Free Devil's Mate (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 1) by Heather West

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.
    The Fallen and the Tribe were old enemies. Ever since the Tribe had cursed the first wolves, the Fallen had hated and feared them, and with good reason. In the centuries past, when magic still lay unfettered in the earth, the Tribe was strong enough to send a wolf into Hell with just a simple spell.
    These days they mostly lived in a fragile truce. It was uneasy and often broken by incidents brought on by one side or the other, but it was still a truce of some sorts. The Tribe was no longer hunted the way it had been in the past, although the Fallen would never let them rest no matter where they roamed. They didn’t deserve peace themselves — after all, they’d ensured the Fallen would never know any.
    Centuries ago, killing one of the Tribe was a rite of passage and eating their flesh was considered a mark of honor.
    He was thinking such thoughts when the woman across from him, the woman who stirred his very soul, was Tribe.
    “They attacked my family,” Cara said stubbornly.
    The rogues had not attacked true Tribe members; they had attacked their foot soldiers, but it was an attack nonetheless. It was bold and it was something that would bring about the very anarchy he feared. It was definitely a move Gregory would have pulled. How had he managed the transition? And who was the second wolf?
    “I’m going hunting,” she said.
    “Cara, you can’t go hunting alone.”
    He saw the anger on her face and he also knew its cause. If she had magic (and she did) and she was of the Tribe (and she was) than the odds of her having any time to herself were slim. He knew she simply had not gone home from class yet, which is why it was easy for her to meet him here.
    It was obvious that she was tired of being told what to do and it was equally obvious that she was upset over what had happened. But he could not let her go hunting down two rogues alone.
    “I didn’t mean to sound like an overbearing asshole,” he continued, giving her his best and most disarming smile. “I just meant that you are not experienced in Hunting rogues.”
    Her jaw took on a stubborn tilt. “You are.”
    “Yes, I am. I wish I wasn’t, to be honest.”
    Cara leaned back in her seat. There was a deep blue swirl running through his aura now: sorrow! Hunting down and killing rogues wounded him! But why?
    The more she knew about Sebastian, the less she understood him. It was clear that she did not know him as well as she would’ve liked to, and how could she? They’d not had enough time together yet.
    “Why does it hurt you so badly to kill rogues?” she blurted out.
    “What makes you think that it