Bound

Rogue

ALEXI POV

Expletives filled the space where romantic platitudes - momentarily forgotten - had hung moments before. A rogue in itself wasn't a terrible thing. Some wolves and bears preferred to carve out their own existence; Holing up on a mountain to languish in reclusivity, or taking bounty contracts from normies.

Everyone has their place in the circle of life.

The terrible thing was that this rogue had gone and gotten himself infected with rabies. The mouth frothing, fever-induced-insanity, aggression-with-muscle-spasms rabies. The terrible thing was how infectious the disease was, only one scratch necessary to transmit the disease.

The terrifying thing was the sickened creature on the loose in the busiest square in the city.

How the dickens did he get into Central Square?! I yelled back as Claire ripped off the high heels with red lacquered bottoms and we tore towards the city.

We can figure that out later. The lilt of Claire's voice in my mind after so long caused me to stumble. She had not linked to me with words since, well, since the day we bound our souls together. How do we take him down? Can I just fold him into my pack and alpha command him?

It turned me on and intimidated me that Claire just assumed the role of strongest mentalist here. It prickled my pride in alarm that she was also right. With a very different kind of fear dripping down my spine with prickling shivers, I wondered for the first time if being bound to her may not be a good thing for the independence of my pack and the secrets we guarded.

Not under any circumstances. I snapped with an instruction that bordered on an order. Brushing against that kind of delirium will transfer the deranged thought processes to you, and by extension your pack.

Which was a horrifying prospect. An entire pack hallucinating and attacking whoever pleased their demented, ravaged mings.

We approached the city, rounding paved corners at breakneck speed, dodging slow moving cars to a cacophony of honking horns.

What if I isolate him mentally, what if I don't touch him? Claire asked, and I had to run the words a few times to realise that I had no idea what she was talking about.

What are you talking about? You know what, it is too dangerous. I linked flat out as we built up speed on the main thoroughfare.

Then how? Frustration bit into the sharp edges of her words. Given her capacity for super speed from Xavier, if I gave her an answer then she could already be there. But as we have already established, I am a selfish creature and I did not want her there alone.

Not when she so obviously had no idea what she was facing.

At that stage of delirium he will be highly aggressive, highly contagious, and highly hydrophobic. A firetruck is on the way. We should be able to corral him to a secluded place with the water from the hoses. This has to be dealt with before the normie cops get there. If they get bitten they won't recover.

HOW? Claire all but bellowed.

I have to take him out. Without getting bitten or scratched. Without normies seeing us euthanize him. This time it was Claire's turn to stumble. She probably hadn't been part or parcel in the act of taking any creature out before. There is no cure. The only think we can do is put him out of his misery before he takes people with him.

We had to slow to negotiate a mass of tourists sprawling out on the road to take pictures of a garish street performer. I looked over to her face, and did not like the determined set of lines I saw there. Neither did I like that machinations were turning over in her mind. The worst part was feeling through the altered link that she was planning something, without being able to discern what.