Chapter 5

ETHAN

Emma’s eyes were bright, like she was enjoying the opportunity to share her knowledge. We would get along quite well then.

“It’s common knowledge that rogues are shifters who do not belong to a pack. Most end up going feral because our kind is hardwired to pack life and following an Alpha. There are certain rumors that have circulated around from pack to pack that some rogues banded together and appointed an Alpha. They effectively became their own pack. They are no longer rogues at that point though. The two cases that I know of for certain occurred in Washington state and another in Wyoming. Therefore, it’s possible. However, for rogues to survive outside of a pack, they have to be very strong mentally in order to fight the urge to become feral.”

Her knowledge was impressive. Perhaps the urge to get her help was for a good reason. Emma found a passage in the book and read it aloud.

“Rogues rely on the animalistic instincts of the shifter for survival. The beast takes over as the humanity is stripped away. However, one must find a way to strengthen and clear the mind before the beast lays claim to it. The mixture of Sylnea pollen and Wentai roots can be administered orally daily to protect the mind. The mixture of Wentai roots and Katymus leaves can lessen the hold of a bonded shifter to force a temporary transition from pack member to rogue without being exiled from their pack entirely.”

An emotion flitted across her eyes, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared once she looked back towards the phone.

“What type of rogue situation is it?” she asked, fiddling with her hair blonde braid.

I turned the camera around, so she could see the screens. Her eyes went wide, taking in the state-of-the-art room.

“Holy fuck, that tech is amazing,” she sighed. Her eyes were lit up with excitement and longing. If this excited her then she would love our Tech Hub.

“Know a lot about tech, little wolf?”

She rolled her eyes at my teasing, but it clearly did not bother her.

“I will let the nickname slide for now, but yes and no. It really just depends on the kind of tech and what the capacities of it are. I have a feeling that there would be few limitations with something like that.”

Yeah, I would love to show her the Tech Hub. It was where our security team oversaw the entire territory. Shifts rotated so that there was always a team there. It was state-of-the-art as well, so it had any and every type of technology that could benefit us. Besides the War Room, it was my other favorite place in the packhouse.

I wondered if I could ever convince her to come hang out some time. Sure, we did not typically allow others into our territory except for visiting packs. However, I was the Beta, so I had some pull. I could get her here, but Xander would still kill me if I brought her around.

Hmm…it might be worth the potential death to piss him off though.

Perhaps she could help Xander get that stick out of his ass. Hell, I had been trying for years, but he was always so damn stubborn. We both took our jobs very seriously because it meant the safety and fulfillment of our pack. However, the difference between him and me was that I could still let loose and be a person once in a while.

“So, as you can see on this map, there are three locations that the rogues have attacked – eleven times in all. There was also another sighting last night, but the two hadn’t approached the border. They were all incredibly fast to get past our monitoring system. I found it a bit odd that they were attacking the same places and how it seemed like they were working together. That doesn’t typically fit the rogue criteria.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed. Her eyes flitted over the map quickly.  “Can you overlay a map of surrounding territories?”

I pulled up the latest map that showed all of the surrounding territories.

The Blacktree pack was closest to us.

The Cedar pack was the second closest to us. We have had an alliance with them for the past two years. Every year, two of our squad members headed out to their pack for two weeks to train their new warriors. Many packs sought our training because we had some of the strongest and best trained warriors. Five packs in our alliances had the same arrangement with us.

The Starling pack was the other closest pack to our territory. We had not made an alliance with Starling yet, but we did have a trade agreement with them. We supplied them with coal in exchange for extra lumber. We did not want to tear down our own forests, so it worked in our favor that they were willing to trade it.

“Can you draw straight lines from the epicenter of those three locations out to cover about a thirty-mile radius towards the western entrance of Blacktree? It’s the one that you would’ve entered through to drive here,” she asked, jotting some information down on a piece of paper.

I did as she asked, wondering what she was seeing that none of us happened to. I had studied this map for hours, as did the rest of the squad, but we still came up empty-handed. Yet, Emma was seeing something that we missed.

I watched her on my screen as she worked intently. Her teeth bit into the side of her lip while her nose scrunched a little in concentration. What the hell was it about this she-wolf that I found so endearing?

