Rising from the Ashes
Chapter 5

She hadn’t gotten any of the answers she truly hoped to. She spent hours of her day scrolling through any and all reports until she finally discovered a change in the last ten years. It’s the crime that tipped her off. For centuries rogues were labeled as nothing but vicious creatures of the night. They would hunt as one, kill in gruesome ways. They ripped the bodies of their victims apart and fed off them. They worked alone and only alone.

Except this past decade they had begun working together. The crimes committed by rogues have become organized, the bodies left behind cleaned up. Problems solved just as quickly as they appeared. They have shown signs of working under a higher power, these things nobody had noticed until said higher power wanted them to. Elenora suspects she is no different. The rogue Alpha wanted her to know his name and now she does. She had heard the whispers because he wanted her to. “What are you looking for Nora?” Elenora nearly falls over at her friends unexpected appearance.

She rubs her eyes, focusing back on the screen “The rogue Alpha-”

“Rogue Alpha?” Mia interrupts, snorting at the thought. “There’s no such thing as a rogue Alpha, Nora. If there was, we’d know. You’d know.” Mia narrows her eyes at the screen “Especially because you’re looking ten years back. You were being controlled by the evil prat of the century back then, he would’ve had you looking into every possible threat.”

“Maybe I didn’t think much of it back then.” Nora finds herself murmuring and she hadn’t but now she does. She thinks back to the tragedy that was told across every pack there was, though most didn’t call it a tragedy. They were happy, it was supposed to be good news “Ten years ago several rogues met up in a warehouse. More than seventy five of them, Mia.”

Mia’s eyes light up. Even Mia knows about this, everybody knew. Everybody and absolutely nobody was concerned about it. Not even Elenora herself because she’d hated werewolves back then. All of them. Rogues. Pack members. The royal bastards at the top. She’d hated the species she’s now a part of. “And they were slaughtered” Mia mutters “Hanged for their crimes.” And crimes they were. Somebody, someone nobody knows had called for a get together among the rogues. Not just any rogues, the rogues this mystery person had tracked the crimes of. Terrible crimes of murder, destruction, and rape.

Some of them had clearly went to the warehouse by choice, only to meet their end. Most of them had shown signs of being dragged. “Yes. They were.” Elenora whispers “I’d been thirteen then.” She clears her throat, not wanting to dwell on their past “I didn’t think of how odd it was that the rogues had been gathered in a warehouse to slaughter. To me it was a blessing. Werewolves were evil to me, rogue or not.” Elenora shrugs as if it’s nothing “But maybe it was who they call the Rogue Alpha. One of his first acts before stepping up to his position as ruler among the rogues.” Elenora mutters her thoughts, tilting her head in way of asking Mia to sit beside her as she explains her thoughts. Mia though oblivious to people and what’s going on can be one of the most intelligent woman she’d ever met. Her opinion is worth having.

Mia does join her, pulling her legs to her chest and resting her chin on her knees she’s ready to listen to any insane theory Elenora might throw her way. “Alright.” She nods “Say there is a rogue leader demanding rogues to serve him. I wouldn’t think killing so many of them would be a great start.”

“Maybe it was.” Elenora muses, her eyes reading the screen “The rogues that were killed hadn’t just attacked other packs, they’d kill rogues as well. Hunted them for fun, it was a game.”

“Goes to show you that rogues and packs aren’t too different after all.” Mia jokes with a lighthearted smile and pain in her eyes. They’d been hunted by packs as well, found in the caves they went to sleep in. Elenora doesn’t laugh but she nods her agreement, turning to Mia.

“Some might have feared him, but most rogues probably respected him. Their families safe for the first time in a long time. Not to mention the allies the rogue Alpha might have made. It wasn’t just werewolves the rogues were killing, it was several species. Anybody they deemed prey.”

“Alright. Somebody killed the rogues and your theory has grounds but why haven’t we heard of him then. If he exist, somebody would know” Elenora nods her agreement, frowning. She stares at the screen, thinking about everything Tiras had told her about the guy. “Tiras hadn’t told me much.” She admits.

