Just a Rogue

Beta Nolan

Well, that’s a surprise. I suppose I haven’t paid all that much attention to Dominic through most of the last few days, but I had noticed that he was spending time with Michael’s assistant. But mates? I mean, I have to believe it, the evidence is right there on their throats, but it seems so odd. We’ve been here nearly two weeks, and they just marked each other last night? Well, to be fair, I had Dominic on the road with me almost half of that time.

I think about that. If they were mates, unmarked mates, how did he do it? He didn’t complain, or seem like he was languishing, he just kept his head down and did his job.

When I found my mate, there would have been no focus, no ability to concentrate on anything else until we had marked each other and finalized our bond.

Huh.

My ruminations are interrupted by Beta Malcolm. In his deep voice, he says, “I got a call this morning from Dr. Hughes with an update about Theo’s condition.”

We all listen attentively. Everyone here is concerned about Theo, and the catastrophic injuries he suffered to his legs in the car accident two nights ago. I’ve rarely seen anything more gruesome - his right leg appeared to be completely mangled, crushed when the car collided head-on into a tree.

Malcolm goes on. “Theo had surgery to repair several compound fractures, and pins had to be placed into his right leg to hold the bones together while he heals. Dr. Hughes said that it was a race against his wolf healing, to try to put all the bones and muscles and veins back into the correct position before his body cemented the damage into place. She believes that the surgery was successful, and that he will be fully recovered within a few days. He’s lucky he’s a wolf - a regular human would be in far worse condition.”

“Can we go visit him?” my assistant asks. I know that Evan has become friendly with Theo and the other staff during our visit.

Malcolm nods. “Yes, actually, Dr. Hughes thought it would be helpful if anyone would like to go visit him today. His family has been there, of course, but it seems that Theo is raring to go, insisting that he feels fine, and trying to be far more active than she advises. She wants to keep him overnight in the hospital at least one more day, and hopes that some time with friends would keep him quiet long enough to heal more, and be ready for discharge possibly tomorrow.

Dom says, “Yeah, we’ll go out there today.” Then he looks sheepish and glances around the room, seeming to think that he might have spoken out of turn.

Amelia immediately chimes in with, “Yes, after the meeting is over, of course.” I see the mate bond is already in place, they are functioning together, probably even sensing each other’s thoughts to some extent. I’m not sure if the bond is as powerful with lower level wolves.

“Great,” Alpha Kanen says. “Now, Ross, if you could give us a summary of the cave expedition?”

My Alpha begins, and speaks for several minutes about the eleven caves that we visited, briefly describing each location, and verifying that we encountered no rogues while claiming their caves by scent marking them inside and out. I offer him the map that Evan and I have been trying to complete, for reference. I’ll always regret losing the one that I had been using, and the notes that I had kept, on our expedition. We’ll do our best to recreate everything, but I doubt the second version will be as complete.

“Then,” Ross concludes, “our cars were caught in a mudslide north of Willow Creek, and you intercepted us walking into town.”

Evan catches my eye. It sounds so straightforward to hear it put like that. Nothing of the drama and fear and pain that we all experienced, even Ross. But he’s an Alpha, he’d never share that with anyone. Except his Luna, of course, I’m sure she felt it all through the mate bond just like each of our mates did.

My eyes drift speculatively over to Amelia. She was there, it occurs to me, on the road in the rain, with the crew that came out to rescue us after the accident. I didn’t give it much thought at the time. After all, she is Gamma Michael’s assistant. But now I realize what must have happened. She must have felt it too.

Huh.

Evan

“Thanks, Ross,” Alpha Kanen says. “The effort that you and your team put in was incredibly valuable. We understand so much more now about the rogues’ range and activities.”

He pauses, and nods to each of us, acknowledging the effort that we all put in. I appreciate the recognition. Dom meets my eyes, and I know he does too.

“While you were gone,” he continues, “Janine was able to obtain some additional data from the rogue cell phone.”

Huh? Cell ph… oh! Yeah! I had actually forgotten that we found a cell phone in the very first cave, the day after Christmas. That’s interesting! And of course, if anyone could hack into some piece of tech, it’d be Janine. She’s brilliant.

The Alpha gestures at her to continue. “Once we obtained the password,” she says, “I was able to unlock the phone. I quickly disabled location tracking, just in case any of the rogues were trying to find it. Then I went through the entire phone metadata, checking all the texts and browser history and pictures, everything that the user did on the phone for the last couple of years. The last use was about three weeks ago, right before we came here to River Moon. The phone must have just been forgotten in the cave behind the lodge, as best I can tell. I was able to pinpoint the location of the phone during most of those instances, and correlate that to the caves that you all explored this week.”

