Page 72 of Rogue Games

And there, much to my disappointment, is Jamie, standing at the bottom of the steps, in my basement. She runs her hands over the smooth surface, checking each door along the walls as she goes. Kicking one in frustration when she finds it locked, she then moves on to the end of the corridor.

She pauses, hands on hips in front of my office door and turns, looking up at the ceiling, checking for cameras but they’re too small to see.

“Don't do it,” I whisper.

Go back upstairs, show a little remorse for what you've done. I want her to turn around so badly.

I don't want her to prove me right, that rogues can’t be trusted.

But as I watch as she rests her hand on the door handle and twists using her shoulder to shove it open an inch or two, I know I’m not going to get my wish.

Jamie hesitates before entering and I hold my breath.

Turn back. Turn back.

But instead, she shoves the door open and crosses the threshold into my most private space. As she sneaks inside and closes the door quietly behind her, I stop walking.

A feeling of devastating loss washes over me. I don’t trust easily. I’ve never let a woman into my home. It feels like a betrayal.

I feel my insides hardening.

It’s the same feeling I used to get when I wished my father was a different man, and he proved me wrong, time and time again. I can't let my emotions trick me into believing somebody is something that they're not.

So now I must deal with her like I would any other trespasser, no matter how much it hurts me.

32

JAMIE

This feels so wrong.

My wolf pleads with me to go back upstairs before someone finds me down here, and I get myself in a whole load of trouble. Again. But realistically it’s already too late for that.

He locked you in here. He’s strung you along. It’s his own fault, I tell myself. But that annoying voice inside, my conscience, says I should have just made myself a snack and had that nap because I’ve ransacked the place, and so far, it’s all been for nothing.

Panic bubbles up inside me. There’ll be no coming back from this.

I flex my fingers by my side to dispel the nervous energy building up inside me. My entire body trembles.

Filled with self-loathing, I’m unable to stop myself, driven on by the insatiable need to find something to prove he’s a horrible person hiding a deep, dark secret about my mother. That he’s the bad guy here, not me.

This might be our last chance to find out something about what happened to her, because Dean sure as hell doesn’t seem eager to help.

After Maya left, I’d just about convinced myself that Dean was a good man, and that whatever reason he had for keeping my mother’s location a secret, must be a good one. I’d give him until the end of the games, hard as that might be, and then judge him based on what happens.

Maybe she still needs to be protected. Maybe she’s in a hospital getting long-term care. We’d waited years to see her, a few days more wouldn’t be the end of the world.

But then, I saw it. A picture sitting on a side table, of three smiling siblings, one peering out from a face looking strikingly similar to a young Wyatt.

And then, the truth hit me like a sledgehammer. I was so stupid, allowing myself to believe that I belong here. This isn’t my pack, and these people aren’t my friends. And that man is most definitely not the kind I should be pining for.

For as long as I can remember, Graham Reynolds was the boogie man. He stole our mother, kept her from us, maybe even killed her. Then, I realised it was Dean keeping her from me.

But now I know it’s not just about my mother.

I’ve spent years alone. Wyatt is the only person I have, and if he wins this damn competition, I’ll have to share him. But it’d be worth it because we’d gain so much more. A new life. Friends. A community where we’d belong again.

But right here, in Dean’s pack, kept secret from me by the man who made me come just mere hours before, are more members of my real family, that I could have been with all this time. And he fucking knew. The entire time. And he kept it from me.

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