Page 32 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

“They didn’t know who they were messing with. I grew up learning the laws of old as well as the laws of modern times. I don’t count on a Council Librarian to find me answers,” he tapped the side of his head, “I have all the information right here. When I quoted the rights of a pack Alpha from the lawsof old, they backed off. I suspect they are waiting for my failure. They’ll be waiting a long time.”

I hadn’t really considered that he was the pack Alpha. But of course, he was. He was the only one left. It wouldn’t matter if he was an alpha or an omega. He was the leader. It didn’t matter that leadership was over exactly one person. Looking at it through that lens changed my perspective, that was for sure.

“And that’s where I need you to trust me, and be brave. I want to mark you as pack. I’m an old man without much to offer other than what you see, but when I tell you that while you two are not the first to pass through these lands, please believe that you are the first I’d ever considered inviting to be pack.”

“But I’m rogue.” As tempting as his offer was, I couldn’t bring him harm. I refused.

He nodded. “You are. But if the Alpha of a pack marks a rogue as Pack while reciting the ceremonial words nearly lost with time, you will no longer be rogue, you will be pack, under the eyes of both the goddess and the council.”

“I didn’t…” words weren’t coming, the possibilities he’d opened up tossing everything I thought I knew out the window.

“It rarely happens. Most packs don’t acknowledge that this method exists. They don’t want the trouble that taking in another outcast might bring. It’s easier to forget that there’s a way around the mark.”

His eyes fell to where I was scarred. “And I’m sure that some packs have removed it from their pack education for so long that no one alive still remembers. But I remember… and I’d like to make you pack. But that means you would need to stay here, to truly be Pack.”

“Do you think the packs you have an agreement with have a problem with this?” I asked. If they would, it was a no brainer. We’d leave.

“I don’t think so.” Not a resounding yes.

I turned to my mate, and he put his free hand on his belly and gave a single nod.

“It would be an honor to be pack.” I answered for us both.

The ceremony was short. He spoke the ceremonial words in a language I was unfamiliar with. I wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that Auden didn’t know what they meant word for word. I wasn’t sure they mattered, because without that knowledge, they still felt right.

And when the final words were spoken, he reached out his partially shifted hands and clawed each of us. Me, over my rogue mark, slicing deeper and wider than the scar.

I was able to keep a cry of anguish coming from my chest, the searing pain nearly too much. But as bad as that was, it wasn’t as difficult as seeing my mate bleed.

“As your alpha, I command you to shift.”

And for the first time since my father passed, I felt the power of an Alpha. Even if I hadn’t wanted to shift, it was happening. There was no choice. My beast took over before I could reach the hem of my shirt.

Auden might be this cute, little, adorable man you expected to see at a bingo if he were human, but there was no mistake about it— he had power… power he’d been using for the benefit of others for years.

And now, he was using it for us.

I didn’t know what the future would hold from here, but as the three of us treaded off into the woods, following Auden’s lead, I knew one thing.

This was home.

And these people? They were my pack.

19

LARKIN

The drive back to our old cabin was very different to the one when we fled our home. We trundled over the same roads but we were no longer hiding. When we got off the road at a rest stop, we got glances as everyone did when we walked in the door. But after a quick once over, people went back to what they were doing.

But weweredifferent. Creven bore my mating mark and the one from our new pack, while I was pregnant and also has Auden’s pack mark. And though we couldn’t change Daniel’s death and that I killed him, my ending him was justified. He’d threatened my mate. Auden had cleared this with the council but there would be resentment from Daniel’s pack and as much as I loved our first home, I wanted to be in and out. There’d be no dawdling.

"It's hard to believe.” My mate navigated around a pothole that had gotten bigger since we'd left. "A council ruling that recognizes new pack formation. Who would have thought?"

I touched the fresh mark on my shoulder, still tender but already healing as though it had always been there.

“Auden is a persuasive Alpha.” Despite the details he’d provided, I wondered if he had a history with any of the council members. Were there people who owed him favors and he’d told them it was payback time?

My mate rounded the last corner and the clearing appeared. The cabin was still standing when I’d wondered if Daniel’s Alpha had ordered it destroyed. And would the pack have trashed the insides carrying off anything of value?

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