Marked By A Rogue: The Rogue Hybrid Book Three

by K. J. Padgett

The chain jingled again, and this time, a sliver of light highlighted pale olive skin, plump lips, and almond-colored eyes and hair. I could see that she was completely naked as she wrapped her arms around her knees and squeezed as if to hold herself together.

  This girl couldn’t be any older than me. She was barely in her twenties.

  “You would stop them from torturing people? You would stop more like... me from being made?”

  I stared into her eyes. I couldn’t convey the truth enough. If Luke and I could eradicate William and Loraine and take the throne, nothing like this would ever happen again. Not so long as I was alive.

  “This should never have happened to you.”

  She winced, recoiling.

  “I’ve heard that you’ve escaped a place like this before.” I pushed.

  Her pale skin seemed to lose another shade. “That was the monster. I’m not in control in that form. I’m hardly in control in this one.”

  Well... that was reassuring seeing as we sat not ten feet from one another.

  “You don’t remember anything after?”

  She shook her head. “Images. Only ever images of what I’ve done.”

  I could hear in her voice that those images were enough to haunt her. She knew what she’d been doing. Luke and I had stayed up to date on the rogue Aella had been chasing. She’d killed a lot of innocent people in a very short amount of time.

  “There should never be others like me. If you survive through this, that should be your first goal. We would destroy everything.”

  Maybe it was because of the way I’d been turned that caused my empathy for this girl. If I hadn’t had Luke to help me every step of the way, I might have been a monster too. I would have starved myself until I’d lost all control. Innocent people would have died by my hands. So how could I judge this girl for what she’d done? Condone it? Of course not. But I believed in my heart that there was a way to help her. Somehow... if someone could just get close to her animal side.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  She opened her mouth to answer but sucked in a sharp breath. The chains rattled as she rushed back into the shadows. The sound of bones snapping told me that she was no longer the young woman I’d been conversing with.

  Not a moment later, the metal door unlocked and swung open. I hated myself for shrinking back. Coward. That’s what I was.

  I never wanted to see Loraine and that gods-damned knife ever again.

  But it wasn’t Loraine that strolled into the room in a pinstripe suit pressed to perfection. It was the devil himself.

  “William,” I hissed.

  He smiled down at me, his eyes roaming over my torn clothes until finally making it up to my hair.

  He clicked his tongue and crouched down before me. Those long, artists fingers touched a strand of my hair. “I see that Loraine has really enjoyed herself down here. I must say, I’ve never seen her in the dungeons this much. I think you inspire her.”

  Every bit of remaining strength inside of me coiled up. I was about to head butt him in the face so hard he’d swallow his own tongue.

  “Ah, ah,” William’s hand pressed my head back against the stone. “I always thought you were fiery, Ryn. I like that about you. But don’t get yourself hurt.”

  How was it that this man could sound so suave and condescending at the same time? Like his paintings, William had perfected the art of being an absolute dick in disguise.

  The way he held my head back left the column of my throat exposed. It should have been no surprise when he ran his nose across my skin, but I still jolted anyway.

  “A whole week of sweat and tears, yet you still smell like him.” He shook his head. “Pity.”

  Lightning fast, his grip on me tightened and he yanked me forward before slamming my head back against the stone wall. Everything inside my skull screamed as the wall cracked from the force, but thankfully, I didn’t lose consciousness. That’s not what he wanted.

  “Now, why don’t you tell me where Luke has been hiding and what the two of you have been planning all this time?” His voice was a hushed lullaby all over again. Nothing of malice left in it whatsoever.

  “I won’t tell you anything,” I hissed through my teeth. Everything hurt. My neck, my spine, my toes. Everything.

  “Hmmm,” he tutted. “That just won’t do.”

  He released me, only to wrench the door open and pull something into the room. The sound of a squeaky wheel made me attempt to sit up a little straighter, but I just couldn’t. My body was thoroughly exhausted.

