Chapter 200

200 Chapter Two Hundred

“Who wrote this list?” Cole asked the hunter that had been assigned to their car.

“It was your head hunter. He seemed to think it was perfectly drafted so that everyone was in the right order,” the woman replied, “Is there a problem here? I could make sure you get left at the hotel, your highness.”

“Oh, you have one attitude. If this was drafted so well, then why would he separate mates for a full day?” Cole asked with annoyance laced in his voice...

“Oops... That might be my bad. Sorry about that. We’d probably switch if she was still here, but I guess you’re stuck with me for now,” the woman said to him with a smile. Cole regarded her appearance for a moment and decided against making this such a big deal. Her black leather clothes and odd piercings gave her a rebellious look and spelt danger, a word that he didn’t want to cause at the very beginning of the trip.

‘Katie...’ the royal called out to his mate.

‘Yes, alpha Cole,’ she called back after a short pause.

The alpha cringed at the title for one of the first times in his life. When his friends used it, he could tolerate, however, it was different with his Luna, “You can cut that out for now,’ he tried.

‘Cut what out exactly,’ Katie feigned innocence. Cole sighed heavily and got into the car, taking a seat beside Jason. “Where is Sandra?” the alpha his friend, noticing the girl wasn’t at his side for what looked like the first time in a while.

“Well, she has been assigned to protect the car we’re in. The hunters get to sit at the back of the car and that means I can’t be by her side. Duty calls and all that. Where is Luna Katie?” he asked.

.....

“I would assume you already know that. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the close eye you’ve been keeping on the both of us. You and Caden both... Speaking of Caden, where is...”

The royal was stopped by an ear-piercing transmission that cuts through the mind link and into the minds of all the werewolves that were around. It was the strongest and loudest mind link he’d heard in a while and it was coming from none other than Katie Sirius.

‘This transmission goes to all werewolves. You’re all obligated to make sure the humans are in close proximity to at least two werewolves so that we can be able to track anyone that gets lost. The mind link is to be open for all werewolves and those that have their mind link closed off are to open it up immediately unless they would like to risk their lives in the reserve. This is for the safety of everyone in the reserve, nothing else. Your private conversations can still be shielded, but you are not to block out the communications from the rest of the wolves. Inform the humans of these developments to ensure we work together in making this work,’ her voice was clear and demanding of all werewolves that heard her.

‘Isn’t that a bit extreme? If you don’t know how to handle your job, just tell us so that we might put our trust in someone else?’ a voice came through the mind link. There was an unbearable silence among the werewolves before the girl replied.

‘I will communicate the positions of the rogues as soon as they get too close to one group of werewolves. Considering we’ve been split up like this, going after the rogues would only give them the room they need to cause more harm to the wolves and humans here. Keep in a group to stay safe. If you’d kept your mouth shut, Liam, I would not have been forced to tell you this last part. The humans mustn’t know of this or else we shall have a mass panic on our hands. I don’t think any one of us wants to watch someone die on this trip, now would we?’ Katie replied.

‘I don’t understand your logic, alpha Katie. How does doing nothing about the rogues keep us safe?” another wolf asked this time.

‘I could have done something if we were dealing with a few rogues that were moving in a small group, but they have split up. If I go for one of them, the others get an opening to attack the group that I’m protecting. Rogues won’t attack unless they know the power of the group they are fighting. As long as a hunter is in your sight, you should be fine,’ Katie replied.

‘Why don’t you just let us kill the rogues and be done with it? What’s the use of the training that we go through every morning of every day from the moment we start to shift,” another wolf replied, raising some chaos over the meeting.

“Well, I don’t know about the training that you’ve been put through. I haven’t gone through the different things that Alpha Jackson has you doing. If it happens to be the very thing that I see every morning, then I would say that training was meant to teach you how to protect yourselves. You won’t be able to use that same amount of training to kill rogues, let alone attack them,” Katie replied.

