Chapter nine
“So this is where the rogues are hiding?” I asked the alpha when we came to a stop in front of a creepy, abandoned-looking factory.
“Basically, yeah,” He says as he puts on his shorts.
“Why am I not surprised?” I follow him towards a window of the factory. He shushes me while sliding against the wall and then under a window. I followed his lead. He then raises his head to peer through the window. I mirrored his actions. Through the window, I saw a couple of people sitting on chairs while drinking beer and chatting. “Are those the rogues?”
I see him nod. I usually would expect rogues to be torturing people and stuff instead of drinking beer. Maybe I didn’t know too much about rogues? All my parents told me was that they were very dangerous. I shouldn’t underestimate them yet though.
“Lily should be up on the top floor,” The alpha whispers. “Just follow me, okay?”
I nodded. Soon, I see the alpha’s nails turn super sharp like a werewolf’s claw. Was I supposed to do that too? He noticed my confused expression and asked, “Why aren’t you retracting your claws?”
“I don’t know how to,” I admit.
“Isn’t that necessary though, especially for a beta?” He looks at me strangely.
I shrugged. “I’ve never been taught that before.” I really haven’t, seeing as I don’t train my wolf for combat at all.
“Once we save Lily, I’ll make sure to teach you that because it’s kind of mandatory when you’re a shifter.” He crouches down. “Get on my back.”
I timidly got onto his back and wrapped my arms around his neck. I haven’t been in this position ever since I was a child when my dad used to give me piggy back rides. He then used his claws to climb the wall. I was scared of heights, so I held on tightly and shut my eyes.
We soon reached the roof of the factory and I let go when he set me down.
“For a girl who doesn’t know the basic shifting fighting moves, you sure had a death grip on me. I nearly choked because of you.”
“It’s cause I’m scared of heights,” I admit.
“You do realize that even if you fall, you won’t feel anything because of your wolf.”
“We should be saving Lily right now, not talking about this,” I say, not wanting to talk about my little knowledge about my own kind.
He looks at me strangely again and walks along the roof. I follow him as he crouched down to look at something. I noticed that he was looking through a hole.
“She’s down there,” He whispers, “Look.”
I looked through the hole and see a blonde girl tied up with a bunch of men surrounding her.
“Alright here’s the plan,” He starts. “I’ll go down there and fight the rogues and when everybody is out of that room, tear this roof and untie your friend. When you get her, break through the window and run back to the house. If I get captured, ask my pack mates to come and save me, okay?”
“Are you crazy? You can’t handle all of them at once! What if they kill you?!”
“I know I can’t, but I can outsmart them. If they kill me, then make sure my pack stays happy okay? It’s the most you can do when I’m gone.”
I looked at him incredulously when he recited his plan. I would feel extremely guilty if he dies. Then I question, “But what if I don’t know how to untie rope?”
“Then take this.” He hands me a knife.
“Where did you get a knife from?” I ask as I recalled myself carrying his shorts and t shirt and felt no knife with them.
“That’s a secret. Now, go.” He smirks and he jumps off the roof. I heard a soft thud and then something being ripped open. I closed my eyes a breathed slowly. Oh god, how was I going to do this? I’ve never tried my werewolf strength before so I have no clue what would happen if I couldn’t rip this roof open. I kind of regret not taking those training lessons my dad gave me. Whenever my family was training, I would be off to read a book. I don’t think they minded that I wasn’t training because they never ask me to or they think I suck at it and I don’t need it.
I clutched the knife I had in my hand when I hear loud noises and I peeked through the hole. The men surrounding Lily ran out probably to see what was happening.
I sighed. Here I go.
I put both of my hands through the large hole and tried pulling it off. Great, I’m so weak that I can’t even pry a piece of rusty, worn-out metal open.
I felt tears of frustration build up. If I could open the roof, I would’ve been cutting the rope off of Lily by now. It’ll be because of me that this plan wouldn’t work. I can almost see the look of disappointment on the alpha’s face.
‘C’mon wolf,’ I say to her, ‘Lend me some extra strength.’
Soon, I felt my fangs and claws come out. I pulled as hard as I could and little by little, the metal came to open. When the hole was big enough to fit myself through it, I stopped and panted. Damn, I needed to work out.
Now, I had to overcome my fear of heights and jump from the ceiling to the ground. I let out another shaky breath. I felt like such a pussy. If my pack saw me now, they would be looking down on me with shame.
When I jumped down, I didn’t get hurt at all. But being me, I didn’t land down as gracefully as I had planned despite my name being “Grace”. I had fallen onto my butt and luckily the knife in my hand didn’t cut me anywhere.
Lily was tied up on an air mattress and a look a relief fell on her face when she saw me, although she also looked concerned when I fell on my ass.
I quickly ran to her and untied the rag around her head, probably used to cover her mouth, and cut the rope off with my knife. When she was free, she hugged me tightly and I hugged her back.
“I’m so glad you’re okay Grace.” She says as I felt tears on my shoulder. “But how did you get here?”
“I’ll explain to you later. Let’s go.” I got up and ran to the window. I opened it and looked down. And here comes my fear of heights again. This time, I had Lily. She knew about my fear of heights so she took my hand. Together, we jumped out.
I can’t help but peek at the alpha through the window. I gasped as tears tried to threaten their way out again. He looked horrible. There were gashes everywhere on his body and he was losing against the many rogues.
I had to help him. I can’t help but feel guilty when I started running with Lily toward the way we came from. Lily looked at me in a concerning way and I explained to her everything while we were running. To my surprised, she shifted and let me ride on her so we can get back to the house quicker to save the alpha.
