Chapter 78: Milly Returns

REIGN

^~Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life…~^

“So are you gonna tell me what’s happened that required me home so urgently?” Milly stormed into the office, ready to kill.

“Take it easy. No one needs to die today.” I paused. “Maybe.”

She sank into one of the chairs across from my desk, her face a mask of concern waiting patiently for me to explain myself.

“The other night, after a particularly difficult staff meeting, I may have had too much to drink, and the first drips of the haze had begun, and one thing led to another, and my beta and I fooled around on my desk.”

I sat back in my chair, biting my lip and waiting for her to explode. She blinked at me repeatedly before clearing her throat and speaking

“So let me get this straight; you and the beta—your father’s beta and best friend, might I add—fooled around.”

I nodded silently. She let out a big huff and held her hands over her face.

“Let’s go.” She stood up abruptly. Silently I followed her out onto the grounds.

“Where are we going?” I ran alongside her as she stormed across the grounds

“Training. I never should have left you alone. You’ve probably been so swamped with paperwork and backward wolves that you couldn’t get rid of all that pent-up energy.

“I never should have left,” she tutted herself as we made our way to the training grounds.

We stripped down to more flexible clothing. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up, Milly. It’s not your fault. It’s my stupid mistake.” I wrapped up my hands and wrists.

“Does anyone else know?” She bounced on the spot clicking her neck.

“Just Brie.”

She rolled her eyes. “So the entire pack knows then.”

“Don’t be like that, Milly. Brie has changed since high school.”

She raised her eyebrow at me. I dodged a fist

“All right, maybe not that much, but I don’t think she would tell anyone. She’s my best friend,” I huffed, gulping down some water.

Milly rolled her shoulders and then her eyes. “Seriously, Reign? You don’t think that Brianna Nightingale would dish out the hottest gossip she’s probably heard ever?

“That her new alpha let her beta—no, no, her father’s best friend—finger-pump her because of grief? I doubt she waited until you got to your car.” She crossed her arms, letting her point sink in.

I bit my lip, I didn’t want to admit it, but truth be told, Milly was probably right. I love Brie. She’s my best friend. But she doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut sometimes.

“I’ve been telling you this for years, Reign, but maybe you’ll listen now that your position has changed. You cannot trust that girl with private business. Cut her loose.”

Milly readied herself for another sparring round, and I nodded absentmindedly.

I was deep in thought while we ran through all of the training movements and routines.

I was a lot slower than I used to be, so Milly got in some good blows, but she was right.

I needed to make my circle tighter of people I could trust, not just with secrets and private business, but with my life.

I was still silent as we packed up and got ready to head back to the pack house. The good thing about Milly was she never forced conversation where there was no need for one.

We walked in silence until a guard met us halfway across the grounds. “Rogues at the borders, Alpha. Thought you should know.”

In a flash, Milly and I had dropped our bags and shifted, taking off after the guard as he led us to where the rogues were.

Maybe this was what I needed, a good distraction from all of the shit going on right now. Nothing cleared the mind better than a good rogue hunt.

We skidded to a stop where the other guards were situated. I mind-linked one of them.

~“Where did they come from?”~

~“We tracked the scent from the far northeast, Alpha. We don’t know why they stopped here.”~

Milly huffed beside me, loudly pawing the ground. ~“We should go and show them how unwelcome they are.” ~She snapped her jaws, a growl building in her chest.

The guards shifted nervously. Milly was a lot like her father and my Uncle Diego. Bloodthirsty and merciless.

~“Easy, Milly, we don’t know what they want yet,”~ I cautioned her through our mind-link. She rolled her eyes and huffed again, her black fur rippling in the sun.

I stared out into the distance sniffing the air slightly. I could smell the rogues but not see them. That was never a good sign.

~“What do you propose we do, Alpha?”~ My guards awaited their orders eagerly.

I watched Milly as she pawed the ground in frustration, waiting for the order to attack the rogues like a good soldier.

I remembered something Dad told Axel during one of our many training sessions: “A good alpha always leads from the front. You never ask anyone to do anything you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.”

~“Milly and I will go and check it out. I will link you if we need anything.”~

They nodded and backed away. Milly and I crossed the border following the scent of the rogues. It was faint but got stronger the further we wandered into the forest,

I motioned to Milly to stop from a distance so we could see how many there were.

A gush of wind rushed past, serving us up on a silver platter to the camp of twenty rogues. They stiffened and turned to face us. The leader was in human form.

He sniffed the air and sneered. “Females.” He stepped forward, and the rest of his men stood up greedily.

Milly took one step in front of me, blocking them from getting to me. A guttural growl rippled from deep within her chest.

“I want that one. She’s got spunk.” One of the men leered, stepping closer, but the leader stopped him with a hand.

“It seems the white one is important, or she wouldn’t have blocked her.” He flashed his yellow and rotting teeth.

The last hold Milly had on her temper snapped, and she lunged forward, aiming for the one who tried to claim her.

In a flash of fur, she was on him and ripped his throat out, spitting it onto the ground beside his head.

The rest of the rogues began to shift into their wolf forms. Milly let out an earsplitting howl as she lunged for another and another. Soon there was a bloodbath in her wake.

The leader and I circled each other, never losing eye contact. He could feel my alpha presence, of that I was certain, but like most men, he wouldn’t bow down to it.

When wolves go rogue, they lose the ability to mind-link with wolves who belong to packs, so he couldn’t hear if Milly and I were to mind-link.

We couldn’t hear if he were to mind-link any of his “new” pack members.

Without warning, he shifted back to his human form. His men fell back behind him. “Keir sends his regards. Your Highness.” He bowed, still maintaining eye contact with me as he leered.

Without another word, all of the rogues disappeared.

Milly shifted back. “What the hell was that about?” she screeched.

“I’ve no idea,” I replied, shifting back into my human form. “But we gotta get back now and let everyone know about this. If Keir is planning another attack, we need to be ready.”

She nodded, and we took off at a sprint toward the castle. I mind-linked my guards to tighten security along the borders, nothing in or out without me knowing about it first.

We needed to shut this down before anyone got hurt again.