THE DARK SIDE OF MY MATE

There was a waiting room of sorts in the basement, a desk without a chair and some benches. Beta Gerald and Harvey, Gamma Endo and Nix, and Gamma Harry and Jonah met us there.

They stood up the moment my dad entered.

Gamma Harry spoke first, "This group is hard. They won't talk."

The men there all looked surprised to see me, but otherwise somewhat drained.

"I'm glad we're ending this tonight." I heard Jonah say to Ben, who only shrugged in response.

Beta Lucas updated everyone that the future Luna and Killion will have a go at it.

"Luna?" Gamma Endo smirked at the traditionally feminine title.

Rebel snarled lowly in response.

"They're all here now?" Dad asked, returning to task.

"Yes, we transported them all here this morning." Gamma Harry said.

Gamma Harry unlocked another metal door with his keycard. By now I had several bad feelings floating in my system. It was mostly that it smelled like something died, the number of locked metal doors, and the fact that the men around me, from Dad to Ben wore a cold aura almost as dark as a vampire's flame.

I didn't like what was happening. It was like stepping into a nightmare.

Inside we all entered something like an observation room. It was cold underground and there was a thick layer of dark glass between us and a larger room.

The room on the other side had rogues bound by their wrists with their ankles chained to the wall. Most of them were sitting against the wall.

They seemed completely unaware that we were in the next room. One of them was peeing on his friend. I don't think they liked each other much.

"This was the first group we caught. The ones who exploded your home, Alpha. There were twenty in all, but they keep fighting and now only sixteen left. The other five was the group that came with the old woman and are kept seperately in the holding cell. They seem weaker, I don't think they can survive with this group." Gamma Harry said.

"Put them on the other wall." Rebel ordered.

"Ah..." Gamma Harry looked hesitant.

"Yes, Luna." Beta Lucas agreed, "Come on boys."

Ben, Jonah, Harvey, and Nix reluctantly followed him out.

Gamma Harry looked nervous but said, "This is good exposure for the boys."

"Our boys are exposed every week." Gamma Endo boasted.

"There is such a thing as too much exposure." Beta Gerald said, he sounded hollow.

My wolf was getting edgy. It was bad. I wanted to leave this hell hole. That's right, this must be it! The hell hole Henry and Marcus said our classroom was...

I was miserable here and I wasn't even a rogue. The rogues didn't look much concerned though.

Beta Lucas, and the "boys" entered the room on the other side, each with a rogue. The five rogues shrunk back at the sight of the other 16 in the room. Obviously, not all rogues were friends.

"What did ya get caught for? Stealing candy?" The rogue that peed on his friend asked the five newcomers. They kept their eyes to the ground as their chains were secured.

Rebel was watching through the glass very carefully. I wondered what he was looking at.

I stood next to him and looked. The floors looked really gross... Like what I imagined the grosser part of sewer floors to look. I'm glad I couldn't smell it through the glass.

I felt Rebel's large hand, stroking my hair, "Do you want to got outside, Princess?"

The rest of the room paused to wait for my answer.

I shook my head, but dared not speak in case I made that embaressing whimpering sound again. I felt it close to coming out.

This was Rebel's effect. I'm not weak like that!

Rebel seemed to understand though. He soothed my hair and growled a low purring sound, "It won't take long princess."

Beta Lucas, Ben, and Jonah returned to the observation room.

"I need a pail of water." Rebel said.

Gamma Harry left and returned a short while with a dirty pail and water.

Killion took it from him and they left the observation room.

It was only a moment later when Killion and Rebel entered the other room. Killion put the pail next to the door.

To my utter surprise, both men were smiling, even Mate. He spoke first, his deep voice a forced calm, "Good evening gentlemen, we are going to play a memory game. In this game, you will remember certain information I require. If you win, I will allow you to die. If you lose, you will keep playing till you remember something useful for me."

"So if we don't tell ya, we get to live?" The peed on rogue asked.

"This is the first question," Rebel continued without paying him heed, "They say there is a fate worse than death, do you know what that means?"

"F*** fate and your s***** riddles." A young rogue yelled. He dragged his chains to move forward.

"No, stay down!" An older rogue shouted.

Rebel smirked and pointed to the young rogue, "That one."

And within seconds, Killion threw the water in the pail on the rogue that had stepped forward.

"No." The older rogue seemed to realize something, "No, no, no..."

"What is it old timer?" The rogue who peed asked.

"Lorents! They are Lorents... Where is your Beta Lorent?" The older rogue asked, "We'll tell him if you bring him here."

"Beta Lorent? He is busy f***ing with your women right now." Killion told him.

"No...no... We're just the thugs, we don't really know anything." The older warrior said.

Killion had pulled the wet rogue up to the center. Rebel looked at the glass wall, it was almost as if he could see through to us. I stepped back from the glass.

"Those two would probably be the case of too much exposure, Gerald. Not our boys." Gamma Endo chuckled, "Those two are insane."

I can't believe Gamma Endo could still laughing.

Then Rebel turned the wet rogue to face the other rogues. Killion held up the rogues hands and handed Rebel a knife.

"Do you believe in miracles?" Rebel asked the rogues, "If I cut off all his fingers, do you believe I can grow them back again?"

The rogues didn't answer. Rebel amiably continued, "Do you want to find out?"

The answer was a blood curdling scream. All the rogues shrunk back against the dirty walls.

I stepped back more till my back came in contact with Harvey's palm, "Do you want to step out for a moment, princess?"

"I know I do." Jonah was covering his ears.