  William clamped something around both of my wrists, then my neck. I looked down at the manacles and the long wires attaching them to a machine on a cart.

  Everything inside me squeezed.

  I forced a laugh. “I must say, this is rather medieval, William. Even for you.”

  He flashed me a wicked smile. “One last chance. Where is he?”

  I pressed my lips together in answer, squishing my eyes shut in preparation for the pain to come. But nothing could have prepared me.

  Electricity shot straight into my pulse points. Not some little zap, but enough to probably light this whole room up. Every muscle contracted, constricting me from the inside as I seized. By the time it stopped, I felt as if my brains were melting out of my ears.

  I slumped to the floor, my cheekbone smacking against the stone with brutal force.

  “More willing to talk now?”

  My heart was a tired, lugging engine in my body. There was no way it should still be beating. Vampire venom alone was my saving grace yet again.

  I wanted to sound unaffected when I answered him, but my voice came out hollow and dreadfully empty.

  “Never,” I whispered.

  And then my world lit up once again.

  27

  Aella

  Arden looked like shit. There was no nice way to say it. But I supposed that if I had been locked up in a dirty cell for over a month I would look pretty poorly too.

  Needless to say, this conversation was going to royally suck for all parties involved.

  He sat back in his chair, the air of cool indifference. “And why would I help you?”

  Arden wasn’t a man of many words, but I could see the anger seething in those emerald eyes. He was livid on the inside.

  Couldn’t say I blamed him for that either.

  “Listen, leech. I’m as happy about this as you are, but if you ever want out of that cell, you’ll help us.”

  He didn’t even deem that with a response.

  Luke sighed. “Now that William has Ryn, he doesn’t need you anymore. Your contract with him is void. There’s nothing stopping him from experimenting on your sister now. So, whether we all like it or not, we’ve found ourselves on the same side here.”

  Arden stood and moved to the cell bars. “If they have your mate, then why haven’t they killed her yet?”

  “It’s probably a trap,” I said.

  “Except they’ll only be expecting me.”

  Arden’s lip twitched into a sneer. “And what they’ll get is a man crazy enough to do anything for his mate, a dog who can hardly walk on her own, and an assassin who hasn’t stretched his muscles in over a month. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like our odds.”

  Ah. So, he’d noticed my weakness... That chaffed a little.

  “I have Tara and Seraphim.”

  That was if Seraphim decided he wasn’t angry enough to stay behind and let us deal with this on our own. And if I was honest, I didn’t want to imagine Jamie anywhere near the clave or their experimentation.

  “And me,”

  Luke and I spun around at the approaching voice, and my pulse slowed as Wilder came into sight. How he’d made it so close without making a sound spoke volumes about his abilities. It wasn’t easy to get the drop on lycans or vampires.

  “Friend of yours?” Luke asked.

  Wilder moved to my side and answered before I could. “It’s complicated.”

 
I didn’t miss the lift of Luke’s eyebrows. Somehow, I had a feeling that he understood just how complicated it was.

  Arden assessed him with narrow eyes. “What are you?”

  I paused. How did he know?

  “Wilder is human born. He was bitten and changed by the hybrid I’ve been chasing.”

  “Impossible,” Luke whispered.

  If he only knew.

  Arden nodded. “That will surprise them.” His eyes snapped to mine, that emerald shine nearly hypnotic. “I’m in if this means I finally get a shower.”

  Somehow, my life had become a whirlwind shitstorm. As I strode out of the jail cell with my head held high, it took all I had not to collapse in the frost-dusted grass.

  Luke’s firm but gentle hand gripped my elbow, offering a little support, and I felt more than saw Wilder bristle.

  He could get over it.

  Possessive males...

  “How did this happen?” Luke asked.

  I sucked my lips into my mouth. Telling Luke that Wilder had bitten me was a little embarrassing. In vampire culture, the bite was a pretty big deal.

  “Aella saved my life, and I nearly ended hers,” Wilder’s voice roughened on those words, and my heart squeezed.

