THE RAUL MENACE

Third person's P.O.V

Meanwhile at Joseph's Pack, Rose is already back and she has been presented to everyone as their Luna.

Of course, everyone knows her past and they all know she has been a rogue almost all her life and she recently met her brother, her parents, her sister and other relatives, not forgetting other Pack members of the southern Pack.

According to Rose, everything has been going on perfectly well since she came back. She's now in good terms with everyone, most especially her mate Joseph.

When she was a rogue, an old friend of hers used to always tell her that when someone is happy, time seems to pass so fast and now she can understand what she was being told back then.

However, everything is not as rosy as it seems since the members of the Pack where the other rogues are housed have a big problem with them. Some Pack members are still scared of them because they are rogues.

Now that Rose's problem with Joseph is over, she believes it's time to sort out all this mess that she created and she already knows it isn't going to be easy solving it.

Of course, when she made a decision to be with Joseph, she also had to think of what the fate of the rogues will be and there are some few scenarios to consider.

If she lets them go, not only would that break her promise to them, but she will also be exposing them to the danger of the dark and evil forests. If anything is to ever happen to them because of that, she swears she'll never forgive herself.

Rose doesn't want to send them back to the temporary settlement they built for rogues where they were initially attacked by Raul and his group of stray wolves. They might be attacked yet again and this might leave most of them dead. Well, that happened before and one of them was murdered in the process of protecting the rest and she surely doesn't want that to happen again!

Just as Rose is having a hard time, her mate Joseph comes up with a solution.

“How about we integrate them into the pack. There's a total of thirty of them right? They're a bit much, but I believe if they're properly presented into the Pack, they will be accepted.” He suggests, something that surprises Rose. She can't believe that Joseph is the one coming up with such an idea.

She really wonders what kind of an Alpha would happily take in thirty rogues all at once.

“That's crazy.” The pack's Beta comments since he's also in the office with them and Rose has to agree with him. It's unheard of, but thinking about it, it's the safest and best option there ever is.

“Will the pack really accept all of them?” she asks her mate, unsure yet happy about the idea at the same time.

Joseph leans on his chair and shrugs. “Well of course there will always be a stigma around them because their Pack mark has already been crossed off, but it might be possible. As we've seen, most of them are of young age, a lot of them can still train to become Pack guards, warriors or even healers. As for the older ones, we are in need of help in certain parts of the Pack.”

Upon hearing that, Rose's ears perk up. She doesn't believe that Joseph was really serious about his proposition.

“Actually, I can remove the Pack mark that's been etched off.” I Rose offers, making the Beta to turn to her, looking at her weirdly. “You what?” He asks in shock and doubt.

Rose simply smiles at him. “Yes, one of the reasons why they always refer to me as their queen is because I can remove the rogue's mark. If you've noticed most of the rogues that stay with me don't have the rogue mark and their Pack mark that's been etched off is also gone.” She explains confidently.

Alpha Joseph and his Beta think about it for a while and realize that indeed, the rogues don't have rogue marks nor are their rogue scents strong. In fact, it's very toned down but they mostly retain their unique scent.

“That's it then. We'll have to hold a pack assembly for them and of course, everything will go through the right process. They will all be investigated.” Joseph pauses and looks at his mate Rose. “However, if there's any of them who committed a heinous crime in their previous Packs, we'll have no choice but to turn them away.”

Thinking that is fair enough, Rose nods her head in agreement and also confidence because she knows perfectly well that none of the rogues has ever done something bad before.

At most, the worst crime any of them committed was picking a fight with someone of a higher status and having lost in a challenge, they were banished.

And with that, the start of investigation on all the rogues starts.

*****

STACY'S POV

“So you're telling me that this Raul is someone who is possibly the mastermind in all of this and you didn't tell us beforehand?” Joseph questions Rose.

This jolts my mind back to the time we were all in Joseph's Pack over a year ago, after removing the poison from Rose's body. Rose, Sherry and I were in the kitchen having some snacks when I asked Rose if she knew who was behind the stray wolves but she seemed to panic, making Sherry and I to stop questioning her.

This time, we are in the meeting room at Joseph's Pack together with his Beta, Rose, Bernard and my mate Maurice. My son is with one of our Pack maids in Joseph's Pack House since I couldn't leave him in our Pack, a few miles away.

This is around the time when Sherry and Bruno are having problems so they couldn't travel to Joseph's Pack but Bruno alone will be present through the advanced communication handset which is some sort of skyping or video calling. Therefore, we can still see them as if they are here with us.

I'm just sad that I won't be seeing Sherry since she doesn't want to be associated with the four strong Packs' issues at all. She's relaxing at her father's Pack.

Rose pouts at Joseph at his question. “I had to make sure of things first before telling anyone first.”

“Get off her case, Joseph.” I comment.

“Anyway, I did my best to look this Raul guy up and I came up with a few interesting things.” Rose's brother Bernard says which picks my interest greatly.

“Come to think of it, Raul and his mom never really told me much about their past and I never really asked.” Rose adds, cutting her brother short.

