Just a Rogue

Amelia

“Okay,” Janine says, after we have re-hashed the plan several times, “does anyone have any questions?”

I glance at Evan, and the outraged question “What the hell are we doing?” is clear on his face, but he remains silent.

Nobody else has anything to say about the rogue plan, but Malcolm has some new information. He gestures to his phone. “I got a text a little while ago from Dr. Hughes. She is discharging Theo from the hospital.”

“I can go pick him up,” Dom volunteers.

“No,” Malcolm replies, “his parents are with him, and they’ll be bringing him home to their house to recuperate for a couple of days. Dr. Hughes thinks that after three or four days she will be able to remove the cast, and with accelerated healing he should probably be fine.”

That’s good news. “I wonder if we’ll get the chance to see him?” I silently ask Dom through our mind-link.

“You want to?” he responds, also silently. Having whole secret conversations together is apparently our thing now. “I can take you over there this afternoon if you want.”

“No,” I have to decline, “I’m going down to Eureka to run errands with Corinne and the Lunas.”

“Can I drive you?” he hopefully thinks to me.

“Sorry, love, Janine doesn’t want any males to come.”

Just as I am explaining that to him, Janine tells the group, “One more thing. Starting now, Corinne, we don’t want you to be in physical contact with any male, and preferably you should even stay at least a couple of feet away from men. We don’t want any lingering scent to arouse suspicion when you return to the rogues. I don’t think that female scents will be as triggering, but you should still try to avoid any touching, even with women. When we take you shopping this afternoon, only women will go, so that you don’t have to be in a car with men.”

I glance at Evan again, and he looks absolutely stricken.

Evan

I can’t touch her again? I won’t be able to kiss her goodbye? Last night when I brought her to her room was the last time? I didn’t know, I would have done something differently if I had known this was coming so soon, maybe kissed her more, maybe insisted on her spending the night with me again.

I can’t believe it is already over. It is sudden like a car crash, like a bolt of lightning, this severing of our relationship before it even really had the chance to start. It hurts so much.

I suppress a gasp, but I can’t stop myself from staring at her in anguish. She lifts her beautiful gray eyes to mine, filled with emotion. She is sitting right next to me. Less than two feet away. Will I ever be this close to her again?

The temptation to just reach over and grab her, kiss her, ignore this whole stupid plan is overwhelmingly strong, but something stops me.

It isn’t just the knowledge that my Alpha might very well bite my head off if I misbehave again.

It’s that the Luna is right. Having the scent of a male on her would put Corinne in jeopardy. The situation is dangerous enough without me making it worse by disregarding the rules. I can’t touch her.

But I also can’t stand to be this close to her. I see that the meeting is over, and I have to get away before I ruin everything.

I know that jumping up and running out of the room isn’t much better than the outburst that already made Ross mad at me, but I have to do it. It’s that or do something even worse. So I lurch back from the table, getting away from Corinne, getting away from the leaders, and I bolt out of the room.

I don’t stop running until I’m in the woods behind the packhouse, but even that isn’t enough. The more I think about it the worse it gets. Everything is spinning in my head, the pain, the fear, and I am only now starting to realize, the love.

My doomed, tragic love.

That does it, my wolf takes over, bursting out of me. I am shifting without even any conscious thought, my clothes shredding, and I keep running on four feet.

Dominic

When Evan goes dashing out of the room like he’s on fire, everything else grinds to a halt. There is a second of dead silence, while everyone looks around at each other, and I start standing up so I can go chase after him.

Beta Nolan says, “No. Let him go.”

Nobody else says anything about it, but it feels like a bad omen or something, to have the rogue plan launched with someone running away in obvious pain.

“Poor Evan,” Amelia thinks to me.

“Poor Corinne,” I think back. The rogue is still sitting, her fingers tangled together in her lap, tears rolling down her cheeks. And nobody can touch her to try to make her feel better. Amelia pushes a box of tissues her way, the only comfort she can offer.

Darlene looks at Corinne with all the compassion that I have always known her to have. “We’ll leave in an hour,” she says, “to go do the shopping in Eureka. Why don’t you all get some lunch first.”

The leaders all filter out of the room, leaving me and Amelia sitting near Corinne, not getting too close. We are all determined to follow the instructions and not risk making her smell like pack members. Corinne looks up at us, seeming to suddenly realize that everyone else has left. She reaches her hands up, buried in the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt, and wipes her face.

“It’s a nice day outside,” Amelia says, casting about for something to make Corinne feel better. “Would you guys like to have a picnic outside? There’s some outdoor tables behind the packhouse, near the fence.”

