Just a Rogue

Amelia

“I have to get back to the trailhead,” Dom tells me silently through our mind-link. I think he is planning to just head out the door, without coming over to my side of the table, but I gesture him over here. Nobody will mind a little goodbye kiss between mates.

He steps over quickly, I spin around in my chair, and he leans down to give me a quick kiss. I touch his fingers, giving him a squeeze, before he goes. Nobody says anything, but I sense eyes on us, especially Ruby’s.

She looks more baffled than afraid. She probably thinks this entire scene is very strange, the conference room command center, the screens, the food laid out for everyone to enjoy, the friendliness of my mate’s goodbye. I wonder if she is starting to realize that she is safe now.

I hope that Corinne knows. I hope that she is aware that, for at least this one friend, her scheme worked. Ruby is here with us, safe from Xavier, safe from the battle. I don’t know what her future holds, but I know that it contains something that it could not have before. Hope.

I give her a smile. “Hi, Ruby. I’m Amelia. Corinne is a good friend of mine. She’ll be so happy that you made it here.”

She nods, nervously. This must seem so bizarre to her.

I’m interrupted by the audio feed I’ve been tracking, picking up some conversation. It’s been pretty quiet in the cave for the last hour or so, just the sounds of people moving around, very little talking. But I hear the voice that I think must be Grace asking, “Is it all right if I get something for Corinne to have for breakfast? She shouldn’t go too long without eating during her pregnancy.” I type the words into our transcription on my laptop.

There’s a noncommittal grunt from the voice I recognize as Xavier’s, then the sounds of items being shifted around. Grace must be getting something for Corinne to eat. Good.

Ruby is staring at my screen, her mouth hanging open. “Is that…?”

I nod, and tell her quietly, “We’ve been tracking Corinne since she went back to the cave. We have hidden microphones inside so we can get a heads up on any plans the rogues are making.”

She looks equal parts exhilarated and dismayed. It must be super creepy to realize that you and your friends are being spied on. “So it’s really true?” she whispers. “What Corinne said? The pack is going to attack Xavier?”

I look at her with sympathy. “I know they’ve been your friends, Ruby,” I tell her apologetically. “But the Alphas have decided that the rogues are too dangerous to our community to allow them to continue to operate. Especially since Corinne explained how abusive they’ve been.”

“I’m glad,” she says, firmly. “They’ve been torturing Lynette and Nova. It has to stop.”

I let out a breath. I’m so relieved that she agrees with this. I glance over at the others around the table, and see that they are just observing, and I suspect that they want to have me ask her some questions, rather than interrogating her in a way that would be intimidating. You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

“How are they doing now?” I ask her. “The other girls?”

She meets my eyes. I think she realizes that the more information she shares, the safer we can keep her friends. And the better it will go for her. “Xavier let Seth take Lynette’s collar off, so she was feeling a lot better this morning.” She grimaces, and I see her rubbing her wrists where the silver had been touching her. “I think it was going to kill her if it went on much longer,” she says. “Corinne must have told her what’s happening, because she stopped fighting last night. I think she’s ready for what you’re going to do.”

“Will she and Nova be able to come to us, like you did?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “Definitely not. No way. They won’t be allowed out of the cave. Xavier’s never going to take their handcuffs off, because he knows that Lynette won’t do anything to hurt Nova. It’d hurt her if she tried to run or shift.”

“Our wolves will keep an eye out for them,” I assure her, “they’ll do everything they can to make sure they don’t get hurt during the battle.”

She bites her lip, then looks around the room some more. I see her inhaling, lifting her nose, taking in the scents. She looks confused, or intrigued. Or, I realize, probably hungry.

“Oh!” I say, indicating the pastries and other foods on the table in front of us. “Feel free to help yourself.” I point to where a little stack of plates is waiting.

She smiles. “Thanks. It all smells so good.” She takes one small pastry and starts nibbling on it, and it reminds me so much of how Corinne was when she first arrived, afraid to eat too much food.

“Don’t be shy,” I tell her, “there’s plenty more where that came from. Have as much as you want.”

An expression crosses her face that is a mixture of confusion, and wariness, and disbelief, and hope. She might be realizing that she has finally found a safe haven. I’m pleased to see her piling her plate with some of the bacon and other things.

I still don’t know what the Alphas are going to decide to do with the she-wolves who submit to us, but I’ve stopped worrying that they are going to be harmed. We’re not savages. Punishing Ruby and Corinne after everything they’ve been through would be unjust. Our pack might be wolves, but we are also just.

The audio feed picks up again, and I hold my hands over my keyboard, ready to transcribe. There is the rustling noise of somebody coming past the bushes into the entrance. “Hey,” a male voice says. “I’m back. I couldn’t carry everything in one trip, I’ll have to go back out to the car.”

“That’s Hugh,” Ruby helpfully tells me, and I notate it in my transcript.

“Where’s Ruby?” Xavier asks, and Ruby’s eyes go wide, fearful.

“It’s okay,” I whisper to her. Just seeing that expression on her face cements it for me. Xavier is a monster, to terrify her like this from so far away. “He can’t hurt you any more.” She shakes her head slightly, and I realize that she’s worried about the others. He can still hurt them.

“Um,” Hugh says hesitantly, “she wanted to walk back. I thought she might already be here.”

“WHAT?” Xavier roars, and Ruby winces. There is the sound of a smack. I think that Xavier just hit Hugh. “You fucking idiot! You let her walk back? How could you be so fucking stupid?”

