Just a Rogue

Dominic

Amelia is guiding me as much as my eyes are. She hears what’s happening in the cave, sees the webcam and drone feeds, knows so much more than I do even though I’m the one here. I see the video screen she is watching, which is tracking the devices in Corinne’s shoes, and we are running along behind them, a mile or two from the cave to the beach.

I’ve seen the drone feed where that tunnel comes out, I know more or less where we are going to end up.

“Luna says that you need to hang back away from the cliff,” Amelia tells me. “It’d be too dangerous to get into a confrontation right on the edge. You all should stop far enough away that they won’t really notice you while they’re climbing up from the tunnel. You have to wait until they start moving inland before you move in. We know where their car is, so maybe you’ll end up just chasing them back towards that. If necessary the rest of the pack can meet you there to finish them off.”

“Okay,” I say silently, running, glad I don’t need to use any breath to talk to her in this way. “We’re almost there. We’ll hang back and just watch for now.”

Even in the middle of all the drama, I’m impressed with how gorgeous it is here. We break out from under the trees as we get closer to the shore, and I see the sun shining on the sparkling water underneath the steep cliffs. It’s incredibly beautiful out here, west of Dark Woods territory.

“That’s close enough,” Amelia tells me, and I stop on the edge of the woods we have been running through.

“Let’s wait here,” I tell Evan and the others. “The Lunas don’t want us to end up having a fight right on the edge of the cliff, it’s too dangerous. Let’s just wait here for now. They’ll probably be heading this way to get back to their car, we can nab them then.”

Corinne

Pressed against the cliff, sliding sideways up the narrow ledge, the thought crosses my mind that I could just step forward. Xavier is holding my wrist so tight, he wouldn’t have time to let go before I take him down with me. This cliff is so high, neither one of us would survive crashing down onto those sharp rocks at the base. Even wolves have their limits.

And the world would be rid of Xavier. He’d never hurt anyone else again. No other woman would ever be raped by him, or starved, or burned with silver, or made so miserable that death would be preferable.

“Don’t you dare!” my inner wolf scolds me. “I haven’t spent all this time protecting you and your baby for you to just give up now. Don’t forget you aren’t alone. The pack is watching out for you. They’re still out there. Trust them to come through for you.”

Relief washes through me. No, I don’t really want to sacrifice myself to get rid of Xavier. She’s right. The pack is probably trying to find a way to get me out of this mess. They’re not just going to let Xavier escape.

I hope.

That’s all I can do. Hope.

So I inch my way along this petrifying ledge, try not to look down, and finally get close enough to Seth that I can reach up with the hand Xavier isn’t holding.

Seth grabs my hand and pulls, and Xavier lets go of me just long enough for me to get up off the side of the cliff and onto the solid ground above.

Before I can even stand up straight, Xavier has already swung himself up beside me and grabbed my wrist again, and my heart sinks. I’m really not getting away from him. Grace meets my eyes briefly, then looks to Xavier, waiting for his instructions.

He pauses here on the edge of the cliff, scanning the area around us. There are people in sight, but none too close.

“Let’s go,” he commands us. “We’re running straight to the car, then getting out of here.”

And I panic. It doesn’t matter what my wolf says, it doesn’t matter how much I hope that the pack is somewhere nearby and won’t just let him escape. Adrenalin starts flooding my system at the thought of having to run off with Xavier and be trapped with him forever, and my fight or flight response overwhelms every rational part of my brain.

I start fighting. I lunge backwards, trying to get away from Xavier, trying to pull my wrist out of his fist. He glowers at me. “Stay still!” he barks.

“No!” I shriek. “Let go of me!” He squeezes my wrist tighter, and Grace tries to put her hands on me to calm me down, but my panic is just spiraling. I can’t let him get me into that car! I reach around with my other hand and start hitting Xavier’s arm, kick up at him with my foot, start fighting like Lynette, start trying to escape him.

Seth

Corinne suddenly begins fighting against Xavier, and I am shocked into complete stillness for a second. I’ve never seen her do anything remotely like this. She has always been utterly obedient, totally docile, submitting to anything that Xavier requires of her. This is so unlike her. It is like she is being possessed by the spirit of Lynette.

“Stop it!” Xavier bellows at her, and when she doesn’t, he spins her around and pins her against his chest in the move that he has practiced so often with Lynette. She is immobilized, his arms tight around her, crushing her into submission. Her eyes are rolling in fright.

“Seth!” Xavier commands. “Get the collar on her!”

She shrieks out a wordless cry of abject terror. I realize we are attracting attention, tourists are openly staring at the spectacle we are making.

Grace touches Xavier’s shoulder hesitantly. “I don’t think the silver would be good for the baby,” she tells him worriedly. She turns to Corinne, “Just cooperate, honey, we don’t want you hurt.”

“Do it,” Xavier bites out to me, “just until we get her into the car.”

It rushes over me, the realization of what I can do. Right now. This is it. This is my chance, to give her a chance.

I reach into my backpack and grab the silver collar. I left my gloves back in the cave, and the moment my hand wraps around the silver the flesh of my palm begins to sizzle and burn.

But that doesn’t matter now.

