2. 'Mate' Cute

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Skipping down the stairs, she grinned as she found all the cameras hidden away switched off.

"Well done Ben." She chuckled lowly and she knew that her friend had heard her.

"That was some show right there," Jordan said as they joined her, Kade counting the bills.

"Something you can never do." Benjamin teased the tomboy and commented. "I can't believe he has cameras installed inside the rooms."

"Gimme my share and I am out!" Noelle whistled as the group of rogues walked into the forest. The nap she earlier wanted was calling out to her again and she also wanted to get away from her friends before their scent rubbed off on her and their enemies too started tracking her.

"We have seven thousand dollars and six of us," Kade said as he finished counting.

"Give me a thousand and you guys take a thousand two hundred each." Noelle shrugged.

"I think you deserve more of the share," Ashton said, a sweet smile on his face. Despite the fact that Noelle was always pranking and targeting him, he loved the little firecracker who could do anything she set her mind to.

Noelle rolled her eyes. "I don't have rent and bills to pay. And I can get free food from anywhere."

Kade forwarded the money as he knew her best and knew she wasn't taking a cent more than the said amount.

"At least have dinner with us?" Jordan pleaded. The she-wolf missed the only female friend she had. She knew she couldn't talk to Noelle about her love life or other 'girl' things but having a female friend helped. Just her presence helped.

Noelle pursed her lips. She wanted to say no because she wanted to be alone but the idea of free food was just too irresistible.

Before she could reply, she turned on her feet, her eyes narrowed at the foreign scent that had invaded her senses.

"You are leaving?" Benjamin sounded disheartened.

Noelle turned around, keeping her index finger over her lips to gesture to them to stay quiet.

Soon their ears picked up the breaking of twigs, rustling of leaves, and a pair of heavy footsteps.

But Noelle's senses were on overdrive by the intoxicating scent of mint and earth. And she couldn't pick up on the sound because her wolf was purring like a cat inside her head.

"Pack wolves," Ashton noted. "High ranking."

"We will be the baits," Samuel said as he put Noelle in a headlock while Jordan snatched the money from her hands. Ashton, Kade, and Benjamin climbed up the trees and hid out of sight while Jordan started acting. "The bitch got a lot of money!"

"Take everything you can!" Samuel played along.

Footsteps quickened and as soon as the scent got stronger, Noelle struggled against his hold, feeling a need to find the source of that heavenly scent.

"Stop struggling, you bitch!"

And then two men rushed into the clearing and stopped.

Noelle's eyes caught the taller one, her sky blues entranced by the chocolate brown orbs. She stopped struggling.

"Mate." Her wolf purred.

Time froze for her and she thought it had froze for him as well. But as the three rogues launched themselves at the two wolves, he blocked their advances and threw them yards away with no visible effort before setting his eyes back on her.

"Get your hands off of her." He growled, power emanating from each of his words. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

Her mate was an alpha.

Samuel stood there not knowing what to do while Jordan had dropped the act and ran to her now injured mate.

"He's my mate," Noelle whispered and the rogue holding on to her let go, even fixing her hair in the process.

The alpha took in her scent and his eyes turned a shade darker to almost pitch black as he realized that even though she wasn't one of the other rogues in the plot, she still was one.

His mate was a rogue.

Ezekiel growled at the rogue near his mate, warning him to keep his distance from her.

He scanned his mate from head to toe. She was wearing a red dress which showed more cleavage than he approved of and her muscles were tense, she saw him as a threat though she acknowledged him to be her mate.

"Come here, mate." He said lowly, though it was an alpha's command, a command rogues were immune to.

"I am not coming anywhere near you." She spat out, angering him.

"You will do as I say." He growled.

She rolled her eyes as she turned on her heels, picked up her share of the money, and then walked over to where she had hidden her bag and then over to behind a tree.

Ezekiel growled, his wolf angered by the lack of respect.

His sharp hearing told him that she was changing and so he kept his eyes on all the other six wolves around, all watching him quietly. If anyone even dared to glance in the direction she went, he would claw their eyes out.

His mate emerged from behind the tree, now in a worn-out grey hoodie and a pair of ripped shorts, again showing more skin than he liked.

"So long suckers!" She grinned and with the speed of light, was on top of a tree branch.

Ezekiel exhaled a deep breath of exasperation as he joined her, much to her surprise.

She hadn't come across a wolf as skilled as her in surfing through trees before.

Then again, she had only come across a handful of wolves because she preferred to stay far far away from them.

Her lips curled into a manic grin, her sky blues flashing a glassy grey.

Ezekiel was surprised. Rogues were supposed to have red eyes. Or at least that's what he remembered of the rogues that he had fought in his ten years as alpha.

But his wolf wasted no time as he showed himself, the chocolate brown orbs turning pitch black.

The mates felt a tinkling sensation all through their skin, their scent intoxicating each other.

Noelle snapped out of it first, angered as she hopped through the branches, convinced that her mate was an illusionist, a rare breed of the were-kind.

Ezekiel was right behind her, dodging the branches she launched at him and moving in on her.

He took a giant leap and grabbed her, falling through the air. He flipped them so that she was now on top of him, him taking all the impact of the fall.

The sparks were more pronounced now that they were in each other's embrace, almost feeling like an electric shock.

"Stop that!" Noelle bared her canines as her wolf purred. She knocked the breath out of her mate as she put her hands on his chest and pushed herself up.

Ezekiel growled as he snaked his arms around her, pulling her back to himself as he jumped back to his feet, feeling the slight cramping on his back as the wolf healing did its work.

"Let go!" She growled as her heartbeat picked up pace again, the sparks becoming unbearable and her wolf purring uncontrollably.

"No." He gave his own growl and he held on to her, walking back to where they came from, her face to his chest.

"Oh goddess, I can't believe you found her!" His gamma, Hunter King, approached him. He realized the scents of the other five rogues were fading.

"Where are they?" He growled.

"This is No Man's Land. We can't attack them without a reason here." He explained.

"How about trying to rob my mate?" He asked, glaring at his friend. "Seems like a good enough reason."

"The only problem is they weren't robbing me and are my friends." Noelle looked up at her mate and his breath hitched in his throat.

Her face was awfully close to his face and her lips awfully alluring.

"Stop doing that!!" She growled as she wriggled against his hold, bothered by the sparks and butterflies.

Her movements stopped and her head snapped to the gamma when he started laughing, her eyes narrowed at her next potential victim.

"Sorry Luna, it's ju-" Hunter started but was quickly cut off.

"I am not your Luna," Noelle said flatly earning another low growl from her mate. She eyed him and said firmly, "Let me go, Alpha. You cannot capture a rogue in No Man's Land."

Ezekiel rolled his eyes as he snatched her bag from her before pinning her clawing hands behind her and holding her off the ground with his other arm around her waist.

"Go start the car." He ordered his gamma and tossed him her backpack.

"Yes boss!"

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