by Emilia Rose
He paused for a moment. “To weaken me. Just like they took Mom to weaken Dad.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and shook my head. “They haven’t done this with anyone else in the past five years. No other pack. What makes you so special?”
Of course, he was very special to me, but why was he special to these rogues? His parents died years ago, and if these rogues were a new group like Ryker had told me, then they shouldn’t have any information about that.
Roman quickly gazed at the closed door, clenched his jaw, and growled lowly. “I don’t know.”
I gently patted his chest. I didn’t know either, but I knew that something wasn’t right, and I would out what that was before things turned from bad to worse.
Isabella
I grabbed his collar and pulled him into a long, passionate kiss. “Nothing will happen. I’m going to bring Jane and Raj back. Your sister will be okay,” I said. His breath warmed my neck. And I ached for him to have me now, claim me now, take me as his now, but we had a situation that we couldn’t ignore for another second.
He pushed some hair out of my face and drew his thumb down my lip, making me shiver. I took one step toward the door and smiled. “When I get back, I expect you to mark me, Roman. I want the whole thing: a bouquet of Moonflowers, a date under the moonlight, your teeth in my neck.”
He chuckled lowly. “You want it romantic?”
After curling my fingers around his belt loops, I pulled him closer. “Of course, not. I want you to lay out a nice dinner for us, then spread my legs and eat what you really want to eat,” I said. He growled lowly, making me clench. All I wanted to do was push him against his desk, climb on top of him, and let him have me, but someone knocked on the door, ruining the moment.
“Isabella,” Ryker said from outside. “Time to go.”
I frowned at Roman and walked to the door. He watched me with those dark eyes. “When you come back to me, my dear Isabella, I’ll be waiting to claim every inch of your body.”
“Remember that, Alpha.” I smirked back at him. “I expect no less.”
Ryker stood outside the door, tapping his fingers against the doorframe, and raised a brow at me. I brushed past him, trying to hide my happiness that Roman promised to mark me. It should’ve been done by now, but his promise that it would made me all giddy inside.
The ride to the packhouse was silent, only the stiff sound of Ryker’s breathing filling the car. I gazed out the windshield, watching the trees fly by. This wasn’t right. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
“What’re you thinking about?” Ryker asked, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the gearstick.
“This is my fault,” I said.
He sighed deeply through his nose. “Bella, it’s not your fault. At least you didn’t let one of those rogues mark you. Do you… do you have any ideas about who it could’ve been or why they would’ve taken Jane and Raj?”
Think, Isabella. Roman should’ve been taken, not his sister. Why target Roman and his family?
“I think something is going on with Roman.” I dug my fingers into my palms, breaking through the skin. “He’s acting weird.”
Ryker suddenly became quiet. “He’s been acting weird. Why wouldn’t he mark you, even after your heat?” He pulled onto the Lycan’s property. Lycans ran back and forth in front of our cars, trying to organize as quickly as possible to defend the surrounding packs from the rogues.
“Exactly,” I said, watching him. “Don’t you think it’s weird that they didn’t take an alpha, but his sister?” He nodded his head, jaw twitching just a smidge. “The only explanation I could think of is that Roman did something that angered them, something that he’s not telling me.”
Lie.
I kicked my feet back and forth under the seat and gazed out the window. “And he wouldn’t even mark me even after everything I’ve been through, after the heat, after running from rogues. He didn’t even seem like he wanted me. He looked at me with so much disgust and pity. Barely would touch me the whole time I was there. Only when you came to the house.”
Ryker furrowed his brows. “His wolf seemed to want to keep you there, but he did seem a bit distant. Do you think he’s in on this?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I want to find out.”
He parked the car in front of the packhouse and rested one hand on the steering wheel. “This is your mate that we’re talking about, Bella. If you do this, you’ll have to go against your innate instincts. And if you find that he is working with the rogues, you know what you’ll have to do, right?”
“I’ll have to kill him,” I said quietly.
He gazed at me, nearly making me squirm. “You know, if it comes to that, there are plenty…” He paused for longer than a moment. “… of wolves here who’d step up and be the man that you’ve always needed.”
I took a deep breath, my gaze drifting to his lips for a second. “I know.”
He nodded his head. “Why don’t you lead this mission, then?”
I raised my brow at him. “Me? You want me to lead?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “I think it’d be perfect. Redemption for you.”
Isabella
During this dire time, I delegated duties to the Lycans. Some people were to watch Roman. Others were to meet wolves from my pack at the Night Raider’s Café to talk about Jane’s disappearance. Ryker was to search the outskirts of Roman’s property with me every night.
It went well for the first week. I cut off communication with Roman, and I spied on him.
Nothing was off, and I was just hoping that he would do something—anything—fishy to get Ryker off my back so I could breathe and complete this mission. I wanted nothing more than for him to trust me again. Jane and Raj were in trouble, and, if my suspicions were correct, I needed Ryker to trust me.
That’s the only way any of this would work.
Ryker appeared at my door, dressed in a tight grey spandex training shirt. “You ready?”
