Rogues: Rise of The King

Two

Alexie: 

    She's never been mad at me before. Sloane is angrily eating a box of chicken nuggets. Once in a while, she'll glare at me. Ash had left as soon as we arrived. Anya had scolded us for buying fast food but she just ignored her and started eating her food. I want to talk about this. In our time at Court, all we did was study and train for this. Not once did we talk about how this is going to be shared between us or if we were really going to take part in all of this. 

    "What did you do?" Anya asked when Sloane aggressively opened up her laptop. 

    "Does she always start fights with people?" I asked. 

    "Depends on their behavior," she answered. 

    "What do you mean behavior?" 

    "Sloane is a very respectful person. She treats others as they treat her. For example, Lance never disrespected her so she showed him the same courtesy even when he was a prisoner. Even when they fought he gave her a place. They shared an instant connection. I assume you're speaking of Queen Elianne though," 

    "Yeah," I nodded. 

    "They have a deep history. When Luna Sloane died, her side of the family were very prominent members of the pack. Elianne took Sloane under her study when she showed the promise of an affinity. No one knew what it was. Slo was taken to the priestesses. The strength of her affinity was too strong for them to decipher. No one knew what it was or how to help her control it. Since it appeared it just grew stronger and stronger. 

    "Elianne abandoned her when Sloane needed her the most. She told Lovie she'd wouldn't survive if what was inside of her continued to grow stronger and that she was wasting her time trying to teach a lost cost. When the truth about Sloane being an alpha female got out, Elianne was the first to show up. She treated Lovie like a princess to use the power to amplify her own. Elianne took the throne without a mate and united the packs with Sloane's help," 

    "So, Sloane hates her?" 

    "No, Lovie knew what Elianne was up to from the start. While Carter was sinking his claws into her, Elianne was using Sloane to take the kingdom she has now. Carter amplified all of her not just the wolf and her small school girl crush on him," I sighed. 

    "She never had a chance," I sighed, shaking my head. "If it wasn't one thing it was another," 

    "If she's being difficult with Elianne don't question her motive. Question Elianne. What does she want now? That woman is a snake. One of the darkest beasts the Priestesses have spit out," 

    "What can you tell me about the Alpha King?" 

    "We're lucky that man showed up when he did. He has stopped Elianne from doing some pretty f****d up s**t not only to Rogues but to the packs. I don't know what they want with choosing you two. They have to know that she's too strong for them to control," 

    "Sloane said my dad was paid to kill the last Rogue King. My dad's never said anything about that," 

    "Well, maybe now you have an excuse to go and see him. He seems distant," she gave me that mom look she gives Sloane before she looked down at the mug she's holding with coffee in it. 

    "Thanks for looking after him," 

    "Don't thank me. I would have killed him the moment your mother died to show him mercy. Sloane has a soft spot for your dad. Maybe that's not right, perhaps it's how she shows her hate. Letting him live long enough for him to suffer what her own father did," I glanced over at Sloane, her hands are moving over the keyboard expertly. Anya went about her day minding her own business after that. 

    "What do you think about relocating here in Shore?" Sloane asked after a while. 

    "Relocating?" 

    "I don't see a way to get out of this without making it worse. Your dad assured me that your uncle would take good care of Daniel but I rather have him here with us," 

    "Before you start, I just want to talk about all of this. We haven't been able to since it happened," she sighed shutting the laptop. She turned to give me her full attention. 

    "Did you change your mind?" she asked. "Do you want this now?"  

    "Would you be upset if I did?" 

She shook her head. "Of course not. Your mindset is... you never cease to amaze me. Why wouldn't you want to be king? It would be stupid not to seize the opportunity that is in front of you," 

    "So why don't you want it?" I mused. 

    She's looking at me in a way she never has before. It isn't guilt. It's a mixture of anger and shame. I heard the front door close and suddenly we were left alone. She stood up going to the back balcony. She does that a lot as of late. Like she was waiting for someone to show up. I followed her feeling the cold breeze. The tides are higher than usual. The water covers the rocks she had stood on when meeting with him.

    "I never questioned the terms of our mating. When I came here and found you, I have to admit that it wasn't by coincidence. I didn't leave the pack simply because my dad no longer had use for me. I wanted a place by his side as more than his daughter. I wanted what he and Bren had or at least something close to it. It was why I fought. 

    "I did what I did for my dad and my dad did it for the king. I took direct orders and executed them flawlessly. At the time, I thought I was doing it because I wanted everyone to see me as an equal to Brenden but I was never really equal to him. Or rather he was never equal to me. We both knew that. He knew if it came to it I'd kill him. 

    "I didn't want to kill my brother he was the only one that kept me sane before Carter. When I lost Carter, I kept fighting but I had lost a reason too. I just like it. I love to go out there and fight. It's engraved into my bones. Etched into my soul. When the pack settled I couldn't. I hated the quiet nights, the happy f*****g days. I hated it as much as I hated it when I felt their pain. I longed for the feeling of fear again. Not my own but from them. 

    "I made a list," she turned back and walked over to a bookshelf and pulled out a small pink leather journal and handed it to me. "The first page holds all of their names. Each bookmark is the information I gathered on each name. Each divider has a purpose. Red means strengths. Green means weaknesses. Purple means associates. Blue is the order of their businesses. Orange is the expansion of their territory," 

    "My name is the second one on here," I said looking over the list. "Some of the names are crossed out," 

    "That is a hit list of Rogues I targetted," she admitted. My heart skipped. For a second, I looked up at her and saw what everyone else sees. The soldier.

