Just a Rogue

Theo

I wake up in my own room at the packhouse, having had the best night’s sleep since Christmas. I know I’ve been at my folks’ house, but that doesn’t feel as much like home any more. This is home. In the packhouse, together with the other wolves. It’s where I belong.

My leg isn’t even hurting when I first stand up. I know Dr. Hughes told me to keep using the crutches for another day or two, but I want to give this a try. I gingerly walk towards my bathroom, limping on the awkward cast, which has my leg straight and immobilized. A little pain, but this is so much better. I can’t wait to get this huge thing off and get back to normal.

I gimp down the stairs, using both crutches under one arm and holding the banister with the other, then go into the cafeteria for breakfast. One of my friends quickly takes mercy on me, and tells me to sit down. He fetches me a heaping tray of everything.

I sit with him and my other friends, the guys that I like to go surfing with, and we catch up for a few minutes. Another reason I can’t wait to get this cast off. January is prime surfing time here in Northern California, the waves are just right. I can’t wait.

First things first, though. After breakfast I go to the command center to start my turn at monitoring. Looks like I’m the last person here for the first group of the day. Amelia smiles at me, and asks, “How’re you feeling?”

“Good,” I tell her honestly, “can’t wait to get rid of this thing.” I wave my hand disdainfully over the clunky cast.

“Well, you’re on drone feed,” she tells me, and I drop down next to Evan who will also be following along with the drones.

Both Lunas are in here too, and I nod respectfully to them as they chat while keeping their eyes on the devices.

“Anything happening yet?” I ask Evan.

“Not really. Dom took his team up to the trailhead and they’ll be launching the drones shortly. Corinne’s just been moving around inside the cave. No activity outside.”

He sounds tense, anxious, focused. I look at him more carefully. I whisper, “Are you worried about her?”

He just nods. I’m starting to think that more has developed while I was away than I realized. But I don’t think he wants to talk about it.

I turn my eyes to the screen and watch as the camera view suddenly begins rising, the drone launched into the sky and beginning to survey the landscape. I lean forward, watching for any hint of the rogues approaching. We have one vehicle description, a white SUV which hardly helps. Half the cars on the road match that. The drones fly over roads, forests, paths, along the beach, scrutinizing any route that might feasibly be the way the rogues will approach the cave. We want to know as soon as they arrive.

Grace

Nova sits between us in the back seat, her little body leaning against me, dozing. I am happy to be her pillow. Her left hand is held out from her body, attached to Lynette’s right. Just another way to keep Lynette under control, to have her dominant hand compromised.

I worry about her. Every day that she has the silver collar on her throat, the weaker she grows. Even though she heals most of the way at night when they let her remove it, each morning she starts from a slightly lower baseline, and so her health is declining, her well-being diminishing a little every day. Ongoing exposure to silver is so toxic, and will be increasingly debilitating the longer it goes on. I’m going to try to find a way to talk to her, later, try to convince her to stop fighting Xavier so much. None of the rest of us have to wear silver, because we just cooperate. She should do the same, for her own sake. Maybe after we get to the cave I’ll have the chance.

If the cave is still ours, of course. If the pack has claimed it too, I don’t know where Xavier will want to go next. There are campgrounds in the area, and large swaths of forest where we could find a place to stay. But a great deal of Humboldt County is involved in logging, so it would be difficult to find an isolated range without human activity nearby, in case that is what Xavier would prefer. I know he wants to find ways to attack the pack, a little at a time, and we will need a safe base to retreat to between attacks. I hope the cave has not yet been discovered by the pack so we can still use it. Having a secure base close to town is ideal.

Once Seth gets us off the mountain and onto the paved roads, I know that we only have a couple of hours to go until we arrive. I wonder what awaits us at the cave. We left in such a hurry, I didn’t get the chance to pack up the food and put it away securely, so I don’t know how much of it will be salvageable when we get back. Assuming we can get in, of course.

I decide to risk asking Xavier. I gently prod Nova away from my side, and reach my right hand forward to stroke against Xavier’s right shoulder as he sits in front of me. He tilts his head to the side and grunts, “Hm?”

“I wonder if we could stop to get the girls something to eat?” I murmur. “Lynette is so weak, she has barely eaten for days. I’m worried about her.”

I try not to cringe as I wait for his response. But he just sighs, and turns to Seth. “Pull off at the next town that has a fast food drive through,” he instructs, and I am so relieved that he has shown mercy. Not only that the girls will get something to eat, but that he is still willing to take my suggestions. I hope that I will remain in his favor this time. I hope that he remembers that I am his biggest supporter, that I love him, that I want only to help him in everything he does. An Alpha is better with a Luna by his side. I can’t be that, I’m no Luna. I’m just a wolf in love. But I can be by his side, if he will let me.

Seth

I nod curtly but of course do not respond. I’m surprised at this show of mercy, though, and at his willingness to spend any of our dwindling resources. I’m glad that Xavier is listening to Grace again, she always has everybody’s well-being at heart, and things are better for us when he is acting under her guidance. I hope it lasts.