"Tiras?” Mia blinks before grinning, Elenora ignores her and passes a glare that warns her to stay on topic “I knew you smelled like somebody, it’s a nice smell too. Sort of musky, a good musky. Spicy. I like it, I bet you do too.” Elenora rolls her eyes before telling Mia what she knows.

“Tiras said what we know. Rogues work alone, they prefer to be alone. The Rogue Alpha is no different. That’s what he said.”

“Anything else.”

“Just that he works in favors, not that I know what that means.” Elenora shrugs “Apparently he gives them something and they give him their soul. Something like that.” She frowns, Mia brightens up.

“Search for that!”

“What? Souls?”

“What does everybody want?”

How the heck is Elenora supposed to know what people want. Still, she humors Mia thinking back to both Tiras and her old pack “Love, sex, and freedom. It’s sort of hard to look up rogues that have recently fallen in love. Besides, I don’t think the rogue Alpha decided to play cupid and find mates after assassinating rogues.” Mia merely rolls her eyes but even she can’t help the smile that forces itss way on her face.

With twinkling jade eyes she tells her what to search for “You never know, the rogue Alpha might make a fantastic cupid and you’re just hating on his talents. Money, Nora. People want money. Money to buy freedom. Money to buy success. Money. Search for rogues, successful rogues. Not every one of them had decided to live their life in a forest. He’s organized isn’t he? So don’t look in the wilderness, look in the cities.” With that, Mia leaves her to her search.

Searching for that specific information had been more than challenging so she’d later decided it’d be a lot easier to go to someone who knows everything, and if he doesn’t know something he knows how to find it quickly. Even so, there is a name she needs to ask Tiras about.

She shifts to Marcella’s from and starts traveling to the dusty old tavern.

It wasn’t long at all before Elenora had realized she was being trailed by a beast like wolf. She’d catch flashes of him speeding through the trees at her side. A black blur. Elenora would catch hints of his scent before it disappeared in the wind. Of course, it is not Elenora in control but her wolf.

A big part of Elenora wanted to snatch back control but there’s no telling how her wolf would react to that. The times Elenora hands over control to Marcella and lets her run out in the wild are few and far between. Her wolf only gets ill tempered when Elenora doesn’t shift so she can be free in this world. Her ill tempered wolf can cause a lot of damage, especially given her abilities to pull out fire whenever she wants. Best to keep the bitch happy and she won’t be if Elenora ruins her time.

Still, that didn’t mean Elenora was happy when the large wolf had taken it a step further and joined her at her side instead of hidden in the trees. The wolf is large, bigger than Marcella and that’s saying a lot. Big as a bear and just as full of muscle. His fur coat is thick in layers of black and gray.

He snaps his teeth at Marcella’s leg and to Elenora’s astonishment...Marcella doesn’t get angry. In fact, she seems to be in a rather playful mood. Elenora had let the two wolves have fun until Marcella started straying from the path in mind If you are going to play make your way towards Tiras or I’ll yank control from you. Elenora threatens her wolf. Marcella growls before making an abrupt turn towards Tiras. The black wolf seems to think it was him she was growling at and so he tries to give her space. Apparently, Marcella doesn’t want to part with him quite yet and so she pauses, looking back towards the werewolf following them. He hesitantly walks towards Marcella before joining her. Marcella doesn’t begin walking towards Tiras until she starts to rub herself on the wolf who seems to do the same. That’s about when Elenora takes back control from her wolf and pulls away so quickly Marcella’s wolf form stumbles.

Elenora shifts, listens to the breaking of her bones and watches the fur disappear in her skin before narrowing her eyes at the wolf. “Who are you?” She demands, the wolf stares but she has to know. She has to because Marcella -the stupid mutt- had scent marked him. She scent marked him and as far as she knows, only mates scent mark each other. For a moment the large wolf looks like he wants to run before she speaks again “Only cowards run from their fate, show yourself pup.” That’d done the job in convincing him to shift.

