Page 105 of Fated to the Rogue

“Whenever you want to. This will be our secret haven,” I reassured her, and she nodded in silent understanding.

We cuddled for a little longer before giving our wolves back control. This time, they followed the path back home rigorously, although still glued to each other. The two of them kept walking carefreely until we were about halfway through our journey. Atthat point, Dawn suddenly stopped to sniff the air. I watched Dusk do the same before they exchanged suspicious looks.

Because we shared the same thoughts, I immediately knew what Dawn was thinking: the place smelled like dead prey, but something was off. Neither of the wolves were able to figure out exactly what it was. However, since we were traversing a forest that was home to carnivores and herbivores, the scent of dead animals wasn’t really alarming. In the end, they just shrugged and continued walking. That was definitely a mistake.

As soon as Dusk took his next step, a metal net, large and strong, came out of the ground. In the blink of an eye, the large black wolf was trapped and lifted into the air by the net that hung from a thick tree. Dawn’s first reaction was to turn around, growling, in search of incoming threats. Before she could spot any enemies, a whimper coming from her imprisoned mate made her turn to him again. When she did, her heart sank.

The net wasn’t made of any metal - it was made of silver, and it was burning Dusk’s skin.

“That isn’t a regular trap! It was made to catch werewolves!” my she-wolf observed.

That was strange. After we took over Silent Rivers, our pack was the only one living near this forest. Who could have set a werewolf trap here? I saw through Dawn’s eyes as she looked around desperately, trying to understand what was happening. She was usually quite calm and rational, even in stressful situations, but for the first time, I watched her panic as she paced in circles around her mate, not knowing what to do. I realized it wasn’t the time to ask questions; if I didn’t act fast, we could be in grave danger.

“It’s hurting him! How can we get him out?!” she cried out. My mind was racing, but as much as I wanted to give her an answer, I couldn’t find it myself. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered inside my head, trying to soothe him.

Closing her eyes, Dawn sat down in front of the black wolf. The next second, she started humming the same melody she usually hummed when either of us was stressed. I realized that Dusk had stopped whimpering, but Dawn was too engrossed in her song to notice. Then, I heard the sound of rustling metal. When my she-wolf opened her eyes again, her mate had somehow freed himself.

“What…what happened?!” I asked Tina through the mindlink while Dawn tackled Dusk, showering him with licks.

“I don’t know. When Dawn started singing, the pain was gone,” my mate revealed, as shocked as I was.

“He bit through the metal because the silver stopped burning him,” Dawn continued, her relief momentarily replaced by confusion.

“How?”

“That must be Dawn’s power!” Tina answered before my she-wolf could. “When she hums, she can take others’ pain away!”

“I can?” Dawn blinked a few times in disbelief.

“Wait, Tina’s right. I never connected the dots before, but every time you hummed that song in the past, I was in some kind of discomfort, and listening to you made me feel better again,” I realized.

There were so many questions in my head, and I was certain that my wolf shared the same confusion. But as I was reminded of where we were, I knew there were other answers we needed to find at the moment. With a deep breath, Dawn agreed with me.

“We have to figure out what the hell is up with this place, and who put a werewolf trap here,” I told my mate, watching her black wolf nod at Dawn. “Stay close, and be careful. There might be other traps.”

I tried to sense if there was anyone around, any remotely different smells or signs that we were being watched. WhenI was sure there was nothing out of the ordinary, I shifted back. Tina stayed in wolf form as we started exploring our surroundings. Daylight was fast disappearing, so we tried to be quick but careful. I found some bigger rocks and tossed them in front of us to make sure we wouldn’t step into any more traps. In our search, we set off two more silver nets and made it to what looked like an abandoned camp.

What we found was rather revealing, and definitely alarming. There were remnants of campfire ashes, fur too big and thick to belong to normal wolves, and a few decomposing animal bodies laying around. We were shocked to find a human body laying among the leftover prey, which was pretty concerning. Werewolf law was extremely strict about harming humans; so much so, it was punishable by death. Even rogues usually wouldn’t want to risk doing it, since it could threaten to expose our species. However, what was more intriguing was that there was strong evidence of the presence of shifters, but no scent.

“I’ll mindlink Malin to bring Cass over here immediately.” I informed Tina before establishing a connection with my Beta.

This couldn’t be good.

35 | Hidden

The second I contacted my Beta, he immediately dropped everything he was doing. After fetching the Gamma and the witch, he hopped in his old truck and drove as fast as he could to get to the location I had sent him over the phone. When they arrived, they were just as surprised about the discovery as we were.

While Zach explored the area in search of any revealing evidence, I explained to Malin how we had stumbled upon what seemed to be a Fallen camp. From the corner of my eye, I watched Cass draw a large circle in the dirt with the tip of her shoe. Already having gotten used to her witchcraft shenanigans, I tried my best not to be bothered by her, until she started reciting something in an ancient language.

“Cinis veritatis, revela praeterita ambulantium in terra ista.” Her voice was loud and clear.

We all watched curiously as she pulled out a small velvet pouch. With her eyes shut, she poured what seemed to be ash into her open palm, closing it before sprinkling the dark powder across the circle she had drawn on the ground.

I took a step back in surprise when a small explosion occurred, sending a fast-expanding wave of circular purple energy throughout the area. As the magical energy burst - spreading to a 50-foot radius from where we were standing - it revealed peculiar glowing particles. I watched in awe as theygathered to form the shape of big wolves, which soon started moving around the place.

“What the…” I breathed out, slowly spinning around to watch the figures roaming the place.

“The magic I just cast is a revealing spell. It shows who was at a place and what they were doing exactly 12 hours prior to this moment,” Cass clarified. “What you’re seeing are projections of real events. Since I used a simple version of the spell to save energy, it’ll end in 60 seconds, but it should be enough to figure out what we need to know.”

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