Elegantly Rogue

C H A P T E R 7

Matthew

My eyes remained glued to her as I stood beside the hospital bed, the nurse moving about, reinserting the IV and the heart monitor. I wasn’t oblivious to the way she observed what was happening around her, the frown pulling at her forehead a clear show of her confusion. I found myself wondering how long she had been a rogue... 

The nurse turned to me with an expectant look, trying to find out if I needed anything else from her, but my nod of acknowledgement sent her out the door. My eyes remained glued to my mate, waiting for her to say something. The only problem was that she wasn’t saying anything at all. She was staring down at the needle, her eyebrows pulled into a deep frown. 

Reminded of my situation, I sent a prayer of thanks to the moon goddess for choosing to bless me with another mate. I knew that not all wolves were as lucky. 

My eyes refocused on my mate and I felt the urge to know her. I wanted to know why she always had her jaw clenched. I wanted to know what caused the scar running through her left eyebrow. I wanted to know her. 

     “So, what’s your name?” 

Startled at the sound of my own voice, my eyes widened in embarrassment as she snapped her penetrating gaze towards me. Her frown deepened as her eyes traveled down the length of my body, clearly assessing me, looking for something.

     “I’ll introduce myself first, if you’d like me to?” 

She remained quiet, staring blankly at me and I cleared my throat, my palms becoming sweatier as the moments passed. 

     “Well... My name is Matthew Norman. This is the South-Eastern Pack and I serve as their Alpha. I have two daughters—one of which you saved the night that we discovered you. I’m twenty-three. This is my seventh year as Alpha. My fathers death was the cause of my premature instatement. I’m an only child.” 

Was I saying too much? Or too little? Was I blabbering? Was she even listening? My question was answered when I found her looking at the contents of the room, her eyes refocusing every now and again. I got the distinct impression that she was looking for something that could aid an escape, or something similar. 

     “Did you hear a word I just said? Or were you deliberately ignoring me?”

Even an i***t would have picked up on my irritated tone of voice, and therefore it came as no surprise when her face turned back towards me, looking oddly amused. 

     “Believe it or not, I was listening. You said that you’re an Alpha—something that I picked up on already after noticing the way the other Alphas treat you. And let’s not forget that you made sure I knew you were an Alpha when you found me. I might not know everything about the packs but I did know enough to know that your pack was the South-Eastern one. Did you really think I was stupid or something?” 

I opened my mouth to say something, but she shook her head before turning away from me and looking at our surroundings once more and carried on speaking. 

     “If the girl I saved was one of two daughters, then that means that your Luna is bound to be somewhere around here. Excuse me if I’ve somehow shown disrespect towards her. I’m not going to bother with repeating the rest, since that should be proof enough that I was listening.”

I averted my gaze to the floor, trying my best to push down the smirk that was pulling at my lips. She reeked of confidence. It came as no surprise, since most rogues were the exact same, but something told me that she wasn’t doing it for show. And she had disrespected me without even realizing it. 

     “Good. Now that I know we’re on the same page, you can share.” 

     “Share what?”

     “Everything that I just shared with you.”

She looked at me as if I was speaking some type of foreign language, the corners of her mouth pulling down in a clear sign of distaste. But towards what? She  looked away for a moment before she looked at me again and I felt excitement build up within me as I realized she was going to talk. 

     “Why am I here? And what’s going to happen to me? There must be a reason as to why I was dragged here, isn’t there?” 

I didn’t feel even a notion of surprise at her questions. I was expecting them, but I must admit not this soon. I turned around and pulled the chair in the corner closer to her bedside. I didn’t miss the way her shoulders seemed to tense even more. Her legs were crossed over one another with her hands resting on them. She looked like she was ready to fight me off the moment it was deemed necessary. 

     “Well, I do need to consider the fact that you took it upon yourself to save my daughter when you weren’t obligated to do so and when my own pack didn’t know how to. I believe I should be offering you a position in my Pack. Which is why you’re here.” 

I didn’t miss the way she rolled her eyes before she turned to me once again. Her eyebrow looked as if it was jumping, trying to be freed from the confines of her skin. 

     “If that were the case, then I wouldn’t have been taken to your jail. So, how about telling me the truth this time?” 

Her voice was as sharp as a knife and her eyes seemed to be staring right through me. I felt myself panic slightly as I tried to come up with a reasonable answer for my actions. I needed to say something that she would consider to be the truth. 

     “Well... I mean, you’re a rogue. It was procedure for us to take you to the Cellars and question you, as we weren’t sure whether you were in cahoots with the rogues who orchestrated the kidnappings. We needed to make sure that your part in saving Ana wasn’t part of a bigger plan.” 

Her eyes seemed to lose focus and her shoulders visibly slouched in what I assumed was relief. I was feeling the exact same. 

     “My name is Blair Carmichael and I am the only child of a Beta and a Witch.”

I couldn’t contain my shocked reaction, but I forced it away once I realized that she was feeling uncomfortable beneath my disbelieving stare. I cleared my throat before sitting back in the chair and gesturing for her to continue. 

     “I was born and raised in the territory that separates the South-Eastern Pack from the Eastern Pack. My parents weren’t mates—they made sure that I understood that fact very clearly.” 

My heart was starting to hammer against the confines of my chest as I registered her slight confusion when she spoke of her parents not being mate. A weight settled within me as I started to suspect that she didn’t really know what mates were. 

     “To my knowledge they were exiled shortly before my birth. My fathers pack didn’t believe in mixed relationships unless you were indeed mates. My father trained me the exact same way that a normal pack pup would.”

I shook my head slightly as my mind flicked through memories of everything I had seen her doing. Her father had trained her like a normal pack pup, alright. If normal was five times better than what my pack did. 

     “When I was thirteen, my mother branded me.” 

I leaned forward as she shifted and moved her hair to the side, revealing an intricate branding that looked like a normal burn mark, but upon better inspection I noticed the faint outline of something that resembled a flower, causing me to frown. 

     “My mother kept it a secret. I knew of it of course, but I didn’t know what it’s purpose was. The branding was meant to suppress my wolf, but something must have gone wrong as my father believed it killed my wolf. When my sixteenth birthday came along and I didn’t shift, my father realized what had happened and killed my mother right in front of me.” 

Despite the brutality of everything she was telling me, it seemed as if she had somehow detached herself from the story that she was now telling. Even her voice had a monotone edge to it. 

     “He pushed me a lot harder after that. Training became more brutal. I always had to be faster. Stronger. Better than I was the previous day. He was a shifted wolf, for goodness sake. He was always better. I could never outrun him. Or win when we sparred.” 

She turned to me then, with fire in her eyes. Her face was pulled down into a sneer and she looked me up and down for a minute before looking me in the eye once more. I felt apprehension at the thought of what was to come next. 

     “I never inherited the witch genes which means that I’m not a hybrid. Do you know what that means, Alpha?”

My shoulders tensed at the mocking tone that she used when she addressed me. She didn’t wait for me to  answer before she spoke, an underlying growl in her voice. 

     “I’m not a hybrid. But then again I’m not really anything, am I? I’m a werewolf who can’t shift because of a brand that practically kills me whenever I try to. Is that enough information, or do you need to know more?” 

I clenched my jaw as a way of forcing down the questions that were fighting to be asked. She seemed too worked up at the moment for me to get anything else out of her. The heart monitor was beating a mile a minute and it didn’t take an i***t to know that a nurse would be coming to find me soon if I made things worse.