525 Kyle’s Rage
Cole’s voice boomed over the mind link, stunning many of the pack warriors that were unaware of this conversation. Thunder boomed as lightning crackled outside the Great Arena.
The evening sun was wiped from existence in an instant, replaced by the darkness of dark angry storm clouds.
‘Yeahhh…’ Kyle cringed, visibly shrinking back. Cole rarely lost control of his emotions, however, when he did…
…this happened.
‘But you know, when you think about it, this sort of makes sense. Where else would the rogues hide if it wasn’t in unoccupied no man’s land? It only makes sense that they would hide in plain sight,’ Kyle shrugged.
After a short moment of silence, the king sighed, ‘You’re right.
In any case, this is all the more reason to separate humans from werewolves. Let’s proceed with the current plan. We’ll deal with the rogues when all werewolves have been evacuated to the upper floors,’ the king announced.
‘Wait, what about our people?’ Kyle hurriedly asked.
‘Oh? You rarely contribute to such decisions,’ Cole chuckled, ‘The rogues have hidden for this long. I have a plan that’ll help us separate the rogues from our people. They won’t see it coming.’
.....
Kyle stayed silent for a bit, trying to figure out what the king could possibly be thinking but his mind came up blank. Mixing the rogues with their people was a bad idea. If the rogues chose to act then, the fallout would be incalculable and devastating.
‘Very well, Alpha Cole. I trust you,’ Kyle replied, turning his attention back to the girl he’d just rescued.
Now that his heart was racing a thousand miles per second, he could pay her more attention. It was only now that he was noticing something wrong with her face.
In addition to her grey eyes, he noticed her cheekbones weren’t the same as he’d noticed the day before. Her red hair too…
“Make-up?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s a long story,” she replied.
Kyle had heard of her situation from the king and queen of Sirius but still didn’t understand much about it, “They said you’re a… Seeker?”
Madeline would normally be frightened by anyone that asked her this question but Kyle sounded more confused than eager to get his hands on her, “Don’t you know what a Seeker is?”
“Unfortunately, no. I don’t. Perhaps you can tell me all about it when we get you out of trouble. This way,” Kyle sighed.
Just when he felt he’d gotten closer to her, he was suddenly miles away. This whole ‘Seeker’ aspect of her forced her to change her appearance and even mask the colour of her eyes.
It felt special… The last time Kyle had been involved with someone whose secret was that great, it had been Katie who’d lived her whole life as a human hunter yet in truth, she was the daughter of one of the werewolf empires and one of the Moon Goddess’s Chosen.
Kyle started walking but stopped when he remembered the rogue from earlier, “On second thought, we need to secure your pursuer first or he could cause more trouble.”
“I was almost sure you would kill him,” Madeline mused.
“Normally, that’s what would happen. But for some reason, my master doesn’t approve of that kind of violence anymore. Yet she used to be the greatest at putting down rogues,” Kyle replied with a sigh.
“You’re not talking about Cole right now, are you?” Madeline asked with a slight groan. He had used the pronoun ‘she’ after all.
“No, I’m talking about Alpha Katie Sirius,” he responded.
Madeline took note of how he referred to the lost Luna as an alpha and not a Luna. It made sense since she’d been an alpha before being united with Cole… but it also showed just how much respect he had for her as an alpha rather than a Luna.
Tracing his steps to the last place of his fight with the rogue, he found the wolf-shaped crack in the wall that he’d slammed the rogue into.
To his surprise, a wolf was not what he found in the rogue’s place. Instead of a werewolf lying there crippled in its wolf form, they found him in his human form.
Madeline gasped at the sight of the man lying on the floor, “Victor!”
Kyle wanted to ask where she’d seen the man but at the mention of his name, his eyes flashed red, tinted with rage. The beta alpha put a hand ahead of the Seeker and pushed her behind him, hiding her from the rogue that had just tried to kill her.
“M—Madeline?” Victor asked, pushing his weakened hands against the ground in an effort to sit up. It seemed he’d broken a few bones. Kyle didn’t care to know which ones.
