"Caden, take Ash to the principal and ask for his information to be altered such that it's right and if there is any opposition, feel free to use my name. He is under my protection. Is that clear?" Cole said.
"Yes, crystal clear, since he hasn't killed anyone yet, he is still innocent," Caden pointed out before leading Ash away from them.
"So who are you going to take to the dance at the end of the festival?" Jason asked me.
"I haven't decided yet… and what do you mean by 'end of the festival,'?"
"Oh, you didn't know. The festival lasts a whole day. Students from different classes present projects and really important people attend the festival. If something is flashy enough, someone can get themselves a scholarship. It's one of the biggest events in the school, no, the city. Security is also tough on that day as hunters from the hunters' agency are hired to patrol the school and keep civilians out of trouble," he explained. 'Why would Katie miss an event such as that one?' the thought echoed through Cole's mind as they walked into the school. The bell rang for the start of the first lesson as they got in.
................
Katie got home to get what it was that she would need at school. That included a bag of her books. Katie's parents did not ask many questions about where she had been considering there had been an attack the day before and instead gave her a new full bottle of pills. "Keep these on your person at all times," Uncle Tom said to her.
"I can't do that. They are known now, the rogue that was put into a Prometheus evaluation. He passed it," her aunt gasped, covering her mouth. It was almost unheard of for a rogue to pass that test and this was big news.
"That must be a special wolf indeed. Or maybe… No, it's normal for a rogue to pass that test as long as they are determined to escape that life. Something must have inspired him to turn away from that life of darkness. He's lucky," Aunt Marie said.
Katie went to the kitchen and prepared a quick breakfast, her guardians following her expectantly, "So are you going to tell us what happened?"
"There was a lot of death in the air and the fact that the rogues that attacked us were all kids below eighteen years old. They were using the same pills that I have to conceal their presence in the school and pass for humans. They were spies for the rogue king. I wasn't able to find out exactly who they were as we just killed most of them," Katie began, telling them the entire story of how the wolves ambushed them and how he captured them. He told them about Shaemus' weird behaviour but left out his suspicions. Their reactions to that information were something she wasn't looking forward to and decided to withhold it while he carried out his own investigation.
She sipped her tea keeping her eyes away from their expectant faces intentionally leaving out the events of the rest of the night, "I can't say much more after that. I gave Shaemus a punishment of joining the night patrol of hunters for a week."
"So you are going to leave out everything else that happened, huh. It's fine… we just want to make something clear. We made some research, your wolf will come out gradually on Sunday and the pain of the transformation trying to force itself will continue to ravage you tirelessly. You have to keep your emotions in check through that time. A minor slip up could result in you biting someone's head off. By seven in the evening, you should be at the cabin deep in the woods where we have gotten the underground bunker ready to contain you during the transformation and through the whole night. There is no telling if you will go on a rampage when you shift, so that is a precaution that we are going to have to take. I am hoping we can make it through the night and everything will be better in the morning," Uncle Tom said.
"Okay then, I will enjoy the festival until 6:30 that night and head straight here," she said to them and continued her breakfast. "Don't you guys have to go to work or something like that?"
"Yes, we do…" Aunt Marie said nervously, "but come on, you have to tell us something about what happened last night. Fine, at least just me, Tom can go away and leave to talk girl to girl."
"Since when is gossip a thing in this family?" Katie asked, her voice going up several octaves. This was new in this family… a thorough examination of the behaviour made sense. The Chase family was good when it came to following their intuition and this told her that they could feel something happened.
"I slept in the same bed as Cole Lycaon," this jaw-dropping news had both of her guardians stunned. Katie noisily sipped her cup of coffee for dramatic effect while she savoured the silence in the room. 'It doesn't get better than this…'
"Umm… where do we start? Why? How? When? All these questions are valid. Tell us everything…"
"You what?" someone yelled. This was when it was just registering in Uncle Tom's head that he was supposed to react to this.
"Honey, the moment passed... honey…"
"What do you mean in the same bed? You slept with him! Oh my God, you're only seventeen…" he began ignoring his wife's attempts at stopping him completely.
"And there he goes," Aunt Marie face-palmed while listening to her husband fly off the handle. There was nothing that could be said to snap him out of it now as she had already tried. She could only listen as Katie herself tried to correct him but fall into even more traps that her husband kept on setting, the story becoming more and more ridiculous the longer the ridiculously one-sided conversation dragged on.
"Did he break you? That guy is huge," Aunt Marie burst out laughing at that point. Katie's face was starting to turn red under the pressure of her harassing father figure. This was a trait that both females knew about quite well where he would choose a moment to attack someone using their words against them and spinning everything they said in favour of making the story completely repulsive and embarrassing. It was easy to eventually slip up and say the wrong words when he did this and when that happened it only helped in making the situation all the worse.
