I can't believe that she is in my arms. She is beautiful. I wanted to dropped to my knees and thank the moon goddess for keeping her alive. But I didn't have that luxury. I had to make sure that I protect Celina from these rogues. What were they going to do with her once they nurse her back to health. I looked around the room full of rogues instinctively pulling Celina closer to my body. Although Celina's screams had stopped, my wolf whimpered feeling the pain that she was going through. I had to hide my emotions for now until I dealt with the immediate threat in front of us as I scrutinized the rogues.
"Everyone out!" from the shocked looks on everyone face, they were not use to the harshness of the words coming from the soft spoken female rogue. She then let out a warning growl filled with power causing the medicine woman to let out a surprise gasp.
"Deliah!" the leader of the rogue was the first to speak out.
"Keagan, I need to talk to .. " her green eyes questioning me.
"Korin." I filled in the blank. I watched as two of the rogues exited the tent leaving Keagan and Deliah.
"I'm not leaving you alone. He might be her mate, but how do we know that he wasn't the one that hurt her. I don't trust him!" I growled at his implication even though a big part of me felt like it was my fault. Guilt swirled to the surface and I force it down with anger at this rogue for making me feel worthless. I didn't need this right now. Right now I need to focus on getting Celina through this healing process.
Deliah turned to face Keagan, "I can handle him. If I need you I will call for you. Now give me a few minutes alone with him." her tone still held authority but loss some of its forcefulness.
Keagan conceded but not without a parting growl thrown in my direction. Well that make two of us! Because I don't trust you either! I returned my attention back to Deliah. It was obvious that she was not an ordinary rogue. I felt the power coming from her wolf. She took a seat and face me glancing between me and Celina.
"You are a halfbreed?"
Great, mystery solved. Her question only meant one thing, she was a royal. I didn't answer her and I was getting irritated by how the royals were perceiving me. Like I was some bug that needed to be squashed.
"How is that possible?" I shrugged my shoulders at her question. There was no way I was giving her my life story without knowing if she was a potential threat.
"If you are a royal, then you know who Celina is?" I responded with a question of my own.
"Yes, the last time I saw her she was just a toddler. It was a couple years before our queen was.." her voice faded and her eyes became distant.
"Who else knows?" trying to bring her back from her distant memories.
"To everyone in the camp she is a rogue we found and trying to help. Only a select few know that she is a royal. I'm the only one that knows that she is our royal princess."
"So you don't trust them? Why are you with these rogues? They are dangerous and can not be trusted!"
"It's not that I don't trust them, it's the opposite. I trust them with my life. But if her true identify were to become known then I put their life in danger. Listen, I don't have that much time before Keagan comes barging in here. Do you know someone by the name of Thadius?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"A couple of days ago a group of royals passed through here. They had a prisoner named Thadius with them."
Alarms went off inside of me. "Sebastian is near here?!" I wanted to rip Sebastian apart for what he did to Celina. My wolf wanted his blood for hurting our mate.
"Keagan sent some scouts to investigate. They lost them about hundred and fifty miles east of here. The scouts said they just vanished."
I looked down at Celina. There was no way I could leave her in this state. Although I hated to admit it, I needed help. Trevor.
"Do you trust Keagan?"
"Yes."
"Then go get him. We will let him know what is going on." she left the tent in search of Keagan. I laid Celina down gently pulling the blankets over her. I couldn't keep my hands off of her. Running my hands over her bandaged arms placing my hand on her heart. Celina's chest rising slowly her breathing labored as she sucked in the air around her.
"Celina I'm so sorry. Please forgive me for being a stubborn jerk." I laid my forehead on top of hers placing a light kiss on her lips. Someone clearing their throat ended my contact with Celina. I looked up to see Keagan and Deliah hovering behind him.
"Deliah said you are her true mate and that we needed to talk."I hated breaking physical contact with Celina, but it was time to get down to business.
