Chapter 15

Leah

My sisters and I had fallen into a comfortable friendship with Lena since she had arrived at the university campus. Yes, she was a rogue, but she didn’t behave in the usual manner of any rogue I had ever met. Not that I had met many. In all honesty, I had never met a rogue before. But I had been told stories about rogues from my dad and my Uncle Sean and my Aunt Siobhan. I had heard about how they were all merciless and blood thirsty killers. But hearing those things about rogues, and seeing Lena in the flesh, had left me torn on my opinion of rogues.

How many rogues had been perceived to be dangerous when they weren’t actually dangerous at all? How many good people just like Lena, had been brutally killed simply for being rogues?

Every day I rang my dad and kept him apprised of the situation regarding Lena. I clarified that he had nothing to worry about. I told him that Lena was harmless, and that she was just a student who wanted to complete her schooling and get her degree just like the rest of us. Lena had never once said or done anything to hint at being a problem for my sisters and I, or for my pack.

In fact, she was the opposite of a problem, if truth be told. Whenever there was any tension among my siblings and myself, Lena would go out of her way to make a few jokes and get us laughing again, then she would play the part of mediator and get the problem resolved.

Every time I spoke to my father regarding Lena, I could tell it relieved him that she was not creating any problems for us. But I knew my father well enough to know he was not happy with the situation of Lena being here. In the time that Lena had been living here in the dorm with us, she was always helping us out, and doing little things for us, and taking care of us just like a mother would do. It was odd. But it was also nice.

If she were doing a load of washing, she would throw our dirty laundry into the machine too. She went out of her way to buy groceries for us whenever she went into town. She even cooked meals for us, and she cleaned our dorm room without asking for any help from us. I felt lousy that she was doing so much, but she never complained. It seemed like she was just a thoughtful person. But despite her thoughtfulness, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lena hadn’t had the easiest life. Being a rogue had to be a tough life to live. Rogues were hated and hunted by other packs across the globe. I had never once mentioned it to my sisters or my father, but I had occasionally heard Lena crying in the shower. The one thing that worried me about Lena though, was that she always slept in her wolf form. I will admit that the first couple of times it had terrified me. There were even a few occasions to begin with when I had thought that Lilly had been right, and Lena was going to kill us in our sleep. But now, I could see that it was because she was afraid. When I had come to that realisation, I had felt so ashamed that I had thought badly of Lena. It made me realise that maybe Lena feared the three of us. I mean it was possible. It wasn’t as if we had stopped to think of that possibility when she had first arrived here. But maybe Lena was as scared of us as we were of her!

Storm

I was running along the same path I had been running on each morning since I had arrived in Ireland. It was still dark, and the rain was falling quite heavily. I had my headphones in as I ran. I was listening to the same song that I listened to every morning when I ran along this path, Ruelle’s “Game of Survival.”

I had the song on a loop. I loved the beat. There was just something about this song that helped me to free my mind. I pushed myself harder as I ran along the path, loving the power that I felt contained within my body. Since I had gotten here, I could feel myself growing stronger physically. Now I just had to work on getting myself stronger mentally! As I followed the path, through the pouring rain, my thoughts turned to a problem I had picked up on recently. I had become a little protective over the girls I shared a room with. The girls and I had been spending more and more time together since my arrival in Ireland. Whenever we went off campus during our free time, I had noticed that a lot of people approached the girls whenever they saw us. Whenever these strangers approached our group, well they were strangers to me, the girls seemed to know quite a few of them.  My wolf became tense, she felt protective of the girls in a way that she had not felt towards anyone else before.

 I had also noticed that there was this one particular group of boys who were always hanging around the girls whenever we were away from the campus. The boys were werewolves as well, but there was something that just looked off about them. These boys were not rogues, well not as far as I could tell anyway. But I could tell they were dangerous just the same. I had asked Leah what the deal was with that group of boys, and she had told me that those boys had only been hanging around them for a week or two before I had arrived at the university. She assured me that the boys were not from her pack and that she wasn’t even sure if they attended the university or not, because they never appeared to take any classes.

Another thing that I had noticed, was that the boys were always wary whenever they were around me. But for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why that was.  I had to admit that it was this suspicious behaviour on their part that had me wary of them. Although I couldn’t explain it, I knew that they were up to something regarding the girls, and whatever it was, I knew that it wasn’t anything good.

My wolf made it clear to me, that she could just sense that they were evil. Their mere presence had my wolf on edge, and I didn’t appreciate the constant feeling of being on edge that their presence brought about. I had decided that I was going to take it upon myself to watch out for the girls and make sure they were safe while they were away from their pack. As a wolf from an alpha family, ensuring the girls were safe was the least I could do.