Rogue. Beta

2. INDIE

For the first time in my life, I was volunteering to leave my father.

“No.”

“But, Papa –“

“No, my little one,” He took a drag of his pipe and puffed smoke into the air.

“I am nineteen!” I wanted to scream in frustration. There was wolf’s bane mixed in the substance he was smoking. It made my eyes water and my chest close up.

“Exactly. Una bambina,” He purred, puffing out more smoke.

“Stop that. It hurts my wolf!”

He didn’t say anything for a while. My lungs tightened too painfully so I turned to flee. I turned to run before the drug got into my system.

“Stay.” Father’s authoritative voice halted my retreat.

The poison of the wolf’s bane spread inside my system. My hands got clammy while my vision danced in and out of focus. I gasped and ended up taking in a large amount of the poison.

With calculated steps, my father pushed open his office window. I stumbled as I made my way to the opening. If he hadn’t lent me a hand, hauling me to the window, I would have collapsed.

“You are not strong enough,” He tsked. He handed me a glass of water when I fell into his seat.

“That was an awful lesson,” I grumbled accepting the water. “It’s a simple mission. The Silver Day wolves are too self-righteous to have wolf’s bane. Remember how they were quick to close down your franchise in Canada?” I coughed – hacked, really.

“Ramirez, get a glass of milk for my princess!” Papa barked into his office phone.

“It was not a lesson about Silver Day. As my child, you have to build a resistance to such. Think of it as immunization. Little by little, you take it in and then it can’t hurt you no more.” He put out his pipe as Ramirez came in.

I scowled, hating the way his eyes roamed all over my body.

“Here you go, Principessa,” He affected. His back bent forward as his guttural voice mocked me.

I snatched the glass of milk from him, spilling a little of its content on my dad’s files. I rushed to mop up the spillage when I happened upon some interesting documents.

“Oh, sorry – Dad! There’s a plan and I’ve been left out!?” I exclaimed, reading quickly through the handwritten notes I had spilt milk on.

“Not good to leave the princess in the dark, Carlo,” Ramirez shook his head, still mocking me.

“She is just a child. We will get someone else for the project,” Papa dismissed.

“I want to help. I can help! Why do you insist on leaving me in the dark?” I snarled, getting out of his seat. I could feel my hands shake.

“Ah, the Luciano temper,” Remirez rasped, licking his lips. His dark eyes eyed me, flicking down my body. “There is room for a little girl, Carlo.”

“Yes. But not my little girl.”

“But yours is perfect.” His guttural voice breathed, eyes still wandering.

“If your eyes wander over my daughter again, I might have to take them out.” Papa materialised a knife from one of the many he always carried.

“Sorry, Sir.” His back straightened on reflex, like an alert soldier.

My father was not one for jokes. Ramirez was his right-hand man. One of the few men in our rogue population that still had some control over his bloodlust. He wasn't too far gone like the others and this was his greatest weapon. Our greatest weapon.

“We will groom Winnifred. She is pretty enough to be a distraction.”

“She is also too far gone. Yesterday, she attacked a child,” Ramirez reported.

“And this has only just gotten to my ears.” Father picked his nails with the sharp point of his knife. He leaned back into his huge rotating chair. “A child huh?” He set the knife on the large mahogany desk before him.

“Does she still live?” Papa asked, lips pressed together.

“Carlo, she is –“ Ramirez started. Papa's sharp glare shut him up.

“Send her to the new rogues. I want to hear her screams, Ramirez.” I swallowed back fear at the new energy in the air.

“Very well.”

Winnifred was the favourite w***e of the men who were still interested in s*x. The ones who did not crave blood and flesh with an overpowering need. She had pretty curly blonde hair with an ample bosom. She would be missed but children were children. Ramirez knew better than to question my father. Winnifred spent most of her nights in his chamber but orders are orders.

“We have to find someone else then. You know the women best. I can trust you to find a demure little girl. An innocent-looking one to infiltrate the Silver Day Pack.”

“But the Principessa –“

“Enough, Ramirez!” Father's exclamation made my half-empty glass of milk on his table rattle.

“You need a spy. I’m sneaky enough for that. I am going on this mission.” I rose to my full height, all five feet three inches of it. It broke Father out of his anger.

“My little kitten. Your time will come but it is not now. The Silver Day wolves are powerful. The more power a pack controls, the more dangerous they are. There is a risk of them finding you out. I will not risk it. You are my everything, Cosi. Your mother would haunt me if I put you in harm's ways without preparing you.”

Ramirez cleared his throat and we turned to him. “We have a boy on the inside.”

“Ah, you mean the half witchling? I cannot trust him to be loyal to me anymore.” Papa shook his head. “This is what I get for being kind. You give a boy home and clothes on his back for a simple mission and he falls in love. That’s it. He falls in love and that’s the end. He forgets where his loyalties lay.”

