4

Rhea’s POV

I whipped him once more and threw the whip into the ground, my stomach was churning inside me and I knew I can’t whip him anymore unless I want to throw up.

“Fine, pretend to be passed out if you hear anyone approaching” I said tightly.

He looked at me in suspicion, not sure why I didn’t just knock him out myself or carried on with the torture when I didn’t get what I wanted from him.

I was about to go rest my back against the nearby tree and pretend to be on watch when I remembered something.

My humanity stood its ground and urged me to have more sympathy for his condition. They haven’t given him a drop of water or any food since they strung him up here. He must be thirsty as hell.

I pulled out an old, used up, plastic water bottle from the pocket of my black hoodie, opened it, and brought it to his lips.

To my surprise, he backed away and shook his head “I’ll pass” he whispered stubbornly even though I could see him almost salivating for a gulp.

I furrowed my eyebrows “It’s just water” I whispered back.

“Doesn’t mean It’s not filled with wolfs bane” he argued in a low voice.

I pursed my lips. I’m helping him and he’s being paranoid about the water I’m offering to him. He has some serious trust issues.

“Can you blame him? We're savages to him. It doesn’t make any sense for him that you’re giving him water even after he refused to believe you” my wolf said sadly. She was disappointed the alpha refused to help us.

I brought the water to my own lips and took several gulps from it.

I showed it to him to make sure some of it was gone and tried again by bringing the opening to his lips.

He hesitated for a second, and I was about to take it away and wash my hands free from helping him with anything, but then he opened his mouth and leaned closer.

My heart ached for him as I raised the bottle and saw him swallow down the whole thing faster than humanly possible, and wished I had another one with me.

I put the cap on and stuffed the empty bottle back inside my pocket while he breathed out heavily, still staring at me in wonder and curiosity.

I raised my hand to his face level and he involuntarily flinched back, probably expecting a slap or a punch.

It caused another slash of pain to go through me.

“Easy” I whispered softly.

I brought the sleeve of my hoodie over his mouth and chin and erased any traces of water left there, then stood back a few feet and sat on the ground, right in front of him.

We stared at each other silently, neither of us blinking away.

Underneath all that blood and bruising, his face was still beautiful.

He had light blue eyes like the sea I’ve seen a couple of times before. He had short black hair that was trimmed shorter on the side and kept longer at the top. It was dirty and messy now as it fell down on the side of his forehead but he still looked pretty despite everything that was done to him. He was also tall, had a stubble black beard, sharp jaw, all muscles in the right places, and a perfect set of white teeth.

Let’s not forget the unwavering attitude he still carried with him despite the horrible things he’s been through.

He was beautiful in every way.

I never bothered to appreciate the beauty of another man before. It wasn’t within my interests especially since I live with dirty savages who don’t bother to clean themselves frequently. They were all sickening to me I never bothered to check any of them out. Not that I was any better. I had to keep myself looking as ragged as they are even though I hated feeling dirty all the time.

Despite my dirty appearance, it never stopped them from trying to make a move on me. But I learned to stand up for myself pretty quickly. I made it clear that if anyone tries to even touch me, they can kiss their balls bye bye.

“So, how long have you been a rogue? You look pretty young” whispered the alpha curiously.

“We’re done talking. I’m not interested in chatting with you” I said flatly.

“Humor me. I’ve been getting tortured non stop for the past two days. It gets boring” he said sarcastically.

I gave him a smirk against my better judgment. He had humor all right I’ll give him that. It was refreshing.

No harm in sharing with a soon to be dead man right? It gets boring for me too.

“I was raised with them since I was four. The alpha ordered them not to kill me when they invaded the pack I was born into” I whispered firmly.

He raised his eyebrows “I thought rogues don’t take in any kids, they kill them all” he said in confusion.

“They… we do. I was the only one they took in. Don’t ask me why. I’ve learned the painful way not to ask anything about where I came from or why I was spared in the first place”

A look of hurt crossed his face but I dismissed the thought of him reacting to my words immediately. One of his countless cuts must be stinging him or something.

“How old are you now?” he asked tightly.

“Eighteen… I think”

“You don’t… remember anything about your…” he starts to ask but I cut him off, not wanting to talk about this anymore and risk being overheard sharing my life story with him.

“I don’t remember and don’t really want to. It doesn’t matter. They’re all dead anyway” I said dismissively as I looked away from him, hoping he would take a hint to mind his own business and stay quiet now.

And for a while he did. It didn’t last though.

