Just a Rogue

Beta Nolan

I’m not surprised when Alpha Ross mind-links me, that is common. I am surprised by his question. “Did you know that Evan is in love with the rogue?” he asks.

Oh. I pause for a moment, composing an answer. “I was aware that he was spending time with her, along with Dominic and Amelia. And, I did see them entering his room upstairs one night. It was New Year’s Eve, the night of the mating celebration.”

“You didn’t think it was important enough to mention it to me?”

“I’m sorry, Alpha, but no, I didn’t. The wolves often engage in casual relationships with each other. I did not assign any particular importance to it, and did not believe it was worth bringing it to your attention. We were quite busy that week, with the cave expedition, the accident, and then planning for the rogue battle. I didn’t want to burden you with trivia.”

“All right,” he says, and I hope that he is not angry. I don’t believe he is, though, he just wants to collect all the data. I wonder what triggered the question.

“Evan freaked out while monitoring the cave,” he explains. “The rogues have begun returning, and Xavier assaulted Corinne.”

Oh. Well, it isn’t anything we did not anticipate.

“I’ve decided to accelerate our plans,” Ross goes on. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to wait two days. We might have to begin as soon as tonight. So we’re going to do combat training now. Gather everyone who wants to participate and meet behind the packhouse.”

“Will do.”

In ten minutes I have moved through the packhouse and notified the Dark Woods wolves. Almost all of them want to take part. A handful are in the conference room participating in monitoring, and a couple more prefer to avoid physical combat. But most wolves are eager for the battle.

Alpha Kanen has gathered most of the River Moon wolves as well. When we gather behind the packhouse, with scattered clouds moving swiftly overhead, there are some fifty people ready to begin training.

The Alphas stand together. Kanen begins, raising his voice so we can all hear him outside. “Okay, the rogues have begun arriving at the cave we left untouched for them. We overheard a bit of their plans through the equipment that the female rogue planted for us. We don’t have the details yet, but we know the gist of what they intend to do. Xavier apparently intends to attack some of our pack members who live out in Arcata rather than here at the packhouse.”

A rustle of alarm and anger moves through the crowd. Probably all the River Moon wolves have friends and family living in the community.

“I expect him to start making forays into Arcata, probably sending teams of a couple of wolves to find River Moon members who are vulnerable to a speedy assault. He seems to think that he can establish a superior bargaining position if he causes enough damage to our members.”

Ross shakes his head disgustedly.

“Obviously we’re not going to let them get that far. No members of the packs are going to be harmed. But, we’re going to let them try.”

We are all eager to hear the plan. Ross takes over. “Their conversation is being carefully monitored, so we’ll have more details later, but we anticipate an attempt being made as early as tonight. They are cowards, bullies who believe that they can easily victimize and control she-wolves. So, we want to lay a trap. We need some female volunteers.”

I am proud that every single Dark Woods she-wolf volunteers, hands determinedly reaching to the sky. The same is true of the River Moon wolves.

Kanen looks around and nods with satisfaction. “We want to have some of you walking in town, alone, providing the temptation for them to move in. We’ll have you apart from places where pack families are living. We want to keep this away from any of our young ones.”

Heads nod. Everyone agrees. “If the rogues try to attack,” Ross adds, “our teams will move in. The training for today won’t be battling in wolf form. We’re practicing urban combat in human form. We’ll have teams in vehicles, following within a block or two of our bait wolves. Any rogues that try to attack our she-wolves will be quickly apprehended, incapacitated and brought back to be locked up here.”

“One more point,” Kanen says, a devious smile on his face. “They’ll be under drone surveillance the entire time. We will always know exactly where they are. They don’t know it, but they’ll never stand a chance.”

This is an excellent plan. The rogues think they are going to pick off the pack one by one? The tables will be turned.

The wolves break into groups. Several vehicles are fetched from the garage, and the scenes are rehearsed. She-wolves walk down the long driveway one at a time, a group playing the rogues moves in for the attack, and the pack team rushes forward to quickly wrestle the rogues into the cars.

