Just a Rogue

Amelia

Darlene and Janine are comfortable on the couch together when we get back upstairs. Janine smiles in a friendly way. “Hey Corinne,” she says, “have a seat.” Corinne perches on the edge of an armchair, and I sit on the one next to her.

Corinne actually takes the initiative and tells Janine, “Congratulations. The last night ceremony was really beautiful.”

Janine smiles, looking touched. “Thanks. I didn’t have anything to do with the ceremony, though, these two planned the whole thing.” She gestures to me and Darlene. “Also, it turns out it wasn’t even the only mating!” She grins over at me.

Again, so glad that Dom agreed to wait. This much attention is hard enough, it would have been awful and distracting to have everyone noticing us while I was trying to work on the ceremony.

Corinne nods and smiles briefly over at me, then looks down to the floor.

Darlene tells her, “We heard at the leaders meeting this morning how all the information that you provided about the cave locations was spot on. You have been so helpful, Corinne, it would have taken so much longer to learn this much without your cooperation.”

She nods again, not looking up. Darlene and Janine make eye contact.

“So,” Janine carries on, “before a plan is made about how to confront the rogues, we want to know if you can share some more information.”

Corinne looks back up. “Like what?” she asks.

I break in. “I know that your priority is to protect the other ladies with the rogues. I think it would be best to start with learning everything we can about them. At the very least, we want our wolves to be able to recognize them, and if they can, avoid hurting them.”

Corinne sighs, then nods. She opens her mouth to speak, but just then there is a knock on the door, and it opens. A couple of people from the kitchen staff have arrived with trays of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

I help them get everything arranged on the little table, and after grinning at Corinne, probably to tease her a little about being up here with two Lunas, they head back out.

We all get some soup and sandwiches, and I end up sitting on the couch with Darlene, while Janine and Corinne sit on the two chairs at the table. Janine takes a spoonful of soup, and says, “Mmmm. Darlene, I hate to tell you, but I think River Moon has Dark Woods beat when it comes to cooking. This is fabulous!”

I smile over at her. “Welcome again to River Moon, Luna, pack of fierce wolves and yummy food!”

Even Corinne gets a little laugh out of that.

“So,” Janine asks, in a chatty voice, “what are the names of your friends in the rogue pack?”

Corinne nods, and starts to give us the information. I’ve already heard the names and ages of all the rogues - she told us that the night we sat around the campfire together on Christmas. I’ve even shared this information with the leaders. But it is a good way for her to start, to make her feel comfortable sharing even more. She is really opening up.

“Grace has been with Xavier the longest,” she says. “I think she’s fifty, maybe fifty-five years old. She doesn’t look it,” she continues, her eyes drifting to the side, clearly picturing her friend. “She’s strong, so strong, and she tries to protect us.”

Darlene says, “It would probably help to get a description of all of your friends, both in their human and wolf forms, so that it will be easier to avoid hurting them. If it comes to a battle.”

Corinne nods, and her lip quivers ever so slightly. “Okay. Um, Grace is shorter than me, taller than Amelia. She looks like she’s maybe in her thirties? Her hair is dark, and short, with maybe a little bit of gray. Um, brown eyes.”

I start taking notes. I want to record all the information. A spoonful of soup, a line of notes.

“What does Grace’s wolf look like?” Janine asks.

“Medium, light gray.”

“Anything else?” I ask, pen ready in my hand.

Her brow furrows. “It will be hard for her. She’s been with Xavier for a long time, I think almost since he became a rogue. I think she used to love him. Maybe part of her still does. But mostly she tries to protect us from him.”

Darlene’s gaze is compassionate, but there is a steel to it. She’s a leader, I know that her loyalty is going to be her mate, and her pack. “Would Grace fight for him? Try to protect him? Or would she rather help get the other females away? If she had to choose?”

Corinne wipes her eyes, and looking down murmurs, “I don’t know.”

If this doesn’t convince them that she is being totally honest, nothing will. She’s being completely up front with this. She could have said that Grace will definitely side with the ladies, that would have made it more likely that our packs will protect Grace. Corinne is just telling it like it is.

I see Janine and Darlene meet each other’s eyes briefly. I’m pretty sure they get it.

The next rogue she describes is Lynette. “She’s thirty,” Corinne tells us. “She has long hair.” She gestures to Darlene. “The same color as yours. Reddish-brown. Her wolf too. Same color.”

That’s unusual. Normally wolf fur doesn’t match human hair color at all. Dom and I spent some time laughing last night about how my dark wolf matches him, and his light wolf matches me.

“Would Lynette choose to protect Xavier?” Janine asks.

Corinne snorts out a laugh. “No. She hates him. She’s tried to kill him so many times already. The only reason he lets her live is because he thinks it’s sexy to force her afterwards. He tries to break her, and she won’t break. It’s a weird game for him, I think.”

Good lord.

It gets worse. “He keeps her tied up a lot. Even on a leash, using a silver collar to make sure she can’t shift. She’ll be the hardest one to get out.”

