Just a Rogue

Theo

Dr. Hughes has okayed the removal of the cast, much to my relief. She can’t take it off herself, though, and she apologizes because apparently she likes to supervise that part. She confides, because she knows that I am Beta Malcolm’s assistant, that the rogue battle is about to begin and she has been summoned.

What?

They’re having the battle without me?

ARGH!

There’s nothing to do, though, but get through the rest of this appointment, and then get back to the packhouse as soon as I can. I know that everything will be on display at the command center, and hopefully I’ll be able to at least watch as it unfolds.

The assistant saws off my cast, too slowly for my liking, and is barely able to hand me a cane and caution me to not put my full weight on that leg, or to shift wolf for at least another day, before I am calling “Thanks!” over my shoulder as I rush back out to the waiting room.

My folks look up from their phones, and Mom says, “Oh, Theo, look at you!” when she sees the cast is gone. She is smiling ear to ear. “Want to go get lunch on the way home?”

I don’t have time. “No, I’m needed at the packhouse immediately. Can you please just take me straight there?”

I think she’s going to object, but Dad sees my urgency. “Of course, son.” He stands up. “I’ll pull the car around.”

“No time,” I say, walking straight out the door, trying to get used to walking with a damned cane now like I’m an eighty-year-old human. I take a couple of steps without it, and apparently the medical professionals know what they’re talking about because it causes a zing of pain up my leg. It’s frustrating, but I suppose I should just be grateful I’m a wolf. A human would have taken months to recover from that injury, not days.

“Again. You’re welcome,” Wolfy McSnideFace comments from within.

My parents rush to keep up with me as I hobble across the parking lot to the car and crawl into the back seat.

“Can you tell us what it is?” Dad asks, pulling out of the lot. He can see that I need to get back for something important.

I don’t see why not. Everyone will be talking about it by the end of the day. “The packs are moving against the rogues. I need to be at the packhouse to monitor.”

“Oh, my,” Mom whispers. “I’m glad you’ll be safe, at least, honey.”

Dad meets my eyes in the rearview mirror and we share a smirk. She’s such a Mom.

He pulls up to the front of the packhouse to drop me off. I get out with the cane, and lean in the door for a moment to say, “Thanks, Mom, Dad, I really appreciate everything. I’ll call you later.”

I get into the packhouse, hoping that they’ve got some snacks in the conference room because I really am starving. I think healing must burn extra calories, I’ve been eating like a, um, wolf lately.

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” my comedian wolf dryly comments.

Oh, man! The kitchen must be making fried chicken for lunch, the delightful aroma is wafting around and I can hardly wait to sink my teeth into that. But I head straight back to the conference room to see what’s happening.

Amelia looks up when I come in. She’s in here with the two Lunas, and they are manning the entire command center. So to speak. She smiles at me. “Hi Theo! You got the cast off!”

“Yep!” I grin, brandishing my cane triumphantly as I sink into a chair. “What’d I miss?”

“The battle is starting soon,” she tells me, and I nod. “Everyone is rendezvousing at a logging site close to the cave, then moving in.”

“Yeah, Dr. Hughes had to leave my appointment to go join them. Things sure changed fast. When I left this morning a couple of the rogues were just headed out to go shopping but everything else seemed pretty quiet. What happened?”

Luna Janine answers, her eyes still glued to her screens. “The female rogue who was shopping got away from the male and ran to the trailhead to submit to our team.”

“Woah! It actually worked?” I’m not sure I really believed that Corinne would be able to warn any of the she-wolves and get them to leave the rogues.

“Yes!” Amelia smiles. “She apparently tricked the male into letting her walk back to the cave. When Xavier figured out she was missing, he said that if she’s not back in an hour he’s going with some plan he has. Kanen didn’t want to wait and give them the chance. So everyone got ready to go in a hurry.”

“Where’s the rogue who submitted?”

“Oh, she’s downstairs waiting in a cell. She came up here first and gave us lots of useful information. Alpha just wanted her secure until after the battle. You should have heard her talking to the male rogues down there.”

