Chapter 9 To be made a Rogue

Malakai had seen them bring his mother body home. He had seen the claw marks on her throat.

Without another word, his father stalked out of the chamber.

His uncle patted his back.

"He is just stressed, Malakai. Give him time. Going to Thornewood is for your own good. Just keep your head down there." He said letting out a smile.

"I am always here for you." He added.

"Thank you, Uncle," Malakai muttered.

His uncle gave him one last reassuring smile before following his brother out of the chamber.

Malakai slowly pushed himself to his feet, every bone in his body screaming in protest. He walked towards the windows and pressed his forehead against the freezing glass.

They had just exiled him into a school filled with the creatures that had slaughtered his mother.

And the cruelest joke of all was that one of them currently held his beating heart in her hands.

---

+AETHELGARD PALACE

The crystalline walls of Aethelgard Palace glowed with eternal twilight.

Queen Amatriel sat upon her throne of twisted weirwood, her eyes closed as three handmaidens gently bathed her bare feet in a silver basin of fragrant water. Below the dais, a dozen armoured elven guards stood like statues.

A tear in the air suddenly shattered the quiet.

A swirling violet portal opened on the marble floor. The High Witch stepped through, her dark robes trailing residual magic behind her.

"To what do I owe this breach of my walls?" Amatriel asked, her tone entirely unbothered.

"The vision you called an impossible fairy tale is falling into motion," the High Witch declared, stepping closer to the guards. "The boy has returned to London. My sources confirm the girl will arrive any moment."

Amatriel pulled her feet from the basin. Water dripped onto the marble floor.

Her eyes narrowed.

"And you still believe this collision can be used to change everything?"

"I did not say it. I saw it."

Amatriel studied the High Witch for a moment.

"Very well. We will use them to forge a peaceful coexistence between the species."

"And if they resist being forged?"

"Then we force them to."

A smile touched Amatriel's lips.

"A vision like this does not arrive to be ignored."

She turned her gaze towards the handmaiden on her left.

"Elara."

The handmaiden immediately stood and bowed before the Queen.

"Go to Thornewood Academy," Amatriel commanded. "Summon the Dean. Tell her the Grand Patron demands her presence."

+THORNE CHEN PACK HOUSE

The Hall of the Thorne Chen pack was designed to remind every werewolf of their place in the food chain.

Oily smoke from iron sconces flickered along the walls, casting shadows over the throne at the far end of the chamber. Alpha Vane Thorne Chen sat upon it, his broad shoulders straining against a dark leather tunic. His eyes burned with the amber glow of his wolf, a beast that lived just beneath the surface of his skin, dictating the way he breathed and commanded the room.

Across his lap sat his Luna.

Elena Thorne Chen looked delicate against his imposing frame, but Vane knew better than to mistake her appearance for weakness. Silver hair spilled over her bare shoulders, and her charcoal-grey dress rode up to expose the smooth skin of her thighs. In this hall, she was the only creature who did not have to fear his gaze.

Vane's hand rested on her thigh, his fingers tracing slow, possessive circles against her skin. It was a public display of ownership that silenced the room more effectively than any shout.

Below the dais, ten pack elders sat in a strict semicircle. In wolf culture, looking away from an Alpha's dominance could be taken as a challenge to the bond itself. No one in the chamber was foolish enough to try.

Vane lowered his head, his nose brushing the pulse point of Elena's neck. He inhaled deeply, taking in the sharp scent of cedar. She tilted her head further, exposing the delicate line of her jugular as he bit down.

Vane pulled back, his lips stained red.

"Bring him in," he commanded.

The doors opened. Two guards dragged a man between them, his arms twisted brutally behind his back.

His boots scraped against the floor. His face was devoid of colour, his eyes darting around the hall in panic. He trembled so violently that the clatter of his teeth echoed off the walls.

The guards threw him to the floor at the base of the throne.

"Beta Aldric," Vane called.

"Alpha," Aldric choked out, pressing his forehead against the ground. "Please. Whatever my son has done, he is young. He was stupid."

"Your son disgraced my heir."

The words fell heavily.

Aldric's face crumpled in agony.

"He made a mistake. A terrible, youthful mistake. Please, Alpha. I beg you. He is my only son. His mother did not survive to raise him right. That falls on me, not him."

Vane's jaw tightened.

"Fate had given your bloodline enough privilege. It had not given your son permission to trample on the Thorne Chen name. Your son could not even possessed the discipline to keep his hands off another woman on his own engagement night" alpha vane snapped.

Elena flinched, her claws digging tighter into Vane's shoulder.

"Please," Aldric sobbed. "He will apologise. He will do anything to appease you, Alpha."

"I do not want anything other than to see him suffer."

Vane signalled for Elena to rise from his lap.

She slid off, landing on her bare feet. She stood beside the throne, her neck still bleeding, looking down at the Beta.

Vane rose and walked towards Aldric, stopping inches from him.

"You do know I never wanted this mating," he began, his voice rising. "I did not want your Beta genes polluting my line. I only allowed it because she stood before this throne and called me a monster for not seeing his worth. I allowed it because she fought for him."

Vane grabbed the Beta by the hair, forcing him to look up.

"And your son had the audacity to humiliate my bloodline in front of every Alpha who came for that engagement. He made the Thorne Chen name a joke."

"Mercy!" Aldric shrieked. "Please, Alpha, mercy!"

"By the right as the Alpha of Alphas," Vane declared, his eyes blazing amber, " henceforth, I banish Kaelen Aldric from this pack. I banish him from the North, and from London."

Aldric let out a strangled scream.

"He is Rogue," Vane continued, his voice echoing in the hall. "He has no territory. No protection. His name is struck from our records. His blood is forgotten. He is dead to us."

"No!" Aldrich screamed and lunged forward, but the guards caught him and slammed his face back against the floor.

"He will die out there!" He pleaded in tears.

"From this night onward," Vane continued, turning his back on the weeping man, "if Kaelen Aldric enters my territory again, even the omegas have the authority to strike him on sight."

He sealed the banishment into the pack bond with a pulse of his aura.

"Take him out."

"Alpha, please! Banish me instead. Take my life and let the boy—"

"Your life was never the one owed," Vane said without turning around.

Aldric shrieked as the guards dragged him backwards towards the door. His cries echoed beneath the vaulted ceiling, a raw, haunting sound of despair.

The doors slammed shut, cutting off his screams.

To be made Rogue was to be turned into a ghost. No pack would take him in. Vane had not simply taken Kaelen's home. He had stripped away his identity, his protection and the place he had once occupied in the pack.