Outside it was dark and the moonlight flooded in through the window. I pushed a few pieces of paper into my desk drawer. “I need to go over a few pieces of paperwork. I’ll meet you there?”
Ryker nodded his head, lips curling into a smirk. “I can do a sweep of his property by myself. Finish your work.”
I stood up and placed my hand on his hard chest, curling my fingers into the thick muscle. “No. When I finish, I’ll be there.” I smiled up at him, my gaze travelling down the scar on his neck. So large, so prominent, so sexy. “I promise.”
He paused for a few moments, then nodded his head. I could hear the quickened pace of his heartbeat, and my gaze drifted down his body for a moment—a mere moment—unintentionally. He tensed, his biceps flexing under his shirt.
My cheeks flushed, and I looked away. I shouldn’t be feeling this way. I didn’t want to feel this way. “I’ll be there,” I said.
When he left, I sat in my room. I didn’t have work to do, and I didn’t have papers to read. I had something else that I needed done, something that I needed Ryker to leave in order for me to do.
I picked up my phone and called Derek. After the third ring, he answered. “Izzy, what’s up?”
“I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“Get me Roman’s journal. It’s on his desk. Meet me at the Night Raider’s Café in a half hour.”
He scoffed. “You want me to steal Roman’s journal?” I could hear the confusion in his voice. “Why? Do you think he has something to do with this?”
“Please, Derek,” I said, tapping my fingers on my wooden desk. After a few moments, he sighed, and I knew that I had him. “See you there.”
Derek stood at the entrance of the Night Raider’s café with a notebook stuffed under his shirt. “I can’t believe that I stole his fucking notebook for you. You better have a reason—”
“Is it the right one?”
He furrowed his brows. “What do
you mean?”
I grabbed it and flipped through the pages, sighing when it was his actual journal and not the one with sketches of me. If he brought that one, I’d be screwed. Though I didn’t need the notebook for any particular reason, I needed it to distract Ryker for a bit longer. Maybe it’d even help me get entry into his guarded office.
After pressing my lips to his cheek, I thanked him, shifted back into my wolf, and ran through the woods.
“Hey! You know he’s going to be looking for that!” Derek shouted after me. I howled in reply with the notebook between my teeth and raced toward Ryker’s scent.
When I found him at Roman’s borders, I shifted into my human—standing bare and naked in front of him. He looked at me with furrowed brows. “What’s that?”
“Roman’s notebook.”
His eyes widened. “How’d you get it?”
“Vanessa—that bitch who was living with Roman—gave it to one of the Lycans when they met at the Night Raider’s Café earlier this evening. She gave it to me just as I was about to leave.”
He took the notebook from me. “What’s it say in it?”
I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Let’s read it at home.” I gazed at Roman’s property, knowing that he was in these woods, probably watching us. “If we find anything important, we can confront Roman about it tomorrow.”
Ryker nodded his head in agreement. Once we did a thorough sweep of Roman’s property, Ryker led me back to the Lycans and to his office.
For the first time, he unlocked the door for me and let me walk into the room. Unlike Roman’s office, Ryker’s was a mess. Papers all over the place, his workout gear slung over a chair, locked cabinets that looked neat.
I sat on one of the spare chairs, watched him unlock the top drawer of his desk, and put the notebook inside of it. After shutting and locking the drawer, he put the key into his pocket. There were so many locks for someone so open with his Lycans about who he was and what the missions were really about.
“We should go through the notebook tonight,” I said. “I won’t be able to wait until morning.”
He chuckled lowly and walked around the desk, placing his hands on my shoulders from behind and squeezing lightly. “You need rest, Isabella. You’ve been working for far too long on this. I will go through it by myself and tell you what I find tomorrow.”
“But—”
His hands travelled down my arms, light enough to make me shiver. He breathed against my neck. “Go, Isabella,” he said into my ear.
I swallowed my fear of what would happen next—what I would allow to happen next—and turned around to face him. The room was dimly lit, making his features look more alluring. This was my plan, and I wasn’t about to let it slip through my fingers.
“You should get some rest too,” I said quietly, suggesting something more sinful than I could ever even imagine. I brushed my fingers against his forearms.
We stared at each other for a few moments, then his gaze fell to my chest. “Where’s your mate’s necklace?”
“I took it off.”
His eyes darkened. “Why?”
I stepped toward him, so we were inches away from each other. “Why do you think?” I asked quietly, keeping my gaze on him.
Again, he paused and just stared at me, and I was terrified that he’d see right through me. That he’d see that this was all a lie. My heart raced when he stepped closer, pushing me against his desk.
“For this,” he said.
I swallowed hard and drew a finger down his chest, flirting just like Raj told me. And, in a moment, his lips were hovering over my own, millimeters away from pressing against me. My breath caught in my throat, and I placed my hands on his hips, fingering the waistband of his pants.
“For this,” I affirmed. He pressed his lips to mine, and I tugged him closer by the pants pockets, snuck my hand into his right pocket, and stole the key to his office.
Roman
I hadn’t slept in the past week.