Would she still be the same way around me if she found out that I was the Blood Moon Beta and not some random pack member? It was definitely one concern I had and why I did not disclose it to her yet. Plus, I did not really think it mattered too much right now anyways. I was enjoying being treated so normally for once.

She held up her piece of paper. On it was the basis that I saw on the map, but there was a large radius circled on it. Symbols and a few equations were jotted down in the corner, but they went over my head. That was definitely saying something.

“If you look, the territory’s side that is closest to these attacks is Blacktree. The lines that you drew from the epicenters of the attack zones extend out towards the same location.  If you look further to where I circled there is approximately a six-mile radius. Do you see that?”

I looked carefully at her drawing and nodded. That left me with many questions though.

Why would these attacks be linking up near Blacktree? It was absolutely possible that they were involved in this. Did they believe that they could actually do something to our pack? Blacktree had no chance of actually winning a war against us, but we also hated when things resulted in war. We fought to the death to protect our people, but we were very selective with it as it was always a last resort.

Emma bit the inside of her cheek and regarded me with conflicted eyes.

“I know that you don’t even really know me or anything, but can you find it in yourself to trust me, Ethan?” she asked in a small voice.

My head tilted while I observed her carefully. Could I trust her? It was an odd question to consider since I really did not know her. But somehow, yes, I did. It made no sense to me. I had asked her if I could trust her. It was only fair that I extended her the same curtesy that she gave me.

Trust was something that was in short supply for us because of everything that our pack had been through. However, the same thing that pushed me to bring her in on this now pushed me to trust her again.

“Yes, Emma, I do. Now, why did you need to ask that?”

She visibly relaxed with my words, and the conflict left her eyes.

“Good. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t think I had anything to do with all of this. That six-mile radius is where I go on my runs. I’ve never come across anyone else out there though.”

Her admission worried me. Not because I thought she was hiding something but the fact that it was somewhere she went had me concerned. Rogues were nasty creatures. I was not even sure if she would be able to fight one off. Sure, she was a verbal badass, but did that mean that she was also a physical badass?

“You need to be careful, Emma. We found evidence of some black substance on the rogues that we believe altered them, so these aren’t your typical rogues.”

Emma’s jaw ticked, but the rest of her remained calm. The singular movement showed that she was not thrilled with the mention of the black substance. It was not the mention of rogues that bothered her. It was something about the black substance that did.

“Do you know what it was?” she asked with a controlled voice. If it had not been for the tick in her jaw, I would not have noticed anything out of the ordinary.

I shook my head in response. There had not been enough to be identified. I doubted that we would ever know if we did not get our hands on more.

“It couldn’t be traced. We have no idea what it was or where it came from.” She nodded, but her jaw remained ticked. “I think you do though.”

She looked at me carefully for a few moments, obviously carefully considering what she should or should not say. I understood her hesitancy because this shit apparently was not good. She nodded her head slowly.

“I think I have an idea of where it came from, if it’s what I think it might be.”

A brief glimpse of panic crossed through her eyes before her emotions were controlled again. Sure, no worry there.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

A pit formed inside my stomach, and I certainly did not have a great feeling about the answer. There was legitimate concern in her voice that bordered on the side of fear. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, pushing that fear away.

“The Alpha and Beta here at Blacktree have access to a substance that sounds like what you’re talking about. It’s very dangerous. You have to make sure that nobody touches it without gloves. Promise me, Ethan,” she said quickly and very softly as to not be overheard. If it were not for my sensitive hearing, I would not have heard it at all.

The look she gave me showed how serious she was. She was not playing one bit. That pit in my stomach was still there and steadily growing.

“Yeah, of course. I’ll make sure to pass along the no touching part.”

What the hell was the substance? It obviously unnerved her. I would take her warning seriously though. The better question though was how she knew about this substance. She mentioned she had run-ins with wolfsbane. What about this?

Emma’s eyes darted away. Her body language remained the same, but her jaw ticked again. I saw a shadow against her wall and realized someone must have come in.

“Gotta go,” she said before hanging up.

