Chapter 291

291 Hard Decisions

“What do you mean, ‘one problem after the other,’?” Bree asked him this time, taking note of the prince’s entrance earlier. He’d been in a rush to find the princess, no doubt he’d found her the same way he was trying to find Crysta just now.

‘Lina, my mother, as well as Madeline... I can’t find them,’ a panicked voice came through to Lina’s mind. The voice was one that usually set Lina’s mind at ease. However, hearing it this way was something else entirely.

‘Wait, slow down. Aren’t they at your house?’

‘That’s where they are supposed to be. Grandma said they haven’t been home the whole day, so I thought I’d check the flower shop, but it’s been closed the whole day as well. Mum wouldn’t do that unless something urgent had happened,’ Honour replied. Lina could swear she heard the girl pacing from the other side of the mind link.

“Little sister, Father is calling. We have something urgent to discuss,” Drake called, snapping out of his trance from the discovery of a missing wolf case.

“Tell Father that I’m busy right now. I don’t have time to start visiting Uncle Sean right now,” an attempt to reduce the number of issues she had to deal with at the moment.

“It has nothing to do with our uncle. It’s something else entirely. I hope it helps with you finding a missing girl, but I also hope it doesn’t,” Drake replied vaguely.

Lina couldn’t place his tone, but after hearing him commenting on how there was something else to be worried about, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know how much trouble they were in. Whether it was connected to Crysta or not, she got the feeling she’d be better off having the two as separate cases altogether.

‘Calm down, Honour. You could try asking around or feeling for them through the mind link. I’ll help out as soon as I can,’ Lina replied. Sensing Lina’s distress, the amber-eyed goddess accepted and went silent.

.....

“I’ll catch up with you later, Bree. Have Ginger and anyone else that can help look for her in places she might be. Ask Alpha Phillip or Alpha Jackson for help if you must. Just please help me find her. I’ll join you as soon as I can,” with that said, Bree nodded in response and waved her off. The princess followed her brother and the two of them made their way to the king’s office.

Drake pressed the button at the side of the door and waited for the clicking sound of the door unlocking, inviting them in. Inside the office, the atmosphere was even tenser than what Lina had already experienced. Her father was seated at his desk with his chin resting on his hands, his mind deep in thought. Her mother sat beside him, wearing a worried expression for the king. Seated in front of the desk were the last two people she’d expected to find in the king’s office...

Honour’s mother and Madeline...

Without thinking, the girl rushed to their side pulling Madeline into a sudden embrace, “There you are. You had me worried.”

“I’m sorry. We would have told you what was going on, but the king said we should wait for you instead and that’s what we did.”

“Honour reached home and didn’t find you there. She’s been searching for you guys everywhere,” Lina replied, finally letting go of the girl, “At least that’s two of them found,” she said more to herself before setting her eyes on a blue card on the king’s desk with her names engraved in it. Her heart skipped a beat.

“Would you contact Honour and tell her to come here as well? I think it would be better if she was here as well,” Honour’s mother told her. Lina tried to read her expression in search of any sign of trouble, but the woman was excellent at keeping her face indifferent. She relayed the message to the girl through the mind link.

“I’ll have someone pick her up so we don’t waste any more time than we have to,” the king announced, his gaze landing on nothing at all as he went into a mental discussion with someone else.

While the king was doing that, the queen spoke up, “Lina, why didn’t you tell us you were going to lend someone your credit card? We thought you’d ditched school and gone shopping.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that. Wait, you monitor my credit card usage? That’s private, mother,” the girl fumed, her mind quickly going on the defensive.

“No, Lina. We don’t monitor your credit card, but when we get a call from the bank telling us that someone cashed out that much money in a boutique when you’re clearly supposed to be in school, that’s cause for worry,” the woman argued.

Lina fumbled to find her words before giving up, “Fine... I’m sorry, mum. I should have told you about Madeline.”

“Yes, you would have and I’d like to think you know better, but here we are. Why didn’t you tell me?” the queen clearly wasn’t done with her.

“We found her in the woods. She was tired and her clothes were torn with cuts and bruises all over. She passed out and went on incoherently about rogues. What was I supposed to do at the moment? I took her to the one place I knew was safe beside the palace, and then got her treated.

Since she was wearing clothes and barefoot, I could tell she’d come a long way without shifting. I’m not sure rogues would fail to catch someone barefoot running in the woods. In any case, if they came looking for her, I had no doubt they would find her if she was at the pack infirmary. Later on, she wouldn’t quite answer us, so I was hoping to give her some time for her to gather her thoughts and I wasn’t planning on hiding her forever,” the girl tried to explain.

“While your reasoning certainly has consideration for the girl’s comfort in mind, didn’t you think to question yourself on how many people you were putting in danger? You’re a royal, you know there is no safer place for her at the palace if you wished it to be.

I’m just stating this with no real meaning behind it,” this she seemed to aim at Madeline, “but often when girls turn up like that, they’ve only just escaped from one of the breeding farms that the rogues keep hidden.”

‘That’s not what this is at all,’ the girl mentally yelled. However, all she had to go on was a gut feeling which wouldn’t help her situation. Royals were meant to be reasonable and take their subjects into consideration before making the right decision. Gut feelings had no room in that line of work. Conceding defeat, the girl let her gaze fall to the floor and in a lower more respectful voice, replied “I didn’t think of it that way, Mum. I accept this as my mistake and I’m sorry.” This was the second apology she was making to the queen and a rare occasion, to say the least.

The queen smiled at her daughter, “It’s okay, Lina. Stumbling once doesn’t mean you’ve reached the end. I know there are times when you don’t have all that time to think about what you’re doing, but with time, you’ll learn when to make the right decisions and fast enough. I can say this one was not a bad one exactly either... That’s if no one gets killed or brutally wounded because of it.”

Rather than find comfort in the queen’s compliment, the girl only felt more dreadful knowing she could be the reason for the death of many. A beeping sound came from a machine at the king’s desk.

'

The king hit the button on it and the door swung open. Honour came rushing and enveloped the girl in another sudden hug, “Where have you been, Mady? I’ve been worried sick.”

“It seems the two of you have taken a quick liking to the girl,” the king chuckled. Madeline hugged the girl back, a tear escaping her eyes, “I’m okay, Honour... really.”