“You should have cut him out of his mother’s stomach,” I sneered.

The traitor was my boyfriend. Or ex. He hadn’t contacted me in three years.

“We can put the fear of god in him. He will protect her if his life is at stake.” Ramirez continued.

“The fear of Luciano!” I snapped before my dad could. He backtracked immediately.

“The fear of Luciano. We will put the fear of Luciano in him and he will have no choice but to protect her with his life.”

“Better. I don’t need protection. I’ve trained all my life. I am strong,” I announced but Ramirez was speaking again. His words cut over mine.

“She is perfect. Small, beautiful. The Silver Day Alpha female likes to protect the weak. It will not take Cosima much to play the part of a damsel in distress. She looks it already. With her large brown eyes that resemble a deer's. A little mud can alter her rich olive skin to look helpless. And those sweet looking curves –“

I ducked as a knife wheezed past me. It cut a single strand of my half braided hair. I watched in slow motion as my hair fluttered to the ground. A second later, everything sped up.

“What the –“ I turned, following the path of the knife with my eyes.

Ramirez's shaky hands held the blade of a knife. Blood dripped from his hand enclosed around the sharp point that was dangerously close to his left eye.

“I want my knife back.” Father ground out. A storm brewing in his violet eyes.

Ramirez pulled a cloth from his breast pocket. He wiped the knife with trembling hands. He dropped it hastily on my dad’s desk but not before another impaled his palm against the mahogany table.

“Eyes off my treasure, Ramirez.” Father's words were quiet but a growl sounded within.

The victim nodded, hissing as my Papa pulled the knife out of his hand.

“I don’t want your filthy blood on my rug. “

I never felt bad for Ramirez. He was a paedophile. The looks he gave me and had been giving me for the past five years made me hate him. But I felt sorry for him then. He stuffed his hand into his coat and then he fled my father's office.

Father got out of his seat and walked to the window. He stared out of it with restless eyes. A second later, he was cussing in a foreign language right before his fist connected with a wall.

“f**k!” He screeched, hitting the wall multiple times. I was the only one who got to see Papa lose his calm. I was the closest to him. I was also desperate to help him. Desperate to show him he didn’t need to worry so much about me. He had missed it but I had grown.

He paced around, cussed Ramirez in several languages only one of which I could decipher. When he finally went back to his seat, I settled across from him.

“You are not safe amongst my own men and you will not go away.” Dad sighed.

“I’m not a child anymore, you can’t send me away. Look around dad! We lead dangerous lives. We are Lucianos! I will go on this mission. It’s easy. Silver Day is trusting. Their kindness will be their downfall. I can help. Please, Papa. Allow me to help you.”

“You know the Silver Day wolves?”

Who didn’t know the Silver Day pack? They covered their affairs well but looking in the right place, you could peep into their secrets. They had peaked three years ago. They had two alphas as a pack so naturally, they had two betas too. One of their betas was mated to – the angel of death! Yes, the Grim Reaper! Their gamma was mated to an omega. An omega that could cause earthquakes with her hands.

They had wealth. They had a vast population. And they had power.

“I only want one person but she is as guarded as the alpha female herself. I want power and she has it. Power to control the earth. Once I have that, I will be unstoppable. There is so much power to be taken from Silver Day. I want it all.”

My father wanted everything they had.

“It shouldn’t take long. Are you certain you can do this?” Father asked.

“Yes. It’s almost too easy.”

“If your facade slips just a little, the entire mission may be ruined. I’m asking again. Can I count on you?”

“Yes!” I answered mechanically.

“I want you to bring Clara Hansen to me. First, you must learn about their grounds. Their secrets. Their weaknesses. The girl, Clara Hansen, her mate is... volatile. You must earn his trust too.”

“Okay, Papa.” I stood up to leave but his hands held mine down.

“You are my treasure. I cannot lose you. Not after all I have lost.” His violet eyes were a little less harsh.

“I’ll be fine, Papa. It’s not anything that hasn’t been done before."

“We have never dealt with a pack like this before. There are variables that are still undecided. After three years of tracking them, there are still things we don’t know. I know most of their weaknesses but I don’t know their strongest point. Cosima, they don’t know their strongest point themselves.”

“It will be to their disadvantage. They've never dealt with rogues like us."

“You are all that I have left. I see your eyes. You want to prove yourself. You have nothing to prove. You are strong. Like your mother. I cannot lose you too. Then, I would have lost everything. You’re the only thing she left me, Cosi, my treasure. Be careful with those wolves.”

His hands left mine and I swallowed down a lump.

“I will not disappoint you, Papa.”

My job was simple. Gain their trust and map their territory. Report everything I learned to my Papa. The Silver Day wolves had power. My father wanted their power. Me? I only ever wanted what my father wanted. I was his treasure and he was mine. All I had to do is earn their trust.

I am Cosima Luciano but for this mission, I was called Indigo Penn.