Chapter 2

• I froze.
• My heart was beating a thousand miles per hour, and I knew that the bastard could hear it to as he chuckled lightly.
• I squeezed my eyes shut to regain my composure. When I reopened them, I analysed the crowd and setting, calculating the odds of breaking his neck right here, right now.
• But for some reason, the thoughts didn’t seem as appealing as usual, as his cold fingers continued to draw circles on my shoulder.
• “Who are you?” I gritted out, hating that I couldn’t have my way with him. His once gentle fingers suddenly dug into my shoulder and spun me around to face him.
• My breath hitched, and my mind felt blurry when I saw his face. I should be killed for thinking this way, but his face was more than gorgeous. He was devilishly breathtaking—literally.
• His eyes were grey and scrutinising, but something in them was fighting, as if battling to form into one simple emotion. His hair was long around his ear and the base of his neck in dark brown waves that had my fingers itching to touch it, for whatever reason.
• And his lips—God, his lips so full and pink were pulled into a smirk that had me wanting to slap and kiss him at once.
• What the hell was wrong with me?
• “What’s the matter, Princess? Rogue’s got your tongue?” he taunted, and I almost gasped in shock.
• Never have I encountered a rogue that openly revealed himself to me like this.
• Yet, I could sense that he wasn’t just an ordinary rogue. Rogues I’ve killed before were weak—sloppy, even.
• But I could sense the power radiating from this man. My wolf responded to his power too, and I scolded her for it. He was a ROGUE. Inside my HOME.
• Even more reason to end him.
• I jerked my shoulder from his hold and gave him my best glare, recovering from my star-stuck moment. So what if he was gorgeous? Most rogues who I killed were.
• “But none had you staring like this one”, my wolf mumbled angrily. And she was right.
• She was telling me something else too, but I ignored her.
• “Why don’t we take this outside where we can talk freely?” I asked, wanting nothing but to wipe that stupid smirk from his face. But instead of answering, he only smirked wider as his eyes searched my face.
• His hand reached up, and he used the knuckle of his forefinger to slowly caress my cheek. I should’ve flinched away, and I wanted to, but I felt a shiver run up my spine instead.
• “Ah, yes. There is no doubt about it,” he mumbled, but it was more to himself. Suddenly, his gaze grew cold as he focused on something across the room, or someone.
• I followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at Nathan as if he would kill him.
• But not on my watch.
• “Why are you looking at him?” I asked, gritting my teeth and suppressing the tingles he surprisingly made me feel.
• His eyes snapped back to me, and they were set in a dark stormy mess, as if ready to rain the worst storm planet Earth has ever seen.
• “Because he wants what’s mine, of course,” he growled. “Look at him, like a damn love-sick puppy.” He pushed past me to head in his direction, and I moved on impulse and grabbed his hand.
• Nathan was an Alpha and could hold his own. Yet, the strange power I felt coming from this rogue was enough for me to feel the urge to protect my friend.
• The way he whipped around to face me almost had me stumbling back. I gasped when his previously grey eyes, now golden, stared at me, with his wolf at the surface.
• My wolf clawed her way to the front of my mind, as if trying to get closer—trying to connect with him.
• I quickly pulled away, not out of fear, but simply because I had never seen that before. I knew their eyes changed too when they summoned their werewolf side, but there was something different when he did it. He looked… struck.
• “Get a hold of yourself,” I hissed. “And get the hell out of my ball.”
• I grabbed him by his collar, watching his eyes change to gold again as he gazed at me like a snack. Still, I didn’t flinch.
• “Get. Out,” I gritted, hating that I couldn’t plunge my dagger into his heart.
• “This is harder than I thought. I shouldn’t have come,” he mumbled, not once looking away from me. “Fuck, your touch.” He hissed as he pulled away from me.
• My touch? What about my touch?
• I watched him in confusion. He closed his eyes, and luckily, we were at the end of the room, away from the dancing, or else this would’ve been pretty awkward.
• When he opened his eyes again, they were back to normal, and I heard him mumbling something about getting used to ‘that’ before he looked over his shoulder again.
• Nathan.
• I quickly looked over to where Nathan was, seeing that he was looking at me in confusion, and then a growl sounded from in front of me, and the rogue was gone. Gone in inhuman speed across the room.
• “Oh shit shit shit,” I cursed when I looked towards where Nathan was, and he was nowhere in sight. “That damn rogue!”
