Chapter 27: Working

-Serena-

Games … he liked to play games, that was all it was.

I couldn’t fall for it!

I couldn’t …

They were monsters, I knew that. I had been taught it, and I had fought against them. I had seen them kill. I had lost many good … I wouldn’t say friends, more like comrades, that was what we were, but he had said … or he had made it sound like … like … like it wasn’t true. That he and his kind didn’t kill anyone, but if they didn’t kill anyone … then why hunt them?

*This what he wanted*, I told myself, as I caught myself questioning everything. He wanted to shake my confidence and make me doubt, so I would turn against my own. I couldn’t allow it to happen!

“Serena—"

“Don’t. Talk,” I said, as Rogan walked closer, sitting down at his desk again and clearly wanting to continue this conversation.

“I just wanted to know if you’re hungry. We have been working for a while.”

“Oh, like you care.”

“I do,” he said.

I looked up from the book and saw the look in his eyes, almost a little broken and very sad. How was this the frightening Rogan? The alpha of all alphas. Who had turned the war around and pretty much had all of us hunters slaughtered? I didn’t get it … I didn’t get any of it.

“I’m fine …”

“Very well.”

A silence fell over us, and we continued to just sit there doing our own work. Not that I was really working. I didn’t even really read. I couldn’t, because what he had told me was running through my head like an evil song or something like that. I hated what he had done to me. I hated that I couldn’t stop asking questions. My curiosity was just clawing at me, wanting more, needing to know more.

“Would you sit still?”

I looked up from the book again and saw Rogan watching me. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it seemed like the sun was lower in the sky.

“What?”

“You have been moving around for hours now like your legs have a mind of their own,” he said. “It’s getting to me.

Only after hours, it was getting to him? He really was a patient person, wasn’t he? I hadn’t even noticed I had moved around that much. Maybe it was because my butt had started to go numb, or maybe it was just because of all these questions I wanted to ask him.

“I …”

I was about to tell him that I wasn’t the one who asked to be here, but then my stomach decided to growl like crazy, and the room just turned dead silent. For a few seconds, we just sat there looking at each other, until Rogan leaned back in his seat and smiled.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“No.”

“Your stomach doesn’t seem to agree,” he said.

I just lowered my eyes, focusing on the book again.

“Serena, if you are hungry just admit it,” he said.

“Why do I need to?”

He leaned closer, placing his arms on his desk, and looking at me with those … deep, deep dark green eyes. It was hard to keep eye contact when he was looking at me like that, so I continued to focus on the book.

“Because there is nothing wrong to admit when you need help,” he said.

“I’m hungry, not drowning,” I told him and lowered the book.

“No, but you aren’t willing to accept you are hungry because that means receiving something from me,” he pointed out.

“Just … leave it alone.”

“And let my mate starve? Yes, that sounds like something I am capable of,” he said.

I just rolled my eyes and lifted the book again.

“Serena.”

I sighed.

“What?!” I asked annoyed and looked at him.

“Put the book down.

“Bite me!” I told him.

I was definitely extra grumpy because I was hungry, so I didn’t even make sense to my own ears. Rogan didn’t appreciate my rude tone though, and got up from his seat, walked around the desk, and grabbed the book.

“Hey!”

He threw it on the desk behind him, and then caged me in by placing his hands on the armrest, so I couldn’t go anywhere.

“Don’t speak to me like that,” he said.

“Or what?”

“Or you will quickly learn not to,” he said.

“What? Are you going to teach me a lesson?” I said sarcastically.

“If I have to.”

I looked at him confused, but he just smiled and slowly leaned away.

“Now, get up.”

“Make me!”

He sighed and rolled his eyes before he grabbed onto my arm, and before I knew it, he had swung me over his shoulder.

“Wow! Put me down!” I told him.

“You could have walked on your own,” he said. “But you decided to be bratty.”

“This is not funny, Rogan!”

I heard him chuckled a little, as he walked to the door.

“It is for me.”

“Put me down!”

He didn’t listen to me and just continued through the house with me over his shoulder. We even came by a few people who all stopped and stared at us. I felt so damn humiliated, and I promised myself I would pay him back for this. I wasn’t exactly sure how … but I would find a way.

“Here we go.”

Rogan only put me down when we were in the kitchen again. He placed me in a chair by the kitchen island, and I just glared up at him.

“You might as well learn that listening to me will make it so much easier.”

“You mean obeying you. Am I a dog?” I asked.

”No, but I do run things around here, and right now you aren’t even a guest.”

“Just a prisoner.”

“A well-treated one,” he said.

“Well-treated?” I asked.

He nodded and walked over to get some food for me.

“You could be in a cell or in the ground,” he said, as he started to cook me some food.

I couldn’t cook. Our meals were always prepared because us hunters were busy being trained and working out and always staying sharp. We didn’t have a moment to rest. We were always working but … despite being the alpha, it seemed like Rogan could actually cook.

Interesting …

*No! Not interesting*, I quickly told myself. There was nothing interesting about Rogan. He and I were enemies, and that was not going to change.

“I think I would prefer it,” I said.

“Being in the ground?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t have tried taking that poison otherwise.”

Rogan turned to look at me and a dark look had taken over. What? Did he not like me talking about killing myself? Did it really matter? It was never going to change between us. I knew who I was and who I served and so did Rogan. How could that ever change?