Rogues

Seven

Alexie:

I was listening to the way some of the pups talked about my mate. Her name even came up with some of the older wolves that work for my dad. She had been here less than I had originally thought and is already the talk of the town. I want to find a way to approach her that didn't sound like I'm accusing her of something.

She's a lot different than I expected. She's dominant but there was a part of her that was beaten out of her a long time ago. Like someone made sure she knew her place in the world. I might hate the idea but I am a little grateful for it. She could be a lot more trouble than she is now if they hadn't.

"So the word is you're a mated man," I groaned at the sound of her voice.

If there was ever a one nighter I regretted it's this one because it turned into a few weeks and then she thought she owned me for some reason. It was hell when I kicked her out to the curb. She wouldn't leave me alone and I guess some people might say that if I did have a type crazy would be it. I contemplated killing her several times. My mom had warned me about crazy chicks like her. Unfortunately for her, my mate wins the award for crazy. I wonder what her reaction will be.

"Don't let her catch you around here, Steph. I won't be able to save you from that one,"

"Aww come on, Lexie. She can't be that great if you haven't marked her yet," she said sitting across from me. My phone binged. I lifted it off the table to see a text from Hyde.

-Get rid of her- It said telling me they were here and he could smell her.

"You need to get up and get the f**k out of here," I warned sitting back. "I'm serious. She so much as sees something she doesn't like and you're dead,"

The front door opened and she walked in with the only man I will ever truly trust. I kept my eyes on her briefly forgetting Stephenie. Steph reached over the table placing her hand over mine. I pulled away and growled at her. I looked Steph in the eyes the contemplation of murder is coming back. The look in her eyes told me she wasn't going to listen to me.

"Move," Hyde said coming up behind her.

"That's no way to talk to a lady," Steph said.

"The only lady in the room isn't in the way," Hyde growled making me smile.

"You're going to let your lap dog talk to me like that Lexie?"

"I warned you twice now. Get out of here," I demanded.

"You heard him," my mate stepped forward looking down at her from the side of the table. "Get up or I'm going to have drag your ass out,"

Stephenie stood up and turned to face her. Sloane has her hair up in two pigtails again. Her bangs covered some of her eyebrows framing her face beautifully. The lipstick she wore today is a deep almost black cherry red. She's a drama queen under all that orderly anger she wraps herself in.

"Oh really?" Steph asked taking a fighting stance.

I didn't even see Sloane move. Steph fell to the floor coughing trying to gasp for air. She f*****g throat checked her. Sloane grabbed her by her hair and drug her out of the Tavern. Steph got on her knees trying to get up. Sloane used the opportunity to kick her in the ass to finish pushing her out. She turned back in our direction and smiled letting go of the swinging door.

"Well, she didn't kill her," Hyde scoffed. They both walked over to me and sat down. The look in her eyes told me she had enjoyed that but there was no hint of anger there.

"Hi," I greeted and she smiled.

"Hello," was all she said and looked over at Hyde. He handed her something and she placed it in front of me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Open it," she urged using a duh tone. I opened the file to see a picture of a man and a woman. Account numbers, phone numbers, locations and a few pictures of other women.

"Okay?" I asked flipping through it.

"She's missing," she smirked.

"I don't find missing people, princess," I reminded her pushing it back. She sighed annoyed now.

"You're going to want to find this one, man," Hyde spoke up before she said anything else. "Hale Kingsly has her. I think she's his mate,"

I sat back looking from him to my girl. She looked around like she was looking around for the first time or like she's planning a remodel. She didn't care about this in the slightest. As a matter of fact, she didn't seem concerned about a missing human. Which is odd. This is her thing. I motioned Hyde to take a walk. He got up leaving the two of us in the booth alone.

"You okay, Trouble?" I asked.

"Are you pleased?" she asked looking down at the file. I nodded.

"I can see you're not. Which is strange. You like helping people. Is it that maybe you don't like helping me?"

"You'd be my first priority should you need my help but you don't strike me as a damsel," I smiled at her.

"What is Sloane? What's on your mind?"

