“Ten hours early.” Marti said looking at her watch while sitting on the bed and watching an old rerun of Friends. She cradled a tub of nutella and crackers, dipping them in to the chocolaty mix. “Though I had to cover for you, Nick, Ales, Yiannis, Dylan, Hunter, Matthias, King Nightingale and Queen Nightingale all came looking for you. Somebody’s popular.”

I dumped the bag next to the TV and headed for the bathroom, for a shower. I think I took half the desert sand with me and was soaked to the bone, thank god that the bag was totally waterproof. “I got what I wanted.”

“How’d you get in? That place was so reinforced that it may as well be a crypt and bomb shelter all mixed into one impenetrable fortress.” Chuckling at her description I stripped down and jumped into the shower, the door was ajar so I could keep talking to Marti as I showered though.

“I knocked.”

I heard Marti choke on the cracker she’d been stuffing into her mouth. “Come again?” She asked disbelieving.

“I knocked; the old man happily let me in.” I repeated.

“And I’m guessing that now he’s lying in a shallow, sandy grave?”

“Actually no,” I said as I smothered my shoulder length hair with shampoo. “He unfortunately suffered a violent, spontaneous heart attack while I was borrowing some reading material which resulted in his untimely demise.”

“Wow that’s fortunate,” Marti said sarcastically. “Well for you at least.”

Becoming serious I washed out the shampoo and scrubbed my dirty body with Marti’s strawberry and vanilla scented body wash. “Rieker had him stuck in that room for fifty years, he practically begged for death.”

“Do you think anyone will find him?” I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in a large towel, walking out of the bathroom I plopped onto a chair and closed my eyes.

“No, it didn’t look like anyone had been down there for years.

“Are you just going to leave his body there, he did help you.”

I shook my head and stole a cracker from her. “No, if I send anyone Rieker will know that it was me; no doubt he knows everything about my current position. If he finds out I have suspicion about my brother, and if they prove to be true, he will target the only family I have left.”

“You know that you keep saying your family is dead? Well we’re your family now whether you care to admit it or not Rory. Me, Nick, Alex, Matthias, Yiannis, Hunter, the enforcers, King Nightingale, though he might not admit it, Queen Riley, the woman and children, your children, my child are all depending on you. You need to stop acting like Aurora Tannin; the ruthless, cold-hearted, lying, murdering hunter and become Aurora Tannin; luna, mother and unforgiving trainer.”

She really got under my skin but I shook it off, though her words would surely haunt me for days to come. My biological family is dead and gone, but these people are alive and the hunters are going to come for them, they will die if someone doesn’t step in. I’ve treated them like crap, intimidated them.

I may not be able to fully let go but if I kept at what I was doing I would lose the only people who truly cared; Nick and Alex. I would lose Marti and the friends I’d gained, I’d lose any respect I’d gained and no one would listen when push came to shove.

“I’ll try to be civil.” I said to Marti. I wouldn’t become a pushover and although I am still the same Rory it wouldn’t kill me to act civil towards the people here. “Don’t you dare expect me to take things lying down.” I muttered. “I’m still an assassin, not a good little pack bitch.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I wouldn’t expect anything less; just try to not break anymore bones.”

-

“I was told that you were all looking for me?” I asked, striding into Nightingale’s office where Nick, Ales, Yiannis, Hunter, Matthias, Riley and the king were gathered.

“Where were you?” Nightingale growled.

“Careful Nightingale, I might just start to think you might have started caring.” I warned, looking around the room.

“I do care, despite what you may think.” He snapped before looking down at a map that was laid out over his desk. “Rogues were spotted near the compound and we bought them into the cells, we were worried that you might have snuck out with the group and broken off.”

“Wow I love how I’ve been missing all the action lately.” I said sarcastically, leaning on the desk. “I was asleep in the library, it was cool, quiet and deserted; no one to disturb me.” I lied smoothly.

“We looked there.” Alex said butting in, lifting his eyebrow and leaning against the desk next to me.

“Well obviously you didn’t look very hard, now did you?” I scoffed, brushing him off; they would kill me if they really knew where I’d been and what I’d been doing.

“Obviously not.” He said darkly, looking me in the eyes. I maintained eye contact and smirked when I realized that he didn’t know if I was telling the truth or not.

“Look point is we now know that you and the babies are safe. Tell us where you’re going next time.” Nick said rubbing his forehead and sunk into one of the couches in the office that lined the opposite wall.

My temper flared but I took deep breaths and tried to rein it in. Be Civil. Be Civil. Be Civil. For the love of god do not punch him for ordering you around.

