The Rogue Territory
338 Words
The forest swallowed me whole. I walked for hours, maybe days. Time lost meaning in the darkness. My feet bled. My shoulder throbbed. My wolf whimpered inside me, wounded and confused. Mate. Rejected. Alone. I collapsed against a tree trunk and let the tears come. Not for Alpha Kael. I had never wanted him. But for the life I had lost. For my mother, trapped in that pack without me. For the future I would never have. A twig snapped behind me. I spun around, my weak wolf surging to the surface. A growl rumbled in my chest. It was pathetic compared to a real wolf's growl, but it was all I had.
"Easy there, little wolf."
A man stepped out of the shadows. He was tall, broad shouldered, with silver streaked hair and eyes that glowed gold in the darkness. A rogue. I could smell it on him. Wild. Untamed. Dangerous.
"Stay back," I warned.
He held up his hands. "I am not going to hurt you. I felt your pain from a mile away. A rejection. A strong one."
"What do you care?"
He tilted his head, studying me. "Because I know what it is like to be cast out. My name is Darius. I lead a pack of rogues in these woods. Wolves who were rejected, abandoned, or cast aside. We survive together."
"A pack of rogues?" I laughed bitterly. "There is no such thing. Rogues are lone wolves by definition."
"Says the wolves who cast us out." Darius extended his hand. "Come with me. Let me show you what outcasts can build when they stop begging for acceptance and start demanding respect." I stared at his hand. Everything I had been taught screamed that this was wrong. Rogues were dangerous. Rogues were lawless. Rogues were to be killed on sight. But what had the law ever given me? A pack that laughed when I fell. An Alpha who rejected me. A life of scraps and shadows.
I took his hand.
"Show me," I said.
- Writer