Corinne nods and sniffles a little. “That sounds perfect,” I silently praise Amelia for her quick thinking. Having lunch in the cafeteria with everyone all around would probably be the last thing Corinne would want, especially since who knows where Evan ended up.

“I’ll go get some food out of the cafeteria,” Amelia tells us. “Meet me out there? You know where I’m talking about?”

“Yeah,” I say out loud for Corinne’s benefit, “back along the fence on the way to the garage.”

Corinne follows me silently out of the conference room, and out a side door to the packhouse. She stays a few feet away from me, and I’m glad that she’s taking that advice seriously. She knows way better than me how important it is not to piss off the rogues any more than they probably already are.

I can’t stand just walking along in silence. “Um,” I start, “I think it’s a good plan, just so you know. I admire how brave you’re being.”

She looks over at me, looking slightly surprised. I’ll bet she’s not used to having people praise her for anything. “Thank you,” she says very softly, almost a whisper.

I know that she is almost as upset as Evan is, and I don’t want to ignore the elephant in the room. Or on the lawn, I guess, since we’re outside. “Evan’ll come around,” I tell her. “He’s a really good guy. He’s just worried about you. But I know he’ll help.”

She sniffles and wipes her eyes with her sleeve again. His sleeve, I guess, I know this is his sweatshirt.

We get to the little tables along the edge of the fence, the forest just on the other side. We’re about halfway back to the garage.

“I’m on the way,” Amelia mind-links me, and I give her a little mental kiss.

I don’t repeat that to Corinne, though. It feels like it would almost be rubbing her face in it, to share how happy and bonded me and Amelia are. She knows it, I don’t need to harp on it.

Amelia arrives soon enough, carrying a gigantic basket full of food that I leap up to help her with, and she just rolls her eyes. “I’m a wolf, remember? I can lift heavy objects too.”

Oh yeah, right. She sets it on the table and starts unloading sandwiches and chips and stuff, and we sit together to eat. Just to be safe, Corinne sits on the other side of the table from us, to keep a little distance between us.

“So, uh,” I ask, munching on a sandwich, “what’re you guys shopping for?”

“Clothes,” Amelia answers. “We’re going to get her some clothes from a thrift store, then plant them in the homeless shelter in Arcata. They can’t be brand new, since that wouldn’t be plausible coming from a shelter. Also some shoes, since Janine has some kind of tracker she wants to put in them. Everything will be waiting at the shelter for Corinne.”

The rogue is silent, listening to this description. I know it’s scary, but it’s also kind of cool, this whole spy plan unfolding to get her back into the rogue group without them suspecting anything.

“It really is a good plan,” I repeat, “you guys did a great job thinking of everything.”

“Pssst!” I hear from on the other side of the fence. I look over there.

“Evan?” I ask. I see somebody lurking behind some bushes.

“Hey, man, I uh, shifted and need some clothes,” he calls out softly, without coming out from behind the shrubs. “There’s stuff in the cars in the garage, can you grab me some?”

Oh! Well, I’m sure that’s embarrassing, I’m not going to make it any worse by teasing him. Amelia and Corinne meet each other’s eyes while I get up and jog back to the garage. I can hear Evan tracking me back there on the other side of the fence, keeping behind the bushes. I get into the garage, get into the back of one of the cars where we keep emergency supplies, and drag out a shirt, sweats and flip-flops. I carry them back out and toss them over the fence for him, and start walking back down towards the table.

He catches up with me at the gate in the fence, and I punch in the code that Theo taught me and let him in. “Are you okay?” I ask him quietly.

His jaw clenches, but he nods. I guess he doesn’t want to talk about it. “Come and join our picnic,” I tell him.

“That’s the plan,” he grits out quietly. “I realized it’s stupid to waste any minutes with her running around as a wolf having a tantrum.”

I look over at him sympathetically. “Yeah,” is all I say.

Amelia greets him with “Hi Evan,” and Corinne offers him a shaky smile. Nobody mentions him running away. We all need to get away sometimes, we can all understand it.

“Hey, uh, I’m done with my lunch,” I lie, “I’m gonna go back to the garage and check over the cars.” I’m not at all done, I’m still hungry, but I want to give Corinne and Evan some privacy.

Amelia knows what I’m doing, and she stands up and says, “Me too. Here Evan, you can sit here,” offering him the side of the table we had been sitting on. I notice her grabbing an extra sandwich as she leaves, and it makes me smile. She’s still taking care of me. “Always,” she whispers against my mind.

As we make our way back to the garage, Evan is sitting down across from Corinne. I hope they are able to have a good talk before she leaves.