He does so, Elenora watches the large wolf turn to a very naked, very muscled Alpha. The two stare at each other, it is all she can do. Stare at him. She keeps her eyes on nothing but his face and he does the same. “You didn’t know in the office? Your wolf should’ve reacted to-”

“My wolf and I don’t get along.” Elenora interrupts and she doesn’t know what to make of this situation. Not at all. Where do they go from here? Mates. They are mates. For a moment, just a moment she forgets who he is, the hatred he holds for rogues such as herself and she forgets her feelings towards Alpha’s as she steps towards him. He seems to tense, his dark eyes hardening as he watches her approach. “As a young girl I saw how mates treat each other and I swore I’d never have one.” Elenora admits to him.

“Usually it is the exact opposite. I thought all young woman dreamed of the moment they would meet the person destined for them.”

She touches him, mostly to see if this is real. Did she fall asleep against her will? She hadn’t slept much at all for days and so she’s known to pass out at untimely times but then...is this a nightmare or a dream? He feels very real as she cups his rough cheek. He must have shaved days ago and now...hints of a stubble show. He doesn’t trust her but to be fair, she doesn’t trust him either. “I watched a mate bond in which he abused her, broke her down and destroyed her in a way that only a mate could. I saw her run back to him every time and I couldn’t tell if it was out of fear or a need to please her mate”

“You grew up a rogue?” He assumes because only rogues could be so cruel.

Elenora laughs and like cold water had splashed on her, she wakes up. She realizes who fate had decided to give her. Alpha Bardrick, a rogue hating beast of an Alpha “He was an Alpha, my father or so he told me.” She pulls away, her hand falling limp at her side as she watches his eyes widen. “Don’t believe me? Ask the Luna herself, she’s still around these days.”

“And what of this Alpha?”

“I killed him.” She waits for his reaction but sees none. He hides his emotions well and the infuriating thing, she can’t feel them. She can feel every emotion of every creature in this blasted realm but she can’t feel his? If there’s a God out there, he’s probably laughing on his high seat. She’d screamed and shoved this curse away for the longest time and the one time she wants to use it, she can’t because it doesn’t work on him. She feels nothing but her own emotions and they’re everywhere at the moment. “What? No quick witted response for the evil rogue?” Elenora rolls her eyes.

“I can only assume it was the Alpha who gave you those scars. Some are several years old. If I had a guess, I’d say you were a child when you got them.” Elenora looks down at her naked form becoming acutely aware of it now that he’d pointed it out. She’d grown used to nudity as a rogue. She couldn’t always afford to buy clothes and so at times, she’d sleep naked in the cold. Now, she sinks back behind the trees, finds the first stack of clothes hidden away before pulling on the large shirt. She wears it like a dress before stepping forward. Still, scars show on her legs. “If I had a guess, I’d say the Alpha deserved to die.”

“I’ve killed innocent people as well” Elenora mentions. If they are to even think about becoming part of a bond he will know her. Every part, even the evil. Are they even accepting it or are they trying to scare each other away with the demons they hide from the world.

“I’m sure you could say the same about me.” The Alpha responds

“I don’t like Alpha’s.”

“I don’t much care for rogues either.”

“Then it’s final. We have our answer.” This mate bond can never work. They’re too different in their beliefs.

“We cannot accept this bond.” The Alpha mutters, his eyes never leaving hers.

“No, we can’t” She agrees before turning and heading towards Tiras. She doesn’t look back, not even when he follows her. Silently. Along the way he finds himself some clothes and they walk into neutral grounds together. “You didn’t act like you knew of the mate bond when you walked into the office.” She mentions, breaking the silent air between them.

“I can’t imagine why I would have when you smelled of the demon I assume you’re going to visit now.” The Alpha shrugs with that damn emotionless mask he wears but then, he might have just as many emotions as he’s showing. That doesn’t make much sense. Not if she thinks from a logical standpoint instead of a bitter one. His hatred is known across this realm and the next one over.

