The Alpha's Rogue ✔️

12 | Strength, Talent, and Merit

3181 words

"You owe me a new hairdryer."

"You owe me an apology. You could've warned me my mate had absolutely no regard for personal privacy," Savannah continued the staring match with Talei, who held her broken hairdryer in her small fists.

"That guy is the most private guy I've ever met. I'm pretty sure it's you who disregarded all privacy by forcing your way into our lives and disrupting everything!" the petite blonde rogue rose on her toes to match Savannah's height, her dark hazel eyes blazing. "Now look at my hairdryer! If you two didn't fight so much, it wouldn't be broken!"

"Oh, for chocolate's sake, it's just an appliance. I'm sure Zion can fix it in his basement downstairs. He's got enough gadgets and gizmos to build an entire armory of hair tools."

"Wait, you've seen his lab?" Talei's eyes widened, momentarily forgetting her anger. "He lets no one go down there. Girl, tell me everything! Is it true he's working on a subatomic particle drive that could shut down this entire city?"

"A what?"

"Or an eight litre turbo engine that runs on nitrogen tetroxide to go on his fourteen cylinder motorcycle?"

"I can't recall a bike—"

She snapped her fingers. "Or maybe he's improving the thiophosphonate compound that Chayton procured, in order to make it undetectable to hounds—"
"What on earth are you talking about?!" Savannah gripped the excited shewolf by the shoulders and shook her until she got her attention.

"Oh, Zion is always down there tinkering and working on some new device to make our life easier. You know, evading the people we target and cops long enough to carry out our missions. A nerve agent worked really well last week but resulted in some fatalities so we figured—"

"Nerve agent? You are all certifiably barbaric!" Savannah tugged her fingers through her short hair, suddenly hating the dark and dangerous colour it now was. The black strands that hung in her eyes made her feel secretive and villainous, the opposite of the true heart beating in her chest. If her dad saw her now, colluding with a criminal gang of rogues...
"Look, I'll buy you a new hairdryer, okay? Just don't make me tell you what I saw in Zion's lab. If he wants it kept a secret, I don't want to be the one to blab about it. He's angry enough with me as it is."

"Oh, honey, he's not angry with you. If anything, he seems rather whipped. But deal!" Talei stuck out her hand for Savannah to shake.

Wary, the Alpha found herself with a myriad of questions instead of answers after talking with the spunky rogue shewolf. What was Zion really hiding in his lab? She'd seen lots of tech, computers running programs that were likely hacking into government or corporate networks, other electronic devices, and wires and parts to presumably build those devices. The man was probably a genius, which could explain his arrogance and natural way of making her feel small.

And what had Talei said about him being whipped? He could barely stand being in her presence without an argument starting between them, so unless rogues had another definition of the word...

"Come on, shops shut in two hours. If you wanna get some stuff, we gotta go now," Talei clicked her fingers in front of Savannah's face.

"Alright, I just need my card wallet. I haven't seen it since we left my territory. It should have been in my jacket pocket..." Savannah turned her pockets inside out but came up empty.

"Ahh, about that. We removed your phone and wallet when you first arrived in case you called for backup and killed us all. I guess you can have them back now," Talei explained, opening a locked cabinet against the wall and tossing Savannah her personal effects. "Niko, Willow! We're going to the shops. Want anything?" she called out, her voice echoing through the house while Savannah turned on her phone.