The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 138

It took three months for the journalist to interview Alissa and any acquaintances, friends and colleagues who knew her before she set her bonded mate on fire.

The article entitled "Alissa 'Arson' Arden: An Ordinary Woman With a Scarred Past and a Thriving Present" was available in print and online. It topped the charts and pushed back any other headline for the day. The shares, likes, comments and traffic garnered weren't even this high when the news on Xandar and Lucianne's engagement went viral.

Alissa was in her apartment that she bought for herself with the earnings made from working with Greg. When the journalist sent her a copy of the article, she let it sit for two hours before she came to terms that it was time to read it. Her heart thumped as she took a deep breath. Her thumb tapped on the link that led her to the website, and she started reading.

"Love is what we all crave. Affection. Attention. Devotion. It is the very emotion that brings us together and blurs the lines between species. As lycans and werewolves, we are said to have an advantage. Said.

You and I have heard of the countless tales about how gracious the Moon Goddess was to do the heavy lifting by simply bonding two creatures together who then went on to live happily ever after. Tales like these have swept us off our feet, and for the most part, made us hope that we too would be so blessed to be bonded to that one very special creature who would be absolutely perfect for us.

On a usual day, after the usual cup of coffee, on the trip to the usual grocery store, you catch an unusual scent. You follow it. It follows you. At the end of the trail, you replace it - your perfect mate.

But is this creature truly perfect? Is the mate-bond really a blessing of promised love and devotion, or is it sometimes a curse in disguise?

Twenty-eight years ago, a then 23-year-old woman by the name of Alissa Arden had to replace out the hard way that, in her case, it was unfortunately the latter. After meeting her bonded mate, Dickxon Ghouse, in a local grocery store, Dickxon did what we often see in movies - call it quits with the girl by his side in pursuit of the mate gifted to him by our Goddess.

Alissa herself left the man she was with for the same reason after a week of Dickxon's relentless persuasion through notes and flowers sent to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend.

...

The day of the verdict came after six long years of arduous work. Her sentencing of twenty years imprisonment was seen as a failure of the legal system because, as the Daily Piece put it, "twenty years behind bars is not enough to balance the scales of justice. It does not compensate for the loss of a creature's life, and it is disrespectful to our Goddess who bonded her sacred gift to this reckless monster."

The Central Headlines even curated public views for their article "Has justice been served on Arson Arden?", which contained mostly views that Alissa "took things too far", as one anonymous respondent said, because if things really were that bad, "she should have just done the logical thing of taking the kids and leaving without a fuss. You can't change someone who doesn't want to change." When asked whether they would've let the same thing happen to them, most responded "No", with only two respondents saying, "I hope not."

The Morning Message had a more varied set of responses, with some, like those who spoke to Central Headlines saying that Alissa "brought that fire of hers from hell and should go back there", but others felt that there may be facts that weren't disclosed to the public. One respondent readily admitted to this by saying, "I don't know her, but I wouldn't want to mess with her. I've been a little more cautious with my own girlfriend after reading about it."

As much as there was to squeeze out of the tale, there will always come a time when the media would have to leave this dock and lower their sails in search of the next big scoop. Some argued that they have left the dock too early because as the vibrant flames of Alissa's case smothered with the execution of the prison sentence and everyone assumed that the ember was cooling into a cinder, which would turn into something useless and unattractive, they were proven wrong when, two weeks into Alissa's sentencing, she was reported to have escaped. Searches were conducted and news was spread. The hunt for the 'monster' who lost her home, job and children was on. Weeks turned into months, which turned into years. Alissa Arden was never found.

We learn today that her escape took place in the middle of the night, and she was nursed back to health before she commenced her training to work for the duke, Greg Claw. When asked whether the duke assisted in her escape and kept her hidden for romantic intentions, Alissa laughed.

"His Grace isn't the type to ask you for one thing and then use you for another. If he gets you to work, you're his employee. If he gets one to serve his needs when she's offering herself or when she's in that particular line of work, then she is his bed companion for the night. Intentions and expectations have always been very clear when it came to him, and it's something that I am very grateful for."

When asked whether she herself developed anything for the duke beyond their professional relationship over the years, she looked at me like I haven't been paying attention before she threw out a low and curt "no".

Alissa claims that she works 'mostly in the security side of things', which can range from standing around and watching as others work, or scrutinizing data on a computer. The duke has confirmed via email that this sufficiently describes her job scope. Some may wonder whether she will be returning to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence now that she's no longer missing. The simple answer to that is no. Alissa and many others who worked for His Grace had been granted pardon by their Highnesses after successfully helping the kingdom and our neighboring empire to track down and eliminate a set of rogues and proditors who were cooperating to challenge the crown. The conditional pardon covered all offenses except murder, so it covers Alissa's circumstance as well seeing that hers was a case of manslaughter.

Today, she is a free woman who had yet met the children she had given birth to and undoubtedly misses dearly, but she knows that they're all doing well, having looked them up on the Internet many times over the years, expressing to me how grateful she is for having such 'good, stable families' to raise them.

She remains unsure of whether she should reach out to them, expressing her fear of how she may be viewed, given what she had done to their birth father. Alissa doesn't plan to make any major shifts in her life at the moment, claiming to be paid well and has a good professional and social circle. She intends to continue working for His Grace in the security department, and see where her career takes her next.

When asked whether she would have done anything differently, her response was instant, 'I would've rejected him. I should've never trusted him over my gut. I didn't know any better. If I went back and started over, I would've rejected him the day we met at the grocery store." When Alissa came to the end of the article, she placed her phone back on the table and continued staring at the laptop screen that was displaying her sons' contact information. One became a physician, who would undoubtedly be very busy, one was an assistant manager of a 5-star hotel; and the last one became a firefighter. Alissa couldn't help but chuckle to herself at the last one.

Perhaps she could just send them emails? If they allowed her to see them, then she would make the trip. If not, she would just watch them from afar like she had been doing all along.

Once the emails were typed and perfected, she wondered if she was reaching out too soon. The article came out just hours ago. What if they needed the time and space to think things through first? Or what if they didn't even come across the article yet? Then, there was a knock at the door.