“Jesus,” Janine whispers.

It’s almost painful how matter-of-fact she sounds as she describes these horrors. “Go on,” Darlene says softly. “Who else?”

She sighs. “Ruby. She’s twenty-two, she’s tall, black, dark-skinned, thin. She doesn’t talk much. She uses her energy just to survive. She’s as strong as some of the men, but she doesn’t fight back when they … she doesn’t fight back. I’m kind of surprised that I escaped before she did. She always looks like she’s planning something.”

I write this information in my notebook. “Her wolf?” I ask.

“Brown, sort of mottled. Smallish.”

“The last one?” I ask. We know there are four females.

Corinne reaches up to brush tears away, before she has even said anything. “Nova. She’s only sixteen, and she’s already been with Xavier for two years. She ran away from her pack when she was fourteen, to get away from abuse, but it only made things worse for her. Xavier was already using her for… using her, when I arrived about a year ago. She’s tiny, she could pass for twelve years old. Um, blond hair, light like Alpha Kanen’s hair.”

Darlene’s lip curls in disgust. On top of everything else, apparently Xavier is basically a pedophile. Ugh.

“Her wolf?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” Corinne says. “I’ve never seen her shift. Xavier won’t let her. I’m not sure why.”

Corinne

I’m all in on this effort. I’m not going to hold anything back. Evan made me see last night that my idea to go in alone, by myself, was stupid. I’d never be able to rescue my friends, and just describing them to the Lunas makes me realize it even more. I need help. And I’m just going to be completely up front. Except for the part about running away last night, I can’t tell them that. But I’m not going to keep any more secrets. I think if I trust them, I can get them to trust me.

All three of them look slightly sick after I have finished, especially the part about Nova. I understand completely. Janine asks, “Is there anything else we need to know about them?”

I shake my head. “I think that’s about as much as I can describe them.”

The Lunas look at each other. “All right,” Darlene says, “we’ll let the leaders know, and our wolves will be on the lookout for these people, and try to protect them during the battle.”

I shake my head again. “That won’t be enough.”

“What else can we possibly do?” Janine asks.

“I have to warn them.”

“What?” Amelia asks. “How?”

I sigh, and steel myself. “I have to go back.”

“What?” Darlene and Janine say it at the same time.

“You can’t go back,” Darlene says, "not after what you’ve just described. We’ll try to help your friends, but I’m not allowing you to go back there. It’s too dangerous.”

I sigh. “I think I can do it, and I have an idea how to make sure it won’t be that dangerous. Once I’m there, I’ll try to warn the other ladies, and see if there’s a way to get them out before your packs attack. If not, I can at least tell them to submit immediately so that they aren’t harmed during the battle.”

There is a stunned silence. Amelia looks completely stricken. After a couple of minutes, Janine asks the practical question. “How would you make it not be dangerous?”

I clench my jaw for a second, then take a breath and say, “By telling Xavier that I’m carrying his baby.”

Darlene and Amelia look at each other, shocked. I know that they had figured out that I was pregnant, and were trying to let me keep that private. It was sweet of them, but the time for keeping secrets is over.

Darlene says, “But isn’t that even more of a reason to stay away? Didn’t you leave to protect the baby?”

I sigh. “Yes, that’s part of the reason I left. But now that I know you, and I know what is going to happen, I think that I can use it to go back and warn the other she-wolves. If Xavier thinks he got me pregnant, I don’t think he’ll hurt me too bad as punishment for running away. I think he’d let me come back.”

Janine’s eyes narrow. I think she heard the way that I phrased that. “If he thinks?” she asks. “Is it his baby?”

I watch my hands twist around in front of me. “Maybe,” I confess. “There was one other time. Just once. With someone else. I don’t know which one is the father. That’s the other reason I left. Xavier would kill him if he knew. He doesn’t allow the other men to use us - well, he does, but he chooses the timing, and uses it only as a reward. That isn’t what happened with me and Seth.”

Janine’s brow furrows. “Seth? Whose phone we have?”

I nod, and try not to cry.

“No,” Darlene says. “Just let us do it our way. We’ll tell the fighters to look out for your friends. Going back is just going to get you killed.”

Amelia nods, agreeing with Darlene.

But Janine’s eyes narrow, and she says, “Well, actually, think about it. This could be exactly what we need. A way to track the rogues, a way to predict what is coming. With Corinne on the inside, we could coordinate everything. We’d be in control.”

Darlene’s eyes get wide and she shakes her head. “How could we possibly control anything with her gone and unable to communicate with us?” She sounds convinced that this is a terrible plan.

“Well,” Janine says, “there are ways. Webcams, tracking devices, hidden microphones. We could monitor what’s happening. I think it’s possible.”

Really? I hadn’t even thought of any of this. I was just going to go, pretty much exactly as I planned last night, except this time it was going to be with their permission. But, might it be with their help? With something to actually make it possible to warn my friends and keep them safe?

I feel the strangest sense of hope.