Rising from the Ashes
Chapter 2

Elenora and Mia had started moving North. Of course Mia hadn’t observed why yet, she had been too distracted in complaining about moving north. “Why are we in our human forms trudging through snow that is 3 feet deep?! I know you can’t feel this but it’s fudging cold Nora!” Elenora looks down at where she stands, stopping in her walk for a moment. She tilts her head as she watches the snow melt where she stands, turning into a puddle. Elenora shrugs before continuing her walk.

“Here.” Elenora shrugs off her jacket before throwing it towards Mia, it hits her face. “Take my jacket.” With that, Elenora moves forward in her worn top. “We’re in this form because we look more of a threat as our wolves. We’re nearing a border, the last thing we need is to look a threat.” Mia groans, a loud groan before continuing to follow Elenora with a fair amount of complaints until Elenora stops just outside of the Pearline Pack. A broad man with a nice size gut steps forward, Elenora stares up at him “Elenora, rogue. Here to ask permission to be escorted through your pack.” The broad man raises a bushy brow at her formal greeting.

“Why are you a rogue?”

“Left.”

The man nods before looking to Mia. Mia doesn’t bother with formalities “I’m just here because somebody, not to name any names or anything.” Mia points at Elenora with a scowl in her direction “Decided to drag me through snow that three feet deep, further north to an unknown destination-”

“Four.” The broad man with a gut interrupts, Mia’s jade eyes narrow, Elenora almost laughs

“What?” She questions

“The snow, it’s not three feet it’s four.”

Mia seems stunned for a moment before her glare towards Elenora becomes that much more prominent. Safe to say the blonde isn’t happy. The man, by the name of Warrior Jackson seems more than amused at the situation. Another lanky man runs up to Warrior Jackson “Alpha Bellson gave the okay, he wants five warrior escorting them through the back paths, he doesn’t want them seen by the pack.” With a wave of Warrior Jackson’s hand, five warriors move towards them, out of the trees. With that they move forward.

Every pack following was the same, though there were a few that wouldn’t let her step foot in their lands. Most of them presented pack members glaring their way, scowling at them as if they were scum at the bottom of their shoes. When they got closer, they deciding to go for neutral grounds, it presented all sorts of trouble. Elenora had led Mia right into a pub, the second they walked in, all attention turned towards them, the eyes of some of the men were impossible to ignore, especially given the fact she could feel their emotions, feel their lust. Apparently it doesn’t matter the type of ripped and worn clothes a woman wears. Elenora walks straight to the bar before taking her seat, Mia sits behind her, finally quiet.

She knows what Elenora is doing though she had only been with her a couple times. A pub is one of the best places you can go for any bit of information. It’s not long until a lean man with horns and a devilish smirk pops up before her “What are you?” Elenora tilts her head as she asks the question, the mans dark eyes widen at her straight forward question before flashing a beautiful green.

“What do I get if I tell you?” The man leans forward, he’s handsome in every sense of the way, and there’s something alluring about him. It immediately has Elenora distancing herself. She glances at Mia to see her enraptured by the man. Elenora reaches up and slaps the man over the head, he chuckles not the least bit affected.

“Nothing. Don’t do that to my friend.” Elenora growls.

The man tilts his head, his smirk flickering for a moment “Your friend wasn’t who I was aiming for. It takes a powerful being to resist me.” He muses, his eyes shining a brighter green. Once again Elenora feels how alluring this creature could be. He is no doubt dangerous in his own way. “Some call me a lust demon, the simpler term.”

“I see.” Elenora nods before clearing her throat “Water for the blonde, ale for me.” The lust demon nods before bowing, showing off his pale blue horns before walking off.

“He is hot.”

“Resist him.” Elenora eyes the demon for a moment before beginning to listen. Nothing of significance is being spoken of. Only a job gone wrong, a break up, and relationship problems.

“What if I don’t want to?” Mia’s voice murmurs beside her, sounding more than dreamy. Elenora almost groans as she feels her friends maddening lust for the demon, she narrows her eyes at the demon preparing drinks. She can literally feel his arrogance and see the smirk on his face as he glances at her long time friend, placing the water in front of her. Elenora slaps Mia over the head, successfully pulling her out of her trance.

“Think about your mate.” That had brought Mia back completely, her eyes widening. The demon sighs before pointing at Elenora.

“I can already tell you’re no fun, miss.” He tells Elenora

“I can already tell you’re an annoyance.” With that Elenora chugs the large cup of beer down. The demons eyebrows raise before he grabs a cup and refills it. Elenora nods her thanks before focusing on the mission at hand.

Elenora had been sitting in the bar for hours, slowly drinking the beer. It hadn’t affected her, she had done this so much she had built a good tolerance up. The only problem she has is the money, each hour that goes by is another hour without any information and it’s getting late. Elenora knows enough to be patient though, the right person needs to come in. That is all. She’s just lucky that the water is free, Mia’s been chugging it down as if it were the sweetest drink “Can I try?” Mia points to the drink Elenora grasp in her hand. Elenora raises her eyebrows at the blonde before turning away.