“If I say I believe you and agree to help you? How would you do it?” he asked curiously.

My head whips back to him sharply. Is he serious or just playing me for information to tell alpha Victor he has a traitor?

It wouldn’t serve him at all, but like he said it gets boring and it would be pretty entertaining to watch my head get ripped off my body for a change from the constant torture he’s been subjected to.

“Paranoid much?” my wolf comments.

“Yeah pretty much, can you blame me?” I said back to her.

No one has ever helped me a day in my life. No one even wanted to. Of course I’d be paranoid of his intentions. It’d be stupid not to.

And maybe I was raised as an illiterate savage, but that sure as hell doesn’t make me plain stupid.

I narrowed my eyebrows without answering him.

“You’re going to accept my deal?” I ask tightly watching his facial expression closely for any signs of lying.

He didn’t give much away as he spoke firmly “I don’t see how you can hold up your end. We’re a thousands of miles away from my pack. And you can’t exactly go anywhere to tell them about your hideout”

“I don’t have to go anywhere. I can tell them where we are right from where I’m sitting here” I said smugly.

He raised one eyebrow at me in amusement “How?”

“First, I need to know if you still have enough man power to overtake them. If they turn out to be more incompetent than your dead warriors and my pack kills them, I’m pretty screwed. They’ll suspect it was me who tipped them off. So the questions is, can they do it?” I asked fiercely.

His eyes gleamed with certainty “They can, I promise. Now your turn. Tell me how”

I hesitated before I said with some uncertainty “Well, actually it depends on whether any of your trusted pack members own a phone so we can call them”

I pulled up the hem of my left withered, wide jeans legs and showed him a phone I tied to my calf with some rope to hold it in place.

I snatched it from the last pack we invaded. It was just curiosity that made me steal it and hide it with me nothing more. Like I said it gets pretty boring in here. Alpha Victor would definitely punish me for taking it and would even suspect I had ulterior motives for keeping it. Which I didn’t…. At the time.

It did come in handy in this situation.

And it wasn’t like I had any use for it because turns out, it was pretty complicated to operate through… for me. I didn’t know how to use it at all. I had no purpose for it but I kept it with me anyway.

He gazed at it and I could see his wheels turning, truly considering my deal now.

My heart started beating faster, the hope that got squashed a few minutes ago, was flaring again more intensely now.

“Is it still charged?” he asked softly.

“What?”

He looked at me and pursed his lips “You don’t know anything about how to use it, do you?”

My cheeks burned as I said tightly “No, I stole it from the last pack out of curiosity, but I didn’t know what to do with it”

“Let me see it. It needs to have some battery left in it and a sim card for it to send a location to anyone” he said hurriedly.

I had no idea what he was talking about but I got up from my sitting position anyway, freeing the phone from the rope and holding it in my hands.

I stood next to him and showed him the phone.

“At least it’s a smart phone, that’s a good start” he whispered to himself.

So what? There are stupid phones and smart ones?

“Press that button at the side of the phone” he instructed.

I did it and it came to life, lightening the screen with a picture of a red flower.

“Swipe your finger across it gently” he ordered.

I did it and it slid down to show another picture of a huge mountain covered in snow. There were also a lot of weird things on the mountain picture that were square shaped. I’ve already gotten this far on my own before but whenever I clicked on the square shaped thingies, I had no idea what to do next.

He narrowed his eyes as he inspected the screen in concentration.

When his features relaxed, I knew it had everything needed to make this work.

“We need to send this location to my brother’s phone number. It’s better than calling him. He’ll know exactly the spot we’re in” he said firmly.

“You can do that from a phone?” I asked in wonder.

I was thinking maybe he could just call him and tell him where we are. But an accurate location is much better and faster.

He gave me a small smile and said “You can do a hell of a lot more than that from a phone. Come on, we need to do this fast. There are a lot of steps I need to guide you through”

I shoved my interest aside and focused on clicking wherever he told me to press my finger on.

All the while I told my wolf Hazel to keep our ears out for any sounds of approaching footsteps.

“Ok, now you need to input the number I’m about to give you. Eight, one, six” he said firmly.

“Which one is eight?”

I was focused on the lower part of the screen, getting lost in all those unfamiliar symbols which the alpha referred to as numbers and letters.

But when he didn’t say anything I turned my head and saw him staring at me with a weird expression I couldn’t identify.

“What?” I asked in defense.

I didn’t recognize the look but I still didn’t like it at all. It made something in my stomach clench.