The Rogue King's Mate

Chapter 02

Kieran

The sun's light slowly faded as dark clouds spread beneath its rays. The forest grew still with every second that passed; the usual sounds of life from both plant and animal gave way to complete silence. Even the water in which I waded in turned heavy as I swam deeper into it.

It felt exactly the way it did when I decided to run through the forest, like it knew who was passing through.

But I wish it were that. No, this is different.

The black depths of the lake, my limbs moving swift and strong like the water was one with me, welcomed me. Its perfection was uninterrupted. My one place of utter peace. The water closed my ears and blinded me to the real world while showing me its depths – a mirror to the inside of my mind.

When I break the surface, it is a gentle reminder of reality.

As the water poured from my eyes and down my chest, I take a closer look at the forest all around me. It reminded me of the water. Dark, black, green and dense, keeping its secrets hidden until you ventured into it to discover them.

Another mirror.

The only difference between me, the lake and the forest was no one dared dive to discover the former.

My kingdom. My home. One I built with every scar, blood and sweat.

I felt a rippling sensation within my belly and into my chest connecting my soul to the world around me. Perfection.

A perfection made up of imperfections; the outlaws, the banned, the shunned, the forgotten, the bad, the violent, the bitter, the angry, the unloved, the worst, the dogs … the Rogues. This is our land. Ours. Our home.

Now, it was being threatened.

I dive back into the water and remain there for ten minutes, trying to let the healing water clear my mind as dense as the forest around me. After I come up for a deep inhale. The sun was gone now behind the dark clouds. No werewolf with its instincts intact would think to think to enter my land.

But who is that scent?

A lone breeze carried it, blowing past my ears and whispering exactly where it was.

It has been quite a while since anyone trespassed. And this one didn’t seem to be alone.

Who was this fool?

Still very far, my entire being reacted to the new presence. My skin tingled and my mouth salivated from the scent of raw and innocent flesh. I could almost taste her panicked blood, pumping through pulsing veins and a swelling heart.

A she – werewolf?

Interesting.

I hear footsteps behind me. My right hand, stuck by my hip ever since the day I rescued him from the jaws of the alpha of the Crescent Moon pack, walked up until the edge of the lake.

“Do you smell that? How … sweet.” I asked him, closing my eyes and feeding on the fear of our trespasser.

“My king. Do I catch her for you?”

“I would like that very -.” I stopped just before my eyes flew open. “And rogues?”

I heard him, Bane inhale before agreeing with me. “It seems like she is being chased, my liege. By rogues.”

“The reason for her fear,” I said as excitement spread through me like acid. “Imprisoned rogues from the Crescent Moon pack hunt our little clan wolf.”

I pull myself out of the water. My mind is completely distracted by the newcomer and the fun I am missing out on. My muscles rippled under my skin as I stepped, fully free from the pull of the lake. The hunt was calling for me and I had to answer. Bane held out a pair of pants and I took them to wear. The old thick wild boar skin, its surface worn from consistency and use hung heavily on my waist after I put it on.

The forest beneath my feet called me to her. A prisoner, it screamed in my head. A befitting example to the rest of the clans who dare to plan to invade my land. I could hear her heartbeat from her place hours and hours away from where I currently stood pounding and rhyming with the earth’s.

Something was off.

“Go,” I said to Bane quietly, sensing the drastic change in the air.

I turned my back to him as he took off. I felt the forest around me come alive with every step he took farther and farther away from me. I paced along the edge of the water, suddenly impatient for the outcome of this sudden turn of event. But the earlier thoughts in my head take over.

For some reason, everything happening now served as a great reminder of the war that was coming, the war I have been waiting for. I can feel it in my bones. The tension, the adrenaline, my impending victory over those who have wronged us.

I walked through the dark forest, regaining my connection to land. I built this place brick by brick. From the young age of fourteen, born in the Outlands and forced to protect myself from merciless clan wolves who sought to eradicate the world of rogues, all I have ever wanted was in reality in this moment. More of my family were being captured, tortured and killed because of their growing fear for us. How dare they?

Because of control? Power? They were losing it. And we are paying the price for it.

But not for long. This little trespasser won’t be the first. Her head would serve as a message.

Come fight me, already!

They think they are untouchable, because they live in villages protected by esteemed warriors and high mountains … because they have the identity of a clan … being part of an organized party.

I could just laugh at the idea. Such arrogance.

Mercy was nonexistent here. She could be dead even before Bane got to her. And my once imprisoned brothers would be home.

I made my way back to my kingdom. The sky remained dark and the wind grew colder. What were they trying to tell me? I could hear nothing. Only smell.

A stone wall divided the rest of the forest from my home. Its height so far up, it touched the grey clouds and its surface so rugged that its caves provided homes for the rogues that kept watch over our refuge. From the corner of my eye, I surveyed them.

Two.

Six.

Twelve.

Twenty.

Forty of them acknowledged my presence from every nook and cranny of the stone wall. I stopped at the large, thick rock that served as the gates.

“Pull!”

Fueled grunts and shouts were the next things I heard, followed by the heavy rock moving from its position. In no time, the mechanism attached on the other side of the wall had revealed the deeper part of the forest, the other half.

My home.

“My lord!” The she-werewolf’s voice called out and I turned to look at her. She was panicked, almost frozen in fear.

“What is it?” I ask calmly.

“The beldam, my lord. She is dying. She calls for you!”

With lightning speed, I race towards the stone carved manor that served as my mansion. In the highest floor where her bedroom was, the beldam rogue lay on the floor, her eyes sunken in and her skin deathly pale.

I didn’t even have time to take and carry her body to the infirmary. She spoke her last words.

“Catch her! Catch the trespasser!”