SOME VIOLENCE INVOLVED (don't say I didn't warn you)

I tried to put some space between the Beta and me and accidentally knocked over a small box of staples. I caught it before it hit the ground by reflex, I needn't bother. The room next door was too noisy to hear us.

The gun shots continued. Where the hell was our ground patrol?

I heard a really bad noise, a fierce snarl and then a low angry growl... I think dad was shot.

I cracked the window open, just a sliver to let the air take in more information. I could smell the gunfire and our own wolves should definitely find the snipers now.

Then I looked at the staple box in my hand. And I had an idea.

Prank time. The problem with pranks was that they usually took lots of time to prepare, which we didn't have, and there were only two of us. But we weren't posting on Instagram, so it didn't have to be picture perfect. It just had to work.

"Help me with this." I said, I pulled out a large easel and some card paper and with a large pair of scissors, made an ugly human shaped standee.

My first step was to distract the gunners outside, and hopefully confuse the enemy. I'm just going to throw a spanner into the works and hope it jammed something important.

If not, I've got plenty more spanners where that came from.

Harvey helped me sneak it to the room next door. Why he was going along with my plan was beyond me. We set up the standee in the middle of the room. I added a large stapler that might pass off as a shotgun, hopefully it would seem like Mr Standee was armed too. With the day curtains still drawn, we flipped on the lights. Harvey slammed the door just before the gunshots sounded, breaking another window.

I immediately ran to the supply closet with Harvey close at heel. Once in, I slammed the door loudly, and then poured out the staples onto the floor in front of us.

{Rogue approaches}

Singular. Just one.

Pressing myself to the back of the cupboard, I patted Harvey on his shoulder and handed him the long metal bar from the old filing cabinet. "Fight time. Just keep your shoes on."

The door flung open before Harvey could respond. I looked for something to grab and threw it before I even saw was it was. It turned out to be a metal hole puncher, and it hit the rogue in the eye. Lucky!

The rogue was naked and armed with a short dagger. He stepped backwards, his unarmed hand grabbing his eye. Angrily he charged in, or he meant to, but once he stepped forward, his bare feet landed in quick succession on the staples, which silently did their job.

I only smelt a bit of fresh blood but the rogue pretty much screamed bloody murder. And then Harvey charged. Beta could fight, and three hits was all it took to get the big rogue down. I bet if the space hadn't constrained Harvey's swings so much, he could've finished the job sooner. I smelled a lot of blood by now but this time the rogue was silent.

The fact that one of two of the office rogues came out to check meant that the rogues had secured their win in the office. But Dad was still alive. I knew this.

{Rogues below}

Downstairs Wolfie? Plural. How many Wolfie? Can wolves count?

Harvey sensed the intrusion too. He looked at me as if asking, "What now?"

If they were here for my dad, they would still check out the smell of blood from the room next door. Let's make it a show to welcome them.

"Drag him out halfway." I told Harvey.

He did, but dragging the rogue across the staples turned out to be unexpectedly gruesome. Harvey made a face. I acted like I didn't notice, and pocketed the rogues flip knife.

At my signal, we ran across the corridor into the library. I bolted it from inside. I'm sure the rogues would have sensed us, but I hoped seeing their dead friend on the threshold of the supply closet would distract them and buy us more time.

Harvey was still carrying the metal bar. I took it from him, "There's better stuff here."

I undid the secret catch and lifted the lid of the reading table in the middle of the library. Nice.

{Rouges approaches}

S***. Out of time.

"Grab what you can use." I told Harvey.

He picked a dagger and shot gun. That suited him.

I already had a flip knife. And I didn't have anymore pockets or the ability to carry sharp objects without cutting myself. After a moment of consideration, I decided the other blades in the selection would sooner cut me than anyone else.

Dropping the table top down I led Harvey to the back of the library. Harvey offered me the gun but I've never shot one before so I shook my head at it.

We would take shelter among the library shelves and hang out back, taking them down one by one. Like an indoor hunting game, which was a variation of Hide and Seek Tag. I played this kind of games with the gang a lot, sometimes in this actual library room. Except this time, we were using real weapons and hunting real rogues.

