Once Upon A Rogue

Two days ago

Peyton

"There's something you need to know, Pey." The tremble in Lancelot's voice gave out how shaken he was feeling, and I was forced to turn away from the gondola milk shelf to his frightened-looking face. It was late in the evening and we were at the town's mini-mall for grocery shopping.

"What's that?" I inquired curiously, as I tucked a fallen strand of hair behind my ear. Suddenly feeling unsettled.

"T-t-the vampires... they're plotting to do something to our pack." After stammering a little, he finally dropped the bombshell. "I overheard them making plans on how to kill our Alpha, and compel our untriggered wolves into doing their biddings. They want to dominate the werewolves, with our pack to begin with."

I blinked, with a sickening feeling running through my gut as my brain fought hard to properly align the words of my mate, Lancelot.

"This is hard to believe, I mean I know how the Vampires are threatened by us and always look for ways to rage war. But hearing this just makes me feel puzzled." I clarified, tightening my grip on the cart's wheel.

While Lancelot forked his fingers through his hair to dishevel it, he panted and puffed out in frustration, looking like someone who just had a shit in his pants.

"It's true. They're creating guns with wooden bullets to kill our kind. And that's not all, they saw me eavesdropping and are fully aware that I know their plan. So they're gonna come for me, Pey."

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, then began to panic as I pulled Lancelot's hands in mine, suddenly feeling scared for his life, for our pack's safety.

"You've got to stay calm." Lancelot immediately disentangled his hands from mine and interrupted me from talking when we saw the Vampire Lord's youngest brother, Alvin, staring in our direction with interest.

He heard everything. My wolf notified me of this, and I took a hard dry gulp.

Alvin flashed us a malicious evil grin with his teeth coated in blood, shocking an old woman in glasses who was next to him.

Then he disappeared as fast as he arrived.

"There's no point making a fuss about this because it won't be of help." Lancelot covered his hands with mine, making warmth spread through me. But my heart didn't stop the dangerous backflips it was doing within my chest. The Vampire Lord's brother came in here for Lancelot.

"We have to run away from here because they're gonna come for me and then you. But first, I need to disclose this to Alpha Kayne." Lancelot gave my hand a gentle squeeze and I wanted to nod in agreement to this, but the shiver in his body revealed that he was scared as I was.

Abruptly losing interest in grocery shopping because I wanted us to get out of there as fast as possible, with the sight of Alvin's sick grin repeatedly flashing through my mind, I dumped the shopping cart.

"Let's leave, Lance. I'd go insane if we stay here for the next one minute." I said, and Lancelot gave me a firm nod, with his gaze serious and lips thinned.

He grabbed hold of my hand, and together we started making our way out of the grocery store at a fast pace, throwing backward and sideways glances to see if anyone was watching or trailing after us.

We were heading towards our car parked outside when we noticed some vampires moving around.

My heart stopped for a split second.

One immediately leaped from the rooftop of the mini-mall and landed right in front of us.

"Well hello, Lancelot Campbell O'Sullivan." It's no other person than Alvin Christopher Bullock, the vampire Lord's youngest brother, with his minions circling us with their fangs visible, ready to cause destruction.

Lancelot immediately sensed we were in danger, so he stood in front of me and grabbed hold of my hand to protect me from any impending attack.

"Please leave us alone." I implored moving to stand in front of Lancelot, with fear surging through me, because the vampires were five, while it was just me out here with Lancelot. And I still felt there was a way we could solve things without any bloodshed.

"Are you out of your mind, Pey?" Lancelot barked out at me incredulously, before grinding his jaw and trying so hard not to yell even more. "Do you want this insensitive blood-sucking beast to kill you?" He hissed at me through gritted teeth, referring to Alvin who had a smug look on his face.

Lancelot hurriedly pushed me to stay behind him, but still grabbed hold of my hand.

"What do you want?" He immediately turned to ask Alvin this, before clenching his free hand.

"So much for the boring sight to be seen. Now I want something more epic." Alvin clapped his hands with fake Glee, popping his 'P'.

Within the space of three seconds, the rest of the vampires grab hold of Lancelot and fly with him up to the rooftop, making our hands break contact and it left my arm with a sharp pain.

"Lancelot!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs, with fear surging through my whole being.

"Don't hurt him!" I outcried with my body shaking along with me.

Surprisingly no one came out to help.

My heart was throbbing violently in my chest as I tried to look for a way to climb towards the rooftop. Because I'd be unable to live with the pain if anything happens to Lancelot.

I couldn't even think straight at this point.