“Yeah?” I ask. I look over at the screen showing the jail cells. Four are occupied now, so four video windows are open on the monitor. The new cell just has someone sleeping under the blankets, so I can’t see the she-wolf. The big obnoxious one is pacing around angrily in his cell, and the other two are just sitting quietly on their beds, waiting to see what is going to happen to them, probably in pain from their silver cuffs. But nobody is talking. “Did she cuss them out?”

Darlene snickers. “Only a little. She mostly just ignored them. Wouldn’t give them the time of day. It was kind of glorious.”

“Well,” I say, turning to the other screens. “Which ones should I be tracking?”

Amelia looks distracted for a second, then says, “They’re arriving at the logging site. Two drones are heading up, we’ll have to watch those feeds carefully. One for the cave and one for the beach.”

“Why the beach?”

Janine answers again. “The rogue told us that the cave has another exit, on the cliff over the water, so we’re going to monitor that as well.”

Oh. Well that’s useful information to have. “Good thing the she-wolf made it here, then.”

We are interrupted by an escalation of sounds from the cave. Nobody has been talking in there since I got back, but I hear people moving, then the voice of their leader. Amelia and I immediately start typing, transcribing his words as he speaks.

Oh, damn, his plan is to take Corinne and the other females out the back way? Good thing that she-wolf told us about it so we’ll have a drone out there watching. Just as I’m thinking that, the video feed from one of the drones starts showing the beach, flying across the edge of the bluff overlooking the surf, out over the water, then back around to hover facing a part of the high, rocky cliff.

I stare at it, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. Amelia realizes I’m confused, and she points with her finger to a thin line on the cliff, a few feet below the top, and says, “That’s where the cave comes out, I guess you can’t see it very well from this side, but Ruby said from the other side you can get out onto a narrow ledge and climb up.”

This looks incredibly dangerous, especially since I can smell that rain is on the way. “That’s going to be slippery once it starts raining,” I point out.

Amelia glances out the sliding doors onto the patio that adjoins the conference room. “Well, it’s a sunny day, it won’t be raining at least.”

I shake my head. “No, I can definitely smell rain on the way.”

The Lunas look at each other and shrug.

Well, hopefully it’ll hold off until after Corinne gets over the ledge safely, at least.

Corinne

This is so bad. Xavier is dragging me down the long tunnel, and I’m getting the hopeless feeling of being trapped with him. I’ve only ever been in here once before so I’m not at all familiar with it. Last time I used it, when I ran away from the rogues in December, I was able to keep my hand along the wall to try to balance myself and not trip over things, but he won’t let go of my wrist so I keep tripping and stumbling. I fall down once or twice, and feel the sting on my knees where my jeans tear and my skin scrapes, before he is yanking me upright again.

I know better than to argue, though. I have to just try to follow along, and figure out what I’m going to do.

This is the worst case scenario. I had hoped that when the pack attacked, Xavier would shift wolf and fight them, and the girls and I could just wait at the back of the cave until it was over. But I had the bad luck of having Xavier right back next to us near the tunnel entrance, so when the smoke bomb went off, rather than fighting, Xavier just grabbed me and took off down the tunnel.

I realize that I never gave Amelia or anyone the details about where the tunnel comes out. I described the location of the cave, but not really this part, and I’m regretting that now. I’m regretting a lot, but I’m also so glad about a lot. Ruby got out. Lynette managed to avoid getting that collar back on, and I know that she and Nova will be able to submit to the pack when the battle is over, and they’ll be safe too.

But I don’t know how I’m going to get away from Xavier now. The pack doesn’t know where I’m going. Well, unless they’re tracking the devices in my shoes?

All I know is that when we get to the end of the tunnel, and climb up to the top of the cliff, I have to try to figure out a way to get away from Xavier. I’ll bet he’s planning to go back to the car and drive away, and if that happens I’m doomed. I’ll never escape, he’ll make sure of it.

