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{34}

"Hello, poppet."

My hair stood up, goose bumps covering every inch of my skin. My heart was beating at an abnormally fast pace, I was being held at knifepoint by a rogue. 

Kaitlyn and Magnus stiffened in their seats and looked my way with alarmed expressions, they also hadn't realised a rogue was beside me the entire time. They couldn't see the knife, but I could definitely feel it's sharp point digging into my side. 

I tried to control my breathing, erase the panicked expression I wore on my face and finally pluck the courage to say something. I wanted to wipe that smug, creepy smile off his face. His eerie golden, yellow eyes were trained on me, as I look down at his wrist, looking for the tattoo that rogues supposedly have. 

He smirked and brought his right arm over and showed me his wrist, it had the letter 'R' tattooed on it. I fought back a shudder, as he lowly chuckled to himself, showcasing his golden teeth, and brought his arm back. 

"Who are you?" I asked lowly, glaring at him. "And what do you want?"

"Your adopted parents can tell you who I am." He responded with a grin, proceeding to look forward at the stage. He looked so normal in his suit and tie, like he's here to watch his child graduate. "As for why I'm here, you'll find out later."

Kaitlyn and Magnus, who were listening to every word, looked over at us and finally noticed his hand near my right side. 

"Are you at knife or gun-point?" Magnus asked me gravely, using the group mind-link channel.

"Knife-point, silver knife." I replied, trying hard not to make any sudden moves that would end up with me being stabbed. I could die from blood poisoning if any silver material enters my bloodstream; werewolves seem to be invincible, but all it takes is any silver in our body to kill us. 

"Fuck!" Jay swore in the mind-link. He turned to look up at me, his gaze falling onto the rogue next to me to which the rogue grinned at.

"Hello, Jayden Steel." The rogue chuckled, knowing Jay was listening in.

"Who is he?" I asked, feeling uneasy.

"That man is Killian Andrews, The leader of The Rogue Force. Do not negotiate with him, he is a dangerous man. Do not provoke or anger him, his temper is world renowned to be the worst." Magnus warned me seriously. 

"They mean business if the Leader of rogues decided to carry out the mission himself."  Kaitlyn added anxiously. 

Killian Andrews, his name literally has the word 'kill' in it. 

I turned to look at him once more, to see his grin widening. "So now you know who I am." He said, still not facing me. I had to admit that he was very good at not drawing any unnecessary attention to him. 

I considered making a scene just to get out of knife-point, like claiming that he was touching me inappropriately or that he was harassing me. I sighed and gave up on that plan, remembering Magnus' advice to not provoke this hot-tempered rogue. 

"I can see the clogs in your mind working hard, trying to figure out how to get out of this situation." He pointed out, his eyes still trained on the students being called up. "I wouldn't try anything if I were you, I'm not very nice when I'm angry."

"Why are you here?" I asked, feeling annoyed. Clearly, they were here for us but why?

"I came all the way here myself, just to fetch you." He answered, turning to face me with a wicked grin. I felt myself turn pale at his answer and felt Kaitlyn reach over to hold my hand. 

"Consider yourself special, poppet." He added, winking at me. 

"Why did you come for me?" I asked, trying to feign confidence. "I'm an ordinary girl, who goes to college, and hangs out with friends - why on earth would you come for me?"

He shook his head at me, watching me curiously. "We both know you're not ordinary, don't lie to me."

My heart felt like It had almost jumped into my mouth because of how nervous I was. Was he insinuating at what I think he is? Does he know that I'm a...

No, there is no way he could know that. I had only found out I'm a Alpha blood yesterday, and no one else knows about that other than Theo, Ms Williams, Leona, Irene and possibly Kobi. 

My heart jumped uneasily as Irene and Kobi crossed my mind. They couldn't have possibly contact The Rogue Force and told them about me...even so, why would they do that? And what benefit am I to the rogues? None of this made any sense. It was at that moment, I started to miss Theo. 

