Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 58 - OUT OF LINE

The pack was in mourning. For reasons I would never understand, they had all loved Mason as Alpha. And now, two days after losing him, they had heard the news that fifteen of the pack fighters had gone into the woods to kill rogues and not come back.

The bodies were brought back in batches. I'd been on the scene in the immediate aftermath with Seth to give first-aid, along with every other medic in the entire pack. We might as well have stayed home. There had been no one to help. By the time we'd arrived on scene, the last man had bled out into the dirt.

And not a rogue body in sight.

Micah was ... incensed. Livid. Infuriated. His mood was not improved by the news that once he had ordered every fighter in the entire pack to the north border, my mother had taken her entire force southwards and launched a very successful raid against the outlying houses there.

So the new Alpha was in hot water with his fighters. And although none of them dared say a word against him, he could feel their eyes on him, heavy with judgement and reproach, and it only made him angrier. I watched him punch a tree, a medic and a van in quick succession.

Micah was not Mason. And a pack that had been nigh on impenetrable to us last week was now under such incompetent leadership that my mother could kill fifteen fighters and make off with thousands of pounds worth of goods without losing a single rogue. Even if Liam and I died tomorrow, our work here had not been in vain.

I arrived back at the cottage late in the afternoon with blood on my hands and sweat coating my body. Seth had made us check every single one of the dead men, even the ones who were missing their throats, to be sure that they really were dead. Like most of the medics, he was in denial. Silver Lake hadn't seen a tragedy like this since ... well ... ever.

"Is it true?" Lilah asked, the second I came through the door. She sounded horrified, and her voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Yeah, it's true," I sighed. "Big bloody massacre. Guts everywhere. Bodies strewn over so much woodland that the scouts had to sniff them out. Damn rogues, am I right?"

Lilah stared at me, the blood draining from her face, utterly aghast. It occurred me, much too late, that I could have found a slightly more sensitive way to break the news. And great - one glance into the living room, and I could see that all the boathouse girls were similarly shocked.

I was going to have to find a way to sound less excited about my packmates getting murdered.

"It's ... um, it's tragic," I murmured, trying to frown. "So ... tragic."

That was good enough for Lilah, who gave me one last funny look and then turned around to take her jacket from its peg and pull it on. It was at that point when I noticed that she was dressed like she was about to leave the house. She'd even touched up her make-up.

"Hang on," I said. "What're you doing?"

She ran a hand through her hair, her eyes wide and pleading all of a sudden. I was reminded of someone who had been caught with their hand in the biscuit tin. "Going to the pack house. I was hoping- I mean, I was wondering if you'd take me."

Well, at least she'd been sensible enough to wait for me to get back. If she'd gone for a walk through the woods alone, she'd be dead by now. Even with the crisis at the border, Micah's sanctioned creeps were still sat in the bushes outside, thinking they were oh-so-sneaky.

"Yes," I said slowly, "I'll take you. But only when Alex gets back."

Half because I was a coward and didn't want to be responsible for getting her killed. And half because I didn't want to leave the other girls without protection.