Just a Wolf

Amelia

I’m a little relieved when Evan goes, to be honest, before Rachel manages to humiliate me by making a full-on pass at him. I guess she’s grown up enough in the last few months, since I moved into the packhouse, to start noticing boys now. I had assumed she’d spend our whole visit in her room playing Runescape or Minecraft or whatever she’s addicted to now, but instead as soon as she laid eyes on the big surfer-looking dude with us she stayed, practically drooling on him.

Evan is such a decent guy, he didn’t laugh at her at all, but he was eager to get out of here as soon as he could. He really did seem to want to take a hike though, and I’m sure that he’ll love the forest. It’s really a magical place. Hm. Maybe I’ll take Dom there after we leave.

The visit is really nice. Dom is super nervous to meet Mom and Dad, I know, but by the time we leave after lunch he seems to have settled in. Christopher has stopped hanging on me and started glomming on to Dom, very excited to hear that he’s a mechanic, and wanting to ask him questions about cars. Chris has posters of sports cars all over his bedroom, he’s been obsessed ever since my parents got him a toddler bed shaped like a car when he was about two years old.

I give Mom and Dad all the details I can about what is going on, and there is honestly so much to talk about that I don’t think that they notice at all that I am withholding the one most important piece of information. They have been introduced to my mate, but they don’t even realize it. I’m pretty proud of us for continuing to keep our secret so well.

When I’m helping my Mom clean up after lunch, there’s a minute when we’re alone in the kitchen, and she asks me, with a little Mom look on her face, “So? You like Dom?”

I sputter a little. “Um, is it obvious?”

She laughs softly. “I wouldn’t say exactly obvious. But I know you pretty well, Meely, I see the look in your eyes.”

So she sees, but not everything. “Yeah,” I admit, “I like him.”

“He’ll be leaving right after New Year’s though, right?”

I shrug.

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt, honey,” she says.

“I know, Mom. But don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” She has no idea how fine. I’m looking forward to our week of waiting being over, then everyone will know, and I am sure my family is going to be really happy for me. They already like my mate a lot.

When we are saying goodbye, Chris is making Dom promise to make plans to visit again and maybe take him to a car race. My parents tell him that he’s always welcome to visit, and Rachel glowers because Dom is ignoring her and the cute surfer already left. Poor sis.

When we get back out to the car, Dom exhales loudly. “Well?” he says. “Do I pass?”

I smile as he starts the car. “They love you,” I assure him. “Not as much as me yet, but that’s only because they don’t know.”

“Think we really fooled them?” he asks, looking at me sideways as he pulls away from the curb.

I shrug. “Well, Mom guessed that I like you, but nothing more than that.” Before he gets too far out of the neighborhood, I say, “Hey, would you like to go check out that forest where my Dad sent Evan? It’s really pretty, I’d like to show it to you.”

He grins and looks over at me. “Thought you’d never ask!”

It only takes a minute to get there and park the car, and soon we are strolling, hand in hand, along the trail, our footsteps muted on the soft, loamy earth, the redwood giants towering over our heads, the forest a living entity all around us.

He seems properly impressed. “This is amazing,” he says. “I’ve spent a lot of time in forests, we certainly have our share at Dark Moon, but nothing like this. It’s like, an enchanted forest or something.”

I say happily, “I know. It’s my favorite place.”

We get to a little bridge crossing over a trickling stream, and he stops me in the middle and pulls me to him, giving me a hug that quickly morphs into a kiss. We have to laugh when some other hikers come up, and sort of ahem at us, and we have to move aside to let them pass.

We walk a little further, and I can see him sniffing the air. “Evan came through here,” he says, “but then I think he left the path.” He frowns into the undergrowth off the path. “That rebel! Wait until I tell Beta Nolan that he was here violating the rules about staying on the trail!”

I look at him with shock, and he laughs. “I’m kidding. Let him go off trail, I know he’ll be careful not to damage anything.” He looks around the forest, taking in the peace and beauty, then says, “Are you ready to go home?”

“Are you really done?” I ask him. “It’s so beautiful here.”

He leans down and strokes his hand over my hair, and across my cheek, and it comes to rest on my shoulder. “Not as beautiful as you,” he says, and suddenly I want to be alone with him. Somewhere hikers won’t come and interrupt us.

Evan

She seems completely docile now that I have caught her. I expect her to shift, or snarl, or fight, or glare, but instead when I let her sit up she sits quietly, her eyes lowered, letting me hold her captive by hanging on to her wrist.

All she says is, “I won’t try to run away. You obviously would just catch me again.”

Pfsh. I don’t trust her at all. I keep my right hand firmly wrapped around her left wrist, and she quirks her head in just a little shrug, as if to say suit yourself. We’re both sitting on the ground, facing each other, on the decaying bed of needles and leaves where she fell. The sky is cloudy, but it isn’t raining, or snowing, which is probably lucky for her. She is definitely not dressed for winter weather. Even wolves get cold.

“So,” she asks me in a quiet voice, with a tinge of fear, “what do you want?”

“Answers,” I demand. “You attacked our pack. I want to know why. What you were after. Where the rest of the rogues are.”

