Page 74 of Fated to the Rogue

“I’ve never seen a rogue do that,” she observed.

“Me neither. I’d dare say he might be as strong as an Alpha,” I agreed.

“Or stronger,” she added. “There’s something off about him.”

Once we stepped inside, I realized we were at the morgue. I had only been down here once in my life, to accompany the doctors in bringing the bodies of the girls who had fled the massacre at Nightwalkers Pack and died in our territory. It was a cold, morbid place, but the heavy atmosphere didn’t bother me as much now that I was on a mission.

With her superior speed, Dawn was soon able to catch up with our enemy. She closed her jaw around his thick tail to stop him. He let out a warning snarl as he turned around, tearing the skin on my she-wolf’s right thigh with his teeth, but she didn’t let go of him. She quickly dragged him by the tail, tossing him against one of the walls. I expected him to stay down for at least a couple of seconds after the crash, but his resilience was astounding. As he rose to his feet, he used his hind legs to propel him forward.

Dawn released her first cry as the creature scratched her eyelids with his sharp claws, and her vision went dark as she forced her eyes shut from the pain.

“Shit! I can’t see!” she yelled desperately.

“You have to open your eyes! He’s gonna attack us again!” I panicked too.

“You think I don’t fucking know that?!” she snapped, the heat of the moment making her lose her cool.

Then, it happened again. Dawn’s eyes were still closed as she tried to recover from the blow, but I could suddenly see again. I could see my she-wolf pawing her face in an attempt to get rid of her discomfort, yet it wasn’t like the way I could see her in my mind. It was as if I was observing her from a different perspective - fromDusk’sperspective. Could I be seeing through his eyes again, like what apparently had happened during my visions in the past? Like what had happened minutes ago?

“Zephyr! Look out!” Valentina’s voice echoed in my head again, and as if her words were a command, I saw what I had to do.

“Dawn, he’s coming for you! From the left!” I warned her.

My she-wolf followed my order without giving it a second thought. She turned around in a swift movement to protect her wounded face from the enemy, standing on her front paws to kick him away from us like a mad horse. Clearly not expecting our reaction when we were blind, I witnessed the creature widen his eyes as he was hit on the chest. She probably knocked the wind out of him, judging by how he fell to the floor with a loud gasp.

Dawn managed to reopen her eyes just in time. Although her vision was still pretty blurry due to the blood, it was enough for us to watch Dusk bounce onto the rogue, landing a killing blow. One snap of his jaws on his target’s neck was enough to break it, ending his life at once.

As soon as the threat was neutralized, Valentina shifted back into her human form. Mimicking her mate, Dawn too gave meback control, and I contained a bellow as my already broken body was put through the pain of the transformation.

“Oh, Goddess. I…I’ve never murdered anyone before.” My Luna’s voice was shaky due to the adrenaline as she kneeled in front of her victim. She slowly turned her head to look at me, probably looking for guidance. Her reaction made me realize I was in worse shape than I thought. “Zephyr!” I could feel her pain as she ran up to me.

I was about to fall, slightly dizzy, when my beautiful mate offered me her support. The gash on my thigh made it hard for me to stand still. In an attempt to see her clearly, I used my arm to wipe the blood off my face. It wasn’t as effective as I had expected, considering more blood continued to drip down my injured eyelids.

“I’m okay. I’m sure it looks way worse than it actually is,” I tried to placate her. There was some truth to my words though; in wolf form, the fur made blood harder to see, whereas it would stand out against human skin.

“Shit! What went down here?” A third voice caught me off guard. Turning in the direction of the sound, I found my best friend glancing in through the hole in the wall, an army of warriors behind him.

Zach was also with him, and he proactively jumped inside to offer us robes that we quickly put on to hide our nakedness.

“Just in time, Beta,” I said sarcastically, still holding onto my mate. His question reminded me of the lifeless creature lying on the terrazzo floor, only a few feet away from us. “This thing - whatever it is - was dead set on getting into the hospital for some reason. But most importantly, can someone please explain to me how the hell outsiders keep getting past security?!” I growled, filled with rage. Thank the Goddess, everything turned out fine, but my mate could have died because of the guards incompetence.

“I have no idea, Alpha,” Zach muttered with his head low.

“Our defenses are your responsibility, Gamma!” I roared in his face. I didn’t like yelling at him, but I was too fucking pissed to act rationally. “I want to know where you’re failing!”

“I honestly don’t know. I implemented all of the changes we agreed on. I was just finishing setting up the last traps.” I had never seen Zachari so lost, and it triggered something in me. It couldn’t have been his fault. There was something very wrong about this whole situation. “All I can do is talk to the sentinels and see what they have to say.”

“They better have answers. My Luna was injured because they were slacking off at work!”

“Wait, Zephyr...” Dawn’s voice caught my attention. “You said it yourself. Something’s not right here, and I don’t think it has anything to do with our team’s capability. Don’t you think it’s weird how you heard the sounds of the fight before you scented the intruder?”

As if Valentina could hear my she-wolf’s thoughts, she observed, “Zephyr, the rogue we just took down…it doesn’t have a scent.”

As my eyes landed on the creature’s body, I realized she was right. Rogues had a very strong, characteristic scent. Once their ties to their original pack were cut, they lost their specific fragrance that helped their pack mates identify them. With time, the human soul usually died, taken over by the animal side, which made them smell rotten. Dead.

Everyone went silent as I tried to make sense of the bizarre situation. The realization that my Luna was still bleeding as she stood beside me was what brought me back to my senses. I looked deeply into her eyes, touching my forehead to hers before pulling away to look at the crowd.

“Nisha,” I called our Gamma Female after spotting her among the other wolves. “Will you please take my Luna to see the doctor?”

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