The Moon Goddess' Chosen

310 Wave of Distress

Sean lay on his bed, his keen sense of hearing picking up on a load of the tumbling bodies on the other side of the door that kept him confined in the dungeon.

It was about time the girl would be breaking him out. The man narrowed his eyes at the door, searching for some other reason to stay within the cell. ‘Perhaps, I could kill the girl once she opened the door...’ the thought turned his stomach.

Sighing, the prince’s expression softened, ‘I blame them for being soft... but I guess I’m not so different. I’m sorry, nephew. I promised to keep from breaking out of this prison, but depending on how much this girl knows, she now has the upper hand. I will find another way to prove my innocence to you...’

His thoughts were interrupted by the clicking sound within the lock of the door. Knowing that there weren’t guards on the other side of the door brought him chills.

Immediately the lock of the wolfsbane-lined door clicked open. The mind link connecting him to the wolf on the other side opened. Unbridled darkness and rage filled the being that pushed the door open.

A thick white gas wafted in through the crack of the door. Covering her face was a black gas mask that hid the girl’s face. The werewolf he’d met earlier walked in and tossed a gas mask onto the bed. “Put that on...”

The man picked up the mask and placed it on his face, his thoughts continuing, seemingly undisturbed, ‘...the day that I will prove to you that I am indeed innocent.’

The man fastened the mask as instructed and followed the girl out of the cell that the king had placed him in. What he saw on his way out assured him of the girl’s conviction.

The numerous guards that kept the dungeons safe were all lying on the ground unconscious. A thick white gas covered the entire floor. ‘Is it fine for them to be lying in the gas like that?’ he wondered. Bree, on the other hand, walked by them without paying them any attention.

.....

She didn’t have that much power physically, but that didn’t stop her from storming the dungeons and breaking him out. There was no doubt in his mind that they were going to leave the palace without any trouble, “Block your connection to the mind link. That way, they won’t track us down,” the girl ordered.

The prince wondered where her genuine respect for the royals had been hidden. “I can’t do that. Have you any idea how painful it is to be cut off from the mind link?” the royal replied, almost dramatically.

“I know what it’s like and I also know that it’s not something that bothers you,” the girl turned to him viciously. He could have sworn she was scowling.

What frightened the royal, however, was not her tone, but the fact that she’d read right through him once more. ‘Just how much does she know about me?’ he wondered. “If it bothers you at all, you can keep the connection to be open, but that’s all you get.”

They were out of the dungeons and out of palace grounds with next to no resistance. Anyone that tried to approach the girl would get a shot of some substance to the neck that would knock out the werewolves almost instantly.

By leaps and bounds, they were deep into the forest with only the moon to provide them with any kind of light under the cover of the trees. The royal couldn’t help but look back at the palace as it was diminished by distance. They had actually escaped. The panicking sounds that had filled the palace when they were about to escape had not even bothered Bree for a moment.

Prince Sean was almost sure he heard her mutter under her breath. It was a statement he’d said himself numerous times, “Soft... all of them...” Whether it was melancholy or bitter hatred behind her words, the prince could not tell.

..........

Lina continued the narration of her story to the king, “Amanda wanted the king of Sirius to know that Sean Sirius was innocent. She knew you wouldn’t believe her though, so she offered to free Bree and Crysta as a show of goodwill, but Ginger... the traitor was meant to die. There was nothing that convince her otherwise...”

“What was her reason for making such a decision?” the king found himself asking before his daughter could finish.

Honour took over from there, “It was because Ginger’s half-baked reason for abducting Crysta was so that she could kill Lina,” this sent a wave of silence through the room, Honour then continued, “She wanted the rogue to kill Lina the moment she showed up to save Crysta.

Beyond that, the girl hadn’t thought it through that clearly. It seemed as though her hatred for the girl was far more rooted than mere reasoning.”

The royals listening were gripped with the fear that there was one amongst them with this much hatred towards them.

“Is that all the rogue had to say?” the king asked.

“She also mentioned she would wish for a time to come when the entire family could be together again... and be truly happy,” the girl replied, however, her tone sounded unsure of what this meant.

“It’s getting exhausting to keep track of the number of people that can fake having a royal’s power,” the king rubbed his temples.

“Crysta didn’t seem to think she was dangerous. In fact, the girl’s wolf was inclined to sympathise with the rogue that had captured them,” Lina continued.

“And Crysta told you this herself?” the king asked.

“No, she didn’t. It’s just from my own observation,” the girl replied nervously. Knowing this information without consent would have been an invasion of privacy, however, she felt the need to speak her mind.

“Very well,” the king replied, completely missing the admittance to the crime and taking a moment to think through everything he’d been told.

Just then, a large wave of distress rang through the mind link. The queen was at her feet in a second, gripped by the thunderous wave of pain coming from numerous werewolves through the mind link. The king, on the other hand, searched for the location of the distress, but couldn’t find it.

“Who and where are they?” Drake yelled, barely able to hear his own voice, searching his own mind as well. Honour and Madeline looked about the room, unable to hear this same distress signal as intensely as the royals.

“What’s happening?” Mady tried but got no answer.