“We need to up the training sessions, I’m adding another hour onto the five we’ve been doing. I’m also doubling the amount of wolves on patrol and I’m going to split the complex into sectors for guard duties since it’s useless to guard the outside when the inside is vulnerable. The hunters will get in and we won’t be able to stop them. ” I told Nightingale.

He gave me a confused look and shook his head. “Why? The enforcers are doing fine. Do you want them to die of exhaustion?”

“I’d rather be prepared.”

-

“I heard about the changes.” Dylan walked next to me as I walked towards the library; the best place for me to read the files I’d gotten from my trip to Egypt.

He said nothing else as he followed me to the back of the stacks, the dustiest corners of the library where I could find peace, where no one else would be.

“What are you doing?” Dylan asked as I sunk to the floor, the files in my hand as I leant against the wall.

“Reading.”

“What are you reading?” He asked sitting next to me.

“Papers.” I didn’t want anyone else to know my suspicions yet. They’d think I was crazy, well crazier than they already think I am.

Dylan sighed and moved his head so he could read over my shoulder. Quickly shutting the file on Dan I held it again my chest and turned to Dylan. “Leave me alone.” I growled, ordering him out of the library.

Since I was higher up in the hierarchy than him, Dylan had to obey and left.

I left out a heavy sigh and opened the file, my gaze fixed on a picture of Dan when he was eighteen, before they killed him.

Scanning over the thick file my suspicions were confirmed; Dan was alive and well. Once they’d dragged him away from me bleeding out looking like Swiss cheese, they stitched him up and transported him to a compound in Udachny, Russia. He was in a coma for four months and when he woke, he had no memory of either me or our family.

The thought of him not remembering his family or any of the good memories we had before we were taken made my throat clog up.

The head hunter at the Udachny compound told him that his family had been slaughtered by rogues, his mother and pregnant mate raped before him and they found him. Dan, though he could not remember his past, believed him and started training. He trained for a decade before he was assigned a permanent assignment; he would travel and kill any paranormal creature he stumbled across. He was a drifter; a type of hunter who moves from place to place, killing any supernatural’s that he could find.

Rieker made sure that I and Dan never met after he supposedly ‘died’, this made me hate Rieker even more. The file continued to say that Dan found a ‘second chance mate’, which is total bullshit, a hundred years ago. Apparently she’s the daughter of one of the hunters.

What I read next truly sickened me. This woman was the head hunter’s daughter and helped her father keep Dan under his thumb, and when he showed signs of returned memory they quickly made sure that he’d never remember anything again by removing part of his brain that controlled long- term memory; I didn’t even know you could do that and not kill the patient. 

It said nothing about Dan being here though, but I will search every nook and cranny, because if I know Rieker, he would send my brother to kill me, just to make my suffering worse.

“Rory?” I growled and looked up as Hunter stood in front of me alone. “What’s wrong? Dylan told me that you were acting strange.”

He sat down next to me and tried to hug my shoulders but I moved away. I was furious, not at Hunter, but the sheer cruelty Rieker displayed. He just used people, hurt people. He was worse than me.

“Rory?” He asked looking over to me as he held up the files. “Where did you get these?”

I stood and rubbed my forehead. “I took a little trip to Egypt.” I left out all other details like the how, when and why. Though I knew that he could guess how and when.

“Oh Rory, I’d be mad but I knew something like this would happen.” He sighed. A small smile crept onto my face and I shook my head. “Just make me promise that you don’t go looking for any more trouble.”

I couldn’t promise him anything; trouble finds me wherever I go, no matter what I do to stop it.

-

“I need your help.” Nightingale grabbed me by the elbow and steered me towards where the cells that I’d been kept in before my trial were.

“Why?” I asked confused.

“The rogues claim to want to help us, but I think they have other intentions.”

Nodding I let him pull me into a spare room and hand me ripped clothes covered in dirt. “Put these on and make yourself look feral.”  Nodding I peeled my shirt off and walked over to a tray of dirt sitting on a table and covered my body in it.

Once I finished dressing I pulled the hair band out and let my curls fall to my shoulders before tangling them and adding dirt, leaves and clumps of mud; has to be realistic.

“Good, guards are waiting outside to drag you kicking and scream into a cell. You have two hours before we get you and make it look like you’re getting executed.” Nightingale smirked and pulled me out the door into the arms of Hunter and Matthias. 

“Don’t hurt us too much.” Hunter grinned as they both took my arms and led me towards the cells. When we were close enough for a normal wolf to hear I started hissing, kicking, punching, biting and snarling at everyone, the enforcers had obviously been placed in here, knowing what was going to happen and everyone played along as the guards to the cells opened the door that guarded the room of the cells. I growled louder as they unlocked the door to one of the cells and threw me in.