I felt dizzy and faint from a sudden light-heartedness because everything felt too surreal to be happening.

Lancelot's life was at risk. He was in the hands of the Vampires, and I knew I had to do everything within my power to save him. He was my mate, we were to get mated in a few months.

A scream from my mate made my world stop moving, and I immediately shifted into my wolf and started climbing up to the mall's rooftop with my claws.

When I got to the rooftop, I couldn't see the vampires but only Lancelot who was laying down on his back facing me.

My wolf ran towards where he lay in fast gallops and then I got the shock of my life.

A bellow of howl left my wolf's mouth when I saw Lancelot's chest torn open, his crushed heart two feet away from his body, his bloodied lips slightly apart, his eyes completely white, and his neck which was vandalized by the vampire's bites.

The chains of death had taken him away, after sucking his soul out of his body and left him lifeless like a dispatched doll.

I shifted back into my human form, naked, I let out screams like a banshee and then wept like an animal that was going through the fate of death.

That was how the Vampires killed Lancelot O'Sullivan, my mate and the only love of my life so he wouldn't reveal their plan.

Peyton

Present.

"It's time." The gruff voice of a man booms through the thick walls of the cold dungeon. My ear kicks in the rustling of keys, then the sound of the door that is being jerked open.

In comes a scarred face brutal-looking man, with two of his companions - a man and a masculine woman.

"Pick her up," He orders, shooting me daggers with his hard face. His name is Beisten, and he's the head guard of the Alpha's dungeon.

I am roughly being pulled up by the woman, with the chains I am bound in, making noises as they dangle.

"Sir, she's refused to eat since she was brought here." The woman informs the head man this, gesturing at the cup of stale milk which I suspected to have the urine of a rat, and then there's the bread which of course is half feasted on by rats.

"Still won't talk yet?" Beistern inquires, grabbing hold of my chin and examining my throat which I know is completely red.

After shoving several cups of hot tea down my throat to get me to talk, it was futile. I was temporarily mute, and when I was forced to communicate through paper sheets, my writing was bad because they made me use my right hand when it was my left hand I could use in writing.

"Alpha Ronan and the pack members are waiting for you in the council hall, you'll speak whether you wish to or not." The virile woman whose name is Avyanna roughly shoves me forward, and the second man shakes his head at me in pity.

"Things wouldn't have escalated to this extent if you had talked that night, rather you claimed to be mute all of a sudden. And when you were asked to communicate through paper sheets to narrate what happened, you chose to write with the most terrible handwriting I have ever seen in the history of pen and sheets."

On hearing this, I gulp. Fighting against the urge to shed tears.

Even my adopted family isn't aware of me being left-handed since they paid little or no attention to me. I was more like a maid to them because they felt I was cursed until Lancelot came into my life, and then the Moon goddess blessed me with Freya, my wolf.

Everyone accused me of Lancelot's death, even when they saw the bite marks on his neck which was obviously cauaed by several vampires' fang They claimed I killed him, pretended to be mute, wrote with terrible handwriting so they'd let me off the hook.

It's been two days with Lancelot gone, and a day he's been six feet below the earth. He was buried yesterday. Covered in mud with a cemented head stone with the words 'Find a better place of rest, Lancelot Campbell O'Sullivan, 1995-2021'

Something which makes me wallow in grief, suffer a great deal of uncertainty and currently, I am undergoing selective mutism - Having that urge to speak, but cannot because of this exact earth-shattering circumstance.

But I cried.

I had no idea a person could cry as much as I did. It feels like the walls are closing in, with a continually gaping hole violently boring into my chest each time my brain comprehends the ugly reality that my mate got killed by a vampire.

The trio leads me out of the dungeon, and I place one unsteady footstep after the other, wishing all of this will be just a nightmare.

I am waiting for Lancelot to show up and tell me he's alive, that the person who was buried yesterday is someone else and not him.

"Walk faster, you wouldn't want to keep the Alpha, his beta, and the rest of the pack members waiting." Beistein orders as he casts me a backward glance through his broad shoulder.

"I'll lend a hand," Avyanna says, then grabs my hand and starts walking at a fast pace.

Hot tears drip down my cheeks when an image of Lancelot's charming smile flashes through my brain.

Lancelot was the closest thing I had to a family, having been adopted into the low-ranking Omega family of the Crimson pack, I was no different from a maid because I was an orphan. We met at the annual Crimson anniversary two years ago and became quite acquainted. Although I was yet to transform into my wolf which was like a curse and I ended up getting emotionally bullied.

