I Can't Be The Alpha's Mate

Chapter 23- Some Information

I had been keeping my eyes on the group I had brought back with me, making sure they all worked their way into the pack easily. The rest of the pack had seemed to take them in relatively well, each of them finding work within only a few short days. 

Ty had just brought back the first piece of news about the rogues since the meeting we first found out about them. There were two camps of them, one on either side of the pack. So far, they hadn't made any moves toward joining any others, though we couldn't be certain how long that would last. 

I had been extremely nervous about the looming threat. They were incredibly close, and I was completely out of my element. I admitted as much to Rafe. He had insisted on me letting him take care of everything, but I just couldn't sit by and let him do that either. I knew Rafe's version of taking care of things, and it usually ended in a blood bath. 

I couldn't let Rafe keep falling into his old habits. At some point things needed to change with him. I had to try and show him that killing wasn't the only way to deal with his problems, overpowering the other group wasn't the only solution. I needed to show him that it was possible for two parties to live together in peace. 

"Just let me try talking to them or something," I begged Rafe later that night after we had crawled into bed. 

"No, Katarina. I'm not letting you go out there alone. Especially not when you have no idea what you're up against. We know these people are rogues but we don't know the cause of their state. Was it by choice? Were they forced out? We don't know, and the conditions mean everything in this. They could be some of the most dangerous people out there."

"But they could also be harmless," I protested. 

"They want to attack us, they are far from harmless."

"What if they only want to attack us because they beleive it's the only way they can be heard? You have a reputation for yourself that exceeds far beyond your territory, Rafe. People don't know how to handle you other than through what they've learned. If they think violence is the only language you speak, then that's how they're going to talk."

"Violence is the only language I speak," Rafe said with a shrug of his shoulder. 

I rolled my eyes at him. He and I both knew that wasn't true. He knew how to talk to people, he knew how to communicate, he just chose not to. 

"I'm being serious here,"

"So am I, I have a reputation to uphold, I can't disappoint."

I wanted to slap him. I knew he was getting my point, he was just choosing to be stubborn about it. And one of these days, that stubborness was going to get someone killed. 

"You're going to try talking to someone. I don't care who it is, I don't care if it's one rogue, a small group, or a hundred of them. You're just going to start somewhere. You need to figure out the why and instead of sending your men into harms way, just go ask. Why do these people want to attack you, why do they want to attack us?"

That last bit grabbed his attention. He realized this wasn't just an attack on him, he had a lot more to think about. Sure, he knew how to protect his pack, he would do his damndest to make sure the rogues never set foot inside his territory. However, it wasn't just him anymore, it was a 'we'. There wasn't just Rafe, there was Rafe and Katarina. Any attack on him was just as much an attack on me and in that moment I knew it had been the wrong word choice. 

If there was a chance I was in danger of these people, all hope of talk was out. Rafe wasn't going to take the time to figure out why they were doing this, or what they wanted. He was going to go straight in for it and kill them all, at least all he could find. 

I was fairly certain that was the wrong approach though. 

Right now, these groups were divided. We had no idea how many cells of rogues there were, how many were planning this attack, or where they were coming from. If Rafe went after one of the groups, or even two, how many more would there be to take their place?

If he made the move to attack those groups, there would be no going back from that. There would be no choice but to fight the rest of them, and how many would that be? Was this every rogue that was out there or was this just a small faction of them? Was there a chance that the military we had, would be enough to hold back these people, or would we be insignificant compared to them?

Chances were that we would have more than enough men. This was the largest pack for thousands of miles. We had pleanty of men trained in combat, people who knew what they were doing. If any military was well trained, it would most certainly be that of The Blood Alpha. 

I just didn't want to see people get hurt because of something that could be avoided. If there was some way to stop this war before it started, then I was going to figure out what that was. I wasn't going to doom these people to a horrible fate if there was something that could be done. 

If I had to work around Rafe in order to stop this war from happening then I would. I wouldn't feel good about it, I didn't want to keep these things from him, but if it was the option between going behind his back and the death of our people, I would do a little going behind his back. 

"They aren't going to get the chance to attack us," Rafe said through gritted teeth. 

I just placed my palm on his cheek, looking into his eyes. I could feel him relax slightly under my touch, but he was still tense. He was determined and I could tell. The thing was, I was just as determined as he was. Rafe was right, they weren't going to get the chance to attack us, because it was going to be stopped before it got to that point. Maybe in a different way than he imagined, but it would be stopped. I was going to make sure of it.

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It seems that Katarina knows a little more about what she's doing than she thinks. 

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