Chapter 161

161 Chapter One Hundred Sixty One

The king lay in the bed in his room. The curtains were drawn and the doors to the balcony opened, letting in a cool breeze. Cole came running and stopped at the entrance of the room. The stench from his father’s failing organs hit his sensitive nose harder than ever before. The odour rolling off the dying man was not for the faint of heart and Cole could barely stand the sight his father was in.

“What happened?” his voice broke through the silence. He paid nothing to the warnings the nurses tried to give him. His father hadn’t been in such condition when he’d left the palace that morning. The pack doctor, a frail old man whose wisdom in medicine was yet to be surpassed by anyone in the kingdom of Lycaon let the alpha pass to reach his father.

“You always love to make a loud entrance. Would you learn to keep your voice down once in a while?” the king’s voice was weak. Alpha Miles Lycaon of the Lycaon empire lay on his deathbed and his head swarmed with worries that he wouldn’t let out of his mind.

“Father, what happened? You weren’t this bad when I left you this morning,” Cole tried.

“And where was it you had so dutifully gone? To train with your betas, again. How’s that going?” the man dodged the question. This time the doctor answered the boy’s question.

“I found trace amounts of wolfsbane in his blood. I don’t know how it got there. Just to be sure I had the whole palace checked, but there was no sign of wolfsbane in the utensils used by the king or anything he came into contact with for the last twenty-four hours,” he began. Cole knew there was more. The man had been working for the royal family for a long time. Probably longer than Cole was alive.

“Then what was it?”

“It was an injury that I suffered eighteen years ago... The day we all laid down our lives to protect the child chosen by the moon goddess to lead this war to its inevitable end,” the king spoke. He went into a fit of coughs that had Cole heavily worried. Squinting his eyes while the king went through this painful ordeal, the alpha could only hold his hand while he went through it. Whether it was his imagination, the boy hadn’t noticed, but his father seemed to breathe better the more he squeezed his hand.

Once out of his feat, the man continued his story, “The hunters were summoned to protect the baby at all costs. We had nothing to worry about and the rogues didn’t stand a chance. At first, we thought they were desperate until the hunters became overwhelmed. It soon became clear that we were completely surrounded. I had never thought the rogues could be that many and they kept on coming regardless of how many they killed.

.....

Eventually, one got through the defenses and went straight for the room you were in. I’d stationed guards at the entrance and they did their job of apprehending the rogue. I rushed in to make sure you were alright. That’s when I saw them... the others. An elite team of alphas that had scaled the walls of the castle. One of them was a beta alpha. That wasn’t the hard part though... The hard part about dealing with them was what they wore. Armour that had dripped wolfsbane.

Their very clothes seemed soaked in it and they wore masks to keep themselves from being affected. The head of the Chase family came to my aid in a flash. It was a hard and long fight and we’d won. I let my guard down and one of the rogues stabbed with a knife doused in wolfsbane...”

“That should be enough to kill a royal,” Cole replied.

“But it’s enough to fatally harm them if they don’t get the right treatment in time. By the time I was treated, my wound would not heal anymore and as time went on, it continued to infect the rest of my body, spreading the wolfsbane through my system. At least, that’s what my doctor tells me. My time is almost upon me, Cole,” the words felt like needles to the boy.

An alpha was not supposed to die before he’d been succeeded and that could only happen once his heir had found their mate. Cole had no mate and he was an only child. His father’s death was simply impossible for him at the moment. Looking down at the hand he held. Through the foggy sight that his tears created, he could see the blackening hand. He felt a dark ache as well.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, he paid attention to what was going on. It wasn’t rocket science and his instincts knew what was happening at the moment, “Cole, what’s happening to your hand?”

Feeling somewhat energetic, even though he didn’t know how or when he’d regained some strength, the king lifted his head ever so slightly enough to get a glimpse of the black that moved from him and into his son. “You didn’t heal because you weren’t treated in time. If I take on your injury, you won’t have to worry about the healing part.”

“Another ability... This one is too special to come without a cost, Cole. It could kill you to save a dying man,” his father tried.

“It doesn’t matter if that man is my father and you know I’m tougher than that. We have a lot we haven’t done yet, father. You can’t leave just yet...” the more the boy talked, the more colour returned to the king’s face. His illness was fading. The veins on the boy began to extend, covering his whole hand and sneaking past his shoulders. The pain was starting to feel unbearable. Cole placed his head down and bit into the covers to keep from screaming.

“You don’t have to overdo it, Cole. I will be fine now. You’ve bought me time...” The king yelled at him this time. A pair of hands pulled Cole from his father suddenly, cutting their connections the moment they were no longer in contact. Cole barely took notice of his assailant. He was consumed with the pain from trying to heal his father. Since this was the first time, he was doing something like this, he also had no idea what was going to happen... “Cole, Cole...” a feminine voice called out to him. He’d collapsed on the ground, drained and with no energy to get back up.

The black veins still swarmed about his body and he healed slowly. The pain was all he knew at the time. He only wanted some form of relief and before he knew it, he had fainted.

......

Back to present time...

“I woke up the next day with a pounding headache and pains in all my muscles. The healing process was slow which is saying something considering I barely get time to notice my injuries,” Cole finished the story, making sure to send it privately through a mind link he opened with the others in the other car. They all needed to hear this once. He didn’t want to tell the story more times than he had to.

“I don’t know whether I should look at that as a gift or a curse,” Lina spoke up after a period of silence.

“Well, it was a blessing for my father. I don’t want this story getting out. I’m not a healer and I never will be,” he announced with a hint of finality in his voice. There was no further discussion on the topic. Anyone in his shoes would have done the same thing anyway.

Sandra leaned back into her seat and sighed, remembering the events of the day. ‘I’m glad Frank will be okay though,’ she thought to herself.

‘You know I can still hear your thoughts when they aren’t guarded,’ Jason’s voice came into her mind.

‘I was under the impression that ended in Brigadia?’ she asked him.

‘Well, that’s what I thought as well, but I found that I could still hear you without even focussing,’ he replied, ‘Are you going to tell Katie anything of what happened to Frank?’

‘There will be no need to tell her. Frank is okay and he can therefore continue to protect her. I don’t need to intervene,’ she replied, yawning. Sleep was starting to tug at her eyelids... ‘The first day of her training and she was able to crack a thunderclap that loud. I wonder how fast she was going when she did so. I also wonder if she’s going to learn how to do it without losing her breath. Just how far will you go for me to catch up with you...’

Jason heard the girl’s thoughts and decided to remain quiet. He looked at her momentarily when the thoughts went quiet. She had fallen asleep in her seat. The palace was now in view and he could tell that everything in the palace was calm. Caden, diligent as he was, had communicated the state of the palace with disturbing detail, along with the assignment he had been given to protect the Luna. It was only after Caden had called by her title that Jason realised just how precious Katie was to the Lycaon empire.

‘Caden, is everything okay on your end?’ he called through the mind link.

‘Yes, the Luna is sleeping soundly. Her breath is a lot better. Are you almost to the palace? Is Prince Cole with you?’ Caden asked.

‘Yes, I returned with him. He healed the Mighty Warrior. It might be best to prepare a meal for him before he goes to bed. Something light and nutritious,’ Jason replied.

'

‘I’m on it. Welcome back, Jason,’ Caden replied... Jason took some time to his thoughts... When he’d first reached out to Caden on matters concerning their alpha, his friend had been very alert on the matter and agreed with him at every turn. To Jason’s surprise, he was also serious about this and couldn’t joke about it when it came to the welfare of his alpha, no matter how much he wished he could. This hadn’t been the case when they’d set out to Brigadia from Lycaon.