The Mate Inside Me

Chapter 9

Unedited.

"You need to act fast. They're coming to take his body."

I could see Erebus' wolf turning visibly stiff after hearing those words.

"Who's coming?"

I asked promptly. Whoever they were, it was clear that even Erebus was dreading hearing their name.

"The Enforcers."

'Enforcers...'

I repeated the word slowly inside my head as I racked my head trying to come up with everything that I had ever read about them.

Enforcers were a group of some of the most powerful werewolves, superior to any and every wolf spare for the king. They served directly under the king and worked to enforce the laws of the nature that applied to the supernatural. They maintained balance and kept the existence of werewolves hidden from the outside world. Simply put, they were feral beasts who tore anything in their path when it came to imposing the law.

'And one of the laws was...'

"A hibernating king's body shall remain in the palace under the Enforcers' watch till he regains consciousness."

"You broke the law, dad."

Sensing the urgency in my tone, Erebus moved a bit so that I could look easily at my father while addressing him.

"You know why I did it, Thea."

I could understand his reason yet at the same time I didn't want to.

"You could've at least told me about this."

I wanted to move closer to him as I said this in a small whisper but then I thought against it and stayed glued to my original spot.

"Told you what, Thea? That I stole the king's hibernating body without thinking anything through? I had no clue what I was doing at that time. I wasn't even aware that soul transferring was an achievable phenomenon. The true extent of the powers of a king are kept secret to protect the integrity of the kingdom. It took me several years to get my hands on this information."

I knew he was telling the truth, because I hadn't heard of this 'soul transferring' power of a king either. I was thinking of asking him how he had acquired that information but before I could do so, he started talking again.

"Moreover there is a mole."

I remembered him saying something about a mole to me when we were confronted by the beta of the Silver Knight pack in The Barren Lands. I hadn't asked him further about this as we were in a haste at that time. I couldn't believe that I had completely forgotten about this information.

"How do you know about the mole?"

My father's blue eyes which had been fixated on me for the past few minutes suddenly shifted to stare sideways at the huge wolf guarding me.

"Because of King Erebus."

A small frown settled on my face as I stole a quick glance at Erebus' wolf.

"How?"

"He was telling Beta Lucas about the presence of a mole in our army immediately before going into hibernation. Probably because of his weak state, he failed to form a connection with Beta Lucas and ended up accidentally mind linking the Alpha closest to his location-me."

He took a small break to let out a tired sigh as he hung his head low for a second before looking up to stare accusingly at Erebus' wolf.

"I'm also aware that you considered me to be the mole, the traitor merely because I hadn't taken part in the war, because I was the last standing Alpha. I'm pleased to tell you that I'm not who you're looking for."