Chapter 2: Rogues

-Rhys-

“I almost had you!”

I looked over my shoulder, seeing our luna barely able to catch her breath, as we finally stopped and rested. I wasn’t sure why she was always trying to beat me. I was a werewolf and she was a human. She would never be able to outrun me, but she was determined to do it. I shook my head a little and smiled, as I watched her trying to gather her strength.

“No, you didn’t,” I said.

“In that … turn, I almost had you,” she breathed heavily.

I smiled, just shaking my head.

“Not really,” I said.

Serena looked at me annoyed, her hands on her hips, and looking like she just wanted to fall to the ground. She always came out on my morning runs. In the beginning, I wasn’t so sure about it, but now we had pretty much become friends. Friends … it sounded weird. She was still a hunter even though she had become our luna now. It had, of course, only been a year since she joined us, so it took some time to adjust to this new idea of her, but I did like her, and she made Rogan very happy. That was what mattered. Most hunters had also been converted and we had helped them get a normal life unless they wanted to join us. Some hunters had. Like Elisa. She was now together with Marcus, and I saw how happy they were too, but I still hadn’t found my mate. Maybe I never would. I had stopped thinking too much about it. It wouldn’t do me any good anyway.

“Damn, you run fast,” she breathed.

I chuckled a little.

“You tell me to.”

“Because I want to actually beat you. I don’t want to cheat,” she said.

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you, but you will never beat me.”

“Wow, so confident,” she teased.

I smiled and then started to walk back. She quickly started to follow me, but I could see how tired she already was.

“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard,” I said.

“Do you know who you are speaking to?” she asked.

I smiled. Yeah, I guessed I said that to the wrong person.

“I forgot.”

She chuckled a little.

“Listen, I need to get faster and better, and this is the way,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because I am a luna now, and I am living in your world. I need to be prepared,” she said.

“You got people to protect you. Anyone would sacrifice themselves for their luna.”

“I don’t want them to, and I don’t think I can count on that either,” she said.

“Why?”

“Considering my … past.”

Right … maybe everyone still had a hard time adjusting, but I knew in the future it would get better because it already had. The wolves and hunters had made peace, and that was a big step already.

“The last will come around,” I said.

“Maybe, but if they don’t, I don’t blame them,” she said.

“No?”

She shook her head.

“No, I know what I have done, and I have a lot to make up for,” she said.

That was why I had started to like her. Serena owned up to her own mistakes, and she didn’t ask for anyone’s forgiveness. She wanted to earn it, and if someone didn’t give it to her, she also understood why. She wouldn’t demand it from anyone. She would just do her best to make up for the past.

“You already have,” I said.

She smiled at me, and it was like she turned into a whole other person when she did.

“Thank you, Rhys, but we know I can’t erase some of the things I have done.”

“No one can,” I said.

She just smiled a little, but I could see she wasn’t really listening to me, so I changed the subject.

“Are you coming out with us tonight?”

“Rogan doesn’t want me to, but of course,” she said.

“He is just looking out for you.”

“He is trying to cuddle me,” she said.

We laughed a little, and I knew she was right. Rogan had become very overprotective of her.

“Yeah, he is,” I said.

“But I am not staying home,” she said. “I’m a hunter after all. I don’t stay home.”

“So, how did you convince him?”

“Do you really want the details on that?” she teased me.

I shook my head, laughing a little.

“No, I can’t say I do.”

We both smiled at each other. Serena wasn’t at all like I had thought. Once I hated her because she was a hunter, and I wanted Rogan to reject her and kill her, but now I saw her as a whole other person. A good person. One I knew my friend loved and who loved him, and made him so damn happy.

“The rogues are really making a lot of trouble lately, huh?” Serena said.

“Yeah, there was an attack just yesterday, and we know they will strike again soon. We seemed to have figured out who they are taking,” I said.

“Yeah, they are slowly trying to gain more territory, but there is more than one pack, they could go after,” she said. “How do you know which one is the right one?”

“We can’t be sure, which is why we are sending people out to each pack to help,” I said.

“Do we have enough people?”

“Julianna agreed to help,” I said.

Serena nodded. We had been working quite closely with Julianna actually. She seemed to be taking over a little from her father, who really wasn’t a fan of Rogan after he chose a hunter over his daughter. Julianna couldn’t have been happier though, because she was gay. She didn’t want to be with Rogan. She never did.

“Good. We will need a lot of fighters if we are going to send them to different packs.”

I nodded.

“We still don’t know exactly how many they are,” I said. “But we need to stop them.”

“Do they take prisoners?”

I shook my head.

“No, they leave no survivors,” I said. “A few have been able to escape, but they are ruthless, and they seem to be working together.”

“Why is that so weird?”

“Because rogues don’t work together. They are stubborn and angry and selfish. They can’t work together, and yet they seem to be.”

“How?” she asked.

I shrugged.

“I’m not sure.”

“Someone must be leading them,” she said.

“Yes, and we need to figure out who.”

“Could it be an actual pack member?” she asked.

I shrugged again.

“I’m not sure, but this isn’t the first time we have had rogues doing this. A long time ago, they seemed to be working together as well and were terrorizing a lot of packs. Rogan’s and my parents were the ones to truly stop them, but of course, they had a lot of help.

“Someone seems to have picked up their work,” Serena said.

I nodded.

“Which is why we need to stop them before it gets out of hand.”

“Then we better get ready,” she said.