Just a Rogue

Dominic

We get to the logging parking lot first, since we’re closer, and pace around restlessly waiting for the rest of the pack to arrive. As soon as the cars start pulling in and people start jumping out, it’s on.

Ross is in the first car, and he beckons us over. “Dominic and Jim, you’re with us. Pam and Laura, get the drones back up in the air, one over the cave, one at the entrance by the beach. Wait for us here.” He immediately swivels around to talk to Kanen who is pulling up in the second car. He knows he won’t have to repeat his instructions, we’re already on it. Pam and Laura are pulling the drones out of the back of our car, grabbing the controllers, getting them lifted back into the air and on their way.

Evan has arrived and he comes over to me. “I’m staying human too,” he says dourly, “but at least they’re letting me throw in a dust bomb.”

I lift my eyebrows and nod. I don’t know what I’ll be doing yet, but I’m ready for anything. Amelia and I are not speaking, we both need to concentrate, but I still feel her with me, feel the calm and courage that her presence provides.

It only takes about five minutes to organize. Beta Malcolm is staying human, so that he can communicate the orders he receives from Alpha Kanen through mind-link to the rest of us. The other leaders are all yanking off their clothes and handing them off to humans with backpacks to carry them in. The designated wolves quickly shift, mostly males but with a couple of females who are fierce fighters. I almost feel sorry for that little ragtag band of rogues in the cave. They don’t stand a chance against this battalion.

Malcolm is carrying the dust bombs. “Here, Evan, take one of these. You’ll toss yours in, then back up fast so I can toss mine. Why don’t you try aiming a little left and I’ll try aiming a little right, hopefully that’ll provide the greatest coverage.”

Evan nods, and I’ll bet we’re thinking the same thing. Better to the sides than straight towards the back where Corinne is probably waiting.

We move quickly to the cave, as stealthy as wolves, no matter which form we are in. We don’t want them to hear us coming. We gather back behind the tree with the webcam, then Malcolm nods at Evan. The two of them dart forward quickly, pull the pins from their grenades, and toss them in so precisely that it’s like a synchronized dance. They quickly back away from the entrance to give access to the wolves.

The Alphas are immediately behind them with the fighting wolves, waiting a few seconds for the dust to clear, and even from further away where I am standing, I can hear that the silver is effective. We all hear men screaming and choking. Damn. Sounds like that hurts.

Before the Alphas even enter the cave, Amelia contacts me. “Corinne’s trackers show that she’s moving away from the cave. Is she still inside?”

“Yeah,” I say, perplexed for a second, before I realize.

“Then I think Xavier must be taking her out the back tunnel.”

I’m sure that the Lunas told the Alphas too, but they can’t talk to us at the moment from their wolf forms. So I quickly tell Malcolm, “It looks like Xavier is leaving through the back tunnel with Corinne.”

He nods. Evan is next to me and his eyes grow wide. Malcolm says, “Evan, Dom, lead a group to the cliffs. You’ll have to stay human, there are probably people around there. After they get out of the cave, apprehend Xavier and any other rogues, if you can without attracting attention. But take him into custody by any means necessary. You have cuffs?”

I nod, he gestures to five or six other humans standing nearby, and says, “Go!”

Alpha Ross is entering the cave as we run west as fast as we can.

Seth

I’ve gotten the gloves out of the bag, but I don’t have them on yet when there’s a bang at the front of the cave. One glance is all it takes. We’re under attack. There’s some kind of poison up there, the men are screaming in pain, but it hasn’t reached back here. Xavier lets go of Lynette, obviously there isn’t time to wrestle her into the collar now. He grabs Corinne instead and darts back into the tunnel.

Good, get Corinne out of here. Keep her safe. I drop the gloves since there’s no time to put them away, and rush after them. I hear Grace coming along behind me.

Damn, that asshole is dragging Corinne along too fast, I hear her stumbling, probably getting hurt, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now. I’m not going to try to reason with Xavier and make him slow down. I have to try to think ahead.