• What did he want? Why was he targeting Nathan?
• I glanced around urgently, trying to see where he had taken Nathan. I grabbed a silver butter knife from a nearby table and ran towards the nearest exit. I knew this couldn’t kill him, but it should do some damage.
• If this rogue, whoever he was, wanted Nathan dead because ‘he wants what’s his’, then he obviously needed to be killed. He’s crazy.
• Yet, I felt my wolf urging me along to find him for evidently different reasons. What the hell was her deal?
• I stopped dead in my tracks when I spotted something in the corner of my eyes as I ran past the door that led to the balcony.
• My eyes widened in horror when I saw the scene in front of me, and I wasted no time in dashing towards them, but the rogue heard my footsteps and hung Nathan farther over the balcony. He held Nathan by his neck, dangling him over the balcony like a damn string.
• “Don’t come closer, Amber, or I’ll drop him.”
• How the hell did he know my name?
• “Amber…r-run!” Nathan pleaded through struggling breaths. He didn’t want this monster to hurt me too, but I’d be damned if I let him kill Nathan.
• “Shut up,” the rogue hissed in his face. “You know you can never have her.”
• “Put him down,” I gritted as I inched closer, holding up my butter knife. He gazed at my knife and chuckled lightly.
• “That won’t hurt me, Princess. But understand that I have to do this.”
• “I said, put him down.”
• He smirked at me before looking back at Nathan murderously. I could see him trying to call forth his wolf to fight back, but the rogue had a silver chain wrapped around Nathan’s neck. He couldn’t move.
• “Fine.” He shrugged, and I realised my mistake when I told him to put him down. He would drop him and say something corny like, ‘There, I put him down’.
• “Wait!” I took another step closer. I needed to approach this differently. I would’ve gone head-on without care if Nathan wasn’t in his grip. But if I charge towards them, he would probably drop Nathan. Even as wolves, I doubt he would be able to survive that fall.
• “Okay, you win.” It took everything in me to do this.
• I was about to beg a fucking rogue.
• “Just put him down, plea-” I almost gagged as the word struggled to come out of my mouth. “Please.”
• I stared him dead in the eyes, hoping he had an ounce of humanity to heed my plea. He watched me momentarily, as if thinking hard about what I said.
• “He will not have you,” the rogue finally said. As desperate as I was, I agreed simply because he wouldn’t be alive tomorrow to know what should happen between the duke and me.
• “Yes, I know. Just let him go.”
• I released a breath when I saw him place Nathan on the balcony safely, and I didn’t even notice how hard my heart was beating until then. I watched as he looked Nathan straight in the eye, mumbled something, and then let him go. I reached out for him as he walked past me, but he simply walked away as if he were in some sort of trance.
• “What did you do to him!” I shouted as I took two brave steps towards my enemy.
• He had the gall to laugh. “Relax, Amber. I just told him to go home and forget he ever came to this ball. Once he’s home, he won’t remember a thing.” He shrugged.
• “Ho-how’d you do that?” I asked, stunned.
• He laughed again. “You kill rogues, but you don’t know the first thing about them, do you?”
• Once again, I was taken aback. This rogue—whoever he was—knew who I was. And I didn’t like that.
• When I was out, I tended to keep a low profile so that no one saw me, or better yet, no rogue got even a glimpse of who I was. I did this so that if they should escape—big on that ‘if’—they couldn’t hide from me again. I wasn’t dumb enough to wear the same attire every night like a dumb superhero or whatever crap TV conveys. It’s all about smarts and technique.
• So I was greatly offended and concerned that this rogue knew me. He seemed to know more about me than he was letting on, too.
• “Who are you?” I spat, holding my butter knife tightly in my hand.
• “Your worst nightmare and your greatest dream, Princess.”
• “Done with the games. Who are you, and how do you know me?” I hated that the closer I moved to him, the hotter I got.
• His gaze got more intense, and his fists were balled as if resisting the urge to touch me. Despite his smirk, I could see the internal battle going on inside of him. I could care less, but I simply wanted to know that my identity wasn’t leaked to the rogue world before I gutted him.
• The rogues knew me as the werewolf princess by day, but they had no idea I was their worst nightmare by night.
• “Oh, I’m not playing any games, Amber,” he smirked again, curved his hand behind his back and made a mockful bow towards me. “I’m Drew, my lady. The Alpha of the Rogues.”