Rogue

Chapter 11

Silver POV

I try to move my head on the pillow, but a terrible pain moves me from side to side. What the hell, since when did werewolves get migraines? I lift my eyelids slightly and wonder if I've always had them so heavy in the morning.

The room, the bed, everything is foreign and for a moment I am a totally disoriented girl. Slowly, I start to remember all the events of yesterday and I get very anxious when I still don't remember how I went to bed and especially, completely naked. Oh, if Aiden was in bed with me, it's very explainable! Of course! Aiden!

I wake up with difficulty, struggling with lingering dizziness. I pull on the first clothes I come across and realize they are the ones I wore the day before. The room is empty, my luggage is nowhere to be seen, so the best solution is to ask.

I crawl to the door, to say I'm walking would be an exaggeration, there I see Sam standing in front of her. The head of the guards has other duties, not to watch my sleep.

"Sam? What are you doing here?"

His gaze freezes me and my heart starts pounding. A bad feeling creeps over me and for a second I wish I hadn't woken up yet. I lean against the door frame and take a deep breath trying to read something on the impassive face. He motions me in, and when he reaches me he has to help me up, his knees shaking uncontrollably.

The scar and the wolf tattooed on my skin, it burns me and I stumble. Deep inside me, the she-wolf struggles restlessly and the premonition of a catastrophe hovers over me. I collapse on the bed and demand an explanation.

Crossing one leg, seated in an armchair, Sam studies me and finally decides to speak:

"Alpha has decided, following your actions last night, to disown you."

"Here you go?!" I don't understand and whenever I try to articulate a coherent sentence all I get is an intelligible stutter.

"What did i do last night?" I finally manage to pronounce.

A shadow of suspicion quickly crossed his face and he looked at me in disbelief. I don't mind and I feel like this is kind of a test you have to lose or it was lost to begin with.

"You don't remember anything?

The voice without any inflection scares me and I answer trembling:

"I entered the room and in a short time, very short, dinner was brought to me." I run my hands over my face and try to remember what happened. "I remember asking the boy who served me a glass of water." I continued. "After that I don't know anything."

My voice is pitiful and even though I know it doesn't help me at all, I can't control it. I beg him with my looks to believe me, and even worse, the second of compassion I read on his face scares me.

"You got drunk and slept with the waiter."

A short sentence, an information. I remain speechless and at the moment I'm so shocked that I don't even notice when I start laughing hysterically.

"Tell me it's a joke! A bad joke, but a joke!"

He doesn't say anything and slowly, slowly, I stop laughing nervously and feel the tears flooding my face. It can't be true, I would have realized it! Damn it, I'm a virgin! I would have felt differently, there would be some signs.

"I did not do anything! Even though I have no experience, it would be impossible not to notice if I slept with a man!"

"He found you naked and with bite marks all over your body. Before, I think you got drunk" and showed me the empty wine bottle.

"I drank only one glass of water! I didn't even get to eat! And I fell asleep! I don't even know when I undressed!" I scream and cry at the same time, the inability to prove my words makes me tremble.

He takes out a car key and a thick stack of money from his pockets, which he puts on a table and lowers his voice, probably preparing to give me another bad news. I don't let him say anything and I try to make him believe me.

"Sam, you've known me since I was little. I would never cheat on Aiden! Not!"

"You threatened him, that he will be sorry."

"He had upset me, but no matter what he did to me, I would never do something like that to him."

The crying drowns me and I can't say anything, I collapse completely on the bed and with me, my whole life. Even if I still have a little hope, to be able to talk to him, deep down I know it's useless. I lost him the second time and even if it's not my fault, it's something he would never forgive me for.

A large and warm hand gently squeezes my shoulder, and with a voice that I would never have guessed he has, full of pity, Sam awkwardly tries to console me.

"I'm sorry, little girl!" he whispers softly.

I get up with difficulty and hide my face against his chest. I hug him and beg:

"Help me! I swear I don't know anything and I didn't sleep with that man! I would have realized if something had happened!"