"You're looking to make a pack," she turned her attention to me straightening up. She made perfect eye contact with me telling just how much that bothers her. "Why would you want to limit yourself like that? Do you want to live in a routine? A constant? Neverending problems that aren't yours?"

"Baby, you go and find missing people. Those are other people's problems," I said crossing my arms.

"Yes, but it's my choice. If I want to get up and go tomorrow anywhere. I can. If I want to get in my car and drive to every state on this continent I can. Who's going to stop me? No one, Alexian. Especially not other's who can give less f***s about me. Power is amazing when you have it and wield it as you please as you do now. In a pack, you can't do things like this. You can't slap a b***h around because she disrespected you, you can't kill someone because they said something to someone, those rules are absolute. Is that what you want?"

"I want my family safe. I want to keep you safe,"

"I am safe," she said getting up. "I'd like to see a stupid mother fucker come at me from anywhere. A group of them whatever insane idea you've come with. I'd like for anyone to come at one of you like that. You have something beautiful here, Alexian. I'd hate to see you destroy it because you want total control. A pack doesn't make you powerful, my guy. It makes you weak. It shows real fear. Those who live in a pack live in fear of something they have never seen. I want you to think about that when you're taking this woman from this man in order to gain his terrain,"

She got up and walked out of here more like stomped. My fierce drama queen throwing a fit. My dad had been sitting at the bar with Hyde and Heather. I sighed getting up with the file. I sat next to him and placed the file in front of him. He looked at me with a smile on his face. He's enjoying this s**t way too much. All of them are.

"She's right," he said.

"I want this woman here in two hours," I ordered giving the file to Hyde.

"What of Kingsly?" he asked.

"He'll come for her. I'll deal with him then," he got up with a few others and they left. "What the hell am I going to do with her?"

"I want this property to remind Ashton where he comes from," my dad said. "Had I known what you intended I wouldn't have told you,"

"I just want them to stop looking at you like you're nothing," I sighed looking at him. "I want everyone to see you the way she looks at her father. The way she spoke of him. The respect and admiration. Don't you want that?"

"I have all of that, boy," he smiled gripping the back of my neck. "That girl hates me but she would never disrespect what I am because she believes in this. She loves her father as a girl should. She adores him because she believed in what he taught her who he made her. She loves who she is because of that man but she's exceeded what he can teach her. She'll always respect and love him, just like you have me,"

"You agree with her? You don't want to establish a border?"

"f**k no," he said taking a drink from his scotch. "I wanted the world and I took it. It's time for you to see it through. Which is why I set us here. So the four of you have a home to come back to when you're done. I've never been more proud,"

He stood up walking out with Mark. The one man he trusted. I looked behind me to see my brother and his friends. They were all playing around like they usually did. Except for him. My dad had never spoken to either of us like that and I never thought I'd be the one he'd say that too. The hurt in his eyes made me get up. I drove down to Sloane's and listened to her voice without really hearing what she was saying.

"I love you, too. I'll see you soon then," until that.

I got out of the car feeling my muscles tense. I opened the door to see her sitting in one of the giant princess armchairs in her library room. She had a book open on her lap but she wasn't reading it. This place is pretty big for just one person and something told me that if others came to live with her she'd want a bigger space. I walked in and sat in the armchair across from her. She looked at me her eyes still lighting up the way they usually do only her expression tells me she's still upset with me. She wrinkled her nose slightly before she picked up a pink bookmark from the coffee table keeping us separated and put it between the pages. That little nose wrinkle.

"You're upset," I said. She lifted her perfectly sculpted left eyebrow confirming my statement. "You're right. I want to explain something to you and I want you to listen until I'm done. Can you do that?"

"I can," she rolled her eyes placing the book where the bookmark had been.

She sat up straight, her arms resting on the armrests, her legs crossed at the ankles. She's a cute intimidating little thing. The rage in her eyes burns through everything she set her gaze on. It had bothered her a lot more than she's letting on. She really doesn't want to be a pack wolf. What does she want?

