He was on his knees in the mud, panting like a wild animal as he watched me. His eyes were the brightest blue I’d ever seen, not sapphires but topaz, like clear seawater, devouring me from head to toe.
“Who... are you?” he asked.
His voice was silken sheets and midnight breezes. I tried and failed to hide the shiver that raced down my spine.
I opened my mouth to say something, I wasn’t sure what, but something slammed against the rogue with the force of a truck. Seraphim.
I watched them roll together in the dirt, and if it hadn’t been for the surprise attack, I think the rogue might’ve bested my companion. He bared his teeth, long, glistening canines flashing in his mouth, but Seraphim was quick. He slammed the rogue into the ground and hit him square in the temple with the butt of his gun. The rogue went limp.
Ser looked up at me, sucking in ragged breaths, his brow a straight, furrowed line. “Any reason you haven’t already killed this son of a bitch?”
3
Aella
“This tent isn’t even big enough for the two of us, never mind his giant ass.” Ser huffed as he exited the shelter.
The rogue was passed out inside and I hoped he’d stay that way for a while. I wasn’t sure what he would do when he woke up. There was nothing to restrain him with way out here. If push came to shove there were two of us, one of him. I just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“I don’t get it. Why keep him alive? He’s left a string of bodies all over the Midwest. The mission was to track and kill, not capture and cook him breakfast.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “The alpha will want to question him.”
He shook his head, his brown skin glistening with sweat from running to my rescue. “You scared the shit out of me, Aella. From now on, no more solo missions. What if I hadn’t been here? Hadn’t heard you calling? What even happened back there?”
My lip curled back over my teeth. “You don’t get to make that call, Ser. Don’t forget who you’re talking to.”
His eyes were ablaze, sparkling with fire. Seraphim wasn’t one to fight me on much. He was my next in command and friend. We’d grown up together. But this, he wouldn’t let go.
“What happened?” he demanded.
I sighed, the fight dying out of me along with the adrenaline that had coursed through my veins. The truth was, I wasn’t sure. Not entirely. I’d only ever heard about these things. I’d never seen it for myself. But I thought the rogue was...
Ser inched closer, and I allowed him to put his hand on my shoulder. “Was he trying to... hurt you?”
The words were clumsy in his mouth, but I knew what he meant by them.
I looked into his eyes, mortified to feel the tears stinging them again. I didn’t cry. It was a weakness that I couldn’t afford.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Be real with me, Aella. I’m asking you as a friend. What is going on here? You don’t take prisoners. You leave ashes to scatter. Something’s not right.”
I reached out, putting my hand on top of his where it still held my shoulder. “I think...”
A small growl came from the tent.
I whipped my head in the direction of the noise. The rogue was already standing outside our small makeshift home. How he’d moved without either of us noticing was a mystery. But as I took in his face, the thought became lost to me.
His eyes were trained on my shoulder, where Seraphim’s hand laid on my skin.
Seraphim noticed it too, and took a quick step back, retracting his hand as if he knew that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be keeping it for long. Another growl ripped through the camp and it took me a second to realize it had come out of me. My teeth were bared to him, challenging him. Surprise flitted across his handsome features all over again. I’d shocked him right out of his anger.
“Don’t growl at my friends,” I snarled
“Fuck,” Seraphim breathed. “Ho-ly fuck.”
I didn’t look at him. I kept my eyes trained on the rogue as my snarl relaxed into a frown. He held that gaze, his hands balling to fists at his sides.
“Who are you?” he asked for the second time.
“Better question. Who the hell are you?” Ser cut in.
I almost smiled at him. Almost.
He seemed to have to think about it for a moment before finally answering. “My name is Wilder Adams. I- I think you’re like me.”
What a strange thing to say. Had he never come into contact with another lycan before?
As if in answer, his muscles started to twitch. He grimaced, his fists clenching tight enough to show the whites of his knuckles.
“Wilder?” His attention snapped to me. “Have you been around lycans much before?”
“Lycans?” he asked.
Seraphim and I shot each other a puzzled glance.
“You don’t know what you are?” Ser asked.
The rogue – Wilder groaned and fell to his knees, gritting his teeth. “Get... away,” he rasped. “I turn into... a monster.”
I stepped toward him, putting my hand on his scorching hot shoulder. This guy was seconds away from a shift if he didn’t cool down.
At the feel of my skin on his, he gasped. Those steel blue eyes focused on me, and the twitching started to ease.
“How long has this been happening?” I kept my voice even despite my insides rattling like an earthquake had swept through my entire being.
He loosed a heavy breath as the last of the spasms seemed to dissipate. “I was attacked in my neighborhood park two weeks ago. The... pain started soon after. I’ve been hiding in the woods ever since. If I was around people when I...” His jaw muscles flexed. “I’m not a murderer.”
Seraphim let out a low whistle as he began pacing back and forth. “Well, isn’t this a bag of dicks. We catch a rogue only to find out he’s not the rogue.”
I snatched my hand back from Wilder as the tingles from our skin contact grew to be too much. “Unless it was the rogue we’re after that turned him. I’d bet my knife on it.”
