IF JUDE WERE THE MAIN CHARACTER

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

"So..." Mimi turned the conversation to me after a while, "You were saying something about Jude saving you from the frontlines..."

Technically, he saved Jax and Neil. I hadn't needed any saving...

"I was just passing by, Mama." Jude raised both his hands.

Mimi's mouth pressed down at that and her eyes narrowed. Apparently, even though my alpha wolf didn't pick up Jude's lie, a mother's intuition is something else.

"Jude, I've told you once, and I won't mind telling you again." Mimi's tone turned stern, "I'll tell you till I run out of breath if I have to, but you need to sit this one out."

I didn't know what was going on, but I just nodded in the background because Mimi sounded a lot like Mum when she was telling me something serious. You know, like not entering other packlands on my own (Technically, Neil and Jax were with me so I wasn't on my own. No, I didn't have all that much confidence in them either, I was just saying technically.) Anyway, I just nodded instinctively to whatever Mimi was saying.

"I know how you and your boys feel about the Hidden Rogue Village, but all the more you can't get involved." Mimi continued.

Jude cast me a fugitive glace.

"Ohhh... boy." Neil put down his coffee cup.

"You didn't!" Jax sat up.

"What?" Jude waved his hands to fend off the accusations, "Aren't you two being too quick to judge? And Mama, you too?"

Jude touched his heart and gave that beseeching look again - the one he gave me when he asked if I'd rather he got hurt over Neil and Jax. Mimi's expression softened, "Oh baby, I know your heart's in the right place, and you've got a few friends there, but the moment they chose to to attack Alpha Kingsley, they are our enemy too."

"I know, Ma, I know." Jude ran both hands through his hair, "But they just want a safe place to live, you know?"

"So its okay for them to attack Morning Light?" I flared.

"No, no, my princess..." Jude ran both hands through his hair again, then he straightened, "Look, I know full well where my allegiance lies."

Oh really? Do tell.

I was being sarcastic. I was also quite sure I didn't say anything aloud, but Jude suddenly felt he did have to tell his life story:

It all started with a young and beautiful and brave luna running with an infant in her arms. Her mate had been murdered, by his own brother no less. The luna ran through the night before finally finding herself and her little one at the borders - not just any borders, it was the borderline to the infamous Green Packlands, the wildlands just beyond that held the gate to the Colored Mountains. She was all alone and only with her tiny son. Such a good boy, he hadn't even cried at all.

"Miriam!" A familiar voice called, "I know you're there."

Her brother in law's voice sounded so much like her beloved mate's, but it made her blood run cold that they had caught up. Both men were twins, but her mate had been older by 2 minutes. Because of that, he became the alpha of their pack, until now...

Miriam was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If she surrendered to Mike (Wait, her evil brother in law's name was Mike? That was unexpectedly unevil.), anyway, if she went with Mike, what would happen to her baby?

"I don't care what happens to me, Mike." Miriam stepped out from the shadows of the trees, "But you must promise this child's safety."

Mike snorted, "What? I killed my own brother! Why should I spare his son?"

And Miriam immediately knew what she must do. She turned and ran as fast as her aching legs could carry her, straight into the Green Packlands.

"I killed my own brother for you, Miriam! Why do you run?" Mike cried out from behind her, "I'm doing this for you! For us!"

But he didn't follow her. It would be suicide to follow her. The wolves in the Green Packlands were wild and barbaric. Many have entered but few had ever returned from those lands.

(Like seriously? We were talking about here, right?)

"That was many years ago though." Miriam clarified, "It's a very different place now."

Jude was like in his twenties? That would make it like in those few dark years before I was born I guess. I nodded. Yeah. Before I was born was an awful time.

Anyway, back to Jude's story.

Miriam, the young and beautiful and brave luna ran through the night, collapsing under a tree just before daybreak. Thank goddess she was found by Alpha Kingsley and Beta Lucas who were returning from a midnight rogue hunt.

"It was very lucky for me to have met your father." Mimi interrupted the story again to inform me, "If it were anyone else, my baby and I would have been killed on the spot."

My dad had compassion on them and granted them refuge. He arranged a place for them to live at the destitute home in Morning Light.

"Even though he knew it was only temporary. Jude was a male alpha pup. Any other Alpha would have killed him on the spot to protect his own position in the pack, but Alpha Kingsley not only let us stay in safety, he even sponsored Jude's school fees as he grew up."

When Jude started school, Miriam got a job as a store clerk and life started getting better.

"We moved out of the destitute home and I rented a small house near New Leaf Academy." Mimi remembered, "It felt good to be able to build a new life for my son and I with my own two hands."

But Miriam knew that all this was only temporal. Eventually, Jude would grow up and have to leave the shelter of this pack. Jude himself wasn't making it easy for his less young, but still beautiful and brave luna Mama. At 16 he dropped out of highschool. He kept getting into fights.

"The other kids called my Mama Alpha Kingsley's mistress." Jude said in his defense.

At 16, Jude landed himself in jail because he got into a drunken brawl in Gate City.

"It was Alpha Kingsley who bailed him out." Mimi said.

Now this was news to Jude, "I thought it was the Morning Light Gamma."

Wait what?

"Endo was kind enough to drive me out to the city to get you, but it was Alpha Kingsley who paid the bail." Mimi clarified.

