Chapter 75: New Year's Eve

Corinne

As soon as I see Amelia and Dom go behind the building, I know it’s now or never. I pick up some dirty glasses and dishes that guests have left here, load them onto a tray, and move with it through the door of the packhouse towards the kitchen. That won’t seem suspicious to anyone. But rather than going all the way into the kitchen with the dishes, I put the tray on one of the cafeteria tables, and quickly move to the staircase down into the basement.

There is one thing that I have to do before I go.

I think that I should be able to open the door to my room from the outside, it’s only from the inside that it can’t be opened. I run quickly down the hall until I get to the door, and am relieved when it opens easily. I snatch the sweatshirt off the bed, the one that Evan gave me, that I had left here because the kitchen staff had been given a different shirt to wear for the ceremony, a plain black t-shirt to go along with the color scheme of the event. I rush back out, closing the door behind me, and run through the packhouse to the stairs leading up to the second floor. I’m seen, but wearing this black shirt it is assumed that I am taking care of business for the party, and nobody stops or questions me.

I rush down the hallway, following Evan’s scent, until I get to the door that I know must be to his room. I pause for a moment, clutching the sweatshirt to me, hugging it, sniffing it, smelling his lingering scent one last time. Then I fold it and lay it down carefully outside his door.

His gift meant so much to me, but I can’t take it with me. It will smell too much like another man, I can’t be in possession of such a thing. And I must close this door behind me, not think about him any more, look only forward to what I am about to do.

I walk away, leaving him behind me.

Nobody sees me as I slip through a side door, walk quickly away from the packhouse, and duck under a gate to go into the forest.

Evan

Pretty sure I can’t be the only guy here who got a huge boner watching the Alpha and Luna mark each other. It was so intimate and erotic, I felt like a peeping tom skulking outside a window, but there it was right in front of the whole crowd. A demonstration of their mating, and of their commitment to their pack.

I’m so glad that the alliance is cemented. For one thing, that means there’ll be plenty of opportunities to be here in this area, rather than always being back in the Dark Woods territory. In the last ten days I have gotten really attached to Humboldt County, so I’d like to stay here if I can.

I look around for Dom and Amelia, but they’re nowhere in sight. Heh- I’ll bet they were inspired by the ceremony and have snuck off and are making out somewhere. I don’t blame them.

I move over to the refreshment table where I had seen Corinne earlier, hoping to get the chance to talk to her, but someone else is working there now. She must be back in the kitchen washing dishes and stuff.

Sigh. Beta Nolan is talking to the other leaders. Theo is in the hospital. I do know some of these other folks, but they aren’t who I really feel like spending time with right now.

You know, actually, I’m super tired anyway. If my friends were here I’d be energized, and probably stay through all the dinner and toasts and dancing and join the pack run later, but without them, it just sounds exhausting. My knee is starting to ache a little again, too, after the long day of hoisting chairs and tables and canopies and stuff around outside.

How lame would it be to just sneak off and go spend New Year’s Eve alone in my room? Dom won’t be there, I’m sure, he’s gonna be busy with Amelia. A quiet evening sounds kind of nice, actually.

I grab a plate off the buffet table and fill it up with some food to take with me, and head up the stairs to our hallway, munching. Nobody is anywhere around, they’re all outside at the party.

I smell a familiar scent, though, and realize that Corinne has been up here. They had her working upstairs today? When I am walking up to my door, I see something on the floor outside it, something made out of cloth.

What is this? I hold my plate with one hand to open my door, then bend down to pick up the thing in front, bringing it inside. I put down the plate, and shake out the cloth to inspect it.

Oh.

It’s my sweatshirt. The one I gave Corinne. It’s here, she left it neatly folded next to my door. I told her to keep it. Why would she give it back?

Suddenly, it becomes blindingly clear why. She’s returning it because she’s leaving. She’s running away.

In two seconds I am running back down the hallway, back down the stairs, following her scent out a side door and past a gate.

Corinne

I run for about a mile, as fast as I can, trying not to brush against trees or bushes, trying to limit my scent. But I only find one stream, and it is flowing in the wrong direction, so I only splash through it for a few yards before leaving it and continuing. I know they are planning a pack run later, so I’m trying to get away from the area around the packhouse, before I will loop back around towards Arcata. This is going to take me a long time, to get where I’m going.