What is going to happen next? The pack is going to decimate the rogues back there in the cave, obviously. I’m pretty sure at this point that the four people who already left us probably didn’t just run away. I think the pack already killed them. They aren’t going to leave any of us alive. I don’t care as much about the other men back there as I do about the poor girls. With any luck, at least Lynette and Nova might be spared, maybe to become slaves for the pack. At least they might survive.

But I know that as soon as the pack is finished in the cave, they are going to track us down this tunnel. We’re only ahead of them by minutes. It won’t take long to kill the seven people left in the cave. Then the chase will be on.

So we don’t have time to slow down, or try to make this easier on Corinne. I just hope that she can keep up, and we can make it out of the cliff exit before the pack is on us.

Then what? Make for the car, obviously. The four of us can run the mile or so back to the car, and if we can just stay ahead of the pack, we can drive away. We’ll never be able to come back here, obviously this entire territory is lost to us. We’ll have to start over somewhere else.

But do we have to stay with Xavier? Is there any way that Corinne and I could get away, just the two of us, and try to scrape out a rogue life together? She’ll need protection during the rest of her pregnancy, I know that’s why she came back here to Xavier. She wants the protection that she can’t have as a lone rogue who cannot shift. I can provide that. When will I have the chance to convince her to leave Xavier with me? Does she even realize that I’m her baby’s father, not him?

I want to protect her from the pack, but I want to protect her from Xavier too. I don’t know what is about to happen, but I have to be ready. I have to keep her safe, keep my baby safe. I just don’t know how.

Lynette

When Xavier grabs me and tells Seth to put on the collar I absolutely lose my mind. No! The only way my plan will work is if the collar stays off. I can’t shift with it on, and when the battle begins I have to be able to shift. So I fight, harder than I have fought before, and I am sorry to know that it is injuring Nova, because I am kicking Xavier and trying to beat him with my fists as he holds me pressed against his chest. I can feel the handcuff pulling Nova’s wrist too, and I’m sure she’s getting hurt. But I know she understands. If that collar goes on everything we planned is over.

I know it won’t work, Xavier and Seth have overpowered me so many times before, but I’m not going down without a fight. I headbutt Xavier so hard that I hear something crack and I hope that I just broke his fucking jaw. I’m getting ready to press back against him so that I can kick Seth with my feet to keep him away from me, when a loud bang distracts all of us.

Landon and Hugh are closest to the front of the cave, and they are suddenly yelling and coughing, and I realize that the pack is here, and has deployed some weapon into the cave.

Xavier realizes it too, because he instantly lets go of me, grabs Corinne, and runs into the tunnel behind us. Seth and Grace chase after them.

This is it. Andrew and Micah and Amir are backing away from the entrance, and I’m sure in a second they’ll start trying to escape through the tunnel as well. Here’s where we come in.

“Nova,” I tell her, not even bothering to whisper. Who cares if they hear? It’s too late. “This is it. Ready?”

She nods, staring at me with eyes as round as saucers, and it strikes me for a split second how tiny and childlike she still is. But that doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is that we shift. I just need her safe while I fight, and that means we have to shift and break the handcuff chain.

“Nobody else escapes, got it? We stop the other men from getting into the tunnel.”

“Okay,” she squeaks, looking terrified.

“Now!” I tell her. “One, two… three!”

And we shift. She does it, she actually does it, she shifts for only the second time in her life, despite her fears, despite everything, she finds the courage to do it. I hope so much that when this is all over we will both be alive and I will have the chance to hold her and tell her how proud I am.

My wolf bursts out exultantly, thrilled to be free at last and ready to take on the rogues who have tormented us for so long. The handcuff chain breaks almost immediately as I suspected it would, unable to withstand the power of two wolves, but the cuff itself is tight and painful against my foreleg. I won’t let that stop me, though.

I am watching the front of the cave this whole time, not really focusing my eyes on Nova, knowing that once she has shifted and we are separated, I can fight even if she does not. I really only expect her to cower, not attack anyone. I expect to guard the tunnel alone. I can’t expect too much of the sweet child.