She pushes a big map onto the center of the table, the same type that Nolan and I were working on earlier. I see that they also have the cave locations marked in one color of ink, and a lot of dots have been placed in another color of ink. She points. “These dots are the locations of the cell phone usage, and as you see most of it is around the areas the caves are located in. However, on the coast, closer to River Moon’s territory, there is a lot of activity to the north of us, up to the state border and into Oregon.”

Wow. This is incredibly detailed information. I see Dom and Amelia looking at each other, clearly as impressed as I am.

Janine taps a pen against a concentration of dots close to Arcata. “We believe this is where the final cave is located, the one that our packs have not marked.” She traces the end of the pen further north. “As you can see, the activity also carries on up the coast. This correlates with what Corinne told us. She thought that the rogues were heading in that direction, north of here, when she last saw them.”

“So,” Kanen concludes, “with all of the information we have gathered, we have a pretty comprehensive understanding of their territory. We’ve claimed most of it now, so they’re limited to the western segment. We believe from the text history that they are probably in Oregon at the moment, but will be moving back towards us sometime soon.” He looks around the table. “What we need to do is derive a strategy for how to move forward with our plan to eliminate the rogue threat.”

There’s a silence while everyone at the table looks around at each other. This is the important part, we all know, but I have an extra reason for wanting to make sure this is done right. Corinne nearly sacrificed everything last night to try to help the other female rogues. I was barely able to catch up with her and convince her to come back with me. If she had succeeded, there would be no way to protect her once the battle plans are drawn.

But since she’s back, and nobody has any idea that she had tried to run away, I hope that the leaders will continue to value her assistance enough to make an agreement to protect the females. I’m not exactly sure how to approach this, though. Not straight on, I can’t just start with asking them to make sure not to hurt some of the rogues. That’d be weird.

Um….

Oh. “I have a question,” I say, and look at Janine. She nods encouragingly. “Um, how did you get the password to the phone?” I’m sure it must have come from Corinne. Maybe if I try to remind them how useful she’s being, they’ll be more open to granting her request for protection of her friends.

“Oh, Corinne had a couple of ideas, and one of them was correct. I’m not sure that I ever would have cracked the phone without her.”

I think that Amelia gets what I’m trying to do, and she just says it up front. “Corinne has been really helpful. The password, the locations of all the caves, even the suggestion that the rogues are headed north. Everything she’s told us has been confirmed.”

Her boss looks at her with a slight frown. “What does she want, anyway? Why is the rogue being so cooperative?”

Yes! Here it is. Amelia speaks up again, so I don’t have to.

“She wants two things,” she says pertly. “The first is protection. For herself, and for the female rogues. She has described the conditions they are living in, and the females are basically captives. She managed to escape, but she wants to help her friends get away. She’s worried that they’re going to be hurt in the battle.”

Alpha Kanen, who still looks exactly like Thor to me, is the one who asks the follow-up question. “What’s the second thing?”

Amelia answers, quietly, “She wants to join our pack.”

“What?” Michael blurts out. “Rogues don’t join packs.”

Amelia argues passionately, “But what if the rogue deserves a second chance? What if they were treated unfairly by their own pack, if they were only a victim?” I agree with her whole-heartedly, and admire her so much for her courage in actually taking on her own leaders. That takes guts.

Kanen shakes his head. “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves here. Let’s focus on the current issue. Leave tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow.” He looks around at the table, making sure that everyone is focused. “Suggestions?”

Luna Janine says, “I have an idea, but I’m not really ready to share it yet. I have to develop it further. Can we adjourn until tomorrow?”

“Of course,” her mate says immediately, obviously wanting to indulge her in anything she wants. And probably even more than that, Kanen has realized that his mate is brilliant, and knows that if she is working on an idea, it would be best to let it develop.

“Well,” Ross says, “in our pack this is usually a holiday anyway. It’s New Year’s Day. Why don’t we just take the rest of the day off, and meet again tomorrow?”

“Sounds good,” Kanen says. “Tomorrow morning, let’s say nine a.m. See you all here. Enjoy the rest of the day.”

Everyone pushes back from the table and stands up. I ask Dom and Amelia, “So, you guys want to go visit Theo?”

“Yeah,” Dom starts, but then pauses when Luna Janine steps over to Amelia. I look up and realize that Darlene is with her.

Janine says, “Amelia, we’re wondering if you could help us with something this afternoon?”

She hesitates, then says, “Of course.” She looks over at Dom. “Give Theo my best, okay?”

He nods, then gets a mischievous look on his face, and plants a big wet kiss on her mouth, tongues and all, right here in front of the entire leadership of both packs. She kisses him back, laughing, then glancing around to make sure nobody seems offended by their PDA.

I see Alpha Ross meet Luna Darlene’s eyes, who smiles at him. He puts his big hand on Dom’s shoulder. Dom looks up at him, probably expecting to be chewed out. But Alpha says, “Good for you,” and heads out the door.

Ha! Dom’s shocked and pleased expression is hilarious. “Let’s go see Theo,” I tell him.