After returning to the resort, I avoid Leon and stay in my room. To occupy my mind, I immerse myself in the map.

Zooming into every pathway in the Warlow Caves, one after another, I tire myself out. However, my hard work is not paying off. I can't guess a good hiding spot in that barren land where Philip could be.

Finally, having enough of it, I pocket the map and get out of my room. A cup of coffee would be great.

In a nearby cafe, I give my order and wait by a window seat. The cafe is filled with tourists and surfers. I look around to make sure no one from my group is here. I'm not in the mood to talk to any of my friends.

The waitress places my latte and lemon cake on the table. "Here's your order," she says with a smile.

"Thank you."

She nods and turns to leave when a guy from behind me says, "Please bring a black coffee to the same table."

She glances back at me with another smile. "Anything else, sir?" she asks Reagan as he crosses her to take the seat opposite mine.

"No, that's all. Thanks," Reagan says.

She nods and leaves, but not before giving me yet another smile. She must think I'm a lucky girl to drink coffee with a handsome guy like Reagan.

"Not to be rude, but I was hoping to be left alone," I tell him.

He smirks. "If you want me to leave, I'll leave."

I shake my head at his response. He knows I won't ask him to leave. I take a bite of the cake and a sip of the latte, both earning a satisfactory sigh. All that probing of the map was beginning to give me a headache.

"You look tired," he says.

"I am tired."

"Why? I didn't even see you with your friends outside. Are you sick?"

"No. I exhausted from thinking."

"Thinking about Leon?"

I shake my head. "Exhausted from thinking about something else so I won't get exhausted from thinking about Leon."

He laughs before throwing another guess. "Then is it about Philip?"

I raise my eyebrows. "I'm impressed, Reagan. You know how to read a girl's mind."

"That's because the girl in front of me is an open book."

Putting down my mug, I say, "And I wish Leon and Philip were like me. I don't know what's on their minds."

The waitress returns with a cup of steaming black coffee and places it in front of Reagan.

Before she leaves, she smiles at me. Now I'm beginning to think her smiles are not because of Reagan, but me. I smile back at her. Not the courtesy smile, but the smile I give to impress people.

Her cheeks flush a little and her smile grows wider as she turns around and walks away.

If only I'd a psychopathic sister instead of a psychopathic brother, and a stubborn Alpha female instead of a stubborn Alpha male for my mate, perhaps, my life would've been easier. I can't understand boys at all.

"Maybe I can help," Reagan says. "What's on your mind?"

I turn my attention back to Reagan and give his suggestion a serious thought. Reagan is an experienced Alpha. He has been leading his pack long before I'd started assisting my mother in running our coven.

So maybe he can look at it from a perspective that I can't. The only problem is...

I slide my cup and plate to his side of the table, and get up and go over to his seat. He moves inside to make room for me.

I sit beside him and whisper, "You absolutely cannot talk about this to anyone else."

He nods.

I continue, "Absolutely no one. Your pack, your family, even your friends can't know about this."

He continues to nod.

"Also, promise me you won't go after Philip."

"I promise. I won't go after your brother. It's between you and him."

"You swear on me?" I ask him.

"I swear on you."

I tell him about my hunch, that Philip might be somewhere in the Warlow Caves, and my problem of being unable pinpoint where exactly in that mammoth landscape. I also don't know how to search the land without tipping Philip off.

I pull out the crushed map from my pocket. Reagan moves our plates to make space. I smooth out the map on the table and cast the spell to zoom out from the pathways and get a bird's-eye view of the caves.

"Wow," Reagan says, "that's one cool map you've got there."

He's right. That is one cool map. The Map of Gorjum is a rare item, and highly valuable. There's no way the Gorgo elves would give one of these to anyone just like that. My friends had to use some underhand methods to get this one.

I try to be fair whenever I can when it comes to my responsibilities as the next chief.

No blackmailing and torturing others 😇

But, when you've been a leader for sometime you'll soon learn that there are a lot of greedy and selfish people in the world, and the sooner you know how to deal with them effectively to get what you want, the better.

"Zoom in over there," Reagan says pointing at the left. I do it.

"These terrains over here are part of the cave system, too?" he asks circling his finger at a barren area on the map.

"Yes," I tell him.

"How deep the caves go? Are there any subterranean caves?"

I shake my head. "I don't know for sure. No one has ever fully explored that land. But my best guess is there must be a few subterranean caves. The rest are on top of the land, and as for the depth, these caves go real deep, that I know for sure. The larger ones can hold an army inside them."

Reagan brings his left hand to his chin, and goes into deep thinking.

Meanwhile, I finish my latte and cake.

"How many people are with your brother?" Reagan asks suddenly.

