457 The Goddess and Her Prince
Crysta turned to the large tunnel she had just come through upon the slender white wolf’s back. This tunnel was where the prince was supposed to come through, but if she had heard the commentator right, it wasn’t going to be as simple for him as it had been for Lina.
“Follow me… We have to help him,” the delta called on her friends.
Bree and Crysta were gone before Honour and Madeline had the chance to follow.
The Seeker and goddess weren’t as athletic when compared to the other two females. Bree fell slightly behind Crysta but she was still impressive.
After all, the two of them were separated by rank.
“Come on, Mady,” Honour sighed and the two started a jog that they could handle.
This way, they were behind, but not by a lot…
‘Better late than never… right?’ Madeline tried joking through the mind link.
However, her words landed on deaf ears. Honour’s face was several shades paler than normal, “Hey… are you…” her question got caught in her throat.
.....
What was she saying? Of course, Honour wouldn’t be fine. The person they were rushing to help was none other than Drake Sirius.
How had she allowed it to slip her mind that he was closer to Honour than most?
The Seeker berated herself for allowing that small fact to slip her mind. In her defence, Honour’s despair didn’t seem to be leaking into the mind link.
“Let’s hurry up and catch up with them,” Madeline urged her friend to pick up the pace.
The goddess very rarely lost her composure, but this was one of those rare times.
Madeline had to play the emotional anchor. Guiding the half-petrified goddess, the Seeker helped give her pace.
When they were exiting the tunnel, the sound of rushing paws came from behind them. Madeline turned in time to see a sandy brown wolf reaching them. The voice of the wolf was quickly projected into their minds, “Hey, get on. The royal family has sent me ahead while they make sure Lina is alright.”
“Why haven’t they come at once?” Honour nearly screamed. Jason was taken aback by her tone but was compelled to answer either way.
“One problem at a time, Honour. If you didn’t notice, Lina was pretty shaken when she came here and one of her companions was pale and had lost a lot of blood. I’ve never seen that carefree girl that shaken before.
So they sent me ahead to assess the situation with the prince and get him treatment as soon as possible,” Jason yelled back into her mind.
Despite his efforts to compose himself, the beta alpha was shaken as well. The Royal Games were a time of happiness and jubilation. A ceremony where they celebrated the lasting peace between the humans and werewolves by holding these games… and yet…
Ignorant about the relationship between the prince of Sirius and the girl before him, Jason found himself offended by her sudden outburst. What caught him off guard the most though, was that he wanted to help the distraught girl with any problems she had.
“Climb on… I’ll get the two of you to him.”
Jason didn’t bother asking why they hadn’t shifted. It wasn’t unusual for average wolves and deltas to stay in their human forms even when they needed the speed boost of their werewolf sides.
It could even be simply because they didn’t want to ruin their clothes. The power difference also came with that disadvantage.
The girls got onto his large spacious sandy brown back and braced themselves. The beta alpha was tearing through the outer settlements towards the centre of the commotion that had already started to consume the crowds.
The rumours that had already milled through the crowds didn’t help any of them one bit. Some said that the prince looked like he was on the brink of death while others depicted him as an unmovable war hero.
Some said he was covered in the blood of his enemies and was merely carrying the head of one of the rogues that had dared to attack him through the Trials.
None of these rumours made Honour’s heart beat any less terribly in her chest. She was frightened out of her mind. She tried to reach out to the prince through the mind link they shared but when nothing went through, she only got more worried about the prince, ‘What has happened, Drake?’
She strained her memory for any signs of despair through the special link they shared but there was nothing that came to mind. She hadn’t felt him in danger at any one point.
In fact, she had only felt power drawn from her at some point during the Trials but there was nothing alarming that came through their mind link. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to worry her and had simply drawn on the divine energy they shared.
Or maybe he’d done that by mistake. Either way, an answer didn’t manifest from her speculations. She could spend an eternity trying to figure it out and still not come to an answer. She wanted to see him.
She wanted to know how he was doing.
The siren from the paramedics’ vehicle soon reached their ears. It was heading straight for them… Jason darted to the side and allowed the vehicle to go by, then followed it.
The alpha rushed through the outer settlement, dodging the people that crowded the streets and growling at those that wouldn’t let him through.
One look at his crimson eyes was enough to frighten anyone that saw him. Honour looked around and noticed they were headed out of the settlements and towards the marshland the participants of the Trials were meant to emerge from.
‘Were they really able to spot him from this far out?’ thinking about how far Lina was by the time the announcer had mentioned her presence, she could confirm that they were able to see that far indeed. It was impressive, however, that level of detail was scary.
'
‘Was the prince that injured that they could spot his injuries from that far off?’ was the modification to her worrisome speculations.
