Capítulo 22: Chapter Twenty Two

Cole remembered losing the energy to speak for days after that not being able to comprehend why something so cruel could happen to him. He trained from that day, growing and improving in all matters concerning war and running a pack. He put all his work into activities that could help distract him from what his father had told him that day.

The whole story was explained to him in detail along with proof and evidence of their claims presented. There was no falsified information and it was only a matter of time before he gave up hope on having a mate. As far as anyone was concerned, he was the one Royal who had no mate, a large misfortune for that matter. It meant that he would not be able to inherit the throne from his father and claim his birthright.

As a result, Cole found himself being pursued by daughters of alphas and betas. All trying to get ties into the Royal family. Some of them would even turn out to be rogues in disguise and would be executed immediately. Power, money, prestige… every single one of them had the same look in their eyes when they came up to him.

They all made him sick to the stomach each time they made themselves too familiar with him.

Cole got up from the sofa having finished his coffee and walked back to his room, his mind unwillingly going through the experiences that started to become more frequent after he turned sixteen. At some point, he would laugh at all the silly attempts that were made in an effort to gain his favour. The concept that was being exploited was that no one knew what the moon goddess based on in choosing a second chance mate or even when she did it. It became torture running away from his steadily growing fan club.

Caden and Jason would help when he wanted to be alone and distract them from him. This was partially why Jason ended up becoming as loose-tongued as he was today. The three had become best friends in almost no time growing up in the same schools. Their parents happened to be among the alphas that chose to stay closer to the Royals than most. They did not expand their packs to conquer large territories and rather just turned enough wolves to serve the Royal family. This was how the great dilemma the royals faced came to be solved since they didn't have the capability to create normal wolves.

Caden's loyal personality to serve the crown made him reliable and most of the time was taken to be somebody who wasn't capable of joking around regardless of what anyone who knew him said to prove otherwise. Jason, on the other hand, was much less uptight than Caden and would make the most of a situation if it meant getting a good laugh out of it. Surprisingly, with how loose-tongued he was, he denied all the girls that came to him when they noticed how close he was to Cole, and he turned down each and every single one of them. Despite his nature, Jason valued two things that he didn't let many find out about, that was the crown and whichever girl out there was blessed to be his mate. He might not have looked it, but he was willing to treasure his mate the moment he found her without any hesitation.

Cole opened the door to his room, his mind snapping back to reality when the scent of someone else hit his nose. He spotted the overpowered hunter lying on his bed, sleeping like a rock. He walked up to her and adjusted her position such that she slept to one side in the most comfortable position he could think of for a hunter, a few crazy ideas running through his mind of funny ways hunters probably slept. 'What if she prefers to sleep upside down like bats?' He gave her sleeping form one more look before turning away. It wasn't unheard of for a hunter to wake up just because of the feeling that they were being watched in their sleep.

He slipped into the shower taking his time to savour the feeling of the warm water running through his hair and down his back before washing himself down. Silence filled the intricately designed hotel room; the lights were dim to allow someone to get sleepy naturally and for comfort to the sensitive eyes of a werewolf. Fatigue racked his body, his muscles screaming from the running he had endured in the short time that everything had transpired that day. "Where... am I?" Katie's voice came out low and weak capturing Cole's attention from the dressing mirror. She turned to the hunter that was stirring and walked up to him in the hopes that she was only talking in her sleep. Much to his dismay, Katie was awake although she clutched her forehead as though her life depended on it.

"Should I get you some painkillers?" he asked rushing over to the water dispenser in the room and getting her a glass of water along with painkillers from the medicine cabinet. Katie grabbed the contents from his hands and gulped them down without any resistance before lying back down on the bed.

"I don't think pain killers will cure this headache though."

"You could just say 'thank you.'"

"My bad… Hard to think of that when your head is trying to kill you. You could have waited till I recovered to suck the gratitude out of me," she said, chuckling at the end, "Where am I?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're at a hotel. In my room..."

"I'm in your room…? In a hotel? You know what… never mind my location. I need to sleep before I can be able to make any life-threatening decisions," she said, Cole, nodding his head humming enthusiastically to confirm every time she paused questioningly.

"Aren't you even a little bit worried about your safety or something? Your parents…"

"I trust you, Cole…" the phrase came out abruptly, shutting the Royal werewolf up and setting him on cloud nine, "I don't know why, but I do trust you. The Chase hunters follow their guts and mine allows me to even take my guard down around you. So I'm not worried about my safety. As for my guardians, I'll talk to them," she explained to him leaving him stunned by the reply. Katie was a mystery the more he got to know her and yet at the same time, she seemed simpleminded. She didn't let her emotions rule her or cloud her judgement and yet again, she treasured her emotions and took them into account when she was doing something. It was a combination that didn't seem to make sense which Cole found all the more intriguing.

"Wait, did you say guardians?" he tried asking, but she was already fast asleep, breathing in calmly and peacefully. She walked up to the bed and slipped into the covers beside her, his eyes scanning her face for much longer than he cared to admit. Her long silky black hair still smelled of forest which only proved how much she had been running through it. The temptation of forcing her eyelids open such that he could see her dark blue eyes grew ever stronger the more he stared at her. He turned away from her if only to reach out and turn off the lights, plunging the room into darkness. An image of his black wolf appeared in his mind, unyielding while it asserted its presence for a reason it did not provide.

His thoughts, a swirling mess of what a crazy day it had been. So much so that it felt so good to finally be going to rest after the day that he had just had. Right when he was about to fall into a deep sleep, he reached out and pulled Katie into his arms, making sure she faced away from him. Sparks went through his body distracting him. His wolf did not waste time taking control of him and holding Katie. Before he had the chance to panic, she leaned back into him… the last reaction he would have expected to come from her. 'There is something I'm missing here.'

..................…..

A third party watched them from a pond in her palace, her husband and mate having his arms wrapped around her, "Those two can feel the bond even when it is being suppressed that much," the man asked his wife.

"Seems that way… besides, it was a bond that was not made by me alone, but Prometheus as well… A bond that is meant to bring an end to all the senseless killing and suffering of our people," the moon goddess explained, leaning into her husband who then placed a kiss into the crook of her neck.

"That girl, however… Did she really need to be given so much power?" he asked her.

The moon goddess laughed at the question, "I've always been wary of humans for as long as they were in positions of power and over the centuries, we have seen humans fall because of things as useless as power, greed, lust and the likes of their despicable sins," she paused, "However, I have watched her from when she was a child. This girl is different… that much I know."

"I'm not so sure about that. She is still susceptible to emotions such as anger. You saw her earlier," her husband said.

"That is what I thought as well, but I want you to look at this one more time," she told him, waving her hand over the pool of water before them. The images changed to a point in the day when Katie had her hand around Ash's neck with her pinned against a tree.

"Yeah, that's what I was talking about," her husband.

"Take a closer look darling," she said to him. The man squinted at the looped images for a bit longer before his eyes widened in realization. He put his hand over the video, willing it to slow down and starting it just as Katie smashed Ash into the tree. Within the split second that the wolf's head was supposed to hit the tree, the hunter had put her hand between the back of the boy's head and the tree to avoid incurring any damage.

"But, how…" the scene before him was quite inconceivable, his mind was blank and continued to be so the more he tried to find answers to why someone would do such a thing even amidst all that rage. A further look at Katie's hand after the collision showed her knuckles dripping blood from the impact. "This human… is different."

"I'm glad you can see it now.

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