Just a Rogue

Seth

We’ve ended up further east in Oregon than we usually get. Normally we stay closer to the coast while we’re in this state, but Xavier has been angry and unsettled ever since the failed ambush against the pack wolves a couple of weeks ago. He’s insisted on moving every day, simmering with rage, seeking something he is not sharing with us.

We waited out a winter storm for a couple of days at a campground to the south of Ashland, but we’re on the move again. We’ve split into two groups. We’re down to one vehicle, since the pack we tried to attack stole our other car after they chased us away. Xavier and I are in the front seat, with two of the females in the back, chained so they don’t try anything.

After we lost Corinne, Xavier isn’t taking any chances, so the females are being strictly controlled. Lynette is suffering with a silver collar on her throat, the wound caused by the contact with her skin unhealed, since the silver interferes with all of her wolf abilities. She can’t shift, she can’t heal, she can barely move or speak the longer it stays on. I’m not sure if it would eventually kill her, but it might. Silver is a brutal way to control or discipline wolves, and so Xavier loves doing it. I hope that he lets up and takes it off once we make it to the cave, so that she can at least heal up a little.

She is handcuffed to Nova, the steel cuff sufficient to control the little girl. She has been forbidden to shift, something that Xavier has never explained to me, and I have never seen her wolf. I know she has one, we can all smell it, and we know that she ran away from her family’s pack to escape abuse. I’m sure she regrets that choice every day. But she obeys Xavier instantly in everything, clearly terrified of him, and of all the rest of us. She won’t try to shift or run, but even if she did, being cuffed to Lynette would prevent it.

So the females are controlled.

The rest of the pack have been sent in wolf form over land to the cave, and we will meet them there. We’ll probably arrive first, since we have the advantage of an SUV with four wheel drive to make it over most of the roads between Ashland and the Trinity Alps area where the cave is located. We’ll have to walk on our human feet the rest of the way. We’ll still probably beat the wolves who are running on four legs all the way.

The cave is fairly directly south of Ashland, about 150 miles away. With the backcountry driving, it’ll take most of the day. The car is quiet. Xavier sits silently fuming in the passenger seat while I drive.

Sometimes I’m glad that rogues lack some of the abilities of true werewolf packs. If we were an actual Alpha and Beta of a real pack, we’d be able to mind-link, even in our human forms. The mind-link is not available to rogues. Being severed from our original packs, the ability is lost, even in our wolf forms. It is a serious disadvantage during wolf battles, because the pack wolves can mentally coordinate with each other in wolf form, whereas our wolves must fight in silence. But for today, for this purpose, I’m glad that Xavier can’t mind-link with me. I’m sure I would hate whatever grim and violent thoughts are running through his head.

It leaves a few hours of silence in which to contemplate my situation. I wonder for the thousandth time whether I should leave this rogue pack and take off on my own. Would being a lone rogue be better than this? In some ways, yes. I wouldn’t have to put up with Xavier’s anger and whims. I wouldn’t be subject to his irrational rages, or his cruelty, or his violence, or his hidden agendas.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t have access to the females, whose use he doles out as rewards for loyalty. I always have plenty of food, since resources are always allocated to those of us in the top rank of the pack. We have our network of caves, scattered throughout the region, so we usually have shelter. I would lose all of that if I was a lone wolf.

But since Corinne ran away, I think of it more and more. Of all the females, she was the one who most caught my eye, but she was the one female whose use Xavier reserved for himself. He made sure that the rest of the men had access to a woman about once per week, as a way to control us, and to satisfy our biological urges. Men have needs, and he knows exactly how to exploit them. But never with Corinne. She was always only his to use.

It drove me crazy. Her scent, her soothing voice, her slender body, her long dark hair, her submissive expression. I wanted her. I have no idea if she wanted me, truly, but when I had my chance, she didn’t fight me off. I have always tried to be nice to the ladies. Well, honestly, no I haven’t, if I was nice I wouldn’t be taking advantage of the access to their bodies that Xavier grants. But I have never beat any of them unless ordered to do so, I would often grant them a portion of my meals, or a blanket to cushion the floor of the cave at night, or a warmer piece of clothing. I think that Corinne saw me as less threatening than the other men.

So when Xavier was gone for a couple of days with the other men and most of the women on a scouting expedition, and I was left in one of our caves to guard Corinne and Lynette, I seized my chance. Lynette probably knew what was happening when I tied her to a tree outside and took Corinne back into the cave, but I didn’t think she’d ever tattle on us. Those ladies stick together, they wouldn’t betray each other for anything.

And Corinne was exactly as delicious and sensual and stimulating as I thought she would be. Her submission was exquisite, her quiet gasps as I penetrated her were sublime, her hands rubbing across my back almost as though she desired me too were the best thing I had ever felt. No wonder Xavier kept her to himself.

When she confided in me afterwards that it was her birthday, it triggered something in me that I have never felt. Affection. I had enjoyed our time together, and I dared to hope that she enjoyed it too.

I found myself thinking of that time often, that one hour that we shared, alone, in the cave. I would hear her sighs, feel her hands, imagine her scent while I was using the other girls when Xavier granted it. She seemed even more attractive to me now that I had had a taste of her forbidden fruit, her face seeming prettier, her voice sultrier, her scent even more appealing. More and more, I wanted Corinne, and thought of that day when I had her. On her birthday. October 26th. Ten twenty six.