“You wouldn’t like it.” She warns her friend but Mia is nothing if not insistent.

“How can I know if I haven’t tried it?”

“Come on, miss.” The demon encourages “Just a sip.” Elenora narrows her eyes at the demon, feeling his emotions. He wants Mia drunk, that’s all. Elenora had known Mia for years, she knows her friend won’t get drunk over a sip of beer.”

Elenora pushes the cup towards Mia watching her grab it all too happily. Elenora is quick to cover Mia’s glass, not trusting the demon or the men beside Mia. The second her blonde friend had tasted the ale is the second she spit it out all over the dear demon bartender. Elenora can’t help her smile as she grabs the cup of beer back. “That’s disgusting! How do you drink that?” Mia rubs at her tongue, attempting to rid herself of the lovely taste of beer. Meanwhile the lust demon is glaring at her, his smirk gone and his eyes flashing from an angry red to the normal black as he tries to regain control.

“My friend isn’t going to get drunk off one sip, sir.” Elenora utters before shoving a discarded glass of rum in his hand “She was more likely to spit it out than swallow, cheers.” Elenora taps her beer against his glass with a grin before taking another sip. The demon looked like he wanted to say something mean but somebody called for more drinks. He slams back the shot of rum, scowling at Mia before grabbing a towel and walking towards the hollering crowd.

Mia’s face couldn’t be more red “Oops.” She mutters but Elenora had long since lost focus on her, paying more attention to the quiet group in the corner of the bar, sitting in a booth. She doesn’t look at them, her eyes never leaving her drink.

“There’s been more rogues.” A man whispers “Attacks, has me exhausted! Alpha Bardrick hasn’t been allowing any slack, not anymore.” He mutters, must be a pack warrior. Elenora doesn’t looking to see which one.

“You’re exhausted, Travis? You got it easy, so you had to stand guard for a little while. I pulled an all nighter, I’m surprised he let me eat. Bastards usually fair but when it comes to rogues...man I just don’t think he thinks straight when he hears of them. Especially not when they’re walking on his lands like they belong, dirty runts anyway.” A gruff werewolf grumbles to himself. “He’s not even hearing em out anymore. Takes them to the cells and that’s it, he’s mad for sure.”

“Everybody’s mad.” Warrior Travis utters after a moment “I can’t blame him for his anger, not after everything. I might have done the same in his position.” He mutters after another moment of silence before groaning “Do you know what? I don’t give two shits, I’m not on guard duty so you bastards can have fun out there. Cheers!” Elenora turns away from that conversation entirely. It hadn’t been anything she didn’t know already but they had confirmed. It would be a bad idea to go, if we so much as stumbled on Alpha Bardrick’s lands we’d be dragged down to the cells and tortured to death.

Even so, Alpha Scott’s lands have to be one of the safest for a rogue or two. If we manage to get pardoned by the young Alpha, Alpha Bardrick wouldn’t touch them. Though Alpha Scott and Alpha Bardrick are complete opposites, they’re strong allies and Alpha Bardrick would respect that. If he were smart he’d never break Alpha Scott’s trust, and Elenora had heard he is fairly intelligent when it comes to decision making. “I hear there’s a ruler of rogues.” Elenora has to resist looking at the new group, she merely takes another sip

“Ridiculous! There’s no such thing.” A women scoffs “Rogues are lone creatures.”

“Not anymore it seems. They have a powerful leader apparently. I heard word of it from a reliable source, trust em with my life.”

“Well your source sounds like he’s full of shit, to say there’s a leader amongst the rogues would be...” The man trails off, Elenora could see why. Such a thing would be something to be afraid of. There’s enough rogues to create a war against any given pack. If said leader were to put out the word...there would be a lot of death and some very bad days for the werewolf kingdom. Hell, rogues could start a war with the King himself and they might just win it too.

“I think it’s possible.” A solemn silence fills the group

Elenora presses her lips together, drinking the beer. It’s worth looking into, if there really is a leader of rogues, Elenora wants to know about him. “Lets hope not.” The woman mutters.

Elenora chugs down the rest of her beer before slamming her money on the table. She had gotten everything she needs. More than what she needed. “Lets go blondie, we’ve sat on our ass for longer than I’d like to admit. See you,” Elenora pauses and looks for a nametag on the demon, he catches her and smirks

“Tiras, see you around, love.” He winks, his eyes a pale green. She tilts her head at him, once again feeling the allure. His emotions are of curiosity, especially when she winks.

“Nice try but I’m afraid I’m just not that into you, I guess you could say I just don’t feel the allure." She only leaves after she catches sight of his wide eyes.