Fated Mates: The Rogue

Jocelyn:Chapter Two

My feet ached. My ankles were scraped to sh*t by the back of my shoes and I felt so starved. We hiked up the mountainside for miles. I had never in my entire life done so much walking. My hips were sore and my calves were numb at this point.

But he was persistent. We have to keep moving. We can't stop. You're taking too long. Let's go. It was the only thing he had said to me as we climbed higher. We had talked a little in the beginning, but I found it difficult to talk to him when I was so scared about what I had just done.

I honestly didn't think we would get this far. A part of me thought that we would be caught and the misery I was experiencing would end right along with my mate. Now, here I am, doing sh*t I never thought I would do with a man that was highly dangerous and had killed the Alpha of my pack.

I was struggling as we moved away from a trail and kept to the trees. It was not made by man or anything, but he seemed very cautious about any type of trail. I huffed and puffed and felt like my lungs were going to give out.

"Can we stop, please?"

"You can't walk a little longer? There should be caves up there. If we can just get to those we can stop for the night."

For the night? I felt my eyes tear up but I nodded. I wasn't going to give up, but he was really pushing it. He was used to this crap. I was used to sitting at home, watching movies in my underwear and eating large, greasy burgers.

My stomach rumbled at the thought and I took a deep shaky breath. It had been hours since he let me dig in my backpack and eat a bag of salted peanuts I had grabbed from the convenience store. My stomach felt like it was about to start gnawing on itself if I didn't get anything in it soon.

I had also been holding in my pee because even though I was a wolf, I didn't want to strip down in front of him and turn just to pee. And I had no toilet paper or anything because I forgot that when I was in a mad rush to get away from prying eyes.

My stomach hurt and I wasn't sure if it was the lack of food or the holding in my pee, but something had to be done about it.

"I have to pee."

"Okay. So go." He stopped and placed his hands on his waist. His eyebrows furrowed as I stood uncomfortably and looked around. I didn't know whether I should transform and go or just pop a squat behind the tree.

"Can you turn around?"

He looked at me like I had grown two heads and then turned his back. I walked behind a try and squatted, holding the tree with one hand for support and the other holding my pants so I wouldn't pee on them. When I was through I thought about ripping my sock off to wipe, but felt like that would be too gross and decided to just pull my pants up instead. After I was through I felt gross because I couldn't even wash my hands. I wiped them on my pants to at least give me a sense of cleanliness and walked out from behind the tree.

He had already turned back around and his eyes felt like they were burning a hole through me. I blushed and he smiled.

I averted my eyes from him and turned back to the way we were heading. I began walking and could feel him walking behind me.

"Wolves are supposed to be nude. Are you uncomfortable with nudity?"

"Wolves are nude. Humans are not. You're also a stranger, so..."

"I'm your mate. You shouldn't be afraid of being nude around me."

"Not afraid. Uncomfortable. There's a difference."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you uncomfortable?"

"Lots of reasons. You're a stranger, for one. You are a dangerous criminal, for two. We have pretty much just met, for three and because I'm hot and sweaty."

"I'm not the only criminal in this partnership, just as a refresher. I don't care if you're hot and sweaty, it's actually a turn on and we actually met two nights ago. So...not a stranger."

I grit my teeth and blushed. I turned to look at him and scowled. He grinned, showing pretty straight teeth. Why did I expect them to be all gross? I mean I obviously saw them before, but I'm sure he had never known a toothbrush in his life as a rogue.

"You're gross. Hot and sweaty is disgusting. And I'm only a criminal because I broke out a criminal from jail so he wouldn't be executed. So how bad is that even?"

"Hot and sweaty is how I prefer my women." He shrugged and wiggled his eyebrows. He would be cute if he wasn't so annoying. I rolled my eyes.

"You know what? You're right, it's how I like my men too. Big, hot and sweaty. I just love the taste of them like that." I grinned as I heard him growl behind me.

Take that. Point one: Jocelyn.

We walked in silence with only the sounds of the trees around us and my stomach rumbling. I was extremely exhausted when we stumbled upon a small opening on the side of a rock wall. He handed me the backpack and asked me to wait outside. He crawled in and was in there for a bit before he crawled back out.

"It's clear. Come on in."

I felt a jolt of fear rock my body as I realized that this was really happening. I looked around the darkening forest and for the first time today felt the consequences of my actions clapping down on me like a strike of lightning. I stood at the entrance to the cave and felt my throat thicken and my eyes began to cloud with tears.

When I didn't crawl in after him, he poked his head out and looked up at me. I stood frozen and tried to breathe. I felt like a ton pound weight had been put on my chest and I couldn't breathe. I tried to blink away the tears, unsuccessfully, and tried to take a deep breath through my mouth. I wiped at my cheeks and startled when I felt his hand touch mine. I jerked it away and tried for another breath.

"Come inside. There are bobcats out there."

I couldn't seem to move. I shook my head and backed up against the entrance and sat down. I hid my face in my hands and a sob finally escaped. The floodgates opened and tears streamed down my face as I cried about leaving home and my family. I cried about how I had been treated and how I had manipulated the guards. And I cried about the mate I had been given. I wished that he was a better person. I wished that the Goddess had blessed me with someone so boring and bland that I could have stayed home and just been happy with that.

I didn't even realize that he had grabbed me and taken me into the cave until I took my hands from my face and was hit with complete darkness. The only light that shown through cave was the light from the small entrance. He sat next to it, not looking at me sitting across from him.

