Rogue. Beta

12. INDIE

The pack house was almost empty. Adults had gone to work, teenagers had gone out to make the most of their holiday and children were taking a nap. I hadn’t set my eyes on more than two people since I stepped out to make lunch; a small number considering the pack house was home to more than two hundred wolves.

I whistled a nursery rhyme to myself as I stirred my pasta sauce, jiggling about. I wasn’t very good at whistle but –

“What is that horrible sound!?” A hoarse voice startled me.

I was embarrassed until – “So it’s you,” I hissed.

It was my ex-boyfriend. The one who was half wolf, half witch. The same boy my father had taken in when his witch of a mother died giving birth to him. The one that betrayed my father

“If it isn’t my girlfriend.” He smiled, showing off two deep dimples. The stupid dimples that got him all the girls.

“We broke up. Don’t make me punch you in the face, Kieran,” I sneered at him. He didn’t seem the least bit threatened.

“Wouldn’t want to blow your cover, would we, Principessa?” He asked, still smiling.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kieran Witcher. The most infuriating boy I ever met. Nothing could ruffle his feathers. I could have a pistol pressed to his forehead and he would smirk like he was the one with the upper hand. Then he would follow up with a taunting sentence.

“My father should have cut you out of your b***h of a mother, you traitor,” I hissed.

It was the only thing that made him shoot. His mother. A very low blow, I know. Not my proudest moment but I hated not getting a rise out of him.

“Don’t you f*****g talk about my mother you –“ His voice raised while he crowded into me. His eyes started to glow – the reaction he always stayed calm to avoid. They glowed two freakish colours.

I drove a blade into his bicep before he could hex me.

“What the f**k, Cosi!” He screamed before he pulled out the blade.

“That’s what you get for being a douche, Kieran,” I made a silly face at him.

“Why would you stab me! Are you possessed or something?”

“Oh, come off it, Kieran. You healed already.” And he had. The f*****g hybrid. I went back to my pasta. “Are you thinking of performing an exorcism?” I asked, turning back to my pasta.

“You’re mated now. You shouldn’t still be hung up on me.”

The asshole.

I wasn’t hung up on him. I had forgotten all about our relationship after the first month without communication. What I hadn’t gotten over was how he had undermined my father. Called him a nobody with his actions. He betrayed my family, betrayed our code and then he fell off the grid, hiding among our enemies.

He was sent before the Elemental had come into her powers. The time Bella Hanson had come to us with information about the pack.

At first, Silver Moon pack hadn’t been worth my dad’s attention and Green Day was almost impenetrable. With the merger of the two, they had caught our attention. Until Bella came to us, there had been no means to infiltrate them.

With the help of an insider, we had been able to see all the weak ends they left and we had tested them. We had tested every single one of their loose ends, found their warrior’s scheduled time, knew when the weaker squads were on patrol and how to sneak past them.

Kieran had been the first man we sent on the project. Because he was very smart. We expected him not to have a problem. He hadn’t. Until Clara. He had been the one to tell us when the Elementals had come for her. He alerted us from the very first day she showed signs of unique potentials. Then he started to spend too much time with her, forgetting where his loyalties lay.

No, I didn’t care that my boyfriend had dropped off the grid. I cared that one of my father’s men had thrown his kindness in his face. No one did that to my father. Kieran was smart. He knew what awaited him in the near future.

“Go away, Kieran.”

“How did the boss take the news of your mating with the project's beta?” His eyes twinkled with mischief.

“I said go away. Are you looking to get stabbed again?”

“Or haven’t you told him?” He gasped, pressing his palms flat against his chest. “Has he lost another member to the clutches of Silver Day?” He gasped again. “He’s going to be very disappointed. His own daughter... A traitor.”

He said it to bother me and it worked.

I hadn’t spoken to my father in a week. I was daddy’s girl. That meant that the mission aside, I spoke to my father every day and I hadn’t spoken to him in an entire week.

He’s going to be very disappointed.

I didn’t want to disappoint Papa. No. Not ever.

“Of course I told him,” I snarled, grabbing my pot of pasta and dumping it on the counter before leaving him in the kitchen.

°°

I paced back and forth with my phone clutched to my chest. As I moved to set it down, giving up on calling my father, it rang. The phone jumped out of my hands. My hands groped around, struggling to stop it from crashing to the ground.

“Hello?” I breathed like I had run a marathon just from the simple act of catching a falling phone.

“Hey, Princess. What are you up to?” It was my mate.

“I just finishing making the pasta, Mase. The one I said I was going to make?” I almost rolled my eyes but a smile played in my lips.

“Okay. Bet it tastes delicious.”

“I haven’t tried it yet. Mason, you still have to review the query from the Day Howlers. I can tell from your voice that you haven’t even gotten started.”

