Chapter 128

128 Chapter One Hundred Twenty Eight

Silence took over the vicinity, along with the other hunters that were minding their own business. Sandra knew all the stories that sang the Mighty Hunter’s praises. After witnessing the Thunderclap only a week before, she knew they were more than stories. It didn’t matter whether he had the arrow nocked or not, there was nothing that could stop him from firing his arrow true to his target. It made up for him lacking the agility gift.

“Let’s not do anything we’ll regret here. No one’s an enemy here,” Jason tried.

“Says the werewolf that led a girl into a Hunter’s Agency and almost got away with seeing everything inside it,” Beatrice began.

“Let’s start over. I’m Jason... I came to the capital of Sirius with my best friend, Cole Lycaon. We mean no trouble by being here... This girl here is a junior hunter,” he tried.

“Any one of you can say a variety of things to get out of trouble. I would like to speak to you ‘mentor’, if you have one at all,” Cupid Shooter began.

“Why can’t we just check the database of hunters? My name will be there. As for my mentor, you might know the name already. She doesn’t like receiving much attention which is why I was trying to keep her identity under wraps,” Sandra began, calming her nerves. ‘We are not in trouble... We are not in trouble... If anything goes wrong, I can just call Katie.’

“What the name of this mentor you speak of?” Beatrice raised her voice, cutting Sandra out of her thoughts, “I have never seen your face around here. There hasn’t been news of a hunter coming here. Just the return of the Werewolf King. I heard he was returning with his... Can you believe it, Frank? He was supposed to be returning with his daughter,” the woman pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I heard of that as well. Jim Gordon was among the people the advocated for me coming here, by the way. Something about making sure this place was safe for the first month of the Royals’ return. I am supposed to be keeping an eye on the girl and making sure she doesn’t get into trouble. In fact, I was on my way to the palace to see this marvel for myself,” Frank said.

“We are having a serious communication problem right now,” Jason sighed, “And yet we are on the same side...”

.....

“Huh, what’s that supposed to mean?” Beatrice asked this time, taking an interest in the change in Jason’s composure.

“Well, we came along with the Werewolf King and just dropped here from the party to test a sample of alcohol that the princess thought might be poisoned, nothing more, nothing less,” he summarised.

“Would you happen to have proof of your whereabouts?”

“Why don’t you call the king himself? If that’s too cumbersome, you could try calling Drake or Lina... Or even Cole. I’m sure that hoodlum isn’t doing anything worthwhile,” Jason continued, forcing a chuckle out of Sandra.

“Can we test the beer or not? We’ve taken a lot off your time as it is,” Sandra pitched in, holding up a vial of the liquid for them to see.

Sighing deeply, Frank deactivated his bow and took the vial from the girl, leading the way into the hospital ward in search of the lab. “You two handled yourselves well. Take a seat there and we’ll test the vial as well as check out your alibis. Try anything funny and you won’t see my arrows coming.”

With that said, the man left them in the sofas of the lobby waiting for the lab results. After a short period of silence, Jason spoke up, “Katie makes giving orders look so easy.”

“Yeah, she does. It’s only the messy jobs that she never lets me do... Unless she is ordered to let me do them,” Sandra answered, leaning into her seat for comfort.

“What kind of messy jobs?”

“The kind that you saw in the dungeon back in Brigadia. She does the torturing herself and only lets me do anything connected to harming wolves when she needs my help,” the girl’s mind flashed back to the time they’d been invaded by rogues and had to protect a large number of people from them. “It feels like a long time ago when we were defending Brigadia from an all-out rogue attack. My muscles still ache from that day...”

“I thought you got better,” Jason asked in a caring tone, moving closer to the girl.

“I’ll be fine in a few days. They are only dull aches left,” she said, allowing herself to lean into the man’s shoulder, “Katie’s walking again...”

“Yeah, she is... We haven’t asked her how, but I’m glad she is,” Jason replied, wrapping his arm around her.

“I’m not...” this caught the man off-guard.

“Why is that?” his mind soared through all possibilities of why a friend would want the other to stay crippled, but it all boiled down to jealousy and all other sorts of negative conclusions.

