Chapter 32

Lucian

I stalked down to the dungeons after leaving that infuriating, distracting woman in the tower. Who did Zara think she was? We were trying to keep her safe!

I spared a moment to wonder why the Alpha House of this pack had both a tower prison and a basement converted into a fully functional dungeon, complete with interrogation room. What had the last Alpha been up to?

I huffed and gave my head a quick shake to clear it of useless questions. It hardly mattered anymore. The old Alpha was gone, and his resources were mine to use.

I needed to find out what the Rogues were planning, and put a stop to it before the full moon. Because if I didn’t, Kieran and I would have to go through the moon without Zara’s soothing touch.

I did not doubt that the woman would do as she threatened. Why was she so damned stubborn? We were keeping her under guard for her own safety.

And, no, I had not explained that. But she could have trusted us!

I sighed. I needed to put her out of my mind. She tested me. She wore away at my self control. She was a distraction, just like I warned Kieran. If she weren’t so useful, I’d send her away just like she wanted. See how long she lasted as a Rogue.

And why did that thought make my wolf flinch and whine? Why did it send a pang of regret through my heart? Ridiculous.

The women I gathered at the Mate Ball were imprisoned in the dungeon. I had several of my more trusted wolves go through their records. They’d determined which ones were Rogue agents, and which ones were pack wolves who’d been recruited by the Rogues. Those women he’d sent back to their Alphas with dire warnings. If I ever saw them again, they’d face far worse than imprisonment.

The Rogue agents, though, I kept. They’d spent the days since the Mate Ball chained down in the dark, with only enough food and water to keep them alive. No one had touched them, yet.

I intended to handle their interrogations personally.

There were three Rogue she-wolves in the dungeon. Two had been banished when their mates lost Alpha challenges. The third was interesting.

She had not been banished. She’d broken her pack bonds herself. My agents had not been able to learn why. In the end, I suppose it didn’t matter. She was here and she had made herself my enemy.

I left the interesting one for last, and picked among the other two at random.

I stepped into the cell and waited for the Rogue to look at me. I didn’t speak right away. I studied her while the anticipation, and the fear, built.

“Are you going to say something, or did you come in here to stare at me?” the Rogue demanded.

I smirked. Speaking first was a sign of impatience, of weakness. The first point went to me.

“You know why I’m here,” I said. “I’m going to ask you questions. You are going to answer. How quickly you answer, well, that part is up to you.”

The Rogue glared. “You don’t scare me,” she snarled.

I stepped closer and grinned. “Yes. I do.”

The first Rogue didn’t have much of use to tell me. She hinted that an Alpha had hired her, but she had taken the job through an intermediary.

When I was done, I stepped outside the cell, and gave orders to the guard loud enough for the Rogue inside to hear.

“Half her ration. See if she’s more talkative in a few days.”

The second Rogue was a coward. She simpered and tried to seduce me. It only took me a few minutes to realize she had no useful information. Like the first, she’d been hired through an intermediary.

I ordered her ration cut, too, although I suspected she really wasn’t holding out on me. I just wanted to be fair. All the prisoners would be treated equally.

And if they didn’t tell me what I wanted to know the next time I talked to them, they’d be equally dead. I didn’t have time to waste.

I went to the final Rogue. This one just stared at me. Her face was heavily scarred. She’d challenged and lost, but not died, at least twice.

I waited a little longer, but grew bored. I reached out and traced one finger down the most recent looking scar on her cheek.

“You challenge Alphas often, she-wolf?” I asked.

“Challenge ‘til I win,” she declared, trying to twist her face out of my grip.

“So you can talk,” I said. “Let’s see if you have anything interesting to say.”

“Got anything interesting to ask?” the Rogue scoffed.

“I’d like the name of the Alpha who hired you to infiltrate my Mate Ball,” I said.

“Maybe I thought I could ensnare me an Alpha Mate with my legendary beauty.”

Honestly, the scars didn’t detract from her strong features. Maybe a human would be bothered, but I wasn’t so weak. Still, she paled in comparison to that stubborn she-wolf up in the tower. I snorted a faint laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, well your guards washed off my make up. You wanna stare at something pretty, go find another Rogue,” she said.

“The make up was impressive,” I admitted. It had hidden the scars remarkably well.

“I buy it from the humans,” she said. “Smells awful but they say beauty is pain.”

“Do they?” I asked.

“You have no idea what the she-wolves at that Ball went through, to make themselves appealing to you, do you?” the Rogue asked.

I shrugged. “I just needed a chance to meet them. To find out whether any of them were my fated mate or not. They could’ve worn paper bags for all I cared.” I paused. “My brother liked the show, though.”

“I’m sure he did,” the Rogue said.

“So, humor me,” I said, “What was the plan? Did you really think you could, what, seduce us, maybe kill us in our sleep?”

The Rogue shrugged. “You? No. Everyone knows you’re a block of ice masquerading as a man. But your brother? He’d be an easy target.”

I snarled. Mostly because she was right. My brother was too easily led by a pretty face.

That was one reason I’d rounded up all the women my wolves had identified. I wasn’t risking one of them getting her teeth into Kieran. He was an idiot, sometimes, but he was my twin. He was all the family I had left.

“Ooh, hit a nerve, did I?” the Rogue taunted me.

“I’ll hit more than that,” I growled.

The Rogue grinned. “Go right ahead. See if you can hit harder than my old Alpha. Bet you can’t.”

I refused to rise to her bait. She was trying to provoke me. Maybe make me slip up and kill her before she gave up information.

Which meant she had information to give up.

“All I want is a name,” I told her. “I know you didn’t come up with this plan on your own. Someone orchestrated this.”

“What makes you think we couldn’t band together on our own? You think she-wolves are too stupid to plan?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” I said. “You’re plenty smart. Those other girls, though? They couldn’t work together long enough to plan a lunch before they started back stabbing each other.”

The Rogue blinked, and nodded slowly. “Okay, you have a point there.”

“So someone put this plan together. Someone set you up to die at my hand.” I leaned closer. “You don’t think they’re gonna do anything to get you out of this, do you?’

The Rogue frowned. Shook her head. “I don’t expect a rescue. I got caught. That’s my fault.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “But still. You don’t matter to them, not enough to even try to get you back. So why are you risking torture and death to protect them? What exactly will you gain from that?”

“What do I gain from talking to you?”

“Your life. A place in my pack,” I said.

“What?” she yelped.

“You’re strong. Smart. I can use a she-wolf like you.”

“You’d never trust me,” she said.

“I don’t trust anyone,” I said with perfect honesty. “If you swear to me, I can control you as your Alpha. And if you manage to work around that and kill me anyway, well, I guess I deserve it for being overconfident.”

She stared at me for several breaths. I could see the debate behind her eyes. But I had her.

“Alpha Silvestre,” she said. “He’s not the only one that wants you dead, but you probably know that.”

“What did he offer you?” I asked.

“When they broke your packs he was going to give me a small pack of my own. Just a few warriors and a patch of land. Not much, but enough to make a start,” she said.

“Hm. I can’t offer you that, but if you prove yourself, you’ll be leading a squad of guards inside the year.”

“Really.”

I nodded.

“Then I guess we have a deal. Anything else you want to know, or was the name enough?”