Page 22 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

It was good, though, because it gave us something to do. Something that wasn’t thinking about what had just happened, what it might mean for our future, and what the fuck we were going to do next.

We carried the wolf back to our cabin and set up the fire pit like a burial pyre. With no ceremony, we placed the wolf on the sticks and set it ablaze. It wasn’t as big as the one they used for my father. And there were no kind words sending him off to the goddes… no saying goodbye. There was no love lost here. This was alleviating a problem, nothing more.

I felt bad, but if he’d had strong family ties, a strong pack—he wouldn’t have been here alone. At least, that was how I justified it to myself.

As the fire burned, I held my mate, watching it only to make sure no sparks would cause any threat. The two of us were shaken up but safe in each other’s arms. And for now, that was all we could ask for.

But tomorrow? Tomorrow we had some things to figure out.

Because one thing was for sure, that mark on my mate was nothing but a target on us both.

13

LARKIN

The mate bond hummed beneath my skin, beating in time with my heart. But unlike the vital organ in my chest that I mostly ignored and let it get on with keeping me alive, this was in my nostrils. It was the sensation under my skin when I touched something and there was ringing in my ears. Every breath carried Creven's scent and reminded me of what had happened. I couldn’t blame him because I’d been faced with the same choice every minute since we met.

His fox had overwhelmed him and marked me. We were mated and bonded until our last breath. Being who we were as individuals, we weren’t welcome in shifter society but now he’d marked me, we’d become targets. Shifters, like humans, were fearful of those who were different. I couldn’t blame them because history had taught people to be cautious.

"We can't stay here.” I stared at the pile of ashes and bone that was all that remained of Daniel. “But first we have to get rid of this.”

“Water.”

“Yup.” Like we had done earlier, we had to dump the ashes in the river, but not all in one place. And we had to disguise our scent as much as possible.

I ran to my garden that had been a source of joy and grabbed all the sage leaves and garlic bulbs. We crushed them and rolled around naked in the aromatic mess. We split up, agreeing to meet at the cabin in an hour, with each of us taking half the ashes.

Creven took off in the opposite direction to me. I headed to a small rapids on the river but paused before tossing some of the remains in the water. I was holding what was left of a life. I’d behaved in accordance with shifter law but being without a pack and now mated to a rogue, I doubted that law protected me.

Daniel was dead and Creven and I feared for our lives so I tossed the ashes in and tore through the trees to another section of the river, where it merged with a second fast-flowing body of water.

Two more ash dumps and I was rid of the last of him. I dove into the water and raced back to the cabin. I couldn’t call it home because that was the past. Our future was uncertain and it wasn’t here.

My mate arrived a minute after me. He had no color in his cheeks despite running for an hour and I stuffed clothes into my worn backpack, urging him to take what he needed.

"Daniel's pack will come looking for him.” We’d done what we could with the evidence but the pack would scent us in the cabin. They’d find the scorched earth where we burned him. Shit. We didn’t have time to disguise it so we grabbed wood from the shed and added chairs and bedding, anything from the cabin that would burn. It’d have to do.

We had to get away and couldn’t stick round disguising what we’d done and be still here when Daniel’s pack arrived. We were screwed but I didn’t say that to Creven. He was as aware as me what fate awaited us here.

“Where can we go?” Soot smudged Creven’s cheeks as he doused the flames, and I wiped it off with an old shirt, not wanting any part of Daniel on me or my mate. “Every pack between here and the coast will be hunting for us once word spreads."

I paused, trawling through memories of my folks instilling in me what to do in an emergency if they weren’t around. As a kid, I thought they meant if they were shopping or at the movies but I’d been much older when I was aware they spoke of a time after they were dead. Sometimes I’d wake late at night with the house in darkness and my parents were murmuring about a future they might not see.

"There's someone.” How did I explain how I came to have his details? "My parents... before they died, they gave me a name. Someone to contact if I needed help.”

Creven looked up from the box he’d stuffed with food. He was shoving his precious computer in a messenger bag over his shoulder when he asked, "Who?"

“Auden. My father said he was the only person he'd trust if I was alone.” I swallowed hard, remembering the fear in my father's eyes when he'd pressed the folded piece of paper into my hands. "I never thought I'd need it."

"Where?"

I yanked at an inner pocket in my pack, one I hadn’t opened in years. The paper had yellowed and frayed and a water stainmade the name difficult to read. But I’d memorized it and the address.

I grabbed my mate’s phone using our internet connection for the last time. A small town named Stanmore tucked into the base of a mountain was where we had to go. It was remote and perfect for two runaways.

"It's about a day's drive.” I showed him the map. "Maybe more, depending on how many towns we have to detour around.

My mate studied the route. “I don’t know how many pack lands we’ll have to cross to get there. Perhaps if we take back routes, we’ll be safer."

---