Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Vera made fast movements throughout the apartment, grabbing her suitcase from the couch and heading out. As she exited the building via the door, I could hear her feet tapping with excitement. It took me five minutes to start walking in her direction.

Because Vera had been in this situation previously, everything was considerably simpler for her. The city, the apartment, and the company were all her choices. Due to my time in culinary school, the sole reason I was here was to bake delicious sweets. Vera had always intended for her to handle the business while I handled the baking.

Our apartment was located in the heart of the city on the 23rd story of a massive structure. When the elevator finally arrived on the ground floor, I strolled right past the front desk and out the front doors.

I felt myself halt in my tracks when the chilly morning air touched me.

I had the uneasy feeling that someone was watching me.

From across the street, a man was directly gazing at me with dangerously intense eyes. His pale face and short, black hair stood out against his dark, mean-looking eyes.

I felt uneasy because of the way he was staring at me, but as I stood there, a nice aroma drifted across the street and shivered against my skin in an odd way.

Someone pushed into me, jolting me back to consciousness. I looked out at the roadway in front of me, and the sounds around me started up again. I was grateful that a cab had pulled up to the curb and jumped inside.

What on earth was I doing, staring back at a man who didn't seem to be acting with the best of intentions?

He let out a low, ominous growl as I vanished from his line of sight, and I didn't miss it. That couldn't be true; if there were more wolves in the area, Alpha Knight would have informed us about it.

"Where to, ma'am?" The driver's speech broke my trance. Looking through the window to try and spot the man again, I could feel my heart thudding harshly in my chest—but he was gone.

I muttered idly as the driver nodded at my request, "I'm new in town; I'd really appreciate it if you could drop me off at a good breakfast place." The entire drive to the tiny diner, which allegedly had the best coffee cake, I couldn't shake the eerie feeling.

The diner was silent as I walked in, which made me feel uneasy. Before I noticed the couple seated in the corner booth, I had the impression that I was the only client. As I made my way to a seat and perused the menu, I grinned at the employee at the counter. I was famished, and I could see the waitress was evaluating the quantity of food I had ordered when she came to collect my order.

I tapped my fingers on the table and looked down at my phone because I was preoccupied. The earlier man entered the diner at that point. He hardly had time to stop before he rushed over to my table and sat down in front of me. I was startled for a brief minute, but as soon as his aroma filled the air, I realized we belonged to the same species.

I scowled as he continued to stare at me silently for a while.

What was the issue?

I irritatedly echoed his unyielding ability to sit still, "It's rude to stare."

"You're trespassing." He continued to stare me down, unflinchingly, with his eyes taking on the color of his wolf and his voice deep and filled with anger.

At his words, my heart skipped a beat, and I felt a wave of panic wash over me. He was making no sense of what he was saying. When Vera and I informed our Alpha of our plan to depart, we received assurances that there were no known packs in this community.

At the man in front of me, I averted my gaze. He didn't seem like the kind of man who would have the patience to hear me out.

"Trespassing?" I asked hesitantly, as if I had just learned a new word and he hadn't told me I was also a wolf.

"You're trespassing on this land, rogue!" Because of the overwhelming intensity of his comments, he sneered with scorn, and my back slammed violently against the back of my chair.

As he surrounded me with the fatal allegation, his gaze grew more menacing.

Being a rogue was the equivalent of wishing for instant death. Rogue wolves weren't given preference over civilized wolves, who grew stronger through packs and politics, in light of the harm they had been causing to packs all throughout the world. After being effectively expelled from their home realm, the witch-blood wolves went in search of another tribe to denigrate.

Ten years prior, I had been rebellious.

When the Knightfall pack discovered me on their territory, I was a rogue. I was a child who had no belongings because I had spent my early years locked away. After spending some time with their pack and becoming familiar with their customs, I realized that I was one of the fortunate ones to win an Alpha's goodwill; most Alphas would have killed me on their border and left my corpse to rot.

I wasn't a rogue any longer, so why had he labeled me as such? It didn't make sense. He could have smelled me, surely. I blinked at his ignorance, but he appeared to be growing irritated by my seeming snobbery.

For the pack that wasn't supposed to exist, he must be a fighter. Would I be one of his victims, as he appeared to be a merciless warrior who would hold no mercy for his victims? If he were who I believed him to be, he would do whatever it took to attack me at his alpha's instruction.

For rogues, there were only two possible outcomes: death or servitude.

My survival depended on the words I said and the actions I took next.

"I was told there were no packs in this town; I was assured by my own Alpha that we would not need permission to be granted to stay here." His expression briefly changed from one of perplexity to steely resolve.

I was confident that he could hear the fear in my voice since I had witnessed the treatment of rogues and knew that Alpha Knight was one of the Alphas who had little patience for them. Every time he had to put to death a rogue who had intruded into Knightfall territory, he reminded me of how I had been the single exception when they discovered me shattered and bloodied.

It didn't matter whether this fighter believed me or not. Still, he would have to take me to his alpha, and it would be his decision that would stick.

Until a dish of pancakes broke the tension of our intense looks, I observed as he deliberated my comments. Despite the imminent danger to my life in front of me, my stomach grumbled in pleasure as the waitress set my breakfast down on the table.