I hear gasps, and rustling, reactions from others in the cave. Our microphones are really extremely sensitive. Ruby’s hands go up to cover her mouth underneath her wide eyes.

“She’ll be here soon,” Hugh says, his voice sounding garbled, possibly speaking through a mouth injury that Xavier just inflicted on him. “I trust her, I know you do too!”

There’s a tense silence, then Xavier says, “I’m giving her one hour. If she’s not back by then, we’re going forward with our plan.”

We all stare around at each other. What plan? None of our transcriptions have details about what he is planning to do.

Alpha Ross says, “I think our timeline just got moved up. The supplies that he told the male to buy from the hardware store could be used to create weapons, or maybe set traps around the cave. We can’t give them time to do that. We need to get ready to make our move.”

Ruby’s expression is terrified. I don’t know what to say to comfort her.

The Alphas are apparently done waiting for me to gently converse with her. Alpha Kanen looks straight at her. “We need to know if you have any additional information that could help us prepare. Now.”

She nods, but her hands are wringing in front of her, and it looks so much like what Corinne always does when she’s nervous. Those rogues have caused so much damage to these women. “I’ll tell you anything I can,” she says hoarsely.

“Look at this screen,” he says, shifting one of the laptops over to her. It is the image from the webcam in the tree facing the cave. She stares, shocked to see that we have a live video feed, not just the microphones inside the cave. “That’s the front of the cave. We haven’t gone inside, so we don’t know exactly what the entrance is like. Describe it to us.” He is being curt, and I’m sure it’s scary, but he isn’t acting like he is violent or will hurt her. I hope she realizes he’s just in a hurry.

“Okay,” she says, and I hear her voice shaking. She lifts a finger to the screen, and says, “Here where this bush is, right on the side here, that’s where the entrance is.” She goes on to describe how the bush covers an overhang in the rockface, and how ducking underneath it leads you onto an inclined slope which is the entrance to the cave. Several of the leaders ask more questions, until they are satisfied that they understand the approach to the cave as clearly as they can.

“And that’s the only entrance, right?” Beta Malcolm asks.

“On this side, yes,” she says, and they look at each other.

“There’s another side?” Ross asks.

“Um, yes, there’s a really long tunnel that lets out right on the cliffs next to the beach. It’s hard to get through the tunnel, and the entrance there is really dangerous since it’s right at the top of a really high cliff. It’s slippery there, if you aren’t careful it would be easy to fall. I’ve only been there once or twice. We don’t usually use it.”

“Do we have one of the drones close enough to get there quickly?” Kanen asks.

We check the drone feed screens. “I think Dom’s is closest,” I say, “I’ll tell him to go up to the beach.” I pause for a minute, to mind-link Dom and let him know what they want. He already knows - he’s been eavesdropping and is already guiding his drone out there.

“He says the drone can be there in about five minutes,” I tell them, and I see Ruby’s brow furrow, like she can’t understand how I’m talking to him. Huh - I can understand the confusion. “He wants to know if we have a more precise location than just the beach.”

Beta Nolan pulls a map over and spreads it out in front of Ruby. “Can you show us where the cliff entrance is?” he asks.

She tries, but I don’t think that reading maps is something she’s accustomed to. I tell Dom the approximate location, and he gets the drone to the general area. I watch his drone feed on the screen, showing it to him, and we all observe as his drone carefully moves above the cliff face, showing us the steep rocks high above the water.

Ruby is concentrating on the screen, and she has a sharp intake of breath. “There!” she says, “I think that’s it!”

“Hold there,” I think to Dom, and the drone starts hovering in one spot near the cliff.

I don’t see anything that looks like a cave entrance. Ruby’s finger points, and we all lean in to look. “There, see the sort of sideways line? That’s the crack that goes into the tunnel. It’s hard to see from this side, but from the cave you can see the light to guide you out. It’s pitch black in there.”

“How do you even get out of there?” Janine asks. It looks like the entrance is a few feet below the top of the cliff.

“There’s a little ledge, just wide enough to scootch sideways along and get to the top. It’d be too dangerous if it’s windy or rainy, but it’s possible.”

“Anything else?” Kanen asks.

She shakes her head. “I can’t think of anything.”

Ross tells her, “Thank you, Ruby, you have been very helpful. We’re going to have you wait in a secure location while we get ready. It’s going to be a few hours before we have any more news for you, probably, don’t be alarmed if you don’t hear anything for a while.”

Darlene adds, her voice full of sympathy, but wanting to be honest. “Honey, you’ll need to wait in one of the jail cells downstairs. I’m sorry but it’s the best place to keep you safe until after this is over.”

She nods, resigned. I’m sure she never expected anything other than being locked in a cell. I wish we could just put her in one of the rooms like Corinne was in, but I’m not going to suggest it until after the battle is over.

“One more thing,” Janine says. “You should know that three of the other rogues are in the cells down there too.”

Her eyes fly open. “They didn’t just leave?”

There are a couple of snickers from the others in the room. “Not voluntarily,” Janine grins at her. “Anyway, I suppose they might have opinions about where they are. Feel free to ignore them. Or, honestly, you can talk to them if you want. I think it might be best not to mention today’s plans, though. Let’s wait until it’s all over before we clue them in, all right?”

“I can talk to them as long as I don’t tell them what’s happening?” she clarifies.

Janine shrugs. “Sure.”

Ruby’s jaw clenches. Oh my. I think those rogues are about to get a piece of her mind.