"What benefit am I to you?" I questioned, trying to figure out their motive. 

He started to put pressure where he held the knife, causing it to rip into my dress and scratch the surface of my skin. I let out an involuntary gasp, suddenly scared of the dangerous effects of silver. 

"Too many questions, love." He warned, his face darkening with annoyance. "You'll find out the answers to your questions very soon, all you need to do is sit tight."

RING! RING! RING! RING! RING!

Everyone in the hall looked at each other in confusion and panic, wondering why there was a loud alarm being rung throughout the building. The professors momentarily looked confused before realising it was a fire alarm. 

"There is no scheduled fire alarm today, this is not a drill! Please leave the building as soon as possible, and use the correct fire exits!" One of them exclaimed, already heading towards the fire exit. 

The hall burst into chaos as everyone jumped out of their seats and rushed to get out of the building. During that time, I noticed Killian's attention momentarily being drawn elsewhere, and took that opportunity to jump out my chair and land three rows ahead of me. 

Kaitlyn and Magnus wasted no time in following me, also jumping down three rows down. I looked up to see Killian's expression turn furious, which made me shudder in fright. He's so fucking scary and creepy.

We hurried in trying to get out of the building, wanting to get as far away from Killian as possible. I glanced back, confused to see him leaning back in his seat and smiling down at me. If he'd made the effort to come all the way here himself, just to 'fetch me', why is he letting me go? 

Suddenly, a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around me and pulled me away from the exit. I fought against the person, certain it was a rogue because of it's scent, and tried to escape from their tight grip. 

I turned to look at the rogue, surprised to see them wearing a graduation gown and cap. Killian knew how to conceal his warriors very well...

I managed to slip out of their strong grip and began to sprint to the exit. I had lost sight on Magnus and Kaitlyn, but carried on escaping knowing it would be better for me if I left the building. The female professor, who had been giving a speech earlier, was directing everyone on where to go to leave the building. 

She stopped me by blocking my path and grabbed my hand, accidently pricking me somehow. I withdrew my hand and cried, "Ow!"

She watched me rub my hand with a confused expression, and then anxiously asked, "Are your parents blond, the mother wearing a red dress and the father a red tie?"

I eyed her suspiciously and said, "Yeah..."

She sighed in relief and said, "That's good, they told me to approach a young women wearing a black dress and waist-length brown hair." 

She pointed to her left, the opposite way to where everyone was going, and said, "They went that way, it's the long way out of the building, but they wouldn't listen to me. They said it was important for them to take a different route and that I should tell you to go that way too." 

I eyed her suspiciously, not sure whether to believe her or not. Time was ticking and there are rogues everywhere; I couldn't afford to stay any longer and decided to believe her. She seemed pretty ordinary, not to mention that I couldn't detect any rogue or werewolf scent from her. 

It made sense that Kaitlyn and Magnus would want me to take a different route rather than the obvious one, as that would be the one that rogues would also be taking.

I started to walk down the path the professor told me Kaitlyn and Magnus went down and sprinted down the hallways, trying to find an exit. There were, weirdly enough, no windows and the lights seemed to be turned off - my night vision was pretty good so I wasn't too worried.

That's when I heard a quiet shuffle behind me, making me turn and throw an aimless punch, hoping that it would make contact with who was following me. 

The shadow avoided my punch and swept their feet near my ankles to trip me up, a rookie move. I easily dodged their attempt, managed to get a hold of their leg and dragged them towards me; they clearly didn't know who they were messing with. 

I brought them close enough so I could see their face in this dark hallway, just to see that it was the same female professor that told me to go down this hallway. She watched me with a disgusted, and also scared, expression as I took her in. She was definitely human...

I dropped her in disgust, angry that The Rogue Force were using humans. I knew rules didn't apply to rogues, but involving humans into the werewolf world was a different matter. This is a  totally different level of rule breaking, one that I didn't think they would break. 

"Guys, I'm in trouble." I said in the mind-link, trying to contact Magnus, Kaitlyn and Jay.