“So you have a history with the girl you were trying to kill? How interesting! Perhaps I really should kill you,” Kyle snarled.
Victor looked up and stared into the beta alpha’s eyes. Despite the hulking man’s intimidating appearance, Victor didn’t show a shred of fear.
“And you are?” Victor asked coldly.
“None of a rogue’s business,” Kyle retorted.
This man rubbed him the wrong way and he couldn’t help but feel like biting his head off, given the chance.
Victor chuckled, “She’s not your mate. Don’t you know the thing about Seekers? They can’t sense their mates. You might claim to be her mate when in truth, you’re not.”
“Seekers?” Kyle asked.
Victor’s eyes widened in shock before he laughed out loud, “You don’t know what Seekers even are. This is rich.”
Madeline stepped out from behind Kyle’s back, “You’ve said enough, Victor. Why did you become a rogue in the first place?”
“Isn’t it obvious, dear Mady? For power. It’s that simple. You don’t need to overthink it,” Victor replied coldly.
“But… our pack is a small one. Even the average pack warrior is given the respect they deserve,” Madeline argued.
“You don’t get it. Of course, you don’t… and you’ll never understand. You’ve always been weak. You’d never understand,” Victor shook his head.
“Then help me understand, Victor. You turned your back on all of us. Why? You don’t see me or anyone else chasing power with each passing day,” the girl argued.
“Oh, but you do. You’re an amazing chef, Mady. A darn good one. A clumsy waitress… but a darn good chef. And that’s where your power lies,” the rogue sighed, “Mine was always with the strength of my wolf.
Taking that away from me was the same as taking everything from me. What would you do if you had your cooking taken away from you?”
Madeline was tongue-tied when everything was taken into that perspective. Was power really worth all that much to the former delta? And if it was so, why wouldn’t he try to earn it back from the prince the right way?
To want power so much and be too damn proud and stubborn to admit his mistakes. It was a contradiction that put him in a deadlock.
Kyle walked up to the man, keeping eye contact with him until he was standing right in front of him, “Why then were you trying to kill Madeline if you know each other?”
“Hmm, for someone who considers her your mate, you’re quite blind when facing your competition. I’ll spell it out for you. I was trying to get rid of my last tie to that damned pack. Shouldn’t that be obvious by now,” the man growled letting his eyes flash a fierce amber.
Kyle remained silent for a bit balling his hands into hard fists.
The first punch landed clean on Victor’s jaw and threw him roughly against the wall.
Next was a kick to the gut, followed by another kick, which struck the former delta’s hands as they guarded his gut this time.
A punch to the face and a kick to the side. Kyle then slammed the helpless delta’s head into his knee and continued a heartless assault that would have killed the rogue if Madeline hadn’t screamed for him to stop.
Her voice crackled like an electric whip in his mind, freezing his bloodied fist in the air before he could bring it down on the former delta’s deformed face.
Kyle didn’t have much to fight for in this world.
Having come from a background where his parents weren’t even people he could cherish. He only knew pain, suffering and following orders.
Doing everything in his power to survive.
He couldn’t explain why his wolf reacted to the Seeker so much or why he agreed with it. Maybe it was because of the way he’d seen Cole and Katie… or maybe what he’d seen from Jason and Sandra… perhaps Martha and Davin…
Kyle couldn’t really tell when it was that he started caring about things like that. Katie had given him a second chance at life… But there was still much he didn’t know. Much he had to learn.
His progress was slow and arduous. Before, all he had to do was manipulate everyone around him into doing what he wanted. He had to break all that down and build himself up.
So when his instincts told him to beat the selfish self-serving arrogant excuse of male before him, he found resisting this urge to be harder than trying to lift the weight of an elephant.
He wanted to see Victor dead.
And the sight of a tear streaming down his mate’s face was his breaking point. At that moment, he’d lost himself completely.
Madeline’s hand wrapped around Kyle’s bloodied fist and tugged, pulling him away from the battered rogue.
“Why?” Kyle asked.
“Death is a form of escape. You of all people should know that,” she replied calmly.