Lina had been carrying an injured person as well, but they hadn’t mentioned that… It was not until the princess had come to a stop at the other end of the tunnel that everyone witnessed the deathly pale body of an unconscious Wyatt.
Honour’s questions, however, stopped flowing through her mind when she set her eyes on a large gathering. The crowd was almost impenetrable. The blinking red lights at the top of the ambulance stood out in the crowd like a shimmering crimson tower in a sea of people.
It was then that the scent of the prince hit her nostril, standing out in the sea of scents that normally assailed her senses. While her senses were weaker compared to other werewolves, this distance from the source was manageable for her.
Her thoughts became even harder to control at that point. She wanted to see Drake.
Jason allowed the girls to get off his back before he let out a loud howl. The two girls had to cover their ears as the sound tore through the crowd.
There was no need to interpret this sound… Everyone knew what the high-ranking wolves did when they didn’t have the patience for those that obstructed them.
The crowd parted immediately, tearing a beeline straight for the man at the centre of the crowd.
Honour’s breath hitched and her heart skipped a beat. Her speculations shattered within her mind, replaced by a dam of new worries based on all the information her eyes brought flooding into her brain.
The prince was kneeling down with his head dropped, looking exhausted and breathing badly. His clothes were wet and filthy with far more than the simple muddy waters of the marshlands.
The paramedics were already trying to take his vitals and help him into the ambulance but the prince swatted all their attempts.
When he finally snapped, he yelled at them and pointed to another body at the centre of the crowd, a metre or so away from him, “Take care of him first,” he bellowed. His expression was stern… despite the paleness of his skin.
The man, who was advocating for someone else’s safety, was not looking good himself. There was a large half-bite on his shoulder and a worrisome amount of blood that soaked his shirt around the shoulder.
Within the bite mark, black pus was oozing out, emitting a terrible odour identical to the one that was coming from Wyatt.
Honour staggered forward, afraid to take another step.
Her mind was arrested by the terrible state of the prince’s body. It was as if each time she took the image of his body, she rejected it and took it in again, hoping he would somehow heal up and be restored to his former state.
She tried searching for more injuries on his body, but all signs of them were the torn holes in his shirt.
The girl forced another step forward, paying no attention to her surroundings, “Drake…” her voice was barely a whisper. Those in the crowd that saw and heard her gasped at the lack of respect in her voice.
However, one look at the sandy-brown wolf behind her was enough to keep anyone from approaching her.
As if summoned by some otherworldly force, the prince turned in response to the voice. His eyes easily fell on the girl’s face.
The look of fear in her eyes tore at his heartstrings. The prince locked eyes with the girl, wondering how long she had been there. He had been hoping she wouldn’t have to see him in this weakened state.
“Honour…” his words were cut short as a wave of weakness far more severe than the one he’d gotten earlier took over him. Just getting to the borders of the outer settlements had been an arduous ordeal in and of itself. The body he had carried with him had weighed him down a lot but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the man behind.
The paramedics finally listened to him and attended to the man he’d come with. Royalty got far more priority over normal werewolves and they wouldn’t have touched him unless he’d ordered it…
or they would have been too late to do so and left him for dead in the process.
Drake felt his head swaying, feeling lightheaded… Almost immediately, a pair of warm hands wrapped around him and pulled him into an embrace. The prince’s head landed softly on the shoulder of the goddess. Her intoxicating scent assaulted his nostrils but he was too tired to compliment her and it hurt to use the mind link, a sensation that was unheard of.
As if reading his mind, Honour asked, “Why haven’t you used the mind link?”
“It hurts… I don’t know,” the man’s voice was strained but he would force himself to continue speaking, “I’ve been trying, but I feel cut off. The silence in my mind is excruciating. Everything hurts… I can’t heal either.” With Honour by his side, he seemed not to care about the rest of the world anymore.
He’d finished the Trials… or at least reached the outer settlements.
His sister had won and there was nothing more he needed to do. He could go to sleep. He could rest. He could spend time with his goddess. Her secret was another one of the things he’d kept between the two of them.
While he was feeling sleepy, a warm feeling came from his back. He knew the feeling all too well, “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to…”
“Not here… Not for me… Not when there is so much at stake,” the prince said to her.
“But you’re…” before the girl could finish her statement, the royals arrived. King Cole and King Davin had come as fast as they could. However, the queens were not with them.
“Honour, how is he doing?” King Davin asked her.
The girl felt Drake go unconscious within her hands… and his heart was getting weaker. She wanted to heal him. Her hands were shaking with the intention of doing exactly that…
But Drake’s words had arrested her will to proceed. She could only hold him… and let the rest of the world drown from her perception.