"I'm not continuing this," Katie started yelling while running to the sofa to pick up her bag pack, "It's because of you my coffee started tasting funny."
"Sweetheart, don't forget your phone," Aunt Marie reminded Katie amidst her now dying laughs.
"I got it, thanks."
"Get back here, we are still talking…" he yelled back at Katie before the front door slammed shut, "Katie… Katie… This conversation is not over."
"She's gone honey," Aunt Marie spoke up, her husband beginning his own series of laughs on the floor. His wife simply rolled her eyes at him, "You can be such a child, you know that."
"I was only messing with her," he tried amidst his laughter.
"Even after she tried her best to word her statement carefully," she replied.
"Oh, come on, she set that trap for herself and you know it. There is almost nothing in the world at that point that could save her. I couldn't pass up that opportunity…."
"You're unbelievable," she facepalmed walking past the counter and into the kitchen to wash up after Katie. It took some time before the laughter seized. Tom, however, did not stand up from his spot on the ground.
He simply lay their spread-eagled and spoke up, his voice low and serious, "You think she found out."
"She probably feels the bond, but she doesn't know what it is. The same applies to that Royal, otherwise, he would know what it was and tell her. The pills can't block it completely, but the more they grow close to one another, the more feelings they'll start to develop," she explained.
"He could not have come at a more opportune time. She will need him in the days to come," Uncle Tom said.
"That much is true. I could not have asked for a better turn of events. Our initial plan would have proved to be too much of a gamble, not to mention, it could have cost many people their lives," she said.
"That's true as well," he confirmed. The two shared an untold secret of how they were meant to initially handle her transformation on her birthday that was more hectic. No one in the entire world had known that the coming of Cole Lycaon had been the biggest stroke of luck that had avoided the death of countless innocents.
Katie got to school earlier than she expected. The perks of having an agility Prometheus gift really came in handy sometimes. She checked her watch before leaving the house and found that she had five minutes to the first bell. That was what made her choose a different path to get to the school and that was a path through the forest to avoid detection. She checked the classroom and found that Sandra and Kyle were not yet there. Cole and his alphas were also nowhere to be seen. There was only one more place she thought to check and that was the hunter's pub in the cafeteria. This was where they spent their free time even when they came to school earlier than needed.
Sandra, Kyle, Cole and Jason were the people who occupied the pub when she came in. The four of them were engaged in deep conversation before they noticed her. "Good morning," she greeted them before letting herself fall between Kyle and Sandra, putting her hands around them to brace herself.
"You aren't light, Chase," Kyle complained under her arm.
"Boy, you just need to start working out," Katie said dismissed his complaints, letting him go just as well.
"Someone is looking happy," Jason said, winking at her.
"You shut your mouth, wolf," Katie narrowed her eyes at the witty alpha.
"What is he talking about?" Kyle was the first to ask.
"No, don't let me interrupt. What were you guys talking about before I got here?" Katie asked trying to get the focus off her.
"Kyle was asking about Ash. He was curious to know how Ash survived the evaluation," Cole replied.
"That sounds like him anyway. Curious Kyle… You better ace the exams. With all you know, you should be able to get into the best university you can think of," Sandra spoke up.
"I'll do my best. You can't blame me for wanting to know what happened after I was taken away against my will. I really wanted to see the Prometheus eval to completion," he pouted.
"There was a big chance you were just going to be there to witness a death like all the others you had already witnessed. Speaking of which, were there any cases of trauma during the incident," Katie asked Sandra.
"From what I could find out from my parents, there were only about seven cases. Some just fainted from being smothered within the crowd, but other than that, everyone was okay. They won't be getting excited to go for another crazy day out any time soon. Not after what happened back there," she reported.
Katie stayed silent for a bit before asking, "How long till the traumatized civilians get back to normal?"
"The doctors said it will take a minimum of three weeks and a maximum of three months in rehab given they aren't exposed to such violence again during that time," she said.
She took some time to think before sighing deeply, "We should get to class. I surely hope that was the last of the rogues that infiltrated the school. I don't know what I'd do to the next one that I would find."
"I don't think anyone would make that mistake after watching you do something like that to their comrades," Kyle said, closing his ever running laptop and packing up his bag.
"I don't think we have the same lessons today, so I'll just get going," he said getting up with Jason, "Oh, one more thing Katie… your proposal. I thought it through and I'd like to you up on it."