  Up ahead, I thought I heard Arden snicker. Bastard.

  Luke, however, remained casual. “Ah. I could teach you to control that if you’d like.”

  Wilder assessed him, and it didn’t slip past me that I stood between two very powerful men. I was currently the cream in a hot-guy sandwich.

  Wilder shook his head. “I’m not like you. I doubt that there is any controlling it.”

  “It’s always hard at first. You stopped yourself before it was too late. Contrary to what you might believe, that took a great deal of control.”

  I could have hugged Luke for the glimmer of hope that shined in Wilder’s eyes. It was there and gone in a flash, but I’d seen it. My mate wasn’t giving up on himself yet.

  “The offer stands,” Luke said as the four of us approached the cabin at the edge of the pack land. “When this is all over, I’d be happy to teach you.”

  “Why would you help me?” Wilder asked, and it was a damned good question. Surely Luke had more important things to do.

  “If we make it home safely with my blood-sworn, I’ll owe you more than that. And because I remember what it was like to be new and to feel like I was a monster.”

  Wilder flinched. Apparently, that sentiment hit home, and the fact that it did made me want to punch a damned tree.

  “You’re not, by the way. Being monstrous is a choice.”

  Arden conveniently chose that moment to walk inside, allowing the screen door to slam behind him. Not a moment later, the sound of the shower turning on drifted out to us.

  “Do me a favor,” I said to the two of them. “Don’t let him out of your sight. I still don’t trust him.”

  “Me either,” Luke agreed.

  Wilder filled my vision as Luke disappeared inside. His brow was tight, lips pursed. “Where are you going?”

  I sighed. “I have to go see a friend. It could be the last time if this goes south.”

  Those words burned in my mouth, but I had to say them. I had to give Wilder his out. Whatever we were headed into, it was going to be extremely dangerous. This was my way of warning him to run.

  Those dark brows of his furrowed, but he seemed to accept that losing was indeed a possibility. That was good. We needed to go into this thing with caution. Whatever the psychopaths inside the clave were doing would be awful, and if they’d taken Ryn to their castle, then we’d have a hoard of vampires to get through.

  28

  Ryn

  “Get up,” a small, urgent voice whispered.

  Something clicked against the stone behind my head.

  “Get up!”

  I opened my eyes in time to see a tiny pebble fly across the room and smack the wall closest to my body.

  A small sigh of relief as I twitched awake. And damn if I didn’t want to slip right back into that peaceful abyss where everything was dark and nothing hurt. Because reality... reality caused the bile to crawl up my throat. I heaved, coughing up nothing but acid.

  The pain was unreal. I tried wiggling my fingers and toes. Nothing happened.

  I was sprawled on my side, my body completely lifeless.

  “I thought you might be dead.” The girl was crouched on her tiptoes, leaning toward me. Only a few feet separated us.

  “Vampires don’t die so easily,” I croaked.

  God. My throat felt like an inferno. Even speaking made me ache all over.

  “You were out for a long time. You stopped breathing.”

  Who knows what voltage William had gone up to during his sick sadistic game of electrify the prisoner? It was clearly enough to completely shut my body down. All of my nerve endings felt fried. My wrists had thick black rings around them where his shackles had burned right through my skin. I was sure my neck sported the same look.

  They were going to kill me. Whether they really meant to or not. Loraine and William were going too far. My body couldn’t keep coming back from things like this.

  Something plopped on the ground next to my head and sloshed.

  “Hurry up,” the girl bit out.

  My gaze narrowed in on what she’d just tossed across the room at me. My heart froze in its irregular beat.

  A blood bag.

  “How...” I croaked.

  “They keep me fed. They want me strong enough. Probably to fight their opposition like you said. They give me one of those a week.”

  I could practically feel my veins drying out, squeezing in thirst. My body strained toward the bag of its own will to survive, and still, I couldn’t move.

  “Why?” I asked.

