30 Rogue

The growl rang through the trees, and I watched as a mangy wolf ran towards me. The sound hadn’t been my imagination, and I instantly regretted running off on my own, even though I hadn’t meant to. I could probably take this wolf, but as the luna I really shouldn’t be putting myself in potentially risky situations.

For a split second, I debated fighting, like I would have without a second thought back in my scout days, but I had other priorities now. I had whirled around to run through the forest, just as a second growl broke the clearing in the direction I had turned.

My heart leapt as a large and lean grey wolf ran straight towards me. I scrambled to a stop, my paws struggling to find purchase in the loose mulch of the forest floor. Before I could dodge, Jason’s scent hit my nose, and he adjusted his direction to avoid slamming into me.

Relief flooded through me at his presence, but disappeared as quickly as it came, as my mate charged towards the intruder. He had placed himself between the two of us, hackles raised. The strange wolf growled at him and foam dribbled from the corner of his mouth, his eyes darting between my mate and me. Jason was clearly the stronger wolf, but werewolves could be unpredictable when they lost their humanity.

The standoff continued for long moments, and then the rogue lunged towards Jason, teeth bared and spittle flying. He was faster than I had expected, and I held back my yelp of fear because I didn’t want to distract Jason.

And no warning would have been necessary, because Jason moved as fast as the rogue, growling again as he spun his vulnerable parts out of the rogue’s reach. He snapped at the rogue in return, warningly.

The rogue didn’t take his chance to escape, and almost too fast for my eye, Jason leapt forward, bringing his weight down on the wolf and shoving him to the ground, teeth at his neck.

“Carrie, please shift out of his line of sight and speak to him for me?”

I nodded, and quickly did as he said. The rogue struggled when he heard me moving, but he was unhealthy and no match for my mate, or really any adult wolf in good condition. My bones rearranged and my fur disappeared, and I crouched far enough away from the wolf to be safe and out of his sight, but also easily heard.

“Tell him to shift back to human.”

“I need you to shift, rogue,” I said. I wasn’t properly connected to my pack yet, but I was connected to Jason, and that was enough to leak some of his power through my own voice. The prone rogue shuddered and squirmed, but didn’t obey.

“Tell him to nod his head if he understands you.”

“Do you understand me? Nod if you do.”

The wolf didn’t respond.

“Tell him he’s going to die if he doesn’t cooperate.”

My stomach felt leaden. “This is your last chance, rogue. You need to cooperate, or you’re going to die. Do you want to die?”

I waited, breath stuck in my throat, for him to respond.

Jason exhaled, and his canine’s dug deep into the wolf’s neck. Iron hung heavy in the air. A minute later, Jason moved away from the wolf. His golden eyes met mine, and he shifted into his human form. Normally I’d appreciate the sight, but right now what had just occurred hung heavy between us.

“Sorry you had to see that, babe.”

I shook my head. Apologizing was the last thing he needed to do. “It had to be done. I’m sorry I ran off on you.”

He chuckled darkly as I tried to wipe the blood splatter from his face, only succeeding in spreading it around. He headed in the direction of the river I’d reached before turning around, and walked into the river and washed himself off. I followed, crouching down on the edge and washing the blood off my hands.

“You didn’t have to apologize for running around our territory, Carrie. It should be safe for you to do that.”

His regret leached across our connection, and it was so much deeper than just what had happened tonight. “You saved me. And honestly, I could have taken him myself, but I thought I shouldn’t take the risk since I’ll be luna.”

“You are luna, I know that, our pack knows that, the rest is just formality of magic and the moon.”

I smiled. I did belong in the position here, like I had never fit the position in Greenwoods.

“The security isn’t what it should be, yet. We need more numbers, and more training. Randy is doing the best he can with limited resources, but it’s not good enough yet. This is exactly why I was upset when I found you. I should have been with you. I got waylaid by a small matter after you ran off, and I thought you would be fine, but you were threatened.” He came and sat beside me on the bank, still dripping with water from his rinse. I wound my fingers into his.

“I would have been fine. And I’m not upset,” I assured him. “You can feel that, right?”

“You’re too brave.”

“I did used to run the Greenwoods border all the time, Jason. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a bit of violence, although it’s my first brush with a feral rogue.”

“I’ve killed a couple before this.” His words sounded like a confession. “It wasn’t his fault he was like that.”

“It probably wasn’t.” Maybe he had done something wrong, but maybe he was like West and Nash who had been thrown out of their pack when it wasn’t even their fault. “But there’s no saving ferals.” And even if there was a way, we didn’t have the resources to cope with trying to figure something like that out now. But, maybe in the future...

He nodded, silent, although my words seemed to have helped him.

“Why do you think they come to packs when it’s so dangerous for them, anyway?” I wondered. If they just stayed away, they would be so much safer.

“Probably instinctively craving connection. I know we did when our pack was destroyed.”

Jason was probably right. He’d been too dangerous to allow to leave, but I still felt sorry for the poor dead rogue.