Every day that Isabella wasn’t here and wasn’t marked killed me on the inside. She was off doing her job, being the Lycan that she was, and trying to find my sister while I tried desperately to find some kind of trail.
For the first time in a long time, I was all alone. No mate. No sister. No family. And it was my worst fear, to have nobody that I loved and cared about with me. All I had ever asked the Moon Goddess for was a family that would love me as much as I loved them, a family that I could cherish every day.
It’s funny how life turned out.
No, I didn’t want Isabella to leave, but I needed to let her go. It was the only way that I could get her to see that I really cared about her and that I valued her strength and saw beauty in it.
A sharp, piercing pain shot through my chest. I laid in my bed, staring up at my ceiling, and let my wolf whimper. There was only one time that I had felt this pain before, and it was the night of the Full Moon Party. Right before I left to find my mate, right when she was off working and kissing one of those foul-mouthed rogues.
I didn’t want to think about what she was doing this time, because this time it was for me. Whatever she was doing was to find Jane and Raj, and I had to trust her. I had to trust her to come home to me when all of this was finished. I had to trust her to choose me. I had to be enough for her.
Isabella
From the dark forest, I watched Ryker through his office window. He sat at his desk on the first floor of the Lycans’ packhouse and pushed a hand through his hair, reading Roman’s journal. Exactly three hours ago, I had the chance to sneak into the office, to go through every piece of paper in his desk, and to confirm every one of my suspicions.
I invited Ryker over at 11pm to talk about the information in Roman’s journal. Only, he thought this talking was code for fucking me. He had that small innocent smirk on his lips when I asked him, the one he had given me at the stream the day he told me I’d be a good fit for the Lycans.
Though he had only kissed me once last night, he pulled me toward him like he had wanted me for far longer than I had thought—for days or even weeks—and told me he was thankful that Roman hadn’t marked me. That Roman didn’t deserve me.
Ryker flipped to another page, slammed the book closed, and stormed out of the house. He appeared at the backdoor and stripped his shirt. My heart raced at the sight, and I crouched behind a tree. I couldn’t believe that I was doing this.
Once he surveyed the woods, he stripped his pants. My gaze raked down his body. Nothing was physically different about him, but something was off.
Something had always been off about him. Making me go behind Roman’s back to become a Lycan. The sudden influx of rogues after he became leader of the Lycans. Telling me to go directly to the packhouse instead of to my mate when I was going through heat. It was like he didn’t want me to be with Roman.
He stepped into the moonlight and shifted into his large brown wolf. He gazed around once more, then sprinted into the woods. I waited a few moments and ran after him, keeping a good distance. I wanted him to take me wherever he was going.
But he didn’t run in any unusual direction like I thought he would. He took his normal route through the pack. The one he took every night, passing my room, passing the packhouse, passing our training area. We must’ve run for an hour.
I didn’t know if he knew that I was following him, so I slowed my pace. And, finally, he ran off of the property. We trekked through the woods, going deeper and deeper into uncharted territory, known only in myths as Rogue Territory.
There were vines and jagged rocks that were hidden in the unkept grasslands. The ground was wet, like a dirty swamp. We ran through it, mud matting my fur and hiding my scent.
He continued to run faster, navigating like he had run through here a million times and making it difficult to keep up, but again… he wasn’t about to leave me like that. I was going to uncover the truth.
We ran for another fifteen minutes until a stone wall appeared over th
e grass. He slowed by it, sticking his nose to the ground and sniffing. I stayed back, hiding behind a tree.
Was this the rogue hideout? Did he know where it was this whole time?
My brows furrowed, and when he gazed in my direction, I ducked my head behind the tree and waited a few moments. He let out a low growl, one that was supposed to intimidate whoever was watching him, but he didn’t intimidate me. Not anymore.
After a few moments, he shifted, walked to the wall, and pulled out one of its stones. A clean pair of clothes was sitting on the other side. He tugged them on, the material fitting him perfectly. What the—
He gazed around again and waited another five minutes for a rogue to appear at the gate connected to the stone wall. It opened, and my eyes widened.
It was true. It was all true. Ryker knew the rogues. Hell, he could’ve been working with them if this was what I thought it was.
When they were safely inside of the hideout, I crept up to the wall and leaned against it, ear pressed onto the cold stone.
“You got what we need?” the rogue asked.
“Release them. People are catching on,” he said.
My heart pounded. Me. I was the one catching on. Nobody else, because they all trusted him. I trusted him at one point, but he had tested that trust, time and time again.
The rogue growled. “We had a deal. I supply you with idiot rogues that don’t know what the hell they’re doing so you can kill them, I get my money.”
“Deal’s off,” Ryker said.
From somewhere deep within the borders, a whole pack of rogues growled, trying to intimidate him. I crouched even lower, my heart racing. There were so many of them. So many that could easily overpower anyone—even Ryker.
But it all made sense. From learning rumors of Ryker’s past in Roman’s journal to snooping around in Ryker’s office to figure out that it was true… he turned out to be the one hiring the rogues so he could reap the rewards, so he could clear his name, so he could make the nasty rumors of him raping a woman and getting her pregnant during her heat go away.