Hope

I had just dozed off when I felt Connor shaking me gently.

“Hope. I need you to wake up, sweetheart.” I groaned and peeked an eye open at him.

“You had better have a good god damn reason for this Connor Patrick O’Leary or I will bite you.” He chuckled and kissed my cheek.

“Ooh, feisty. I like it. You can bite me anytime, love. But we got something out of the rogues, and I need to go to the dungeons. You need to go with me.” I furrowed my brow at him and huffed in annoyance.

“Why do I need to go? Send Draven to babysit me and let me go back to sleep. He can lay at the end of the bed in wolf form like a good puppy even.”

“I need you with me Hope. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I know what’s going on.” I sighed deeply and forced myself out of the warm, comfy bed.

“Fine but I’m not putting on a bra.” Connor growled at the idea and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Just give me one of your hoodies. No one will notice.” He rolled his eyes and threw me the dark green hoodie he had just worn that day. Obviously, he needed even more of his scent on me.

‘Why doesn’t he just pee on me?’

‘Why don’t you just bone him?’ My wolf responded.

‘You’re such a perv. Get your shit together.’

‘The only things I want together are his dick and our vagina.’

I rolled my eyes at her and pushed her to the back of my mind.

I was about to descend the stairs when Connor scooped me up to carry me. Normally I would protest, but I was too tired so I rested my head on the crook of his elbow and allowed the gentle swaying of his arms to lull me into a catatonic state, not quite asleep but definitely not fully awake.

“You’re my favorite.” I murmured to him.

“Favorite what?” He asked with amused curiosity.

“Person.” I said with a wide yawn. He chuckled and nuzzled his nose into my hair.

“You’re my favorite too, stóirín.” I smiled lazily with my eyes still closed.

“You really think I’m a little treasure?” I could feel his smile against my temple as he placed a gentle kiss.

“No. You’re a huge treasure. The greatest gift I have ever been given.”

I peeked my eyes open. It was still dark, but I could see Connor in the moonlight. The harsh shadows accentuated his sharp jawline and his green eyes looked darker than usual. I reached up to run my hand along his cheek and leaned in to inhale his scent. The corresponding smile he gave me knocked the wind out of my chest. It was that moment I knew I was in love with him. Completely, totally, unapologetically in love with him. The revelation rendered me speechless so rather than say something weird or totally awkward, I gave him a shy smile and snuggled back into his arms.

Much too soon Connor came to a stop in front of a small brown hut that looked like the roof was nearly falling off. It looked like something you would put pool floaties in.

“This is the dungeons?” I asked skeptically.

“Yep.” He responded.

He pushed a button on the outside and a small pad slipped out from an opening. He pressed his thumb to it, and I heard the sound of a deadbolt sliding back. He pushed the door open and walked inside the small structure. The only thing inside were two huge guards standing three feet apart. When they saw Connor, they both acknowledged him.

“Evening, Alpha.” Connor nodded at them both. The one on the right moved slightly and a keypad became visible. Connor typed in a code that was at least ten numbers long and another little door slid open a few feet above keypad. Connor leaned forward and allowed the green light to pass over his eye, apparently it was a retinal scanner. Soon after a door that was previously invisible slid open.

‘This is some James Bond shit.’ My wolf whispered to me.

‘Why are you whispering? No one but me can hear you.’

“Connor put me down. This is embarrassing.” I whispered to him. He chuckled and leaned down to whisper in my ear.

“I would, love. But you forgot your shoes.” I looked down at my very bare feet and felt a blush span over my face.

“Well maybe if you hadn’t swept me out of bed half unconscious, I wouldn’t have overlooked that little detail.” All he did was chuckle and shake his head at me.

The nerve.

“Do you like our camouflage? Anyone who isn’t familiar with our pack would have no idea where our dungeon is, making it nearly impossible to help prisoners escape.” I nodded and gave him a bright smile.

“It’s genius. How many floors is it?”

“Twelve altogether, all underground. Only the first ten are accessible by the elevator. The last two you can only get to by a hidden staircase. It’s for the highest profile prisoners. Only five people know where those steps are. My dad, his beta, me, Dean and Mark, our head torturer.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just the first level. There are rooms hooked up to TVs that are connected to the cameras in the interrogation rooms. We can watch live what Mark is doing with the rogues.” I crinkled my nose at the thought. Surely anything that “the head torturer” was doing with rogues was not something I wanted to watch.

Connor walked into a small room with white walls and a grey linoleum floor with a wood conference table and black spinny chairs all the way around and a large TV on the wall right in front. There were two men already seated at the table and Connor took a seat at the head of the table, keeping me in his lap. Connor pointed to his right first.

“Hope, this is Dean. My Beta.” He held his hand out and I shook it politely.

“I wish I were meeting you under better circumstances, Luna.” I smiled.

“I wish I was meeting you with shoes on.” He chuckled and I turned my attention to the other man.

“This is Colby, our head warrior.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Luna. I heard your dad is a head warrior as well.” I nodded and shook his hand.

“He is. I will have to introduce you sometime.” He smiled and got an excited glint in his eye.

“I would like that. I’m new to the role and would love some advice.”

Connor picked up the remote and turned on the TV. A man appeared on screen. He was sitting strapped to a metal chair with silver chains. His normally blonde hair was stained red with his own blood. One of his eyes was swollen shut, his nose was visibly broken, one of his ears was missing and a large patch of skin on his right cheek had been sliced and was barely hanging on. Another man, Mark I was assuming, came into view.

“Tell the Alpha what you told me.” He growled.

“We were hired. We were hired to attack.”

“By who?”

“I don’t know.”

“Was it a man, woman, werewolf, witch?”

“It… It was a man. I heard his voice on the phone once. He was a werewolf. He wanted the larger group to distract your warriors so the smaller group could infiltrate the Alpha’s house.”

“What was your mission?” The rogue started to visibly shudder, and Mark growled again. He took a hammer and brought it down on the man’s knee. He cried out in agony while Mark screamed in his ear.

“WHAT. WAS. YOUR. MISSION?”

“TO GET THE LUNA!” The rogue cried. Everyone in the room gasped and Dean murmured ‘fuck’ under his breath. I couldn't stop the shaking of my body and Connor tightened his arms around me.

“He wanted the soon to be Alpha dead, and he wanted the new Luna. He said she needed to stay alive at all costs. That she was to be unharmed. If so much as a hair was out of place, if her innocence was defiled in any way, we would all be slaughtered.”

“And what was he giving you for completing this mission?”

“I… I don’t know. I swear. I just followed Grant. He was the leader of our small rogue group. I think he was going to give us a lot of money, but I honestly don’t know.”

“How did you know where the Alpha’s house was?”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out. It’s the nicest house on the pack and it’s close to the pack house. It was fairly well protected by those steep cliffs and woods. We were about to make our way there when we were ambushed.”

“Well, Alpha. What should we do with this pile of shit?” Mark asked, looking into the camera.

"He won't stop!" The rogue screamed. "He was obsessed with the Luna. He'll attack until he has her. Please! Please let me live and I'll help you. I'll fight him with you just, please. Spare my life!"

I’m not sure exactly what Connor mind linked Mark to do, but the next second the rogue no longer had a head.