Chapter 24

" Son, hold on " I turn to see my father running up to me " if you'd like I can swing by the lab tomorrow and have a look at the specimen you have there " " it's not necessary to do that father but you are free to go and have a look in your own time, that's fine by me " " okay, well I'll stop by and just have a quick look, by the way what do you intend to do with the person it came from " " I thought about sending someone to the pack he's from to confirm his identity but decided against it because if what he said was true and he was rejected and banished because he was mated to the Alpha's daughter then they would know he told me and may send warriors after him if or when I release him and he returns to his cottage, so I've instead sent two Royal Guards to his cottage to first see if it's where he said it is and bring me anything that proves he is who he says he is, they should be back any day now "

He nods and pats me on the shoulder " okay, have a good night Ty " " good night father " he heads back into the manor and I leave the compound, my wolf begs me to go for a run, it's been a few days well since I did go for a run and running is when my mind is clearest as I take a back seat and let him run, so as he does that I can think of the next and best course of action to take.

I walk towards the forest, I close my eyes and extend my hearing and sense of smell, I hear and smell nothing out of the ordinary, I walk further into the forest and find a tree to hang my clothes on before shifting and giving the reigns to my wolf, he wastes no time and takes off running through the forest, he's massive naturally because we are King so the sound of his paws thunder through the forest.

' I need to think so I'm letting you have control, please do not wander off too far while I'm offline and stay within our borders' ' yes yes, when will you stop treating me like I'm some sort of animal! ' he snickers at his own snide comment while I mentally roll my eyes and not even bother to give him an answer because obviously he is an animal as we all know.

I tune out of what's going on with him and clear my mind and try putting all the pieces I have thus far together, wolf in the dungeon with no recollection as to the things he's done and how he came to be in the Royal City, black shapeless specimen, wolves that breach borders and enter packs without alerting the border patrols and they take only women and children, when they leave they leave no scent which makes them untraceable, when we put all that together what do we have? not a damn thing that's what, sigh okay perhaps I'm looking at this from the wrong point of view.

It can not be that the packs and this pack who have been attacked and have wolves taken, all have traitors on their border patrol who allow these unknown wolves to come and go, create a path for them to enter and escape, I refuse to believe that could even be a possibility, that would mean tremendous betrayal not only to their packs but to their Alpha's, their families and to me and what we stand for, we are meant to look out and protect each other, the weak and helpless which are the women and pups!

No there's no way that can be the case, I need to try another angle, no matter how many angles I try, the probability that makes the most sense is this Reapers Nation business but they were supposed to be eradicated by my ancestors, I will have to look further into this, I resign myself, we definitely will have to reach out to Astrid, ugh.

Hmm, if this thing really is the Reapers Nation or some break off of it I need to start making preparations for the possibility of another war.

By the time I tune back into my wolf, I realize we're back and laying by the tree where my clothes are and wet ' why are we wet? ' I hunted and you don't like shifting back covered in blood so I washed off at Wolfcreek ' ' since when are you so thoughtful ' he says nothing and I imagine myself in human form and shift back, I get dressed putting my clothes on my wet skin and head back to the palace.

I take a quick and proper shower before going to my office, I need to make plans and if there may be a war coming I'm going to need soldiers which means I'm going to have to take fighters and volunteers from the packs around the kingdom to join and train with my guards.