The Rogue He Claimed

re I did, the cold of wet stone and old moss, which meant water close

ragged in my ear. Seventeen years old and thin as a

" I whispered.

that might hav

r me to see the ridge ahead. A cairn stood at the top, grey stones stacked abou

elow. My wolf went rigid behind my ribs. I had run from Council enforcers for three years and I knew the smell of a hunting p

Hold o

uld not get up. I had learned that about myself on the road from Ashfall, when

d out from be

had been waiting all evening for something exactly like me. His fur was pale gold in

arms, and I had spent three years learning the arithmetic

een. Whatever your pack law says about rogu

nt the way it does when a shift begins, an

ior trained in a yard. His hair was pale golden blond, short and curling with sweat, and his eyes were the same gold

n I saw it. My wh

al, like a man reading from a page. "There is a law in this pack. Rogues

nife, and I have been standing here a full minute talking to

in his face. Not

The man's eyes dropped to him, to the thin wrists and the shirt

hole body

pped moving, and his eyes widened as the wind carried my scent up

meat of me and someone on the other end had given it a tug. My wolf surged forward with a sound that was no

shook in

is hand tightened until the knuckles w

away before you cut yourself, because your hand is shaking and I

o breathe. His eyes were gold and full of something I did not want to name, and I kn

ave carried it since I was fourteen and nev

n us

can

y n

berately, he crouched and laid the silver knife flat on the wet st

rived whole and terrible. And you know it, and

Son of Angus, Alpha of the Ca

lies ready. Instead I said, "Ela

jaw tightened. "Your brother cannot stay on this ridge. There are patrols out, and if my father's war

What wil

help it. But he only slid it into the sheath at his belt, and t

the roof holds. You will wait there tonight, and I will brin

e a rogue from

and certain, and the pull in my che

because there was nothing else I could do. At the bottom of the ridg

you are running from will find you before then. I would

s a man named Torin. He is coming, and he will not st

s small, a tightening arou

and then, almost to hi

know

the Council has never once asked him to stop." He looked at me for a long moment. "Elara

glen a dog barked twice and fell silent. I looked at the man holding my brot

ived,"