But the unexpected happens. I realize after she has shifted that there is something unusual about her, and when I glance over, I see that her wolf form not only has the most unusual glimmering silver fur I have ever seen, but that she is absolutely enormous. Monstrous. Gigantic. She must be nearly double the size of Xavier’s wolf.

Oh my god, I finally realize, this is why he forbade her to shift. It’s because she is the hugest wolf ever! He was afraid of letting her out in this form again, because he wouldn’t have been able to control such a beast!

I glance down and realize that the cuff on her foreleg has split open, unable to contain the huge limb, and she reaches with her giant teeth down to my paw, and snaps my cuff off of me with one bite.

Ah, that feels much better. I’m ready to fight now, and it is time, because the battle has started. Wolves are coming through the front entrance, leaping onto Hugh and Landon who are still in human form, staggering around in pain at the front, immediately knocking them to the floor. The other rogue men are trying to rush to the back to get into the tunnel, running away like cowards, not wanting to confront the overwhelming power of the enemy.

And Nova and I are going to stand in their way. Nobody else is escaping. We’re going to trap the male rogues so the pack can have their way with them. Then when that is all over we will submit as Corinne told us.

When Amir sees me standing in my wolf form next to the hugest fucking wolf who has ever lived, blocking his way out of the cave, he immediately shifts wolf and moves to attack us. I snarl at him, and when he doesn’t back down I leap forward with my teeth bared, and in a moment we are rolling on the ground in front of the tunnel, fighting.

Andrew and Micah quickly shift as well. I think I’ll have to fight all three until the pack gets back here, since even if Nova is a giant she doesn’t have an aggressive bone in her body.

But apparently her wolf does. She tears into them with a ferocity that I have never seen. Her huge teeth clamp down on Micah’s neck and she actually lifts him in her enormous jaws and shakes him violently back and forth until he goes limp, then moves on to Andrew.

Damn. Amir is distracted by the spectacle of the giant silver wolf annihilating his two buddies, and he lets go of me long enough for me to get the upper hand in our battle, and I have him whimpering on his back, his throat in my jaws, when humans from the pack start joining the wolves in the cave.

Beta Malcolm

Ross and Kanen go into the cave, followed by several other wolves, and the sounds of battle drift up from the entrance. Shrieks, wolf snarls, the sounds of impact. An extremely brief battle, though.

It can only be a few seconds before Kanen mind-links me. “Send humans with cuffs,” he commands, and I gesture to a few others to follow me, then drop down into the cave.

I see that Ross and Kanen have incapacitated two male rogues in human form right at the mouth of the cave. These must have been the ones hit by the silver dust. I quickly move to the one Kanen is standing over, roll him onto his stomach and cuff his hands behind his back. Michael is with me and he does the same for Ross’s rogue.

Then we stare into the back of the cave, not entirely sure what is happening. The five remaining rogue wolves appear to be fighting with each other. Three males are being quickly defeated by two females in front of the dark entrance to a tunnel behind them.

One of the females is like nothing I have ever seen before. Her fur is almost shining here in the dim cave, a silvery color like moonlight, and she is the most enormous wolf I’ve ever encountered. And she is fierce. She has already apparently torn through one of the male rogues, who is lying beneath her feet bleeding as she clenches her jaws around another male, picks him up and shakes him ferociously.

The other female has overpowered the third male and has her teeth around his throat as he lies submissively on the ground, admitting defeat.

The huge wolf drops the second male to the floor of the cave like so much discarded meat.

We have several wolves in here, including our Alphas, who begin approaching the back of the cave, but not yet attacking. They want to understand first what the females intend. Will they fight us too?

But, no. The female wolves look at each other, blood staining their muzzles. Then the smaller female shifts human, and the huge wolf quickly joins her.

Then, nude, the women approach our Alphas and drop to the ground before them, exposing their bellies, baring their throats.

They are submitting.