Chapter 151
Chapter 151
With Lucianne’s check-up after the infertility poison, the false sexual harassment allegations and the need to fill up the ministrial positions, Xandar had completely forgot to tell Christian about how he couldn’t emit the King’s Authority back in Forest Gloom.
Lucianne gave his hand a gentle squeeze to encourage him as he began, “For some reason, when we stood face-to-face with the rogues the other night, I couldn’t…channel the Authority onto them. It felt like there was a block.”
Zeke then muttered, “That means it’s like if we try to use the Alpha Authority on non-pack members. There’d be a block.”
Christian asked in dismay, “How is that even possible? The King’s Authority works on all werewolves and Lycans, netizens and rogues alike.”
Lucianne uttered in a sudden whisper, “Unless they have something that’s neither found in a werewolf nor a Lycan.”
Juan then asked, “What do you mean, Lucy?”
She looked at her brother as she thought aloud, “Rogues definitely have access to black markets, which would undoubtedly have a lot of things taken from any and every species. What if Jake’s shield is from another species like, I don’t know, humans or vampires?”
Raden showed a disgusted expression as he asked, “You’re saying Jake drank vampire blood?”
Lucianne was the only one who chuckled before she said, “No, Raden. It doesn’t work that way. The King’s Authority doesn’t target our bloodstream to make us obey, it targets our nervous system – our motor neurons, to be more precise.”
“English, please, Lucy. Peasant in the room here.” Toby complained as he waved his hand in the air.
Lucianne then explained, “Basically, it means that the Authority only affects the nerve cells controlling how we choose to respond to a given stimulus, like how we would choose to run away from a forest fire instead of towards it; or how we choose to ignore an insult, accept a praise, fight off threats.”
Toby got to thinking. “So, what you’re saying is Jake got something to shield his nerve cells from responding to how our King wants them to respond?” Lucianne nodded ominously.
“What could do that though?” Christian asked. All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.
Xandar offered a suggestion, “Vampires are immune to the Authority. Maybe it’s something from them.”
“Cuz, tell me you’re not suggesting that they did a full nervous system operation to transfer a vampire’s into a rogue’s’.” Christian’s suggestion made many of them nauseate, including his own Duchess.
Xandar looked at his mate as he asked, “Is that possible, baby?”
Lucianne pondered and shook her head slowly as she said, “Not that I know of. But there really isn’t a need for such a major operation if they played simple.”
The whole room was silent and she continued, “All you need is to find the difference between the motor neuron of our species and the one found in vampires. The chemical compositions between each will differ, and scientists just have to come up with a…drug to stimulate the motor neurons of rogue wolves and Lycans to kind of…temporarily block the King’s Authority.”
“Did you say ‘temporarily’?” Xandar exclaimed as he held her hand in both of his.
Lucianne shrugged, “Yeah, I mean, our nervous system is still a result of our DNA, and our DNA produces a biology that heeds to the command of the King’s Authority. Seeing that Jake is still a wolf and
not a vampire, he still has wolf genes. If he has wolf genes, then…” Lucianne cocked her head to one side as she thought to herself, “Then it’s kind of hard to see how he can shield himself permanently.”
Toby slumped back into his seat and muttered, “Thank Goddess.” Relief washed over everyone, especially Xandar, who needed the archaic power to keep his mate safe.
Annie then asked, “Lucy, if such a drug exists, why isn’t it used more often? I mean, if they have that, rogues could’ve overthrown the government when it was created.”
“That could be for a whole litany of reasons, Annie. The chemicals they need may be rare, hence expensive or hard to find. The suppliers may find it difficult to trust any buyer beyond their regulars for fear of new buyers being an undercover agent working for the government. You know, those kinds of things.”
As the facts sank in, everyone looked at Lucianne in awe, and Xandar couldn’t help but kiss her hand as h e asked in admiration, “How did you even know those things, Lucy?”
She shrugged like it was no big deal as she said, “The black market theory is just a wild guess from watching some documentaries, darling. The science? Just…books.”
Juan scoffed and muttered, “More like a library.” He knew about the number of books in his sister’s room back in the pack house. When Juan asked his parents for a car on his seventeenth birthday, Lucianne asked for another bookshelf on her birthday.
Christian then spoke in a much more cheerful voice as he concluded, “So, it’s safe to say that they can’t shield themselves forever. They were prepared last time because they asked for a battle. We just have to catch them off guard, and we’ll win.”
Lucianne narrowed her eyes at the Duke as she said, “You make it sound like hunting down and defeating an entire rogue corporation is going to be really easy, Christian.”
“I’m being optimistic, my Queen. We just have to leverage the element of surprise. If we attack when they least expect, they won’t be ready to defend themselves. We’ll eliminate them like flies.”
“Slight problem.” Xandar pointed out before he elaborated, “The locations that the rogue Lycan gave us were all a bust. Dalloway and his people could find nothing but deserted ruins and empty sites. We don’t know where Wu Bi Corporation is at the moment.”
Christian nodded and scratched his nape lightly as he said, “Ah, yeah. That’s definitely a…a small problem.”
Juan then spoke, “Lucy. Hale and I were thinking…” When all eyes were on him, including his sister’s, he uttered, “If you could somehow enter Jake’s mind-link with any of his associates to locate him.”
No one was as surprised as Lucianne was. She blinked before she asked, “Wait, I can do that?”
Juan groped for the right words before he asked doubtfully, “Worth a shot, don’t you think?”
Lucianne exclaimed, “No! It is definitely NOT worth the shot! If I screw up and give myself away, they’ll start another battle on another vulnerable pack as payback.”
Juan said in a more relaxed tone, “You don’t know that. Besides, he might not even feel your presence in
the link if you stayed quiet.” This was news to Lucianne. “Juan, are you saying you didn’t know I crashed into the pack leaders’ group link last time?”
“Not until you growled at me.” Juan confirmed in confidence. Around the table, the other pack leaders nodded to affirm what Juan just said.
“Huh.” Lucianne uttered. She always thought, like any normal mind-link, her presence in the link she had no ties with would be known to the rest of its members as soon as she entered, before she said anything.
Christian’s eyes sparkled in excitement as he asked his cousin, “The Queen can hack into mind-links and you didn’t tell me?! Am I even still your favorite cousin, cuz? How could you forget to share something this cool!”
Lucianne tried to ignore Xandar’s fingers running down her hair as she thought for a moment and said,” I’m not sure if I can do it to a person who I share no prior link to though. I mean, I could do it to you guys because I have a valid link with Juan, so I used him as a bridge to get to the group link…but how do I get to Jake?”
“Maybe you don’t need a bridge, my Queen.” Christian suggested with a smile, the smile that looked like he was onto something.