Just a Rogue

Evan

I go to my room, lay on the bed, and stare at the ceiling. The Alpha told us to get some rest, but how can I? Corinne is in that cave with those animals, probably being subject to…

Gah!

I bury my face under a pillow. I have to stop thinking about it. I remember the far more pleasant moment when that rogue got punched out by Alpha Kanen. That was a good moment.

But my brain won’t stay away from Corinne, and I’m thinking about her gray eyes as I finally drift off to sleep.

…

It’s still dark when I wake up. It’s about four in the morning, and I’m wide awake. Well, I got about two hours of sleep, that’s enough, right?

I go ahead and get up, shower, dress, and am downstairs before five.

The graveyard crew is in the conference room, holding mugs of coffee and staring at the silent screens, nothing coming from the audio feed but snoring. No drones are in the sky.

“Hey,” I say. “Anything happening?”

“Not really. That one rogue returned from Arcata, but nobody said anything when he got back. They’re just all sleeping apparently.”

I nod and sit down. “I’ll take over if any of you want to go to bed,” I offer, and one of the River Moon guys gets up.

“Great, thanks,” he says and heads out the door.

I get back up, move over to the counter where the coffee maker is still hot and ready, and pour myself a big mug. Black. No sugar. I want to stay awake.

By about seven, most of the day shift is here. I don’t think anyone wants to linger in bed on such a big day. Alpha Ross and Luna Darlene come in, and she tells me good morning with a smile. Pretty soon, Amelia and Dominic arrive as well, looking more well-rested than I feel.

“Hey Evan,” Dom says, “how’re you doing?”

I just shrug. I’m barely hanging in there, only caffeine and gritted teeth keeping me from going crazy. I’m pretty sure he understands.

Theo comes in shortly after they do, on his crutches. “I’ll just be here a couple of hours,” he tells us, “my folks are picking me up at nine to go to the hospital. Dr. Hughes says after they take some x-rays and stuff, if everything looks okay she’ll take this fucking cast off.”

“Language!” we hear, and look up to see Luna Janine coming in, Alpha Kanen right behind her. She’s just teasing him, we can all tell. She seems to be in a pretty good mood - I think she found our take-down of that big rogue to be exhilarating last night.

“Good morning, everyone,” Kanen says, his blond hair streaming around his shoulders, looking damp like he just took a shower. “Ross, want to come talk for a minute?”

Alpha Ross nods and accompanies him back out of the room.

The Lunas sit next to each other, and I overhear Janine telling Darlene, “Kanen wanted to wash my hair again for me this morning. He was so pissed off at that rogue for touching it!”

Darlene snickers a little. Dominic and I meet eyes, and I can tell that he’s thinking he agrees with Kanen. I do too. He was infuriated at the rogue for touching his woman’s hair. It’s nothing to what I’m feeling about what I know is happening to Corinne.

My jaw clenches again.

Amelia

The kitchen crew is bringing in big trays of breakfast for us, pastries and fruit and crispy bacon and hard boiled eggs, when the audio feed in the cave suddenly comes to life. We hear “Hey!”, in the voice that we are already starting to recognize as the rogue leader’s.

We all listen, entranced, as the rogues discuss what happened last night in town. It’s perfect - it sounds like they are interpreting the disappearance of three of their members as nothing more than the men deciding to quit the group and go off on their own. I’m glad that one rogue was left to go back, because if they had all vanished it might seem more suspicious. This way, it is a plausible theory that those three just got sick of Xavier and left.

Um, speaking of those rogues…. I ask Janine, “Do you know if anyone is bringing breakfast down to them?”

She smirks. “I suppose we should. I have no idea what Kanen and Ross plan to do with them, but I don’t imagine starving them to death is one of the options. Yeah, can you have the kitchen bring trays of food down?”

I nod, and get up to go out with the instructions. Darlene stops me. “Amelia, tell them to send only men.” Her usually kind face is hard. “Those rogues are monsters to women. They don’t get to lay eyes on any of our females.”

Janine nods in agreement. She is so right.

I get to the kitchen and head into the back to find the head cook. “Hey Barbara,” I ask when I see her, “can you have three trays with breakfast brought downstairs to the rogues in the jail cells? Just have them slide the food through the little slots underneath the doors.”

She nods briskly. “Of course,” she says. Feeding people is her business, and she has no qualms at all about feeding prisoners. I’m sure their meal will be delicious and the portions generous.

