Laura

Cleo called me just minutes before the meeting, letting me know that everyone was settling and they helped me connect. I could see the entire room full of people who were on the team. They were gathered at Thorn's pack this time. The stony circular hall was what looked like a conference room. Wooden tables were placed in front of a group of five chairs. In the center was the screen and in front of it stood Sarah. Cleo sat on her right with the Alpha's that participated in the raid. Thorn was present along with Durga and Lee. Abhinav was there as he had informed me with a text message when I had asked him about the health of his mate but I was shocked to see Ricardo there. I kept the shock to myself and sat back to see everyone settle. My eyes caught the boy who had found his mate on the shipwreck. Chongan, I guessed, was his name. His mate sat clutching him for dear life. I stared at the girl for over a minute, noticing how scared was as she scanned the crowd for threats. Her mate kept assuring her over and over again.

It was then I realised being a rogue wasn't that easy as well. Constant fear of death and harm, no food or water, no one to hold...

Goddess, since when did I start showing sympathy towards rogues? All my life I was taught that they were a threat to us. They were, they definitely were but... but not all of them right..?

Some are just drowned from loss of their loved ones. Some are born rogues. Some are just thrown out as a cause of improper judgement from the pack and some walk out on their own. Bad ones are mostly killed or left for as they deserved.

I couldn't gather my own thoughts about them but after saving everything.

I had my video turned off as we still had five minutes to go and people were still coming in. Ravi joined on the same screen as mine and had his video turned off as well. I turned my camera and audio on and they all looked at me. I waved at everyone and said a quick morning greeting. Ravi did the same and sat back.

"Good morning everyone." Sarah said as she took the lead. We greeted her back.

"Before starting let's have a minute of silence to the two fighters who sacrificed their life for this mission, Mustafa and Selma. We send our prayers to their family and loved ones." She said and the hall grew silent.

"Rest in peace." She said softly. "In peace." We all chanted back.

Taking in a deep breath she asked, "Shall we begin?" We nodded our heads. "Okay. Beginning with the agenda of today's meeting. We have gathered here to discuss the raids that were carried out on the night of September 2nd and the following day, the 3rd of September. Five locations were on our target and all three have been kept an eye on, raided and as of now cleared. Five Alpha's led a team, one at each location..." While she went on and I had my ears open to her, I linked Ricardo.

"Hey Rick."

"I came here because I trust you." Was the first thing he said. I looked at him sitting among them with a neutral expression on his face.

"You're okay right?" I asked.

"Yup."

"The girl? What's her name?"

"Roisin. She's alive." He replied.

"You got what you wanted?" I asked further.

"No."

"Rick, don't do something you'll regret." I said, softly.

"You are not in my shoes, Laura."

"Did you tell your pack?"

"Only my ranked ones know."

"How did they react?" I asked and he went silent. "Rick, it's okay. I am here for you."

"The history we have is bad. Worse!" I didn't know he would let me on so much.

"Did she atleast tell you how she landed there."

"I can hear her thoughts. She wants to die is all she says." His words made my heart pinch. "Anyone would obviously think about their family. She resents them. She says she doesn't want to see them anymore. Whenever I ask her about her family she covers in fear."

Fuck, fuck!

"They must have done something to-"

"They have."

Goddess!

"Alpha Ricardo, you are up first." Sarah announced. He got up and went ahead.

"Speak the truth." I linked him as he reached the small podium. We had camera set ups so we could record the entire thing as evidence to pass to the council.

"Good morning. I am Alpha Ricardo of Moon Shine pack, a leading official on the project. As I am a part of it I was responsible for targeting a major clinic in the low populated village. The list of my support team is on the screen and passed on to the records with the council stamp." He looked at Sarah who nodded. "Five months back one of our men who has been our man with information was able to gather the reports from a police official. Not breaking a sweat he managed to trace back the multiple locations he had information about. The one that stood out and was the most active of them all was this clinic. Following the guidelines he came up with everything he had gathered on that location." He looked around as his eyes landed on the one he had been looking for and continued, "Owen, please stand up."

Owen had been with us since the last two years. He was a friend of Cleo actually, who was literally a detective kind of guy. He was a vampire and was living his dream. The guy had wanted to be the best detective there ever had been. He wouldn't return until he had his hands on what he needed. He would always come back with full proof of his works.