I frowned when I realised that I couldn't find the telepathic channel that I always used to contact them. In fact, I couldn't use any telepathic channel - something was stopping me.

I involuntarily rubbed where I'd been pricked before and zeroed in on her ring, which seemed to have a pointy end.

"You injected me with something." I stated, glaring down at her. No-one will be able to know how I'm doing now that I can't mind-link anyone...

"Run along." I ordered, gesturing towards where she came from. She scrambled off the floor and ran away, not looking back once. 

A slow applause echoed down the empty hallway, making me turn towards the source. A tall figure suddenly emerged in my line of vision, looking to be clapping slowly and sarcastically. It was easy to recognise who it was, and it made my lip curl back in anger. 

"Killian." I growled, taking a defensive stance. 

"Oh, look! The Alpha is getting mad!" He roared, the dangerous tone clear in his voice.

So he does know I'm an Alpha blood...

"So that is why you pulled off this stupid spectacle of the fire alarm and lured me into this hallway?" 

"Oh, hell no!" He guffawed, amused at what I said. "This whole fire alarm thing is too cheesy to have been apart of my original plan. No, it just happened to have occurred and turned out to have worked in my favour."

Shit, so there's an actual fire somewhere in this building? I prayed that someone, maybe one of our warriors, had set the alarm off to get everyone outside. 

"You're using humans to work for you." I remarked, glowering at him menacingly. He said nothing and just evilly grinned at that.

"What makes you think I'm an Alpha?" I questioned, narrowing my eyes at him. I was hoping that he didn't actually know, and that his actions were all based off an hunch of his. 

"Drop the fucking act, poppet." He snarled, dropping the grin. "Secrets do not last when they're out in the open, I always find out about them."

"Who told you?" I asked, snarling back.

"That is for me to know, and for you to find out." He answered with an over-used line, stepping forward. "Now, it's time for you to come with me." 

Before I could react, Killian was thrown against the wall with so much force that he was struggling to get back up. My eyes widened in shock, wondering if the unknown person would do the same to me. 

"Elisia, come on!" A voice called, making me gasp in surprise. 

"What the actual fuck?" I exclaimed, running to the voice. "Theo?"

I managed to find him and shook my head in disbelief. "How are you even here?" I breathed, not believing my eyes. 

He grabbed my hand and chuckled as we ran down the hallway. "It was not easy getting here, I'll explain later."

He stopped running, pulled me into a room and closed the door. I blinked hard, my eyes adjusting to the change in light. The windows in this room were huge, and let in a lot of light - unlike the hallway we were in. 

Theo walked towards the windows and opened two large ones before saying anything. "There are rogues at the end of that hallway so we have to go out the same way I came in - through this window."

I nodded at that, and starting to climb out the window. I jumped onto the hard concrete outside, cringing at the sound it made, and waited for Theo to jump out. Once he did, he gestured us to crouch down and stay down. After listening out for any rogues for a while, he decided it was fine to speak.

"I turned on the fire alarm." He told me with a sigh. "I didn't know what else to do, all the warriors were busy fighting rogues and I knew there were more inside. All I could do was create a distraction."

"Well, it worked." I said, reassuring him. 

"Why were you left behind?" He frowned, his eyes narrowing. "I thought you would've left the building with them, but then I saw them come out without you. I freaked out and went inside to look for you."

"Thank you." I said, grateful that he was here. I felt a hundred times safer than I felt five minutes ago. "So what made you come all the way here?" 

His cheeks flushed a little before he started to say, "I didn't want you to go..."

I smiled at that as he carried on. "I was wide awake when you guys were leaving and I couldn't bring myself to go downstairs and watch you leave. I started to miss you when you left the manor, so I immediately booked a ticket to come here and spend time with you in your state."

I brought my cool hands to his cheeks, surprised to find them burning up. He leaned into my touch with a small, happy smile and carried on. "I wasn't planning on entering your territory without permission, but I felt you panic and feel scared. It was so weird, I somehow knew there was threat to your life - you were panicking so much."

