The Wizard's Rogue Mate

Chapter 2: Ice Tea

I sniff the air again, trying to suss him out. He’s beautiful on the outside, but it’s whether he’s as pretty on the inside that matters to me. He doesn’t smell like a pack wolf, but there’s something faint there. He doesn’t even smell like a werewolf at all. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It’s nearly impossible to mate a human with a wolf, that’s like breeding a horse with a giraffe. In the rare case that a human is mated with a wolf, there is often something very special about that human. Same with other supernatural breeds, so he must be at least part wolf to be mated with me. My question: what is he?

“What are you?” I voice my question boldly; never show fear, that’s what dad used to say. Never show weakness. He smirks.

“I could’ve sworn that we’d already established that I’m your mate.” He replies cockily, a finger on his jaw. I roll my eyes at him, not admitting to myself that I love the way he calls me his ‘mate’ way too much.

“You know what I mean. You’re not a full werewolf… you’re something else?” I say, rolling my eyes. He averts his eyes to the floor, shaking his head and chuckling to himself as if it’s some kind of inside joke of his. It’s then that I notice the slight purple tendrils wrapping themselves around his arms like snakes, so faint that they’re almost not there. They mesmerise me, but disappear when he raises his head again.

“Does it scare you? That I’m not pure blood?” Answering a question with a question. This guy has tactics.

“Should I be scared?” I counter, mimicking his interrogating tone. He laughs to himself.

“You know, I was trying to freak you out, but you’re just too darn cute.” Where the flipping hell is my back up?

“Okay, there’s something you should know about me,” I start, pulling my hair out of its ponytail and moving the untamed locks around my face. “Nobody calls me cute. Nobody.” I try to make it as threatening as my leader voice, but his eyes have my body doing weird things, and I can’t control the tone of my voice anymore.

“You’re mine, remember? I can call you whatever I want.” My mate argues. Goodness, I still don’t know his name. That first part of the sentence has my wolf humming happily in my head, pushing me to go forward and embrace him. My logical side, however, doesn’t like the idea of being controlled. I’m as free as water, and I don’t want to let him take that away from me.

“I’m not an object. I’m a rogue and the leader of this group, and as soon as you take a step over this territory, I can kill you for trespassing.” He just snickers at my words, taking a teasing step towards the invisible border. At that moment, warriors start pouring out of the tree line, forming a semi-circle around me, some in wolf form and some in human form. If anything, his laughter gets louder as he eyes each one of the rogues.

“I’m stronger than twenty rogues put together, sweetheart. The offer stands for you to come willingly to my home, otherwise it will get ugly.” He takes the final step into the grounds and I take my opportunity to lunge at him, fully ready to take a blade to his arrogant little soul. Suddenly, I stop. Forces surround me and I can’t move. At all. My brain tells my legs to work, but nothing happens. “Wrong answer.” The guy taunts, smirking at me. Suddenly, everyone around me is screaming in pain, clutching their heads and falling to the ground.

I instantly regret calling them.

“What…” I question aloud, angry and confused. “Are you doing this?” I yell at him, trying to fight to move again but with no avail. The guy has the nerve to nod, and somehow the screaming around me becomes louder and more prominent.

“I told you, I’m stronger than you. So, I will ask you this once, and once only, and if you don’t answer, then little Tyler over there is toast.” He points to my brother who’s standing a few metres behind me. I try to snarl at him for coming along, but I’m too anxious to see what my mate does. My duty from my parents was to protect him, and if I can’t do that, then I’m useless. As if on cue, Ty falls to the ground, clutching his throat and struggling to breathe.

“What is your name, darling?”

Without much thought, I answer, wanting nothing more than Tyler to be alright. It hurts me to see him in pain; it hurts more than the realisation that this deformation of nature is stronger than us. At first, I thought him being a hybrid wouldn’t affect anything, he still has a wolf. He has a mate now. I have a mate now. But I didn’t see this side of him earlier. The hidden streak of evil hiding in the shadows of the trees. Well, he’s out of the darkness now.

“Athena. Athena Valens.” I state quickly, breathing out a sigh of relief when I hear Ty’s gasps for oxygen as the man releases him.

“Ah, pretty. Like the daughter of the Goddess of wisdom. If you’re smart, then you’ll come with me now.” He takes a step forward, so close that I can feel his breath fanning on my face.

“I have a job to do. You’d be a fool to think I would abandon that responsibility.” I reply through gritted teeth, trying to prevent inhaling the scent that had my knees feeling weak in the first place. He, however, is sniffing my neck like it's cocaine. I try to ignore the pleasure that gives me, and put it down as assault in my brain.