They’re not playing. These are wolves. We are fierce creatures, and nobody is holding back. People are getting injured, but their wolf healing is keeping up. Evan has taken the role of a pack member, and I watch a couple of times as he descends so savagely on the pretend kidnappers that they are helpless against his ferocity. We might want to have the pack doctor on standby.

Theo

I’m sorry not to be out back participating in the combat training, but I am also concentrating intensely on the audio feed. I’m listening to the rogues planning to attack us, planning to get down into Arcata to track pack members, find any alone or vulnerable, and hurt them. Or in the case of women, kidnap them. It is disgusting, and I cannot wait to take these beasts out. I think of my mother, my cousins, my aunts, down there in town potentially being targeted by the rogues, and I am ready for murder.

But I’m doing the next best thing. The more they talk, the more they plan, the more they are going to fall into our trap. It’s amazing how perfectly this is working. The microphones, concealed in different spots around the cave, are very sensitive and pick up on every conversation. We’re trying to each focus on one, and I am trying specifically to track anything Xavier says. A couple of the other men appear to be familiar with Arcata, and are speculating about the best areas to commit their filthy assaults. I am tracking everything on a map. We’ll be waiting for them.

Everyone outside is practicing, apparently, taking turns pretending to be the rogues and the pack, jumping on each other and tossing each other into the backs of cars, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I know what I’m doing is important, but I still can’t help but wish I was outside participating in the fracas.

Darlene breaks the silence. Everyone in this room has been intensely focused for the past half hour or so, concentrating on the cave feeds. She says, “Ah, I heard from Ross. He wants me to have Dr. Hughes on standby. Apparently everyone at the practice is taking it very, very seriously.”

Janine looks up. “I’ll give her a call. I need to go get something from my room anyway, there’s something that I’ve thought of that might help with the training.” She looks over to Amelia, who is sitting next to me, typing away on her laptop, transcribing the conversation she is following between the female wolves, including Corinne. “Amelia,” Janine says, “I could use a hand with something.”

Amelia nods, and a couple of the wolves who have been watching the drone feed move to take over the audio tracking instead. Nothing is really happening with the drones right now.

Amelia

“Of course, Luna,” I tell Janine. It’s honestly a relief to get the chance to stand up and stretch my legs a bit. It’s been a long day of focusing on our spy equipment at the cave. “What can I do for you?”

I follow her to the Alpha quarters where she lives with Kanen now. “Let me call Dr. Hughes real quick,” she says, “then I have something to show you.”

I wait while she pulls out her cell phone. “Dr. Hughes? This is Janine. Yes, Luna Janine,” she says, smirking a little. I love my Luna already and one of the things that is so lovable about her is how little she thinks of her powerful position. “I’m wondering if you are free? Kanen would like for you to come out to the packhouse. Most of the pack is doing some combat training and apparently there have been a few injuries that he’d like you to take a look at. Yeah, thanks. See you soon.”

She ends the call and looks at me. “She’s on her way.” She moves to where a sort of briefcase is sitting on a table at the back of the living room, and brings it over to the couch. “Have a seat,” she says.

I watch as she sets the case on the coffee table, and unlatches it carefully. Within is a foam casing, containing about a dozen small, silver-colored tubes. I look at it, perplexed.

“This is something that we’ve been developing at Dark Woods,” she tells me, “a defensive weapon. We brought it as part of the alliance negotiations, but that happened so quickly that we didn’t get this far.”

Heh. The alliance was moved along very nicely by Janine’s mating with Kanen.

I lean over to look more closely at the little tubes. They’re about four inches long, maybe an inch in diameter, and seem to have a spigot underneath a cap on top. I look up at her. “What are they?”

“Aerosolized silver,” she says, and waits for my reaction.

“Ahhhh,” I breathe, “like, silver dust?”

“Exactly. We’ve developed this as a way to incapacitate attackers. If the silver dust is deployed and makes contact with a wolf, either in human or in wolf form, it is temporarily very debilitating. The effect is worse the more exposure there is, especially if any of it is inhaled.”