I try to count the guys I saw during my last encounter with Philip in my head. "About fifteen. Could be more. Plus thousands of rogues."

"That much people will need some serious amount of supplies in there. Perhaps, we can find them through that."

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Follow a supply chain to that land. Given that practically no one lives there, it should be easy to find if anyone is sending supplies like food or arsenal over there."

That's easy for him to say. I don't even know where to start looking for such a supply chain. I may know every nook and corner in the other dimension but when it comes to this one, I'm lost most of the time.

"Who should I ask about this?" I say.

Reagan says, "Leave it to me. I know some people. I can find if there's any transport of goods to that area."

"You sure? I don't want to trouble you."

"It's nothing. I'll let you know as soon as I find anything."

Just when I open my mouth to thank him, I hear Leon's angry voice from behind. "Cassandra."

I don't turn back or respond.

Leon says, "I didn't realize you're leaving your room these days."

"Whose fault was it that I was stuck in there in the first place?" I mutter under my breath knowing that Reagan and Leon can hear me just fine. "Gotta take a break sometime," I say out loud.

"Well, this break time is over now. I'll walk you back to your room," he says.

"I'm not finished with my food."

"Your cup and plate are empty," Leon says.

I turn to look at Reagan and say, "He is not finished with his coffee."

Quickly, Reagan gulps down the remaining coffee in his mug.

Traitor.

"You know what," I say, "I'm in mood for another cup." I raise my hand to gesture the waitress to come when Leon places his hand over my shoulder and says, "That's enough, Cassandra. We're leav–"

"Don't touch me!" I shout angrily, standing up and facing Leon, and gaining the attention of the whole cafe.

Showing a hurt expression, Leon takes his hand back instantly.

And concerned, Reagan gets up from his seat and says, "Cassandra, you okay?"

Reagan reaches out to me but Leon moves his hand over my shoulder, hovering above it, not touching me, and blocking Reagan's hand. He says through his teeth to Reagan, "Don't."

"What is the matter with you?" Reagan says to Leon. "Can't you see you are upsetting her? She was doing just fine when she was with me."

Leon snorts. "Yeah, right. This is between me and my mate, Reagan. Stay away from her."

Before Reagan could reply, I say, "I'm not going to be in the middle you two's ego clash."

I grab the map off the table and put it back into my pocket, then I put my hand into my other pocket. Not finding what I was looking for, I pull out the map and check in that pocket. Then I keep checking both the pockets as if I was going to pull a rabbit out any second.

"Shit," I whisper.

"What happened?" Reagan says. "What are you looking for?"

"I forgot my wallet!"

Leon presses his lips tight and Reagan muffles his laugh.

Reagan says, "It's okay, you leave. I got it covered."

"Like hell you will," Leon says before pulling out his sleak black wallet and taking out a handsome sum of cash and placing it on the table.

The waitress is going to get a hefty tip, today. Good.

I throw one last glare at Leon before turning to Reagan and saying, "I hope you find something soon."

He nods.

Then I leave them both, walking out of the cafe after my free meal.

––––

Leon storms into my room right behind me.

He asks, "Are you doing this on purpose? Was that you trying to get back at me for what happened at the beach?"

"Has anyone ever told you, you think very highly of yourself, Leon? I've other things to do in life beside crying over my mate getting kissed by another girl."

"And what thing you had to do with him?"

I shake my head. "I'm not doing this. Leave me alone."

As soon as I turn my back to him, his hand reaches out to my shoulder, but before he could touch me, I turn back around and glare at him.

He retreats his hand and raises it up. "Alright, I won't touch you. But don't just walk away from our conversation. Even if it wasn't justifiable, I explained myself to you. Now, your turn. What were doing with Reagan?"

I snort. "I don't know why you're even bothered by it. You know I clearly am not like you, right? I don't go around letting other guys feel me up when I've a mate."

He closes his eyes. Whether in anger or guilt, I don't know. I think it's the former. When he opens them back, he says, "I'm not accusing you of anything. But I don't trust him."

"But I do. He's a good guy. I would very much like to be his friend, but how am I supposed to do that if you keep behaving like this?"

"Then, how else am I supposed to behave? You teleport away from me, and after you return, locks yourself in your room refusing to even let me see your face."

"That's what bothering you? That you can't see my face? Then imagine what I went through after what I saw that night!" I shout with flowing tears that had suddenly appeared on my face.

Leon's angry face turns to one of guilt and pain. He quickly hugs me and I start shaking my body inside his arms trying to get out of him. "I told you to not touch me!"

He doesn't let me go, and I continue to wiggle till I get tired and give in, hugging him back and making muffled cries with my face buried in his chest.