The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 48

Lucianne's eyes cleared to find Xandar holding her to his chest and drawing comforting circles on her back shoulder, soothing her earlier inferno. She parted their bodies and looked him dead in the eye as she said firmly, "We are NOT putting anyone in the kingdom around the Forest of Oderem."

Xandar blinked as he thought about what she said before suggesting with a cheeky smile, "Well, we could put them IN the forest instead, it'll b—” "XANDAR!"

Xandar chuckled and pecked a kiss on her forehead before assuring her with a smile as he stroked her forearms to soothe her, "Okay, okay. Until we know more about the forest, we'll keep the experiments in our mental archive." Another kiss on her cheek before he muttered, "Over-responsible Queen."

Lucianne sighed with relief, and turned, only to have a still-thinking Greg say, "Instead of lycans and werewolves, I suppose I could get a few willing humans to exper-" "NO!" Lucianne exclaimed even before he finished.

Her volume and ferocity made Greg and his animal raise their hands in surrender as Greg uttered in a little fear, "Alright, alright. Point taken, My Queen. I'll stop here."

Desmond and the others were subtly chuckling at their boss. Greg had never shown fear in any situation. He would be worried on certain occasions, but fear was not a word they'd associate their boss with. He actually looked comical.

Lucianne heaved another heavy sigh and composed herself before her tone returned to normal when she looked back at the hologram, adjusting the scope to show wolf territory as she said, "So, the red dots are our next points of attack, Your Grace?" The duke's hands lowered, and he explained, "Well, I wouldn't say that, My Queen. No all rogues are lethal. These," he tapped on one of the red dots, and the screen enlarged to show a detailed assessment of the population before he continued, “...are definitely harmless."

"How can you tell, Your Grace?" Laurent asked.

Xandar and Lucianne were studying the details of the population:

Brown (Light): 1 male

Brown (Dark): 1 female

Grey: 2 males; 1 female

Black: 0

White: 0 Others: 0 Total: 5

Greg tried not to sound too exasperated as he answered, "One, the 'others' category is nil, meaning that they're normal wolves without any of those legendary special abilities. And if you remember basic science, deputy, you'd know that black-furred animals are known to be more rebellious or ambitious, or both, thus dangerous, so their absence is something to be happy about. Three, no white wolves, which are generally known to either be harmless or only look harmless but are quite the opposite. No offense intended, My Queen."

"None taken," Lucianne muttered with a slight shake of her head, and actually felt flattered by that generalization.

Xandar then said, "Basic science also taught us that creatures with light brown fur are known to be scheming or secretive, or both. What makes you think that one won't be a problem, Greg?"

Greg's eyebrows raised as he took slight offense because his own animal had light brown fur, and Xandar's question could advance into whether Greg himself would be 'a problem'. His gaze was fixed on his cousin as he tried to decipher whether Xandar was pushing his buttons or genuinely asking a question.

Lucianne gently touched her husband's hard chest and prompted, "No offense intended, right, My King?"

Xandar tore his eyes away from Greg, pecked a kiss on his wife's temple before whispering obediently with a smile, "Of course not, My Queen."

Despite still being suspicious, Greg began, "It's not a problem because the light brown one is the leader, and there wouldn't be a point in scheming or being secretive to his own followers. It'll only disrupt the peace and efficiency of his own pack." Dark brown wolves were, to Greg, 'mindless followers' until, if they got lucky (or unlucky), a life experience wakes them up and shakes them so hard that they start developing a spine and a mind of their own.

As for grey wolves, well...

"This next pack," Greg tapped on the second red dot, which showed only two grey wolves, and he continued, "...is probably more harmful to themselves than to us." Lucianne muttered, "Emotional codependents."

Greg nodded.

Generally, grey-furred creatures have trouble monitoring and controlling their emotions, hence are easily triggered, and would go berserk and attack for physical and emotional self-defense. Due to their emotional instability and poor judgment thereof, grey wolves rarely run with other grey wolves, unless one of them had already learned to control their emotions and lead the still-unstable one; or these two were attracted to one another due to their mutual emotional instability, because they felt that no one else but this companion understood what they were going through or how they feel.

But one wrong word or the slightest hint of indifference shown by their travelling partner and they'd attack each other from feeling betrayed and abandoned, even if it was just a misunderstanding.

Greg said, "Our first step should be to make sure that the abductors and abductees aren't in wolf and lycan territories, so that we can confidently blame the bloodsuckers' inefficiency and poor handling of the issue if it ever came down to it. We'd be able to assert that it was beyond any of our jurisdictions to do anything from our end."

Lucianne had to press her lips shut to avoid spending the next few minutes protesting against blame-shifting. She also didn't want to break Greg's flow.

The duke took her silence as the green light to proceed, "To search our territories, the best point to start at would be here," he pointed at the hologram and continued, "What I suspect, My Queen, is that IF the vampires and three lycans from the first village did bring the abductees into wolf territory, these would be the rogues to ask. If they didn't see anything, then the abductees never entered wolf territory."

One of the policemen questioned, "Why not just ask those packs there then?"

"Because," Lucianne continued to think out loud, "The rogues are nearer to the border than the wolf packs are, and if the packs had seen any rogue lycans, we, as the authorities, would have been alerted by now."

Greg looked at his cousin and spoke with zero humor, "You know, cousin, it really baffles me how you haven't demoted yourself to a position of a prince or a duke...or anything less than the supreme ruling status yet."

Lucianne shot Greg a sharp glare. The police were about to protest in their king's defense before Xandar's raised hand stopped them as he said, "It's fine. It just means that the queen is better at this than I am, which is true. This is just habitual bickering between me and this duke."

Lucianne was proud that Xandar was being the better man by refusing to escalate the bickering, so she whispered to him affectionately as her thumb stroked his shoulder, "You're catching up just fine, darling." "No, he isn't," Greg muttered.

"Your Grace," Lucianne spoke in a warning tone and glare.

He raised his hands at chest level in surrender and took a step back as he said, "Be nice, I remember. Point taken, My Queen. Anyway, if they saw no rogue lycans, then it's definitely good news." Lucianne blinked at his assertion. "Is it? Why?"

Greg explained matter-of-factly, "It just means that the rogues used hidden passageways instead of the direct routes."

"And that's good news because?" Deputy Chief Laurent prompted, failing to understand how 'hidden' passageways were any better.