Chapter 19 RUNAWAY ROGUES
RAGNAR'S POV
The report lands on my desk an hour till dawn.
I knew something was wrong before I read it.
My wolf bristles under my skin, pacing around my head without resting.
Something's wrong.
Yurik presses against my thoughts, restless and sharp with a low growl vibrating through my chest.
The air feels too quiet and still.
“Say it,” I mutter, already standing.
The scout doesn’t waste time. “Three rogue corpses found at the east boundary. All skinned and left in a line.”
The word skinned sinks its claws into me.
Rogues have always been a problem.
Moon-cursed by the Moon goddess herself for rebellion they are packless and feral creatures.
Most never leave their wolf forms or are incapable of doing so.
They love and live for the hunt.
They fight and they survive like annoying cockroaches and if it's one thing they don't do, it's that they don’t starve.
They also don’t come this close to pack borders unless something forces them to.
Or in this case, someone.
“Who found them?” I ask.
“Night patrol. They didn’t touch the bodies.”
Good. They know better.
I grab my coat, already moving. “Wake Beta Ava and put out a full perimeter lockdown. No one crosses the boundary till we're back.”
The forest smells wrong the moment I step into it.
Blood, yes. That’s to be expected seeing the carnage. But underneath, there was something else. Something sour and rancid.
Fear.
Old fear.
The kind that seeps into the ground and doesn’t leave.
The bodies are laid out deliberately. Three wolves, ribs visible beneath stretched skin. Their pelts are gone, cut away with precision, not torn. Their eyes are open, glassy and frozen wide in shock and fear.
They died running.
I crouch, pressing my fingers into the dirt. The tracks tell the story clearly. They came from deeper in the forest. They didn’t slow. They didn’t fight.
They fled for their lives.
“Rogues don’t flee like this,” Ava says coming from behind me.
“No,” I agree. “They don’t.”
I lift one of the wolves’ heads carefully. The neck is snapped clean and oddly efficient. Quick with no struggle marks.
“This was a message to us.” My wolf snarls.
“They’re malnourished,” Ava continues, kneeling beside another body. “Look at this one. Her hip bones are protruding. She looks starved.”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” I say.
“There’s game in these woods year-round.”
“Unless something scared it all away,” Ava says flatly.
I straighten slowly. “Or someone.”
My blood goes cold.
“Shift,” I ordered.
We don’t hesitate.
Our clothes tear and fall away as bones stretch and snap into place with a sickening squelch.
Fur ripples across my skin as my vision sharpens and colors bleed into scent and heat and movement around me.
Yurik surges forward with a roar of relief, taking form fully.
I hit the ground running on four powerful limbs, Ava keeping pace beside me, her gray form sleek and fast.
We follow the trail northeast. The forest grows quieter the farther we go. No birds or small animals.
Even insects that should be chirping away early are oddly quiet.
The ground is trampled, not by one pack, but many wolves moving in panic.
They all run the same way.
Toward us.
We cross into the neighboring pack’s territory before the sun fully rises.
The smell hits first.
Death, fear and blood layered thick over rot.
We slow.
Then we see them.
More bodies. Five this time in the same position and body condition, arranged like offerings.
Their eyes are also opened wide in terror.
Ava growls low, baring her teeth. “This is organized.”
I circle the scene, nostrils flaring. The scent doesn’t belong to any pack I know. It’s wrong.
Like a taboo.
We don’t linger. There’s nothing to track beyond confusion and panic. Whoever did this clearly doesn’t want to be found and took proper measures to ensure that.
They want to be seen.
We turn back as the sun crests the trees.
Halfway home, Ava slows.
Then stops.
I stop too, muscles tense, tail stiff.
Is there a problem?
She turns on me sharply. “You don't need an Omega as a guard, Ragnar.”
I bare my teeth at her in warning.“This has nothing to do with Sebastian.”
She laughs, harsh and humorless. “Everything has to do with that weakness right now.”
I whirl on her, my hackles rising. “Choose your next words carefully Beta.”
She doesn’t back down. “I told you to take a guard, not a liability and definitely not a scrawny Omega with no combat experience like him”
My growl shakes the air. “He has proven his endurance”
“Well endurance won’t stop whatever did this,” she fires back. “You need someone who can fight, someone who can kill and Sebastian can't even hurt a squirrel, I've tried!”
“I am not replacing him.”
She steps closer, eyes blazing. “You’re risking the pack for personal reasons Alpha. You're putting a target on yourself and us.”
That hits too close.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I snarl.
“I know exactly what I’m talking about, she snaps. The elders are restless, our borders are compromised. And you choose now to indulge–”
The Alpha voice erupts before I even consciously release it.
“Enough!”
The command slams into her like a physical blow.
She stumbles and almost falls with her claws digging into the earth, head bowing against her will.
The Alpha voice I used for Sebastian was child's play compared to this.
Her ears flatten on her head with her breath coming out fast.
“You will not speak of him again,” I say, “Not to the elders, not to the council and not to anyone at all.”
Her resistance flickers, then dies.
“Understood,” she forces out.
I step back, my chest heaving and anger still brightening some spots in my vision.
Yurik paces violently inside me, furious and protective in equal measure wanting to snap her neck.
Ava rises slowly, shaking herself off. She doesn’t look at me.
“You’re letting emotion cloud your judgment,” she says quietly. “That never ends well, didn't end well the first time and won't this time.”
She nods stiffly and turns away, heading back toward the pack without saying another word.
I remain where I am, staring into the forest.
Rogues don’t starve.
They don’t flee.
They don’t get skinned and displayed unless something worse is out there.
The suspicion that’s been clawing at me for weeks finally takes shape
Something is coming.
And I wasn't in the right head space to be getting distractions from Sebastian.