Chapter 5- Zeke
1913 Words
Zeke POV
Standing on the border of the Nightshade pack made me feel wheezy. A familiar scent of the former Alpha lingered yet now something stronger threatened to consume it. Invading the past and making a stamp on the present.
I stood for a moment and went through my usual ritual. Clenching and unclenching my fists, I breathed in and out slowly. Closing my eyes I counted to ten. Even though I knew that prick, Alpha Cameron, was no longer there ready to inflict whatever he wanted, my whole body clenched in anticipation. They had killed him in battle. He deserved it, every ounce of pain.
You deserve the pain too. A voice mocked me in my own mind.
Sweat beaded on my forehead and dripped down my back. A tremor trickled down my spine.
Michael had declared that I were banished from the Red Moon pack but he hadn't severed the pack ties. Being banished from your pack would be the ultimate punishment. Being thrown out of your pack is like having all your family tore from you. Michael believed that I had done something horrific, so I was surprised that he hadn't completed the break. This is not the first time I had been without a pack. Those scars still burned from my childhood.
I'm such a failure.
I feel like a Rogue.
I am a Rogue.
A Rogue that had been turned away from a Rogue pack.
Rejected by my Rogue Mate.
The air shifter around me.
Opening my eyes, two figures stood before me. Fear coursed through my veins and I couldn't help the little flinch in shock. The two faces staring back angry and rightly so, they looked fierce stripped of their shirts. Their black jeans having a hint of dirt and their feet bare. Both would be identical if it weren't for Nates grizzly scar on his chin that shone, almost angry as it twitched making me drag my eyes away. The twins were sculpted by devil to be dangerous beauties, even down to their one red eye and one brown. Yet they didn't compare to my mate.
My ex- mate? His bright smile flooded my memories, the one he wore the first time he found me in that room at Rogue X. He had been so excited to find a fated mate. I had but then reality hit and fear set in. He would be another tool to use against me.
He had to reject me but I didn't accept it, I knew it was selfish but I had to show him I was worthy of the bond. I had to prove myself.
Maybe I'm not worthy. The voice of doubt mocked me.
My chest burned at the thought and for a split second I dived back into the agonising pain of rejection. I tried to push it down but only a strong voice plucked me out.
"How peculiar, Nate, a traitor lingers at the border." Nico taunted as ge stepped to the left, away from his brother.
Out for the twins and from my limited experience, Nico was the less intense but also the more reckless of the twins. He acted first and asked questions later. Nate being the most calculating of the two. Cunning and observed his surroundings.
"Not that peculiar, brother. He has no place to call home." Nate sneered as he stepped to the right, widening the distance from his brother.
A tactic to intimate and surround prey. One I had learnt from Michael's pack when approaching rogues at the border.
"Oh. So true. Guess that's what happens to traitors." Nico scratched his chin and shrugged his shoulders. The looked so similar to their father, Alpha Justin.
I hadn't been told that they had taken Alpha Camerons lands. It made sense. They were Alphas in their own rights. I just didn't realise I would have to face them now. Then again, why would I be in the loop of pack business. No one trusted me now.
Pain tightened around my heart as Scottys laugh echoed in my mind. I should have told someone that Cameron started blackmailing me. This mess is all mine but I had a mission. I had a purpose. Something else to lose.
Fuck, I hope I'm not too late.
"Call me what you want, once I have what I came for, you can do as you please with me. But. Only after...." I remained strong but Nico laughed wickedly.
"It has demands." Nico mocked.
Nate had stopped walking toward the border line, his eyes focused on my face. Observing me intently. Penetrating my skin and taking a good look into my soul.
"Please. I know you have every reason to hate me but I have to know have you searched the levels beneath the main house." I begged for an answer unable to maintain composure.
"So what if we have. What lies beneath the main house that you could possibly want? Don't tell me you betrayed Michael for what, gold? Frankincense? Mirrh?" Nico's eyebrow arched.
Nate, silently observing.
"Please did you find..." I started but again Nico cut me off.
"Treasure? Ha! Yes. Lots of strange and weird nik nak things your Alpha boyfriend was into. Bits and bobs. Some things that should be buried and stay buried." Nico went out without a care. "He was a sicko."
The fact that he so willingly told me what be had found made my stomach knot in fear. It meant they could tell me, not because they trust me but that I wouldn't live long enough to tell another.
"No... not Treasure. People." I whispered the last word.
"People?" Nate asked not giving away his emotions but I could sense his curiosity. Gus frightening eyes narrowed.
