A Twisted Anthology: A Twisted Design Book

The Rogue’s Initiation Part 11

I spent the whole night writing. From time to time, I’d get up and stretch my back, go to the convenience store for a snack, have a drink, or rest my eyes. It wasn’t that I didn’t try to sleep, it was that the story in my head was too loud. The words roared in my ears. The scenes played out behind my eyelids.

Time didn’t seem to matter. Not until my eight o’clock alarm went off. That was when I realized I’d spent the whole night writing. I wish I could say I regretted it, but I didn’t.

The character I wrote was amazing and beautiful. The story was emotional and romantic. The villain was a little flat, but I’d work on it. In all, it was different from anything I’d ever created. More than any of my other stories, I felt possessive of it. My heart was in that story.

Getting up, I stretched again and went to take a shower. I had my meeting with Queen Bellamy at ten. There was enough time to get cleaned up and eat something. I rushed through my morning routine and shaved the hair that had grown on my face overnight.

I decided to avoid the office and went straight to the restaurant. The waitress smiled brightly at me and took me to a small table before handing me my menu. I knew exactly what I wanted. The ‘big bad wolf’ breakfast. Bacon, sausage, and a ham steak, with a three meat omelet, a pile of hashbrowns, and a stack of pancakes. I ordered coffee and orange juice to go with it.

Pulling out my phone, I wrote a couple of notes on the inside of the restaurant. Using places I’ve been helped add a realistic feel to my descriptions. I added some character descriptions based on other diners and staff.

My food was brought out and I started eating. I had about an hour before I had to be at Lune Rouge. Queen Bellamy had sent me directions. It was a twenty-minute drive to get there from where I was staying.

“Glad to see you made it back alive last night.” Wayne said.

I’d been so focused on my food, I hadn’t sensed his approach. Being single-minded like that could be deadly for rogues. I didn’t like that. I was just so hungry because I didn’t sleep last night and I needed fuel to make it through the day.

“No reason I wouldn’t.” I replied after taking a drink of my coffee.

“That girl could’ve killed you, boy, and you wouldn’t have even batted an eye at it. I didn’t realize you were a wolf with a death wish.” He scoffed.

“She’s not a killer any more than you or I am. If she’d killed someone, you know the human authorities wouldn’t have let her get off with probation. A killer werewolf either gets locked up forever or gets killed. It’s the only death sentence humans still allow. Why are you so against her? She’s doing her penance as dictated by Queen Bellamy. She just got mixed up with the wrong crowd.” I glared at him steadily.

“A pretty face softens mens’ heads.” He grumbled.

“A long life hardens mens’ hearts.” I answered. “…. I like that.”

Quickly, I pulled out my phone and loaded my note program, typing out the scene on the phone’s keyboard. Ignoring him would be an insult, but I needed to get that down. I wanted to use it later and I might not be able to remember it exactly as it was.

“You’re gonna regret going after that girl.” Wayne sighed and walked away.

Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn’t. One thing was for damned sure, I was planning to find out.

-

After I finished my meal, I paid and went to my car. I didn’t want to be late for Queen Bellamy. If I was going to get her help, without something stupid and deadly like trying to manipulate a rogue Queen, I needed to have her in a good mood.

As I drove out to the pack lands, I was reminded of the night of the auction. I couldn’t come off as anything like that ‘Derrick Travers’ guy. If I seemed too obsessed, Queen Bellamy might try to keep Sunny from me. If I was going to lose her, it was going to be because I didn’t manage to change her mind, not because someone came between us.

Frankly, I became more hopeful as the night turned to day and Sunny still hadn’t refused my offer. She said she felt the connection. Her wolf wouldn’t let her give up a connection that easily.

I arrived at the marker for the pack lands and stopped my truck. Not long after, some pack warriors showed up and asked if they could help me. Once I told them my name and that I was there to see Queen Bellamy, they nodded. One gave me directions, while the other looked in the bed of my truck and in the passenger side window of my cab.

They let me go, and I followed their directions through the pack’s town and to the pack house. I’d never been in a pack’s land before. It was like a small town and reminded me of the town near my home. There was a sense of comfort that came with it.

