Elegantly Rogue

C H A P T E R 1

Blair

I resisted the urge to look down at my body in disgust. There was dirt in places that it wasn't meant to be and once again I scolded myself for choosing to participate in my little late night outing. If my father was alive, he would have skinned me alive. Reckless behavior like that would never have been tolerated. 

Ignoring the cold temperature of the water, I submerged myself in the water before coming up for air. My eyes caught a strange blur of grey and I hurriedly reached up and wiped the water from my eyes. 

Deciding that it must have been a droplet of water blurring my vision, I started cleaning my body. I was still baffled by the fact that the pack wolves hadn't tried following me yesterday. It was almost as if they didn't want to find me. But I wasn't going to question their actions. It was none of my business. 

Once I was satisfied with the amount of dirt and grime that had been removed from my body, I walked out of the river and got dressed despite the wet state of my body. Even though I had grown up doing this exact thing, I had never quite enjoyed the idea of being naked for all to see. 

There was a nasty looking bruise on my chest that ached whenever I moved in a certain way. I had no idea why a simple drop to the ground would have caused such a thing, but there are many unexplained things that happen. I reached down and picked up the clothes that I had worn yesterday. 

They smelt foul and sweaty and in desperate need of a wash. But that would have to wait since I still needed to go hunting for the day. It was times like these when I despised being a rogue. Things were just so much harder. 

When you were hungry, you needed to go out and find your own food. Sometimes there were days on end where you don't eat because there are simply no animals around. Most days were spent wandering aimlessly through the woods looking for supplies. 

My ears registered a faint snap. A twig. But I knew that it couldn't have been me because I was still standing on the river bank. I had no doubt in my mind that if there was someone or something watching me, they would have noticed the tense set to my shoulders. 

     "Well, well, well... If it isn't the rogue, who killed her own." 

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself down but the stench in the air only served to get my heart racing. Pack wolves. I had been stupid to think that they would let me get away. I turned around slowly and allowed my eyes to scan across the expanse of the forest. 

At first my eyes only focused on the man who stood directly before me in a manner that suggested he saw himself as superior towards me. Forcing myself not to get distracted, I took in my surroundings. At first glance it seemed as if we were alone, but upon closer inspection I realized that we were not. There was a paw sticking out here, a tail wagging there. I had no doubt that they had me surrounded. 

I returned my attention to the man who had addressed me. He had obviously been chosen as communicator, or else he would have been shifted too. Something seemed to echo through my mind, but all I heard was a vague echo of m's. 

I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, knowing that I needed to be focused if I planned to escape from them. I allowed my eyes to wander across the expanse of the forest once more, looking for an escape route that I couldn't find. 

     "Look at me when I talk to you!"

I jumped slightly at the harsh voice and my eyes snapped back to the male. I could feel myself start to frown, his anger being unjustified and unexplained. But then I started connecting the dots. The way his shoulders were squared, the way he seemed to be looking down at me despite his distance, the harsh set to his jaw. And then there was his attitude. 

He was an Alpha. 

     "Why did you save the girl when you could have killed her? Why kill the rogue? Your own kind?"

He took a step towards me and I clenched my jaw as I pushed down the urge to step back. I didn't want him any closer to me than he already was, but I'd be damned before I give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear. 

     "The rogue was trying to kidnap her, was he not?"

For the first time since last night, I doubted my actions. What if the rogue was the child's father? My eyes widened in disbelief as I recounted the events of last night and I felt my shoulders slouch as I remembered the child calling for her father.

     "You shall address me as Alpha!"

I clenched my jaw as his voice echoed through the forest once more. He had no idea what he was doing. Any animal with a small sense of logic would have ran. Meaning that the likelihood of me finding something to hunt was as good as gone. 

     "I am a Rogue. I have no pack. I have no Alpha. And therefore, I shall address no one as such." 

I forced my voice to remain monotone, knowing that I was already overstepping the line with what I was saying. As much as I wanted to put this egotistical Alpha, I wanted to see the light of tomorrow more. 

     "For a rogue, you really have some nerve. First, you trespass—"

     "Not so fast."

I cut him off as I made a big show of taking a large breath of air into my lungs. I took a step towards him, hearing growls reverberate through the air. My legs felt as if they would give way beneath me any moment now, but I pushed that thought from my mind, knowing that it wouldn't help. 

     "Do you smell that?"

My voice was cool. Controlled. Confident. Something that I would be eternally grateful for. I had no doubt in my mind that they were all taking subtle sniffs at the air, trying to find something that was out of place. 

     "That's clean, unmarked air. Which means that this is unmarked territory. So, how can I be trespassing when this isn't even your territory?" 

I heard a shuffle and my head snapped to the side. I let out an involuntary gasp as I came face to face with a wolf and seconds later it collided with my body. I let out a grunt of pain as I felt something tear into the flesh on my arm. 

The wolf jumped off of me as fast as it had jumped on me and I laid on the ground for a few seconds, controlling my breathing as best I could. I pushed myself off of the ground, the muddy ground sticking to my skin. It took a second for me to realize that the wolves were now coming out of their hiding places. 

     "As you can see, they don't appreciate your disrespect. And neither do I." 

My eyes were drawn down the wound on my arm and I clenched my jaw at the sight of the blood pouring from it. It was starting to throb painfully, the lack of blood to the rest of my arm taking its toll. 

I looked up again, frantically searching for an escape route once again. If they had been willing to attack me because of a simple show of disrespect, then who knew what would happen if they actually managed to capture me. 

I got the distinct impression that they were closing in on me, the space between them and me becoming smaller as the seconds ticked by. My eyes focused on the only gap that I could find and my heart started to hammer against the confines of my chest. 

They seemed to be keeping their distance from the Alpha. There was no way to know whether it was out of fear or respect. But other than that, there were no spaces big enough for me to fit through and get away. 

Well then...

I guess here goes nothing...