9. Williem

Chapter 9

Williem

I am woken out of my sleep by a thrumming down my lieutenant bond. I come to full consciousness with Angelina sleeping beside me.

Carefully stepping out of bed so I don't wake her, I feel Lake not far away through the bond and I follow it to him. He is the reason I am awake and leaving Angelina alone, even if it is for just for a moment.

As I dress, I ruminate on the events of yesterday.

Finding out that Angelina's mother was once a part of our sister pack is jarring, and knowing how they were murdered was the final nail in the coffin and I have no idea what to do, or how to make her feel better.

Like several Lycans my age, Lake and I had lost our parents at the same time to a coordinated attack led by rogues; most likely the same ones who had taken her parents from her, leaving us as charges of the pack as a whole.

I had grown up with every child and adult around me, belonging to everyone and no one. I wish she had experienced that too. It might not be as good as growing up with real parents, but it sure as hell beats growing up in an orphanage.

I couldn't let anything like that happen ever again, not on my watch.

I make my way out the house barefooted, and walk to where Lake is perched a couple hundred meters or so away from my home.

"There are more." He declares as a greeting.

"Fucking hell. We can't catch a break can we?" I mutter curses under my breath.

Rogues might have been human once, but the feelings they evoked in me dulled my ability to care for anything other than their absolute destruction. "Where are they?" I finally ask.

"Scattered. We can't get a lock on them. They seem more coordinated than I have ever seen. It gives me the creeps to see them intelligently hunt prey."

I know what he means. These rogues were working together and not just going after what they considered prey in a mad rush.

It seemed like in contrast to Lycans who got closer to their beasts as the full moon approached, these rogues got closer to their human side, leading to the higher intelligence we observed.

My rangers had provided reports of more gatherings of rogues in the woods surrounding Riviera. The town was not safe, and the last thing it needed was even more rogues. Intelligent rogues for that matter. I need to take care of them now.

"Did you hear about my mate and who killed her parents?" I ask, despite knowing before I open my mouth that he most likely knew already. Maybe even before I did.

"Yeah. It's fucked."

"I know. They were probably the same ones who took our families from us." I spit out, resentment thickening my voice until it is almost hard for the words to escape.

"I am worried for her." I confess. "Being with me is the most dangerous position any woman can be in. If it came down to it, the rogues would target her just because she is my mate."

"I think I'd be happier if Sierra was my mate instead." I laugh bitterly, continuing my soliloquy. "Angelina is nothing like Sierra. She doesn't know anything about the way we live or what it means to be an alpha's mate."

"If it was Sierra I could trust her to follow orders and run the moment things got dicey, but Angelina, she's too loyal. Too headstrong. Too much of herself, and I love every bit of that. I love her for all the reasons that could get her killed!" My voice raises at the end of my rant.

"Well alpha, you've done a lot of bitching, but not enough problem solving." Lake pans out, and if he wasn't my friend since before we could walk, and I didn't encourage free speech from my lieutenants, I would be pummeling the stuffing out of him right now.

"What do you want to do now? How do you keep her safe?" He asks, and thoughts fly through my head at the speed of light.

My thinking is cut short when my phone beeps; I never leave a room without it within range of my hands. There's an invasion of no less than 20 rogues on the eastern front and I need to be there immediately. I dash into my house to get everything I need.

As I step into the living room, I find a livid Angelina. I had rarely seen her pissed, but right now she looked like she could murder me without batting an eye.

"You're a fucking bastard you know that?"

"What are you talking about baby?"

"What's the point? The reason? Why have you been with me, touched me, held me as I cried, made love to me if this is how you really feel?" She screams, and for the life of me, I had absolutely no clue what she was saying.

"You're not making any sense Angelina. Honestly, I know you're in grief right now, but I have to go, there's something going on and I need to be there."

My phone beeps again and I glance at it, noting that the number of rogues attacking had swelled to an even thirty. This is so fucked!

"Leave if you want, come morning I'm going back to my dorm. I know what to do when the full moon comes. I don't need you or all this shit. I honestly don't." She says, and I see red.

She has no idea how dangerous it is to be alone out there smelling like me. She has no clue how much danger she would be putting everybody around her.

Rogues could track her by her scent alone, and lay waste to everyone around her even if they can't get their hands on her.

I open my mouth to speak, knowing I would regret everything I say, but right now, I have no control over how much fear her words fill me with.

"That is the absolute dumbest thing I have ever heard in my fucking life! You are staying right here Angelina! Right here! Until I come back and we can actually have a fucking discussion instead of this shouting match."

I should have ended it there but I didn't.

"Just so you know, you're not going back to that college. You are my mate, and you'll stay with me, here, where I can keep you safe." I finish, almost out of breath from all the yelling.

I head to my bedroom, getting dressed as quickly and efficiently as possible. I holster my weapons and get ready to leave.

"I am not the mate you want. Maybe you should look for her before you come back." Angelina says as I walk out the door, sprinting to my vehicle, and all I can do is wonder what brought this on.

This was nothing but pure madness.

Somehow, we had gotten outflanked by a new group of rogues, and somewhere in this madness one of my sentinels fell, his throat gouged out.

I make a point to relieve that particular one of its head.

There were so many of them that I knew for certain that these weren't newly changed rogues. They moved with a certain fluidity and speed I hadn't encountered before, dodging sword strokes from my very experienced hand.

"Liem! What the fuck are these things?" Elijah shouts his question, shaggy hair swinging wildly as he jumps back from a swipe meant to disembowel him.

As a group we prepare to take on the last eight rogues left. These ones had coordinated the others, and like the one that had killed Dwight, these ones were faster and stronger than the others, moving with speed on par with our rangers.

It didn't make them impossible to kill as the last one had found out; it only made our jobs harder.

We coordinate our thrusts and retreats so we move like a well-oiled machine, taking off limbs first before we land our killing blows.

In a quarter of an hour, we are the only ones left standing. Gathering our dead man and burning the corpses is the only thing left to do, so I take my exit, knowing I would have to look his mother in the eyes in the morning, and give her the terrible news.

I hate this part of my responsibilities.

No job was without its downsides, but this, relaying news of their death to a sentinel's family, was the only part which was genuinely difficult for me.

I had looked into the eyes of my alpha as he told me of my parents' death, and now I did that, watching the light and innocence leave the eyes of the bereaved. Fuck! I curse under my breath.

I return home under the bright rays of the morning sun. I had first taken a plunge in a stream on the way back before I took a real shower to get all the remaining gore off me. I look myself over before I step in to continue my fight with Angelina.

I am clean of it all. My body at least. My mind still replays each moment I could have done something different to save Dwight's life.

I shake my head to rid myself of the thought as I step in.

"Lina!" I call out, in hopes that the diminutive of her name would brighten her mood. There is no response. I walk from room to room and their emptiness mocks me with silence.

I search every room, before I call Alyssa, Josie, Jon, even Maric, and then everyone she had spoken to or befriended.

Angelina is gone.