When I reached the pack house, I parked where I was told to and went to the front door. The guards told me rogues and visitors knocked. That way we’d get proper treatment. They didn’t sound malicious, so I figured it didn’t mean I would get attacked.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Queen Bellamy. It was entirely that I was completely surrounded by pack wolves. The ones I’d been taught to be wary of and regard as a potential enemy my entire life.

The door opened and Evan stood in front of me. Her eyes slowly raked up and down my body. I didn’t return the look. She may have found me attractive, but I only wanted Sunny, and Evan was the opposite of her.

“Mr. Casey. You’re looking well. I hope the collective is treating you right on your first visit. You know, if you want someone to show you around, I get off work around six…. I can get you off by seven.” She purred in a husky voice.

“I’m here on business, Evan. I’m not interested in your offer. Thank you.” I replied.

“You’re no fun. That haircut and shave made you even sexier than before. Why don’t you want to play with me?” Evan pouted.

“Please take me to Queen Bellamy. I don’t want to be late for my appointment.” I said coolly.

“You know you’re even hotter when you’re all dismissive like that. It makes me want to get your attention even more.” When I didn’t respond, she groaned in frustration. “Fine. This way.”

Evan turned and went into the pack house. I followed her in. We mounted some stairs and went up to the next level, turning down a long hall. Most of the doors were closed, a few were open and empty. I could smell Alpha Lucien. He must be on this floor as well.

She put her hand up as we reached one of the open doors. I waited while she stepped inside. I wondered if the door was open just for me. The one time I visited King Webber, back in Nebraska, he kept his door closed and locked when he was in his office and people had to knock to go in. Kings and Queens took their privacy very seriously.

“Queen Bellamy, Vaughn Casey is here to see you.” Evan said from the doorway.

“Send him in and close the door, Evie. I’ll see him out when I’m done with him.” Queen Bellamy answered.

Evan nodded and turned to me. “Please go in.”

I went through the doorway and into the room. It was tastefully decorated with light walls, no pictures or photographs, a soft looking rug on the hardwood floor that had several armchairs and a comfortable looking couch arranged around it. A coffee table sat in the center.

Queen Bellamy was seated behind a large oak desk. Behind her was a row of filing cabinets and some bookshelves with old looking books on it. I wanted to go look at them, because all writers are readers as well. It’s part of how we hone our craft. Read everything, learn from other writers. I knew she wouldn’t want to push off the meeting just so I could peruse her book collection, though.

Approaching her desk, I stood between the two chairs in front. She wasn’t really paying attention to me. Instead, she was pulling out a stack of papers from the drawer in her desk and tapping the bottom of the stack against the desktop to straighten them out.

“Have a seat, Mr. Casey.” She told me.

I did as she said. “Please, call me Vaughn, Queen Bellamy.”

“You can call me Bellamy or Amy during our private discussions. Otherwise, continue to address me as Queen Bellamy.”

“Thank you, Amy.” I replied.

Even though she’d given me a more formal option, I was pretty sure she really preferred being called Amy. It was what her cousin called her. The small smile that graced her face before she put her serious mask back on told me I was right. Good. Making her happy could only help me.

“How’s your visit going so far? I really wanted to thank you for humoring me with the auction. Much of the collective sees my orphanages as a drain on the collective’s resources. Being able to raise money instead of taking it from what we normally collect from people really helps.” Amy said.

“Those kids didn’t do anything wrong. They couldn’t help their parents dying or abandoning them. I’m more than happy to help. In fact, I’d like to give you a check matching the amount that was bid on me. If that’s okay.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m not trying to pressure you. Just express my gratitude.” She told me.

“I don’t feel pressured. I have a lot of money saved because I live fairly frugally. The collective I grew up in wouldn’t have taken on kids like you are. I want to contribute more than just what you brought in for me.” I insisted. “This is worthwhile.”  

“Thank you, Vaughn. It means a lot to me. You have no idea.” Amy said softly. “I was an orphan. My parents were killed by hunters. There was no safe place for me to go. No one to take care of me. I want to give the kids what my adoptive family gave me, what my heart family gave me. Someplace safe and a future.”

