen went blank, “We’ll find everything he recorded on this.”

“Well done, Kyle. We really didn’t need that voice whispering into the minds of the wolves here,” Thorrin congratulated him, taking the flash drive and getting to work helping the wolves take the victims out of the basement.

“What do you think he was trying to accomplish and who were the others he was talking about?” Katie asked Cole.

“The criminals that escaped the dungeon on the day the rogue king broke out. Many of them were captured, but a few of them survived. We searched the entire capital, but there was no sign of them. I now know what happened to them,” he explained.

'

“They regrouped and teamed up and now they are plotting something against the capital of Lycaon?” Katie asked.

“Yeah... that’s what I would assume,” Sandra spoke for the first time. ‘Where did she come from?’ Ashley was startled.

‘She’s been here the whole time,’ Katie responded.

The wolf went quiet for a bit before speaking up, ‘We’ve found them, haven’t we?’

‘Yes, yes we did... You did well, Ashley.’

‘Yeah, feels nice to know I can still do something,’ the wolf replied. Katie could feel the warmth coming off her alter ego. However, in the next moment, she felt herself revert to her human form. Her mind was quiet once more...

Far too quiet...

Katie turned away from the monitor and approached a child that was lying a bed asleep. The boy was still breathing steadily and didn’t seem to be hurt. She reached out for the boy before Cole stopped her, holding her hand gently.

“Let the others handle this,” he asked her in a calm tone. Bella walked up to them and carried the boy into her arms.

“Yes, Luna Katie. Let’s handle the hard work. You can just sit still and look pretty, okay?”

“Bella, that was uncalled for,” Cole scowled.

“Hey, I’m not the reason she...”

“Apologise to your future Luna, Bella. Or would you be better off hearing me sending you into exile?” Cole had gone from calm and soothing to livid in a matter of seconds.

Seeing that she had overstepped, the woman bowed to Katie and apologised before scurrying away with the young boy in her arms, “I wouldn’t have thought you would snap at a woman up until now,” Katie teased Cole, batting her eyelashes at him, “And all just for me...”

“I have my limit, Katie,” he groaned, pulling her into a hug. It was only then that the Luna noticed the man was trying to calm his rage. Smiling, the girl hugged him back.

“Well, I am right here and nothing has happened to me. It’s not like Bella would have gotten the chance to attack me anyway...”

“If you wish it, I could have her moved out of Lycaon,” Cole whispered into her ear.

“No, we won’t be needing that, Cole,” the girl replied, wondering where he’d been hiding his overprotective and possessive side all this time.