Chapter 02

VICTOR

Dea.

Her name rang in my head like a symphony on repeat. I almost wished I had a tongue so I could roll the beautiful name off it and hear the way it sounded in my gruff, accentuated voice. She was human that was why she couldn't feel the electricity that passed between us. Even if she had felt it, her mind probably didn't linger too long on the sensation. She didn't know.

She couldn't know.

I was out running errands when I caught a whiff of her cherry blossom scent. It carried on the wind, enticing me to follow her. The beast beneath my skin bristled impatiently as I tracked her through the throngs of people, aching to set my eyes on her. I couldn't believe it. Even after finally seeing her, the disbelief of it all still plagued my mind. I thought I was slowly going insane, that I wasn't on the brink of insanity anymore but I had fallen over and had lost all my senses.

But no, there she was. My mate.

Dea was gorgeous. She hadn't noticed me at first as she dug into her handbag for what I now knew was her glasses but I had noticed her. From the way her dark, jet-black hair was slicked back in a wavy ponytail to the way her thick, perfectly arched brows dipped into a V as she searched for what she had been looking for. Her straight button nose twitched ever so slightly and her full lips were pinched into a pout. There wasn't a stitch of make-up on her olive skin so I made out the bags of exhaustion lining her pretty brown eyes as well as the beauty spot that spotted the bridge of her nose.

She was a tiny, little thing who stood as tall as my ribcage, clad in a sweater and washed-out blue jeans. I gathered that she dressed for comfort and not to impress the people around her, the running shoes on her feet gave that much away. It also gave me the impression that she walked to work every morning—because it was the practical thing to do.

I was a perceptive person, always watching what was going on around me so, I deduced certain things from the interaction we shared. She was embarrassed for running into me but that morphed into discomfort when I remained silent. I couldn't leave her with that lasting first impression. So, when Dea left, I tracked her scent once more until I found her and could change the impression she had of me.

And it almost worked until she stretched her hand out for me to shake.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't touch her knowing what she would feel and knowing I had no way of explaining it to her. Especially if she were human.

"If you're going to disappear on me, at least give me a heads up."

I was yanked out of my thoughts by a low, whisper-yell. Casting my gaze down, I found my beta glaring up at me—a beta I had chosen after taking care of the previous beta of the rogues. Along with the previous Alpha, Huxley, I had to hunt down and put an end to the tyranny of all his followers so I could take on the role of Alpha of the rogues with less of a hassle.

I opened a mind link with my chosen beta, "Sorry, I was momentarily distracted."

She rolled her seafoam blue eyes and tossed her straight-as-a-pin sandy blonde hair over her sharp shoulder—she was feisty and a formidable warrior, it was why I had chosen her, "Yeah, I noticed big man. Always running after the ladies aren't you?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me, "I thought you had a thing for witches, but I see humans can't resist your silent, brooding charms as well."

"I have no idea what you're on about now, Saint," I grumbled through the link.

"Sure you don't..." Saint drawled in a saccharine tone, "so, who is she? She left this coffee shop ten minutes ago and you've been standing here like a statue glaring at that door ever since."

Ten minutes, had it honestly been that long?

I blinked my eyes and shifted on the balls of my feet, "She's no one."

"That's a lie," Saint had a knack for calling me out on my bullshit, probably another reason I had chosen her. She sighed in exasperation, all humor melting off her face so she could level me with a serious glare, "listen, if me being your beta is going to work out, you need to be honest with me. Isn't that the whole point of this, big man?"

"One, quit calling me that," I chastised through the link while signing the words frustratedly. Saint didn't understand ASL but I needed to sign so the humans around us wouldn't get suspicious, "two, she is no one."

"You hate being called Alpha and you're massive," she gestured to my entire build with a wave of her hand, "I also think it's cute. And, she may be no one now but for how long do you think that's going to last? I saw the way you looked at her. She's not no one."

"Fine," I relented, "I'm almost certain she's my mate but she's human. No one needs to know of her existence just yet. If they do, she will be in danger. You know this."

Saint's soft features twisted into pity—I hated that expression, "My lips are sealed. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I responded honestly, "for now, nothing I suppose."

"You're not going to be able to do that for very long," Saint murmured, her gaze moving around the coffee shop to make sure no one was attempting to eavesdrop on the conversation—or, at least, her end of the conversation, "you need to figure this out fast."

"I know."

"Don't give me that face," she chided, propping her clenched fists on the full curves of her hips, "I'm advising you, it's kind of my job now."

I glared down my nose at Saint but that didn't deter her. She stood just below my chin with a body corded in muscle from our grueling training sessions. Besides being a feisty firecracker, she was beautiful and, I learned quickly, honest to a fault. She spoke her mind which I admired.

"Let's go," I breathed through the link, gesturing with the tip of my chin for her to follow me.

