Chapter 6
873 Words
POV: Dinah
I wait at the curb outside my apartment building.
It is a crumbling brick block in the Rogue District where the streetlights don't work and the air smells like garbage and desperation.
Cade arrives quickly. His black SUV looks like a spaceship landed in a junkyard.
He gets out and walks toward me and stops three feet away.
His eyes scan me from head to toe.
He sees the bruise blooming on my cheekbone, my split lip and the blood drying in my hair.
He frowns, inhaling swiftly and his nostrils flare.
He smells it. He smells the blood of my mother and sister on my clothes. He knows I got into a fight but he hardly looks concerned about my wounds and I have to admit that it hurts but I don’t let it bother me.
"What do you need me to do?" I ask and look away from his intense gaze.
"When will you be ready?" he asks. "I'll send Enforcers to help you pack. You can move in tonight."
My phone rings in my pocket and I glance at the screen. It is an unknown number but I can guess who it might be. Tahlia. Or maybe my mother’s lawyer. Or maybe the police.
I decline the call and shove the phone back in my pocket.
"I can move now," I say. "I don't have much to pack."
I don't tell him that I can't go back to that house. I don't tell him that I burnt that bridge and danced in the ashes.
"Hurry up then," Cade says, glancing around the filth I call a home.
He follows me into the building.
The hallway is narrow and cluttered with trash. The elevator is broken so we take the stairs to the third floor.
My apartment is tiny. One room with a mattress on the floor, a table and a suitcase.
Cade stands in the doorway but he doesn't come in. He fills the frame, too big and too powerful for this small, sad life I've been living.
I grab my suitcase and throw everything I own into it in less than ten minutes.
"I'm ready," I announce, walking back out into the hallway, and the door across from mine opens.
A man steps out. He is shirtless and sweating, and he smells like cheap beer and stale smoke.
He is a Rogue, a wolf without a pack. He sees me and grins, revealing yellow teeth.
"Leaving so soon, sweetheart?" he asks.
A cigarette hangs from his lip, bouncing as he speaks.
Then he notices Cade, and his grin widens into a smirk.
"Got a client picking you up?" he sneers. "Didn't know you did house calls. How much for a ride?"
He staggers closer, leaning against the wall. He looks Cade up and down.
"Pretty boy," the Rogue laughs. "You girls always like the pretty ones. Nice to look at but useless in a fight."
He blows a cloud of smoke right into Cade's face and I freeze. He is either too drunk to feel the aura of the Alpha in front of him or he has a death wish.
I know that look on Cade's face. It is the look of a predator who has just decided to kill.
Cade moves so fast that he is a blur.
One second he is standing still, the next his hand is wrapped around the Rogue's throat.
He slams the man against the wall and the plaster cracks.
The Rogue’s eyes bulge. He tries to claw at Cade’s hand, but Cade doesn't even flinch. He reaches up with his other hand and plucks the burning cigarette from the man's mouth.
"Open," Cade commands.
He uses his Alpha Voice. The power rolls off him in waves, crushing the air out of the hallway and the Rogue’s mouth opens involuntarily, forced by the command.
Cade shoves the burning cigarette onto the man’s tongue.
Then he clamps the man’s jaw shut.
The Rogue screams, but the sound is muffled behind his clenched teeth. He thrashes and kicks, but Cade holds him pinned to the wall like a butterfly.
I smell burning flesh.
Cade leans in close.
"You speak to her again," Cade whispers, and his voice is terrified and calm. "And I will rip your tongue out."
He releases the man.
The Rogue drops to the floor, coughing and spitting out ash and blood. He curls into a ball, whimpering.
"I'm sorry!" the Rogue chokes out. "I'm sorry! I didn't know she was your mate! I didn't mean it!"
Cade looks down at him. He wipes his hand on his pants like he touched something filthy.
"She is not my mate," Cade says in a spiteful tone, glaring at me.
I am his mate. Even if he rejected me.
His voice is cold enough to freeze the blood in my veins. "And I am not hurting you because of her."
He steps over the grovelling man. "I am hurting you because you smell like trash."
He turns and walks toward the stairs without looking at me. "Coming?" he asks.
I stand there for a second, looking at the man writhing on the floor. Then I grab my suitcase and follow the Alpha.
- Writer
