Chapter 74 - Arya

"Can I take your names and purpose of your visit to Steel Tail?" One of the guards asked as he peered through Arrow's side of the car window. Dylan had successfully managed to mask his presence in the back and the guard focused on just Arrow and Kai.

"Arrow Octavius. I'm here to meet with your Alpha on behalf of His Royal Highness Kaiden Lucius Caine of Blue Moon."

The guard looked surprised to hear the prince's name being mentioned. He cast his eyes briefly over in to Kai's direction. "And him?" The guard asked.

"He's Rio, one of the palace errand boys"

Kai twitched hearing Arrow refer to himself as such. There was no way this guy was going to buy that. Sure, he wasn't dressed in formal royal attire, just a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans, but anybody could tell that what he had on was expensive. It was definitely nothing that a 'palace errand boy' could afford. That and his jet-black hair made it obvious he was from nobility.

"Errand boy?" The guard questioned as he observed Kai's black hair, giving away his nobility.

"He's from a disgraced house. He's nothing more than a boot licker now" Arrow sharply nudged Kai in the side as a demonstration of dominance over him. "Isn’t that right Rio?"

Kai could feel his skin prickle with annoyance, but he continued to look straight ahead to avoid making eye contact with him. With his connection with his wolf being disturbed, he didn't want anybody to pick up on his current state. The guard however mistook this as a gesture of submission to Arrow.

"Ha ha, fucking nobles," the guard laughed. "Okay...one moment please." The guard stepped away to speak with his other colleague. Thankfully Asher had continued to hang back and was engaging in conversation with a third guard who had come up to join them.

"Errand boy?" Kai asked Arrow with a raised eyebrow. "And did you really need to elbow me?"

"I'm thinking on my feet here. You're not giving off any dominant energy at all. If I had, I wouldn't have felt so comfortable exerting some dominance over you just then. I have to admit that felt pretty good," Arrow said as a smile crept up his face.

"Well don't get used to it!"

"Alright alright..." Arrow acquiesced. " I just know they're not very fond of nobles in this pack, so it seemed like the best way to reduce suspicion. The last thing we need is for them to know who you really are in your current state. They'll use it as a potential opportunity to take advantage of you. You know how they love to take advantage of anyone in power showing signs of weakn.."

Kai couldn't stop a growl from escaping, stopping Arrow's from finishing his sentence.

"So, something in there still works..." Dylan slyly said from under Arrow's jacket.

Kai huffed. With Dylan masking his presence, he had forgotten for a moment that he was still in the car.

"My bad, bad choice of words." Arrow continued. "But you know what I mean right? We don't need anybody to know that you're potentially vulnerable right now."

Kai knew that Arrow was right. He had enough issues to deal with already. Any display of weakness in a high ranking, dominant wolf would be like waving a piece of meat in front of a pack of hungry wolves. Whilst he felt like he could defend himself even without his wolf, having to deal with them would only cause further delay, and time was one thing he did not have on his hands"

"Fine." Kai conceded without any additional fuss.

"Good. One last thing, give me your ring." Arrow opened his palm in Kai's direction.

"What? Why?" Kai asked. Kai's signet ring was something only the immediate royal family wore. It had the Blue Moon pack emblem engraved in it, along with a small blue sapphire. This ring was one of nine that had been passed down from previous generations of Kai's family. It acted as both a symbol and identifier of someone with Caine blood.

"If they catch sight of that we'll be in trouble." Arrow explained. "Can you give it to me? I'll give it right back"

Kai hadn't taken this ring off for years. Even though he never was a big fan of family traditions, it was the one thing that truly made him feel like he was Caine, even though he was a bastard child.

Kai sighed, but eased the ring off and placed it in Arrow's hand. "Careful with it"

The guard returned back to the car and ducked his head back towards the car window.

"I don't have any records of any scheduled visits under your name with our Alpha," the guard questioned suspiciously. " Do you have any ID?"

"I'm acting as His Royal Highness' ambassador. I have his signet ring." Arrow held up the ring in his hands to show the guard.

The guard looked at the ring. He nodded, recognising what it symbolised, but he seemed unsure as to what he should now do. He attempted to look over in Asher's direction to get his attention.

"We don't have all day!" Arrow demanded to throw his focus off. "His Royal Highness and His Majesty will be extremely displeased to know we were refused entry on official business. I'd have to get your name and details to notify him them upon my return."

This seemed to fluster the guard, and feeling like he might personally get in to some kind of trouble for not letting them through, he waved them in.