“They fall unconscious before we are able to detect their locations. Someone is using wolfsbane on them,” the king confirmed, “Alpha Jackson, confirm whether we are under attack and make quick work of the situation.”

The beta alpha was out the door and on his way hunting down the source of distress and neutralising the situation. “I don’t think he will be able to find them,” Honour announced.

“Do you have an idea where they might be?” the king asked her.

“No, I don’t, but perhaps we might be able to figure it out if we ask werewolves located in different places of the palace and the capital. It could help narrow it down,” Honour offered her advice, rubbing circles into Lina’s back. The girl looked on the verge of collapsing from the intense mental invasion.

The queen was silent for a while albeit in anticipation of something, “Darling, what did happen to that girl?”

“What girl?” the queen asked.

“What was her name?” the queen strained, “the one who used to hang around Crysta.”

“Oh, you mean Ginger or Bree...?”

“I meant to say, Bree,” the queen corrected, the moment she heard the name.

“She went to the dungeons to check on Sean, but that’s about all I know of the last time she was spotted,” the king responded.

“I would have thought she would be with these three, but she wasn’t with them, so naturally, I chose not to worry over nothing, but...” the queen paused, “if she’s anything like Ginger, we might just be ignoring something very problematic.”

Lina was the first out of the office, rushing faster than anyone could follow even with their eyes. Her speed was unmatched in the whole kingdom and they could only follow with no hope of catching up, “Lina, be careful. Rushing in first won’t help do much good if you only end up in the same situation. Don’t forget that you were the target in the first place.”

“They have been poisoned, mother. I can’t just sit back,” the girl cut her mother off, rushing to the dungeons. She was at the entrance by the time she was done talking to her mother, despite the great distance between the two places.

The queen thought back to a girl who’d rushed into a similar situation and got surrounded by hundreds of wolves. It was like it was happening all over again.

However, the similarities between her two daughters didn’t end there. They were also the stubbornest people she knew when it came to saving lives. Trying to talk some sense into her daughter would do her no good, “Be careful,” the woman whispered through the mind link.

The rest of the royal family made it several moments later and gasped at the sight before them. A light smoke that tinged their eyes and nostrils the moment they inhaled it held them back from the dungeons, “Why would anyone...” the king stopped his own question in half when he came to the realisation what was happening, “So he escaped... even after suggesting he wasn’t going to do so.”

“Darling...” the queen tried, sensing his rage, but he was already too far gone.

“No, Martha. It’s enough. All of it... I’m at my limit. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Sean is a traitor. What more can he say after something like this? It’s clear to me now. It has been the entire time. I have just been ignoring the truth this whole time,” the king was livid. The pain that came from the wolves of his pack only intensified his anger.

Honour made it later than the royal family had. She was even slower than them... and Madeline was not so far ahead of her. Without noticing what was keeping the royals back, she walked through to the entrance of the dungeon and began to check the pulse of the wolves that lay inside, “They are still alive, but barely. They’ve inhaled too much of the gas. We need to get them to the hospital quickly.”

Micah and Thomas appeared out of nowhere and rushed through to help, breaking the royals from their shocked trances. Honour’s actions seemed to have spurred them into action.

They carried the guards out of the dungeon and placed them out clear from the smoke where the royals, along with betas and deltas that had come at Alpha Jackson’s command, worked to get them to the infirmary. In total, they ended up counting a hundred and eleven werewolves that had been affected by the gas. “Your majesty, what about the prisoners that were affected as well?”

“All the prisoners that are werewolves are to be isolated and medical equipment taken to their cells where they will be treated and nursed back to health once the gas has been cleared out,” the king replied, setting that task to Alpha Phillip.

It was deep into the night when Lina and her friends finally left the infirmary and slept in her room. The next day was meant to be finals at their school and they’d barely got time to get their sleep in. ‘What’s going on? Is it because of Katie’s state or is it because she’s not around anymore?’ Lina couldn’t help but ask herself. When her sister made an appearance in Sirius, the kingdom started to feel more lively with her around. The girl, without much effort, commanded order while keeping her surroundings calm with her free-spirited nature.

“Rest up, Lina,” a voice crawled into her mind. A hand brushed the hair on her head, soothing her deeper into a slumber, “Just like your sister.” The girl’s eyes fluttered open and she stared at the queen. She had come to check on her daughter and found her tossing about in her bed. Her thoughts were a mess and completely far from what she was supposed to be focused on.

“Mum, I...”

“Hush, Lina... You have exams tomorrow. You’re not above the rules of your school, you know. Even though we took a lot of valuable time from you,” the queen cooed.

The girl sighed and bit the inside of her cheek. The queen chuckled lightly, “Just one question.”

It was an unfair offer. She had so much to ask. She couldn’t possibly summarise it all in one question. Thinking it through, she chose the one at the top of her mind, “Will they be fine? The werewolves that were poisoned.”

The queen smiled at her daughter, “Yes, my dear. They will be fine.” Lina’s heart slowed down if only a little... With that, she closed her eyes and set her mind at ease. With the queen in her room, it wasn’t long before she was fast asleep... In the presence of her greatest safe haven.