Katie started her walk from the cave to the alpha's place on foot. The road was empty, and rain had poured down on the grass, wetting her skin.
If someone had seen her walking by that time, and in that manner, she would have been taken to be a strange person. Anyone would have been scared to walk close to her.
"Darling stays inside, beside the house Raguel stays." She thought aloud. "What would she be doing by now?"
She got to the gate of the alpha's place, and had to figure a way to get in.
'The wall is an issue…. If there was a way I could climb it.'
After the wall, guards were on patrol, and Katie could hear them clearly. It felt as though they were conversing with her.
"The alpha did not come back." She heard one of them speak.
"We would have gone to look for her."
"There is no clue of her whereabouts."
"And that does pose a problem," the first one said.
The wall was rough, and part of the wall above five feet from the ground had stones that protruded outward, something Katie could hold on to, all through the climbing.
They would lessen the work of climbing, probably reduce the level of difficulty, but they weren't going to make it an easy journey up the wall. It was twenty feet high.
No normal person would dare to climb it.
"The alpha isn't back?" A woman's voice sounded from inside.
'Isn't that Darling's voice?'
Katie was halfway to the top.
"No, she isn't." A guard answered.
"And no one knows where she has gone?" Darling asked, her voice louder than before as she turned around to look at the guards.
Katie had made some progress, she had gotten to the top of the wall, and could see Darling and the three guards from where she was. She tried to turn her body to the other side of the wall, and for the first trial, she almost fell off.
'Too bad…. I would have come with a rope!' Her fingers were holding onto the top as she tried to place her leg on something, maybe a stone.
In a much slower pace, she was able to walk herself down.
"What's that?" Darling turned to her direction.
She had made a sound, and it had drawn Darling's attention. She would thank the grass growing by the side of the wall, it was a good help to her.
"Who's there?" Darling took a step in her direction.
She had to hold her breath, and also ensure that her body was stiff in order to avoid rubbing herself against the grass. The sound might be louder if it was unavoided.
Darling had not stopped walking, and she beckoned the guards to search with her.
"Nothing," one of them said.
She paused her movement, her head stiff as she looked at a fixed direction as if to tune her ears.
"But I did hear a sound." Her fingers were pointing so closely at Katie.
The grass was a perfect help to her.
"Whatever." She retraced her footsteps, and started walking, facing Raguel's home.
She stopped after taking a few steps. Katie's heart almost ran out of her.
'Why has she stopped?'
"There is nothing." One of the guards came to her rescue. "Could be the rodents."
"Oh…." Darling nodded.
Katie heaved a sigh, a deep one. What would have happened if she was caught?
Darling's eyes were not looking in her direction.
"But did the alpha give a clue of where she was going?"
They shook their heads to give a silent chorus.
Darling resumed walking, and had gone some distance from Katie. That was the perfect moment.
The guards were on patrol, and there was no hope that they were going to leave after a short amount of time. She threw a stone at the wall, hitting the iron gate to produce a sharp sound. It caught their attention, and she was able to leave the spot she was hiding to stay behind Darling, and also away from the guards' view.
The three of them were facing the wall. By then, Darling had walked some distance away from them. She couldn't have heard the sound of the gate.
"I wonder what kind of secret Raguel is keeping from me." She was talking to herself in the form of a murmur, and her pace was a bit fast.
Katie had to maintain a considerable distance from her, and twelve feet apart was a good distance. The pillars and trees also played their role.
"She would have given me a hint of the place she was going." She stopped to turn back.
Katie had hid behind a tree.
"What was that?"
The rest of the walk was quiet, and she walked much slower, turning to look back at each sound of the leaves she heard.
She arrived at a house a bit smaller than Raguel's. Maids were inside, and candle light was used to brighten it up.
A man came out to meet her.
"She isn't back?" He placed his hand around her shoulders.
She relaxed herself on him, and his hand moved from her shoulders to her waist.
"I noticed she had been avoiding me," she said with a yawn.
He had to help her inside.
"It's late for her not to have returned."
She almost fell at the doorstep, but he was able to hold her up.
"You don't have to report everything at this time."
"Damian, you should understand it's a rule for me to always report to her."
He raised her into his arms. "Your maids have already gone to sleep, and you are left out, waiting for Raguel to return."
"I'm supposed to…." She could not complete her statement, and was struggling to keep her eyes open.
"She knows why she objected to going out with escorts."
Their voices went faint to Katie, and she could not tell if their conversation was still ongoing. The windows had served a purpose of flowing information outside the house for her to hear, but they had stopped working.
'There should be a way!'
She placed her ears tightly on the wall in hopes that their voice might still be heard.
It turned out that the only way was to go inside.
It was too much of a risk, but the gains had weight. For the risk aspect, any of the maids could come out of their rooms, and end up seeing a weird looking lady, barefooted, with disheveled hair. Of course they would scream, and Darling and Damian were going to come out to see her.
It would be a load of chaos.
But why not give it a try?
She opened the front door with a slow effort. It still gave off sound, and she feared that her hour had come, bad hour. But then, she remembered that light sparkling to their eyes could always rescue her. That also had a bad outcome, and would spoil her purpose of coming.
She got herself close to the room door.
"A similar event had happened," Darling said.
"And…. What was it?"
"It was the same lady, the one I'd told you caused the end of a mate test ceremony Charles was in…."
Yet again, their voices went faint. Another disappointment for Katie.
The best deal was to go inside the room, but how was she going to do that?
"That's why I really need to talk to Raguel."
'Ooh…. Their voices had come up again!'
"Can't it wait?"
Smile formed on Katie's face. Their voices were loud, and Darling seemed to have forgotten her sleep.
"Because this time, she did something worse!"