We cut our way through the shop until we were out on the street again. Dark clouds loomed above our heads as a storm rolled in and a chill pricked my skin. I wondered if Dea was warm and safe wherever she was. Now that the mate bond had clicked into place on my end, it was thoughts of her which consumed my mind. I had so many questions and no means of asking them because I wasn't sure if I'd see her again.

I wasn't sure if I was willing to risk seeing her again.

"Have you spoken to Alpha Sydney?" Saint's voice grew quieter as she asked this question. She didn't know the history between me and the Alpha Queen but she did know I tried avoiding communication with her as much as I could.

However, at the mention of her name, there was no pang in my chest that constricted my heart the way it usually did. I felt...nothing, and that scared me a little, "I spoke to her this morning."

"And, what did she say? I keep telling you to stop holding out on me, big man," Saint nudged her shoulder into mine playfully. She was a young wolf with a jovial nature about her.

"She approved," my lips twitched upward.

Saint's face lit up with elation as she leaped into the air. She was lucky that it wasn't as busy as this morning. Everyone had made their way to work or wherever else they needed to be so it had calmed down a bit, "Yes!"

"But," the word rang through the link ominously and had Saint deflating, "even if within the pack we don't follow the standard pack rules, we will have to abide by the council rules. That's just the way things have to be to keep the peace."

Saint rolled her eyes and waved off my words with nonchalance, "I mean, we expected that so it's cool. I'm sure the rogues won't mind. At least, the rogues who actually want a sanctuary."

Saint had a point. The rogues who desperately needed a safe place to call home wouldn't care about abiding by the council rules. Most already did. It was the pack rules which they opposed and I never planned on enforcing those. I didn't even expect my members to refer to me as Alpha, not when I was there just to offer them guidance and protection, not to control them.

I had planned on building a sanctuary for them for a while but I needed to get the approval of the Alpha of Alphas first. Then, I needed to find a piece of land big enough for us while still leaving a piece of unclaimed land for other supernaturals to pass by if needed. That was how I found myself in the state of Washington. We were planning to build in the forest just a few hours away from the city—but being this close to humans meant I needed to be able to protect them as well in case one of my rogues turned out to be a deranged piece of shit.

There were a lot of risks but what plan didn't come with risks? I just needed to be mindful of how I would handle it. Now, I had one more thing to deal with thanks to the mate bond.

"When do we start building?"

"End of the week," I focused on the mind link between Saint and me, forcing all my thoughts to the back of my mind.

"My brother is going to be so excited when I tell him," Saint squealed, "if we finish in time he might actually get to have his first shift in a place he can call home. I want that for him, you know."

It warmed me how much Saint thought about her brother when it came to everything she did. It reminded me of me and a certain someone else that I once shared a connection with.

"When I took you both in I told you that you will always have a home with me," I reminded her.

"I know," came Saint's sullen voice, "and I appreciate that. I always will. But Sinclair has been my responsibility ever since Huxley attacked our pack and killed my parents. I don't think that will ever change. I'm not just his elder sister—"

"You are," I interjected, "you were his caregiver but not anymore, you need to slip back into the role of his sister because that's what he needs right now from you. Let me handle everything else, kiddo."

"I'm not a kid."

"I know, if you were I would have called you a pup," I taunted, sending my amusement down the link and earning a weak smile in response, "but if you're going to call me big man then I'm going to call you kiddo."

"Touché," Saint snorted, "listen, I'm going to get a few things before heading back to the apartment. Do you need anything?"

I shook my head and gestured for Saint to leave with a wave of my hand, "If you run into trouble, you link me."

"I will, but how much trouble could I possibly get into here?"

She didn't wait for my response, probably meaning for the question to be rhetorical as she trotted away with a skip in her step. Knowing her, though, she could get into trouble just about anywhere.

That was how I had run into Saint. She was being chased in the middle of a forest by a band of hunters. After Sydney had taken over, hunting against packs was prohibited but rogues were still fair game. Her birth mother, Lucille, was a hunter so Sydney had a seat within the circle considering she was half-human. That made my job difficult. It was another reason I decided opening a sanctuary for rogues who wanted to live normal lives would be the best outcome. As a 'pack' we couldn't be hunted.

There weren't many hunters in this region either way. With tribal lands and packs being nearby as well as long stretches of unclaimed lands, it made hunters wary.

You never knew what lurked in the forest and human weapons wouldn't cut it when it came to killing most supernatural creatures. We were built to be apex predators, sitting right on top of the food chain.

Until the sanctuary was built, I had rented an apartment not too far from here and enrolled Sinclair in a human school. He would be turning sixteen soon, though, and I would need to take him out so he could be amongst his kind. It was just another thing I needed to worry about. There needed to be a school within the sanctuary for pups, one that didn't raise the suspicion of the humans.

I expelled a resigned sigh and began making my way home so I could continue planning—as well as lock myself away so I wouldn't go on a scavenger hunt all over the city to find Dea again.