Revolting

"I don't like the look of it," Michael muttered as he lowered himself out of the tree he had climbed. "It's too small."

They had come up on a small town nestled near a large pond. There wasn't much in town, just a gas station with a convenience store, a post office, a hardware, and a hand full of middle-class houses. "In a town this small, they'll notice strangers right away. They'll be wary as soon as they see us."

Frankie cracked his knuckles. "You know what that means!" He elbowed his brother in excitement. "Shock and awe!"

Caroline groaned. "Shock and Awe" meant they all descended on the town at once, each of them hitting a different target before scattering back out before the town's law enforcement could pinpoint the activity. It was very dangerous, especially in a rural place like this, where half the population were hard-core hunters. They might not wait for the local constable or the county sheriff to show up before they take matters into their own hands. "Last time you pulled that, we had to bust Lonnie out of jail," she reminded the brothers.

Michael felt agitated, and immediately found himself reaching out to touch his mate. Instinctually, he needed the comfort that only she could bring. They had untied her from her piggy-back harness, and she was now sitting comfortably at the base of the oak. Her expression was sullen, and she immediately leaned away when his hand reached out to stroke her hair. He ground his teeth and pulled his hand back. His shoulder-blade was still sore where she had sunk her teeth into his skin. If only she'd aimed higher, and sank her teeth into his marking spot, he would have been the happiest man alive.

Instead he was the most sexually frustrated man alive, and now he had to coordinate a raid on this town just to assure his little rag-tag family of rogue wolves could survive. He raked his hands over his face. "Keep it simple and quiet, just the basics. Sarah, you hit the convenience store. Caroline, you take the hardware. Boyd and Frankie, check the cars. I'm going to look for a house."

"What about me?" Lonnie said, putting his hands on his hips.

"You are going to stay and watch her," he said with a nod to his mate. He didn't like leaving his most precious treasure under the care of such a douchebag, but it was the only arrangement which made sense. Lonnie was loud and clumsy; he was the biggest liability on a raid. And Michael didn't dare leave Hannah alone. Michael narrowed his eyes at the man, "You will not touch her, do you understand? And if she escapes, or anything happens to her, I will personally castrate you with a spoon."

Lonnie's adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed and chuckled nervously. "Sure boss... she's just a tiny thing, how hard can it be?"

"How hard can it be? Famous last words, buddy," Frank clapped Lonnie across the back.

Michael ignored them and squatted down in front of his mate. "Hey, sweetheart," he said softly, "I've got to run into town for some supplies. I need you to sit tight here, and wait for me. Try to be good, okay?" She squinted at him and bared her teeth in reply.

He pushed himself back into a standing position, still feeling very heavy and reluctant to leave her behind. "Okay, let's move. Twenty minutes, and don't circle back here until you are SURE there is no one on your tail." "You always say 'twenty minutes'," Caroline complained, "When you know damn well that Sarah is the only one with a watch."

"Spread out," Michael growled, ignoring Caroline's valid point, "and play it safe. If it doesn't feel right, get out. Live to hunt another day."

The others grunted in agreement and spread out through the forest surrounding the town, so that each person would enter from a different point. Michael emerged from the trees into the back yard of an up-scale house on the north side. He skittered around the pool. The pool was still slimy and green, and full of leaves from the winter. It wasn't warm enough to open for the summer season. He scanned the house, and noticed that there were security cameras half-hidden under the eaves. He wished he had his sunglasses to cover his eyes. He noticed that one camera seemed to be fixed toward the pool, one toward the back door, and one toward the porch. Which left a couple of windows on the lower floor in a blind spot.

He slunk around the back yard and tried the windows. It was easy work to pop off the outer screens. The first window was locked tight, but the second window, which opened into a kitchen, slipped open with ease. Michael grinned to himself. The ledge of the window would have been too high for the average man to climb into without a boost, but since Michael was practically the jolly green giant, he was able to jump up and catch the inner sill. With the silent stealth of a predatory animal, he hauled his big body in through the window. He took extra care not to knock over the potted plant that was catching some sun in the window, and eased himself into the sunny, yellow kitchen.

The kitchen meant food. He opened the cupboards and began to ruffle through the contents. He pulled an old pillowcase out of his pocket and began stuffing it with canned and dry goods. When he couldn't possibly stuff any more food into the sack, he turned to rummage through the rest of the house for anything that might be useful to his pack.

NOT his pack, he reminded himself with a mental cringe. He was no longer an alpha. If he'd been an alpha, he wouldn't be breaking-and-entering like a common thug.

He found a nice razor in the bathroom, and some shampoo that smelled like peppermint. The family apparently had some teenaged boys, but Michael wasn't interested in gaming consoles. In the parent's room he quickly looked for any clothes that might be suitable for himself or his little mate. Ironically the man was too small, and the woman was too large. He growled and was about to leave the room, when he noticed some spare change jumped in a jar on the dresser. It probably wasn't more than a few dollars, but he still took it and dumped the contents into his make-shift sack before he ran back to the kitchen and slipped out the same way he had come in. He shut the window and replaced the screen. The home owners might not even notice that their house had been broken into, since nothing of any real value had been taken. He had been in and out in less than ten minutes.

He snuck around the side of the house and looked up and down the street. He estimated that he had time to hit one more house before time was up. He scanned the driveways, looking for the houses that looked empty for the day, looking for the houses without high-tech security systems, looking for the houses without guard dogs. Not that he was afraid of dogs, but they could smell his wolf, and tended to raise an alarm before he even got close.

While he was debating with himself which house to target, he heard sirens in the distance. He eased himself back behind the corner of the house, and angled just his head so that he could see the state police cruiser speeding down the road, lights flashing and siren blaring as it headed for the center of town. Michael swore under his breath. So much for his hopes of getting in and out without incident. He skirted around the pool and headed back to the trees, his heart thumping. He wanted only one thing - to get back to Hannah and make sure that she was safe.

But if something had happened to one of the others? He growled at himself, swinging his sack over his shoulder like an enormous, brawny Santa Clause. If something happened to one of the other's he would have to go back for them. They were still his responsibility. You could take the alpha away from his pack, but you couldn't take the alpha instincts out of his blood.