Chapter 179

179 Chapter One Hundred Seventy Nine

The bus finally stopped its rhythmic vibrations and came to a stop in the parking lot of a large hotel. The chaos from the students started then. The teachers had their hands full with trying to govern the unruly rascals. Most of them wanted to go exploring already, something that was a breach of security procedures. Katie kept silent in her seat as the chaos ensued. It was fun to watch and she continuously giggled at Trevor, the busy body, “Hey Trevor, you missed one,” she called out to him through the bus window.

“Aren’t you supposed to be helping him?” Cole asked her.

“Yes, I am supposed to be helping, but watching is much more fun and irresponsible of the hunter they brought. The boy needs a bit of training in crowd control, so I’m supervising,” the girl whipped up an excuse, refusing to make eye contact with her mate. Cole ran his hands through her hair, fixing the mess of strands the wind had made when she’d opened the window earlier. Katie went perfectly still as he did so... Looking back at Trevor, she found that he was going to mess up his job before long.

“Trevor, try standing at the entrance of the hotel and making roll call of everyone that goes through it,” Katie offered her opinion. The boy looked up at her and walked off to the hotel entrance. Katie shrugged, “That was simple enough.”

“Of course, it was,” Cole replied.

The bus finally started to get empty. The students finally got organised in the yard inside the hotel premises and the teachers went to address them. “Shall we join the others, Cole?” Katie asked.

“Aren’t you going to make a sweep of the area and make sure it’s safe?” Cole asked her.

“Well, there are four hunters on the four corners of the hotel, so...” the alpha raised a brow at the girl. “Why are you so insistent on me taking this job seriously?”

“Well, because I know how powerful you are. If you were to confirm the hotel to be safe, I would believe you in a heartbeat compared to a group of hunters I’d never met,” Cole replied, placing a kiss on her forehead.

.....

“You’re treating me to dinner,” she huffed before walking out.

“I was already planning on that,” the man laughed as he watched her disappear leaving a light tempest in her wake... “I also haven’t seen you run untethered in a while...”

'

Jason, on the other hand, was having more trouble waking up his partner. The girl was sleeping so much she wouldn’t wake one bit no matter what he tried. “Hey Cole, is she dead?” he called out, his voice raised in pitch.

“Huh, why would you think such a thing? She’s still warm, isn’t she?” Cole asked her.

“Well, yeah, she’s still warm, but she won’t get up... It’s like she’s in a coma,” Jason almost screamed at this.

Cole shook his head in disappointment. His friend was just far too immature for him, “Try carrying her then. She obviously doesn’t want to wake up now.” Just then, the fearful man got a look that could only resemble that of someone who’d been offered heaven.

“Carrying Sandra to her bed and tending to her every need until she falls madly in love with me for being such a gentleman and...” SMACK... “Ouch...” The boy turned back to see Lina standing with Caden snickering behind her.

“You better keep those thoughts to yourself. Besides, girls get their own rooms during trips like these, so she won’t be needing you to spend the whole night tending to her.

“I was only speaking of one possible future of this. The possibilities are endless. I could carry her to her room and she wakes up on the way only to pretend to be asleep while I whisper my undying...” SMACK... “Ouch, you have got to stop doing that...”

“Caden, can you carry Sandra to her room, please? I’m afraid Jason has a few screws loose,” Lina asked, ignoring the alpha’s comment.

“Oh no, Caden. You know she’s uncharted territory for you. Lay one finger on her and it will be your head on a platter,” Jason cradled the sleeping girl even closer to himself.

“Just how obsessed are you with this girl?” Lina mused.

“Enough to believe she could be my mate someday,” he replied, rubbing cheeks with the sleeping girl.

“You’re too confident about her being unable to wake up, aren’t you?” Cole asked.

“Oh, I tried a lot of things to get her to wake up, but she’s totally fallen asleep. It’s like I’m the perfect pillow,” he joked, cradling the girl even more, “What are we waiting for? Lead me to her room so I might lay my beautiful princess to sleep.”

Lina chose this moment to give up on trying to curb this foolishness, “Right this way. You’ll be carrying her for a while considering we have to first wait for the teachers to have everything sorted and hand us our room keys.”

“I don’t mind having to carry her for a thousand years,” he replied cheerfully.

“You might soon realise why no one wants to get into Atlas’ shoes. The weight of the earth for a minute might be okay, but centuries upon centuries is a whole other matter altogether,” Caden warned the boy.