We saw the sun rising when we got to the house and I woke everybody up. When I had told them what happened, they quickly shifted and followed their alpha’s scent. They were quick. I was surprised when they easily surpassed Lily’s alpha speed and I had just noticed that all these men weren’t normal werewolves.
No wonder they argued with the alpha, which was extremely disrespectful.
I can’t help but wonder how they turned into rogues in the first place if they were alphas and if they were good or bad. Would I be doing a good thing or a bad thing by asking my mate to give them some land to start their own pack or what?
We arrived in front of the factory soon and I was surprised to see the alpha still alive, but not alone. He was on the ground with rogues surrounding him. Lily shifts back and I give her a long t shirt.
The three wolves that came with us growled at the rogues.
“You made a mistake for your alpha to infiltrate our headquarters like that,” A man of what I can only assume is the leader said, “And selfishly taking another one of our girls when you already have the other. It was also another mistake to bring both of the girls back.” He smiles sickly and I can feel the rage coming out of him. “Those girls can’t fight for shit, so why even bother taking them?”
The small pack growled. I hope that they can handle these rogues since there were so many.
One of them shifted. The second in command did a protective stance in front of us. “You won’t be getting these girls anytime soon. They’re not toys, you know that right?” He spits out.
The rogue leader tilts his head and grins. Out of nowhere, rogues started to appear behind us. We were surrounded.
“Attack,” The leader says. And the rogues charged toward us.
“You girls need to shift and follow me so I can get you to safety okay?” The beta says as he punches the wolves that lunged toward us.
“If you shift, maybe Ryder will smell you and he’ll help us out. It’s his birthday today too, so his wolf will definitely sense you,” Lily says. I nodded at her and shifted.
“Run to your pack,” The beta says. “If you’d like, we could maybe get some help. We can only hold on for so long.”
Lily nods determinedly and shifts into her wolf. The beta shifts into his wolf too and knocks out more wolves. Lily took one down by biting him and I was standing there, trying to think of what I could do to help instead of being my usual useless self.
When I saw a gap where rogues couldn’t easily get us, I nipped Lily gently with my teeth and ran toward there. I felt Lily follow me and quickly ran to catch up. I was trying to run quick and stay with Lily’s pace. She had more stamina than me since she was an alpha but I probably could run as quickly as her. The rogues that were chasing us from behind seemed to be catching up on us.
‘They’re too fast,’ I say to Lily in our mind link.
‘I know. I’ve been trying to contact the pack but they’re probably still sleeping.’
‘Shit, this is bad.’
‘Don’t worry. I have a plan.’
‘What is it?’
‘I’ll distract the rogues behind us while you keep running toward the city. It isn’t too far from here.’
‘Are you crazy, Lily? I’m not leaving people behind again!’
‘They can’t hurt me. I heard that they’re not ordered to, so I’ll be fine. I’ll just run around quickly, okay?’
I sighed and tried to blink away tears. I almost messed up in the plan earlier because of my weak wolf. I don’t want to mess up with this one. I can already feel my wolf wearing out. I had no choice but to do it through. I could never outsmart a bunch of rogues that are chasing us like Lily can. I’m not even that confident to do it.
‘Be careful,’ I say with defeat.
‘You too,’ She says and I can almost see the smile she would have on.
Lily stops abruptly and I almost stop too but I kept running. I pushed myself faster. I hear growls behind me and a couple of pained whimpers. It didn’t sound like Lily’s though.
Soon, the sounds faded out and I can almost smell the scent of people. I was close to the city.
I pushed myself faster but suddenly felt a presence behind me. I whimpered when I felt it bite my leg. It made me stop running and yank my leg out of the teeth. I turned to growl at the thing behind me, ignoring the stinging sensation in my leg.
It was a big, gray wolf. Shit, it looked like an alpha wolf.
He growled loudly at me and I whimpered but stopped myself half way. I can’t show fear. I wasn’t going to be a coward this time. I put up a stance I’ve seen my dad put one day and let out a loud growl that I’ve never let out before.
It surprised the wolf and me as well. I felt my wolf coming out and let my instincts take over. When he was distracted by my loud growl, I lunged at him. I locked my teeth around his neck. I tasted the coppery taste of his blood in my mouth and I nearly let go because of the taste but instead, I bit down harder.
He whimpered for a second but then spun his body around with so much force, I let go of his neck and flew a couple of feet away from him. He growled again at me and bit my neck like how I did earlier. I held back a whimper and thrashed around his hold. There was no possible way for me to escape. I swiped at him with my claws and felt proud that I had made another mark of blood.
He didn’t let go and bit down harder. I swiped my claws at his head now and he let go. I hastily made a run for it because I didn’t know how to fight. I only got so far when he clamped his teeth on my neck again. Another growl came from him and by instinct, I howled.
It was a loud howl and I can only hope that somebody from my pack heard it. The wolf shut me up by biting down harder. I stopped struggling because I was in so much pain. If he bit down harder, I probably would die.
He walked back to the direction of the factory while dragging me with his sharp teeth. I whimpered in pain.
I felt like passing out because I’m losing so much blood. When I almost shut my eyes, I smelled something really nice and heard a very loud growl.
Before I knew it, I got dropped to the ground and I looked at what happened. A larger wolf was biting down on the wolf that bit me. I hear the smaller wolf whimper and I made eye contact with the wolf that had saved me.
It was my mate.