Regretted Rejection : Wrath of the Moon
Chapter 19

In the surveillance room;

"You guys are back already? Tell me what happened.” Ryder asked. He had some sort of blueprintsopen all over his desk.

Marina and Maya gave a gist of their morning. Ryder immediately informed the pack warriors aboutthe secret passage, “Please station a few guards near the Quinn couple's cottage. Also there's anabandoned pipeline near the old medical facility. Why don't you guys check that out and see if it isworthwhile to monitor?"

"Abandoned pipeline?" Jeff asked after the warriors in the surveillance room left.

"Yes, after talking with the pack historian, Mr. Sanders, I was quite bored and just thinking about thesecret passage. I had an idea to check the pipeline structure of the pack. It turns out, they built anew medical facility some years ago that is near to the training grounds. So the old medical facilitywas abandoned due to lack of use. There used to be a drainage pipeline connecting the old facilityto the outside of pack lands. I have a hunch that rogues might use that to enter the pack territoryundetected.” Ryder explained.

Before he could talk further, a commotion was heard outside and Maya went to check with herteam. Xander and Beta Mark were detaining a rogue, who was continuously trashing around to freehimself from their grasp. Ken soon arrived to check the scene.

"Alpha, we have caught this rogue near the abandoned medical facility. We were directed there byMr. Ryder Wright.”, Xander informed Ken.

"Put him in the interrogation room." Ken ordered. "Thank you Ryder. We will inform you what therogue tells us.” he said turning towards Maya's team.

Maya nodded and headed back to the surveillance room. "Good job, Ryder. Great thinking." shepraised him and asked, "What happened when you talked with Mr. Sanders? Was he able to shedany light on Mr. Quinn?"

"Just the fact that old man Quinn was lazy and took long breaks. I couldn't get much out of himother than complaints.” Ryder replied, "So, that's basically a dead end.”

"I don't understand. Werewolves are basically a social animal. They thrive in packs. How come acouple detaches itself from the pack to this extent? Did this start three years ago or before that?And if it started three years ago the what happened that triggered this change?” Jeff asked trying tomake sense of the things they know so far.

"I think... I mean I am not sure... But if you look at the time line of events, I think it started threeyears ago.” Marina said

"Why makes you think like that?" Andy questioned.

"Let's see. The Forrester pack had some previous issues with rogues but they started facing hostilerogues three years ago. The women and kids started leaving the pack three years ago. The Quinnfamily started withdrawing from the social circle three years ago.” Marina explained.

"There is one more thing that happened three years ago, Maya." she continued.

"What?" Maya asked curiously.

"You left the pack for good." Jeff interjected. Marina nodded at him.

"How would that connect in with the rogues? Even if Alpha Ken was facing natural dissolution, whywould that motivate rogues to attack the Forrester pack?" Maya questioned.

"We are definitely missing something... like a vital link that will help us make sense of this. But whatis it? What are we missing?" Ryder replied.

"Maybe the rogue will tell the pack something. Should we go down and watch the interrogation?"Andy suggested.

"Let's give Alpha Forrester some time to crack the rogue. In the meantime, let's report back to Dylanon what we have found so far." Maya said.

Outside the interrogation room of the Forrester pack, Alpha Ken Forrester was pacing up and downthe hallway. They had used multiple approaches to break the rogue however it had all provenuseless.

"He needs to break. We must close this rogue business soon.”

"Why don't we get Maya to handle this? Isn't this her job? We got her here to handle all roguerelated stuff."

"Alright. Get Maya." Ken nodded to Beta Mark, who immediately placed a call to the surveillanceroom. Luckily, it was Maya who answered and when she heard their problem she decided to comedown.

Maya soon came along with Jeff from her team. Ken directed her attention to the rogue in theinterrogation room.

Without a single word, she slammed the door open and entered the interrogation room. It wasdesigned like a police interrogation room with two metal chairs and a metal table. An electric bulbhanging on the table and a one way mirror to the side. The rogue was sitting handcuffed in thechair. The door swung close after her.

