Just a Rogue

Corinne

I don’t know why it makes me feel sadder than ever. I’m happy for Amelia, and for Dom. For both of them together. I guess that it really is possible to find your fated mate. I’ve heard that it means that the Goddess has blessed you by giving you the one person that is perfect for you, your soulmate, a person to totally love you. A person who will be forever devoted to you. A person to complete you.

There’s no blessing for me, though. Or is there? Evan is very nice, and I like him, and I think he likes me. He kissed me, and I enjoyed it. Men have done things to me before without being as sweet about it. Could he be my mate?

“No,” my inner wolf shuts that idea down.

I sigh. I was right, I have no reason to believe the Goddess would ever bless me. I’m just a rogue. I don’t deserve that kind of happiness.

“You might have a mate out there somewhere, there’s no need to be all depressed and negative,” my wolf chides me. “It just isn’t Evan.

Really? I think about it as I load the dishes from the tray into the sink. Nobody seemed to think it was strange for me to show back up to work here in the kitchen, even though I haven’t actually been told what to do this morning now that last night’s big event is over. I figure I might as well just work, while I wait to see what is going to happen to me. I try not to think about that. I’d rather dream about getting a fated mate like Amelia. I silently ask my inner wolf, “Are you sure? Maybe it’s Evan and we just haven’t been paying enough attention?”

“Pfsh. Don’t you think I would recognize our true mate?”

“Well, I don’t know. How could you even tell?”

“There’s no mistaking it. I would know. You would know.”

Yeah, it makes me sad. Amelia and Dom are so happy, but I won’t ever be.

My wolf tries to cheer me up. “You do realize that people can have relationships without being fated mates, right? You thought that was what was happening with Amelia and Dom until you saw their marks. Humans fall in love all the time, and they don’t get fated mates.”

Yeah, I guess so.

What’s the point of even thinking about this, though? I shrug impatiently. Get a grip, Corinne. You’re a rogue. A pregnant rogue. A pregnant, exiled, pathetic rogue who can’t even help her she-wolf friends who are still trapped in the rogue pack.

I should be worried about the fact that I know the leaders are having a meeting this morning, during which I suppose they’ll be deciding whether to let me stay here, or kick me back out, or even execute me for being a rogue in their territory. That’s still a possibility. What I should be more focused on is what now? Fantasizing about a mate, or even a plain old boyfriend, is pointless and stupid.

I take out my bad mood on the dishes, scrubbing them vigorously in the hot, soapy water. My wolf fades into silence, but I feel that she is frustrated with me.

Fine. I’m frustrated too.

Amelia

The vendors are already arriving, to pick up the equipment from last night’s celebration. I had been planning to go over paperwork, but instead I’m directing them into the area behind the packhouse, to pick up the chairs and tables, the canopies and umbrellas, the sound equipment and portable dance floor. It occurs to me that we might want to actually own some of this equipment and keep it on hand, rather than renting it every time we host a big event. I’ll have to talk to my boss Michael about it.

While I’m doing this, somehow perfectly able to concentrate on my own tasks, I’m also fully aware of Dominic. The mate mind-link is so strong, and feels completely natural. Maybe the reason it doesn’t feel weird to have someone else in my head is because I’ve been silently conversing with my inner wolf since she emerged during adolescence. Or maybe it’s because Dom and I are soulmates, two halves of one greater whole. We complete each other. It isn’t distracting to have him in here, it is enhancing.

Whatever the reason, I adore having him with me like this. I feel him, I can sense his contentment as he lopes back out to the pack garage to inspect the vehicles, and perform whatever maintenance he feels is required. I can tell that he is slightly put off by the fact that one of the Dark Woods cars is missing, since it was destroyed in the mudslide two nights ago, along with one of the River Moon cars. I know that behind it all, he’s thinking of me, remembering all of our sexy time last night.

