Page 7 of Rogue If You Want To
I quickly discovered when my brother’s voice boomed through the forest. “Don’t kill him. I need to mark him first.”
“Lutris?” My voice cracked, barely audible. “Why?”
My brother had never been up for best brother of the year nominations, but this… this was…
“You know why,” he seethed.
Lutris was now hovering over me, disdain pouring off of him. I might not have been able to scent his anger, but it was hitting mein waves. Was he trying to take over our pack using bears? How could that possibly end well?
“Can’t have me be the one to kill you, can I?”
Another slash, this time down my thigh. I tried to shift, but I couldn’t. Whatever was blocking my scent was preventing it. I reached for my otter. He was gone. I tried again… nothing.
This was no spontaneous action. My brother had planned this out well. How could we be so different? I was actively trying to save us both while he was gleefully trying to end my life. Sharing a womb meant nothing to him. Only the fact that I might stand in the way of him gaining power.
I wanted us both to walk away with what we wanted, but instead, this was how it was gonna end. Me at my favorite place, being sabotaged by my brother, my own fucking twin, for what? Power. Power he thought he was taking from me. Power I never wanted.
“I always planned to let you be Alpha,” I told him as the darkness started to come, “I’m an omega, what would make you think I want that?”
And right before it did, he said the words of our pack, the ones that made me rogue.
“Can’t have any shifters stumbling upon you and trying to save you, can we,” he cackled.
And then the pain, the pain that came from him marking me as discarded trash, seeped through me. It was a thousand times worse than anything from that bear.
This was my brother.
My own twin was doing this to me. And he was making sure I suffered beyond understanding, not even letting me go quickly. No, he was making me die a slow death, with no hope of assistance.
He was leaving me to die.
The last thing I heard him say was, “I’ve got new plates for you. Here are the keys. And don’t forget this bakery shit and his phone.”
Not even a good bye or I’m sorry, bro. He was settling his deal with the bear. Did he trade my life for my car?
If some human found me, they’d never know how I got here or why I was here in the first place. They’d probably assume I was just out for a stroll or some shit and a wild animal attacked me. And if it was a shifter, they would assume I deserved it and move along.
There had to be some way out of this. I refused to believe this was the end of me. But before I could even think of a possible answer, everything went black.
The goddess was coming for me.
My head!
My head was pounding like someone was smacking it over and over again with a two-by-four.
I tried to move.
I couldn’t move. Was this what happened if you displeased the goddess? Was this where you went… a land of pain and darkness?
“You’re awake.” The voice… I didn’t recognize it, not even close, and at the same time it felt so familiar… so safe.
I cracked my eyes open, the light too much to bear. I closed them again, and this time, when I opened them, there was a man there, holding me close, looking down at my face, his eyes showing more empathy than I’d seen in years… combined.
And he was a naked man, holding me like I was precious.
The scent of iron hit my nose.
My scent was back, and what did I smell first? My own blood.
