Lucas

I wasn't looking for her I swear. The Royal lands were just a shortcut that my pack and I were passing through. But that smell was damn near the death of me and I had to follow it. Sweet pumpkin pie mixed with something unique to her was what my mate smelt like.

At twenty-five I had assumed that the Moon Goddess decided to forgo a mate for me, so it hit me like a tonne of bricks, and I was completely unprepared. Deacon, my 2IC was left with his mouth hanging open as I took off on all fours into the underbrush, racing mindlessly towards my mate.

"Lucas where the f*ck are you going?" I heard him yell through our pack link, it was a long-held myth that rogues couldn't communicate with each other. In reality, the only thing stopping them was a failure to elect a leader. Luckily for our pack, we weren't stupid.

"Keep to the plan Deacon, I'm taking a detour, I'll meet you back at the night stalkers when I'm done."

I knew he would follow my orders, so I kept going, traveling swiftly with my nose in the air, enraptured by her scent and getting closer with each determined step.

And then there she was.

I was slightly impressed at how I managed to avoid any royal guards, I hadn't even really thought about them in my haste to get to her.

If I wasn't in wolf form I may have missed the woman at the window on the top floor. Thankfully the lack of guards must mean that she wasn't too far up the royal chain but damned if she wasn't drop-dead gorgeous.

From my vantage point hidden in the underbrush, I took a moment to stare at her beauty. Dark raven tresses cascaded down her body in unruly waves, meeting her sinfully tight black dress so I didn't know where her hair ended and the dress began. She had milky white alabaster skin, and from what I could see of her form, she was a slender but curvy lass. I was too far away to see the color of her eyes but I would bet my left nut that they were green-I had a real weakness for emerald gazes.

But before I could fantasize any further, a pair of steel-looking arms snaked around her waist and a giant of a man pulled my mate into a loving embrace..oh hell no! Uh Uh, no freaking way was that prick taking what's mine!

I was fuming and everything in me wanted to skin that dead man walking while he was still breathing-it was only the thought of being tackled by a hundred guards that helped me keep control of my beast. Whoever he was, he had just signed his own death wish. No one took what was mine, I was the rogue Alpha and she was meant for me to love, and me alone. Vowing to see her soon, I forced myself to slink back into the shadows and track my pack, knowing that when my business with the night stalkers was over I would be seeing her again, and next time she would be leaving with me one way or another.

---

"What the hell man?"

Deacon and the pack were already on the planes just outside of Deveraux territory when Lucas finally came into view, his rangy brown wolf eating up the distance in a matter of seconds as he stopped in front of his best friend with his tongue lolling out in a cocky grin. Deacon wordlessly handed him some clothes, which Lucas grabbed in his jaws since the rest of the pack had already phased when the woodlands ended and were in their human skin again. Minutes later he emerged, dressed in his trademark shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

Lucas Gotti was a sight to behold, his whole aura screamed danger and he knew it. So did everyone else which was how he came to be the leader of the rogues. His hair was shaggy and unevenly cropped, courtesy of the pocket knife Lucas used whenever it got too long for his liking, and the brown mess it was in at the moment was common. Every muscle was hard-earned through turf wars and defending his pack. His flinty green eyes were tinged with the red that pronounced him a rogue, but those who were in his inner circle knew where Lucas really came from. His Italian features were proud and as his last name suggested, he was a part of the Gotti family, mafia kings.

But that's where ties to his family ended.

Lucas was an Alpha werewolf by blood, but he had eleven brothers, all older than him and ruthless. Lucas had a choice when he gained his wolf, leave and try to make it on his own as a rogue, or lose his rank and become an omega within the Gotti pack, under his older brother Joe's rule. Lucas made the only choice he could that day and left. He was thirteen at the time.

"Where did you go?"

Deacon asked and was flabbergasted to see a genuine grin light up his friends face and a light blush dust across his hawkish features as he sauntered towards him. Something big had definitely happened.

Lucas cleared a spot, and sent instructions through the mind link that they would camp there for the night, or what was left of it anyway, and head off to the night stalkers in the morning.

Guards and patrols were organised, this was no man's land after all which meant anyone could be roaming around. It was a hunt for your own meal kind of night so the camp erupted in cheers when a couple of younger rogues bought back an antelope, nicely fattened and enough to feed the pack if no one was greedy. That way the women and pups could rest instead of searching for a meal.

Lucas made Deacon wait until they were all settled before he finally came clean.

"I found her Deacon."

Okay, that was confusing, so Deacon waited for Lucas to elaborate.

"My mate. I found her, it was her scent I was after that caused me to leave this evening."

Deacon felt his mouth drop but couldn't help it. If Lucas found his mate on Royal lands, it didn't matter what title she held, she was a royal, and royals don't belong to rogues no matter how far up the chain Lucas was in his world, it could never work between them. That didn't explain why he looked so starstruck though. Unless..oh nooo!

Lucas looked him dead in the eyes and confessed, "After the deal is done with the Night Stalkers, we have a royal to kidnap."

Deacon swore his heart was going to beat right out of his damn chest.