The Unloved Rogue

Chapter 12

Daliah POV

‘The heart of a marked male wolf’… How the hell do I get the heart of a marked male wolf? There has to be another way to find her. Do I really even have to summon her, cant I just hunt her down?

I stare at the screen blankly trying to plan my next move. Normally I don’t summon my mark I track, hunt, and kill. That’s the process. But then again I also have never had a witch as my mark.

I take another sip of my coffee when I notice a man with a suit walk into the café. He stops and looks at me closely, I can tell he isn’t human but I’m not entirely sure what he is. He grins slightly before looking away and walking up to place his order. I look back at my laptop but I can feel his eyes on me.

I quickly finish my coffee and head up to the register for a refill trying to get a better look at him. When I stand up he is blatantly staring at me. I avert my gaze and head up to Leonard.

“Hey Leonard, refill please?” I hold out my gaze and he takes the cup but doesn’t look at me, his eyes are glued to the mystery man.

He quickly fills my cup and hands it back to me. “I don’t trust that man. I’ve never seen him around here before; we don’t get too many visitors out this way.” It is odd to see a stranger in town; I chose these locations because of the main fact there are no major highways nearby. It took me almost an hour to get here once I did get off the highway the first time I traveled out this way.

I nod in agreement. “Something does seem off.” I take my cup and take a sip savoring the hot nutty bitterness as it hits my tongue.

“I for one do not like the way he is staring at you.” Leonard states loud enough for the man to hear him. I glance over and this time he is smiling at me as he continues to stare.

“I’m going to go see what he wants.” I turn towards him locking eyes with the mystery man.

“Well if you need anything just holler. My shot gun is always loaded under the counter here. I may not be as fast as I once was but even with these old eyes, I never miss my target.” He pats my hand and watches as I walk towards the man.

When I get a few feet in front of him he gestures for me to sit across from him.

I sit down with my coffee and lean back analyzing the man in front of me. I could tell when he walked in he was tall, id probably guess around six feet or so. He has black swoopy hair that looks like silk. His jaw line is sharp, he looks like a no nonsense man. His hazel eyes bore into mine as they travel over his face. His smile never leaving it. That’s when I notice it. The single gold fang. I lean back and cross my arms over my chest and look into his eyes. “Well, well, well, as I live and breathe. How the hell did you find me Stephen?”

He chuckles and leans back mimicking my own movements, “I wondered when you’d figure it out Huntress.”

The more I think about it this is rather annoying, how he found me. That’s two people in one day who have found my in my most sacred places. My home, and now my favorite coffee shop. I don’t like the fact that Stephen is here; he is a half demon, half vampire. His demon father ripped out his fangs when we was born ashamed his son would be more vampire then demon, but his mother took him to some warlock who cast some spell to give him unbreakable fangs. His father interrupted the spell and he ended up with one golden fang instead of two. I haven’t seen him in about eight years. He saved me when I was hunting my first demon and almost got myself killed. He is loose cannon and would easily kill anyone in here before you could blink. I chuckled to myself thinking about Leonard trying to shoot him down; the old man wouldn’t be able to lift the gun before Stephen would have killed him.

Stephen lifts an eyebrow “Something funny?”

I blush realizing I laughed out loud “Sorry, the owner said if you tried anything funny just to let him know and he’d shoot you down.”

Stephen laughs and softens his expression “I’d probably let him get a couple shots on me before id kill him just to see the shock in his eyes.”

I give him a serious death glare “Don’t you dare touch him. I don’t even like the fact that you are in my coffee shop.”

He hold his hands up in surrender “I promise not to touch the human.”

I nod “good.”

“On one condition.” He adds.

Shit, I knew he wanted something. I roll my eyes and lean forward. “What do you want Stephen.”

He smirks and leans forward so there’s no chance of anyone hearing anything he says. “I want you to stop this upcoming war.”

I jerk back slightly shocked “Why would you want me to stop it? You’re a rogue vampire and a demon. I’m honestly surprised you’re not up there on the front lines, if anyone hates werewolves more than Vladimir it’s you.”

He rubs his finger between his eyes and sighs “That was before.”

“Before what?” I ask leaning in closer.

He groans and runs his hand through his hair. “Well apparently the vampire half of me has allowed me to find a mate of my own.”

I gasp normally demons do not get mates but the fact that he’s half vampire makes since that he could possibly have one. “Okay but what does that have to do with this war?”

He groans again “She’s a werewolf, she is from the Black Forest pack, she doesn’t want to leave her pack so I’m staying, but as you know the Black Forest pack isn’t too far from here. You will ultimately be attacking us if not first then very early on. The Alpha of the pack knows about the upcoming war just not when it is suppose to happen.” He reaches over and grabs my hands and looks at me with pleading eyes “Please Huntress, I can’t lose my mate. I just found her.”

I want to understand his point of view but I feel lost I’m not sure what I want to do. “Why me?”

He smiles again and leans back in his seat “Because you are The Huntress. You are the best. If anyone can end this it’s you.”

I cross my arms; he makes a very valid point.

“And because you know I can’t kill him.” He adds in.

He’s right I did forget about all of that, because his mother was created by Vladimir he can’t actually kill him, but he also won’t die if someone else were to kill him thanks to his demon side. “But what about your mother?” she will die if someone kills him.

“She actually already died, she tried to blend in with some city living life away from the supernatural world, but she stopped feeding and went crazy, someone captured here and last I heard she was dead. This was probably four or five years ago but I do still miss her all the time.” He looks at me with sad eyes.

I groan, if I kill him that could very well end the war, he is the one who wanted this but without him to lead it I don’t think anyone else would try to take over, then again it is a group of mostly demons and they are pretty full of themselves, one of them probably would think they have enough power to lead.

“Let me think on it. We have five more days until we go to war, and as far as I know you are correct, your new packs territory is one of the first targets. But at least now you know you have five days to prepare.” I shrug not knowing what else I can say.

He gives me a half smile and slides a piece of paper across the table “here’s my number, please call me and let me know what you decide. And for the record,” he winks “the old man’s coffee is too good, I can’t kill him for that reason alone.” He smiles and stands up. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”

He turns and walks away I lean back and sip my coffee. I have a decision to make; I really need to talk to Caleb about this.