  She leaned further toward me, her chain going taught. Her eyebrows were beautifully full, and they fell into a straight line as she frowned at me. Those almond brown eyes were determined. Wherever the monster was, she’d managed to push it back for now.

  “If you can save people from these dungeons. If you can kill the ones who put us here, then we have to get you out.”

  Loraine’s words circled back into my mind. All those things she’d said about me being nothing. I wasn’t a queen. I couldn’t even save myself. How could I be trusted to save all of these people?

  Time and time again I’d been tricked, beaten down, and constantly reminded of my place at the bottom of the food chain.

  “I’m not worth it,” I whispered. “I can’t save you.”

  She flinched. “I’m not asking you to save me. I’m asking you to save people from me. If you don’t win, we all lose. They’ll use me to kill people.”

  She was shaking. Tears began to gather in her eyes. It dawned on me that this girl was absolutely terrified of herself. Trapped in her own skin. A monster of their making.

  “I wish that I could help you.” I swallowed thickly. “But I’m not enough.”

  She growled, a low, menacing sound. “Is that why the leaders of this clave are so focused on you? Because you’re not enough? Is that why I’ve seen fear in their eyes whenever they whisper your name? Because you’re not worth it?

  “The mate of yours that they keep mentioning. Do you think he believes in you? If he’s coming to rescue you, as they expect he is, don’t you think he believes that you’re worth it?” She said each word with bite.

  Her eyes... Her eyes were bleeding into silver. They started to glow from the inside out, reflecting off any source of light.

  The chain around her neck groaned as she lowered her head and strained forward.

  “Wait,” I gasped.

  Oh god... if she got off that chain and shifted, I’d have no chance.

  The chain groaned louder. Or maybe it was the solid stone wall it was attached to.

  My heart rate kicked up a notch. I’d never seen strength quite like this. Those chains were made of reinforced metal. I knew from experience that not even a v
ampire could bend them.

  I squeezed my eyes shut against the sound of popping metal and let her words sink in. Luke was coming for me. If I died, he might too. My friends would be devastated. Aella and her pack would be crushed. There would be nothing else standing in the way of an all-out war between the vampires and the lycans. Except, instead of fighting to help us overthrow William and Loraine, they would be fighting for their very right to live in peace.

  I thought of the pack house. I’d only been invited into it once, but that was enough. That house was full of life. Full of children laughing and playing and learning. Full of pack members slipping in and out for meals and treating each other like family. It was a beating heart in the center of their land.

  That’s what I wanted for the clave. Peace. Companionship. Loyalty. And despite being new, despite being young and inexperienced, I was a part of the equation to getting us there. I had to be enough. And with the support of my friends, I would be.

  I opened my eyes to burning silver orbs. If my throat weren’t so raw, I might have screamed, but all that escaped was a tiny squeak that hurt like hell.

  The chain hung limp around the girl’s neck as she leaned over me. She’d broken it... she was free...

  Her hand shot forward, and something chilled pressed against my lips. The blood bag...

  “Drink,” she demanded.

  29

  Aella

  “What’s her name?”

  “Zora,”

  Zora...

  I smiled down at the little bundle in my arms. Tiny feet, tiny fingers, eyes squished shut - lost in a dream. My heart squeezed. I’d lost sleep many a night worrying about the outcome of this little one. And here she was, perfect and whole.

  “She’s beautiful, Quinn,” I smiled at my friend.

  It’d taken weeks of work to be able to call her that. The pregnant girl I’d rescued from the dungeon where vampires were experimenting on lycans had been a tough case to crack. All of the shifters I’d rescued had a long road ahead in order to cope with what was done to them and the horrible things they saw down there, but Quinn was by far the worst. She’d watched her mate die in that damp, dark hole. She’d seen the vampires turn a girl into a monster and then watched that monster tear everyone to shreds. More than that, she’d endured experimentation on her unborn fetus. The fear alone should have driven her mad. The grief should have killed her.