Scarlet Rogue (Book One)

Chapter Nineteen: Scarlet Rogue

Kaelynn

"Hey, wake up."

"Five more minutes," I reply begrudgingly to the whisper, who responds by shaking me.

Opening my eyes, I get ready to give this guy a piece of my mind but when I see Kurt pointing to the time reading 4 a.m. I realise it's time to see the prisoner. As I get out of bed, Kurt hushes me looking towards Ayden leading me to tip-toe. He signals that he'll meet me outside and I do a few minutes later, surprised that Ayden didn't wake up. We walk outside, this time the guards aren't anywhere to be seen.

"Did Ayden see you leave?" Kurt asks when we are outside in the clearing.

"No, he didn't even flinch for a second."

"The effects of the mate bond," Kurt sniggers.

I still can't get used to Kurt being capable of laughing. The more I hear it, the weirder it sounds but better to see a jolly Kurt than the cocky, sexist guy I initially encountered.

"It's clear he won't let you leave now, right?" Kurt says bringing up our conversation from yesterday.

Nothings clear to me, Ayden's actions make no sense. All I have is confusion upon confusion when it comes to my mate. Deciding to change the subject, I probe Kurt instead on the major incident of yesterday.

"What happened yesterday?"

"You know what happened. Your mother attacked us, trying to take over our pack because we won't concede to her crazy ass policies. Luckily we stopped her men not far from the border."

"What policies?"

Sighing, Kurt says, "We'd need a whole week to even hit the iceberg on that topic. What's crazy is the lives being lost in all this political ordeal."

Kurt's face turns sombre and I say no more. Once again left with more questions than answers but right now, the lives lost are more important than any answers I could ever get. More lives that are ultimately my fault. The rest of the silent journey through the trees doesn't take too long before we arrive at the rusty gate that fills me as dread as usual.

Making my way into the dungeon down the tattered stairs behind Kurt, I see the prisoner cowered in the corner of her cell. I don't stop until I reach her cell, sitting down next to it. The prisoner crawls to the metal rails separating us, her scruffy hair on full display now starting to matt in sections.

"Queen Kaelynn," she mutters.

Only then do I realise, I don't know her name. This prisoner from my pack is offering a way to end this chaos and bring peace and I haven't even asked her name.

"What's your name?"

"R-Ruby," she stutters out.

"Why did you try to kill Zed?"

Ruby cowers away from me overlooking my question and carving lines with her nails on the ground instead. Sighing, I decide to try a different question.

"Why is my mother attacking the packs in her kingdom?"

Again, I'm met with no response. Waiting a while, I hope Ruby will give me an answer to anything but she doesn't even look towards me anymore. My eyes turn to Kurt silently asking him if I should continue trying, he shrugs leaving the decision to me. Taking one more look at Ruby, I decide that today is not going to be the day for answers. I get up to leave but something latches on to my arm.

"Wait," Ruby says and I look at her full of hope. "You could have avoided the attack yesterday if you had let me take you to your mother."

My eyes remain glued to her in shock. The thought had crossed my mind in all honestly but hearing it from her, makes it all the more real. When am I going to stop causing destruction wherever I go?