It being rare for wolves to have different coloured eyes. Even scarier when the twins had one red, the same shade as blood and one a dark brown. The brown so close to black.
"Yes. Wolves. There had been around seven down there in the cells." I stepped forward eager to know the answers.
I looked for any inclin that the twins had found what I had been seeking but nothing. Anticipation making my skin crawl. My body starting to shut down from the rejection. A wave of shivers passed over me.
"What do you mean wolves?" Nate asked cautiously.
I tried to speak but my mouth felt dry and the words refused to form.
"What's wrong with him?" Nico asked I assumed his brother.
"Wolves...." I spat out as the pain intensified causing my knees to buckle.
I landed heavily on my knees.
"Zeke? What's wrong with you?" Nate called out getting closer but I held out my hand to stop him.
"He had cells under the main house. Special cells." I stared at the twins and Nicos brows pinched together.
"There were no wolves down there. They were hardly cells down there, Zeke." Nate stated.
"At the back... hidden by the book cases. That's where he said he had them...." My throat burned as tears cascaded down my cheeks.
Nate and Nico stared at one another confusion on their faces.
"Alpha Cameron? Had wolves bound there?" Nate asked his voice steady. "in those strange rooms."
They were strange rooms, that's exactly how he would have described them if he hadn't known what went on there. What Alpha Cameron done in those rooms. He had witnessed it for himself. Heat flared all over his body. The shame. The guilt. It made whatever he had left in his stomach rise to his throat.
"That's why I had to give him what he wanted." I couldn't hold back the pain anymore.
Nico shock his head and what looked like disbelief etched in his face. Nate reminded unemotional in the whole ordeal.
It struck me instantly.
No no no.
All this had been for nothing.
The betrayal.
The rejection.
He killed them.
"You're telling me that that d**k head was blackmailing you, using wolves against you." Nico asked, almost scoffing.
Did they not believe me. The again why would they?
"Yes. YES." I tried to plead.
"A twisted tale you have there Zeke." Nate stated. "We have checked the cells, there is no one there as you so adamantly state."
No. No. There has to be. I looked down at my hands, searching my own mind.
"Zeke. These wolves uou calm to be in the hidden rooms. Who is are they to you?" Nate asked as he talked forward.
Pain choked me as the air refused to enter my lungs.
"They not rooms, they are cells. Please you have to find them." I choked out the words.
"Is he having a heart attack?" I heard Nicos voice.
"No. A panic attack." Nates voice sounded closer.
A tender hand landed on my back as though trying to reassure me but my lungs refused to work.
Black spots blurred my vision, my mouth dry and I felt my body go limp. I had nothing to grasp onto and if the twins were right, I had no hope left. Could I die of a broken heart? Of lost hope? It felt as though I were being dragged into he deep sea, swallowed by the blackness in the crushing ocean.
The thought invaded my thoughts, maybe it's a good thing. I should just let go. Scotty would be better off without me anyway.
I could just let go, no one would miss me now. The thought not even frightening me one bit. I had tried to be good but the fates seemed to work against me in such a cruel way.
"Hey." Nate's voice filtered through my darkness. "Hey. Zeke? Can you hear me? his eyes have glazed over."
A hand lightly slapping my face, the light sting giving something else to concentrate on that my internal pain.
"Come on, Zeke. You don't get out of this that easily. Grab his other arm. We'll take him back to the pack house. See if we can get some sense out of him." Nate commanded.
My head lolled as they heaved me off the ground, one arms thrown over Nates neck and the other Nicos.
"Do you think this is a good idea, brother. He is a traitor in all meaning of the word. He betrayed his own mate." Nico spat bearly even a whispered as my eyes remained close.
"We have to hear him out." Nate stated the lack of emotion sent a shiver down my spine.
What if they didn't believe me? What would they do to me? They were Alphas now. This is their territory and I'm a traitor.
A Rogue traitor.
"Do we? We could make an example out of him, Nate. Show this pack what we do to traitors." I sensed Nico wanted my blood.
"I like the way you think, brother."
My mind wandered to Scotty, his smile and that colourful tattor of a gecko. The striking wolf on his arm. I wanted to know about them, were there stories? Knowing Scotty there were funny stories surrounding each tattoo. He had tried to tell me once but I was consumed with everything that I kept him at arms length. I wish I had done it different. Guilt washed over me once more. Maybe killing me would be for the best. At least he would be free from me.
My head slumped forward again and my feet stumbled as I drifted off, out of this cruel world.
- Writer
