Malia’s POV
My eyebrows shut up, at the sound of the deep masculine voice behind me. Everything went silent the minute his voice echoed in the air. So silent that you could hear a pin drop to the floor.
“She’s got company!” I heard the rogues whisper to themselves.
“What’s holding you men back from taking her?” One of the rogues yelled, joining the others. The one who spoke looked older and had a scar over his left eye, which he definitely must have gotten from an opponent that I bet was dead now.
“Grab the girl now!” He ordered, but the others stayed put with their eyes glued on the gentleman behind me.
“Careful how you finish that sentence boy,” The Man behind me grimaced.
“Is that aura I perceive?” The older rogue asked. “Get them!” He added with a smile creased on his face.
Two rogue men came barreling in. They were running right for us. I ducked, burying my face in the dirt confused about what to do next. “Alpha Ryder!!” Someone behind the bushes stirred, “So that was his name” I thought to myself. He leaned forward grabbing me by the hand and then had me pulled onto his chest, standing closer to me than he needed to be.
The leaves crunched beneath my boot as I took more steps, closer to the man in front of me. We were so close that I could smell his perfume, something subtle and intoxicating like fresh flowers on a summer day. I felt his hand wrapped around my knuckles pulling me away from the rogues that were approaching.
“Don’t let them get away!” The rogues yelled coming from behind us as we took to our heels.
I clenched my jaw and forced myself to take a deep breath and then blurted out “Where are you taking me?”, my tone scared and bitter as I felt. For the first time, he looked directly at me. His lips pressed together and a tight frown creased the corners of his eyebrows, making my stomach growl from fear.
A half moon did little to cut through the dark, the tall trees lined the road and I thought I heard a river nearby, that could put us practically anywhere between the edges of the rogue territory and the outskirts of another.
“Take them off!” He pointed to my boots and that’s when the memory nagged, the same tone in which Zade had yelled at me for the very first time. I’ve been stupid enough then to love him, despite his coldness and to pretend that he cared for me too. After weeks of Victoria’s arrival, I wondered if any love remained in his heart at all. It was still beating so there had to be some humanity left
Blinking hard against the brisk evening air, I bent over to the floor taking my boots off. Before I could finish, a whoosh came from the woods on both sides of the road. At first, I thought it must be a swarm of bats flying high in the trees but then we heard heavy footsteps from behind the bushes, louder than earlier.
The smell of rotten pumpkins mixed with the awful smell from the sewer filled the space in the air. These were rogues, dozens of them. “Get behind me,” The Alpha next to me yelled as he drew out his sword, and three of these men were immediately cut down by his sword. Bending my knees low, I was too terrified to move as fear flooded into me so forcefully that I couldn’t hold my thoughts together.
“She belongs to us!” One of the rogues cursed under his dying breath, and without hesitation, the Alpha dug his sword right into him, taking his head off completely.
I looked away in fear, wishing I hadn’t come into the woods in the first place. Suddenly I wished I had stayed back, but the thoughts of Victoria in my space made me so sick in my stomach.
“I can see you’d prefer dying out here than getting out of here,” The Alpha from earlier glared at me. I snapped back to reality staring at him standing in all his 6’1 muscular glory. His green icy eyes glared at me.
“I…” I stuttered.
“It’s either you come with us, or I’d have you thrown over to them,” He said.
“Saves us the stress of having to deal with them anyway!” The Alpha added.
“No, please!!” I pleaded.
“Hmmm,” He lightly tapped his fingers on his chin before he grinned. “We’d have to reconsider that as an option!” He said.
“Kill!!” More rogue men charged towards us, and just then unfamiliar faces stormed out from the bushes headed for the rogues. Each man held on to a sword as they cut right through every rogue man that attacked. I looked closely watching how they all synchronized working hand in hand, and then I noticed they were his men.
The so-called Alpha’s men…
“He had his men here with him all along? Did they know I was here, or was this some kind of scheme just so they could take me and have me all to themselves as well?” I thought to myself as I hid behind the bushes in fear, searching through my thoughts for a solution.
I peeked out from the side of the bushes, as much as I dared. On the road far ahead were several riders on horseback, headed for the rogue men. Their faces shattered against the rising moonlight, whoever they were, the rogues were now heavily outnumbered.
My hands shook but I tried to study them. “I can do this, I have to stay calm,” I thought to myself. Tucked into a garter around my thigh was a knife which was there for this very reason. Even knowing that I was useless with the blade, but then it still had to be there.
“My men will have them distracted onto the other road down the river and slow it down for us to get away!” He said. If there was ever a proper time for a curse word, this was it.
“Shit!!” I hissed.