Chapter 170

170 Chapter Seventy

Katie was seated in that classroom, her hand clasped around her pen very firmly. She remembered everything the Mighty Warrior had mentioned the day before with painful detail. Every now and then, she stole glances on the other side of her mate to watch the junior head hunter. Trevor seemed focused on his work that he didn’t notice her do this.

“So, he told you to make friends. What’s so wrong with that?” Cole asked through the mind link. However, the hint of discomfort was evident and he did nothing to hide it.

“Oh, come on. You cannot be okay with this. Declare this absolutely stupid so that we might move on from this,” she begged even knowing it was futile.

The alpha raised an eyebrow at her, “Any law I can declare bears the same weight as something coming from your mouth. In fact, in this country, you hold more power than I do since you are a princess of Sirius.”

“I know all that Cole,” she groaned, placing her head on the desk. Cole looked at the whiteboard at the front of the class and his mate’s notebook. All the answers were already there.

‘When did she get the time to learn all this when she was always training?’ his thoughts unknowingly flew through the mind link.

“Sometimes my parents would make me learn all this when I was training and others were taught when I was too weak to train. As it seemed, learning new things always seemed to calm me down and it was when I was trapped in this cycle of learning, that I seemed to take in everything they wanted to teach me. I was a weird kid,” she replied through the mind link.

“Oh, I wouldn’t call you weird. You turned out just fine to me and that’s all that matters,” the alpha said, placing a peck on her cheek. The girl kept her head down to hide her flushed expression.

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The bell eventually rang, signalling the end of the lesson and sending everyone off to their lunch break. Katie’s head was still down by the end of the lesson. Sandra tapped her shoulder, “Aren’t you coming, Katie?”

“No, I’m not. I have something to do with that nosy junior hunter,” she replied, making her best impression of someone who really didn’t want to go through with something.

“Oh, I never thought you’d spare him a second thought. Do you want me to stay behind in case you need backup?” Sandra normally didn’t ask this question, however, she felt as though she had a different assignment that was more important than protecting Trevor from the wrath of the Rogue Killer.

“No, you have another charge to take care of. Make sure she doesn’t get into trouble,” Katie replied. Sandra got the message. She might not have been as strong as Katie was, but she wasn’t about to fail in her mission to protect the princess. When they were all gone, Cole stayed by her side.

“Do you want to be my bodyguard as well?” she asked the alpha.

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“Oh, I wouldn’t be much good in this state,” the alpha chuckled, reminding her of the pain that still plagued him. It had been two days since the incident, but the royal was still trapped in the pain that he’d got from healing the Mighty Warrior. As compensation for the pain that he was going through, Frank had promised to take care of Katie during their training and make sure to account for every single injury on her body.

That meant he was to make sure she returned spotless which was easy for a wolf that had her healing speed. To be careful, the hunter had ordered a new set of arrows that was harmless in training although they still hurt when they hit Katie.

“You should probably go and help Sandra protect my sister. The other alphas fear you even in your weakened state which isn’t the...”

“What’s the usurper royal still doing here? I would like to assume the lady has come to her senses and wants to talk to me alone,” Trevor smirked as he walked up to the pair. Cole was the one to make a fist in anger this time.

‘Can you believe I was staying back to try and ask you to control your temper around this dimwit?’ the man’s voice came through the mind link, ‘How can one measly junior hunter be so annoying?’

Katie chuckled at his reaction, “Go ahead, honey. We’ll talk later.” Cole calmed down at the peck on his cheek.

“Don’t let this tiny demon get to you, sweetheart. I’m watching you, junior hunter,” the royal replied, the last part directed at Trevor who he glared daggers at.

The boy chuckled and waited for him to leave. When Cole was out of earshot, he spoke up, “He’s a colourful one. Must be fun having him as a mate.”

“Yes, he’s a real sweetheart. What have you wanted from me since the first day, Trevor?” she asked the boy, feeling uncomfortable with making small talk with the boy.

“Straight to the point, huh. You should really be more respectful of someone who is going to be your senior,” he replied, beckoning for her to follow him.

“I don’t see how you can possibly accept me as a hunter and yet still claim to be my senior. That’s just severely messed up,” the girl replied, slinging her bag over her shoulder and following behind him and his two right-hand men (boys... ahem...)

Trevor led her straight to the stairs only to stop at the stairs, “Am I to expect cooperation from you from this point onwards?”

Katie bit back the remark that threatened to come out of her. “One step at a time, Trevor. I would advise you to stop trying to push your luck.” She replied with a smile on her face. The boy saw straight through it and understood this was as far as she was willing to compromise.