We come to Willow Creek and I begin looking for national fast food chains, but I don’t see any. “Um, I think we’ll have to go in,” I tell Xavier, “no drive throughs.”

He huffs, but he seems more distracted than angry. “Fine,” he says, gesturing to the right, “pull in there.”

When I stop the car, he looks at me and says, “Wait here.” Then he turns behind him and adds, “Grace.”

I see in the rearview mirror how her face lights up. She is clearly delighted to get to go together with him, even just to do something as insignificant as getting take-out.

The girls and I wait silently in the car. They obviously can’t get out, it would raise human eyebrows to see women handcuffed together. In ten minutes, Grace and Xavier are back with burritos, a rare treat, and they pass them around to everyone. Nova says, in her young little voice, “Thank you,” as Grace gives her a burrito, and I realize how unusual it is for her to say anything at all.

It’s been a while since I was able to enjoy hot food, and I savor it as I continue driving west. We’ll be at the cave in about an hour. I wonder what will greet us there.

When we get to the west end of the 299 I turn north up the 101, and wind along the Pacific coast for another half hour, until we are nearly there. Xavier sits rigidly next to me, staring intently out the window, probably looking for any sign of the pack. Not like we’d see them here along the coastline.

I get off the highway onto the back roads, and find the little secluded turnout to the clearing off of Patricks Point Drive where we usually hide our vehicles between the beach and the cave. It is fairly convenient, because this is more or less midway between the main cave entrance and the smaller access shaft, on the west end of the long lava tube that we use sometimes to get to the beach.

I’m careful to wait until no cars are passing on the street before I turn into the small opening in the trees along the side of the road. Xavier hops out and moves aside the broken fencing so that I can inch past it, then he replaces it and climbs back in the car. Just a few yards further back is the clearing, perfectly sized to hide a couple of cars. We only have the one car this time. There are trees all around, leaning in and concealing the area from every angle, the branches weaving a roof overhead. Nobody will disturb our car here.

“Out,” growls Xavier, already lifting his nose in the air, trying to detect any scent of the pack. Grace and the girls climb out of the back seat. I’m the only one who carries anything with me, just the backpack with a few water bottles and the thick gloves I need to handle the silver collar. Grace moves up to walk alongside Xavier, and he does not rebuff her for this. I’m glad that he is still accepting her. He is always in a better mood when he allows her to show her support. I follow behind them, holding Lynette’s leash for the mile walk to the cave entrance.

We are all on alert, sniffing, watching, waiting for an ambush to spring at any moment. But as we approach the cave, it is starting to become clear that somehow the pack has missed it. There is no scent of them at all. The one cave right under their noses has escaped their notice. It’s almost humorous.

I think I am the first one to detect something else. Our scent is all along this route, but faded after a couple of weeks away. But as we get closer to the cave, starting to skirt around the bottom of the hill that conceals it, I start to detect a stronger scent. Somebody has been here. It is familiar, and I’m sure I know who it is, and my heart suddenly sings with the knowledge of who is nearby. I didn’t think I would ever see her again, and this surge of happiness when I realize I will is very telling to me.

Then just as quickly my heart reverses course and sinks. Xavier might kill her as soon as he sees her. I’ve never seen him so angry as when he realized that Corinne was missing.

I realize that what I am detecting is a little different, though, the scent somehow altered, almost imperceptibly.

I am watching Xavier, waiting for his reaction as soon as he realizes who is here, who must be inside the cave. They all sense it at the same time, and it briefly crosses my mind to wonder why it took them longer than me. All of their noses lift in the air, relieved that the pack has clearly not been here, but then realizing who has. The girls look at each other with astonishment and alarm.

I look at Xavier. He is all fury. Rage. Determination. He snarls, “Stay here,” and ducks down under the bushes to roll into the cave.

Corinne

The second that I hear the footsteps I jolt to my feet, my heart racing, feeling instantly dizzy with fear. I have to stop myself from panicking and rushing back down the tunnel to escape. There is no escape from what is coming. I chose this, I remind myself again. This is exactly what I want.

I force myself to stand still as I hear someone scrape past the bushes and past the rock. Exactly as I hoped and dreaded, I see at once that it is him. Xavier comes down the incline from the entrance to the floor of the cave, and his bearded face is filled with a murderous rage as he stomps towards me. The burning anger in his eyes alone looks like it could strike me dead.

I immediately drop to the ground so that I am prone at his feet when his next step reaches me. I am on my back, and I lift my hands over my head, crossing my wrists. I arch my back and tilt my head backwards, seeing nothing but my crossed hands. It lifts my throat, exposing my jugular, putting myself at his mercy.

Whether I live or die now is entirely up to him.

I don’t know whether he will stomp me first, or issue a command, or what he will do, but I close my eyes and wait.

It only takes a second. He reaches down, and I feel his fist close in my hair. He yanks me up to my knees in front of him. My eyes fly open, long enough to see his open hand flying forward from behind his head.

The impact of the first blow would fling me to the floor if not for his other hand still holding me up. Fiery pain blossoms out from the side of my face where he slapped me.

Through already swollen lips, I gasp out, “I’m sorry! Please! Forgive me!”