Eclipse

2.

Rogue

I woke up in a my room, with a blanket drawn up to my chin. My entire body ached, some parts more so than others, and my throat was absolutely parched. I slowly looked to my right, where Cameron sat with his head dropped down so that his chin was to his chest. I slowly peeled off the blanket and flinched at the sight of my body. I was dressed in a light shift that displayed only too well my scabbed over wounds from the previous day. They had all dried but the skin was still raw and tender. I struggled to sit up, but a breath escaped too forcefully, jerking Cameron out of his slumber.

"You're awake," he mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. I made an incomprehensible noise.

"Water," I tried to say, but only a hoarse sound escaped. Cameron passed me a bottle, and I'd downed half of it before I made another attempt to speak.

"You alright?" he asked, taking in my condition. He almost looked sympathetic, in that moment.

"Hmph," I replied, lying back down on my back. My body couldn't really do much more; it was too stiff.

"What did he say? What did he do?"

"You never thought to send backup?" I finally managed to say accusingly. "That they're rogues, and you can't count on them to do something nice or honourable?"

Anger flickered in his pale grey eyes. There it is, at last. "I should have thought? I don't know if you remember, but I'm not the Alpha here. I don't hold the power to send bodyguards along with you. You do, and if you'd done your job right this past year, this never would have even happened!"

We stared at each other for a long moment, and I finally broke eye contact. It was no use arguing with him. I wanted to scream at him, ask him why he betrayed me, but somehow I figured that I wouldn't get much pity from him. If Nathaniel was right, then Cameron would just kick me out of the pack, then and there. He was probably just waiting for the right time. The time when it wouldn't seem cowardly to cast out an injured Lupi.

Cameron stood up abruptly. "I'll get Liv to get you something to eat." His mate. The thought still made me flinch, that Leo had pushed me down into these dark waters. To draw my mind away, I took stock of the damage inflicted on my body. It was littered with cuts and bruises, some worse than others, with four wounds stretching from my right shoulder across to my left hip. My face itself felt like it had its fair share of blood and gore.

Olivia entered the room five minutes later warily with a platter holding some toast and a glass of juice.

I offered her a weak smile, and her face relaxed slightly.

"How are you?" she asked softly she placed the tray on her bedside table. I tried to reach for a slice of bread, but winced as pain jolted through my arm like an electric shock. Olivia then took the role of nurse and began cutting the bread into little squares and dropped them into my mouth.

"Not very good at all," I murmured as the bread scraped down my throat.

"Cam says that Nathaniel wants you to step down."

"I know-wait, how does he know?" I knew that I couldn't accuse Cameron outright of betrayal, but now I could see incriminating evidence everywhere.

"It isn't a secret, Meg," Olivia said with a sad smile. "I honestly sympathise with you, but frankly, I agree with him."

"Of course you do." You're his mate. You're supposed to agree with him.

"I think you should stay, though. You just need time, and your dad just passed at the wrong time. You're just really unlucky."

"Right." I knew that Olivia wanted to cheer me up, but I was too aware that nobody really wanted me to stay. I had to step down. Only thing was, stepping down wasn't that easy. I'd most likely end up dead. I struggled back into a sitting position and took a small sip of the sourish orange juice, fresh with all the pulp floating amidst the liquid.