Chapter Forty-Seven

Sullen

The bastard lied to her.

She would have understood if she were human, but she wasn’t. She only kept her secret from him because she thought he was human.

The rogue could be lying about Duke, but for some reason, she didn’t think he was lying. He did disappear a lot for ‘work’ and if he could cover his smell as they thought, it could be him.

Sullen wanted to go to the city and rip him a new one. But what good would it do if she had no proof? What did it matter now?

Was he the leader of the rogue pack? What relationship did he have with the rogues in the cell?

Sullen pressed her eyes closed tightly, relaxing into Roan’s arm that was wrapped around her. She felt safe with Roan, but her wolf wanted to stay there forever. But the human part of Sullen wanted to rip Duke’s throat out.

Something was so wrong with all of this.

Maybe she was the reason the rogues started coming there, and she didn’t even know it.

Sullen sighed deeply and slipped out from under Roan’s arm. She walked to the bathroom and splashed water onto her face. Turning, she leaned against the bathroom counter and folded her arms over her chest. She needed to sleep. They had many things to figure out the next day, and she needed a fresh mind to do it, but something pulled at her chest.

Roan was still passed out when she walked back into the room. Moonlight shimmered from the stained-glass window drawing her attention. She walked over to the window, unlatched the window, and opened it.

The humid breeze brushed her hair from her shoulders and brought in many scents. Most of them seemed familiar enough. But one, in particular, tugged deep inside of her.

“What are you doing?” Roan asked from behind her.

Sullen jumped and glanced back at Roan. “I smell something different.”

Roan tilted his head and inhaled. When his eyes opened, they were the dark color of his wolf. “Stay here.”

Sullen lunged forward and grabbed Roan’s hand. “Where are you going? Don’t leave me here by myself. I want to come."

Roan palmed her cheek. “I need to go see whose scent that is, Sullen.”

“Why can’t I come?”

“It could be a trap.”

“In the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping? What if someone sneaks into the room while you’re out? What if it’s Duke? Or one of the rogues?"

Roan frowned. “The pack house is full of wolves right now, Sullen. Last time we were all out in the field. This time, there are too many opportunities for someone to catch him."

Sullen folded her arms over her chest. “Am I not your Luna?”

Roan narrowed his eyes to slits. “This isn’t the time to debate on your rights as Luna, Sullen,” he said, stepping forward. “You’re my Luna, and I’m your Alpha. And I’m asking you to stay here. I’ll have someone come in with you. With all the rogues—I don’t want you to get hurt. I can't risk losing you."

Sullen wanted to fight him. She hadn’t been able to sleep before, and now she really wouldn’t even be able to close her eyes. Tearing her gaze away from his, she stared down at her feet with tears in her eyes.

Roan leaned down and kissed her head softly. “I’ll be back, little fox.”

Roan rushed out of the room, leaving Sullen by herself. She felt helpless. The open door to the window swayed and hit the side of the pack house. She walked back over, and another breeze hit her face, and the scent seemed almost familiar. Too familiar.

She wanted to jump to the conclusion of it being Duke, but he never had a wolf scent before, so she knew it wasn’t his.

She leaned over and inhaled into the wind.

It was right on the tip of her tongue.

Whose scent was that?

“Luna Sullen?”

She glanced over her shoulder to see Liam. “Hey, Liam,” she said, sitting down on the bed. “You’re on babysitting duty, huh?”

He chuckled and took a seat at the desk chair. “It could be worse. I could be chasing rogues through the forest.”

Sullen smirked, grabbed the remote from the nightstand, and tossed it to Liam. “Here put something on. I can’t go back to sleep until Roan is back, and I know everything is okay.”

Liam began flipping through the channels, landing on one of the Rocky movies, while Sullen tapped her fingertips against her thigh, trying to place the scent.

“This one is my favorite. The one with the big Russian,” he said in a terrible Russian accent.

She chuckled when it all hit her.

The scent. It was her father’s scent. It'd been so long that she'd almost forgotten it. Sullen suddenly stood up, and glared at the window.

“What is it?” Liam asked.

Sullen walked over toward the window and braced her hands around the edge of the windowsill. “Are you okay?” Liam asked.

Her eyes filled with tears, and she swallowed the hard lump forming in her throat. Before she could process anything else, she launched over the side of the window, landing in her wolf form on the ground.

“Sullen!” Liam shouted.

She didn’t give him time to jump before her wolf was following the scent. She felt like a lunatic released from a jail cell, her wolf hungry and determined to find her father.

Liam’s wolf grew closer to her, so she tried her best to outsmart him, dodging the overturned trees, and jumping through the bushes.

The tears at her fur were deep, but her adrenaline masked it all. The further she ran toward the wall, the harder it became to breathe.

She could make out a group of people by the edge of the perimeter, but Liam tackled her from behind before she made it there. Her wolf yelped and wiggled around beneath him until she felt Roan close by.

Liam released the back of Sullen’s neck, and she heard him cry out in pain from Roan snapping him. She shifted into her human form and tried to stand up, but her body was weak from all the scraps and bruises of her run.

“Dammit, Sullen,” Roan said, picking her up into his arms. “What are you doing? I asked you to stay behind. Now you’re hurt.”

“I’ll heal. I need to see him.”

Roan lifted both brows. “See who?”

“The rogue.”

Roan sighed deeply. “Why on earth—”

“Sullen?” her dad’s voice came from the group. He was on his knee with two wolves surrounding him, keeping him still.

Roan looked between the two of them, watching Sullen’s bottom lip tremble.

“Daddy?”