“I can see you have a lot left to learn.” he whispers, placing a kiss on my check that makes me want to both kill him, and grab his face and kiss him back. “You can’t fight the mate bond, honey. If you want to kiss me all over, then I won’t stop you.”

It’s almost as if he read my mind. I gasp, finally feeling the release of the invisible restraints, and the sound of silence as the rogues stop screaming, but he’s already off the territory, so I can’t kill him with justice. His icy silver eyes meet my bland green ones and he smiles, bowing down whilst also keeping eye contact.

“I’m known as Grey, by the way.” He says loudly, so everyone can hear. Nobody makes a sound, fearing the power radiating off him in waves. Then he turns away so his back is facing us. A few of my head warriors make a move to catch him off guard and kill him, but I swiftly shake my head, stopping their movements. “Have an amazing night.” He adds lowly, so hushed that I can barely hear it. But I do, and that voice gives me chills.

He doesn’t even have to flick his wrist before he’s gone.

As soon as he’s no longer visible, the group starts talking, arguing and shouting. Asking questions and reminiscing on the event that only happened seconds ago. I stare at the place where Grey was standing, lost in my own thoughts.

That was my mate.

“Theena, who the hell was that?” Savannah’s voice sounds from behind me. I can hear her getting closer and closer to me, but I don’t turn around.

“I don’t know, Van.” I say finally, realising that my job as the leader of this community needs to be fulfilled now. Nobody has to know he was my mate; I don’t know what they would do if they knew that the man I’m meant to lead this group with is capable of whatever that was. Eventually, I find it in me to turn around and look at my friend, swallowing to hide the growing lump in my throat. “Everybody, please, calm down and listen.” I call out across the group of wolves ahead of me. Everyone is here now; from children to elders. Well, Liam still isn’t, I still haven’t accomplished finding him. “We need to take down this scum before he takes us down first.” There are multiple hollers of agreement and I smile to calm down the less enthusiastic ones, a tactic I learnt off my mother before she passed. “I need each and every one of you safe, so I want double security on the borders, everyone at home by nine pm with curtains drawn and windows and doors locked. No one is to leave their house before a full perimeter check is done in the morning. Do I make myself clear?” Some grumble, but most understand it’s for their safety, and nod. “Okay, now please return to your houses. Savannah, please stay with me.”

The crowd disperses, with a few people coming up to me with queries, or to thank me for being in control of the situation. I only nod and answer their questions before sending them away so I can start with the plan.

Savannah stands next to me with a hand resting reassuringly on my shoulder. When the last few stragglers have gone, I try to keep a straight face and not break down. My first priority right now is finding Liam. With a monster like my mate loose in the woods, I don’t want him out of my land alone.

“We need to find Liam.” I say, turning to look at her. She only nods, pulling her phone out of her jacket pocket.

“I’ve called him at least twenty seven times, but he’s not picking up.” I take the phone from her and call his number. It doesn’t go straight to voicemail, but it does ring a lot. “Wait,” Savannah walks straight out of the territory, me walking behind her with the phone still to my ear, trying not to think about anything other than finding Liam. The dialling tone stops and it goes to voicemail. “Ring it again.” I do so, with confusion all over my face.

I understand her logic a few seconds later, when Ed Sheeran’s voice rings out between the trees.

I’m in love with the shape of you

Push and pull like a magnet do…

“That’s Liam’s ringtone.” I state, but Savannah is already moving leaves and retrieving the device from the ground.

“The screen is smashed. It wasn’t like that before, was it?” Her voice is cautious, worried, a replica of my face. I only shake my head. Liam always has the latest gadgets and phones. If his phone was broken, he would just replace it in a heartbeat.

“Liam?” I shout, cupping my hands around my mouth in an attempt to make my voice louder. There’s a groan from behind a tree that shocks me. Someone’s in the forest with us. I want to turn and make a run for it, but my subconscious is telling me that maybe it’s Liam, and I need to look. Savannah looks at me, then flicks her gaze to the biggest oak in the area.

I nod at her, and we both creep silently over, standing on either side of the trunk. There’s another groan. I poise my dagger out in front of me, ready to attack if needed, then mouth numbers at my best friend.

1

2

3

We both round the tree and gasp at the same time. There are empty beer bottles everywhere, littering the leafy ground, and a figure leaning against the tree with another one in his hand, head slouched to the side. A dying cigarette lies on the floor, about to set fire to a dry pine branch next to it. I stump it out with my combat boot.