“Well, yeah. But it’s hard to concentrate when all I can focus on is you,” He whispered. My heart galloped like a f*****g stallion.

“Want me to come over? “ I offered.

“As much as I want to say yes, I know that’ll only be more distracting.” He sighed. “I wish our mate bond was strong enough already. I want to have your voice in my head all the time,” He said.

My heart skipped again. From guilt. From fear. I couldn’t continue.

Mated wolves could hear each other’s thoughts once their bond got strong enough and I didn’t want that to happen. I needed my dad to tell me how best I could stop that.

“Okay then. Pay attention to your work, Mase. If you can promise not to call back till you’re done with the query then I promise to wear something nice tonight.” I grinned at the game I was playing.

“I don’t want you wearing anything at all,” came his husky voice. “Deal?”

“Deal.”

I called my father once I dropped the call with Mason. I wanted to avoid having more reasons to stall.

As usual, he picked up on the fourth ring.

“Luciano,” He barked into his receiver.

My heart calmed from hearing his familiar voice.

Papa was my rock. I knew with one call, he could make everything better.

“Are you going to say something or you want me to listen to you breathe, ehh Bambina?”

“Ciao Padre.” I finally said.

“It took you long enough to reach out, Cosima. Did you meet any trouble?” His hard voice softened as he spoke.

“No. Yes. No. I – they know about a rogue attack.” I rushed out.

“I suspected so.” Papa sighed, low and weighted. He sounds so tired. “The spy we sent to Canada was discovered. Micah. He spoke too closely with a bed mate.”

Micah was one of the less than a hundred rogues we had that hadn’t turned fully feral. His eyes glowed the violet of a rogue but on good days, he could shift to his human form and pretend to not be boiling with the need to kill like the new rogues.

The new rogues were shifters that recently turned rogue. They could not control themselves once the craving started. All they wanted was a fresh kill, especially on full moons. They were the deadliest of rogues but the stupidest.

My father used them the for times we had to go to war. We had thousands of them so they were easy to send off without hurting our numbers.

They fought tooth and nail for their next meal but a simple bullet to the brain would end them since they had no fight plan or war strategy. Just a deep craving.

They were the type of rogues more familiar to pack wolves. It was because they were foolish enough to get discovered. The rest of us lay low and hung amongst only our kind. They were dispensable. Operators like Micah were not.

“He killed himself?”

“Yes. A clean cut to the throat. I’m proud he remembered our code. He knew he wouldn’t live if he told the tiniest bit of our secret.”

The code of the Rogue Mafia as I liked to call my father’s gang. Technically, we had no name but we operated like a mafia. Of rogues.

“Kieran is still being an asshole,” I reported.

“Don’t get cross with the little boy over a small breakup. I will rip his heart out with my bare fist when the time comes but don’t let feelings hinder you on this mission. Emotions do not miss with our line of work.”

Emotions.

Didn’t I know that? Emotions did not mix with any line of business. I would have to rethink.

“He can blow your cover. That little witch boy has some tricks up his sleeves. I want to see them before I pop his brain. He is mine to destroy, Bambi.”

“I’m not messing with him.” I left out the part where I stabbed him like a jealous girlfriend. I would have to apologize for that.

“Besides, he knows Luciano wouldn’t let him go if he did anything to me,” I continued.

“I would bring hell to him. But if he hurt you and I killed him, you would still be hurt.” He said. “Enough of this chit chat. What are the stats? Do you have it?”

“No, Papa. The dungeons are bigger than I imagined. The alpha says they were built when the pack first settled here, some four hundred years ago. They are complicated and dark and smelly but I’m positive that’s where they house their intelligence group.”

“I need the details of this place, Cosima. You need to work harder. I will be retrieving you in a month. Six weeks at maximum. Draw me a map of those dungeons.”

“Okay, papa.”

“Good. I am proud of you, Cosima; risking it all to help your Padre.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. The idea of taking over a pack with the help of a rogue mob and a few small packs that wanted to see the Silver Day fall was not exciting. It had never been exciting. What was exciting was helping my Papa. Proving to him that I was more than a little girl. Pleasing him.

He was proud of me now. I didn’t want him to stop being proud. How though? I knew he would take the news badly. Very terribly but he had to know. I would need to find a way to keep my thoughts away from my mate without raising suspicion and I needed help with that.

“Dad, do you think I have a mate?”

My father’s voice lost all hints of warmth.

“You are a rogue, Cosima!” He breathed harshly. “Rogues have no mate.”

I was silent as he lashed out.

 “Have you forgotten why you’re in Silver Day? Have you allowed the mated life of the Alpha and Elemental make you crave the impossible? Rogues have no mate!”

“I found my mate dad.”