Katie's thoughts froze on hearing him accept to spend the evening strolling through the woods, "Yeah, that would be great. I'll… I'll be there," she stammered. 'Where did my confidence go?' she mentally screamed. Her mind soared through the number of possibilities that could happen on an evening stroll. Despite how alien the thoughts she soared through were to her, she wanted to stay within them. Some were as messed up as finding rogues in the forest and romantically taking them apart while others were as innocent as a walk that ended in the night where they simply stared at the night sky in each other's arms laying cliché love phrases on each other quite thick.
The three friends stood still watching the wolves leave the cafeteria only because Katie was not budging an inch. Sandra waved her hand in front of her friend's face, "Earth to Katie… what was Cole talking about?"
"Oh," she snapped out of her trance to see Sandra before her, a look of suspicion on her face, "It's nothing… just an evening stroll." With that said, Katie began speed walking out of there… a strategy that Sandra could see through. Sandra quickly tackled her best friend.
"You are not running away from me after saying something that abrupt and juicy," the two girls struggled on the floor.
"Let me go, Sandra," Katie whined.
"No. I want gossip and you are going to give it to me," Kyle could not stop laughing at the two as they struggled childishly on the floor. Katie soon stopped struggling and let Sandra restrain her.
"Fine, fine, I'll tell you. Cole and I are going on an evening stroll," she said.
"Oh, that's it. So can I tag along?"
"Are you being serious? Of course not."
"But Jason and Cad… wait, there won't be Jason or Caden during that stroll… just the two of you," Katie nodded to confirm her statement.
"Wow, that I did not see coming. What brought this on?" she asked.
"No idea… now can you get off me so that we can get to class?" Katie asked the girl who still had her pinned to the floor.
"Oh, sorry," Sandra hastily got off her and helped her up.
"A royal, huh, that's like up there," Kyle began.
"Oh, shut it, Kyle," Katie said jokingly, "That's only a title. I'm still stronger than him… I think."
"Well, when you have your weapons, then you are stronger than him, but I would doubt it if you were barehanded," he said.
"Whatever you say boy wonder," Katie replied, raising her hands in mock surrender. The three walked out of the cafeteria only to bump into two other people, one of which Katie didn't want to see. The halls were empty at this time, classes have already started… and yet here these two were, Caden and Ash.
"This must be Ash," Kyle said, his voice sounding a bit different from what it usually sounded like. Katie was compelled to look at him. She thought she noticed something of a glint in his eyes if only for a second.
"Yes, that is me. I know you already though I didn't know who you were," he said.
"Yeah, but I'm guessing you never know someone until they show their true colours. Katie was sure surprised to find out," Kyle was spitting venom and doing his best to stay calm at the same time.
"That's enough Kyle. I can fight my battles for myself," Katie said, narrowing her eyes at Kyle, "Say something that can save you."
"Stop bullying him," Caden said pulling the yellow-eyed child behind him defensively, "I'm guessing you weren't briefed on what he told us about the rogues he was working with. So I'll say this before he gets in more trouble with the teacher. Ash is under the protection of the Lycaon Royal family now and he has been cleared of all suspicion after agreeing to collaborate with the hunters and give them all the information available to him."
Katie kept her eyes on the boy hiding behind Caden. This boy was too young to be a spy. What kind of person was the rogue king? Her expression finally softened. Ash posed her no threat whatsoever and was not at fault at all, "How old are you, Ash?"
Ash froze at the question, seized by the sudden change in the mood that was being directed towards him, "I'm… I'm fifteen," he stammered.
"Well then," Katie extended her hand out to him, "Welcome to Brigade high. You have nothing to fear here. Even Dexter is not allowed to bother you."
Ash shook her hand, finally getting over his fear, "That was fast." Katie chuckled.
"It's expected… Ash is fond of you," Caden said matter-of-factly.
"How come?"
"You're the reason I made it through the evaluation," he said, snapping the group into silence. Saying something about how the evaluation went was somewhat of a big deal considering the test was never the same and no one knew the conditions to pass it.
"That sounds fascinating. How am I instrumental in your current wellbeing?" he asked.
"You are the reason I was able to believe in a life away from the rogues. Without that, Prometheus deems the evaluation a failure. I was determined to turn over a new leaf because of the safety you have managed to put into this school and for that, I am truly honoured to have met you," Ash explained. A short and touching speech that came from the heart. Ash couldn't stop the tears that threatened to break free from his face once again. The smile on his face made it undeniable that he was overjoyed.
"There he goes again," Caden chuckled, "You really are a crybaby, Ash, but no one holds it against you. I can't imagine what you went through when you lived with the rogues."
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