As he stood up we clapped for him because with hard work comes appreciation. He shied and thanked, taking his seat. "Thankyou Owen." Ricardo said and began again. "Since that day we have had our own eyes on that location. After a lot of research and of course with the amount of proof we had, this location was our first on the target. Throughout the months of our surveillance, we caught vans coming in through different routes. The past two months the clinic had been the most active. We traced the vans back from where they were coming and that's when we managed to target our next location, the location that Alpha Thorn raided. That was how we set up our two targets." He finished and looked at Sarah.

"Thank you. You can move onto the night of the raid." She said with a smile.

"We were set up in a team of twenty as discussed earlier. We had more vampires just in case the villagers were alarmed or the police tried to meddle. We began at 12 hours five minutes after midnight on the night of September 2." As he began saying that the screen that was put up started showing the events of the night from the time that was mentioned.

"Some of us shifted and we began to take down the clinic once and for all. The distance we had to cover was about six kilometres to reach the location. We caught the smell of the hunters and divided our team to cover the clinic from all sides. It was an easy location since there weren't many hunters to deal with. Until we were done we had eighty-nine of them. My team covered for me as I and the divided team went inside. There were human doctors on the site working for them. They said these hunters had their families with knives at their throats. We moved them aside and each went into the five rooms that we found." The screen showed us the entire thing Ricardo had discussed. It also showed the hunter girl, Roisin, sitting at the corner with her hands tied behind her back. She looked lifeless as she sat staring into space, not caring about the commotion around. Ricardo was next to her in a seconds before the vampire could touch her. His wolf was already on the surface and it was at that time I realised the fight Ricardo was having with himself. He grabbed her by her hands and kept her dangling in front of him as he showed her to the camera.

"She is the youngest daughter of Cassion, Deckard's right hand man. I have her in my custody for interrogation." Ricardo said and continued, "We were almost done and were ordered to seal the place as the second team had arrived. Sealing and site clearing ended at 11 hours 28 minutes on the night of September 3. Evidence was forwarded to the team as they were and without destroying any." He finished.

"What information do we have on the girl?" Cleo asked as we had to record it.

"Nothing...yet. I am looking through my pack's history to get some hints to break the girl. I have promised a month of her responsibility and interrogation." He said without a trace of emotion.

"Yes, I believe if anyone has had more information on the hunters since we began working, it was Alpha Ricardo. A month is all he asked to prove himself better and I see no harm. His talents have already proven enough to break them every time as we have seen before. And this is the daughter of Caisson we are talking about, a royalty. If we kept her in secrecy rather than in our cellars it would be less of a risk." I said moving forwards in my seat. I knew my last statement must have done it.

"Fuck! You are the smartest woman I'll ever know exists. Thank you." Ricardo linked me.

"I used to tell you to give me some credit before!" I chuckled through the link.

"Fair enough. Anyone in denial?" Cleo asked.

"I think it's the safest plan. She has to be kept somewhere the hunters wouldn't think about. And Ricardo's pack is hard to reach for them." Alpha Lee said and Durga nodded beside him.

"Then I think we should keep her there until everything settles and we have another lead. Do we all agree?" I was actually saying the obvious. Ricardo's eyes caught me on the screen.

"Yes!" They said as they banged their hands on the tables in front of them.

"Don't let this chance go to waste, Rick." I linked him.

"Yeah." He whispered, nodding at me and then at everybody.

"Alpha Ricardo, you are to give us a weekly report on this girl." Cleo stated. He nodded and went back to sit in his place.

"Alpha Thorn you're up next." Sarah said and he got up, kissing his mate's forehead. That was his pack and she was the Luna. Being present at such events was a must for her.

"Good morning. Glad to have you all at Storm Forest Pack. I am Alpha Thorn of the same pack. As Alpha Ricardo mentioned we traced back the vans which led us to the second location we targeted and which was raided by me and my team. Two hours from the clinic's location we raided what looked like an abandoned farm house...." He went on with the details.

