CHAPTER 115: THE SAME ROGUES

~AMBROSE’S POV~

That little shit Andres would pay for his insolence later. Him and his brother show up here unannounced, eat my food, at my table, and hit on my guest.

And you just let him hit on our mate right in front of us. Let him disrespect us in our home, our kingdom? And you let his ass walk away. Onyx groaned poking at me.

If Morrison wasn’t there, with his ever watchful eyes, I wouldn’t. But things are delicate right now, the rogue tensions, the vampires’ attacks on the west, and only some knowing there’s a vampire living amongst them in the pack. I have to tread carefully if I want to get everything. One slip up because of weakness, a crack in my discipline, I won’t get everything I want.

Onyx growled.

She’s not a regular guest, Onyx, like it or not she’s the daughter of the enemy and that changes how I can respond to things without raising an eyebrow. Morrison is already going to dig into this and I’m going to have to make moves tonight to control the flow of information. And honestly, Onyx, I don’t even know what I’m going to say. It’s a damn good thing the vampire princess’ looks like exactly except to those in their close circles. It took a lot of effort acquiring blurry photos. NDA oaths at the schools prevented any disclose. She wasn’t easy to get to, and you know it. I complained to him.

It was incredibly hard to get someone on the inside to watch her moves, photos were hard to come by. The royal family lived out of the light and kept things private and quiet. Always had, but with their daughter, it wasn’t privacy or protection, it was hiding. Carefully calculated deception and secrecy.

I couldn’t fuck up; I wouldn’t risk it.

And that’s why Andres got away with as much as he did, because Odette wasn’t just any guest, she was the enemy’s daughter. A princess. My fated mate. She was so many things and if I didn’t do this the right way and slipped up, I’d lose it. And losing has never been an option for me.

So, watching him walk out of the room with all his limbs.

And then Odette’s retreating figure, storming off.

I felt like the loser.

However, Hector pulled through.

**Inside my office, I take a seat behind my desk. Hector hands me a stack of papers and I shift through them reading the detailed reports and investigation conclusion. The rogues that attacked yesterday, came from the same pack of rogues that attacked the ColdMoon Pack the night we were there.

Alpha Micca is with the rogues. Source confirms. Short message.

"Did you send a message to Alpha Jaylin?" I asked Hector.

"Yes, she can’t figure out how the same pack across a continent could be in two different regions at once. Which in all honesty, alpha, I can’t seem to figure out either. From our intel, they have no direct connection to a coven or possess any witches in their ranks powerful enough to use weylines or fae rings. They could be using stones, like us, to activate fae rings, but inside the ColdMoon Packs territory, there aren’t any known fae lines." Hector mentions.

"Sounds like we have a mystery on our hands." Damon added "How recent or accurate is our information on their ranks? Do we have an update on our source? How safe is our mole now that our place of meeting has been comprised, our mole might be to. Do we have any extraction plans for her?"

"She’s a teleporter, with stupid stealth, her abilities are insanely rare, it’s risky to try and make contact with her right now and cause more harm than good." I answered.

Esmerelda. One of the survivors of the FullMoon Massacre. The late beta’s sister. She was among the few survivors of that night. She wasn’t mute, but I’ve spoken more words to a stranger I’ve met once than she has her whole life. Probably. But she was the kind of person who was just like that. Quiet. Invisible. There.

People like her, they were as rare as Odette, her abilities would get her killed because she’s a threat, so they’re a heavily guarded secret.

If anyone was safe playing spy, it was Esmerelda.

Her gifts could make it possible for the rogues to transport secretly, but I trust her with my life. Her loyalty to family knows no bounds and knows no morals. She could use weylines, transport stones, fae rings without stones. And she was invisible if she wanted to be. She could move in the type of silence that blocked out other sounds hinder other senses. She could blend in with her surroundings, not like a chameleon but by being so still and quiet she became a regular object to the untrained eye. Darkness could completely hide her.

Esmerelda was the perfect spy; I trusted her to make it out alive.

"So do we do about her?" Damon asked.

"Could she be how the rogues were able to travel? Could they have caught her and forced it or...?" Hector asked cautiously.

I knew by the way he trailed off he was suggesting betraying us and playing a double agent. Which instantly set my blood to boil.

I know he saw it, Onyx tried to surface feeling protective over Esmerelda.

Hector on instinct, recoiled and stepped away.

I took a deep breath and decided to let it go, he never met her. She’s been undercover for a long time, long before he joined the ranks here at the palace.

"It’s not possible. Esme is a different breed, and honestly, we’re lucky she’s loyal to us. Esme is, how should I say it..." Damon paused, "She is a silent death. And for her there’s no lengths she wouldn’t go for the people she promise’s loyalty too. She has a suicide tooth; she would sooner kill herself and a room full of her enemies than say anything against us."

"You can trust her more than you trust me." Damon added

"True" I confirmed.

Hector looked shocked.

He seemed to regather his bearings and then asked "What’s a suicide tooth?"

"Inside a tooth, she has a pill, one that if she breaks open and swallows, a deadly gas will emit from her body. Quietly killing anything in an enclosed space around her." I answered.

"A Silent Death." Damon claimed proudly, liking his description of her. His precious little Esme. She was adopted by his family when she lost everything at the massacre, so she became all of our little sister.

I was hesitant at first to send her undercover so young, but she was the only one who could do the job, and she asked for it. She never joined another pack after the massacre, so she is "Unaffiliated." And this. This was one of the few things she ever asked. Rogues had killed her mom, so she wanted this job and physically asked to do it, so I was stuck I had to give in. She’s been undercover since she was 16, making her way up the ranks. And now after so long she’d become extremely useful source of direct intel.

I was supposed to meet with someone she sent to join our ranks as a double agent. But that didn’t happen. So, I was worried, but I know what she’s capable of and a band of rogue wolves are no match for her.

"How long do you think we wait before we go for extraction?" Damon asked.

"Give her the week to show up." I answered.

"How would we extract her?" Hector asked.

Good point.

"Artemasia. She’d send a message to her in a dream and give a meet up point." I answered.

"Why not do that now?" He asked.

His questions beginning to annoy me I answer with a sharp finality about it "Because if she’s in hiding, a dream message can force her into the open. Her abilities require extreme focus sometimes and hiding is one that does, disrupting her focus can fuck her whole plan and operation and when she does get back, she’d kill us all in our sleep. Leave it be, you aren’t cleared to know any more about this."

Hector flinched but shut his mouth about it.

I looked back to Damon. "We will order an official evac of her with that message from Artemasia, it’s time she comes back. She’s needed here."

If anyone would win over the council with Odette, it would be her.

"How are you going to tell her about you having a the daughter of her brother’s killer living under your roof?" Damon asked.

Shit. I hadn’t thought about that.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I could tell Damon read my mind. "Worry not, I have a plan." He grinned.

"What’s the plan, genius?"

"Tell her the truth." Damon smiled like it was obvious and easy.

It wasn’t. It never was.