Chapter 208

208 Chapter Two Hundred Eight

Word of the incident with the rhino spread through the students like a wildfire. The open mind link was buzzing with gossip of Katie’s confrontation with the rhinos in the reserve. The more this information spread, the more the boy that had caused it all felt like going invisible, which was obviously impossible. Katie’s group was the first to reach the beach. She hadn’t thought much of it until the salty scent of the sea reached her nose.

Ashley was getting excited the closer they got to the water. Awe was the first reaction from everyone that saw it... the large ocean that spread out as far as the eye could see. A large water mass, almost unthinkable to someone that had never seen it before.

“Wow,” one of the students said out loud. The guide had gone quiet upon reaching the ocean and plastered a smile on her face.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” she said, “On days when there is no one here and I need a place to think, I like to go up to the cliff or come down here to clear my mind. The view never ceases to amaze me.”

Katie looked to her left and noticed a high cliff not so far from where they were. The waves made a lot of noise as they crashed onto the jagged rocks in the bay. Taking note of the safety hazard, the girl continued to take in the sights. Her neck felt stiff from another force that wanted her to take in everything faster.

She looked up and took notice of an eagle soaring high in the sky. Respect for the hunter burned deep within the girl as she stared at his serious eyes scanning the waters for his next unsuspecting prey.

“When you think you’ve seen it all,” the girl mumbled to herself. The car came to a stop and let them all out. It was only a short while later after the other two cars reached the beach and parked next to theirs. Katie snuck away from the beach and leapt into a tree, taking a position that allowed her to watch all the students at once.

Her senses hadn’t let go of the rogues one bit and she was curious about one danger in particular. Wyatt and the other junior hunters had noticed her queer mood and let her to herself. Katie made sure to remain as quiet as she could on her perch up in the tree.

“How long?” a voice came to her ear.

.....

“It made sense soon enough... Are you alone?” Katie asked the voice.

“Won’t you at least look me in the eye?” the voice came again.

“No, I won’t. I might just get the urge to behead you the moment I see you,” she responded with a smirk on her face, “I noticed you wanted to talk to me...”

“Well, I did want to talk to you, but I didn’t think you would be this willing to talk. Not after...” an arrow tip at the back of the girl touched a spot on her shoulder the girl knew all too well. One of the four scars that she wore was proof of the battle that had nearly cost her life.

“That is why I won’t look you in the face. I can’t do much attacking anyway. If I can keep these students happy and blissfully unaware of the danger around them just a little longer, then that is what I will do. However, if this isn’t a friendly meeting, then I don’t mind exposing the danger you pose to them,” she responded.

'

“Oh please, I would never hurt humans. Werewolves, however, I can attack if it comes to it,” Jeremiah answered with a sigh.

“Aren’t hunters...”

“I only got the guts to shoot you when you performed a half shift. It wasn’t human... and that, I can shoot,” he cut her off before she could argue with him.

“So that day in the Founder’s festival...”

“I was trying to make sure the rogue king had lied to me about you being a werewolf. I milled about looking for signs of the rogue killer and any signs of her being a werewolf as the rogue king had suggested, however, there was no such luck,” he replied.

“Why can’t you kill the rogue king the next time you see him? It makes all our work easier,” Katie said to him.

“I wish it were that easy, but the man is more powerful than any werewolf I’ve ever seen it. I could even say that he has gifts himself. You once said it was your mission in life to put an end to this war. I have seen what you’re capable of and yet you haven’t even reached your prime. Keep at it, Katie. Many of us feel as though we are reaching our limits but you, you only keep pushing higher. I know I’m the last person that should be telling you this, but I would say you’re the one person that has the potential to beat the rogue king, however, not as you are now. You need to get stronger if you are to bring him down,” the man spoke to her. She heard him put his drawn arrow back into its quiver... He was leaving.

“Wait, so you’re not on his side. How many of you are working for him undercover?” she asked him.

“There are many hunters that are bound to the man in ways that they can’t begin to count. He captures people they care about the most or puts threats on their lives and uses the hunters. Some are simply undercover and sneaking information back to the Hunters,” he explained.

“Which one would you be?” Katie asked him.