“She’s going to start pushing herself again. Harder than she’s ever pushed herself before. You didn’t see her while we were growing up as children. She’d train so hard she’d fail to walk for days and even then, she would still find ways to train herself. It was only after she got her Prometheus gifts that she learnt to slow down. She was allowed to take on me as my mentor and trained me while making herself better. After the attack that night, she was subjected to a fear that she thought she’d taken care of. The fear of not being able to protect those she cared about,” there wasn’t a better way she could put it as she kept remembering the past... Before Katie even got close to the title, Rogue Killer...

“It must have been hard for her to get where she was at such a young age. To be shown that she wasn’t where she needed to be yet in a way as cruel... Makes you wonder what she’ll do next. At least she has you two,” Jason spoke up, rubbing circles into the girl’s back.

“What about me? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you and Cole. You’re not planning on letting her drown in training again. You can help her regulate and not overdo it. She might just miss everything important in her life if that’s all she ever does,” he explained, “I should know. I watched Cole almost do the same thing when he was told of the way his mate died.”

The last statement erased Jason’s speech from the girl’s mind, blinding her with curiosity, “How old was he when he found out she was dead,” she asked.

“I’m not sure... Caden and I became friends with him when he was twelve. He was a loner who would only speak when he wanted to challenge pack warriors. His parents were trying to get him to be more social with the other werewolves, but we soon found out why he didn’t like doing that. It’s not every day that you learn you won’t have a mate when you turn eighteen. Everyone around starts looking like the lucky ones. Every girl that comes your way is basically not yours and already planned for by the moon goddess. It shouldn’t have affected him when he was young, but the rumours are hard to keep down,” Jason explained.

“Would that happen to be how he found out he was immune to drugs?” Sandra asked.

“Oh no... That’s another story,” Jason burst out into laughter, “And a hilarious one at that... The first time I saw someone apologizing so much to his friend after shooting him with an arrow laced with wolfsbane...”

“That does not sound like a funny story...” Sandra narrowed her eyes at the man.

“Well, it doesn’t sound funny when you don’t know the details, of course. Besides, Cole is basically impenetrable. The arrow barely scratched him...” he argued, holding back more of his laughter.

Sandra pinched the bridge of her nose once more finding something he’s said interesting. One statement just led to another and another and another... “What do you mean by impenetrable?”

Jason stopped laughing to analyse their conversation, “I have just realised you know nothing about what Cole can do. The rogue killer really knows how to steal the spotlight of the winner of the Royal games. Didn’t it ever bother you that Cole won against Drake in the Royal games and yet Drake is older than him by about four years give or take a few?”

“I’ve never been to the Royal games and barely had any interest in them growing up. Partly because I had no idea what they are about,” she answered innocently, gracing her face with the widest smile she could manage.

“The results are back and your alibis check out... I don’t know how your mentor or whatever found out, but there was definitely a drug in this. A dangerous one too... I actually thought it was out of circulation,” Frank spoke up, walking up to them with a bunch of papers and an envelope to put them in.

“What drug was it?”

“Well, it’s an aphrodisiac. Although it is designed to affect werewolves only and make them obsess over one person in particular. It fakes the symptoms of a mate bond gone wrong... I call it that because of how catastrophic it always turns out. In the wrong dosage, it can be very dangerous to both the victim and the one that has drugged them.

“What you’re saying is that a werewolf that takes this will fall head over heels for whoever served it?” Sandra asked.

“Well, basically yes and no... The drug must contain the DNA of the person serving it if it is to work for them. Otherwise, it makes the wolf attracted to the person that has rigged it with their DNA. It is dangerous and wears off in a matter of hours. Excessive use of it has been known to cause problems such as nose bleeding, headaches, nausea and a lot of other nasty things. You said that there was no one who had been affected yet, so I ask that you warn whoever is at that party of what is in that drink. There could be more...

“No, I doubt they are more... considering I might know who spiked the drink and who the target was,” Sandra stopped him. Sighing deeply, the girl received the envelope from the hunter, “The big city is going to be a handful...”