Chapter 11: A Rogue in a Castle

His deep emerald eyes took me in and I felt as if I’d lost the ability to speak. He slowly began to remove wires stuck to my temples with circular adhesives. I noticed that he seemed to be wearing the same black leather ensemble as Ms. Julie.

Thinking about her, I could feel my fists clench and my features darken. She had let these people abduct me.

“You’d be amazed how many rogues I’ve seen use that kid as bait,” the guy unstrapping me said.

“Bait?” I repeated.

“In the simulation. It’s just a test, but not many rogues pass it the first time around.”

“Did you?” I asked, and he flinched as if no one had ever questioned him about it before.

“I did…” he said at length and looked at me curiously. “I’m Trent, well, Trenton Moore. But you can call me Trent. I’ll be your mentor during your first year at Alpha Academy.”

“Where is Ms. Julie?” I wanted to give her a sharp piece of my mind.

“She’s just upstairs waiting for you… Don’t be upset with her, the initiation is the same for all rogues. Even me.”

“Oh,” I breathed. He was a rogue? But, he looked like an Alpha…

I took in his broad frame and caramel skin, square jaw and dark hair cut nearly bald and he smiled at me, friendly and warm.

When he was done with the wires, Trent helped me from the chair and handed me my shoes. It seemed silly to put on the clear platforms, so I held them as he escorted me from the room and through a narrow hallway.

Temperature from the room to the hall dropped drastically and I couldn’t suppress the violent shivers that ran over me.

We got into an elevator only big enough for a few people and he noticed me shaking. He quickly took off his leather jacket and draped it over my shoulders. I plunged my arms into the sleeves and zipped it up to my chin blessing him for the warmth of his body heat encased inside.

He took a moment to help pull my hair from beneath the collar and I became more familiar with his size and height compared to mine, as well as his scent.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I said when my teeth stopped chattering. “Thank you.”

“What are mentors for?” He shrugged with a smile on his lips.

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened into a large living space of a mega mansion. Looking around, I realized we were at street level and had come from underground.

Julie was seated on a couch and looked a little nervous as we exited. Her eyes were on Trent and her eyebrows raised up in a silent question.

Trent gave her a thumbs up and she relaxed. She looked down at the ground and I noticed she had my rucksack with her.

“You might want to get changed,” she said. “Victor St. James is out of the country right now, but will be headed back first thing in the morning.”

“My uncle?” I questioned.

She gave an awkward nod… Not my uncle, I interpreted.

“I will show you to your room. You will stay here until you are assigned housing on campus.”

I looked back down at the rucksack and felt my heart sink. Cole really had just tossed me out of his apartment without so much as a real goodbye.

I followed Ms. Julie through the mansion and noticed that Trent followed along as well.

“You live here too?” I asked.

“Only until school starts,” he clarified.

“You… look like an Alpha,” I couldn’t help but comment.

He nodded. “Almost…”

“But, you were once… like me.”

He cocked his head to the side. I realized that he understood what I was asking but was trying to find the right way to answer.

“I was once classified as a rogue,” he offered. “For some, I still am.”

“Classified? You either are or you aren't,” I said, confused. “How is it possible to change?”

He pressed his lips together as if to stop himself from making a comment. But I wanted to hear it.

“Don’t hold back on my account, Trenton Moore. Say what you have to say, mentor me,” I challenged him. If there was something he knew that I didn’t, I wanted to know.

He took a deep breath as we made it to the top of the landing.

“Did you ever stop to think about or wonder where the term rogue comes from?”

I shrugged. I had never given it much thought. “I just know it has to do with the social status of shifters that aren’t members of a pack or answer to an Alpha.”

He nodded his head. “Alright, do you believe not being a part of a pack or having an Alpha has made you less of a shifter?”

I nodded my head.

“Why?”

“Because of the way people treated me. At least… Until I joined the track team and started winning national races.”

“Then everyone couldn’t care less… And in those national races, you were up against high ranking Omegas and the children of Alphas. In fact, recognition of your achievement won you a scholarship to the Alpha Academy.

“What's your point?”

“Well, your question to me was if I was once like you. The answer is no. I was nothing like you because we are very different shifters with different backgrounds. The only things we have in common are the rogue classification and winning the same scholarship to the same school.”

“Right,” I said.

“So, if this classification is so important, why have Alphas started taking an interest in rogues they think can become Alphas?”

“I don’t have any idea… Charity?”

He shook his head. “Nothing in this world is ever free. I will let you come to your own conclusions. For now, it’s late and we have an early run tomorrow. You didn’t eat too many bonbons in that Alpha frat house all summer, did you?”

He walked towards the hallway on the left while Ms. Julie led me into the hallway on the right.

I looked around at the ornate tapestries on the walls and wondered for how many generations they’d been hung up there. I couldn’t even imagine having a family tree to trace back. Before tonight, I believed my origins began and would end with me.

But Julie had known my mother, they had been friends.

She took me to the door at the other end of the hallway and that is when I realized my room encompassed the entirety of that wing in the mansion.

This room may have been even bigger than Cole’s penthouse.

“I never knew mansions could be this big.”

“It’s not a mansion,” Julie said, carrying my bag to the walk-in closet and setting it down. “It’s a castle.”

“Excuse me?” I gasped.

“It’s a castle. Built several hundred years ago and renovated at the turn of the century, twenty years ago.”

I snickered as I walked into the closet and saw the bathroom on the other side.

“You're really about to tell me I’m an orphan rogue that is really a princess…” I laughed and turned to see that Julie's expression was serious.

“Yes.”