".....I want to bring forth a beautiful pair who were able to capture one of the hunters. Not just that they also made sure the entire location was secured for us to enter the barrier. Asmara and Fiete, thank you so much for your hard work." He announced with a big smile on his face as the pair stood up. Those two were best friends for life. They were quite young and the cool kids in our team. Standing proud, Asmara gave a peace sign and Fiete gave a 'yo' sign to everyone. "Also to let you know they are the youngest on our team." Everybody cheered for them.

Thorn continued and went on telling about the progress of the raid. Just when the video started playing, Durga linked me.

"Laura... I think Natalie doesn't know about what happened to him." Durga linked me. "Her heart is about to explode."

"Fuck, he must have not told her. I mean look at the screen! He's coughing foam from his mouth!" I said and added Thorn in our link.

"What the fuck, dude!?" Durga and I said at the same time.

"I didn't tell her because I was fine afterwards." He replied.

"All men are idiots! Big idiots!" Durga argued as she consoled his mate.

He groaned, "Please tell her I am fine. She will only trust you, Laura." He said and added her in the link.

"He's fine. We have done all the tests required." I assured her as she looked at the screen that showed me.

"Still! He should have told me! You are an idiot, Thorn!" She said and breathed out. "All men are idiots!" She said again, making me smile. Durga snorted.

"Oh Goddess! I am, aren't I?" He chuckled.

"I'll fucking see you at home!" Natalie said as she glared at Thorn.

"Babe!" He said and shut his link with us, making me and Durga laugh.

"What's with Ricardo?" Durga asked.

"What with him?" I asked.

"He's weird today." She said. This was Durga we were talking about. I knew she would catch on with something.

"Isn't he always. And now with me and how I found my mate. Maybe..." I tried to convince her.

"I'll talk to him later." She said and we focused on Thorn again.

"..the details on the chemicals will be briefed later."

"Thankyou Alpha Thorn. Alpha Abhinav you are next." Sarah said. Thorn moved down and Abhinav got up. Thorn's mate glared daggers at him as he came to sit beside her. She was super pissed, she didn't even let him hold her.

"Alpha Abhinav from Chandra Rakshak pack." He introduced. "To begin with, yes I found my mate and she's safe at home. It wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't had a chance at this mission. Uh.. it was this kidnapping of young girls that led us to this public location. I have inside men from special ops inform me about trafficking of these girls. These friends of mine are human and owe me for training them to get into special ops. At first I ignored it, thinking it was their job to get these human things done but our Mastermind, Dr. Laura gave me some precious life lessons and that's when I dug into this matter myself." He said and gave me a small wink. "Yeah, so that began and I found out they weren't just human girls, there were shifters under shifting age with them. Since then I don't let any matter brought to me be ignored. I worked with my friends to help these girls reach their home with the guidelines. Some of these girls were headstrong and had heard those fuc.." He was about to swear but he stopped looking around, "...those men talk about 'The Golden' which is a huge club in town. We dug further and found out the mothe.." He groaned, stopping himself from cursing again. "..the owner was behind all this. He was in our cells the next day. We found out September 2 was the day when all the girls were to be bought there. This was the reason we chose this day to raid all locations." He said and gave us further details.

It took him longer than expected because the issues about these being kidnapped were to be taken care of. He went through the files of the club, the owner and his interrogation clips, everything. He even mentioned Faizan who had since that day taken into his hands the job of finding the depths of these kidnappings and trafficking. He had put multiple of those monsters at rest. "Faizan, my man. You are doing a great job. So proud of you, bro." Abhinav saluted him as Faizan stood with a hand on his heart. Faizan was actually a part of Abhinav's pack. He was a vampire but had grown in and around Abhinav's pack. They had good family relations from what I knew.

"My mate was able to give me some details on what she observed." Abhinav continued. "She told me it's a deep rooted system of theirs. They have these people, humans and shifters both, trying to raise some project. The owner, as I said, was just given the name of the shifters. Every month new shifters were brought in, and not just women but young men too. The humans were left for the club but the shifters were sold off to someone. She once even caught the scent of rogues as far as she remembers." He finished but his grip on the podium made the wooden material crack. Cruising in his tongue, he moved back and looked at us. "Sorry.. For uhh..this." He said, holding the wood piece in his hands and looking at Thorn. Thorn just shook his head with a smile and shrugged.

"Anything else she said?" I asked, just in case.

He shook his head with a sharp exhale, "No, I just want to give her some time."

