Just a Rogue

Amelia

It’s an absolute frenzy. Alpha Kanen is barking orders, and people are scurrying to comply. I hear footsteps pounding all over the packhouse as people rush to grab backpacks, additional silver handcuffs, first aid kits. Cars are driven up from the garage to the driveway in front, over a dozen of them to fit everyone that is leaving from here, then hopefully additional passengers, the captured rogues.

The Lunas and I remain at the table, our attention riveted to the monitors, trying to keep track of developments at the cave. We will all be able to use our mate bonds to immediately inform our mates what is happening, so that their information is up to date as they launch the assault. It will be far more effective and instantaneous than any cell phone could be.

The last people to leave are the Alphas, who grab their Lunas for fast, fierce kisses before they run out the door.

Leaving us alone. Luna Darlene, Luna Janine, and I are the comms team now. Almost everyone else in the packhouse is jumping into the vehicles. We already hear the engines turning on and the cars pulling away.

It’s starting.

Beta Nolan

“We’re on the way to the battle,” I mind-link my mate. I want her to know in advance that it is happening, because she will feel all my adrenalin, and would be alarmed if she didn’t have warning.

“Already?” Bonnie asks worriedly, flooding me with a sense of her love.

“I’m glad,” I tell her honestly, “that means I’ll be home that much sooner.” Then, feeling that she is concerned, I add, “We have these rogues so outclassed. Four of them are already in River Moon’s dungeons, and we’re about to hit them so hard they won’t know what happened. I doubt there will even be much of a fight. Should only take a few minutes.”

“I love you,” she says, not interrogating me or trying to distract me. I appreciate that so much about her.

“I love you too. Kiss the kids for me.”

The short drive to the logging site is over quickly, and our drivers speedily pull the cars into rows in the lot. We jump out. The designated wolves quickly strip off their clothing and shift, including me. The humans put the clothes into their backpacks so the wolves can change back after the battle. We don’t know exactly how everything will unfold, so we want to be ready for every circumstance.

We start running towards the cave, the two Alphas in the lead. The humans fall behind, but only by a little. Even as humans we are strong and fast. We gather several yards away, back behind the tree where the webcam is surveying the cave. We are silent, stealthy, prepared, deadly. The rogues don’t realize what is about to befall them.

Alpha Ross mind-links me. “Darlene says that they’ve overheard Xavier’s plan. He’s going to take all the females out the back tunnel and drive them away somewhere. The males are going to stay to erect a barbed wire barricade over the entrance. They won’t have time to do any of this before we arrive, though. They’re all still inside the cave.”

Okay, good to know. They’re getting ready, but they’re out of time. It’s starting.

Corinne

Xavier gathers the men and talks to them while he is waiting out the hour. As though anybody actually expects Ruby to return. I can’t be the only one who has always known that she has constantly been ready to go, just as soon as the benefits of leaving outweigh the costs of staying. She didn’t like being the men’s toy any better than the rest of us did, but she was very pragmatic about it. It was all just a means to an end for her, and the end has always been extremely basic. Survival. She did what it took to survive. And I know that’s what she’s doing now.

I wonder if she likes the packs. Their kindness and generosity is hard to trust at first, so I’m sure she is disoriented by it. But I know she’s safe, and that’s all that matters. I succeeded, at least for just the one she-wolf.

Things seem better for Lynette also, because since I told her the packs are attacking soon, she stopped fighting the men, and that has led to them allowing her to spend a much longer time than usual without the collar on. I watch as she comforts Nova, whispering almost silently to her. Lynette has almost healed, and I can tell that she is feeling so much better now. Stronger, clearer-headed. It must be such a relief. Hopefully they’re done with the collar.

I’ve done everything I can. Ruby is out, and Lynette and Nova are waiting for the battle so they can submit and stay safe. I can’t tell Grace, though, and it breaks my heart to leave her at risk. I can’t give her any advanced warning at all, because that would be the same thing as warning Xavier. I know that the packs will win the coming battle. There is no way for the rogues to win, no matter what Xavier is planning. But if he had advance warning, it would complicate things. Hopefully the battle will begin today, before Xavier has the chance to do anything else.

The men finish their meeting, and start moving around the cave again. I watch, trying to figure out what they’re doing. I see Seth go to pick up the bag that he always brings when we are on the move. Is he going somewhere? Are we? I hope not, I want us all to just continue being sitting ducks in the cave, waiting for the pack.

But, oh no. Xavier and Seth both walk over to where I am sitting with the other she-wolves, at the back wall of the cave near the dark tunnel that is almost never used.