“Is that jealously I hear?”

“I cannot possible be jealous of a rogue I don’t know.” The Alpha scoffs “A rogue who’ll sleep with a demon.” Elenora manages a laugh before shaking her head as she walks the streets of the small village. It is full of creatures of every kind and she smiles as a familiar one comes to view. it reminds her of a dog like creature except his hide is made of rocks instead of fur. Darker rocks from gray to black and a fiery like glow outlines each and every rock on him. Elenora watches the village folk scowl and scatter away from the creature. “It’s a Drocco.” Alpha Bardrick tells her, eyeing the creature with a certain amount of caution “They’re fire creatures. They’re ill tempered beast.” He warns just as fire shoots from the Drocco’s butt, catching on a woman’s dress and lighting her aflame. Elenora watches the village folk gather to put out the fire and walks on as if she had seen nothing.

“I thought most fire creatures live in the fairy realm.”

“Some are exiled or they decide they’d rather live elsewhere.” The Alpha explains as they walk into the bar. Tiras is easy to find. Look for the most sex craved demon there is and you’ll have him. He’s currently making out with one of his customers. A beautiful girl with a generous size rack and an even bigger ass that Tiras seems to enjoy.

Tiras pulls away, his eyes shooting towards her and he smiles. The girl frowns her confusion before turning to see what caught his attention. She glares when her eyes find Elenora to which she shrugs and joins them “Tiras, I was wondering if we could talk. I need another favor.”

“Another time blue.” He tells the girl before pulling Elenora aside, he tries to lead her towards the dance floor but she gently tugs him towards the corner of the bar instead. Dancing seems wrong, especially when the Alpha’s eyes would be on her the whole time. Judging her and her actions though he has no real right.

“No dancing, not tonight.” Elenora mutters “Ten years ago you had popped up out of nowhere and made a name for yourself. I was looking into matters of the Rogue Alpha and....well the strangest thing was the name Tiras kept coming up. At first I thought it coincidence, there’s others that have the name Tiras-”

“But I came into a business, a successful business. I came into money.” Tiras interrupts. He raises his hand “Whiskey, top it off Lena.” He tells the girl behind the bar. She does as told with a roll of her eyes, the moment he is gone he continues “My picture started popping up.”

“You told me the Rogue Alpha works in favors.”

“I’d been the first, only it wasn’t my nonexistent soul I sold to him.”

“It’d been the soul of several rogues.” She finishes. She’d caught a glimpse of Tiras on the monitor screen. To be honest, she didn’t want to think much of it because that means he knew more than he had told her in their dance but he didn’t share the information. He’d lied when she was nothing but honest, opening up about truths she’d only shared willingly with one other. Yet he had withheld what she wanted to know and not telling the whole truth is just the same as lying. “You know exactly who he is don’t you?” Tiras merely nods, refuses to look her way. “And you won’t say?”

“He asked me not to share his identity with you quite yet.” Tiras mutters before turning to face her. He gulps down the rest of his whiskey “I have been his friend a lot longer than I’ve been yours, Elenora. I owe him more than I owe a girl that happens to intrigue me.” That may be true but why couldn’t he tell her that from the beginning? Why promise the truth and give anything but when he could have just as easily told her he couldn’t tell her what she wants to know?

“Tell me this at least. Do you think I deserve to know?” Tiras grabs the bottle of whiskey the Bartender named Lena places in front of him and swallows a good bit before answering.

“I cannot give you the answers you want Elenora.” With that, he kisses her on the cheek and leaves her at the bar.

Of course, the one person she decided to befriend with the exception of Mia knows who the Rogue Alpha is and more importantly, he’d been the start of it all.

He’d been the one to send almost a hundred rogues to their death.

Most importantly, he knows who the rogue Alpha is but he won’t tell her and she isn’t too sure she can convince him to.

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