The Alpha and His Rogue (Book 3 of Forest Wold Series)

A Rogue

Alex’s POV 

   I had a very uneventful day after talking with Landon this morning. I didn’t see much of him after our sparring matches and that worried me. I knew he was irritated at my decision, but I wanted his support. I would need his support. If we were divided when it came to anything, it might affect the pack in ways that it didn’t need to. 

   As evening fell, I left my office to go to the dining hall to eat dinner with my pack members. I sat with the three orphans of the pack. I took care of them as much as I could. They had their own private area in the packhouse where they lived. I felt like I should be more involved in their lives, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure they wanted or needed that. 

   The oldest of the group is Mason. He’s a smart quiet kid that looks out for others, like the other two orphan girls Kay and Isla. He acted as a big brother to them even though all of them were only children. Mason had lost his mother to a bad illness a few years ago and he never knew his dad. 

   Mason was of average height for his age with blue eyes and blonde curly hair. He was now fifteen and I knew the chances of him getting adopted were slim to none. I was always there for him when he needed me though and I always would be. 

   Kay is ten and very talkative. I felt like we could never get her to shut up. She has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Both of her parents were killed in a fire some rogues started when she was only four. 

   Isla was a little different than other kids her age. She was only seven and was highly observant and talked only when she needed to. Her mom died giving birth to her and then her father died in the same rogue attack that killed my father. She had been here in the packhouse for most of her life.  

   I really felt like I was connected to these kids somehow. It might be that we were all only children and lost our parents in awful ways. No matter our connection, I would always look out for these three. I hope my mate feels the same way about them when I find her. 

   “How is everything going?” I asked them. 

   “Good. Same old things as always,” Mason said. 

   “Things have been awesome at school. All my friends are great to me. My teacher could use an attitude adjustment though. Lunch was awful today. Cafeteria food just sucks,” Kay tells me. 

   Isla just nodded her head in agreement and kept scanning the dining area. She was always watching and I found myself wondering who she kept looking for all the time. I wonder what she would do if she ever found that person she was looking for. 

   “Well, I’m glad everyone is doing good,” I told them.  

   Soon dinner was served and as we ate we listened to Kay talking through every bite. How that girl didn’t get in trouble at school for excessive talking is beyond me. I wonder if she talks in her sleep. I know she talks herself to sleep at least. 

   When dinner was done, the kids went to their part of the packhouse so they could enjoy the rest of their night and get ready for bed. I went back to my office to answer emails and look over one more document before calling it a day. I sat down in my desk chair and logged back onto my computer and opened my emails. I had my emails finished in a flash and started looking over some new documents. 

   “Alpha, Beta, we need help at the Southern border of the Territory,” a warrior came through the pack link. 

   I popped up out of my chair quickly and grabbed the shorts that were in my office. I was instantly worried that we were under attack like some of the other territories had been recently. I heard of some areas having hundreds of rogues attacking them at once. 

   I started walking to the front door of the packhouse asking, “what’s wrong?” 

   “We have a single rogue here fighting the warriors. It’s a female.”

   “I’ll be right there,” I answered.  

   “I’m on my way,” Landon said through the mind-link. 

   I quickly left the packhouse with Landon hot on my heels. As soon as we stepped off the porch, we shifted letting our wolves out. My giant black wolf, Duke, took off for the territory border followed by Buddy, Landon’s brown Beta wolf. Both of our wolves were holding our shorts in their mouths as they ran. 

   When we arrived, Duke sniffed the air and stopped in his tracks. The area smelled of lavender but I knew there was none in this part of the forest we lived in. The smell was warm and inviting. It made me feel calm through the crazy electricity that was in the air. 

   That’s when I saw her. A gray Omega wolf fighting as wildly as she could to get away from my warriors. Her teeth were bared and her growling was so loud. She was fierce and wild. So wild! 

   Now there is a difference between a pack wolf and a wild wolf. Pack wolves always have the look in their eyes that shows a calmness, where wild wolves are just that, wild.

   “Mate,” Duke said to me. 

   “You have got to be kidding me. She’s the wildest female rogue I have ever seen in my life, Duke.” 

   “She’s so ferocious,” he said admirably. 

   “And you're smitten. That’s just great. We don’t even know her.”

   “I’m sorry but she’s incredible.” 

   “We need to keep her safe and keep others from finding out she’s our mate right now.” 

   “Agreed.”

   Duke moved into view and growled low at her. His growl was to let her know he was there not to threaten her. She stopped fighting and sniffed the air. With just my scent she would know that I was her mate. She all but stopped fighting and stared at Duke, watching with big deep blue eyes that seemed to see everything. 