"We completely understand." I said and Alpha Lee took over as he made his way towards the podium. He patted Abhinav's back as they crossed midway.

"Alpha Lee of Blue Moon pack. I would like to begin with one of our trackers Benigno, who first came to me with this mission. He did not just come with that but he came in search of help about this ship he and fellow mates had tracked. Unfortunately, Benigno was not able to attend this meeting because his father was unwell." He gave a small sad smile. "The witch barriers were causing a problem for him to cross and so I led my pack witches to help him. That was when we found out the activities going on in the ship. They were loading boxes on boxes and chained up rogues." My eyes went to Chongan and his mate. The girl was literally shivering. "We immediately turned to the team with the information and the proof. I got in touch with Laura first to let me in on everything..." He went on telling the events of the raids and called Chongan up to give some guidance on how he was slowly managing to heal his mate with therapy. I was stunned when the girl herself spoke of how she was feeling after the treatment.

"I hardly remember being a normal rogue.." She whispered. "They kept injecting us every week and starved us. I saw people die in front of me..." She shut her eyes as her mate rubbed her arm, pulling her closer.

"I think we should move on." I linked Sarah immediately. I did not want the girl to suffer anymore. She gestured for Chongan to take her away and Lee took over again.

"Decision about the rogues will be taken later. Evidence and proofs were all submitted to the team. Barriers were taken down and the ship was left to sink to the bottom. We finished our work at 7 hours 53 minutes on the day of September 3."

"Alpha Durga please take over." Sarah said after Lee moved down.

Durga stood at the podium and looked around first before beginning. "Good morning..." I checked the time and it was already past eight thirty. I didn't hear Indigo coming down, maybe because of my ear-pods. So I linked him.

"Indigo."

"Hmm.." He hummed, making me smile.

"Still asleep?" I asked.

"Hmmm.." He replied again. I let him be because he hadn't slept in a while.

Focusing back on Durga again as she went on telling us about the factory being the toughest location to take down. Six backup teams were put on post throughout the mission and all the medics were rushed down. She gave the numbers of the shifters that were found with details on them, their interrogation clips, etcetera. Durga was almost finished when I saw Indigo come down. He stood outside the office door and nodded, going to our room.

"It took us two whole days to cover up the mess. We finished at 6 hours 18 minutes on the day of September 5." She said and moved down.

"Thankyou everyone. Now moving onto the evidence we have found on these sites. Each of them counts for something so if you have any opinion please feel free to bring it forward. Samantha, you can now take the stage." Sarah said and moved down as Samantha took over.

"The list and count for each evidence is shown on the screen. We'll begin with the first one. The most obvious of them all is the drug that the shifters were given. The ones found at the farmhouse was a storage place for the saturated products and that is why Alpha Thorn was able to feel its effects. The drug was tested and found out to be a mixture of the most harmful substances that could kill each of our kind. Like... for example silver which is harmful to werewolves, iron for witches and so on. This component was stored in the farm. The one we found in the factory and the lab had samples of blood of the captured. Which brings me to the next material. The altered drug other than the main compound. It was made from the main compound but it was somehow altered...and we have no doubt it was through multiple experiments on shifters. What we used to find in the deceased bodies all these years is almost similar to the samples we found in the lab...only something more stable but still harmful. Their computer system was shut out, erasing every single evidence on the files we could have obtained. But these drugs don't just contain the killing potions. They have certain other compounds that could render the mind and turn one into...something like a living dead...a zombie kind of."

Fucking hell!

"All I can say is that these drugs don't work on someone for a long time. They either die too soon or their own madness kills them. The children we have been finding all these years and the children we found in the factory showed traces of the same blood. But these children had much much less of this drug than the ones we found before. A good thing is that, just like we can drain the silver off our system, we can drain off these drugs....but again the altered forms might cause harm. We still don't know how many have the altered drug in their system... and it might actually take time to find and fix this issue."

"Why the rogues?" Someone asked.

"It could only mean to create worse from worse itself. The rogues have no mind of their own, atleast the ones that have lost to their beasts. It's like bending them into something far more than what they actually are."

"Uh, if I may?" Chongan raised his hand. Sarah nodded with a smile.