My mind continues wandering around as I pull off the highway onto the side roads that will take us closer to our destination, grateful again that as rogues we can’t mind-link. I’d certainly hate for Xavier to have any chance of overhearing any of these thoughts.

10-26. The passcode to the phone that I left behind in the cave we’re going to. I’ve managed to conceal from Xavier the fact that I forgot it when we left here last time, and I’m relieved that I’ll have it back soon. I’ve been worried that he’d find out I didn’t have my phone, and probably try to discipline me for it. We haven’t been apart this whole time, so there was no reason for him to try to call or text me, so I have been able to keep it a secret, and have not had a confrontation about it.

That’d be the last straw, though. If he ever tries to attack me again, now that Corinne is gone, I’m out too. Who knows, maybe I could even track her down and find her someday. I would have thought he’d go to more effort to find her, but he was so furious when he discovered she was missing, he immediately moved us up the coast. He claimed to want nothing more to do with her, and he hasn’t mentioned her since.

The other ladies have paid for it. The beatings and sexual use have increased, their food intake has decreased. He is determined to crush whatever spirit they might have left, in order to keep all four of the remaining females utterly under his control. Losing Corinne was a blow that he will not suffer again. Even Grace is withering under the new regimen of abuse, and she is the one female who has always supported Xavier.

I pull the car off the dirt road I’m following, and make it another half mile along a trail, before stopping in a clearing. “Okay,” I tell Xavier, we’re here.”

He gets out, growling, “Bring them.”

I open the driver’s door, step out, and open the door behind me. I pick up the leash attached to Lynette’s collar, careful not to touch the silver, and tell her, “Come on.”

She looks at me with eyes full of so much pain that even her constant rage seems quelled, and swings her feet out of the door, and shakily stands on the ground. Nova follows behind, their arms outstretched towards each other, cuffed together. Neither of them makes a sound.

I follow behind Xavier, holding the leash, and the girls stumble along behind me. They’re exhausted, and I know that Xavier hasn’t let them eat anything for about a day and a half. There’s food in the cave, hopefully we can feed them when we get there.

The hike in from the road takes about half an hour. I know that we’ve beat the rest of the pack here, I don’t smell any of their fresh scents here.

But I realize that I smell something else, a split second after Xavier lifts his nose and sniffs the air, frowning. He doesn’t say anything, but he looks back at me, his brow furrowed, and I nod to him. I smell it too.

Wolves. Pack wolves. Several of them. Recent, within the last couple of weeks. Crossing the area, probably searching for us, probably the pack that we ran into two weeks ago south of here on the 299 freeway during our failed ambush.

Shit.

Xavier moves quickly the rest of the distance to our cave entrance, and I follow more slowly behind, the females at the end of the leash unable to keep up.

Xavier has gotten to the rocky hillside that our entrance is concealed within, and I see him freeze, then spin around. He darts back and forth, smelling the scent surrounding our cave, then just as we are finally arriving, he lifts his face, red with fury, to the sky and howls like he is already shifted into his wolf form.

I smell it too. The girls look at each other with wide eyes.

The area is marked. The pack has claimed this territory as their own, scent-marking the entrance to the cave, the entire surrounding area, our place of refuge.

Xavier is having an absolute fit, a real sight to behold as his giant bearded form explodes with anger. He kicks rocks, he picks them up and hurls them, he screams and cusses, he stomps around smelling the scent markings. The girls shrink back as far as they can to the end of the leash.

He seems to remember that we are standing here, and storms over to me and grabs the leash, yanking the girls to him. He glares at me, and orders, “Go down and check inside.”

I just nod, and quickly move aside the rock concealing the entrance, and drop within. I don’t even need to sniff, the scent of the pack is heavily concentrated in here. About a dozen of them were here, I think, sending us a very clear message. This is their territory now.

I take the opportunity to rush over to where my sleeping area was, to try to find my phone while I’m here, but everything is in disarray. The pack moved everything, probably rifled through it all, messing everything up. I can’t linger down here to look for it, Xavier would be suspicious, so I just reach back up and pull myself out of the cave. I guess my phone is lost for good. I’ll have to think of some other story, and find a way to get a new one someday.

In the meantime, I have never seen Xavier so angry. By the time I get back to the surface, he has obviously punched Lynette, probably in the stomach. She is curled up on her side, choking and clutching herself, while Nova crouches over her, rubbing her back. I don’t comment on that. I only tell him, “They marked inside too.” He kicks Lynette on the hip.

The rest of the pack arrives, noses lifted in the air, obviously smelling the same thing we have. “Don’t bother shifting,” Xavier commands, “we’re moving on to the next cave. The pack’s lodge is near here, they might be checking this site regularly, we can’t be caught here. Head to the cave twenty miles west of here. We’ll meet you there.”

The wolves stand, staring, for a moment. Xavier snarls, “Go!” and they immediately turn tail and start running. We’re all disappointed that our day is not over, that we cannot rest or eat, that we have lost this shelter.

Well, we still have eleven other caves. It’s a loss, like the disappearance of one of our five women was a loss, but we’ll endure it.

I move over to the girls, and pick the leash back up. “Come on,” I tell them, and Nova helps Lynette stagger to her feet, and they silently follow along behind me back to the car.