"Man up, boys." Gamma Endo shouted back over the screaming at us.

"I'm glad those guys are on our side." Ben muttered.

Jonah put down his hands. I suppose he was "manning up" like Gamma Endo ordered.

The rogue was making uncontrollable crying noises.

"Stay awake. It's no fun if you pass out." Rebel said.

"Just kill him!" One of the rogues shouted.

"Are you forgetting? We are playing a memory game. Tell me what you remember about the Rogue King. Tell me the truth, whoever lies first will be next in the centre. Starting from you, we are going round robin."

Rebel said.

He dropped the rogue in the centre, "If I get bored, I will wake your friend up to play with."

Killion grinned at the glass, "Someone bring another pail of water."

To the glass wall he added, "And start recording. The real fun starts now."

"I'm going to step outside." I said then.

"Not staying for the show, Princess?" Nix asked.

"It's fine." Gamma Endo said, "Her Luna is taking care of it. You're the one who needs to learn... Unless you want to leave it to your future mate too, Nix."

I left the room. I've had enough.

From now on, we will kill the rogues on sight.

Ben was quickly next to me. He unlocked the door with the keycard to let me out into the waiting area.

"You alright, Sam?" He asked.

I nodded, sinking onto the bench.

"Can I get you anything? Do you want a coke?" He asked again.

Yes. But I shook my head.

"Then, I'll go back to observe." Ben said, "Mindlink if you need anything."

No. Stay with me. But I nodded, and he was gone.

Rebel was right. It was scary. And it wasn't the rogues who were scary.

What the hell was happening? Why was Rebel being so mean? Why did I feel like we were the bad guys?

Was it because of all the time with vampires in the fight cages? Because he was a Lorent? All this time, I thought the vamps were cruel to wolves, or the humans who could sometimes be worse. I had not expected to find underneath our packhouse, we were just as bad.

Wait no, our dungeons had been empty for years. And technically, it was the Lorents who were cruel.

The Lorents we were merging with. I thought of Alpha James' kind face - surely he could not approve this. He was so kind. But so was gentle Killion. And Mate... who always made me feel safe.

I really didn't know what to make of it.

There was cruelty everywhere. #heartbroken

But that was just stupid. #stupidhashtag

What can I do to make it stop?

Harvey came out to report. Altogether the interrogation took two hours. The bodies were being disposed of now.

The Rogue King was a male Lycan, in his forties. He had no mate, but many mistresses. He ruled over several rogue lands, and was currently wintering in his home near the central covens.

He was expected to be visiting the Northern Warlock Lands sometime in spring, where he regularly waged war on the Free Wolves living in the warlock's woods, wolves who lived without an Alpha but in small villages under the warlock's protection.

They had been warring for years. And the warlock was losing power. Growing old or something.

Many of the new rogues (those weaker ones) were formerly Free Wolves who now served the Rogue King in exchange for the safety of their women and children.

The five wolves who came to receive the oracle from Beta Lorent were formerly Free Wolves. Their job was to take the old lady and keep her in their village. Beta Lorent had wanted to use her for himself.

Beta Lorent served the Rogue King as one of his Deltas. He had been promised the survival of the Lorent Pack as his reward. But the rogues here all knew Beta Lorent planned to overthrow the Rogue King in the end. After all, it was no secret that Beta Lorent was ahem, in a close relationship with one of the Rogue King's favourite mistress.

The Rogue King had recently declared that all the other packs in the Green Packland will be eradicated for our anti-rogue sentiments. Starting from our pack, thus the attack on the Alpha's home. It was to shake us, and hopefully kill off a member or two of the Alpha family. Wouldn't hurt to ruin any good inter-pack relationships either.

They couldn't say when the war will be.

The other men had joined us by the end of Harvey's report.

"Impressive!" Gamma Harry pronounced, "These two got all that information in two hours."

"That's all though." Rebel said, "If we want any more information, we'd need to question a higher ranked wolf."

"Like your uncle." Killion reminded him.

"Princess, Ki and I are driving over to my parents. If my uncle is still alive, I will return with the information we seek." Rebel said.

"What exactly is the information we seek?" I asked. I thought we were just taking what we could. If the rogues had seemed sorry and cooperated, we would release them back in rogue territory in exchange for the information.

Or if they found their mate here, or if they proved their loyalty, we would accept them in our pack.

Wasn't that what Mrs Beta taught us in Lycan Study Group?

"The Rogue King's motive." Rebel answered coolly, "Every villian has a motive."

"Oh yeah? Then what's your motive?" I couldn't believe my daring.

From the sharp intake of breaths and the stopped footsteps around me, neither could anyone else.

Rebel turned sharply to face me. We were along the storage corridors now and his golden eyes glowed in the shadows of the dim lights, "Do you think me a villian?"

I didn't answer. He took two steps to close the distance between us and gently picked up a lock of my hair, pressing it between his fingers, "My motive, princess, is you."

And then with a smirk, he let my hair slip past his fingers, turned on his heel and walked away.

What the heck was that? My hair flared.

"His motive doesn't sound very evil." Harvey remarked with a wry smile.

"I'll be using your car, goddess." Killion informed me with a quick bow and gentle smile before rushing after Rebel.

"I cannot recommend his methods, but I admit I'm relieved that he is on our side." Dad said.

He continued walking and everyone else moved to follow.

Everyone except me. I remained standing there. What? Really? Dad was just going to accept that?

I must have mindlinked Dad because as I stood there glaring at his departing back, my dad answered in mindlink, "No matter what color the wolf, the shadow is always black."