Chapter 53: Gulp

Evan

Now that we are no longer exploring, we make it all the way back out of the cave much more quickly than it took us to go in. About half a mile, exactly as Corinne said. The pool - exactly where she said. Everything she told us was accurate.

I feel so relieved, as though I am personally vindicated by the validation of her information. I feel like this matters to me way more than anything else has lately.

My wolf says, “You know why.”

I do know why. I am completely taken with Corinne. I don’t know if I am ever going to find my own mate, but I almost hope I don’t. It would interfere with what I realize now that I want. I want to figure out a way to keep her safe. I want to find a way to be near her. I want to discover some way to make her want to be near me.

It is all entirely speculative, of course. If she had been lying, I know that the leaders would have executed her. There would have been no other choice, if she had deceived us twice, first during the road ambush, and then in this matter. But she didn’t. So I think there is hope for her.

Hope for what, I have no idea. Maybe, like Theo suggested, they’ll just grant her amnesty. Maybe she’ll have a strange status of independent exile, neither actually in a pack, nor considered a rogue. It would be like the humans who live all around us. She would be a neutral factor, essentially irrelevant to the pack’s operations. As long as she stayed out of the way of the pack, they wouldn’t bother with her. She could find a place in human society, get a job, or go to school, or whatever, and live out her life among them.

My mind is already racing, trying to figure out what I would do. After visiting Amelia’s family, I know that River Moon permits its pack members to marry humans if they desire. Not all packs do. Dark Woods does, but it only happens rarely. I assume, though, that a former rogue, just a simple exile, would be treated the same, and I might be permitted to be with her.

“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself?” my wolf asks, rather snidely.

“Shut up,” I tell him silently, fondly.

Another option, of course, is that she might be permitted to join the River Moon pack as she has requested. Unheard of, but there is no technical reason that I know of prohibiting it. That would make it easier for me.

While I’m ruminating about all of this, we are walking back through the cave, and when we reach the entrance we start helping boost each other up through the hole, one by one. We pass the bags up through the hole as well. Janine goes first, I see the River Moon Alpha’s hand stretching down into the hole to lift her up himself, and I’m sure that there is all sorts of kissing and groping going on out there while the rest of us unearth ourselves.

When we have finally gotten to the surface, I see the two Betas doing a head count to make sure everyone is here. I can smell new scent markings all over the place. The leaders clearly decided to claim this as our territory, using their scents to mark this as a part of the pack’s property. They have overridden all of the random scents the rogues left behind. This will be strong, definitive, and a powerful warning to any rogue to stay away from this location.

I’m sure it will infuriate them when they return, which we must presume that they will. Whether they will violate the warning remains to be seen.

Alpha Ross says, “We aren’t shifting to go back. We need to talk while we hike to the lodge. Keep up.” Then he and Alpha Kanen, and the Luna and Betas, stride south without a glance back at the rest of us. We wait a moment, to leave a respectful distance between them so they can converse in private, then the rest of us follow along.

It’ll be a long walk on human feet, at least an hour, but not unwelcome. The day is cloudy, but at least it is warmer out here than it was in the cave. I look over at Dominic, still shivering a little, his hand rubbing across his throat. I hang back to walk with him. “A nice hike will warm you up,” I say quietly, and he looks over at me wryly.

There doesn’t seem to be any point in speculating about the cave or the rogues or Corinne or any of the rest of it. The leaders are making a plan, it’s only up to us to follow along. After walking side by side with Dom for a few minutes, I cast about for a topic of conversation.

“So,” I ask him, “who’s your favorite Doctor?”

His eyes light up as he looks at me. I think this is a topic that will easily see us back to the lodge.

Amelia

“I agree with you,” Darlene says after I have described everything I can remember about our encounters with Corinne. “I think she’s probably pregnant, and her wolf is preventing her from shifting. You say she doesn’t look pregnant yet?”

I shake my head. “No, she’s very thin. It might just be that she’s underfed. She said that she and the other women weren’t allowed to eat if there wasn’t enough for the leaders.”

