Page 70 of Fated to the Rogue

“The night was wonderful, and I had a lot of fun,” she insisted, surprising me. “But there’s more important things to take care of now. No party is worth more than two lives.” The wisdom behind his words struck me, and I had to glance at her.

“I still need to meet Malin and Zach in my office, see what information they could gather,” I informed her. “Let me accompany you to our room first.”

She suddenly stopped, forcing me to face her. “I’m staying with you,” she stated determinedly.

“You must be tired. I don’t want you to stress anymore over this.”

“Tonight, I was officially announced as Luna of Wind Howlers,” she recalled, standing her ground. “This issue concerns me as much as it does you. I won’t be able to sleep well not knowing exactly what’s going on.”

Her insistence ripped a smile off me. “Thank you, my Luna.”

“How many times do I have to say this? You don’t need to thank me,” Tina mocked playfully. Only she could make me laugh at such a time. She pulled me in for a kiss before we continued on our way towards the pack house.

We stopped by our room to change into more comfortable clothes before heading to the office, where my Beta and Gamma met with us a few minutes later. They’d only had roughly an hour to gather the information I asked of them, but I knew they wouldn’t disappoint.

“You first, Malin.” I waved my hand towards him as I leaned against the wall. Valentina was on her chair, right beside mine, but I was too stressed to sit. “What are the girls’ conditions?”

“One of them didn’t make it,” he announced regretfully. Werewolves were pretty violent creatures; we were used to having losses. Still, it didn’t make the news of a death easier for us. Even if these she-wolves didn’t belong to our pack, I couldn’t help but feel sorry. “Dr. Peter said she was already dead upon her arrival.”

I remained silent for a moment, digesting the fact. “What about the other one?”

“She’s in surgery as we speak, but the doctors aren’t optimistic about her chances of survival. She’s lost too much blood.”

“Poor girls,” Tina sobbed. I instinctively grasped her hand tighter, as if I could take her pain.

“Do they have any idea what could have happened to them?” I continued.

Malin shook his head. “It could be many things. Maybe rogues,” he suggested, but the look he flashed at me let me know he had his own suspicions, the same as mine.

“Thank you. What about you, Zach?” I turned to my Gamma.

“There are 60 sentinels on patrol right now. I also assigned a team of a dozen scouts to our borders. Nothing will get in or out without their knowledge.”

“Good. Have you figured out how two outsiders managed to walk in unnoticed?” I couldn’t hide the anger in my tone.

“Kinda,” he answered in a low voice, knowing that was not what I wanted to hear. “The sentinels that were on duty at the time said they didn’t see or hear anything. The girls might have come in through an entrance distant from the area they were patrolling, but there’s no way our guards wouldn’t have been able to scent them,” he made a brief pause. “The interesting part is, all of our men claim to not have smelled a thing. Either our entire team has a terrible sense of smell, or…”

“The girls masked their scent before crossing our borders,” I concluded thoughtfully.

The most common way a wolf could prevent others from scenting them was to drink a scent-masking potion. Those were quite expensive and hard to come by, unless you had specific contacts. There were two main possibilities why they could have felt the need to hide their presence: either they were being hunted, or they were more dangerous than we thought. Whichever the case, they were certainly in no condition to cause us any harm right now.

“Malin, make sure someone keeps a close eye on the patient should she recover. That is all for now,” I announced. “Thank you for your help, guys. You can go back to your mates.”

My two friends nodded at me before turning to leave. Once the issue was settled, my Luna and I returned to our room as well. As tired as we both were, we were also terribly concerned. Still, we found comfort in each other’s embrace and somehow managed to get some sleep.

The next morning, we didn’t even get breakfast. As soon as Tina woke up, shortly after me, we headed straight to the pack hospital. The second we stepped into the place, the heavy atmosphere let me know we wouldn’t be getting any good news. My suspicions were confirmed when we finally came across Dr. Peter, standing behind the counter with his mate, Dr. Bliant.

“Alpha Zephyr. Luna Valentina.” The man lowered his head before us. “I’m sorry. We did everything we could, but…”

“It was too late. She was too weak,” his partner continued.

I exchanged glances with Tina, who was holding back her tears. “Thank you for trying to save her. The two of you should take the day off.” I could only imagine how traumatic it was to have someone die in your hands; it was part of their job, but it still felt right to let them rest. “Have you been able to find out who they were?”

“Yes,” Peter quickly replied, typing something on his laptop. A second later, he showed it to me. There were two medical records on the screen with pictures of both she-wolves. “Their names were Agatha and Sam, and they were sisters. It appears they were from Nightwalkers Pack, located north of here.”

“Thank you. I’ll see if Elder Laelius can help us get in touch with their family,” I told them before leaving with my mate.

We headed to the Elder chapel as soon as we were out of the hospital. After filling Laelius in on what had happened, he wasted no time to reach out to Nightwalkers’ Elder. Inorder to act quickly in the event of emergencies and maintain order within each individual pack, Elders had a direct mindlink channel, allowing them to easily communicate with one another.

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