My eyebrows raised at that, I was glad he had felt that or I would've still been at knife-point. I started to panic again, remembering what Killian knew. 

"Theo, Killian knows what I am." I disclosed, feeling dread come over me. "And he wants to take me hostage, or kill me for some reason. What use am I to The Rogue Force?"

Theo's expression darkened as he engulfed me into a warm hug. "I have a theory, and it's not pretty." He murmured into my hair. "I'll tell you about it once we get out of here."

I nodded and listened out for any abnormal sounds. "I think it's fine to leave our position now, what direction should we take?" 

"Right. We'll sprint the entire way, we can't risk taking our time." He replied, checking the shoelaces on his sneakers. "I know where the entrance is so follow me closely."

I nodded and counted down, "On three. One. Two. Three!"

We took off from our positions and sprinted as fast as we could, until we reached the carpark that was by the other side of the building. A large crowd of people came into view, making me smile in relief. 

Everyone was there, humans and, most likely, rogues. Theo and I exchanged a glance, knowing that rogues wouldn't dare to do anything with all these humans present. 

Kaitlyn and Magnus rushed towards me with worried expressions. "Elisia, where were you? We were scared out of our minds!" Kaitlyn cried, checking if I was alright. "Jay had gone back in for you!"

Oh no...

"I'll tell him to come back out." Magnus said, mind-linking Jay. After a short moment, he nodded and said, "Alright, he's on his way back."

It was at that moment both of them finally registered Theo's presence and acknowledged him. Magnus stepped forward with a wary expression and eyed him closely. "Theo Hunter."

Theo politely bowed out of respect, something Alphas don't do often, surprising the both of them. I was surprised but still smiled at Theo warmly, letting him know that I appreciated his politeness. He wasn't required to bow to other leaders, but he still did it anyway.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." He replied with a small smile. I looked at his face closely, and almost laughed out loud. Wa-was he nervous? My smile widened when I saw his fingers fidgeting with each other, he is nervous! 

The fire department were already here; I watched them as they made their way into the building. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I saw Killian stroll out of the main entrance and light a cigarette. He caught my gaze and grinned lazily before walking off into the distance. 

I knew he wasn't done with me. 

I kept watching the entrance doors, waiting for Jay to come out from them. I let out a relieved sigh when I saw him appear and walk towards us. My smile wavered and then finally dropped when I took in his appearance. 

He looked rough - his tie was messy, his golden hair sticking up, and blood was dripping from his forehead. We all rushed towards him, even Theo, wondering how he got jumped by a rogue. 

"What happened?" Kaitlyn cried, began to throw her arms around her son. Before she could even touch him, he moved out of her way in panic and pointed to his neck. 

A little black box was attached to his neck, like a brace or a choker. I looked up at him in confusion and alarm, taking in his worried expression. "What's that, a bomb?"

He chuckled humourlessly and shrugged. "I guess you could say that, it has a countdown on it."

Magnus frowned at this and asked, "What do you mean son? What is that thing?"

Jay pointed at the black box and explained, "This box is filled with colloidal silver, a liquid that has tiny particles of silver suspended in it. A small amount will be injected into my blood stream every three hours, until the twenty four hours is up. That's when it'll all be released into my body, thus killing me." 

"What?" Kaitlyn looked pale, like she'd pass out any second.

"Shit!" Magnus walked away, his hands on his head.

"Fucking rogues..." Theo muttered, narrowing his eyes.

"No!" I cried, reaching for the black box. "We'll get rid of it!"

He shook his head. "Tampering with it would change it from every three hours to every one hour, apparently only the rogues can get rid of it."

Magnus raised his voice. "Obviously, they've done this for a reason! What was their price? We'll give it to them!"

Jay looked at me and said, "You."

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Hmm, a new character introduced in this chapter ><

Why do you think Killian is so interested in Elisia?

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Lots of love, Yasmine x