Sebastian was not about to tell her that he could smell it on her. “You look… distracted. And worried.”
Her face cleared slightly, but it was obvious that she was still worried. Sebastian had no way of knowing that Cara could see his aura and had always been able to see it. It was a bright white shot through with bolts of silver, cobalt blue, and red. When he’d been making love to her, it had turned almost completely red and silver, and now it was mostly lavender. That meant he was truly, genuinely concerned.
It was his aura that convinced her to speak. “I have a problem.”
He leaned forward. “What is it? Maybe I can help.”
“Two rogues killed men who ride with my father. My father belongs to a motorcycle club, it’s not a big deal — it’s not like they’re bad or anything.” Okay, so she was sugarcoating. What should she say? That her father ran one of the most notorious clubs in the Southeast and beyond? That he was engaged in all sorts of illegal activities? That he was descended from a royal bloodline and so was she?
“I see. When did this happen?”
“Yesterday, in the middle of the day. How did that happen? Sebastian, how can they attack in the day?”
They were both speaking in very low tones, aware that people around them might spy on their conversation. Sebastian sipped the coffee she’d already ordered for him. There was a look on his face that she didn’t like; he looked as if this wasn’t much of a surprise to him.
“Some rogues can attack in the day. The thing about rogues that most don’t understand is that rogues actually eat human flesh, whereas most werewolves don’t. It’s forbidden by the Covenant they made after the vampire wars ended.”
“I know all of this.”
“What you don’t know is that in many of the packs, the Covenant is being broken. There are a few who simply miss freedom and the taste of flesh so much that they can’t resist. They don’t care that going rogue and breaking the Covenant means never been able to reside in human form again. They don’t even care that it’s a death sentence for them.
“If they’re attacking in the day, they’ve gotten bolder, and that means they no longer even care who knows they are breaking the Covenant. They think they are powerful enough to go against those who would uphold it.”
“But how can they not be afraid?” Cara said. “Once they go rogue they’re trapped forever in wolf form. They have to know they’ll be hunted and found. Without their human form they’ll have nowhere to hide.”
Sebastian said, “I think there may be at least one who can shift back and forth without being found out.”
Her mouth fell open. He was being honest, but there was something troubling in his aura, and in his face. There was knowledge there that he did not want to share with her. What was he hiding?
“That’s impossible,” she said.
“I’d like to think so. We all would like to think so. But I don’t think it is true — not anymore. “
“Even if it’s true, they’ll be found. Right now the men that ride with my father want to hunt down the rogues and kill them.”
Sebastian noticed that she did not mention her father hunting the rogues down. It was forbidden for one of the Tribe to kill a Wolf protected by Covenant. That was part of the Covenant. But once a Wolf went rogue, they were no longer protected from the Tribe or their magic. She’d had every right to attack a rogue, and her father had every right, too. So why wasn’t he?
Sebastian knew he should leave her alone. She was Tribe and there was a huge battle brewing. There might even be war over this. He had no doubt that this was Gregory’s doing. Would Gregory have deliberately sent rogues after the bikers that rode with Cara’s father?
Yes, he would have. He may even have been one of them. Sebastian had been keeping his suspicions about his brother to himself for a long time because he knew that most would never believe him. It was unheard-of for a wolf to be able to go rogue and then revert back to human form. Eating human flesh put one outside the Covenant.
Eating human flesh was considered boundaries of decency these days, but maybe the ones who had done so long ago didn’t see it that way, any more than he thought it was wrong to eat a good steak.
But a steak wasn’t a human being.
There was one way it could be done, but he didn’t know how to explain it to her without giving himself away. If the magic that kept the Covenant in place was weakening, it might be possible. The Queen would have to be very sick, or dying, and if that were the case, the Tribe would already be gathering and the Fallen would know of that event. It was too momentous not to notice.