“I am among the ones being threatened, however, I would like to make contact with the hunters. To be more precise, the only hunter that I know I can trust is you. Would you work as my contact to the rest of them?” he asked her.

“How is that supposed to work? You make it sound so easy, but the moment he finds out you’re playing the part of a two-faced traitor, he’s going to kill you,” she told him with a hint of annoyance.

“Oh, you make it sound like you care about me,” Jeremiah replied in a cocky tone.

“My hatred for you vanished the moment I realised I could kill you without sparing much of my energy,” she smirked.

“Oh, I’m quaking in my boots...” Jeremiah chuckled, “I’ll be careful. You know the rules of undercover work. Take me to be the one undercover... Take care...”

With that, he was gone... Katie’s focus came back to her surroundings and noticed someone at the base of the tree leaning against it, oblivious to the hunter above... Or so she thought... His alluring scent soon told her exactly who he was, erasing all thoughts of him being unaware. With his experience in tracking, (an assumption she’d made...) there was no way she could have been hidden from him.

The hunter leapt out of the tree and landed beside Cole Lycaon. The man had his hands folded across his chest, “Anything you would like to share? You seem to be far busier than I realised.”

“Well, I am in charge of keeping everyone here safe and we have a large group of rogues running about the reserve. Of course, I’m busy,” she responded.

Cole sighed, looking up into the tree, “Who were you talking to?”

“You heard all that, didn’t you?” the girl groaned. There was just no hiding anything from her mate. “I should start rethinking how strong this mate bond is... everything I knew about it seems to be heavily insufficient in explaining it.”

“Oh, what didn’t you know about the mate bond?” Cole asked the girl pulling her into a side embrace and leading her back to the crowd of students. A group of two hunters and a head junior hunter, sighed when they realised they wouldn’t be getting to talk to the girl once she had been captured by her mate. Cole led her back to their group of werewolves.

“Well, it makes everything easy. I can tell you everything and be sure that you’ll take it well... and...” the words got caught up in her mouth. The rest that she intended to say just couldn’t come out verbally.

“It lets us say everything we wish to say without having to use our words,” Cole said when he realised her tongue had gone heavy, “Would you like to tell me through a private mind link?”

Katie thought it through before answering, “Maybe when this is all over.”

Cole had heard this phrase before, “When all of what is over...”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed yet... The rogues in the reserve... I plan to bring them all to the ground,” she said to him coldly. Cole knew it was inevitable, but the way she said it reminded him so much that he was mated to a hunter and that her cold killer side was just as much a part of her as the caring one that didn’t want to see a single scratch on her sister.

“Hey lovebirds... We just talked to one of the guides. The bonfire will have venison,” Jason yelled at them as they reached the small gathering.

“And for some reason, it has got these two hoodlums very excited,” Sandra said bluntly pointing at the two beta alphas.

“I’m only wondering if they think they will be allowed to eat it raw... Or do they think they get to hunt the deer as well?” Katie picked up on her friend’s lines.

“Ha ha ha, make fun of us all you want. It will be us laughing when you finally get to taste it yourself,” Caden puffed out his chest.

“We’ll see about that...” Katie froze when a group approached her from the back. With her powers at their maximum, she knew where everything was and was unconsciously keeping track of everything. Anything that made her heart rate spike was cause for concern and the group behind her brought a feeling of happiness, but one of concern as well.

She turned around before anyone could tell her of their arrival and met face to face with Lina, her beloved little sister. The girl looked nervous and wouldn’t meet her sister’s eye, “How are you doing, Lina?”

“I would like to apologize for...” her lips drew into a thin line. Katie thought hard to remember what it was she was apologizing for but came up blank.

“Well, I can’t remember what you might be apologizing for, so I guess it’s forgiven and forgotten,” Katie replied.

Lina’s eyes darted to her sister’s thoughtful face. ‘Sometimes I forget how warm you can be one day, then scary on another...’ “Very well then... Can I ask something of you?”

“What is it, Lina?”

“We are going out tonight... Early before the duel with Liam... We want to look for moon lotus flowers...” the girl began to explain. She stopped waiting for her sister to lecture her on how careless she was being to go out at night when she’d only been warned about it the day before...

“Hmm, is that all?” the hunter asked her.