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Having parked up the car, Kai, Arrow and Dylan had been walking on foot for nearly an hour in a thick forest. They had driven in as far as they could, but as the forest got more dense, they had to abandon the car and continue on foot.

"Are you sure it's this way Dylan?" Arrow asked. The sky had clouded over and threatened to rain.

"I'm positive. It's near a rock formation at the bottom of those cliffs. It's not far from here. Of course it would be much quicker if we ran in wolf form..." Dylan look at Kai out of the corner of his eyes and smirked. "But I'm guessing His Royal Highness here would need a lift, and I don't make a habit of letting anyone but females ride me."

Kai tightened his lips as he held back a retort. He knew Dylan was deliberately trying to get a rise out of him and the more he took the bait the worse he got.

As they continued walking, Arrow stopped suddenly as he caught a whiff of someone's presence, but before he could react, someone had Dylan pinned up against the tree.

Arrow and Kai whipped round to see a long red headed female shifter with a blade pressed up against his throat. She had on a skin tight black suit that zipped up at the front. The front was pulled down enough to reveal a good portion of her ample cleavage. Arrow growled and went to move towards her, but Kai put his hand in front of him to block his path.

"Kai?" Arrow questioned him.

"Hey sweetheart. Still as vicious as ever I see," Dylan crooned in the female's ear as she pressed her blade and her body up against him. Her eyes were jet black.

"Sweetheart?" She said seductively. "I hope that doesn't mean you've already forgotten my name, my love."

"Oh Farren, nobody could forget a face and a body like yours." Dylan's hazel eyes turned from black to red. He slowly lifted his hand to rest it on her waist, then traced it down on to her hip. "I missed you."

"Is that so? Are you sure you don't need a reminder about what this 'body' can do?" Farren pressed the blade a bit closer in to his neck, breaking the skin ever so slightly. A little blood started to seep from the graze.

"Farren..." Kai interrupted. "Is.."

"You'll cross a stream in about 50 yards. Arya's place is just the other side of it," she said as she kept her full attention solely on Dylan.

"Thanks" Kai replied. He turned back around and continued walking deeper in to the forest.

"Woah, wait a minute Kai." Arrow asked confused. He was still unsure of what was happening.

Arrow looked surprised to see Dylan's eyes were red. Kai was the only person he had ever seen with red eyes, but Dylan's were now red too, which suggested he could also invoke his wolf.

As Kai started walking off Arrow looked back over at Dylan and Farren. He couldn't quite work out if Farren was intending to either harm Dylan or seduce him, but Kai had clearly made up his mind to leave regardless, so Arrow tailed off after him. Arrow caught Kai up in a few quick strides. "I didn't realise Dylan could do what you do. I thought an invocation was only limited to noble decedents of fated mates?"

"No, there are levels to it, but it is technically possible as long as you have a decent amount of noble blood in you. Arya has ways of making most things I thought impossible possible. You'll see what I mean when you meet her."

Arrow was now much more intrigued about Arya than before. "So help me understand here. It's clear you admire her, so why have you been so apprehensive about seeing her again?"

"Like I mentioned before, we didn't part on great terms. I skipped out once I got the power that I thought I needed. Let's just say that after I begged her for months to train me, she wasn't best pleased about me tearing off suddenly."

"Oh..." Arrow responded.

Kai slowed his pace as they reached the stream. "Arrow, I'm going to say this now. Whatever happens with me and Arya, don't get involved."

Arrow looked concerned seeing Kai suddenly get so serious. "What? Why?"

"Just promise me." Kai stopped to look Arrow directly in the eyes, to show him how serious he was. "If I can convince her to help me, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to sort out what's wrong with me and make myself stronger. If anything, the past few days have showed me that the power I had, was not enough. I have to get better, and quickly. In my current form I know I can't physically stop you from getting involved, which is why I'm just asking you not to. Can you promise me?"

The fierce determination to live up to his own high expectations was evident in Kai's eyes, even without the immediate presence of his wolf to support him. Arrow had no idea what he was pre-empting, but he knew that blocking him was not an option either.

"Okay." Arrow agreed.

Kai nodded feeling satisfied with Arrow's response, then continued walking. As they crossed the stream, they spotted a little clearing in the forest next to a stone house. In the clearing, a dark-skinned woman, with a short curly bob was sat down on some logs with her back towards them. Like Farren, Arrow hadn't even noticed her presence. He couldn't sense anything at all. Not her scent, not her wolf, barely even her breath.

"Well, if it isn’t my darling wayward student. Did you come to pay me a visit?" She said without turning around.