Ser nodded his head. “Could be. Regardless, we need to take this back to Alpha Kay. And he,” he gestured to where Wilder still kneeled in the mud. “Needs some fucking clothes.”
It was a long trek back to the old pickup truck we’d left parked in the wildlife preserve parking lot miles outside of camp. Seraphim was forced to lend Wilder a change of clothes, though they didn’t fit him in the slightest. The shirt was a size too small, and the pants looked like capris on him. Still, it was hard to keep my eyes anywhere but the rogue stranger.
That odd feeling, like electricity in my veins, happened every time he drew too close. So, I kept my distance, using Seraphim as a buffer between us.
Wilder was massive. Easily 6’3” and full of hard muscle. He didn’t look like a rogue male at all. He looked strong. Like an alpha.
When we finally reached the truck, I forced Seraphim to let me drive while he sat in the middle of the three-seat cab. He grunted and complained as we climbed in, and I felt more than saw Wilder stiffen as Ser sidled up next to me for the trip back home. I glanced at him, but he just cleared his throat and got in the passenger’s seat, slamming the door behind him.
The whole three-hour drive back to the pack lands was so silent I thought my companions had fallen asleep. But a glance over my shoulder showed me they hadn’t. They were both stiff, trying not to touch each other in the cramped space. Such men.
It was unbearable. Wilder’s earthy scent, sandalwood, sweat, and blood, crowded the cabin. It was intoxicating.
I tried not to pay attention as Seraphim glanced between the two of us repeatedly over the hours. He knew something was up. Probably suspected what I was starting to think as well, as much as I didn’t want to believe it.
I drove the truck up a dirt road for another half hour before cutting through a break in the woods that stretched back another forty minutes. The no trespassing signs showed guns and security camera warnings, and they weren
’t lying. Our pack was secret. No humans made it this far back into the woods. And if they did, we had patrols to scare them off.
I hit the brake and rolled the window down with my hand as we sidled up to the massive iron gates surrounding the property. There were no speakerphones or buttons to enter a code. Instead, I honked the horn twice and a pale, freckled face peered through the iron bars at us. Jamie shot me a smile so big it made my lips twitch to smile back at her.
I was keenly aware of Wilder as the iron gates folded open, allowing us entry to the pack lands. I could hear his heart stuttering in his chest, see the awe and fear in his eyes.
“Welcome to Haven,” I said as we pulled through the gate and continued on down the makeshift track.
4
Aella
I couldn’t wait to get out of the car. I threw the door open and leaped out before it was even fully parked. My mouth was dry. My limbs were shaky. He was everywhere. His scent had filled the cabin until I could hardly breathe.
I drank in a gulp of fresh mountain air just as a frizzy blob of red fur tackled me to the ground. A wet tongue licked my face and I shrieked.
“Ugh! Enough already, Jamie! I missed you too!”
The wolf above me snorted, which was as good as a laugh.
“Let me up,” I shoved her away.
As I stood, she sidled alongside me, sniffing the air as Wilder and Seraphim got out of the truck. Her head swiveled to me as if asking what the hell was going on.
If only I knew.
“Jamie, this is Wilder, a rogue that Aella decided not to obliterate for some reason.” Seraphim gave me a sheepish smile.
Wilder froze, his gaze flicking to me. I sighed and put my hands up. “Don’t let him rile you. You’re safe here.”
Jamie’s tongue lolled out of her mouth as she stared at him. I wanted to be angry with her, but I couldn’t be. She was probably thinking all the same things I was. Wilder was tall, muscular, tan, and striking in a way that set my blood ablaze. I hadn’t known anyone could actually look like that outside of a romance novel.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. This was not the plan. Avoidance was the plan. Starting now.
“Where’s my mother?” I asked Jamie.
She grabbed hold of my sleeve with her massive jaws and started to move me along. I heard the men fall into step behind me.
Our arrival had attracted some attention. Many lycans stopped and stared at us as we moved toward the pack house. I should have known that’s where she’d be. I was my mother’s only child, but she liked to stay close to the young ones as much as she could.
The pack house was a brick mansion with beautiful white columns that held up the front of the structure. Snow coated the roof and grounds around it, and as smoke billowed out of the large chimney, I thought it looked just like a holiday card. Except there were people who could turn into wolves inside...
Jamie released me and stopped before the door. Mom wasn’t a fan of wolves in the house. She was a bit of a prude. Fur outside, skin inside. It kept us from having to vacuum the rugs every five minutes.
I opened the big front door, but before stepping past the threshold, I glanced over my shoulder at Wilder. His eyes were big, drinking everything in, but when they met mine, he seemed to relax slightly.
Children’s screaming and laughter floated down the stairs toward us, but my eyes settled on the colossal Christmas tree in the center of the foyer. Damn it all to hell. I’d missed the lighting of the tree.
“It’s about time you came back,” my mother said from the stairs. “You missed the tree lighting. The kids got restless.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “The brats could have waited a few days.”
The alpha rolled her eyes, though her lips twitched into a small smile. That is until she saw the man at my back.
“Who’s this?” She froze on the stairs, angling herself between him and the children above.
I rubbed a hand over my face, a headache already starting to pound behind my eyes. “Long story, Ma. Tea?”