   One of the warriors tried to attack her while she was calm. That was a mistake he would regret. She bared her teeth and attacked right back, fiercer than he had. She tore fur off his back and made him yelp. Other wolves started growling and getting ready to attack her. I couldn’t stand there and let this happen. 

   I growled loudly and all fighting stopped. I stepped up to her Omega wolf, and I was impressed that even with me being an Alpha she wasn’t backing down and cowering. That had Luna mentality all over it. 

   I shifted and pulled my shorts on. I needed her to shift back to her human form. She wouldn’t be able to understand us because she couldn’t mind-link. I needed to keep her calm and have a conversation with her if possible.

   “Get a shirt,” I commanded one of my warriors. 

   I felt her wolf staring at me intently. I wonder if she was wondering what I was up to, or if she was checking me out. I honestly hoped she liked what she saw. I was hers after all.  

   I looked at her as one of the warriors brought me a shirt from close by. I took it from him and held it out to her wolf. 

   “Will you shift and put this on?” I asked her in a deep voice. 

   She shifted back to her human form and stood there naked in front of my warriors and me. She wasn’t ashamed of her body in the slightest, even though her hair was a mess and her skin was caked with dirt and grime. All I could see through all the dirt on her small face were her big blue eyes. They were completely captivating. I didn’t care to explore her body with my eyes since she was dirty, and this was not the time or place for that. 

   I jiggled the shirt at her and said, “please, put the shirt on.”

   Seconds later she pulled it from my hands and put it on. It covered her like a dress, which I was thankful for. One of my warriors moved slightly without my command and she started growling again. I watched as her fangs grew. She was getting ready to shift again and release her rage once more. I needed to stop this now. 

   “I need you to tranquilize her,” I mind-linked one of the guards close by. 

   “Yes, Alpha,” he answered. 

   Moments later a dart hit her in the side and I watched as she started to fall to the ground. I caught her before she could make contact with the forest floor and picked her up. Now that she was in my arms I could feel the sparks that we shared through the mating bond. I looked at her dirty face to see her eyes starting to slowly close. 

   I ground my teeth knowing that this was my future. A wild wolf that I needed to accept and make my Luna. Why would the Moon Goddess be this cruel to me? This was going to be a ton of work and I had no idea how to make this work. 

   All the warriors, including Landon, had shifted back to their human forms and pulled on shorts. 

   “She has to be the wildest rogue I’ve ever seen,” one of the guards said. 

   “Agreed,” another one said. 

   “What do you plan to do with her?” Landon asked. 

   “I’m taking her to the cells. I’ll figure out what to do with her from there,” I answered. 

   I turned and walked off towards the packhouse with my mate in my arms and Landon right behind me as always. I didn’t know her name or anything else about her. All I knew was that the sparks were there and I needed to find a way to make her mine. 

   When we got to the packhouse I went down to the cells and placed her on a cot. Landon stood at the door watching. After laying her down I turned and left the cell, closing the door behind me. I stood there at the door looking in at my rogue mate sleeping on the cell cot. 

   I mind-linked two Omegas with instructions to get water, soap, a towel, a wash cloth and clean clothes for a small framed she-wolf down to the cells. Once I was done I stood there looking at her still,wanting to know everything that I could about her. 

   “Who do you think she is?” Landon asked. 

   “I have no clue but I’m going to find out,” I told him. 

   The two Omegas showed up right after that with everything I asked for. 

   “Set all of that there by the chair,” I told them while pointing at the guard's chair that was by the door to the cells. 

   “Yes, Alpha,” they both said. 

   I watched as they set everything down then walked out of the cells leaving Landon and me in the cell room.  

   “In the past you ran off the female rogues that have crossed our territory. What’s different about this one?” Landon asked. 

   Damn him for knowing me all too well. We never killed any of the female rogues that crossed the territory, we chased them off. But we would kill the males. 

   I took a deep breath while looking into the cell and said, “she’s my mate.”

   Landon laughed at what I said, laughing deep and hard at the fact that my mate was a wolf rogue. His laughter pissed me off and I growled in irritation at him. How dare this asshat act like that. 

   Once he was done laughing he said, “you can’t mean to try and accept her. She’s not at all Luna material. Just reject her and throw her ass on the other side of the territory border.”

   “I can’t do that. I have to make this work,” I told him while shaking my head. 

   “You’re insane. No one is going to support this. I’m sure as hell not going to,” he scoffed then turned around and walked out of the holding cell area. 

   This was going to be tougher than I thought. Would any of my pack members support me and accept her as our Luna or was I doomed?