She didn't speak anything and strode towards the rogue. She just held the rogue by his hair andbanged his head twice on the table with all her might. She then held his collar and threw himagainst the wall, where his entire body hit the wall and slid down to the floor. As the rogue kneeledon the floor trying to catch his breath, Maya took out a small knife that was placed in her right shoe.She pulled up a chair, sat down and held his head up by his hair.

Placing the knife right on the edge of his eye, she asked him, "Do you know who I am? I am MayaWright, Team Leader of Wrath of the Moon. I was held captive by a rogue for eight months. In thoseeight months I was hit, cut, whipped, broken and tortured in ways unimaginable to you. I am sureyou can understand the hatred I contain for criminals such as yourself. If you don't start talking andtell us what we want to know, I can condense those eight months into eight days for your sake.However, if at the end of it you will survive or not, I don't know. But I assure you that it won't affectus. We will simply wait for another rogue to trespass and capture him. So, your choice, will you tellus what we need to know or die in a slow torturous way?"

The rogue started whimpering at her words. Maya slowly dug the knife in his skin, soon a foulstench filled the room. The rogue was so scared that he had pissed himself.

Meanwhile, outside the room, Alpha Ken, Xander, Beta Mark and Jeff were listening to her wordsand looking at her actions. Xander visibly tensed after hearing her but Ken simply frowned and said,"She is too vicious. We need him alive."

"Actually, she is going easy on him. At other times, the prisoner would have lost an eye or afingernail already.” Jeff clarified, "When you want to ensure the safety of your family, there cannotremain a limit to the viciousness. Don't you agree, Alpha Ken?"

Ken Forrester flinched and bowed his heads in shame. Looking at them Jeff continued, "At least sheensures that the prisoner is definitely someone who would cause harm. She ensures that the partyin front of her is a guilty one and not an innocent one.”

His words caused silence to reign in the room. As a result, the rogue's words were heard clearly, "Iam ready to tell you everything I know. Please... don't hurt me anymore. I... I will tell..."

"Good." Maya said and picked him up by the collar and deposited him on the chair where he wassitting previously.

"Now, tell me. Who all are in your little pack of rogues? Why are you targetting the Forrester pack?"Maya asked him harshly.

"We... We are..." the rogue stuttered.

"Quickly, I don't have all day.” Maya said banging the table with her hand. The rogue flinched backscared.

"We are the descendants of the Desmond pack.” he said. Maya froze for a moment before lookingat the one way glass. Turning back to the rogue she motioned him to go on.

"We found out... that the Forrester pack is going through a natural dissolution process similar toours. We figured that if we attack the current weak Alpha that we can win and start building a packagain.” he said in a small voice.

"How did you know about the natural dissolution process that is affecting the Forrester pack? Didthe Quinn couple told you?" Maya questioned him.

"Yes. They were a part of the Desmond pack but they were the fortunate ones who got a place inanother pack. The less fortunate ones were left to fend for themselves as rogues.” he replied.

"Less fortunate? You mean the traitors?" Maya scoffed.

"We... we never assumed that Moon Goddess will... When we disbanded, we still stayed together forthe sake of convenience. Moving from town to town, living a life like the gypsies. Generationschanged and we were getting antsy to settle down but no pack would accept us. Finally we met awitch, she told us that there's going to be another incident similar to ours. She told us about thetwins born in the Forrester pack where one twin would betray the other for sake of the title. We toldthe Quinn couple about the prediction and asked for their help for old times sake. We laid in waitfor the betrayal to happen. Then three years ago, your brother and your pack betrayed you, the trueAlpha of the pack." he explained.

Maya was struck by his words, she couldn't think anything. Like a blank slate, she stared in the oneway mirror. Ken her brother, her twin, was also having a same reaction. He couldn't believe thewords of the rogue. He just kept staring at Maya.