“They deserve it. Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“All done with small talk, then?” She laughed.

“You know how rogues can be. Especially when something could be important.” I replied.

“Right, well, Talia spent the last day or so talking my ear off about your books. She’s a pretty big fan. I’ve never seen her like this before.”

“I was thinking of dedicating my next book to her.” I confided.

“That’s a good idea. Very lucrative. Do you have something to write with?” Amy asked.

“I usually take notes on my phone.” I told her, pulling it from my pocket.

“When you’re ready, I’ll tell you what your dedication should say. It’ll be a great surprise for her, and will make certain no vampire mistakes who you’re talking about.” She said and waited for me to be done. I nodded when I was ready. “This book is dedicated to my new and dear friend, Talia the Traveler. I look forward to all of our future meetings. Thank you for being my fan.”

I finished typing it and handed the phone to her, so she could look it over. She nodded and smiled. When she handed it back, I saved it. This was very useful. It didn’t only reveal that Talia the Traveler was one of my fans and someone I knew, but also that we met and planned to meet in the future.

After putting my phone in my pocket, I looked back to her. It seemed contributing to her pet project put her into a good mood. I was hopeful.

“That reminds me, how was your date? You told me yesterday that it was last night. Did the woman who purchased you behave herself?” Amy asked.

“Yeah. There was a slight issue, but I’m hoping you might help to resolve it.”

“Oh? Let me get into my files.” She replied and turned to her computer, before typing something into it and scrolling.

Her mouth tightened into a firm line as she stopped. She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. It was almost as if a haze of anger and disappointment radiated from her. Goddess, let this work.

“Sunshine. Out of all the Rogue Kings, I hoped she would be the one to straighten out without a problem. What did she do?”

Sunshine. My Sunshine. I loved it. Sunshine Casey.

“I felt a connection with her and offered for her. She told me she only dates pack wolves and ex-packs because her parents told her how rough and violent rogue born men were. I don’t know how to get through to her. She hasn’t refused my offer, so I have some hope.” I told her.

“Sunshine has some problems. Her parents were pack wolves who were from a pack that was attacked by rogues and destroyed. They never liked rogue wolves, even though most of us are pretty decent people.”

“Why didn’t they just join another pack?” I asked.

“Because Sunshine was born while they were traveling to a pack where they had family. Most packs won’t accept families with rogue born children. That’s where some of our parentless first gen rogue born kids come from. Their parents abandoned them so they could join packs again. People with seriously f****d up priorities.” She snarled. “But I think the Daley family was worse. They taught their daughter to hate rogue born wolves, and made her feel like s**t about being rogue born.”

My hand went to my mouth. It wasn’t to cover my surprise. It was to contain my laughter. Sunshine Daley? I had to marry her now, if for no other reason than to relieve her of that terrible name.

“Is that why she joined that gang?”

“According to what she told me, the guy who brought her into the gang was really sweet and romantic. He convinced her that they were just trying to create something like a pack so they could protect others. They persuaded her to tag different things and buildings around town, told her it was how they were marking their territory. They treated her the same way her parents did. As if they were better than her and she was less because they were born in a pack and she wasn’t.” Amy replied with a sigh.

They basically tapped into the programming her parents had already instilled in her. She associated them with love and safety, because they treated her the way her parents had. They f****d with her head and made her a dedicated underling to whatever crimes they were committing.

“That was the ex she said burned her?” I asked.

“Yeah. Once he got her in the gang, he gave her to their leader. She refused him every time he tried to sleep with her. She may have been raised by bitter ex-packs, but she’s a rogue through and through. No one takes what we don’t want to give. He still wouldn’t let her leave the gang, no matter how much she asked. That was what made her decide to go to school. She applied for grants and loans for her graphic design course. The gang let her keep just enough of the disbursement to get her books, supplies, computer, and software, but she was required to give them the rest of her money.”

I read that Queen Bellamy killed the leader of the Rogue Kings. That was one of my enemies gone. All I had to worry about was the one who betrayed my Sunny.