I growled at Hunter and Matthias as they slammed the door shut and locked it.

There was silence as I growled and paced, acting distressed and agitated. After half an hour I slowly calmed down and took a seat on the bed.

“What you in for?” The rogue two cages over asked in a raspy voice.

“Murder.” I snarled, curling up in the corner of the bed. “Bastards.”

I sat like that for around an hour until they lost interest. I focused on the meanest rogue’s mind and pushed past his barriers slowly, creeping in like a serpent. He wouldn’t have any idea what I was doing.

‘Kill everyone after the alpha bitch dies he said, it’ll be easy he said. Fucking pack mutts, fucking hunters aren’t paying me enough for this shit.’ He let out a growl, his thoughts matching his actions perfectly.

I opened my eyes with a smirk on my face, looking at the leader who’d been staring at the guards in hate.

Soon I could hear shouting from outside the door, though looking around the other rogue’s couldn’t hear the argument, thank god. “What do you mean calm down? You put my pregnant mate in with five rogues!” I heard Nick yell.

Sighing, I only hoped the Nightingale held them back as I listened to the rest of the conversation. “Fine, we’ll pull her out, time’s almost up anyway.”

The door opened as Dylan and Yiannis came in to drag me away to my ‘death’. As they opened my cell door I sprung at them, positioning myself so I hit Dylan and knocked him to the floor, straddling him. I raised my hand to punch him when Yiannis hauled me up and pulled me out of the room kicking, punching, scratching, growling, hissing and yowling like a wild animal.

Once Dylan exited and the guards shut the door Yiannis let me go and smiled. “You’re good at acting rabid.”

“Hahaha.” I laughed sarcastically as I strode over to a cabinet and grabbed a gun. “Open the doors slightly so more sound gets through.” I ordered.

They nodded and slid the door open slightly. I took aim at a pile of empty tires in the corner. I screamed and growled, keeping up with the act. “Let me go you bastards! Don’t do this! No please! Don’t do this!” I pleaded, screaming, making it sound like I was crying. “No! No! Please!” I pulled the trigger three times and looked over to Nightingale and my mates as the guards closed the door properly.

I gestured with my head for them to follow me as I strode to his office, tucking the gun in my waistband. Once Nightingale, Nick, Alex, Hunter, Matthias and Yiannis were in the room I shut the door and sat behind the desk. “From what I can gather Rieker paid them to get in, lay low and when the hunters attack, kill all the women and children.” I paused as they all growled and clenched their fists. Male weres are protective over females and children in general, mates and offspring especially. “Obviously Rieker thinks that attacking our families is the way to go, it worked with me but I won’t let it work with you.” I left out the bit of attacking after I was killed since they’d put me on lockdown which would make it easier for the assassin to find me if I stayed in one spot. “This is why I increased patrols and training.”

“Fine, we need to either execute them or keep them locked up. I’m not going to let them have free range in the compound.”

I understood his logic, hell I wouldn’t have wanted them walking around either but Rieker would just send more, though if he already has an assassin in place in this compound, it wouldn’t change anything; he doesn’t care whether the rogues live or die, they’re supernaturals, expendable in this war.

“I want to be the one to execute them. I want Rieker to know I was the one who threw a spanner in the works.” I said with finality. “Take them to the council chambers, tie them to the poles spread eagle and make sure that everyone over the age of sixteen is there to see what happens to people who cross me and help the hunters.”

-

“I am here today to create an example,” I said standing in front of men and women living in the complex. “These rogues came here to help the hunters by killing your mates, your families, your friends and your children. If any of you chose to side with the hunters I will not be lenient; you will suffer. Remember what I do to people who cross me.”

“We just want to help!” One of the rogues cried as the others kept silent. “We’ve never even seen a hunter!”

With a cold, calculating smile I turned towards them. “Help the hunters? Because I can jog your memory if you want.”

“Stupid bitch needs to learn to shut her mouth if it’s not sucking; none of us know what the fuck you’re talking about.” He sneered at me. I pushed the memory of sitting in the cold, silver cell reading his mind into the minds of everyone in the room while ignoring his sexist, perverted jibe.

“You know exactly why you’re here today and you know exactly why this is happening.” I said raising the gun and pulling the trigger twice, the bullets blowing his brains out at such a close range.

The others pulled at their bounds but they held steady as I dispatched the rest. I stood there as a few enforcers carted the rogues away and I turned back to the crowd. “Siding with the hunters will not make things easier, it will not end the war, do not be foolish. I’ve already killed enough wolves to last me a century; don’t make yourself my next target because I will find you.” I warned, stepping down from the podium.

Cross me and you die. The message was now clear to everyone.