We became close from then onwards, and Lancelot helped me gain a little bit of self-confidence because my adopted family members treated me as a maid due to the fact that I was yet to transform. They were disappointed and blamed me for being unable to connect with my astral spirit on the rise of every full moon, because that was the time teenager had their first transformations.

But on the night of my twentieth birthday, the moon goddess decided it was enough, and blessed me with my wolf.

I can still remember how Lancelot was trying to help tame my wolf by feeding me with fresh meat so I wouldn't kill someone because my wolf was out of control.

Lancelot stayed with me and took care of me until I was a tad normal. He taught me how to easily shift into my wolf, and this made us see our naked bodies for the first time.

An embarrassed me attempted to hide my body from his hot penetrating gaze because he was the first person of the opposite gender to see me without clothes. But Lancelot surprised me by gently pushing my hands away.

He told me there was nothing to feel embarrassed or ashamed of.

I can still remember how he washed off the bloodstains of the fresh meat I had eaten, away from my body even though it felt absurd that someone a few years ahead of me was helping me wash up.

And he didn't ogle at my body just like the way perverts did, his dark gaze worshiped my body instead. Afterward, he helped heat a canned soup for me since my family was away that night.

I was unsettled by his kindness towards me, so I asked him why he was so nice to me, he revealed to me that I was his mate, that he knew on the first night of seeing me that was why he stuck around to make me like him.

My adopted family was excited on hearing this because Lancelot was the heir to Empire's Enterprise, a million-dollar company, and also the Beta's only child. The family had the luxury to afford whatever they desired including the mansions, the latest cars, and expensive assets.

Lancelot made me fall hard and deep for him, took me out of my sufferings, only to lose his life two months to our mating ceremony.

I push these memories aside, then focus on the present when I made known in the pack's council that consists of roughly fifty people.

I ignore the eyes of my dad, mom, and brother because I can't bring myself to see their scornful faces.

My eyes land on Alpha Ronan who is on his throne, second to Lancelot's dad who is the Beta, and Lancelot's mom who is currently in tears, which makes my heart shatter even more.

"She killed my only son!" She wails, staring at me with acrimony as she lunges towards me with the canines and claws of her wolf visible, due to anger from the both of them. But she's being stopped by the people closest to her.

There's murmuring from the entourage, I can even pick out being called words like 'Murderer, bitch, and ugly.

Silence falls when Alpha Ronan raises his hand.

"Peyton Barlowe, we've waited enough. We need answers regarding Lancelot's death!" He presses on with urgency.

The pack's gammas and elders show little or no interest in this though, they even look bored like they'd rather be anywhere than here.

I take a hard hurtful gulp, knowing at this point that the only person who can help prove my innocence by subsiding this selective muteness so I can speak up, is the moon goddess.

Peyton

"Speak!" Lancelot's dad roars, slamming his fist against the desk in front of him that it makes a cracking sound.

"Lancelot got killed by a vampire." I croak out, with my voice sounding as if I am making use of it for the first time.

"What?" The crowd chorus, with confusion evident on their faces.

Raising my chained hand to push a strand of hair away from my face and tucking it behind my ear, I let out a low breath and then tip my head up to face everyone at this point because I am innocent.

"I didn't kill Lancelot. He got killed by a vampire on the night we went to a mall for grocery shopping." I explain, feeling a tad thankful that I can talk, and then keeping my expectations high on them believing me.

Silence relapses in the air as everyone tries to process this.

"Bullshit, she's lying!" Someone hollers from the crowd and everyone starts talking at once.

"Why then did you choose to remain mute while being interrogated on that night?" Alpha Ronan questions as he raises his fingers to his face while shooting me a look that I cannot describe, though his eyes give out that he doesn't believe me.

Raising my fisted hand to my chest, I provide.

"I wanted to speak but I couldn't because I was still in shock despite the heartache. The words always died out in my throat before I could open my mouth."

"And the bad handwriting?" He uplifts a brow.

"I've always been left-handed, but no one knows this because they barely pay attention to me."

Alpha Ronan shifts his gaze to my family, but the looks on their faces explain that they were clueless all this while.

"How did Lancelot get killed?" He draws his gaze back to me.

"He informed me about the Vampire lord's plot to kill you and take over the Crimson pack. The vampires figured he knew about this and came for him when we were outside the mall on that night."

"Unbelievable." Alpha Ronan snorts, stroking the beard on his chin.

"So you mean you were with my son when they killed him?" Lancelot's dad's voice is full of pain when he asks.

With tears welling up in my eyes, I give him a firm nod, hoping they'll believe me.