"My mate says there's this lady that wants the rogues. She's behind all this." He said and his mate nodded, not leaving his hand.

"Have you seen her?" I asked.

"No. But they called her a time-bomb." His mate replied, her voice too small. The crowd let out small laughs.

"Time-bomb!" Abhinav was first to say out loud, "We have the captured hunters. I am waiting to make them talk." He moved in his seat, a sinister smile on his lips.

"Moving on to the next evidence." The girl said with a small smile. "We found cages and boxes from the factory, the lab and the ship. From the hotel we found the chains. All materials were made to keep a shifter locked in. They are the ones the hunters always use. The numbers are given on the screen.

"Bullets, guns, clothes, cigars, drinkables, food and other evidence count a plenty."

"The captured shifters found on the location are given on the screen. The ones we found in the hotel are all part of packs and were kidnapped. The ones we found in the lab and ship are rogues. The ones we found in the factory are normal shifters but...they claim to be rogues.." She said, looking around.

"Why would they say that?" Durga asked.

"We questioned each and every one of them. Even the children say they are rogues and not normal shifters." The girl told everyone, making us look at each other with question marks on our faces.

That was very weird.

"Maybe they were made to think they were rogues?" Lee said. "Because who knows what those fuckers are trying to do."

That was true.

"Until the interrogation and everything, let them tell you what they have to. Don't push them. We'll look into it. Who knows what those poor people have been through? And children! Goddess!" I voiced out.

"Okay. Now we have too many of them. Can we begin to accommodate them?" Cleo asked.

"If you all agree." I shrugged.

"The shifters won't be acceptable of rogues." Someone pointed out.

"The rogues will be treated. They will be put through intense therapy until they are well." I said and all of them gaped at me. "Why not? Don't we all need a second chance at life?" I asked as they stared at me. "There are children there, suffering and calling for help. Be it a rogue. They are suffering as much and I think it is time we don't feed this Time-bomb woman with more of them than she already wants!"

"I agree with the last reason." Thorn backed me up and Ricardo nodded.

"My mate was not a rogue before. Her father was a human and her mother was a Vampire." Chongan said, taking everyone's attention. "He lost his life to another vampire and her mother was left all alone, pregnant with her. When she was born, her mother left her with her brother who sold her to someone when she was only thirteen. She never chose to be a rogue. Conditions made her be one." He said, holding her as if she would break.

"Please. I want the others to be heard too. Please don't kill them. The people with me saw their loved ones die in front of them, taken away from them and they had to watch. It's not easy..." His mate was headstrong to bring this up. I liked her courage.

Thorn's mate got up and went to sit next to her. She put a hand on hers and smiled at her. "Our pack will stand to help. I've lost my sister to the hunters, I know she is alive, I still feel the bond. Who knows what is made of her? What they are doing to her? Where she is? I cannot even link her. I am sitting here as Luna and I am helpless!" Thorn's mate voiced.

"I need everyone's opinion on this." I said out loud.

"I am with you." Ravi said first. One by one they all agreed. Cleo and Sarah were the last ones to nod.

"Thank you. We will begin with the work. New members will be joining you soon after their training. I hope we figure this out together and bring forth all of this to the council safely and with good news." Sarah said as we checked on the details of the new packs and covens and shifters wanting to join our cause.

I left the meeting once I was done and checked the time. It was almost ten-thirty. I had arranged the sessions at two in the afternoon because again I had to deal with the after meeting mess. I was on the phone the entire time and writing and typing down emails and notes. Indigo brought me coffee twice with something to eat. It was when he pulled me out to have lunch with him, I was free.

"Thankyou for yesterday." I took a bit as I smiled looking at Indigo.

"I am your mate, Laura." He said and pulled my chair closer. He turned to me and kissed my forehead. "How was your meeting?"

I smiled. "Good. It went the way I wanted." I told him.

"Tell me about it."

I began telling him everything and he listened genuinely, questioning me where he had his doubts. It felt so good talking to him about my day, plus having the food he made was a cherry on the top. Indigo cooked real good.

I was lucky in that matter. 

***********************

We've learnt some new stuff. What do you think about it? Lemme know please.

Poor Ricardo! What do you think he's gonna do with Roisin?

Next update will be soon.

until then, 

Take care. Ly❤️❤️