Chapter Eight

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

"You got the information you wanted," she said, zipping her backpack shut and slinging it over her shoulder. "You can leave me alone now."

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" he asked, ignoring her statement. "You can't be wandering around the woods without having a clue of where you are. You might accidentally wander into someone's territory."

Rae let out a scoff. "Someone's territory? This is the wilderness. It doesn't belong to anyone!"

He was catching up to her so she sped up. "See, that's where you're wrong. You don't know anything about being a rogue, do you? Come on, tell me. What do you think a rogue is? We were all told stories about them when we were younger. Trust me, it's far from the truth. Rogues aren't wanderers or simply packless. They have packs. They have territories. When a rogue is in a pack, he abides by certain rules and you'll be lucky if you come across one that's in a pack."

"Like you?"

"Of course," he said. He then added, "You're tremendously lucky, you know that? That cabin you squatted in belongs to someone. He's a rogue. They call him Deaddeer. You don't want to know why. He doesn't belong in a pack because he's part of the unsalvageable. He's too feral to follow rules. If he found you there, well, you don't want to know what would have happened. You're not safe out here. You've got a lot to learn."

Rae couldn't say that his explanation didn't scare her. She wondered if the name had something to do with the stink in the cabin. She shuddered and asked, "What's it to you? Why don't you just leave me alone and let me die? Why do you care about what happens to me?"

"I think you should know a bit about the wolf you aspire to become," he said. "I don't want you getting hurt unnecessarily. I sympathize with you."

She halted and whirled around. "That doesn't explain why you're willing to help me. And you weren't sympathetic when you were eating all my food. "

"That was before I figured out who you were," he pointed out. "I wouldn't have eaten much of it if you told me who you were when I asked."

Rae didn't want to entertain him. The sooner he left her side, the better. She was annoyed that he had eaten her food and told her frightening truths about the wilderness. He was right, of course; she didn't know anything about living in the woods and she wasn't aware that rogues also formed packs. What was the point of being a rogue if one was in a pack? She digressed. She was upset that she wouldn't be able to return to the cabin since it belonged to someone else, which meant she'd have to find someplace to stay before the day ended or she'd have to sleep under a tree, which was far from safe. But believing him one hundred percent didn't feel right to her and he didn't seem like a trustworthy wolf. If he hadn't figured out who she was, he would have eaten all her food knowing that she didn't have any experience, and let her starve. That was the only red flag she needed. Ignoring it would lead her down a painful path.

I'm conclusion, she'd rather be lost in the wilderness than more spend time with him. She didn't know what his deal was and didn't trust him yet. Maybe she'd never get the opportunity to do so. "I already gave you my answer. Leave me alone, you're distracting me."

"Rae," he said and her step faltered. "Look, it all depends on you, alright? What do you want out of this?"

His question surprised her but she answered him. "Peace. And solitude."

"What good will solitude do?" he asked. "Do you think isolating yourself from the world will make him pay for what he did to you?"

His words made her halt once more. She took a deep shuddering breath and turned to face him. He was looking at her expectantly with a tilted head. She couldn't understand how a male she had met not twenty minutes ago was getting under her skin so easily. She didn't even know his name. "You think you know everything, don't you? Entertain me, then. I want to see where this is going to go. What do you think I should do?"

"Join me," he said, taking several steps to reach her. "I'll help you get what you want from him."

"Which is what exactly? What do you think I want from him?"

"His head."

She scoffed and stepped away from him but he grabbed her arm so she wouldn't move. "I'm serious."

"Let me be," she hissed. "You overestimate your capabilities. You say I should join you and get revenge. But tell me this: how's a rogue supposed to help me defeat one of the strongest Alphas in this country? What's your plan exactly? You're delusional, and from you, all I want is distance."

"He's not the strongest Alpha."

Rae rolled her eyes and managed to free herself. "My answer is no. I don't want his head. I don't need it. Killing him isn't going to change what happened."

"But running from everything and every or will?" he asked. He didn't wait for her to answer him. She wouldn't know how to, anyway. "You say no because you don't know who I am. I bet that would change if I told you my name."

Rae kept walking. She concluded that he was a lunatic whose ramblings were best left ignored. She didn't care about revenge. She knew it was impossible even if she wanted him to suffer a little for what he did to her. She knew how their world worked. What he was proposing was pure lunacy. Killing an Alpha was punishable by death. She wasn't willing to die.