“Me too,” I think to him, amused, and he laughs back at me through our link. Even though I feel him constantly, it seems that to mentally communicate with words we have to do it more deliberately. I’m sure that we’ll get better at this as time goes on. It’s still pretty new.

The vendor trucks are just pulling away from the packhouse as the meeting is about to start at ten. Good timing. I dash into my little cubicle outside of Gamma Michael’s office to grab a notebook and pen for the meeting, then move towards the conference room.

Dom is waiting for me in the hallway with a big grin on his face. Rather than walk side by side, pretending that we barely know each other, as we have been doing for the past ten days, he actually grabs me, wrapping his arms behind my back, and leans down to give me a big kiss. It leaves me breathless and laughing.

“I’ve been wanting to kiss you in public this whole time!” he whispers.

“Me too,” I grin up at him. I have to get rid of the little sense of worry that we need to be more careful, need to hide what we are doing. No we don’t. We’re mated, we’re marked, there’s no hiding this anymore.

“Yeah,” he agrees out loud, having followed my thoughts. “Let them all see!”

We are holding hands as we walk together into the conference room.

Evan

Well, what now? There is so much that I want to find out from this meeting. How is Theo doing? What will happen to Corinne? What about the rogues? Where are they now? What are the packs going to do about them?

Dom and Amelia walk into the room, confidently holding hands and with matching huge smiles over their matching mate marks on their throats. It’s really a sight to see. I’m glad that I already saw them at breakfast and got the initial shock out of my system.

I still don’t understand how they did it, though. Everything I know about fated mates taught me that once it happens, nothing else matters. Just look at Alpha Kanen. When he found Luna Janine at the Winter Solstice ball, it was immediate. They have been glommed together ever since, they even left right away to go spend several days together at the pack lodge in private. How on earth did Dom and Amelia resist it? They acted like they were dating, yeah, but otherwise I had no idea that they were mates.

Neither did anyone else. I’m next to my boss, Beta Nolan, at the table, helping him try to start re-creating the map of the caves that was lost in the car accident. He’s got a big map spread out in front of us, and we’re starting to trace out the routes that we took during our cave expedition, and I’m writing in a notebook all the details that we can remember about the eleven cave locations. He’s standing next to my chair, leaning over the map, his finger on one of the locations.

He looks up as Dom and Amelia come in, and his finger leaves the map. He straightens up, staring at them. Seeing those mate marks, as obvious as flashing neon signs.

I hear a soft whistle of air from his lips, and look up at him. “Yeah,” I say softly, “they’re mates, apparently.”

As they come to sit in the two seats next to mine, Nolan says, “Well, it looks like congratulations are in order, Dom, Amelia.”

Dom still has a shit-eating grin on his face, which I don’t expect to change for quite some time. Amelia nods in a matter-of-fact way, and only says politely, “Thank you, Beta Nolan.”

Dom leans over and whispers to me, “Does this seem weird?”

I huff out a laugh. “Um, yes.”

He shrugs and looks over at Amelia. “They’ll get used to it,” she murmurs.

Alpha Ross is sitting next to Luna Darlene, and they obviously already know. She must have told him. “Congratulations, Dominic,” Ross says. “Congratulations, Amelia.”

“Thank you, Alpha Ross,” Amelia replies with a smile, then looks down at her notebook, smiling.

The same thing is repeated when the rest of the River Moon pack folks come in, Alpha Kanen and Luna Janine, Beta Malcolm, Gamma Michael.

Michael has the funniest reaction. His mouth drops open, and he stares at Amelia’s throat for a second, looking back and forth between her and Dom. “Did you - are you- do you -?” He can’t even get out a full sentence.

Amelia nods and with her efficient assistant voice tells him, “Dominic and I are mated, Gamma Michael.”

He closes his mouth, and says, “Congratulations?” in a slightly questioning voice.

Kanen laughs. “We’re all surprised, Michael. And yes, congratulations. Now, let’s start the meeting.”