I put both hands on the collar, feeling the pain, almost enjoying it because I know I won’t be feeling anything for very long. I open it up so that it can be clasped around a neck, and reach forward with it as Xavier holds Corinne immobilized.

Her gray eyes look at me with hopelessness and dismay, and I know that I will never see in them what I wish I could. I will never see love in those beautiful eyes.

Xavier watches as I bring the collar up to Corinne’s throat. Then I touch her not with the collar, but with the back of my hand, pushing her neck aside and instead banging the collar down onto Xavier’s throat right next to hers. I push the two sides of the collar together with all of my might, cramming it onto his beefy neck, forcing the clasp to click closed at the back, compressing his throat.

He didn’t have the chance to react before it was already done. He releases Corinne, the awareness and the pain striking him in the same instant, and she stumbles to the side out of the way.

He can’t breathe, he realizes, and his face grows immediately purple as his windpipe is crushed by the far too small collar that I am holding against his neck. He lifts his arms to try to peel my hands away from the collar so that he can snap it off, but I refuse to let go, and he is too weakened by the silver to overpower me.

He can’t even gasp for air, he is as choked by the collar as by a hangman’s noose. He begins panicking, backing up, trying to get away from me, but I stubbornly keep my hands wrapped around the collar on his throat, feeling it burn me, not allowing him the opportunity to try to break it.

I somehow catch movement from the corner of my eye, and glance over for an instant to see half a dozen men running straight at us, and I am filled with dismay. It has to be the pack. I have saved Corinne from Xavier only to have her captured by them. “Run!” I manage to gasp out at her.

Xavier and I stagger, still struggling, on the very edge of the cliff when Grace, with a cry of dismay, tries to push me away from Xavier. The three of us lose balance and I feel the ground slipping away from beneath my feet.

Evan

As much as I want to just rush over there and grab Corinne the second I see the rogue pulling her up over the edge of the cliff, I agree that we can’t. The cliff is too steep and dangerous for any kind of fight to take place at its edge. We have to wait until they come back far enough away from it before we attack.

Xavier leaps up quickly behind Corinne, and glances around. His eyes graze past us, discounting us as unimportant tourists. We’re too far away to be recognized as wolves, and furthermore the onshore breeze prevents our scent from reaching them.

Watching Corinne look around herself hopelessly pierces my heart. Just hang on, I think to her, wishing she could hear, I’m right here, just a few minutes more and you’ll be safe.

But of course she doesn’t hear, and she doesn’t see us here, and after he tells them something, I see her begin to panic. She starts fighting against the beast, trying to get him to unhand her, but instead he grabs hold of her with both arms and the other rogue reaches into his bag for something.

My heart sinks when I see the silver collar that we’ve heard so much about. Hell no, I’m not letting them put that thing on Corinne! I start forward, but Dominic holds me back.

“Wait, we can’t do this on the cliff.”

I turn on him furiously. “But!”

“I know,” he cuts me off, and I see the pain in his eyes as well. He doesn’t want Corinne to be hurt either, but he’s right. Attacking now would endanger her. So I turn my eyes with anguish back to the scene, waiting for her to be hurt by silver, unable to look away.

When the next thing happens, I can’t even understand for a second what the rogue just did. The collar is reaching for her throat, and then suddenly it is on Xavier instead. Corinne staggers off to the side while the male rogues are struggling, and I don’t care what Dom says, I’m running towards her. I have to get her away from the brawl. It’s dangerous for her to be anywhere close to that chaos.

In half a second I hear the other men running with me. But before we close the distance, the other female rogue has joined the fray, and all three of them go tumbling over the edge of the cliff.

Corinne

I can’t believe that Seth is going to put the collar on me. Xavier, yes, he doesn’t care about my pain, but Seth has never tried to hurt me before, and although I understand that by fighting like Lynette I have earned her punishment, it feels like betrayal that Seth is going to do it.

I close my eyes and brace myself for the pain. I’ve seen this happen too many times not to realize how much anguish I’m about to be in. And I agree with Grace - I’m worried it will hurt the baby.

But then, Seth’s arm is pushing against me, getting me out of the way, and I am confused when Xavier makes a choking sound and lets go of me. I stumble backwards, and spin around to see Seth and Xavier wrestling, Seth’s hands around Xavier’s throat. I can’t see it under their hands, but I realize that the collar must be there.

Seth saved me. He attacked Xavier with the collar to save me. He didn’t betray me, he betrayed Xavier. I realize he is trying to give me the chance to run away, the opportunity to escape Xavier again. He even yells at me to run. But I am frozen to the spot with horror, watching the spectacle unfold, my hands held to my mouth, staring as Xavier goes purple and fights and Seth clings to him with ferocious determination.

Grace cries out and tries to get Seth away from Xavier, tries to help the man that I know she still loves, but it only unbalances them, and a scream tears out of me when I see all three of them plunge downwards over the cliff.

I try to run forward, try to see if I can reach them in time to help, but somebody grabs me from behind.

Before I know it, I have been spun around, and strong arms are wrapped around me, and a comforting scent is engulfing me, and all of the horror of the scene is soothed by the presence of the man I was afraid I would never see again.

“Shhh,” Evan whispers into my hair, holding me tight. “I’ve got you.”