“What happened to the ex?” I asked.

“I killed him and ate his heart. The leader brought all of his strongest fighters to challenge me, with a few left behind to make sure the weaker members of the gang didn’t make a run for it once the house was empty. The ex was one of the first group.” She replied coldly.

“Thank you for killing my enemies, Queen Bellamy. I’ll be in your debt for a long time for that.”

“I preferred when you called me Amy.” She smiled.

“Thank you, Amy. Can you help me with Sunny? We really did connect. Her sense of humor matches mine, she’s creative and smart. She’s caring and friendly. And she’s responsible. She warned me when we met to keep my nose clean because of how serious you are about us being law abiding citizens.” I told her.

“You’re not stalking her, are you?”

“No. I spent all night writing. I didn’t follow her home or anything creepy.” I chuckled. “I made the offer to her and told her to think about it. She hasn’t refused it yet, so I have hope.”

“She’s still on probation for seven months with a certain amount of community service required every week until she finishes out her sentence. Right now, she lives on collective property and I pay her bills while seventy-five percent of her remaining income from the work she does for me goes straight to her fines and paying back what she cost the owners of the properties to clean the damage she did. I don’t think you can expect a quick response. Like you said, she’s responsible. She wouldn’t want to pine over someone while she was working on her stuff.” Amy replied.

“How can I sway her to accept me when that time is up?”

“Accept the job I have for you with one little change.” She grinned.

“What’s the job?” I asked.

Amy handed me the stack of papers. I looked through them. They were old stories. Ones I’d heard, some I hadn’t, each story was a couple pages long, and all of them had three different versions. These weren’t histories, the ones I knew were stories my parents told us when we were kids.

I set them down on the desk. She was writing something on a sticky note. When she was done, she slapped the sticky note on the top of the pile. I turned the pile so I could look at it.

She’d written a small outline of a story about a rogue princess called Sunny and a rogue warrior called Vaughn. She wanted me to write a kids’ story about me and Sunny? I looked up at her with a wry smile.

“How will this help me?” I asked.

“I want you to write a book using these stories. They’re collected from rogue born and pack born wolves. I have six stories that I found we had in common, then two stories only rogues have and two only pack wolves have. It’s called ‘Bedtime Stories for Little Werewolves’. I’m meeting with Sunny this afternoon about doing the illustration for it. If you add a story where you’ve named the characters after the two of you, and you pour all your love into it, she’ll feel it when she reads it. Talia said you can make people feel all sorts of emotions with your words. Talk to her heart. I’ll require her to read each story before deciding what to draw on the page.” Amy answered.

That was perfect. I’d write a story for my Sunny and we’d read it to our pups every night. It was even better than the love stories from my brother and my parents. It was a love story I created. One that would help me catch my mate.

“I’ll do it. It could be a few months to put it together. My newest book is about to go off to the editor and I’ll have to make changes and do rewrites as needed. Then, I need to read each story and get a feel for all of the versions before I can combine them in the best possible way, plus I need to think about how I’m going to write Sunny’s story.” I told her. “I wish she didn’t know it was me writing it, but she knew I was coming for a meeting.”

Queen Bellamy shrugged. “I’ll tell her it was about the dedication for Talia and to arrange for you to come for a special book signing event to raise money for the art programs in the rogue schools. We’ll advertise it all over the country and sell tickets for a three-day event where people can meet you, get books signed, and have pictures with you. I’ll see who else I can pull in on this. We have some other creators in the collective. I bet we can make a lot of money.”

Walked right into that one. She probably had thought of asking about it, but this was a perfect excuse to push right into it. I had to agree, because this was p*****t for her helping me with Sunny.

“Sold. You get me the details and possible dates, I’ll get you my schedule.” I grinned.

“Perfect, Vaughn. Did you want to write me that check for the kids right now, or were you going to send one to me?” She asked with a predatory smile.

“I’ll have my accountant cut a check to you. I’m going to head home after this. I want to get started, so I need to get my other book sent off to my editor. This is probably the most exciting project of my life.”