“Liam, what the f**k?” Savannah starts, sticking a hand on her hip sassily. He mumbles something in reply that neither one of us managed to catch. “Huh?” Lifting his head drunkenly, he raises the alcohol to his lips with a humourless chuckle.

“She rejected meeee.” He sings with a laugh, raising his free hand in the air and downing the rest of the bottle. “I never thought,” he lobs the glass at me with a burp and it lands a few feet away from him, hand-eye coordination lost at this point. “That I would actually be… what was I talking about again?”

“God, how much did he drink?” Savannah queries. I can’t stop staring at my mess of a friend, lying there, completely out of it. I’ve never seen him like this before. Liam laughs loudly and leans forward while I crouch down in front of him.

“Your hair looks like a squirrel!” He yells. “Squirrels are sooo much better than she-wolves.” He wags a finger at me with each word, smiling widely. “If I was mated to a squirrel,” he slurs, “then life would be so easy! I mean, you were always right about pack wolves… judgemental b***h!”

And then he falls forward and face plants the ground.

“Athena, do you think he really was rejected by his mate?” Savannah mutters, pulling the duvet over Liam’s sleeping form. We managed to finally get him back to his house after about an hour of lugging him through the woods and up the stairs. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I don’t want to believe it. Liam’s so innocent and caring; I hate even the thought that he could be broken by just a few words. Then again, fate is cruel.

“People say stupid things when they’re intoxicated.” I reply swiftly. Savannah nods and we’re quiet for a minute, leaving the room and closing the door behind us.

“But would he make something like that up? It’s not unheard of for a pack wolf to reject a rogue, or vice versa.” It’s happened a few times in the past few years. Several of our head trainers and warriors were rejected by their mates – they pour everything they have; the anger, anguish and sadness, into doing their jobs. However, mates are usually celebrated. Many of our rogues find mates in other rogues, or on a few occasions, the pack wolf is accepted into the rogue community once deemed worthy. Obviously, it’s hard to do that, but I wouldn’t separate mates.

“Well, we’ll just have to see when he wakes up.” I walk down the stairs and pull my shoes back on, ready to walk home. The night is closing in, it’s about eight thirty now, and everyone is starting to go to their houses due to the curfew I set because of Grey. 

I pull the door open and start down the path, but when I don’t hear Savannah’s steps behind me, I stop in my tracks. Our houses are next to each other, so I normally walk home with her.

“I think I might stay here for the night, just to make sure he’s okay.” She says, glancing back into the house. “If what he said was true, then he shouldn’t be alone.” I nod and give her a soft smile.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll come over in the morning, call me if anything happens.” I reply, taking a few more steps down the path before stopping again. “Oh, and Vannah?” she nods, holding the door with her hand, ready to close it. “Make sure all the windows and doors are locked, yeah? And the curtains closed. I don’t want anything happening after what occurred earlier.” Savannah smiles slightly at me.

“Of course.” Then she waves at me and closes the door. Before long, I hear the key in the lock, reassuring me that no one can get into Liam’s home. My encounter with my mate earlier has me antsy, and I can’t help but worry for everyone’s safety.  

The sky is navy as I make my way home, with thousands of stars appearing by the second. I love the stars. I wanted to study astronomy before my parents died, but I dropped out of school to train instead.

It only takes five minutes to get back to my home. I live with Tyler, who is staying with my Grandparents for the weekend. It happens like that every week; I have him for five days and my Grandparents have him on the weekend.

It makes it easier on both of us because I have so much work concerning the group to do and they want to spend time with their grandson. I don’t see them as much as I would like to, but it can’t be helped.

Our cottage is a four bed, but only two of the bedrooms are ever occupied. It’s a family home, the one I’ve always lived in with my family. It never felt so big before they died. Now, it’s huge.

The white painted brick needs refurbishing, but I don’t have the time or money right now. The garden is unkept, with long blades of dead grass and roses with no petals. I unlock the emerald coloured door and lock it behind me, then check all of the windows are locked before throwing my shoes onto the floor and running a hand through my hair.

I don’t feel like eating anything after all that’s happened today; from a morning of paperwork, to the panic of losing Liam, to finding my mate is a threat to this society. Grabbing the ice tea from the fridge instead, I decide to head straight up to bed.

Pulling some night clothes out of my drawer, I go to the bathroom and shower, brush my teeth and pull as many tangles out of my hair as possible. My pyjamas are soft and comfortable, making me sleepy instantly, so I nose dive right onto my bed, uncapping the bottle of ice tea and taking a large gulp.

“You know, you’re not meant to drink tea before bed.”

I nearly choke.