The rogues sounded like they to were having trouble getting the door opened. Seriously? Maybe I overestimated them.

They weren't going downstairs to the training hall either? Why? Not enough numbers or they didn't know it existed, or they thought having Dad was enough?

I heard the rogues pushed something heavy against the library door to keep us trapped in. Idiots, the door swings inward...

But knowing they didn't plan to come for us anytime soon. I started moving out to the library's window.

"Careful of their snipers, princess." Harvey warned quietly. But he forgot, this was my castle. There were a row of large old evergreens outside the library balcony, and in the dark, they wouldn't see us.

Oh wait, I'm wearing highlighter stripes. I drew back to pull off my t-shirt so that it was just my black sports bra and yoga pants.

Dropping my t-shirt on the floor, I cracked the sliding glass door opened. I heard a zipper and turned around. Harvey held up his gym jacket to me. He had a tight black t-shirt under.

I put on his hooded jacket, and tucked my hair into the hood so it wouldn't get in the way. Then I slipped out into the balcony.

Harvey followed me, he put himself between me and any possible oncoming bullet. The gesture was sweet but completely unnecessary. I didn't make a fuss though, I had my focus on dealing with the rogues right now.

We crept against the balcony wall till we reached the end closest to the broken office window. We could see three, no four rouges discussing what to could do in the lit room. Actually, three of them were discussing. One of them was actually working...in front of my dad's computer.

I pointed to the geek rogue and made my hand like a gun to Harvey. If they were here for information, they won't get it without the nerd.

Harvey looked terribly unsure, "Your dad's there."

"Yeah, I know. Do it quickly."

Harvey aimed and missed the first time, hitting the computer screen. His second shot hit home.

Our two gunshots were matched immediately. The whizzing bullets kept us pinned in our corner of the balcony. Another wolf looked out of the office window. Harvey shot him in the face. I covered my ears and shut my eyes. Too loud.

Left one rogue though. The moment the guns ceased, (presumably they have decided to actually see a target before shooting again,) I snuck back into the library, careful to keep low behind the balcony wall and out of their line of sight.

My heart was hammering, but I couldn't stop now. We needed to keep going and get my dad.

Harvey and I made it back into the library. I ran to the library entrance and threw it open. Time was of the essence. Just one rogue left alone with my dad and we needed to get in there before more rogues came. I jumped over the heavy chest of drawers the idiot rogues had put in front of the door.

{Approaching rogue}

I know I am Wolfie, but thanks for noticing.

In the last moment, I changed my mind and made an about turn, but not before pushing Harvey into the office on his own. I pressed myself against the corridor wall to listen in.

"Was it just you alone boy?" The rogue snarled. "Drop you weapon, I have your Alpha."

Harvey looked at the gun in his hand. He was pretty calm for someone who was just shoved into the situation.

"Drop it!" The rogue half screamed at him.

Harvey dropped it and kicked it outside, was that for me Beta? You aren't mad I keep pushing you head first into danger?

"Don't hurt my Alpha." Harvey said. His voice a dead calm.

Good beta, it's good for Betas (E.g. Harvey) to trust their Alphas (E.g. me). I adjusted Harvey's gym jacket on me. It was oversized and just covered my butt. I had yoga pants stretched under it. I pulled my hair out of their hiding place in the hood, combing it down over both shoulders the way I've seen Jessica do with her hair. Then I hooded up again, but I knew my long hair was on display.

Oh yeah, the flip knife. I took it out of my yoga pants stretch pocket over my thigh, and slipped it into Harvey's jacket pocket to keep it out of sight.

Then I saw the gun on the floor. I put that in the other pocket.

Okay Wolfie, let's do something crazy.

"Big brother?" I made my voice as cute as possible, "I'm scared. Is it over?"

I stepped out into view and tugged at the hem of my jacket.

I saw Harvey's mouth drop open. My dad's face fell but he remained quiet. It's almost like he hadn't wanted to see me here.

"Oh," the rogue looked surprised, "Come here girl."

"But you're scary." I told him, "And you have a gun."

