Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Chapter Seventy One

Caden did as he had said when he was leaving the couples behind and went out for a run passing by the layers of hunter defence that had been set up around the school. Every stall he saw made him dislike the place even more. He didn’t want to be near it much longer. He didn’t want to bother his friends either. The more they showed that they were moving on from Ash’s death, the more distant he grew.

He couldn’t blame them though. They didn’t know everything that he did about the girl for even before she was dead, Caden had already found out that she was a female and even had a long conversation with her that got the two quite close at a level no one had gotten the chance to see.

He shifted once he was well away from the festival and shifted into his coffee brown coloured wolf before starting his run. Thoughts ran through his mind, the memories of his time with Ash starting all the way from the beginning this time. He promised himself he would move on once he’d gone through this and done what one might have called solo mourning.

On the day Ash was taken to the suite when she’d just been freed of her rogue status, Caden had told her to feel at home while Jason went on to try and make her feel uncomfortable. It was a sweet way of taking the pressure off someone, however, Caden was not convinced that the pressure of no longer being a rogue was all that she was hiding.

Once Jason and Cole had gone to sleep, the two stayed in the living room a bit longer, silence taking over them. Caden had either projected an understanding brotherly appearance to her that made him look approachable or she had reached her limit of how much she could hold it in. It didn’t really matter after she began talking.

Several days ago in the Lycaon suite...

“Are you okay, Ash? I know Jason’s questions must have been tough to withstand,” Caden attempted to start a conversation, taking down Jason in the process.

.....

“I’m fine. His questions don’t bother me that much. It’s just that they hit the wrong spot every time he asks them,” she said. At the time, Caden knew that he was speaking to a boy and not a girl.

“That is very confusing. Would you try to shed some light on that? Coffee? Tea?” he asked while he stood up to make himself something in the kitchen.

“Any would do... I mean they hit the wrong spot because they are gender-sensitive,” she said.

Caden was frozen for a bit while he tried to decipher what she’d just said. It was true that what Jason asked her were things only boys would ask boys... “I feel like I’m halfway to what you’re trying to say,” he stopped to look at her face clearly. The gel that went through her hair was excessive, but now that he looked at her clearly, this was a distraction. “Are you a girl?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied. He would not have guessed it in a million years for it was known for nearly all rogues on the battlefield to be males. It was almost unheard of for a female to fight amongst the rogues when they had a more important job of increasing their numbers.

He finished making coffee for the both of them and returned to the living room handing her the cup, “Careful, it’s hot... Do you mind telling me your story? If you don’t want it out, you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll keep my mouth shut. I’m just of the opinion that you need someone you don’t need to hide from while you’re here.”

“Well, I was planning on telling everyone someday, so I’ll start with you. But you have to keep it a secret until I’m ready,” she said. Caden nodded and made a cross above his chest along with a gesture of death where he stuck out his tongue, ‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’ The girl laughed at his antics, a melody that Caden was only hearing for the first time. Now that he knew that secret, she didn’t fake her laugh and he was almost tempted into making her reveal her gender immediately just to keep hearing her laugh all the time she did.

“My full name is Ashley, but I cut it short when I decided to pretend to be a boy. Myster is what I was named when I was going undercover. We aren’t exactly given full names since our mothers don’t know the father and considering how many children they are forced to give birth to. I only knew my mother in the rogue camps.

It’s rare for children who are born rogues to know their fathers since it was never official who got the woman pregnant. Breeders lived a harsh life in the rogue camps. They were supplied with everything they needed to survive, but as long as they started to look young and fertile, they were raped again and again until they conceived. It wasn’t unheard of for a beautiful one to be raped even after conception.

Ashley’s mother was always sickly after having her. Her siblings numbered twelve and each one of them was male. They were naturally aggressive since they lived in a world where it was every man for himself until the rogues came to pick them up for training. Boys would go for training at age five while girls would stay behind and help their mothers with the daily activities and take care of them until they became of age.

The camps that the breeders were in were guarded heavily by rogues as the young girls were always trying to run away from there so that they didn’t suffer the same fate as their mothers. This almost never worked and when it did, the girl would later be discovered dead in the woods. A fate that many found to be much more peaceful than what they were subjected to in the camps.

Ashley was soon to turn six when her mother gave her a proposal, “I want you to escape and find peace and a home outside the life of being a rogue.” At first, Ashley had brushed off the idea in the hopes that her mother was just being delusional. The possibility of being free, however, was just so alluring that she came right back and asked for a full explanation. She was to pretend to be a boy and go along with them when the rogues came for the next recruitment.

This plan only worked because the children were many and since she rarely played with them, they couldn’t recognize her. Keeping her identity secret was barely something easy to keep during her times in training. She was always making excuses and keeping a low profile such that she was never discovered. At some point, it looked like she would never be free of the life that she had now gotten herself into.

They were taught cruel ways of life. They were taught that the moon goddess created werewolves for the sole purpose of ridding the world of humans and that’s what they were trained to do. Anything else was irrelevant. Well, that was until they found something useful to do. Once she was recognized as someone who knew how to blend in, the rogues took action in deploying her to the one place they never ventured, the home of the rogue killer.

She didn’t know why she survived the rogue killer. It was the first time she’d ever seen blood in her life. The rogue killer moved swiftly and bore unimaginable strength. She killed without hesitation and looked graceful doing it. Ashley was both moved by her efficiency and disgusted at the sight of blood and corpses. Everyone that was a part of her escort was killed while she hid in a bush watching it all happen.

This was how spies were transported into the town of Brigadia. The Rogue king ordered five rogues to transport a spy with a mission already given. The rogues were decoys for the Rogue killer to get rid of. The plan was effective as she didn’t seem to notice her hiding. From that point, she followed the directions she was given and arrived at a house that looked empty at first glance, but once she had reached the backyard, it was clear that there was someone inside.

She knocked and was let in by the other spies that lived there. This is how her life in Brigadia began at age fifteen, having only been deployed from training and straight into the field, her bag filled with werewolf inhibiting drugs that could take her till her birth date, she had three years to do everything that was required of her. The house they were in comprised six fellow spies who had the money for rent from God-knows-where.

The rogues in that house were pretentious and had a knack for bad-mouthing students that they’d befriended, making sure to show how disgusted they were with the job they were given while enjoying the luxurious life they were living in a house with no adults. It was only a matter of time before they wondered what made Ashley so different from them or at least one of them, Chandler, who was starting to get suspicious about their new arrival. Among the rogues, trust was a luxury that one would find themselves regretting.