Page 5 of Rogue Games

“Then you’re a bigger fool.” The wolf inside me snarls at my disrespectful comments. This is the only topic we’re divided on. To wolves, fated mates are sacred, and should be treasured and revered. He longs for his but given the messed-up home life I had, and the endless work I have ahead of me rebuilding the pack, all I can picture is hassle.

“Yes, yes. You don’t want a mate. You’re far too busy and important.” Callum mocks me by repeating what I’ve been telling him for weeks, ever since Blake Steel dropped the bombshell that the Alpha Games would be held here. “Remember, fate has a cruel way of giving us exactly what we need, not what we want. Which means you, my friend, are right in the cross hairs. Because you badly need to live a little.”

I scowl at him before resting my head back on the cushions again and willing an end to this irritating conversation. “I don’t need a mate. Or partying. I need a quiet house, and for the next few weeks to be over.”

Striding toward the door, Callum tosses me an infuriatingly smug grin. He knows me better than anyone, and he knows that while I crave solitude, I’m not truly happy alone. No wolf is. I’ve considered taking a chosen mate before, with no contact with the outside world that’s become the norm in our pack, but I have no interest in dating, and even less in making small talk, so it feels like I’d be faking it.

Plus, the pack needs me to provide a stable atmosphere. I don’t need dramatic break-ups or gossip about who I’m involved with and whether they’ll make a good luna distracting from the work I’m doing.

Temporarily forsaking my love life is a sacrifice I need to make to protect my pack. Or at least, that’s what I tell my wolf when he sulks about me not trying to find her. My fated mate.

“Whatever you say, boss. Whatever. You. Say.”

3

JAMIE

“How did it go?” Wyatt greets me at the edge of our temporary camp, which is nothing more than a raised platform built between trees and foliage fashioned into a roof. But it’s better than sleeping in the mud.

As I step inside, I glimpse the tiny wooden sculpture he’s whittled away while waiting anxiously for my return. My brother’s nothing if not protective. He didn’t want me to go alone to check out the launch, just like I didn’t want him to go. So, I keep my body language loose and pretend nothing exciting happened.

I’m rattled after seeing the chaos at the launch and being bombarded by so many scents and powerful auras. Living outside a pack for years, being around lots of wolves isn’t something I’m used to, which must be why I’m so jittery. I’ve heard the stories about frenzied wolves losing their minds when the alluring scent of a female in heat hits them, but it’s another thing to see how single-minded their focus became. It was… fascinating.

Not that it had any effect on Dean, though.

Usually only mated males can resist the pull, and yet somehow, I know he’s not marked. Mainly because no woman mated to a man that good-looking would be anywhere but at his side, especially on a night like tonight, with so many single she-wolves on the prowl.

My wolf agrees. Shifters are a possessive bunch. If he were mine, I’d have been there rubbing myself all over him like a cat.

“Well?” Wyatt demands, eyebrow raised, and I struggle to put my finger on what’s bothering me so much. Dean Reynolds, the alpha who unknowingly has our future in his hands, has me spooked. He’s more than I imagined.

“It was… enlightening. Alpha Reynolds isn’t exactly what I expected.” Choosing my words carefully, I keep my eyes averted. I can’t explain it myself, but for some reason, I feel like I’m lying to my brother.

“You’re going to need to elaborate.” He waits. And he’ll keep waiting until I give him the low-down on the launch.

Straightening out the thin blanket that will pass as my bed for the night, I replay tonight’s events in my mind.

“He’s detached, and cold, rather than cocky. Not the typical charming alpha, like Cooper Jones or Blake Steel.” I shrug, not sure how to express the twisted feeling in my gut. “He’s more formidable, though. I could sense it, even from far away. I don’t think he’s going to just let us walk in.”

Wyatt nods to himself as he considers my words. “That makes sense given the pack he’s part of.”

My wolf practically swoons, remembering how easily he put those pups in their places, but I refuse to encourage her admiration. She’s forgetting that he punched someone in the face and stepped over them. He’s obviously incredibly handsome, with perfect teeth, and so strong, with big muscles, and shoulders a woman would love to dig her nails into, but that doesn’t mean he’s a good man. Walking over someone’s unconscious body doesn’t exactly scream kind and empathetic. And in our situation, that’s what we need.

“He’s not just going to let us enter.” I’m certain of it. If he rules the launch party with an iron fist, registration and entry to his once cloistered pack will be even stricter. And he doesn’t seem like a man who’ll get drawn into a debate over his decisions.

Wyatt frowns, looking concerned. We’ve come this far though, and I’m determined to see it through. After being chased off yet another pack’s land, these idiot alphas all seemingly threatened by having a rogue wolf as big as Wyatt nearby, we have no other options.

“What about the other competitors you saw? Do you think we have hope?”

With a tired shrug, I refuse to admit my chances aren’t great. Much as I like to think I can put it up to the best of them, every sparring session with Wyatt knocks me back down to earth. But I can’t tell him that, or he won’t let me enter alongside him. “I think I can get past the first round anyway. From what I saw, you have a chance to go all the way, if you don’t mess it up.”

Wyatt looks away, hiding his smile, because he knows I’m not wrong. He’s bigger and stronger than most. It’s caused us some issues over the years, but if anyone’s going to win us a new home, it’ll be my brother.

Which is precisely why I didn’t want him going to the launch, where the other wolves would target him for not being one of them. It could have been him in that brawl getting his entry number torn to pieces.

“And what will you be doing while I’m winning us a place to live?”

“Sightseeing?” I shrug, but Wyatt shakes his head. He can read me like a book.

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