    "You came here to kill me and my family?" I asked shaking my head. 

    "I was using Archer to get to Raziel. I worked the missing children's cases to locate Ash. I knew killing one of them would bring you and your dad out. The moment I followed Archer into the Tavern I knew there was no way in hell I was going to be able to kill either of you,"

    "You knew Lance was my brother," I stated closing the book and setting on the table. 

    "Lance chose to be with Sophie. If he hadn't I would have killed him a long time ago. He would have never made it out of the pack cellars. After Johnathan McCain established a system for the rogues, a sort of balance was created. The Dons forgot why they were placed where they were and began to expand their businesses into the pack lands. Your dad became greedy and took more than he was supposed to. He pushed the Lagoon pack away from Shore. Alpha Michael Serine was forced to take Siren Peak from Alpha Joshua Stephens. A lot of people died because your dad took something that he shouldn't have. He broke the laws that bring peace between Rogues and the U.A.N," 

    "So you were just going to do what? Kill every Rogue Don to show us pack wolves are off-limits? Since you've become a rogue, have you seen the way these pack dogs treat the rest of us? They come out of there little pack lands and take whatever the f**k they want and we're not allowed to do that?" 

    "What purpose would you have in breaking into a pack when you have everything you need out here? They don't push people out of their homes the way all of the Dons on this list have," 

    "I'm on this list. I'm in the top five," I growled. 

    "Because you are the Victor successor. I'm not going to sit here and lie about my reasons. I'm not going to tell you that I was going to spare you and just go after your dad. This is what I was doing when I found you. I told you leaving my pack to find my place was one of the reasons why I left. Killing Carter was another. This was the number one reason," 

    "Do you hear yourself?" I asked calmly. I knew if I lost it and started shouting she'd take off a few hours and I didn't want that. "You're already doing the job you're fighting against," 

    "What?" she asked standing up. "No. I wanted to clean all of this s**t up. I wanted to scare the other Dons back into the packs. I wanted to end Rogues entirely. Not become their leader or queen. If you hadn't been my mate I would have been able to do it," 

    "Why the f**k would you want that? You became a rogue to end the rogue way. You're as much a rogue as I am," she looked away and it clicked in my head. I stood up looking at her in disbelief. "You weren't planning on surviving. You knew someone would have gotten the better of you. Your brother would have retaliated and those Rogues who were left would have been killed. What the f**k is wrong with you?" 

    "You don't understand," she whispered taking the journal. "Have you ever wanted something so bad that it becomes the center of your very existence? You want this one thing so bad because you know that no matter how hard you try, you know that your one wish will never come true. There is no purpose in going after something that you can never have. So there is no purpose to want to stay. It doesn't matter if you have people that love you when you're like me because no one ever loves you more than they fear you. 

    "I didn't know what else to do. I wanted to mean something. I want to leave something amazing behind because I thought that was all I would ever be able to do. It wasn't until I met you that I started to mean anything to anyone. My dad hated me. My brother pitied me. I had some ass hole obsessed with me because of the very thing I detest the most. All I had was anger. That's not a life worth living," 

    "Please tell me that's not how you feel now," I pleaded, trying to swallow the knot in my throat. 

    "No. It's not even close. Right now, in this moment, all I can think about is that I miss my kid. Every time I look up at you and see you glance over to his room it breaks my heart. I can feel what you're feeling," I reached for her pulling her into me. 

    "Were you ever going to tell me?" 

    "Yeah, eventually. I mean you're the Rogue King now. When you went out to meet your subordinates and found that the most promising ones are all dead you were bound to question it. I would have just said- Surprise Motherfucker," she laughed. 

    "I'm not going to laugh at that," I sighed, shaking my head. Her fit of giggles made her face redden. I pressed my lips together trying to fight the urge to laugh with her. 

    "It would have been the ultimate Suprise Motherfucker experience of a lifetime," she mused wiping the tears slipping from her eyes. "You get me all worked up and then it ends like this. How do you do that every time?" 

    "I ask all the wrong questions," I admitted. "About the relocation,"

    "I found a place where we can establish a solid headquarters," 

    "A solid headquarters?" I scoffed. "I thought you didn't want this," 

    "I don't but you do and I'm not just going to sit around waiting for you to come home," she pushed me back so I could take a seat then she climbed on my lap with her laptop. I couldn't help the smile. My girl ready to take on a world just because it's standing in the way of something I want. 

    "That's a big ass house," I said looking at the picture she brought up. 

    "It's a beachside villa. Thirteen rooms. Sixteen bathrooms and it has a two-floor basement," 

    "What the f**k would we need sixteen bathrooms for?" I asked. 

    "Once word gets out you're going to need security. Not the kind of security fit for a Don. You're going to need real muscle. Not just for yourself. Daniel is going to start school soon. I like to go to places that are open. The paperwork Elianne gave us needs to be available to us electronically so we're going to need people for that. You just inherited the world and you need to keep tabs on all of it. 

    "We need to figure out just how much money we're working with. How many are going to be willing to answer to us? The need to learn the base of every operation and make sure they suit our purpose. We're going to need the anger and power a rogue has in order to make sure we keep these dogs in line," I took the laptop from her and lifted her turning her body so she could straddle my hips. 

"Who the f**k are you?" I asked. She laughed putting her forehead on mine. 

"You take the world, Alexian Victor and I'll make sure it doesn't fall apart when you look away for an instant,"