I get tired sooner than I should. Being pregnant is surprisingly taxing, and I need to rest. I’ve gotten a ways away from the packhouse, and there are no people or roads nearby, so I sit on a rock to catch my breath for a minute.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps, the sounds of pursuit. Crap! I shouldn’t have sat down. I bolt to my feet, and run in a random direction, panicking. Have I already failed? I hear whoever it is getting closer, and I look around, frantically, trying to find a way to escape, but I know they are going to catch up to me. There’s only one way out.

“Shift!” I tell my wolf. “Now! We have to shift!”

“No,” she stubbornly refuses.

I’m still running, as fast as I can on my human legs, but I am even slower than normal, as slow as a regular human might be, and this is going to be pointless unless I can shift and use my wolf to get away.

“SHIFT!” I command her. “We always knew the baby would be too hard to protect, just do it now!”

“NO!”

I am starting to cry, and I hear the footsteps closer behind me, and then I hear, “Corinne!” I know that voice.

Oh my god it is the worst possible thing. Evan is chasing me, he has found me, the one person that it was the hardest to leave behind, and I have to try to get away from him.

I can barely see I am crying so hard, and I try my hardest to summon my wolf, to change forms, to shift into my swift beast, but my wolf isn’t talking in my head now, she has disappeared and is refusing to even speak to me.

“Corinne! Stop! Please!” I hear the emotion in his voice, and my heart is breaking as I still try, knowing I am going to fail, and I have ruined everything, this has all been for nothing. I have wrecked my chance with the pack, I have wrecked my chance to save my sisters, everything is over, I have failed utterly.

He is close enough to grab me now, but I am still running desperately, waiting for the feeling of him yanking me backwards by my hair like he did last time, waiting to be flung painfully to the ground, full of fear and anguish and panic and despair.

Rather than my hair, I feel his hand close on my wrist. Rather than falling to the rocky ground, I feel him yank me to his chest, and he wraps his arms around me, and I stand trapped against him, crying and gasping for breath and feeling too hopeless to even try to escape.

Evan

Neither of us can breathe for a minute, neither of us can speak, but at least she isn’t still trying to run. My knee is hurting again after the chase. I have my arms around her, and she feels so good there, even though she is crying and gasping for air, even though I know she was trying to escape. I just don’t know why.

In a couple of minutes I feel her go quiet and still in my grasp, and I ask her, “Can we please just talk?”

She nods her head and lifts one of her hands to wipe her face. I look around and see a fallen log, and lead her over there by the hand. I’m not going to let go of her, I don’t want her to start running again.

She sits down, and lifts her eyes to mine, and I see that her face is full of sorrow.

“Why?” is all I can say. “Why run now?”

She shakes her head.

“Corinne, really, please just tell me. Haven’t we shown you that you can trust us? Hasn’t everyone been kind to you? Why would you leave?”

She can’t seem to stop the tears from streaming down her face. But she responds. “It isn’t about me,” she says.

“What?”

I am so baffled, and hurt. I thought she considered us to be her friends. I thought she liked me.

“I have to help the other rogue women. I can’t just abandon them.”

I stare at her, trying to process this. “But - but you already told us about them. We told the leaders. Everyone knows that you want to protect your friends.”

She shakes her head again. “I don’t think that’s enough. Your leaders won’t protect them.” I start to speak, but she cuts me off. “Not because I don’t think your leaders are good people, I do. They are very kind, all of you are very kind, and decent, and I wish I could stay. But your leaders are also strong, and I know that they will do what is best for their pack. If it comes down to it, they’d protect the pack, not my friends. Not the she-wolves.”

I have to take a minute before I can speak. I want to be careful here, and not lie to her. But I have to make her see reason. “Look, Corinne, you’re not wrong, they’ll always do what’s best for the pack. But you haven’t even given them a chance, have you? The last time you talked to them was at the meeting before the cave expedition, right? They haven’t even made a plan yet. How do you know they won’t include protection of your friends as part of the plan?”

“I can’t risk it,” she says, stubbornly lifting her chin.

