Luna of Rogues

Part 9 - A Dangerous Man

All eyes turned to us when we entered the courtyard: the arrival of five wolves was enough to distract the rogues from their leader's argument with his son. Brandon's insolent gaze slid over me and straight to Rhys, where his eyes acquired a sly look which I didn't trust an inch.

But the main focus of his attention, to my surprise, seemed to be Fion. He growled and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like mate. Fion's wolf recognised him, too, and let out a cautious whine.

That was all it took for Brandon to stride over to her and growl again viciously. All the males near her, including Callum and Leo, scampered sideways and even Rhys took a few paces backwards. You don't mess with someone's mate, especially before they're marked. When Brandon reached her, he placed a hand on her neck in a way that was far too possessive for my liking and pulled her towards his body, inhaling her scent.

I'll never forget the look in Rhodric's eyes when he realised that Fion and Brandon were mates: disappointment and what I guess was fear — he knew the truth about his eldest son. I was only suspicious of Brandon at the time, which is why I stayed close to Fion and watched his every move like a hawk.

"Brandon Llewellyn," he introduced himself. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I know who you are," she said into an open link. The undercurrent of insolence made me incredibly proud. "Fion."

"Hello, Fion. If you'd excuse me for a minute..." It didn't take Brandon long to recover from meeting his mate, because he turned to face Rhys's wolf and smiled with far less of the earlier spite. "Hey, little brother. It's been too long."

Rhys wagged his tail once hesitantly in response. Other than that, he just watched Brandon with wary interest.

"You didn't tell me Rhys had found his mate," he said roughly. It was accompanied by a gesture to me. Normally Brandon probably wouldn't have taken the blindest bit of interest in an average-sized female rogue. But I had been leading a pack which included his brother, and I had stayed beside Fion despite his wolf's clear command.

"The dark wolf?" Rhodric laughed, but it felt strained. "That's Skye. You might want to watch out for her. And she's not mated to your brother. I adopted her."

"Oh, that's Skye," Brandon laughed. He glanced back at Leo, who averted his eyes. Something about the whole interaction rubbed me up the wrong way. My hackles rose.

It was Rhodric's turn to look at Leo, and his eyes narrowed a fraction. "Yes, but don't bother getting acquainted, because you're not staying long."

"I just found my mate! Of course I'm staying! I already explained — we had trouble with the ferals in the west. It wasn't safe to stay and it's only a few months until I turn twenty-four, which is when I could come home anyway," Brandon insisted. I did not like his tone one bit. Not even flockies dared to speak to my father with such obvious disdain.

Rhodric narrowed his eyes and sighed heavily. "There's no use shouting at me, boy. It's Rhys's decision. He's the one you nearly killed."

"How many times have I apologised for that? I was fifteen — a stupid kid, and he started it," Brandon growled.

I snorted. Blaming Rhys for what happened only proved he was still a stupid kid, but he heard and singled me out for a long, vicious growl. There was no small amount of force in it — Brandon had Alpha blood and a nasty temper. My wolf seemed to just soak it up, allowing me to avoid submission and snarl back. I was trying to provoke him, to prove to Rhodric that he couldn't be trusted.

The plan worked — Brandon took a furious step towards me. But Rhys, in one his rare moments of sensibility, stepped between us.

"Bran can stay," Rhys projected through the mind-link to all of us. He then added privately to me, "Do you have a death wish? You're good at fighting, Skye. But he's better. You'll lose, and you'll die."