"Sit and I will tell you about Celina." Keagan took a step forward and hesitated like he was going to argue with me but he slumped in the chair crossing his arms over his chest. He was alert and seemed defiant as he glanced between me and Deliah. I could see that he didn't trust me but the need to find out about Celina was too intriguing for him to pass up.
Thirty minutes later after informing Keagan of Celina's true identity, her high guard, Thadius, and the encounter with Sebastian; Keagan was leaning forward with several emotions flickering across his face, shock, disbelief, anger, and acceptance of what I was telling him was true. It also helped that Deliah contributed some of her past memories of being around Celina when she was a child. Further validating my story. Keagan jumped up quickly knocking the chair over and started pacing back and forth. He was quiet for a few minutes and then stop abruptly in front of Deliah.
"This Sebastian, he was the one that was close by? Are you sure he wasn't tracking Celina?"
"I'm sure, their conversations had nothing about searching for her. They alluded to her death they were worried more about the prisoner than anything else. He was a handful."
"Look Keagan there was no way they were tracking her. I know their scent and they were not near the river where I found the fabric of her dress. I didn't leave the fabric, its in my possession. Plus I'm her mate, they wouldn't even have picked up her scent. My wolf barely picked it up and even her high guard has been disconnected and presumes she's dead. Trust me they were not in the area because of Celina. We need to find out why they are here. And if there is a possibility to save her uncle Thadius, we need to free him. And if Sebastian is killed in the process, then that is an added bonus!" Anger flared at the thought of Sebastian.
"You want me to send a couple of my people to your pack to get the High Guard to come here? A camp full of rogues. Seriously? Are you crazy? I would be signing their death warrant."
"Look if your men give my pack this note from me, they will be ok." I handed over a note that I had been writing to my father. Keagan hesitated for a second before taking possession. He looked up from the note with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged. "My father will know it is from me."
Two men entered the tent. One of the men was the guy that I met earlier touching Celina. "This is my second and most trusted friend, Colin. And this is Andrew one of my best fighters."
"Colin, Keagan tells me that you know what is going on." Colin slightly inclined his head. "It will take you about two days if you travel nonstop. When you reach the outskirts of our territory hand them this note and tell them to mindlink what I wrote to my father. Once you explain to my father who you and where I am, they will believe and be ready for you to lead them here. I'm not going to lie that being rogues will be a disadvantage because of the attacks to our pack from other rogues. You need to immediately be submissive and tell them you have a message from me so that they will not attack outright."
"I understand. We can handle ourselves. Remember we were once in a pack and understand the dynamics." Colin turned towards Keagan. "We'll leave in an hour."
"Colin. Andrew. Remember no one must know what is going on and where you are going." Keagan put his hands on each of his friend's shoulder. "Be careful and watch each other backs."
Andrew smiled and flexed. "Dude don't worry. I can handle whatever comes our way." Keagan chuckled and I watched as the three of them threw a couple fake punches at each other. Deliah was right these rogues were nothing like the ones that I've encountered in the past few months. You can see that they were a family and love each other as brothers. Most of the rogues I encountered were selfish and power hungry. Whenever I encountered a small group of rogues, they were always fighting amongst themselves to be the leader. My short time here I learned that Keagan was definitely the recognized leader that could easily be mistaken for an alpha if not for the lack of the alpha blood.
"You can stay here with Celina. I'll be next door in Colin's tent. " Keagan turned to leave.
"Keagan, thanks. I misjudged you and your people." I held out my hand. Keagan step towards me and place his hand in mine accepting my gratitude.
"It's alright. I understand that we are an enigma. That's why I try to keep a low profile. We are constantly moving to stay away from other rogues."
Finally I was alone with Celina. I crawled onto the pallet beside her getting under the covers. I wrapped my arms around her turning her body into mine placing her head on my chest. I was exhausted, the last few weeks of searching for Celina catching up to me. My wolf was finally at peace lying beside his mate and I closed my eyes letting sleep take over me.