"I'm sorry Silver, but there's nothing I can do. He would have killed you when he came to your room and found you the way he found you, with your body covered in bites! Instead, he took his anger out on the bastards who didn't know how to protect you. Believe me, they were lucky to escape with only a few bruises and exiled from the pack! He didn't even care about their families."

The danger I was in leaves me cold, and I am not ashamed to say:

"Better kill me, whatever fate is better than that."

"Know. But this is his punishment for you. He doesn't want you to die, he wants you to suffer even if he suffers too."

His explanation is logical and shocking. I am speechless, especially when I remember his warning if I ever thought I would cheat on him. A girl like me, who loved him since she first saw him. It was just a thought, but even if I didn't, or just don't remember, anyway, Aiden Hunter is a man of his word!

I get up with difficulty and try to gather the remnants of pride and self-control I have left, preparing for one last blow. As I know him, he didn't just stop at chasing me out of the pack. Surely there is more.

"You are not allowed to enter his territory or any other pack's. Practically, in no forest in the world. If you, little girl, are caught, they are free to kill you with impunity. You, are not allowed to contact any family members or other werewolves. Whoever shelters you or feeds you or helps you in any way, no matter how insignificant, is condemned to death, regardless of his or her rank."

I can't say anything, in fact I almost forgot to breathe. I listened to my death sentence because that's what it is, a conviction! A slow and painful death. There isn't even a damned bit of forest that isn't claimed by some pack. A werewolf that can never transform is a dead werewolf. If before I was a Rogue, now I'm a nobody! I am a hunted prey from all sides.

"He left your car and these." He shows me the pile of money behind the table.

"I don't want them! I do not want anything!" I wake up saying.

"Stupid," he scolded me. "You have a chance to survive."

"No, it's a way to prolong my agony."

"I have to go," he says. "Please be careful and don't forget, don't enter the forest!"

He heads for the door and then I realize that I have lost the last connection with life.

"Sam! Tell my mother that I love her and I ask her to forgive me!" I sigh.

He slowly nods his head and before going out the door, he says once more:

"Take care ! And don't go into the forest!"

I remained a single girl and allowed myself to scream! I scream and cry with my head buried deep in the pillow. I don't mourn my life, but love. I didn't think I'd go through the pain of rejection again, and I don't know if I'll survive this time. Actually, I don't even care! It would really be a relief to die, right here, right now.

With one last hope in my soul, I try to enter our communication channel. It doesn't matter the distance between us, the bond is so strong that you can almost see what your soulmate is doing if you allow it.

The wall I hit first falls in an instant and I hear a wild growl that hides a lot of pain. Don't say anything, just listen. I gather my courage and try to put all the love and sincerity into my voice.

"Aiden! I never cheated on you, my love!"

My words receive no response, only another, stronger and more frightening growl.

"I swear on my life that I don't know anything about what happened last night! But one thing I know for sure, I haven't made love to anyone!" I cry.

"What life, Rogue? For me you are no more."

The connection is broken and the wall is there again! I bump into him, I insist on making him listen to me again, a deep silence hits me and finally.....I give up.

Long and hard hours pass, hours in which I cry non-stop, hours in which I have often thought about how to end my days. When my eyes dried up with tears and dry crying hurt my voice, all I knew and wanted was to get out of there. With my last strength I prepared a few things, a small and poor luggage. From the suitcases left in the car I did not take even a T-shirt bought with his money, although all my personal wealth did not exceed a hundred dollars. Before leaving the room, I washed away my tears and tried to calm my hair. A young but stressed girl was looking at me from the mirror. The eyes that once sparkled with life are now empty and almost dead, and the pale skin is marred by dark circles.

I take one last look at the place where I basically ended my life and leave without looking back. I hand over my card and leave the money and car key at the front desk, with the request that they be returned to the owner. As I seal the envelope, I feel the curious eyes of the receptionist. If yesterday I was an embarrassed girl, today I am an empty girl, without any emotion, spirit or sensation, a walking nothingness.

I leave the hotel unseen, pass all the women who envied me the day before and head to the first bus stop. I mechanically pay for a ticket that takes me to........unknown. I didn't even hear where I was going. It doesn't even matter anymore!