Chapter 8

William

The scent of rogues was too strong and overpowering.

That meant there were too many of them in the forest, and I didn't know what they wanted or why they had decided to violate the treaty to come so close to the school, but I did know this was bad because none of us present had changed. We were werewolves in training who had yet to meet their primary beasts, so this could only be summed up as a disaster.

The worst part was that most of us had never received tactical training in our lives.

There were very few of us who had that privilege; I could count them on the fingers of my hands, and the class was about 200 students.

This is a problem, I thought angrily.

I touched my neck and controlled my breathing.

Whatever the tranquilizer dart had in it must not have been very strong; it must have been slow-acting, so I still had time to alert the others, especially Professor Conie, to get help.

I was responsible for everyone at this point.

They were the members of the herd that I would inherit in the future, and I had to take care of them and preserve them from the rest, and I wasn't going to let this get out of hand. The problem was that Snow had been transfixed watching the shadows and had not obeyed my command, so I had to be rough with her.

I grabbed her arm, squeezed her hard, and looked her in the eyes with annoyance.

"Are you deaf or are you an idiot? Run to safety and get help!" I shouted loudly at her, and she looked at me in surprise.

Then she let go of my hand very easily.

"You just got—"

"I don't give a damn what they did to me, get to safety and warn the others, this isn't just a—"

The sound of footsteps and sharp gunshots made me cover her again and lead her to a tree to hide us from the attackers. I didn't realize that the adrenaline was consuming us and that it made the smell of her that much more intoxicating, so I held back a growl, shook my head, and grabbed her chin.

"Do as I say; go get help while I distract them, now," I ordered, and Snow nodded with bated breath.

Her eyes looked like those of a frightened deer, but there was determination in them, and somehow, I really liked that. She nodded, then ran off far away, so I sighed calmly that she was getting to safety.

I heard her turn back towards the starting line, and that made me focus on what was around me. I sharpened my ears, then I heard the footsteps much closer, so before I went out to fight, even though I was going to give away my position, I used the whistle I shared with my friends when we were in trouble, and it was something very serious. I knew that when they heard it, they would immediately go for help.

What I did not expect was to have a rogue so close to me.

The fucker wanted to catch me off guard, but I came out from behind the tree and took a deep breath, so I knew where he was, and when he tried to hit me from behind, I turned quickly and threw a fist to his temple, which knocked him to the ground.

Somehow, that brought a group of at least five rogues out of the shadows of the forest to confront me. They were all dressed the same way: black military pants, gray sweaters, and vests across the chest. Worst of all, they all had ski masks and black glasses that were probably configured for good visuals.

Worst of all, one of them had a dart gun, so the fact that they had tranquilizer darts only gave me hints that their plans were to kidnap as many students as they could. I didn't need to be a genius to figure it out and to know from their looks that maybe I was one of the ones they wanted.

That's why I wasn't going to get caught.

I immediately got into attack position, then I heard the sound of my classmates running, and two of them, including the one with the gun with tranquilizer darts, ran away, so I went right away to stop them, but the other three interrupted me.

"Where do you think you're going, spoiled kid?" one of them asked with irony in his voice.

I looked him in the face and tried to record as many details as possible to identify him, but it would be difficult. So I had to fight to take one of them down, no matter what.

"To beat the shit out of those who left, are you going to stop me?" I challenged him.

Then he smiled and his scent got heavier.

The story of how werewolves who became rogues acquired the musty smell that could come to simulate rot was popular culture, but to understand that smell could become heavy was another matter.

Of all the situations we were taught in tactical training, we were never warned that they could control their scent at will to affect the rest. Somehow, it could block the sense of smell that was vital to a werewolf, but I thanked my father for helping me control the effects of something like that.

My father knew a situation could happen.

When the rogue threw the first blow, I dodged it with ease, then he became enraged and charged again. With patience, I took him out of his temper, so when the fool tried to hit him in the head, I grabbed him by the arm, threw him to the floor, and with all my strength, I hit his head off the floor to put him out of the game.

Then, with rage, I looked at the other two.

They growled angrily.

"The dose of the tranquilizer was too low," I told them mockingly.

That made them come straight at me, and between the two of them, they started to hit me non-stop. I received most of the blows, but I was grateful for the training to be able to not only have resistance but to be able to withstand until I had the opportunity to hit hard. And that's what I did. while one hit me in the back, I managed to hit the one in front of me with my own head, which made the one behind me more intense, so I grabbed him by the arm and turned him around until I tackled him on the ground.

I knocked him unconscious and took a deep breath, then I began to feel my body go numb and my eyes begin to blur. So I got up and started running in the direction the others had gone.

I ran as fast as I could, but every step felt like lifting a rock, so my running became slower and slower, and I could not only not see well, but both my sense of smell and my sense of hearing had completely shut down.

From one moment to the next, I ended up on the ground, and when I tried to get up, I couldn't anymore. Every part felt not only numb but petrified, so the last thing I did was to raise my head and make out some shadows in the background in what appeared to be a fight.

I could have sworn I saw a young girl fighting, and my mind automatically thought of Sage, which made me realize that maybe the tranquilizer was not only knocking me out but making me hallucinate.

And that's how I ended up unconscious in the forest.