“Me either. But the border patrol is adamant they saw them. For now, it looks like all of them took off before any could be caught.” Zane relays, but now I am awake, and won’t be able to fall asleep again, so whatever is happening behind our backs has to be handled before Sage wakes up.
“Get everyone on patrol to meet me out front of the house,” I order Zane and cut the mindlink.
Sneaking back to my bedroom to retrieve a shirt, I try to be as silent as possible, not to wake Sage, but as I step out of the walk-in closet and tug my shirt over my head, I notice her looking at me sleepily.
“What’s going on?” She asks while yawning. She turns her head to the windows, confirming it’s too early to be awake yet.
“Nothing, go back to sleep,” I tell her, but she is already swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
“Where are you going?” She asks, walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
I wait for her to come out, and once she does, Sage walks back toward the bed. I almost sigh in relief, assuming she will go back to sleep. Instead of climbing in on her side, she lays down on mine, and presses her face against my pillow with a sigh. I’m getting ahead of myself again, at least she doesn’t look like she intends to try to follow me outside.
I chuckle at her. It is clear she isn’t completely awake, and by the time I walk over to her, she is asleep again, purring in her sleep.
“Huh, well, at least we don’t stink, she clearly likes our scent,” Donnie points out, peering at our mate through my eyes.
I tug the blanket over her sleeping form, gently running my hand through her hair, and turn around to leave the room. Once I close the door without any sound, I head down the steps.
I can hear my men gathering in front of the house, and I rush down the steps before they manage to wake my mate. If Sage caught on to what was happening, she wouldn’t be happy. Not only because she can’t get the rest she needs but because I’m clearly hiding this issue from her.
Though this might not even be an issue at all and just be my insane paranoia, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
I place my hand on the panel, and the locks groan, and twist before the handle jolts. I push on it and step outside into the cool, brisk night air.
The full moon illuminates the surroundings and nearly makes the front of the house light up. I shiver. I love full moons, there is always a thrilling buzz in the air during one, something energizing that makes Donnie want to howl at it and the stars while running wild in the forest. Nights like these make us both want to give into our most primal instincts.
It’s enough to take one look at my men to understand that they want to do the same. I see a few faces that aren’t even supposed to be on patrol tonight, but all are clearly too wired to ignore the moon’s call.
“We didn’t wake up Luna, did we?” Casen asks.
He is one of the youngest left in the pack, him and his identical twin, who isn’t amongst this lot. Luckily, back then, he asked to do scout training and had been with us. Casen is almost seventeen and looks so much like his mother with his long blonde hair and hazel eyes. Those very eyes are looking at me worriedly, as if he thinks he is in trouble.
“No, Casen,” I tell him. I try not to show how pleased I am once he relaxes and the tension drops from his shoulders.
“How many, and which one of you saw them?” I press, and Casen and Malik both put up their hands.
Malik is in his mid-twenties. After Casen and his twin brother Vince lost their mother, leaving them orphaned, both boys moved into Malik’s place when it was rebuilt, so that he could keep an eye on them.
Malik lost all seven of his siblings, his parents, and his chosen mate in the massacre. It was an awful loss, and I can honestly claim that Malik’s was the worst of all. But I do believe that having the twins with him has helped keep him sane. He had someone to care for, look after, and call his family once again.
Just like Zane and I have known each other since we were kids, we have known Malik for just as long. From our early rogue days. We all used to live in the same camp, which made all this harder for us. Not only because we had to rise from nothing just to lose everything, but also because we knew the desperation of being rogue and the lengths one would go just to survive.
“And you are positive they were rogues?” I ask him and raise an eyebrow. I don’t want to raise any alerts ahead of time, so until we get to the root of this issue, I won’t make rash decisions.
Both of them nod, and Malik holds up a rolled-up piece of paper. “Yes, Alpha,” he answers with nothing but confidence lacing his words. Malik steps forward and presents me with a map.
He shows me the perimeter near the river where we found Sage. I exhale a sigh of relief. The rogues they spotted near the border tonight have to be the same ones that we keep catching snooping around the perimeter.
“They never crossed the river, just ran along it,” Malik adds, confirming my suspicions. There is no way those rogues are someone new who randomly passed by. Those are the same ones who keep gathering around that area and walking right along our borders, yet manage to keep evading us.
“None of them said anything or tried to cross over?” I ask.
“No,” he shakes his head and looks up from the map. “I think they already knew we were there, and I alerted Zane. We watched them, and at some point, they just watched us back before eventually, they left as if they had no business around here.” Malik explains.
“We could try to hunt them down?” Zane suggests, but I wave him off.
Just catching a group of rogues and torturing them won’t get us anywhere. The best case scenario is that we can get some dribs and drabs of information, but the issue is that rogues are unpredictable.
The only thing that is predictable about them is that they never stay in one spot too long. That much I can base on my own experience. Back in the day, I was always on the move, looking for shelter or food and scavenging. Which in turn makes me nervous about them loitering around my pack.
Since the massacre, we have been attacked numerous times by packs of rogues. Technically, they aren’t supposed to travel in packs or build camps, but it has been becoming more popular even for the outcasts of society. Keeping together increases the chances of survival, it was why we did the same thing when rogue.