“The Lunas wanted to make sure that no women go down there,” I add. “The rogues have been really terrible to their females, so Luna Darlene said that they are not to lay eyes on any of ours.”

Barbara’s teeth clench as she nods. I suspect that the rogues’ breakfast portions might have just gotten slightly less generous.

Dominic

While Amelia is out getting food ordered for the rogues downstairs, the rogues in the cave are making plans. Xavier hauls the men outside for a real chewing out. We’re still able to make out the audio from the sensitive mics just inside the cave entrance, and the webcam from the tree facing the cave shows the video.

We all stare as Xavier yells at them. There is a whole lot of cussing, and Theo, who is typing up the transcription, is trying not to laugh at how many fucks and shits and assholes he is having to spell out.

It’s interesting to watch Xavier operate. I can see why he is the leader of these rogues. He’s got those dudes alternating between fear, guilt, anger, and eagerness to please him. I remember that he used to be the Alpha of a pack, and I can see that he still possesses the leadership qualities of an Alpha. He’s not just some petty criminal, he really is a serious threat, to have a big group of men both loyal and terrified.

I’m glad we’re taking him down.

The Alphas come back in during this, and when we hear that the rogues are planning to send someone into town for supplies, Kanen looks at me and says, “Time for the drone crew to head out.”

I nod and stand, and go to meet the other three folks that are on the morning trailhead team. Same folks as yesterday morning, Laura and Pam from River Moon, and Jim from Dark Woods. It was about time for us to meet in the garage anyway, I’m sure they are in the cafeteria finishing up breakfast.

I know that’s where Amelia went, and I hope to see her as I’m heading that way. I’m so relieved when I find her heading back towards me. We duck into a hallway, and in half a second she has slammed me against the wall and her tongue is in my mouth. My god when her aggressive wolf side comes out it is the sexiest thing ever. I am the luckiest man alive. Sproing!

She laughs into my mouth. “I know,” she thinks to me, “me too. Sproing!”

Another thirty seconds of making out, then it’s time to go. Will there ever be a day that we can just spend together, nothing between us, no responsibilities? Just her and me?

She looks at me sort of sadly. “I want that too,” she says. “Who knows, maybe when this rogue thing is over.” She pauses, and looks at me with a worried expression. “Be careful out there today, Dom,” she says seriously. “I think the rogues are going to start realizing what’s happening, and this is going to get more dangerous.”

I think she’s right, but I tell her, “Nah, everything will be perfectly safe.”

She looks at me wryly. “You do realize that I can hear it when you are thinking one thing and saying something different.”

I give her a sheepish smile. “Oops!” Then I stroke her cheek. “I’ll be careful. And I know you’ll be watching.”

We both sigh, break apart, and head in opposite directions.

The other three are waiting for me, and they have big coolers of food that the kitchen has packed for us to bring with us. Wolves have big appetites, and the kitchen knows it, so we’ll be fine out there. I’ll bet there’s extra cookies today, too.

When we get to the trailhead and set up our equipment, getting the drones in the air, it is just in time to see two rogues getting to the car to head into town. It’s a male and a female. We track the vehicle to a shopping center in McKinleyville, about halfway to Arcata, still within the range of our drones.

We circle the drones overhead, and observe the little video screens on our phones as the rogues go into separate stores, apparently needing to do different shopping? I’m prepared to wait for them to finish and see where else we will need to track them, but then something unexpected happens.

The female rogue darts back out of the store, way too fast to have actually done any shopping, runs quickly behind the shopping center and starts tearing down the street. I tell Pam, who’s controlling the other drone, “I’ll follow her,” and I move my drone along behind the rogue, who seems to be running out towards the edge of town.

“Are you seeing this?” I think to Amelia.

“We are.” She starts showing me her view of the video feed on her computer screen, clearer inside my head than staring at my phone is, and I use her vision to guide my fingers. I can see her split screen on the computer, the video from overhead of the running girl, and the map with the dot showing her location. The map also shows the dot where we are, at the trailhead. She’s getting closer.

“Is she coming here?!” I ask Amelia.

“We think so!” she tells me excitedly. “That must be Ruby, we think that Corinne found the chance to tell her about the rendezvous point. I think she might be coming to the trailhead to submit to you!”

I tell the others, excitedly indicating my phone screen, “Look at this! I think the rogue is coming here to submit!” I’m not sure any of us thought this would actually happen.

We watch the feed as she gets closer, comes up to the trees bordering the parking lot, hesitates behind them, probably not thinking we’re watching her from overhead, then starts walking out. We’re all staring at her as she approaches.