I was stunned by her quick departure. Something did not sit right with me, but I could not place what it was. The draw to Emma had not lessened, and I had a feeling that the draw was about more than simply help on the rogue situation.

I had no doubt that Emma was genuinely innocent, but I did think that she had some pertinent information. She was incredibly helpful though. I never would have caught onto that pattern without her help.

Emma – “Hey, stranger. Are we still on for tomorrow?”

Ethan – “A pack of rabid wolves couldn’t keep me away. See you then.”

She just sent back a laughing emoticon. I was definitely looking forward to tomorrow.

‘Come to the War Room. I think I got something,’ I linked Xander, while I was pulling up additional information that Emma pointed out.

After a couple of minutes, there was a knock on the door. I froze and wanted to slap myself for not unlocking it first. No, not suspicious at all. I was a fucking idiot, and I hated idiots.

I opened the door, and Xander looked at me one eyebrow raised.

“Habit,” I muttered, just shrugging, and heading to the console.

“Sure. Habit,” he drawled out before closing the door behind him.

I knew he did not believe me because who would? ‘Habit’… that was the least convincing thing to say to someone who knew every habit I had. I hated how easily he saw right through me. I supposed it was because we were raised together from the womb.

I rolled my eyes and pointed out the new information to him. He looked over the information eagerly because he wanted this figured out just as badly as I did.

“I was thinking about a different approach to this rogue situation.”

I filled him in on what Emma and I discussed, carefully leaving Emma out of the equation. He would flip his absolute shit if he knew I was talking strategy with someone from another pack. It did not matter that she was the only one to find the connection when the entire squad worked on it and never figured it out.

The Emma thing needed to be handled delicately. She was brilliant as fuck though. I understood why I had the intuition that I did with her and the rogue situation. I just hoped it would be enough for us to figure out what was going on before anyone got hurt.

“I think we need to send a scout out to that six-mile radius to see if there are any clues out there. It’s neutral territory, so it won’t be an issue to scout. There has to be a reason for this connection, so we just need to figure out what it is,” I pointed out.

Xander looked over everything before responding. “It’s a good plan. Who do we send out? We have to be able to trust them implicitly.”

That was exactly the comment that I had been hoping for. I needed to be the one to go out there because only I had all the information and could scour the area better than anyone else given the current set of circumstances.

I clapped him on the back with just the right amount of enthusiasm.

“I volunteer for this mission. Blaze has been bitching about a run, so we can kill two birds with one stone,” I offered.

He looked at me suspiciously. Xander knew me better than anyone else, so he did not say a word. He knew sometimes I had to do things on my own. He understood my intuition. We also ran this pack together, so we both had a fairly equal say. It was not your typical Alpha and Beta relationship, but it worked for us.

“Okay, sure. Go for it. If you need backup just link us,” he said, going back to take a closer look at everything we had been able to piece together.

He would probably still be here by the time I got back. He really needed to take a break, but he would never hear that. Xander would never admit it, but he was terrified of letting this pack down. He spent so much time and effort to ensure that we were untouchable because five years ago, we apparently were not. A lot changed in those five years. Those changes ensured that we made the rules. We made the alliances. We damn near ruled the entire South between our own pack and the allies that we had. Plus, people downright did not often want to cross us. It was a win-win.

“Will do, will do,” I said, jogging out of the room and up to my own.

I changed into some shorts and headed out the door. Once I got inside the tree line, I slipped my shorts and shirt off before putting them in a bag. The air shimmered as I called Blaze forward. Blaze loved when I let him take the reins. He picked up the bag with my shorts inside along with another small bag of supplies just in case I found anything important and wanted to bring it back.

Blaze was ecstatic to be on a run. He enjoyed the thrill of the run and how the ground felt under his paws. He loved the wind whipping through his fur.

I needed to make more time for him to have control soon. He always hated how much I worked. He would always remind me that we both enjoyed the runs. He was not wrong with that. Blaze and I worked well together. There was a reason why he got paired with me, and I was thankful for him.

Blaze plodded closer to the outskirts of the area that Emma pointed out and slow down. He recognized a familiar scent in the air and took a deep breath.

Why the hell was she out here?