"I'm not the first born. We've established that, but my brother and I were just like you and your brother. We were brought up to follow in our dad's footsteps. I love my dad the same way you love yours because mine made me who I am. I know you understand that. The way you get when someone insults him in any way is the same way I get when someone says something f****d up about my old man.

"Growing up what we are was hard too. I hated when we ran into pack dogs and they belittled him for what he is. I wanted him to have the same honor yours does," I said. I stood up feeling the anger become uncomfortable anxiety.

"Your father already has that," she said when she saw I wasn't going to say another word. I turned to look at her. "Just because my dad is an alpha with a pack doesn't mean he's any better than yours. I belittled your dad last night, yeah. Just because he's a d**k and he killed my mom but that doesn't mean I don't respect him. Why are you trying to turn him into something he's not. I mean come on. He's Gerard Victor. He's the number one reason why packs are afraid to leave their territories. We have a comic book dedicated to him,"

"What?" I asked. She walked over to one of the bookshelves and pulled out a binder.

"I have every single edition. It's called The Terror of Victor," she flipping through the pages. "I would read it to the pups to scare them. So they wouldn't leave the borderlines. There was a time when pups went missing. A lot of them. Four or five a night. My dad would go as far as he could but we were forbidden to go further. It got to the point where the woman of the pack would... they would have abortions because they were afraid. They'd rather see a dead fetus than their pups gone. That was very hard for us. These stories kept the pups from going anywhere near the borderline,"

I flipped through the sealed comic books when she handed them to me. It made sense. Why she ran off and looked for those missing kids and women. It's something that's important to her. She doesn't like seeing anyone suffer. I smiled to myself placing the binder down. There's an equal amount of selflessness to the selfishness she puts out.

"He told me that already. I just..." I sighed looking away. I couldn't finish.

"Didn't want to disappoint him," she finished I looked up at her and nodded.

"I lived like that since I was a kid. I was so afraid that I was going to disappoint him that I lost track of what I wanted to do and guess what>" she asked sitting back down.

"What?"

"Before I started acting out. Before I started walking out of the borders back when I was the perfect soldier, he told me I was the biggest disappointment in his life. I don't know what the f**k he wants from me but when he said that to me after everything I had done for him- I've killed people for him, I didn't get to be a kid because of him, I put aside everything I wanted for myself to serve him and he f*****g told me I was the biggest disappointment in his life. There is really no way in pleasing them," she growled looking away. "Everyone always says my dad and I are basically the same person. When he told me what he did. I felt like my world was going to fall apart. In leaving, I realized that it wasn't me he's disappointed in. He's disappointed in himself,"

"I don't get you," I said going over to her. I lifted her up pulling her body against mine. She fits against me perfectly.

"That makes two of us," she shrugged placing her hand over mine. "I'm difficult and I'm very simple at the same time. I want more but at the same time, I just want you. If you really want to set this border then I'll help you. This is important to you and I feel like I've just spat on your ideas. You've accepted me as I am and I haven't paid you the same courtesy,"

"What?" I laughed. "Trouble, you sat through dinner with my dad. He killed your mom and you still made him his favorite dessert. You found out I'm a werewolf Don and your response was simply to give you my attention sometimes,"

"Why would I have a problem with what you are? You're utterly perfect for me," she said it like it was a matter of fact and not an opinion. She turned to look at me and smiled the most sincere smile I had ever seen anyone has ever given me.

"I'm having a pretty good day," I said smiling at her. She grinned.

"Yes, I believe I am too. Hyde told me a story of how you two almost burned down your apartment because you attempted to cook," I laughed.

"He doesn't need to be telling you these things,"

"I think he does," she said pulling away. "What do you want to do?"

"I'm not putting the border up. You're right. I'd be doing it for all the wrong reasons. I'm still going to take that part of the city though. I want eyes on my brother. Especially if you're going to be running around f*****g s**t up," she laughed.

"Okay, then. Let's go,"

"You're coming?" I asked and she smiled.

"Yeah. I want to see how you f**k s**t up," she laughed. Trouble is the perfect nickname for her.