Going Rogue

Five

JESS

For a week, I cased the same simple cottage house. There was nothing special about the home, but that was my favorite part of this family. They were simple. They kept to a schedule. Their mother was as short and round as she was fierce. If a single child stepped out of line, she brought down a fire that would make the Devil wet himself. So, they all left in the morning to go to school and every Friday morning, Mom hung the laundry outside.

Their minivan crawled over the dirt road with a crunch. I stayed hidden until their sounds were a distant memory, waited until the world was still again. Closing my eyes, I held my wolf form and approached with caution. I didn't sense anyone near apart from a few birds greeting the day. It was time.

My muscles groaned, stretching for the first time in months. Rolling my shoulders back, I must have cracked every bone in my neck and back. I stumbled into a walk, quickly righting myself on the laundry pole. Every muscle cried out, burning with a sweet relief as if I pressed down on a scratch. I savored the reminder of being alive.

"So," I muttered, hearing my own voice, a sound I no longer recognized. "I'm still human. A little bit..." The breeze tickled my bare skin. Grime and sweat caked my entire body and my greasy hair grew long past my shoulders. Now, I had more than a little stubble. Give me another month and I would become this mountain's resident Sasquatch.

First step in my brilliant plan was turning the hose on myself. I shouted a slew of curses, which didn't stop the hose from freezing my ass off, but at least some of my pent up aggression fizzled out. Quickly, I dried myself off with the family towels and grabbed what I believed to be the Dad's pair of light blue jeans, an undershirt, his gray cotton long sleeve shirt, and a plaid thermal.

"Man," I whispered, rubbing my hands together. We weren't going to show up as the height of fashion, but we'd at least blend in and we'd be covered up. Dragging my hands down the denim, I savored the weight of the clothes against my skin. I missed being human.

I snatched the cotton laundry basket, filling it with one of the son's clothes and a quilt. I found a few pairs of shoes that weren't going to fit perfectly, but for what I had in mind, no shoes equaled no service.

Throwing my loot over my shoulder, I took a deep breath and stared at the line of trees in front of me. Half of me wanted to stay out of the woods. Half of me wanted to find civilization now, but I was getting ahead of myself. I followed a path through the trees and found a campsite. I scavenged for food and ended up with a fifty from someone's wallet and some girl's hair band. I wrapped the rat's nest around my face up and into an unruly bun. I've been reduced to a man bun. My old roommates would have roasted me until I was ready to be served up for dinner. God, they would've peed themselves if they could see me...

In some ways, I guess I was embracing this roguish life. That thought curdled my stomach acids. Rogues in our world were known only as murderers and rapists. To be put in the same category just because we share the common loss of a pack felt unfair. It felt shackling.

Hiking back to our temporary spot, I followed Drew's smell.

What was left of it.

At first sniff, Jacob's odor drowned the purity of Drew's scent and my heart pounded. My instincts caused my hair to stand at attention while reason begged me to relax. The wolf in me never stopped fighting, never stopped feeling defensive over my mate. In the back of my mind, I knew we had successfully run away, but what if Jacob was right here? What if he found us? I tried not to think about the worse scenario and the consequences of abandoning our home. It soured my mood and effected Drew.