But the next words that proceed from Alpha Ronan ruins everything.

"We know vampires are our enemies and they look for ways to easily pick up fights with our kind due to rivalry in business and practically everything. Judging from your answers and your behavior these two days, it's obvious you aren't telling the truth."

There are grunts and murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

My mouth parts in shock because no one believes me, including Alpha Ronan himself whose life is in danger.

Even Lancelot's parents believe I killed him, and I am trying to cover up. When the simple truth is that they aren't even safe. The vampires are smart and cunning, they know how to carry out their plans smoothly.

Because I am nobody here. They never saw me as one of them even after I got adopted into the Omega family. Even when Lancelot announced that I was his mate. They are so full of hate instead, and still treat me like an outcast.

"For the time being, you can stay with your family. Afterward, we'll decide what to do regarding this matter." These are Alpha Ronan's last words before he calls the meeting to an end, then orders his guards to set me free.

***

You have to leave. Freya, my wolf tells me when I am alone in my room.

I blow out a big puff of breath and turn to face the other side of my bed.

I am at this point thinking of a way out of this situation because even though there's no evidence of me killing Lancelot, they still don't believe I am telling the truth. I am practically being falsely accused of my mate's death.

Come to think of it, Alvin, the Vampire lord's brother purposely left me alive to suffer. He had it planned all along to kill Lancelot and let me live to bear the consequences when I am innocent.

It feels so sad and heartbreaking that no one believes me.

At this point, I realize that staying here is of no benefit to me. I might even get killed for something I am innocent of.

You have to leave, Pey. The voice of Lancelot plays in my head, and I know this is something he'd have advised me to do if he was alive.

Wiping the tears off my cheeks with the back of my palm, I decided to go to a new town, with a change of name, and to keep my background a secret from any wolf I'll come across.

I blow out a big puff of breath, knowing fully well that I have to conceive my escape right now. Because I was locked up in Alpha Ronan's dungeon like a traitor when an alarm was raised after a crying naked me pulled the dead body of Lancelot from the rooftop of the mall that night.

The wolves held me captive on seeing I was naked and parts of my exposed body were coated in blood. They concluded I killed him.

I get out of the bed, change into a gray sweatshirt and jeans, then put on a baseball cap to cover my shock of blonde hair.

At first, I thought about shifting into my wolf so I can run out of here as fast as possible, but then I don't know where to go. So I decided to head to the train station in my human form. The train station will probably stop at a city forty-five hours from here. Chicago.

Grabbing hold of my bag, I stuff a few clothes in it, leaving my phone and gadgets. Certainly, my purse has a few bucks, I put it in my bag because I need money to survive amongst humans.

When it's time to head out, I casually walk out of my room to make use of the main doors, but with the help of my wolf, I hear voices coming from the first hallway which makes me rush back into my room and I sneak out through the window, because I don't even have the energy to face my insensitive family right now.

I can feel my heart slamming through my ribcage as I walk down the streets and head to the train station.

Thankfully I have the baseball cap to cover my face so no one will recognize me, but I am still scared of getting caught as the urge to leave is overwhelming.

It's late in the afternoon, but there's a train that people are currently hopping into.

Opening my purse to fish out the required 200 dollars, a wave of shock washes through me when I see that it's just 500 dollars I have with me, meaning Edgar, my brother stole the rest 800 dollars.

Wondering how the hell I will survive when I get to Chicago, the ticket seller frowns at me.

"Are you paying for the ticket or not, miss?" He gestures at the people behind me in the queue.

"Hurry or step aside, there are people behind you." He almost yells.

I exhale with my shoulders rising and falling.

You have two choices, Peyton.

Head home to face your insensitive Alpha and his pack, or go to Chicago and start life from scratch. Freya tells me.

"Here," I hand over the 200 dollars to the guy and grab the ticket on the table because as much as it hurts with all my memories of Lancelot here, I have to leave and never look back.

I hand over my ticket to a man who turns out to be a wolf and was at the courtroom this morning.

Quickly, I hop onto the train to Chicago and find a place where I can settle because the man's wolf must have perceived my scent.

And just as the train roars to life, my vision starts blurring with tears because I can't believe I am actually doing this. Running away from my life here in Seattle after the death of Lancelot. Everything feels so fresh and it's just as if it was an hour ago we went to the mall, and he got killed.

I bite down on my bottom lip to keep from sobbing and the sounds that erupt from me are loud and quite amusing like I am giving chokeholds.

The woman opposite me who's a human shoots me a weird look like I am a dummy, but I don't even care when my heart is sick and full of pain.