“Get up,” Xavier commands us, and we all warily rise to our feet, glancing at each other. What is happening now? I’m glad I’ve kept my shoes and sweatshirt on, mostly because it’s chilly in the cave, but also because the cave floor is rough on bare feet.

Xavier grabs hold of Lynette’s arm, and she stares up at him, almost in a panic.

No, no, no, Lynette, I think desperately, wishing she could hear me. Don’t panic now, don’t start fighting! Cooperation is your only chance to avoid the collar! I hope she just goes along with whatever he wants.

But my heart sinks when Xavier tells her, “You said you’d obey me from now on, and I want you to prove that to me right now.”

She nods her head, fearfully, knowing that nothing good is going to come of this.

“Seth is going to put your collar back on,” Xavier says, “but if you’re good it won’t be for long.”

He’s trying to get this done without having to fight her, I see, trying to induce her to cooperate. But she can’t do it. She can’t overcome her instincts, can’t voluntarily allow herself to be harmed in that way.

Her face is transformed with fear and dismay. “No! No!” she shrieks, and tries to shake his hand off of her arm where he is gripping her fiercely. Of course she can’t, he’s far stronger than her. “Please! No collar! I’ll do whatever you want, just please, don’t use the collar!” She is absolutely beside herself.

But Xavier has obviously made up his mind. He yanks her around so she is facing away from him, wraps both of his arms around her chest, and grips her so tightly that I’ll bet she can’t even breathe. Poor Nova is yanked around too by the handcuff, and stands next to them with a look of terror in her eyes.

“Seth!” Xavier commands him. “Now!”

Seth reaches into his backpack to get out the gloves he must wear to handle the silver collar. Lynette is flailing, kicking, headbutting Xavier’s chin with the back of her head, screaming. I’ve never seen her put up such a fight. She is more frantic than ever to keep the collar off.

I shrink away from the scene, and Grace looks at me, then back to Lynette, disappointment in her eyes. We both wish Lynette would just cooperate, this is only going to make things worse for her, and the end result is inevitable.

Until it isn’t.

Suddenly, there is a flash and a loud bang at the front of the cave, right next to the entrance, and all of us here at the back immediately spin our heads around to look and see what is happening. There’s some kind of cloud of dust up there, obscuring the view, and I have no idea what is happening. But the men who are at the front suddenly are screaming in apparent pain, coughing, gagging.

Oh my god.

This is it.

It’s starting.

Grace

There’s only one thing that this can be. We’re under attack.

Xavier recognizes that fact immediately, and I expect him to shift wolf and run to the front of the cave to fight. I’m ready to follow him. I will fight as fiercely as I can to protect him.

But he has another priority, I realize. Corinne is carrying his child. I understand all at once that protecting her is the only thing that matters.

So he immediately releases Lynette, and instead grabs Corinne’s wrist. “Leave them,” he tells Seth, “Come on.”

He quickly ducks into the tunnel leading out of the cave, dragging Corinne behind him by the wrist. Seth immediately follows them. He hasn’t told me what to do, and I don’t know whether he assumes I am coming with him or staying to fight.

But I have my priorities too. Protecting Xavier. Staying with him. I am loyal to him, and if he is going, I need to go also. This way, I’ll be able to help protect Corinne and the precious little life that she’s carrying.

I don’t know what will happen after we get where we are going, but I will always help Xavier with whatever he needs to do. It seems pretty likely that this is the end of the rogue group we’ve been with for the past couple of years, and he is going to have to start gathering new followers. I’ll help him with that too. So I’m going with him.

I follow the three of them into the darkness and silence of the long tunnel. Within a few yards there is no remnant of light from the dim cave entrance behind us, and we are walking blind. I know that Xavier realizes that I have come along, he is too perceptive not to recognize my scent and the sounds of my footsteps. But he doesn’t order me to return, so I think he is glad I have come. It fills my heart.

I hear Corinne gasping, trying to keep up with him as he rushes through the darkness, and she obviously stumbles a few times, and even falls down once or twice. I’ll bet the poor dear is off balance because he is still holding her wrist and dragging her along, rather than letting her run her hand over the side of the tunnel wall like I am to know which way to go. I wish he would trust her more. She returned to him, that’s all the evidence he should need that she’ll go along with whatever he asks.

But I’m not going to make any suggestions. I wouldn’t want to annoy him enough to order me to go back. So I follow along, ready to face whatever new life lies ahead of us.

It’s starting.