Not-So-Fated Mates

Chapter 9: Never Trust a Rogue

Drake POV

    Never trust a rogue. That’s what his father had always told him. For a long time, he’d inwardly scoffed every time his father repeated that mantra to him. Yes, rogues were often dangerous, if primarily because they didn’t live by the rules of the packs. Some of them were worse than the rest, usually taken over by bloodlust and drawing attention to their kind by killing and eating everything from a rabbit to a human. Those were the ones usually put down by whatever pack was in their area.

    His father, however, had always said that every rogue would go crazy from bloodlust, it was just a matter of time. Every rogue was to be put down, because even if they joined the pack, they’d never shake their nature as rogues, and, eventually, they’d turn on the very pack that had given them a chance. When Drake had taken over the pack, despite his father’s objections, he got rid of the rule that they had to kill every rogue that came near. Two years later, that leniency cost him.

    A rogue had come to the pack a year after he had lifted his father’s rule, wanting to join so he wouldn’t be alone anymore. Drake, side-by-side with his new mate, Jessica, had welcomed him into the pack. The three of them had formed a fast friendship, and Drake had personally trained him as he’d slowly risen through the pack, until he became Drake’s beta. He’d never been happier, his mate and his best friend by his side. Of course, his father wasn’t pleased, by any stretch of the imagination, to have Gideon as part of the pack…at first. But after watching him rise through the pack and seeing his dedication to his son as both best friend and beta, his father had eventually warmed up to him.

    They didn’t realize what a mistake it had been at the time. Drake hated how blind he had been. He’d let a rogue into the pack, even called him a friend, and that fucker had taken everything from him. After that day, he’d never trusted rogues again. He and his warriors slaughtered them on sight, and, after a few years, most rogues had figured out that his territory was a no-fly zone.

    And now he was watching the commander of this pack’s warriors making the same damn mistake he had. Yeah, it was a kid, but he was still a rogue. She should’ve at least chased him off her pack’s territory. He knew Alpha Richard was a bit of a softy for anyone in need, but he hadn’t expected it from the woman who took the title of commander at a relatively young age.

    He looked up from the ground he’d been avidly staring at as they walked back towards the pack house. They were still in the woods, but he could tell that they were getting close to the treeline, as the light seemed to be getting brighter, fraction by fraction. The boy looked close to passing out in Layla’s arms, and, for a moment, he felt a spike of jealousy. He shook his head as if trying to shake the thoughts away, then realized he was doing that a lot. Sure, he wouldn’t mind f*****g her, and she didn’t seem to have anyone’s mark on her, but jealousy wasn’t something he should be feeling for someone he wanted in his bed for a night.

    He looked at the boy again, prying his thoughts off such a dangerous topic, and scrutinized him. There was something about him that was off, aside from the fact he was a rogue. He couldn’t say what, but, even if this boy was a normal pack member, he could never make himself trust him. That just made him all the more frustrated and wary. He was usually a good judge of character, aside from Gideon, obviously, but he couldn’t get a read on this boy.

    They finally got to the edge of the woods, and Drake perked up, knowing his clothes were somewhere nearby. Hers must be, as well, and, as much as he hated to admit it to himself, he suddenly felt sick at the idea of other males getting an eyeful of her as she walked the length between the woods and the house as naked as the day she was born. He raced around her and stopped, staring at her intently. She stopped a couple feet from him, hopefully not noticing his longing gaze that seemed to be frozen on her breasts.

    “What?” she asked, irritated. He held up a paw, hoping she got the message to stay put long enough for him to get to the tree he’d hidden his clothes in. She raised a brow, and he chose to take that as understanding.

    He ran to where his clothes were hidden, about twenty feet to the right of where they’d been, then quickly forced the change and put on his clothes. He walked back to where they’d been, knowing she was still there, and not really happy about it by the five sighs she’d heaved in the maybe seven minutes he’d been gone. As soon as she saw him, she began to walk forward, until he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

    “What now?” she snapped. Oh yeah, he’d pissed her off. Between his attempted interference in her “rescue” of the rogue boy and taking time to find his clothes, she definitely wasn’t a happy camper. Not that he was about to apologize.

    “Give me the boy so you can go get your clothes,” he said, trying to remain unmoved by her anger even as he wanted to press her against the nearest tree and f**k her. f**k, but she was hot when she was angry. And it definitely didn’t help that she was naked.

    “Um, no,” she replied, scoffing at him as if he’d said something stupid. “First of all, we don’t have the time. We need to get him to the pack doctor right away to give him some semblance of a chance of not having to have his leg broken again because it healed wrong,” she hissed the latter half of the sentence, looking worriedly at the boy in her arms who had finally passed out from it all. “And second of all, you were growling at me the entire time I was trying to help him, then sulking the entire walk back here.”

    “I wasn’t sulking,” he hissed back. “And we are not talking about my feelings on you being stupid enough to bring a rogue back to your pack, kid though he may be, right now. I won’t hurt him, okay? Besides, his leg will already need to be broken again, it has taken too much time just getting him here, and we don’t know how long he had it before that. Just give him to me and go get your damn clothes.”

    She glared at him for a long moment before replying, “Fine. But I swear, if I come back and you’re not standing here with this child alive, breathing, and no more injured than he is now, I will rip you to shreds myself, alpha or not.” Then she carefully placed the boy in his arms, not wanting to wake him, and ran off in the same direction he had. He stared after her, absentmindedly wondering how close they’d managed to get to each other when they’d gone in and left their clothes without knowing the other was nearby. When his mind started to latch onto the image of her firm, toned ass as she’d ran to get her clothes, he closed his eyes and groaned as his pants started feeling a bit tight.

    Luckily, it took her a good fifteen minutes to find her clothes, change and run back, plenty of time for him to get his damn hard-on to go the f**k away. He’d still have to do something later to ease the pain, as it were, but for now, he was in the clear.

    He handed the boy over to her as gently as she had, and they moved forward without speaking. In fact, he was pretty sure he was getting the silent treatment, but he didn’t mind. He’d already made the very person he’d come to learn from pissed off at him. Not to mention, they’d had a semi-intimate moment in the woods when he still hadn’t known who she was, though he doubted it would’ve been different had he known it was her. And, to top it all off, he and his d**k seemed to like her. A lot. This “business trip” had turned into a huge mess, and, for once, Jackson wasn’t the problem.

    He was.