"You never asked my name."

She scoffed. "You never offered. And I don't care."

"Well, allow me to introduce myself then," he said, jogging after her. It was astounding how he simply ignored her wishes. Calling him persistent would be an understatement. "I'm Keegan of StonePaw."

She stopped so abruptly that he collided against her and they both went tumbling down. The fall didn't hurt. He stood and dusted his jeans, and then he helped her stand. She ignored his hand. She didn't need his help. She stared at his face in surprise. "You're from StonePaw?"

"Yes," he answered. "That traitorous bastard is my brother. He was the one I spoke of earlier. He took my rightful place as Alpha and kicked me out of the pack with the counsel's support. I've been away for seven years."

Rae frowned. Now that he had told her who he was, she couldn't doubt the veracity of his story. He truly was Negan's brother. There was a similarity between them that was uncanny. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed it until now. It was probably because Keegan's hair was long and it was covering half of his face. That and she wasn't paying attention.

"This can't be," she said although she didn't think he was lying. "Negan has been associated with my pack for many years. I've never heard of this."

"You wouldn't have," he said. "You were, what? Fifteen at the time? You wouldn't have remembered."

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. He was younger than Negan and had said so earlier, but something wasn't quite right. "You couldn't have been that much older than me."

"I was eighteen," he shrugged.

"And your father wanted you to be Alpha of the pack at such a young age?" It sounded irresponsible. Alphas were only young when there was absolutely no one else to take the title. In his case, Negan was older and more mature. It was right for him to be the Alpha until Keegan turned twenty-one.

Keegan furrowed his brows and she knew she struck a nerve. "I was young but stronger than Negan will ever be in his entire miserable existence. It's the reason why my father chose me to lead the pack. He has no honor, my brother, as I'm sure you've noticed by now. He hides his cowardice behind smiles and fake politeness. You're lucky he didn't take you as his mate. You'd soon grow tired of him, as everyone tires of him once they get close enough to him."

Keegan was right about him being a coward. If he were male enough, he'd tell her about him and Kara. "How are you going to overthrow him? You said you've been trying for seven years."

"I never tried," he said. "I couldn't risk attacking and losing. When I march to StonePaw, it'll be to win. I've been busy these last several years, and if you join me, you'll see just how."

That made her pause. Now that she knew who he was, she was looking at him differently. He wasn't going to harm her. He had no reason to. If he wanted to hurt her, he would have a long time ago. But what he wants from her is still unclear. She's just a female who has no experience whatsoever. She can't help him fight Negan. Besides, he was intolerable. They had just met yet they argued most of the time. She wanted peace, not more trouble. And Keegan reeked of it.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I don't want to get involved in any of this."

"You won't survive out here on your own," he warned her. "You don't have to fight alongside me. It's not like you could, anyway. All I'm offering is a place for you to stay until you get acquainted with the forest. I don't want to have to find your body rotting beneath a tree when I go out hunting."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Why?" she asked." Why do you care? I'm more trouble than I'm worth."

Keegan paused dramatically and then said, "I was once in the same position as yours. I had lost everything I loved dearly and was desolate. Someone offered me help, too, and at first, I denied it, not unlike you. But I wish I had accepted his offer because if I had, I would have spared myself a lot of pain."

Rae looked away and thought hard about his offer. He was right, of course, he was. If she didn't accept his offer, she'd be a fool. And she was a lot do things but a fool wasn't one of them. She wished for peace, not death. Accepting help was something she had always struggled with, even as a child. Kara was older than her and would always try to teach her everything she knew. Rae insisted that she could do everything on her own and Kara would shake her head at her softly and not take her refusal to the heart. Those memories were the ones that were killing her the most.

And Keegan, well, she didn't know him. She struggled to accept help from people she knew her whole life. She didn't know anything about him apart from what he had told her. But was going with him not better than facing hunger and danger? Maybe he had a place where she could sleep, and food and water. She'd leave as soon as she had the chance—it wasn't a permanent arrangement.

He must have guessed her thoughts because he took her backpack from her. She let him. He said, "You won't regret this."

"I hope so," she mumbled, following him closely.