Darlene frowns. “That’s not good for her.” She looks down, then back up at me. “You said that you left her some food?”

“Yes, the leftovers from dinner, and then some bagels and apples for breakfast. I hope it’s enough to last until later when we can bring her some more dinner.”

She is going to reply, then she gets the distant look in her eyes that I have started to recognize as being in mind-link with her mate. After a couple of minutes, she refocuses on me, and says, “They’re on their way back. They explored the cave, and confirmed that the information Corinne gave you was accurate. They are going to want to question her.”

I wonder what exactly she means by “question”. They’re not going to torture her or anything, are they? I mean, River Moon wouldn’t, I don’t think, but would Dark Woods?

She can read me like a book, apparently. “Don’t worry, Amelia, she won’t be harmed. I will make sure of it, especially now that I know what she has run away to protect.”

“Yeah, that has to be it, doesn’t it?” I muse. “She wanted to get away, to try to protect the baby.”

Darlene tilts her head while she thinks. “It might not be that easy, if the leader is really who she claims. He would most likely be very possessive, if he knows about the pregnancy.”

“It might not be his baby,” I point out.

“I don’t know how he runs his gang of rogues, but it might be very similar to a true wolf pack. It’s possible no other males are permitted to… um… access the females.”

I smile and look down. I’m not as innocent as all that, so that she must censor herself from talking about such things. Especially not after this last week with Dom.

Again, open book. She is looking at me appraisingly. “How are things going with you and Dominic?” she asks, her eyes on my throat, seeing that I still bear no mark.

I smile, and my fingers go to my throat of their own accord. “So good,” I say, and I am sure that all the sappy love in my heart is displayed clearly for her to see on my face.

“And you’re still waiting?”

I nod. “We’re trying. I think we’re getting closer, though, to… uh… well, I’ve been learning a lot.” I feel a hot blush climbing up my throat onto my cheeks.

She gives a very soft laugh. “Well, unless you have any specific questions about that aspect of it, you don’t need to tell me any of the gory details. I know you well enough to believe that you’ve got this all figured out. I still can’t understand how you are managing it, but I believe that you will succeed.”

“Thank you,” I say softly. Her confidence, her friendship, her confidentiality, mean so very much to me.

She smiles her kind smile at me, then says, “Well, we’d better get to work. They’ll be back in a couple of hours, we should try to make some progress on the party planning. I visited Janine’s family while we were back at Dark Woods, to explain to them everything that is happening. While I was there I got some information about her preferences for decoration colors, and food choices, that we should incorporate into our planning.”

“Great!” I say. “I actually have a meeting scheduled with the cook in about an hour to start planning the menu, would you like to come to that?”

“Absolutely.”

Dominic

Discussing the merits of the various incarnations of the Doctor is a blast and I can hardly believe how quickly the walk back to the lodge goes. Of course I am thinking about my own Impossible Girl as well, but I don’t say anything about that. No point in drawing further attention to us. I wonder how long it will be after we get back before we get the chance to be alone together again?

Everyone around us is rolling their eyes and laughing at what geeks Evan and I are, while we animatedly discuss our sci-fi show, but I don’t care. I really like this dude. I’m glad we’re finally getting to know each other.

We pause at the lodge only long enough for a pit stop before loading everything back into our cars. Alpha Kanen says, “We’ll follow behind you in an hour or two,” as Ross is getting into the vehicle I’m driving. “Try to have everything arranged.”

Ross nods, and as soon as he closes the door he turns to me. “Okay, head out,” he says.

I expect him to ignore me and talk to Nolan, but he says, “Dominic, Evan, we will be having a meeting as soon as we get back to River Moon, with their Beta and Gamma and assistants as well. We need to discuss the rogue.”

I only nod, it certainly isn’t my place to say anything about it, but Evan boldly speaks up. “You can see that she told the truth about the cave, right?”

I glance at Ross out of the side of my eye, and see a stern look on his face. “Of course, but we need more information. We will want her brought in for questioning.”

Gulp.