“And even then, I’d do it as long as it was for her...” he replied, barely fazed by his friend’s words.

“He’s gone off the deep end, Caden. Might as well let him be,” Cole tapped his friend on the shoulder.

“Yes, Alpha Cole,” and just like that, Caden stopped bothering Jason on matters concerning him carrying his potentially future bride.

This group was the last to go through the hotel gates, walking up to the boy holding a notepad ticking off names, “Ah, the runts of the group finally showed up. Names, please.”

“Alpha Cole, Alpha Caden, Alpha Lina, Alpha Jason and junior hunter Sandra,” Cole replied with a smirk on his face. Trevor was barely shaken by the man’s response. He merely ticked them off and began to wonder.

“Huh, Runt Cole, where is your better half?” he asked, “She seems to be the only one that has not yet come through this gate.”

“Well, she’s surveying the area, making sure she knows just how safe this place is,” Cole replied, walking away from Trevor. The hotel was made up of only four buildings, large flats built in a square. The compound inside had been partitioned with paths and gardens that were well tended to. One could say it was the one part of the reserve that was tended to and yet still close to nature. The gardens had chairs and tables littered around for those that would like to relax in the cold wind at whatever time they saw fit.

“If everyone could just pair up and receive their keys. Register your room number and roommate on the same list Trevor has. Make sure you cooperate with the hunters. They work to make this place as safe as possible and we don’t want to make their work any harder than it has to be. Even if some of you are werewolves, I wouldn’t be too confident of your abilities against a lion or a bear in the woods. Do I make myself clear?” the teacher yelled out her orders to the students who responded in utter boredom.

Having mentioned hunters and safety, they were more willing to comply and did so as fast as their numbers could allow, “Katie is surely taking a while to come back, huh,” Caden made an observation, eyeing the gates. The girl was still not back yet. Cole wasn’t as worried as he was though... When he thought of contacting her, he only got the feeling of liberation. Katie was having fun... A smile graced his face.

..............

Katie took off in one direction intending to go around the whole of the hotel to make sure there were no entry points for intruders. As she ran, she noticed everything passed by her faster than it usually did. She’d gotten faster and it was easier to run too. She barely used any energy to reach the speed she used at this point. It gave her a feeling of freedom to run untethered by her previous physical restraints.

Memories of the last days of training flooded her mind. Frank Silver had told her something very interesting... “Producing a thunderclap isn’t as hard... Well, for you. It isn’t as hard as you might think. You only need to tap into your gift and use it to a level that brings you to a speed twice your normal. It won’t be as loud as the thunderclap you normally make since that is you at your maximum. I don’t even know how you can see when you overclock your abilities like that,” the man rambled on. He’d explained with a series of examples. Trying to make sure the girl didn’t overdo it unless he wanted to hear from the prince once more.

In those days, Katie would constantly check on Caden to know how he was doing. Thankfully, they came to an end and by the time she had her last day of training, she’d finally caught the meaning behind Frank’s terrible explanation. It made sense for someone who didn’t have the agility gift to have trouble explaining how it worked. Katie was pleased with the man’s efforts despite her reluctance to be trained in the first place.

The man had trained her to use her strength as well. She was meant to fire arrows that soared at a higher velocity than the ones she was used to. It had been exhausting to shoot them, but eventually, he’d clarified that learning to use the gifts to the best of their capabilities was essentially what made a Mighty Warrior. It was only after Katie realised how his bow worked that she realised just what he meant. The Mighty Warriors were the perfect embodiment of the gifts Prometheus entrusted the hunters with.

Katie ran past a couple of hunters standing guard at different parts of the hotel and waved to them before running ahead to look for more breaches in security. For all she’d realised, the hotel was built well with three exits and one fire escape(which was a little fewer than she would have recommended) The different exits were either locked or guarded. Cameras had been placed at all the right angles to capture activity outside the hotel. There was nothing out of order for her to report back.

As the girl was making her last turn to the entrance of the hotel, the rushing sound of footsteps reached her ears. She turned her neck to see a woman rushing up to her. She looked to be in her late twenties and had short black hair that made her look more like a rebel along with her rebellious looking clothing. Katie came to a stop and turned to the woman. The woman stopped at well and took one look at her, freezing at the sight of the girl before her, “Your eyes...”