"I told you to go back, Sis." Harvey had no choice but to play along, "It's dangerous here."

"Come here girl!" The rogue said, "or I'll shoot him." He pointed the gun at dad's head.

Would that kill him?

{Rogues are near}

{Gammas are near}

Wolfie's succinct reports could be annoying sometimes. Gammas? We only had Gamma Harry... But I've got no time for guess-who games.

"Who's he?" I asked looking at my dad, at this moment, for the lack of inspiration, I decided to pretend to be an airhead. Sometimes I did this when I was alone with Savy. It always either annoyed her or amused her terribly, depending on her mood.

"He's our Alpha, Sis. Man you're dumb." Harvey answered rolling his eyes. Wow, Harvey was so natural at dissing his little sister. Did he have a lot of practice?

I was still scared of the guns shooting me from outside so I walked over to where my dad was and crouched down in front of his desk next to him. "You're our Alpha? Why are your hands tied behind you? Are you hurt? Oooooh your shoulder looks bad. Are you really my Alpha?"

Dad barely growled. His wolf, where was it? His shoulder was bleeding bad. Wolfbane?

The rogue smirked down on me, "Stupid and pretty. Just the way I like them."

I felt my hair stand. Grrr...

"Grrr..." My dad did growl then. I was happy to see his wolf but I gripped him tightly on the rope around his wrists to keep him from trying to get up and chew out the rogue.

"Yeah, she's pretty stupid." Harvey said. I think he just spoke out to get the rogues attention. It worked and the rogue failed to notice the Alpha's protectiveness over me.

I'm not sure how Harvey intended to continue holding the rogue's attention, was he going to just keep with the insults?

A fight broke out downstairs. I guessed the Gammas and rogues finally met.

I had a flip knife in my pocket. And a gun. I took out the knife and put the handle in my father's hand.

I think my dad would have wanted me to cut him free so he could fight the rogue with Harvey.

But the rogue still hand a gun in hand. And it would look suspicious if I was suddenly too focused on my Alpha's backside. I watched the rogue carefully instead, using my body to block my dad's attempt to saw off the thick rope from his sight.

Suddenly, I saw my chance, the noises from the fight downstairs was distracting our rogue. He was trying to hear out if his team was winning or losing, and forgot that he was on the pitch too.

His gun was not pointing quite at my dad anymore. I stood up in lighting speed and kicked the gun away. It went off, the shot hitting the floor and ricocheting off it into the sofa. Scary.

{Gammas approaches}

Guess our team won downstairs.

Then before I could think again. I took out Harvey's gun and pointed it point blank at the rogue. The rogue put up his hands. A shot rang out. It wasn't me though.

Harvey had picked up the gun I kicked of the rogue and fired it.

"He's not dead." He assured me.

The next thing I knew, my dad and Harvey had me tackled onto the floor in front of my dad's desk.

I covered my ears and squeezed shut my eyes shut waiting for the volley of gunshots. I officially hated guns.

But nothing happened. I felt the arms around me loosen and opened my eyes. I guess the ground patrol caught up to the snipers after all.

Gamma Harry and Jonah bursts into the office. They were breathing hard from running up straight after the fight below.

"What happened here?" Gamma Harry asked.

My dad stood up and dusted himself off, "Its alright now." His deep voice was assuring.

Harvey and I stood up too.

"Dad's injured." I told Gamma Harry.

Dad nodded, "Silver bullet in my shoulder, bit of Wolfbane."

"Delta Simon is on his way." Gamma Harry said.

"No need, I'm fine." Dad decided, "We'll go downstairs. My lovely Luna is missing a daughter."

Oh right. I'm so dead.

Jonah had taken out my dad's extra clothes for him to change into. Oh right again. My dad was still naked. I really should notice these things more often.

Dad passed me the flip knife, "Is this yours?"

"Rogue's" I answered, "Can I keep it?"

The other guys were picking through the litter around the office. They put the gun from the library onto dad's desk. Harvey returned the unused dagger, and the rogue's gun he had used to shoot the rogue.

My dad put the flip knife on the desk. I sighed. I tried. Goodbye flip knife. It was nice knowing you.