“And why didn't you ask them?” Bernard asks eagerly.

“Because asking about someone's past in the rogue community just isn't cool. It is a sensitive topic for many and can even cost you your life especially when it concerns an aggressive person such as Raul and his mother.” Rose replies and I'm eagerly listening to her explanation. That makes sense after all! You can't just dig up into someone's past just like that.

“See, a lot of people are still frustrated about their past and whenever they are reminded of it, they will be blinded with rage and throw a fit.” Rose concludes and everyone nods, agreeing with her.

This gives her brother Bernard the opportunity to continue narrating about his findings and discovery about Raul and his mother.

“First of all, information on him and his family was hard to find, as if the council was hiding it up. Raul Masterson is the only son of Doreen Masterson. Does the name ring a bell?” Bernard asks, catching everyone's attention and I can see the collective shock written on most of our faces. I don't really understand it but there seems to be a story behind it all.

“Doreen Masterson? Daughter of Peter Masterson?!” Joseph exclaims in shock.

Who?

“I can now remember him.” I exclaim in excitement. Yes I do...I had heard about him severally from my former Pack from my parents before they disappeared mysteriously. Peter Masterson was the leader in the second highest position in the council some years back. I vividly remember that he was social climbing crook who wanted to be the council leader, as described by my parents back then.

Bernard nods and continues “All was going well for him until his daughter fell in love with a human and was impregnated by the said human. This affected him and his reputation since the council and other leaders felt that his daughter was not virtuous that she ended up sleeping with humans instead of waiting for her mate. Her father who was an Alpha and also a council member wanted to have the baby killed, but she kept it and ran away with him.

It was only a few years later when the family was found living within a small town and the child was of course Raul. Peter Masterson convinced his daughter Doreen to return to their Pack seeing that she had fallen ill and weak from being around humans for quite too long.

She agreed to go back right away and the whole family moved into the Pack. Everyone thought that everything was fine until a few years later when Raul's human father, whose name was Hastings, was brutally killed and that's when everything went wrong.” Bernard finishes his lengthy report on who Raul Masterson is.

“To say I'm stunned is an

understatement.” Rose starts talking yet again. “I had no idea that any of this had ever happened to him or to his mom. Well, they never told me about it anyway so there was no way of me knowing, but still, it's quite shocking.” Rose concludes and she seems indeed in shock. Those two must have been dear to her in the past!

“Did he ever tell you anything Rose?” My mate Alpha Maurice asks her, making her to look towards him and then shakes her head, an indication that she has no idea.

“No, all they ever told me was that they were banished from their Pack but they never told me the reason behind their banishment.” Rose admits.

“Well, the reason is precisely because they both tried to kill Peter Masterson as well as the other Pack leaders for killing Hastings. They succeeded in killing the Beta and his mate and also the Gamma. It was even reported that it was Raul who singlehandedly killed the Beta, but they were outnumbered when they were caught and because Doreen was still the Alpha's daughter, they were only banished instead of being killed.” Bernard explains.

We are all quiet for a moment, trying to just really comprehend the start of all of this mess.

“Thinking about Raul and Doreen and all they taught me as a child, I never thought that even with such a hideous past, they were able to take me in and even at the very least, cared for me. It's still a shock to me!” Rose laments. “I guess in a way, I could still thank them for taking a helpless child and teaching me to be strong. The more I think about it, I don't think I'll ever be able to understand why they did take me in!” She continues. “Wouldn't I have been just another burden for them?” She wonders, sadly, no one is able to reply since it's a rhetorical question.

I throw a glance at Maurice who's shifting uncomfortably on his seat. “There are a lot of things missing in the story Bernard.” He says.

“I agree, but why did they kill Hastings and I know that Doreen was killed too and there are rumours that she was killed by the order of the council, was that ever discovered?” Bruno questions.

Wow, he's so straight to the point, isn't he?

“Gosh Bruno, give me some time to breathe. I was just about to explain all that.” Bernard says. “To say in simple words, Hastings was killed because he was too smart and a weirdo. He was a known scientist in the human world and when he came to live with werewolves, well... he started conducting tests. Most of them were purely unethical and go against our nature, but the scary thing was that a lot of people were interested in what he made. Seeing the possible threat and the fact that he was a human who defiled the Alpha's daughter, Peter Masterson had him killed, although it's only a speculation it really was Masterson who had him killed. As for Doreen, it was pretty much the same reason. Besides being an Alpha's daughter, one who's a powerful member of the Council at that, she was also a powerful warrior and was very smart that she helped her father in some of his businesses. Now, take into consideration that these are all rumours, but after they were banished, the council thought that Doreen knew too much and being a rogue who had that much knowledge was dangerous.” Bernard takes a deep breath and concludes his explanation.

This is quite strange and weird since no one knew anything about that!

After that lengthy discussion, we all take a break and I decide to walk with Rose to the swimming pool side so as to cool our bodies beside it as we have a woman to woman chat.... we've really missed each other!