“So you think you’re going to save them yourself? Alone?” I burst out impatiently. “You’re going to go fight off Xavier and lead the women away? Overpower all the rogue men by yourself? When you won’t even shift?” I’m letting too much anger creep into my voice, but she’s making me mad by being so stubborn and unreasonable.

Tears are flowing as she says, “Well no, obviously, I’m just going to go back and beg for forgiveness, and hope that I’ll get the chance to warn the she-wolves before your pack attacks. Maybe help them escape.”

“You know that’s a terrible plan,” I tell her, exasperated. “It can’t possibly work. You’re just going to get yourself hurt, and not be able to do a single thing about helping your friends. And my leaders will be angry with you for running away, and not spare you or your friends when the battle comes.”

She sobs, and covers her face with her hands. “I just, I just couldn’t think of anything else to do,” she whimpers.

“How about just trusting us?” I say, “Trusting me? And Amelia? And Dom? We are your friends too, and we want to help you as much as you want to help the she-wolves!”

She looks up at me, out through her fingers, as though that is the strangest idea she has ever heard. I suppose that trust is a completely foreign concept.

“Look, Corinne. You know your plan won’t work.” She nods, reluctantly, sullenly. “The only chance is to go with my plan. With trusting us. With working together with the pack, to figure out a strategy that will end with you and your friends all safe.”

She sniffs, and looks away from me, and tries to compose her facial features, and utterly fails.

“Just come back with me,” I plead. “Nobody even knows you’re gone. Nobody will ever know, if we go back now. Then tomorrow we’ll talk to the leaders, and make sure they understand how important it is to protect your friends. They know how valuable your assistance is, I’m sure they’ll need more help putting together their plan.”

I can see that I have won, not necessarily because I have convinced her, but because she realizes she doesn’t have any other choice. She’s going to return with me.

I stand up with her, and put my arm around her, and we walk back together. I’m not letting her go. I don’t think she’ll run again, but I’m not taking any chances, and besides, I like having her pressed against my side. She smells good. And she feels good.

When we get back to the packhouse, the party is still going full blast outside in the back. Music has started, I know there is dancing going on, and the pack run will begin a little later.

“Why don’t you just come up to my room with me,” I tell her. “Nobody is going to notice you are gone, and if they ask later I’ll just tell them you were with me. They said it would be okay as long as you’re with a pack member.”

She nods, looking relieved. I lead her upstairs, and happen to pass by Beta Nolan coming out of his room, probably taking a pit stop during the party. “Hey,” I tell him, “Corinne’s tired, we’re taking a little break.” He nods nonchalantly and heads off down the hallway.

“There,” I murmur to her, “you’re covered. You can come in and it’s all fine.”

She comes in the door with me, and looks around nervously, her hands twisting in front of her, her long black hair flowing down her back over the black shirt, and I don’t want to wait any longer. There’s something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I first met her.

I brush my hands over her shoulders, and she looks up at me with her pure gray eyes, and I lower my mouth to hers and kiss her. She tastes so sweet, and she melts against me, and I know that she wants to be here. I can taste the salty remnants of her tears, and I kiss them away.

“Happy New Year,” I whisper to her, and lower her down to my bed, and she puts her arms around me. We met on Christmas, and now we’re doing this on another holiday. It feels right.

We kiss for a long time. I don’t pressure her to go any further, it’s all very innocent. Hot, though.

Later, I hand her the sweatshirt again. “Here,” I tell her, “I thought I told you to keep this.” I smile down at her, so she knows I’m not mad, and she puts it back on and snuggles back against me.

We lie together on the bed, on top of my covers, and I kiss her a little more. I can tell she’s still troubled.

“It’s going to be okay,” I remind her. “I’ll help you. We’re all going to help you.”

“Why?” she whispers. She never expected anyone to try to help her. That’s the whole problem.

I whisper back, “Not just because the pack needs to take care of the problem with Xavier. It’s because I’m your friend. We’re all your friends.” I weave my fingers through hers, and bring her hand up to my lips, and murmur, “And even more than that, it’s because I really like you, Corinne.” I feel my heart pounding as I confess. “I want us to be together. I want to be with you.”

Then my pounding heart breaks just a little as she nods, and whispers, “I want to be with you too. Even though I’m just a rogue.”

The end.