‘What do you know?’ another asked. This voice was familiar, but Cole couldn’t seem to quite place it. The other wolves went quiet when the voice spoke. Katie didn’t seem to notice who it was that had spoken through the mind link.

‘Hmm... that would be a story for another time, I guess. Rogues don’t go down easy... Well, when the person fighting them is a basic human or an average werewolf. They train so hard that they have fully mastered the power that their shift gives them. I don’t think any of you have ever been trained to fight a beast that cares nothing about the life it brings down. Rogues won’t hesitate to kill you once they have the chance. My instructions were clear. Every werewolf is to keep the humans in sight. I didn’t ask anything else of you,’ Katie replied.

With that said, the meeting came to a halt. The mind link remained as open as the royal left it and gossip from those of the wolves that didn’t shield their conversations started to leak into the mind link. Cole listened to a few of the words that came from the other wolves and backed away immediately, “Hey, Katie...”

“What is it... Cole?” she asked him.

“Are you okay?”

“As well as I can be. I’m counting on you to keep an eye on that car...”

“Slow down, Katie. What has you on edge, Katie?” Cole asked her, cutting her off. On the other side of the communication, the girl tried to focus on her mate’s voice. She barely showed a reaction on her face, but within her mind, a mental fight to sort through a multitude of information that continuously bombarded her mind.

‘Katie, you have to turn off that weird power of yours. It’s going to give you... I mean, us one hell of a headache,’ Ashley complained, trying to block the noise from her ears to no avail. The sounds were coming from everywhere and all of them were jumbled. What was worse was the fact that each and every sound that cut through her senses was interpreted immediately and thrown into the mess of information that she could barely sort through.

‘I need to find a way to separate these two powers or else we’ll be moving around blind, Ashley,’ Katie yelled back at her.

‘No, that’s not true. You can still tell if there is going to be dangerous without having to focus on finding out the rogue’s positions,’ she replied.

‘And what good will that do me if there is going to be someone about to die at that moment and I don’t even know which group of rogues attacked whatever group of children,’ Katie replied.

‘Katie, calm down then. Calm down and concentrate. Don’t force the animal sounds out. Let them in and focus on using both powers at the same time. It will be no different from you concentrating on your powers in a noisy club,’ the wolf replied.

“Katie, are you okay?” Cole’s voice came again through the mind link.

The girl took in a deep breath and tried to do what the wolf had just told her. The animal sounds wouldn’t stop. Instead, the crease in her brow lessened as she let the voices in. The animals made the same kind of din that the students made in the car even though they had the oddest of analogies when they spoke to each other. After embracing the fact that she would never be able to hear plane animal sounds again, she switched her mind to the mate she’d not been able to answer.

“Yes, Cole, I’m fine,” the girl replied. She could finally use her power again. She could tell where the rogues were, however, it was all clearer. She could feel her radius had stretched to take a wider area.

‘Would you look at that? The Chase family borrowed power from nature, huh,’ Ashley scoffed, ‘Who would have known?’

‘Are you really the same person that was reincarnated if that is at all what happened? I would like to think you’re just as ignorant as I am sometimes, but there are things you know that I don’t expect you to have a clue about. I need an Ash-education,’ Katie sighed. She noticed she didn’t even have to focus to keep her radius of detection up. She could feel everything without an ounce of focus from her. That included the different animals that were in the preserve.

'

“If you could look to your right, you will see the Colossal Great White Rhino. These creatures are very rare. They were hunted in the old days for sport until they became endangered. Annoy that big boy there and he will be looking to throw this car on its side,” the teacher, teaming up with a ranger, told them all they knew about the animals in the reserve.

“So many humans this time. Do they ever get off their lazy butts and use their legs?” the rhino’s deep guttural voice came through to the girl’s mind while it continued to munch on a patch of grass. The car paused for those that had phones to take the necessary pictures...

“Lazy doesn’t even compare...” Katie sighed. The rhino looked up from the patch of grass and at the hunter, locking eyes with her... ‘Crap,’ the girl mentally cursed.