Just a Rogue

Dominic

I stand still in the garage as the SUV pulls out, my hands hanging down at my sides, watching my mate driving away. Before we finalized our mating, I know that I would be feeling bereft, would be mourning the loss of any time together.

But the thing is, we are always together now. No matter what. She might not be here physically, but I feel her with me anyway. I brush up against her mind, just checking, just making sure our bond is still strong. “Yes?” I hear her ask through the mind-link. Yeah, she felt me.

“Nothing. Just that I love you.”

I feel the smile that must come to her lips. “You too,” she says. “See you later.”

I look around myself, looking for something to keep myself occupied until she gets back. There’s nothing to do out here, I’ve serviced these cars almost more than is good for them. Wouldn’t want to spoil them with too much attention, Dad always says.

Oh. Uh, Dad. Mom. They don’t know. Oops!

I walk back out of the garage, and see Evan sitting glumly at the table where I left him, poor guy, staring out at the forest.

I come up and sit on the bench across from him. “Hey,” I say. Nobody ever accused me of being exceptionally articulate.

“Hey.”

I look at the remains of the picnic. “Um, are you finished with this stuff?”

He glances over at it, and back out into the trees. “Yeah.”

I sigh. “Ok, I’ll just bring this back in.”

He nods, not looking at me. I feel so bad for him. My joy almost amplifies my sense of his pain.

I suddenly realize what he’s wearing. I didn’t grab that sweatshirt out of the garage. Is that…?

I send an image of him to Amelia, sitting here all sad, arms crossed in the sweatshirt. “Is that the shirt Corinne was wearing?”

“Yeah. She gave it back to him.” Man, mate mind-link is better than the internet. Any question I want to ask, answered like magic.

“Does that mean that she, like, broke up with him?” No wonder he looks so crushed.

“I didn’t ask, but maybe she’s just being careful to not have his scent on her.”

Oh. Hopefully that’s all it is. I look at Evan again, and his jaw clenches, probably wishing I wasn’t here. I can tell he just wants to be left alone, so I quietly stuff everything back into the huge basket that Amelia had brought out, and carry it back into the kitchen.

When I’ve dropped that off, I go downstairs to Amelia’s room. It feels weird to be going in there without her. I open the door, and her scent washes over me, sugar cookies and wildflowers, a thousand times more delicious than it smelled before we finalized our bond. I inhale, and although it raises a longing in me, it also brings a deep satisfaction. It is the scent of the woman who belongs to me, who owns me, who is one with me.

I step into the little bathroom for a minute, then come out and lay down on her bed. I have to pause to take a few deep whiffs of the pillows. I smell her, and I smell me, and I smell us being together. It makes me smile.

I take my new cell phone out of my pocket - I lost my old one in the accident, but River Moon pack had a bunch of spares and they replaced it. I take a deep breath, and call my parents.

“Hello?” my Mom answers.

“Hi Mom, happy new year. Sorry I didn’t get the chance to call before now.”

“I’m so glad to hear your voice! Happy new year to you too!” I hear her call out, “Zachary! Get on the phone! It’s Dominic!”

The clunk of the extension being picked up comes over the line, and I hear my Dad’s voice. “Dominic!”

“Hey Dad, happy new year.”

They speak over each other. “How are you doing?” Mom asks, and at the same time Dad says, “When will you be home?”

“Um, I’m doing really good,” I say, “really good. I’m not sure when we’ll be home, the packs are coordinating an effort to find the rogues and we’re staying until that’s done, I guess.”

“Ah,” I hear Dad say.

“Be careful, honey,” Mom moms at me. Heh!

“I’m always careful,” I assure them. “Um, I have some other news, something that I need to tell you."

“Is something wrong?” Dad.

“Are you okay?” Mom.

“Oh, I’m fine, I’m perfect, nothing’s wrong. It’s just really big news, and I’m really happy, and, um…” I’m not really sure how to say it, so just, I guess, out with it. “I’m mated!”

Silence.

I can tell they’re stunned, and I hear my Mom start to sniffle. “Oh, honey, that’s wonderful!” she finally says, her voice full of happy tears.

“Well, Son,” my Dad says, “that is big news.”

“Who is she?” Mom says. “When do we meet her?”

Phew. I’ve got the main part out of the way. Thank goodness my parents are mated wolves, something that I never really understood or appreciated until now. They can understand exactly what I’m talking about. “Her name is Amelia. She’s the assistant to the River Moon Gamma. She is the most beautiful woman in the world, and she’s so smart, and funny, and generous, and kind, and she got me a fez for Christmas, and she smells amazing, and her wolf is my color - I mean my skin color, and that makes so much sense because my wolf is the color of her hair, and I can’t believe how lucky I am, and….”

They listen to me gushing hyperactively for a solid five minutes before I finally stop to take a breath. My Mom has been oohing and aahing, and my Dad has been mm-hmming throughout.

“I’m so happy for you, sweetheart!” Mom says.

“She gave you a present for Christmas?” Dad says. “So you mated her over a week ago?”

I see that he has figured out the timing issue.

“Um, yeah, I met her the first night we arrived. At the Solstice Ball.”

“Took you long enough to tell us, didn’t it?” my Dad says with a little bit of light-hearted snark in his tone.

“Well, about that… um, we, uh, waited to finish it. And to tell anyone. She didn’t want to get in the way of the mating ceremony for their Alpha and Janine. I’ve told you about that, how the River Moon Alpha met my friend Janine at the Ball? Well, it was the same time as us, and Amelia said she didn’t want to get in their way. So we just waited until she was finished planning out their ceremony for New Year’s Eve.”

Another silence.

“You… waited?” Mom asks.

“Hm,” Dad says.

“Yeah, I know, it’s weird, but it worked just fine, and everybody was totally shocked when we came to breakfast yesterday with our marks, but they’re getting used to the idea now, and everyone’s just focusing on getting ready for the rogue thing, and…” I know that I’m blathering again. I stop, take another breath, and say, “I wanted to tell you, but she wanted to keep it a secret. So we did.”

“Sounds like you did what she wanted, Son, and that is exactly what you should always do,” Dad says, and I’m so relieved to hear the tone of warm approval in his voice.

“Damn straight!” my mom agrees, and it makes us all laugh.

I go on to tell them a lot more details about everything. They already know about the accident, of course, I called and told them about that the next morning, but there’s a lot of other stuff to chat about, and I have the leisure time since Amelia’s not here. It’s really nice to just have a long talk with my folks. It feels different, and I realize that I think it’s because I don’t feel like they are viewing me as just a kid now. I’m a mated man. My childhood is done.

“So,” I wrap up, “as soon as the rogue thing is finished, hopefully in a few days, Amelia and I will come out for a visit at least. We have no idea where we’ll end up staying, or what we’ll be doing, we have to just let it develop.”

“Okay, honey,” Mom says, “I can’t wait to meet her!”

We hang up, and I lean back against the pillows. Ahhhhh. A wonderful talk with my parents who know everything now, I feel so good, there’s nothing to do but wait, and I think I’ll just close my eyes and breathe in Amelia’s scent.