Chapter 5
HUNTER
I am bought out of my conversation with Mother by Axel’s loud howl; I join him in his howl of pain and vengeance, as does King Tobias. I listen to Axel’s howl one more time and then watch as he has words with King Tobias, who then connects to me, asking.
“So watching that, was there anything you would have done differently?”
“I guess he could have tried to bring him in, but that still wouldn’t have gotten the information we required as he probably would have allowed himself to go rogue sooner than he did... I don’t really think there was another way!”
“Very good. Now that is what a king must do at all times. He must look at a situation quickly and judge what the best way to handle it is, remembering that you only control one aspect of any situation that involves others.”
“You're always teaching...” He cuts our connection. I guess so he can talk to Axel again.
I look in his direction as he sneezes slightly into the ground and then re-approaches the dead vampire. I watch as he uses his nose and his front claws to move his clothes around searching for something and I guess he finds it as he lifts his nose to the air; it isn’t long before he lets out a low growl just before he starts running.
When we stop again, I smell what he does, and that is Charlotte’s scent and it is fairly fresh, maybe twelve or twenty-four hours old, Axel growls again then takes off following her scent, unfortunately, it leads us back to the prison cell they were held in and the explosion had occurred. Once we knew where we were, Axel seemed to stop, bowed his and then turned around and we slowly made our way back to the castle. Once there, I give Nathaniel back control.
NATHANEL
I shift and take the pile of clothes my mother holds out to me. I get dressed as Mother passes Noah another pile of clothes, but this time she turns round, giving him a semblance of privacy.
We continue to search for Scarlett and Charlotte but we keep coming up empty, it’s not until I hear Stefan running through the halls two weeks later that I see the connections to my sisters are finally back, I go to tell my father but when I reach the door; I hear Stefan tell them where they are, so I know that I am not needed. I move away from the door and head back to the gaming room. Meeting up with Julian, Victoria and Riley, I sit on the sofa next to Julian.
“So I was thinking with my father better now. How about we take a learning trip?”
“That sounds good, but will Uncle Dominic and Aunt Seraphina allow us to go? Especially after everything that has happened lately?”
“Well! Scarlett and Charlotte have both been found, my father is nearly fully healed so they don’t really need us here, we very rarely do anything anyway and if I put it to them as that, a learning trip, we can visit some of the other vampire and werewolf kingdoms to see how they run things...”
“I’m in. I am tired of just sitting here and doing only theory work. I wouldn’t mind doing some practical work within some of the other kingdoms”
Victoria surprises me, as her fighting is more practical than any of ours, but there is only so much you can learn from the same people all the time.
“So it is settled. I will check with my mother and father in the next few days, then we can go on a road trip, visiting clans and kingdoms as we go. I might even talk to King Noah about visiting some of his werewolf packs. I will also make sure that they let the leaders know we are coming as the last thing we need is to be attacked by a leader or another Royal family for intruding on or in their territory without permission.”
RILEY
Nathaniel got the permissions we all needed to go on our learning trip. I don’t know why they included me. Julian and Victoria, I understand they are in training to work next to Nathaniel but me, yeah I am training as well, but am I really doing what I am supposed to do? Sometimes I really don’t know.
As we slowly make the rounds of the different packs and clans and a couple of other kingdoms around the country, I find that there are not very many packs or clans that actually use a separate third in command, as they are usually the Head Warrior. I learnt all I can, but I still felt out of place.
We have been travelling for a few months and are currently in the RedBlood Clan; I am about to get up and go down to have some breakfast when I hear from Nathaniel through our mind link.
“Julian, Victoria, Riley! I need to see you... My room right away!”
“Be right there.”
I throw on some sweatpants and a shirt and head down the corridor. When I get to Nathaniel’s room, Julian and Victoria are just getting there as well. I knock and we hear a muffled.
“Come in.”
I open the door and we enter to see Nathaniel moving quickly around the room, repacking his suitcase; I am the first to speak.
“Um... Nat, what’s going on? Are we leaving already?”
“I just heard from my mother, Scarlett has been taken by that male that has been attacking her. We need to head home...”
“We will go and pack right away. We will be ready to leave when you are!” Julian says. Nathaniel nods and we all turn and leave his room, heading back to our own.
I change out of my sweats and into some jeans, leaving my shirt on. As I repack my bag, I think to myself, why go back? I can’t do anything special. I like my technology, but Uncle Dominic doesn’t have much in the way of security in the castle or even on the borders, other than the Royal guards. I haven’t had enough courage to approach him about putting in more technical security, but then maybe he might listen and agree with what has now happened to Scarlett.
There is a light knock on the door as I do up the zip on my bag. I pick it up, go over to the door and open it to find Nathaniel, Julian and Victoria all ready and waiting. I nod to Nathaniel and we make our way down to the cars, say goodbye to the clan leader, get into the cars and head back home to the castle.