His face was a mask of indifference and it irked me to no end. I thought my mate would care. I thought that's how we were programmed to be. Elena and Matthew hardly ever fought and when they did, they always made up and f*cked like bunnies in heat.

This guy was just...stone. He acted like nothing bothered him except when I mentioned other males. He didn't even ask me what was wrong with me. I could see his face now that my eyes had adjusted and I remembered the red puffiness of them when I broke him out. He had feelings. Or else why would he have cried? Unless he was just afraid of dying and now that he wasn't going to die, he didn't care about anything else?

But why attack the pack to get me if he didn't care? And everything went back to Wes. Wes wouldn't want me to be with someone that would make me feel miserable all of the time. Or is that why he preferred life in the pack? Because he wasn't happy with Danny, but was just afraid of him?

The cave was small, I noticed, after he wouldn't look at me. It would be just long enough for us to lay down side by side and tall enough to kneel, but not much else. Our knees were touching now from how close we were, but that was the only contact.

I took the chance to take my shoes off and hissed at the pain that my sock left behind when I peeled it off. My sock was dark, but I couldn't tell if it was dirt or blood just by looking at it. By the smell though I knew it was blood.

I took my other shoe off and grimaced as I peeled the other bloody sock off. I examined my feet as best as I could and noticed blisters on my toes, and the back of my ankles had been scraped nearly clean off from the back of my shoes. I took a deep breath and sat sideways against the cave entrance so that I could stretch my legs out. My stomach grumbled loudly and he immediately dug through the backpack and handed me a bag of chips I had bought. They were all squished from the long trip in my backpack but I moaned as I stuffed some crumbly potato chips in my mouth.

I munched away happily and wiggled my tired, healing toes. Goddess it felt so good to eat right now. I looked into my crumbled chips and found an almost whole one. I plucked it out of the bag and held it out in front of his face.

"Here. An almost perfect chip." He turned to look down at it and perked an eyebrow. He opened his mouth and I shoved it in his mouth. He bumped his head as he backed away from me and winced as he chewed.

"Ow."

"Ooh did I hurt the big bad wolf?"

He rolled his eyes and reached his hand out to grab some of my crumbly chips. I held the bag out to him and he took some and sprinkled them into his mouth. He took a bottle of water out of the back pack and handed it to me.

"Hardly. He's still asleep."

"What's his name?"

"Onyx. And yours?"

"Periwinkle. She goes by Peri for short."

"Periwinkle. That's cute."

"She is."

We sat in silence for a bit and ate chips. I closed my eyes as I chewed, suddenly exhausted. It had been the longest day of my life. I shivered at the drop in temperature. I knew it was cooler at night, but up in the mountains, it was almost freezing. I wish I had brought my hoodie. I grabbed the back pack and rifled through to see all of the stuff we had. We had plenty of junk snacks and a few choices of drinks, but nothing to keep me warm except my little lion. I took him out and handed the backpack back to him. I scooted down until I was able to lay down and hugged my little lion to my chest.

My emotions were everywhere. I felt a little better as I ate, but now all I could think about was home. I wondered if my mom missed me. She would probably be the only one. My dad had given me the cold shoulder after the stunt I pulled in the football field.

I looked up at Danny and wondered what he was thinking as he fished another bag of chips out and began eating those. He kept looking out of the cave and I wondered if this cave belonged to another animal.

"What are you thinking?" I asked him after a while of just laying there.

"Thinking about you is what I've gotten used to over these last few months." He replied nonchalantly, like it didn't make my heart squeeze in my chest.

"What about me?"

"The comment you made earlier about the type of men you like." He took a swig of water and looked down at me. I blushed but I didn't apologize. I didn't feel like I needed to.

"What about it?"

"Just wondering, I guess, about how many men you've been with. How many men I'm going to have to hunt down." He shrugged like what he said was normal. I would have thought he was joking if it weren't for the hard set of his eyes.

"Are you asking if I'm a big sl*t or a little one?"

He smiled at my question and shook his head. "Just jealous. No right to be, I know, but I can't help it."

"Giant one. Just so you know. Tons of men. Lined up and down the street. One after the other. Blue Crescent's very own community wh*re." I watched his jaw clench and his fists tightened, squishing the bag of chips in his hands.

I laughed and he furrowed his eyes at me. "Joking. Just two. You?"

"Four."

"Rogues?" I scrunched my nose and he grinned at me.

"No. Human." I stared at him with wide eyes and sat up to see if he was pulling my leg.

"Shut up. You're joking, right?"

"No. They smell better than rogues and they can't tell that I'm a wolf, let alone a rogue."

My stomach twisted at the thought of him being with four human women. All I could think about was faceless women with gorgeous bodies and I felt my face heat up with anger.

"We're not supposed to have relations with humans. It's forbidden."

"Maybe in your packs it is, but outside of pack rules, we can do whatever we want."

"What about the Council?"

"Only if they find out. But who is going to run to the council over me f*cking a ready and willing human woman?"

I felt my nostrils flare with anger and I laid back down in the hard cave floor and turned away from him.

"You're mad that I had s*x before I even met you? Because that would make zero sense to me."

"No. Just jealous. Like you said. I can't help it." He chuckled lightly.

"Is this your way of telling me you like me too?"

The butterflies in my stomach fluttered at the word 'too' but I was too stubborn to even budge .

"Shut up. Go to sleep."