I hear Seth behind me, and think of Evan waiting for me with the pack, and feel the burning pain of my scraped knees, and try not to despair.

Seth

The darkness of the tunnel is broken ahead by light coming in through the cliff entrance. The cliff splinters in just such a way that the entrance would not be visible from the outside. There is a sheet of rock overhanging the rest of the cliff, concealing the narrow crack that we have to get through to access the ledge.

I’m hoping that Xavier goes out first, then Grace. Because then I would have a few seconds alone in the tunnel, waiting for them to climb the ledge, to whisper my plan to Corinne. I have to convince her that if she runs away with me, I will keep her safe, we just have to figure out a way to do it.

My idea before the attack, though, was that Xavier couldn’t follow us since he’d be too busy controlling Lynette and Nova. But now he doesn’t have that problem, and he’ll just chase us, and I still can’t figure out how it is going to go down.

I don’t get my chance to talk to Corinne. Xavier peeks out through the crack at the sunny sky, probably checking that the ledge is sound, then looks back. “Seth, you go out first. Then Grace, then Corinne, then me. As soon as we all get out we’re running to the car.”

Damn. I glance hopelessly back at Corinne for a moment, and she looks almost panicky. She hasn’t seemed this terrified since she got back. I wonder if she’s regretting her decision to return. She thought she’d find security with Xavier, and instead she has come into the middle of an attack by the pack, and we are on the run. Full of regret to be leaving her behind in the tunnel without getting the chance to speak to her, I edge my way sideways out of the crevice.

My eyes are immediately blasted by the bright sunlight, painful after the dark tunnel. I look down at the ledge, and start inching my way up it. I have to hold my backpack in front of me, because the ledge is too narrow to do anything but press my back against the cliff, facing out, and inch my feet sideways up the tiny path.

When I get to the top, I have to use my hands to swing up onto the surface. I lay down the backpack, and turn to help Grace up, who is following along right behind me.

Corinne is behind her, and I am pissed when I see that, even now, on the dangerous ledge, Xavier won’t let go of her wrist. I had thought maybe we’d have a second to run once she got up here, but not if he won’t let go of her.

How am I getting her away from him?

I glance around while we’re waiting for Corinne, slower with Xavier encumbering her in that way. It’s bright and sunny, early afternoon, and the beautiful day has attracted a lot of beachgoers. This is a popular spot, College Cove nearby is a nice beach that people enjoy hiking to, and the view off of the steep cliffs here at Elk Head is breathtaking. It’s high tide, and the waves are crashing right onto the foot of the cliff some hundred feet below us, thunderous against the jagged rocks.

I’m glad there are no people nearby, although I see several groups along the hiking trails, or down at the cove. There’s half a dozen or so guys standing away from the edge of the cliff, some twenty yards away, looking in this direction, probably college kids here enjoying the view.

I look back to see Corinne’s progress, and she glances up over her head, meeting my eyes, looking terrified. It’s a scary path. “It’s okay, Corinne,” I try to reassure her, “just a couple more feet, then you can reach up and grab my hand.”

Xavier scowls up at me and keeps a firm grip on her wrist. She lifts her foot a little to move slightly further along the ledge, and I see her torn jeans, her bloody knee, and something snaps in my head.

That’s it. I’m getting her away from this abusive asshole, no matter what. She is suffering because of him, and I’m going to put a stop to it. A sense of absolute resolve descends over me, the indecision I had been experiencing only a moment ago evaporating. And I see what I have to do.

I’ve been blinded by my desire to run away together with her. But what if I take my own well-being and survival out of the equation. What if I stop worrying about what’s going to happen to me, and instead just give her the chance to run away alone, again. She did it once. Now that she must see that returning to Xavier has not improved things for her at all, maybe she’ll try it again, given the opportunity.

So that’s what I’m going to watch for now. The opportunity for her to get away. I’ll make it happen, even if I have to give up any hope for myself. If you’re willing to sacrifice everything, you don’t have anything to lose.