“You want to use this for the combat training?” I ask.

“Almost. We only have these samples here with us, so we can’t use these, but I’d like to know if you can think of anything similar that is available here in the packhouse. Something that the decoy females can carry and practice with.”

I pause, my mind racing around. “Um, yes! We have some little bottles of room deodorizer that the cleaning staff keeps. I think they’re about this size.”

She nods. “Perfect. Can you go grab them? I’ll meet you out back.”

I run down to the basement storage area, to the supply closet, and poke around until I find a box of the little bottles. This looks perfect, almost the same size and shape as the little tubes that Janine showed me.

I grab the box and run up the back stairs past my room, taking a big whiff as I pass by. Dom has been here so much that his delicious scent is all down this hallway. Mmmmm.

Evan

I’m so grateful to Alpha Ross. This is exactly what I need. All of the rage, all of the fury, all of the pain, is being channeled into this training. I crash into another guy who has grabbed a she-wolf from behind, and I hear a snapping sound as I am wrestling him into the back of the car. Oops. Hope that wasn’t a rib. Well, he’s a wolf, he’ll be fine.

Alpha Kanen calls a halt. “Take a break everyone!”

We all stop what we’re doing, and Luke gingerly crawls back out of the car, giving me a rueful glare while he rubs his side. “Uh, sorry,” I tell him. “Got a little carried away.”

I see that Amelia is walking up from the packhouse, together with Janine. They go over and stand with Kanen. “Okay, gather round!” he says.

When we have all clustered around them, Janine says, “We have developed a weapon at Dark Woods, using aerosolized silver. It is very potent. We’ve brought something to practice with, not the silver, but we want you to get the feel for using it during combat. All the decoy she-wolves, grab one of these.” She holds up a little bottle. “This is just room deodorizer,” she says, “it won’t hurt anybody, but if you get sprayed in the face with it, act like you’re passing out.”

Ross steps over. “I’ve seen it in action, it’s very effective. I think we should demonstrate so everyone knows what to expect.”

Janine nods, probably about to ask for a volunteer which I am eager to do. But Ross goes on, “I’ll demonstrate. Let’s set up the scene again.” He looks straight at me and gestures for me to join him. “Okay, Luna,” Ross continues with a little smile, probably still also adjusting to Janine being a Luna. “I’m gonna attack you. Do your worst.” He looks back at me. “Evan, be ready to apprehend me.”

Before he starts, he says, “Ladies, watch Luna Janine, this is how you should be handling it.”

Janine takes one of the little bottles and tucks it away in the pocket of her sweatshirt, one of her hands in there, obviously clutching it. She starts walking back towards the packhouse, and Ross stalks after her. He suddenly darts forward and grabs her from behind, getting one hand on her shoulder before she spins, her hand already coming around holding the bottle, and sprays the deodorizer right into his face.

“Argh!” he bellows, staggering backwards, his hands coming up to clutch his face, then he starts coughing and drooping almost like he is too weak to keep standing upright. Our enormous, bearded, tattooed Alpha lets me grab him from behind and push him without resistance straight into the back of the vehicle.

There is a stunned silence.

Kanen is the one who breaks the silence. “Um, is that supposed to be … funny?”

Janine beams at him. “Nope. Completely accurate. Alpha Ross has witnessed several demonstrations of the silver weapon, and his depiction is truthful. Not exaggerated. The silver dust burns the skin, and if inhaled is very debilitating. The effects can last for up to an hour until the silver clears the system.”

“Okay then,” Kanen says. “That’s plenty of time to bundle the assholes back here and toss them in our jail cells. I guess we need to practice trying to do it without attracting too much attention. We don’t want 911 responding to the scene.”

Ross is clambering out of the back of the SUV rubbing his face and spitting.

Kanen looks at him with amusement. “Um, are you okay?”

He rubs his eyes with his shirt sleeve. “Man, that stuff stinks,” he complains. “Better than silver, though. I’ll take a face full of room deodorizer a thousand times rather than being hit with the real thing.”

We all look at each other. Those rogues are so screwed.