My 'Rogue' Mate

Chapter - 42

Happy reading 🌻

Evelyn 🌕

Most werewolf wars were forged by the fight for power. We are extremely territorial and unbelievably possessive of what belongs to us. I could almost understand why Azazel did what he did but I could never wrap my head around him casually slaughtering (or trying to) his own family just to get the Alpha title. My understanding of his actions did not bring justice to what he did to my mate's family. 

I couldn't even imagine what he went through all these years after being forced to take his father's life with his own hands at the mere age of ten. How could a child ever recover from that?

My blood boiled just thinking about it. My heart couldn't handle the tears that flowed from my mate's eyes. His torment felt like my own if not worse. I wish I had the power to take away his pain and to never let anything ever harm him for the rest of his life. 

"I lived among the humans. First in an orphanage, then foster homes. Went to school like normal kids, got a tattoo, pierced my ears, did everything to blend in and tried to forget all about my life. 'Maybe I made it all up' I'd say to myself. But Azazel kept following me anywhere I went. Their rogues would somehow scent me out no matter how well I hid it. I was scared they'd kill my foster parents and ran away from them. Lived in the streets for a couple of years and worked in a vet hospital.

"There was no incident after that. No rogues, no chasing. I thought I was finally free. If only I knew." he chuckled dryly. " As always, they found me and as always I ran. A week after that I found my orphanage friends were killed by 'bear attack'. My ex-foster parents went missing on their trekking trip. And the hospital I used to work at was burned down with two of the workers inside. That's when I realized, I could run for as long as I want but they'll always chase behind. Kill anyone with even a slight connection to me. So I stopped running from them and started to run towards them. Azazel wanted me dead, so I figured I'd die killing him. 

"It was hard dodging all the rogues he had sent for me and that's how I ended up here."

He moved his eyes from the ceiling to look at me. " I wasn't trespassing your land. I was trying to shake off the wolves following me and accidentally got the other pack on my tail." he said. I nodded, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

"Then what about the wolfs you killed?" my dad asked. There was no hostility in his tone, just confusion. Orson furrowed his eyebrows, " I was in no shape to fight at that time so I just ran. I didn't kill anybody." he said. "Either the rogues got to them or they're lying." he added. 

Both were possible. I mentally noted to ask Keagan once this all settles a bit, adding it to the ever growing list of things I needed to ask. Orson looked as exhausted as I felt. Alex's tears had soaked through the sleeve of my torn shirt. I could tell my mom and dad were struggling to pull all their scattered emotions together as well. This day took a turn worse that I expected.

"Did we make you suffer too much bear?"

That voice felt so loud in that quiet room. There was a moment of silence, Orson's wide unbelieving eyes refused to move from mine. I felt his overwhelming panic, excitement and fear course through me. I gripped Alex's shaky hand and nodded toward my mate, "It's okay."

Orson took in a deep breath before looking at his mother and started crying as soon as he did. " You're okay, you're okay." he mumbled to himself against his mother's shoulder. "I'm okay now." she said, pushing herself up to sit down, grimacing as she did. Victoria helped her before kneeling to her, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect the princes your highness." she said, head bowed. She didn't say anything, just pulled Victoria in for a hug. "I'm glad you're well." she said.