Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 14 - Rogue's Honour

"Do you have any idea how valuable she is?" Ian asked me. When his only answer was silence, he chuckled. "No, I don't s'pose you do, or you'd never have let us out."

I could tell that Kat was torn. She hated me, but she hated the other rogues a lot more. So, however much it bugged her to stand beside me, she did it. I wasn't holding her arm anymore: it wasn't necessary. Where could she run? We were completely boxed in.

Ian beamed, and it almost looked genuine. "Look here, friend. If you give her to us nicely, I'll let you walk. Alive and unharmed - rogue's honour."

"Or," I countered carelessly, "you could come with us. Once we're safely off Lowland territory, you can all have a share of the ransom for your trouble, and I'll let you walk. Alive and unharmed."

"Are you mad? You're outnumbered eleven to one! We could take her and leave you spilling your guts in one of these cells without breaking a sweat."

The other rogues shuffled in place around us. They were getting bored, and it was only a matter of time until one of them threw an impatient punch. Ian might be their leader, but he didn't have them on short leashes.

"You could," I agreed. "But then Kat would mind-link for help. Do you reckon you'd get away with the whole pack nipping at your heels?"

I saw Ian pause. It had been a gamble, but the dumbstruck look of his face proved me right. Kat had not been bluffing earlier: being able to stop someone mind-linking was not a commodity around here. He was now frantically wondering why she hadn't already summoned her mate.

"That true, bitch?" Ian tried to sound so casual about it, as he didn't really care. It came out in a forced hiss. Because how could he back down now?

I didn't even dare look at her. Please be as smart as I think you are.

"True," Kat said quietly.

Sometimes, a long while afterwards, I would wonder how the rumours that I'd been sleeping with Kat started. We were having an affair, people said, and she had run away with me willingly. I supposed it made a good story - a woman who was married to one Alpha, mates with another, but fell in love with their mortal enemy.

But most good stories are just too good to be true. This one certainly was. I'd never met Kat before I tried to kidnap her, she'd put up a serious fight, and we were about as far from lovers as you could get. People simply couldn't understand how I'd managed to steal her away, so they used their imaginations.

See, there was a reason a Luna had never been kidnapped before. There was a reason kidnappings were scarce amongst our entire species. Unless you did it perfectly, your enemies would know where you were in an instant. There was almost no chance to stop the alarm being raised, and you'd be chased until the ends of the earth. Unless, of course, you happened to have a Shadowcat for a father, an old bloodline and mental talents beyond most people's wildest dreams.

Ian muttered curses under his breath. Finally, he caved. "We'll be wanting a million,"

"No."

"Half," he snapped grudgingly.

"No."

"Half a million!"

"No. You'll get thirty thousand each and you'll count yourselves lucky."

As luck would have it, most of his men couldn't do that sum, but thirty thousand each sounded like plenty to them, so they broke in raucous cheers while Ian scowled at us. And it was settled. I was paying them, and they were - I wasn't sure - protecting me?

I let Ian lead the way up the staircase. If there were flockies waiting at the top, he was welcome to deal with them. He had to earn his thirty thousand somehow. Kat was walking with me, now, not a protest to be heard. Maybe it was because there were rogues behind us. Maybe this was just another way of manipulating me - and it was probably working, to be honest.