Chapter 9 Just a Recon Mission

Leighton

“Do you care to explain why we currently have an unconscious princess ?” Jackson had summoned me to Luke’s office where the pair of them were staring at me.

“What part of not hurting a hair on her head did you miss from King?”

“If he didn’t want her to get hurt, then why did he send her here. And she hurt herself, granted she did more to help Piper in a hour than Iris and Greer have managed.”

“I thought we were keeping their gifts secret, it was you who said you didn’t trust the king?” Luke spoke first.

“I don’t, but the princess is different. Titan says she just needs to rest then she will be fine again.” I told them. He also had sensed immense sadness inside her when her guard was down, but he didn’t know why. I kept that to myself. There was clearly more to the princess than met the eye.

“So you think we can trust her? Iris says her wolf is already very powerful and she hasn’t even shifted yet.”

“What does Iris think?”

Like she knew we were talking about her she bounded into the room.

“I’m willing to trust her, Allura only dislikes her because she is more powerful, you know she is the bossiest wolf around.”

“Greer wants to meet her.” Jackson said quietly.

“No, not yet.” I wasn’t risking her life, not yet.

“She thinks she is the key to the prophecy.”

Greer had taken the prophecy of her death pretty well, stating that we didn’t know she was dead, she could have been asleep or injured. However there has been a eerie stillness to the vision, one that left you in no doubt that darkness had won. Jackson was simply not willing to risk it, he had left her at home which he hated doing and was now desperate to get home.

“Why don’t you go back to Silver Oak? If we have any progress I’ll update you. Did you look through that book?”

I had given him the history book I stole from Estelle’s school.

“I did, I see what you mean, the page with her family tree has been replaced and fairly recently from the newness of the paper.”

“Did you see the back page where it listed there powers? It looked like they are trying to make a pairing that gives access to four elements.”

Many pairing appeared to have been arranged between two wolves with differing gifts, especially when the parent wolf hadn’t inherited their parents gift.

For example Queen Lucia had had the gift of light but her daughter Queen Anna was meant to control air.

King Louis has a water gift as did his mother. Assuming Estelle had her mother or grandmothers gift, all you needed to do was mate Estelle with a wolf with fire and earth in its lineage and you could do it.

“From another book I read there I’m not sure Queen Anna’s gift is very powerful.” I added unsure of that mattered.

Many of the gifts did skip a generation too so it obviously made planning these pairings hard. Unlike the gifted wolves here male wolves still appeared to receive gifts, I wondered if it was because they hadn’t hunted their gold wolves into hiding.

I could see Luke studying the book trying to make sense of it all.

“Are there many wolves with a fire gift ?” He asked.

“Yeah look further back, I’ll leave you with this, Piper and I are going to deal with that problem at Black Lake, like we discussed.”

“Okay, are you sure you don’t want back up? I can send some warriors with you?” Luke asked.

“No it’s okay, we are hoping to sneak in and out, without alerting too much attention. If it’s as bad as Kate said then we might need them for later.”

Kate was a warrior who came to train, she had befriended Piper and told her horror stories of the treatment of some of the girls there. Piper had begged me to investigate but these things take time.

Kate had gone home extracting a promise from Piper that we would rescue the girls and now we were heading up to try and check it out.

Piper was waiting for me at the truck.

“How you feeling?” I asked, I hadn’t checked on her after dealing with the princess because I got summoned.

“Really good, Leigh it was the first time I really felt it, normally it’s just a little fizzle or a boom when I panic, but then I don’t hear from my wolf for ages.” She buzzed.

“What does your wolf think?” Her wolf was shy creature, terrified of Titan.

“She is excited, I think she feels like she lets me down when I can’t get them to work.” She smiled. “It’s funny because she feels bad that she can’t help me but she always does in a crisis, but for the first time I feel deserving of a silver wolf.”

“Of course you are deserving Piper.” I was I interrupted from saying anymore by the arrival of the princess.

“What do you think you are doing?” I said as she opened the door to get in the back.

“I saw her thoughts, I’m coming, you will need my help.” She said, as I tried to close the door before she could hop in.

“At ah, princess not on my watch, you got me in enough trouble today. You are sitting this out.”

She laughed in my face. Clearly this girl was delusional if she thought I was taking her anywhere with me.

I pushed harder to close the door, jumping when it gave me shock. Letting it go she pushed her body into the space now created.

“Aww it’s cute how you think you have any authority over me.”

“I mean it princess, I get you are not used to being told no, but there is no way I’m taking you with us.” I told her firmly, getting annoyed now.

“Come on Piper we are wasting time.” She now chose to ignore me.

Piper shrugged and got into the passenger seat, to the clear delight of the smirking princess.

“Out.” I said, facing her off.

“Make me.” She taunted.

Not one to back down from a challenge I went to grab her when I felt the shock again. This time I saw the sparks from her fingertips.

“You did not just shock me?” I said in disbelief.

“Stop whining princess, just get in the car already.” She replied jumping into the car and slamming the door in my face.

She could explain herself when we got back, I wasn’t getting in any more trouble for this god damn princess.

The girls chatted away on route as Piper filled Estelle in on Kates story.

“So why did she return ? She could have stayed and come back with you to rescue them.” Estelle pointed out, which I hated to say mirrored my own thoughts.

“Her mate was in the pack and she wanted to get him out first.” She must have seen Estelles frown in the mirror. “Yeah Leighton thinks that too hence why he insisted on this reconnaissance mission first before we attack in case it’s a trap.”

“It’s hard to believe she could let those girls suffer more, surely you could have rescued her mate at the same time?” Estelle thought out loud.

“She was newly mated, she couldn’t think of anything else but him. I can’t wait for that to happen to me. What you princess, are you excited to meet your mate?”

“Not all of us have that luxury.” The princess replied, causing me to wonder what she meant. She was too young to have been rejected, and really who in their right mind would reject her. She might be a spoiled and insufferable princess but she was beautiful and smart I had to reluctantly admit it she might make a good leader.