"What???" Jax sounded just as shocked. And then he laughed, "All these years! Jude thought you sold yourself to Rambo to pay the bail."

"I beg your pardon?" Mimi sounded indignant, and then she turned red, "Jude! What have you been blabbering about?"

Jude shrugged and rubbed the back of his head, "Ah... that... I thought..."

But that was his turning point. Jude couldn't bare to see his Mama pay for his mistakes again and turned over a new leaf. He went to Alpha Kingsley and got a position as a pack warrior.

"That was a huge favor." Jude said in a rare show of humility, "Imagine letting another young alpha enter ranks with your warrior wolves. I was sure he would say no, but I was desperate."

Wait, Dad let Bell join us too. Was Dad really that secured about his position as alpha? Sometimes I don't know what Dad was thinking.

After that, Jude worked hard to prove himself. He wanted to earn a better life for his Mama.

"Those two years as a Night Leaf Warrior was probably the more carefree of my life." Jude reflected. Jude was a natural warrior - even though he was lazy about training drills, his alpha wolf compensated skill with leadership and raw power. And now that he wasn't always getting he trouble, he didn't have to worry about his Mama getting upset. It also helped that Mimi was now working full time as a trainee nurse. With two incomes - let's not forget that Night Leaf Warriors earned good money, they were very comfortable.

Mimi was very careful to save every cent they could though, "We used to fight about the money all the time because of my penny pinching ways."

While Jude was hoping to prove his loyalty and stay at Night Lead, Mimi knew that when Jude reached adulthood, even though Alpha Kingsley had been nothing but accommodating and kind, Jude would have to leave the pack.

"There were so many nights when I wished Jude could have just been a normal wolf. Then we could have stayed in Night Leaf for good." Mimi explained.

"Or a female wolf." Mimi laughed behind her hands, "My Jude would have made a beautiful girl."

Ah, hahaha. Polite laughter, because no one else could see Jude as a Judith.

"But it was a good thing I turned out to be a guy, huh?" Jude wriggled his eyebrows and smirked at me. He really shouldn't make that kind of face. It was very slappable.

Anyway, with time, rumors about Jude's parentage cleared up. Jude's brown alpha wolf was surfacing and it was quite obvious he didn't inherit any of Dad's black alpha wolf genes - just FYI, in case anyone needed to know.

When Jude's 18th birthday came about, Miriam was happy but also stressed about where they would go from here. They had some savings, but not much. In her mind, she had already planned on moving out to Gate City temporarily.

"We can't leave the Green Packlands." Mimi confessed, "I don't know what Mike would do if we did."

"Why don't you just go back and beat up Mike?" I know I would, "I mean, I'm very happy you're still around, but isn't it bad that Mike's gotten away with what he did to you?"

Mimi shook his head, "I had thought about it when the nights were long, but revenge is a cruel master, my dear. I think the greater vengeance would be living a life free to laugh and love and hold our heads high."

Yeah, that would be nice. If Bell were free to laugh and love and hold his head high... oh wait, Bell's head was held high enough as it was. Any higher, and he might run out of oxygen up there. Hahaha.

The morning of Jude's 18th birthday, Dad sent Jude a birthday present. A ten year interest free loan enough to rent a piece of land and start his own Minor pack in the Green Packlands, "Take it as my investment into a young a promising Alpha."

And that was how the Asphalt Gang... I mean Asphalt Moon Pack was born.

"It was an amazing opportunity - the huge break we needed. My Jude made good of it too." Mimi said proudly, "He started the pack from scratch, just picking up young wolves from here and there. But it hasn't even been 10 years, and the pack is growing and we've already started paying the annual tithes and returning on Alpha Kingsley loan."

"How can I slack off now that its my turn to take care of you, Mama?" Jude smiled, dimple and all, "And now, its not just the two of us. We've got all the lost boys too."

"I don't know why they keep calling us lost boys." Jax complained, "I wasn't lost."

"You were half dead." Neil told him.

"Hahaha." Jax laughed, "But I wasn't lost."

Jude ignored the two idiots, "One day, the Asphalt Moon Pack would make a name for itself. You'll see, Mama."

"Oh, baby. I'm sure it would." Mimi hugged him. She was so proud of him too.

Jude turned back to us, Mimi's arms still around his waist. He put an easy arm around her shoulders, "You see, my Mama and I owe Alpha King too much as it is."

And then he sighed, like a troubled hero, "If it were any other rogues, I would have taken arms to fight alongside the major packs here, but..."

But what?

"I'm sure Alpha Kingsley would understand." Mimi was quick to sooth her son, "It's not as if any of the other minor Alphas are rushing to arms either. If you just sit tight and wait it out, when it all blows over, and the dust settles, you can go check on your friends, maybe we can spare them some daily supplies. Alpha Kingsley isn't one to hold grudges after a war, but only AFTER when this war is fought and done. Until then Jude, do not, absolutely do not contact anyone from that Hidden Rogue Village."

Jude ran both hands in his hair again. Perhaps this might be the precursor to tearing your hair out.

So Jude had friends in the Hidden Rogue Village. How scandalous, but not all rogues were bad. In fact, after meeting Daisy and her family, I've come to realize that there was a sizable population of rogues who were just common wolves with no where to go, AKA the common rogues. I could somewhat relate.

"Listen to your mama, Jude." I told him, "Nobody's gonna miss you if you just sat on your hands till this is over."