Shrugging, he began to journey to the top floor, “It was worth a try.”

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Lina made her way to the den in high spirits. a feeling she’d forgotten about. For a long time, she wasn’t able to feel like she could fit in with the others, however, Katie’s encouragement and the training she was getting from Sandra and Jason seemed to be teaching her a new way to look at her ‘misfortune.’

She walked into the den, paying no heed to the looks a few of the wolves still gave her. Her destination was already set and her mind wouldn’t let go of the images of that day’s special. She planned to invite Honour to eat with them as well this afternoon. After all the girl had done for her, she clearly needed to rest for a bit.

Her wolf notified her of something she hadn’t taken note of. There was a scent missing in the Den. The scent belonged to the most feared female in the pack. ‘Where is Katie?’ she froze at the door to the VIP seats. Cole was seated with his alphas flanking him. However, Katie was nowhere to be seen.

“A certain pup can’t seem to find her mother,” Wyatt wasted no time in utilizing the moment of weakness. He could tell who everyone in this room feared. Cole wasn’t in shape to stand up for her and the other two were alphas just like Wyatt and Liam.

Lina concealed her fear and walked up to the chair. A hand appeared on the other side of the chair. Liam eyed her up and down, deciding on whether he should regard the wolf as anything worth allowing to live. “What makes you think that now that your sister is back from the dead, you get to walk around like you own the place?” Liam spat.

“She was probably thinking the princess’ words were final. You do know she will move to Lycaon soon enough. What will happen to you then?” this was the very phrase that stopped Cole from reacting when he did. If he reacted now, they would only wait for him to leave and the cycle would start all over again.

When Liam was just about to utter another word, a feminine voice interrupted him, “Are you that scared of the girl?” the table turned their attention to the source of the voice. Jason smirked at what he saw before him. Sandra stared at the alpha, trying her best to keep herself levelheaded while she spoke to him. She’d never fought an alpha before and hadn’t been willing to fight one that wasn’t Jason in a while, but this one was one she was running out of respect for.

“Oh, did the prodigal daughter’s escort suddenly think she might cut in for her? All of you make me sick. Have you ever seen this runt on the battlefield? She’s always the first to run away. If you ask me, that’s only a skill that’s required by a lone wolf,” he spat.

“Well, then no one asked you. She’s a royal that clearly outranks you. She’s faster than you and my guess is that she can handle herself better in a fight compared to you,” Lina’s eyes widened in shock. Sandra seemed to be giving her ranks she was not yet worthy of.

“Oh, what makes you think that?”

“She’s just...”

“Shut up, runt. I’m curious to hear what the junior hunter has to say. I’ve seen my share of surprises this year and I’m honestly just starting to pick an interest,” he cut the girl off.

“You must be mistaken, Liam. Royals are stronger than alphas... far stronger. That being said, Katie wouldn’t go to Lycaon and leave her sister without a way to protect herself,” she began. The alpha looked between the royal and the junior hunter, so Sandra continued, having got his undivided attention, “I give her to the end of this week and she won’t need protection from the likes of you.”

“Of course, she doesn’t need protection from me. She can always run away,” Liam scoffed at the seemingly obvious detail.

“Then let me rephrase that. By the end of this week, you’ll be the one needing protection from her, should you ever get onto her bad side,” the girl replied, keeping her voice as calm as she could. Lina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was being handed over to the likes of Liam mercilessly and yet she was sure there was no way of beating him if they were ever matched up.

Liam began to laugh after hearing the words that came from Sandra. Crysta came in at that exact moment to find the boy laughing. She took her seat at the table between the already present Bree and Ginger, “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“You just missed the craziest claim in all history. Sandra just said the runt will be capable of beating me by the end of the week. I would have her locked up for such a thing, but it was too good of a joke for me to take seriously,” he replied, taking his seat at the table.

Crysta eyed the junior hunter, trying to decipher what could have made her say such a thing. She’d been paying attention to Lina during the training and had noticed her slowly changing attitude towards training. She didn’t freeze up when approached and even spoke freely with Cole and the alphas of the Lycaon empire. “What are you afraid of then? What do you say to a little challenge?” the delta spoke up, finally getting her to take on the matter.

The table fell dead silent. Liam was stunned by the bold move the delta had taken. ‘How did it get to this?’ Cole groaned, however much he’d noticed Sandra driving the conversation to this exact point. She had Liam right where she wanted him. “End of the week then... We’ll decide the place during the trip.”