She pursed her lips, her sharp gaze cutting back to me. But I was the alphas huntress and daughter. If I didn’t think this man would endanger the children, she would trust that.
“Let’s go to the dining room,” she nodded.
I followed close at her side as we walked through the house. Despite the kids roughhousing, my mother kept an immaculate home. The walls were creamy white, decorated with tons of pictures of our pack, our family. The banisters were solid oak and sturdy enough to hold up against temperamental tween wolves.
The kids stayed in the pack house until they were thirteen, which proved to be a trying time for a young lycan.
“Have a seat,” my mother both offered and commanded. I winced at her narrowed eyes on Wilder. A part of me was glad for it. She would handle this, draw out information we needed to track the rogue who, if my suspicions were right, had somehow turned him. But another part of me wanted to step in front of him, to shield him from my alpha.
Teeth grinding, I lowered myself into a chair next to the head of the table where my mom sat. Seraphim took the seat across from me, and I squeezed my eyes shut as the chair beside me pulled out and Wilder’s large body lowered into it. His elbow bumped against mine and I hissed at the contact, the shocks that bolted up my arm at his touch.
My mother’s eyes missed nothing. I thought her face might have gone a shade paler, but we both ignored it.
She cleared her throat. “Tell me the story.”
So, I did. I went over everything Wilder told us, which wasn’t much at all, I realized. When I was done, I turned to him, hoping he’d take the hint and fill in the gaps.
He ran a hand through his sloppy brown hair and leaned his elbows on the oak table. “Look, two weeks ago I was working a farming job outside of Great Falls. I moved up here for some peace after a...” he glanced at me, then back down at the table. “After a bad relationship. The last thing I expected was to get jumped by a wolf. I was jogging through the park and they’re so rare I didn’t expect to see one.
“I thought I could handle the injury myself. Looking back, it was pretty bad. My arm was shredded up. But I went home and stitched it myself. And two days later the muscle spasms started, and I became... an animal.”
I blanched at the words. We’re wolves, yes, but not animal. Not completely. Our human side is always there, sometimes dormant when the wolf takes over, but we aren’t mindless.
“Impossible,” the alpha mumbled to herself. “A lycan born from a bite. There wasn’t a transfusion of blood?”
Wilder shook his head. “She just... bit me. I think she would have killed me if we hadn’t heard voices getting closer. She took off into the woods after that.”
She. My interest was piqued. When I took on the mission of finding this particular rogue, I had hopes that it would lead to something bigger. This could very well be more than a wolf we were dealing with. This could be the experiment that had escaped the vampire dungeons in Arkansas. It had to be. Rogues were generally lone males out to make their own packs or die in solidarity. We hardly ever saw females do the same. It’s in a wolfs nature to have a pack, a family, especially so with the females.
The alphas eyes found mine, shimmering with worry and determination. “Then this is no ordinary lycan. It’s as we feared. Whatever experimentation was done, it’s clearly working. This is something new.”
A shiver went up my spine. I’d feared the same thing. We’d already found a string of bodies across the state. They were torn to shreds. Not even a rogue who’d given over to the wolf would cause that sort of damage that quickly. This rogue was something different, feral, wild, and with the ability to make others, to turn humans into lycans, an act that before now had only been known to be effective with the transfusion of lycan blood. It was only ever tried in life-or-death situation, and even then, most of the humans died before the shift.
“What do you mean, experimentation?” Wilder asked.
> Seraphim could hardly contain the growl in his voice. “It may come as some surprise to you, but lycans aren’t the only supernatural creatures in the world. Currently, we’re at war with a coven of vampires who have been kidnapping our kind for experimentation. What Alpha Kay is insinuating, is that you were transformed by one of those experiments.”
I watched Wilder’s skin turn a sickly shade of white. Obviously, this was a lot of information to take in. The poor guy just found out the hard way that lycans exist, and now he was processing all of this. A war was coming, and he just found himself smack dab in the middle of it.
“Well, Wilder of Great Falls, you are welcome to make a home for yourself here. I’m sure Seraphim would be happy to answer all of the questions you have. You’ll stay with him in his cabin until we can secure a place for you. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep my eye on you. Just to make sure there aren’t any... ill effects from the rogues bite.”
Seraphim opened his mouth to protest, but my mother shot him a look that had him snapping his jaw shut.
“You’ve been through a great deal. But I will warn you, we’ve never had a turned lycan amongst the pack before. I’m not sure how your wolf will react, whether you are too far rogue to adjust to life here. And if you harm one of my pack members, one of my family, we will be forced to put you down.”
I shrank away from her words. Kill him. She would kill him if he stepped out of line. It was the natural order of things, a warning I should have been prepared for. But the wolf inside paced back and forth at the threat, snapping her jaws and baring her teeth. I didn’t appreciate what was mine being threatened. Not even by my mother.
I froze. What was mine? I shook the thought from my head. Wilder wasn’t mine. He was a stranger. Nobody. I shouldn’t care about him. Wouldn’t.
“You’re dismissed until further notice.”
Marked By A Rogue: The Rogue Hybrid Book Three Page 2
