TWELVE

Eating had made Shira feel a little stronger, and she sat later talking with some of the rogues. She got to know them by name. Tiger, who looked as impressive as a tiger with his tall height and powerful arms. His face was also scary, but when he talked, he talked with a gentleness that most smaller males could not imitate. Rhega, The Shark’s second lieutenant, tall and lean with shaggy blond hair and manners that even her instructors could learn from, then there was Liam who had finally stopped looking at her as though she was a sexual predator.

She noticed one thing about all the Shark’s rogues, they were nothing like what she had expected rogues to be. They were polite, kind, and very gallant. Picking flowers for her, and writing bad poetry in praise of her beauty. Each time she asked them why they had chosen to be rogues, they changed the topic so subtly, that it was only after they were gone that Shira realized they had not answered her question.

She felt a pang as she rea