Her eyes meet mine briefly, with a flash of alarm, then she looks back down. She probably is surprised at this coincidence, that I happen to be one of the people in the pack they attacked. It is strange. I’m surprised too. Who would have thought I’d run into her here, after a whole bunch of us couldn’t find any of the rogues the other day?

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t even want to be with them. So I’ve left the rogues. That’s why I’m here.” She gestures around with her free hand, the one I’m not grasping.

I don’t really believe her. Rogues always band together to survive. One lone wolf has a far lower chance living on their own than in a group. Wolves naturally live in packs. That’s why rogues tend to join together and commit their crimes in gangs. However, there are no scents from other rogues out here, so I know that she is alone for now.

She shrugs again. “I can see you don’t believe me. But it’s true. And I’m not going back to them. I’ll figure something out. I’m done with them, finished with the stuff they do.”

I snicker. “What, you’re going straight? Good luck with that,” I say sarcastically. Once a rogue, always a rogue. They’re outcasts, exiles, vagrants, rejected from decent society. Crime is in their nature.

She frowns defiantly. “I’m going to try to find a pack that will take me in.”

I actually bark out a laugh. “That’s impossible, rogue. No pack would let outcasts join them.”

I see tears spring into her eyes, which she angrily wipes away with her free hand. It makes me feel weirdly bad to see it. Is she actually sad? Or just a really good actor? I still think she’s trying to work some kind of con here. It’s what they do.

“If I can’t join a pack, I’ll just try to get a job with the humans. I can work, find some way to earn a living.”

I gesture around at the deserted woods. “This is where you’re job-searching? How’s that working out for you?”

She huffs and rolls her eyes. “I have to sleep somewhere. I tried to stay in town with the homeless people, but they seem to have a sort of clique thing going, so I came out here. I’ll go back down there to look for a job after the holidays.”

Huh. Well, that does make a certain amount of sense. Can she actually mean what she’s saying? It seems incredibly unlikely, but is it possible? Doesn’t matter, she’s a rogue, a criminal, who attacked our pack, and there’ll be a penalty to pay for that. It’s the whole reason that we’re going to explore the rogue’s cave tomorrow, to try to hunt them down and eradicate them. It’s why we’re planning a battle. We are going to fight the rogues, scatter them, kill them if necessary.

And here I have one literally in my grasp. It occurs to me that I could just kill her right now, have one less rogue to worry about, one less opponent in the coming battle.

I suppress a shudder. I can’t kill this girl. Look at her, all vulnerable and thin and scared and cold. Probably hungry, and lonely. Regardless of what crimes she has committed, she does not look a bit threatening at the moment.

So what do I do with her? Drag her back to River Moon and turn her in? I’m sure they have holding cells on the property, we could lock her up for interrogation. I’m tempted to text Beta Nolan and ask for his advice, but it’s Christmas and I know he was looking forward to just spending the day with his kids. And besides it’s not likely I’d have great service out here in the forest away from town. I’d hate to only be able to have half a conversation and then have my signal drop.

I think that taking her into custody seems like the best option, but how am I supposed to accomplish that? Drag her kicking and screaming all the way through the forest? Knock her out and carry her? Someone would see me. It won’t be all uninhabited forest between here and River Moon’s packhouse. Humans have 911 - I’d have cops showing up and arresting me for kidnapping.

Do I just let her go? That would defeat the entire purpose of chasing her down.

I frown as I’m considering all of this, and she watches me quietly. She can tell that I don’t know what to do with her.

“Look,” she says, earnestly meeting my eyes, “I won’t be any more trouble to your pack. I give you my word.”

I snort. “What good is the word of a rogue?” Ridiculous.

She shrugs. “I know you don’t believe me, but I hated every single thing that they made me do, and I’m never doing any of it again. I will stay completely away from your pack. That’s part of the reason I’m not sleeping on the streets in Arcata, you all are everywhere in that town.”

“That’s not my pack, we were just traveling out to visit them,” I say, then wish I hadn’t. Why give information to this rogue? I still don’t trust that she won’t just bring it back to her old friends and use it for some kind of mischief.

She looks perplexed. “Visit?” she asks. “Like, attack?”

“What? No! Just because you rogues only understand violence, doesn’t mean real packs are that way.” But then I hear what I’m saying. We, two respectable, real packs, are currently planning violence, planning to attack the rogues. I frown again.

She looks down, and very quietly says, “I never wanted violence. I tried to not participate, but I just got in trouble for refusing. I couldn’t stop them, so I finally left. I’m sorry they’re still out there doing stuff like that.”

Hm. I stare at her, in silence, my head spinning with this new perspective. I expected any rogue to be exactly like all the others, violent and dishonest and deceptive. Is it possible that this rogue isn’t like that at all?

I still need information. I have an idea. It’s risky, but if it works, we might get what we need. And if she is just trying to trick me, the worst that will happen is that the rogues will know we’re on to them. Maybe that alone would make them back off. “If you really mean that, are you willing to help us stop them? We plan to find them and teach them a lesson, at least chase them out of this territory.”

She opens her mouth, closes it, and her free hand goes over it. I see a flash of emotion cross her face, a strange mixture of hope and fear and grief. Then she nods, and says, “What do you want?”

“Like I said before. Answers.”