The Dare

Toni's PoV:

School was always boring, but less intense than the lectures I got back at the pack house. My father was strict and his standards were much higher than those at school, so the high school had become a place to socialize and forget about the responsibilities I had. Celina understood, of course -- she was a member of the pack, one of the Beta's kids, and she had plenty of pressure on her, too. We tried to support each other as much as we could.

The day dragged on, blurring together with every other day I'd spent like that. At the end of it, we linked arms and walked out of the building together.

"What do you want to do?" I asked. We had about two hours before we need to be back home, and we always made the most of it.

"Do you think the others would be up for a dare?" Celina flicked her hair over her shoulder.

"A dare?"

"Sure. I have one in mind, though -- I want to explore the Rogue lands."

"The Rogue lands?" I struggled to keep my voice below a shout. The Rogue lands were an area just outside our territory, before the start of any other pack's land. It was unclaimed, a place were peace talks were sometimes held, but mostly it were occupied by rogues.

I shivered. The Rogue lands were no small deal. Werewolf society was highly structured, with a rigid social hierarchy -- anyone who rebelled against that, anyone who went mad enough to commit a crime, became a rogue, and they were banished to the Rogue lands. The only very worst of werewolf society became packless -- the murders, the traitors -- and we called them rogues. They were truly dangerous.

Celina hushed me. I lent in closer to whisper to her, my eyes scanning the path in front of us to make sure no one was close enough to hear.

"Why do you want to go out there?" I asked. "You know how dangerous it is -- not to mention what my father will do if he finds out!"

Celina smirked. "Are you scared, Toni?"

"Duh! You don't know what could happen out there." We turned a corner and left the school behind us. The street we'd turned into was deserted, populated only by the trash littered along the floor.

"Please, Toni, you're the daughter of an Alpha -- you've been fighting all your life. I'd like to see anyone try hurt you," Celina said.

I laughed. My training had been thorough, but I was still only seventeen, and it wasn't like I was any master. My brother had always outshone me in that department, partly because he had a lot more training, and I'd never been in a real fight.

"We used to mess around there all the time," Celina said. "We never got into any trouble."

"That's because we were lucky, but things aren't like they were a few years ago."

A crow bounced along the path in front of us. As we approached, it flapped its wings and flew away.

"We're still the same, aren't we? Come on, it'll be fun."

I sighed. "Okay, but you have to make sure we get back in time."

Celina nodded and pulled me by the arm, her face breaking into a smile. I fought the urge to laugh. She was probably right -- we would be fine in the Rogue Lands, we'd gone out there many times before and nothing happened.

Celina and I weaved through the streets and alleyways, hurrying along. We tried to call the rest of our friends, but no one picked up, so we decided to go by ourselves. The Rogue lands started past the edge of the pack territory, a little way out from where we were, but not too far. The humans, even the ones who knew about werewolves, called it the abandoned quarry, which was why they were told not to go there.

I was a Beaumont, though, and I was no coward.

My father had patrols going around the pack territory most days, but I knew there were certain gaps where we could sneak through. These were the places that couldn't be reached from outside the territory, so they were pretty safe from rogues, and there was one only a few streets away from where we were.

We took a short cut and arrived at the edge of a field. On one end of the field was play park, while the rest of it was used for kids to play football on. Luckily, no one was around, probably because school had only just ended.

Celina and I walked over to the other end of the field, next to the iron link fence, our phones at the ready. I had turned mine on silent, just in case some one was out in the Rogue Lands and heard my phone going off.

"How far do we have to go?" I asked.

"Until we can see the Keep Out signs," Celina decided. "But it's just to have fun. We don't need to go that far."

I nodded. One quick look at Celina proved that I was just as excited as she was -- sneaking over the fence and into the woods was forbidden, but it was an adventure. I threaded my fingers into the gaps of the fence and called over to her.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"Of course."

We started to climb up, pushing our fingers and the ends of our shoes through the fence and pulling ourselves up. It was hard work, our fingers kept slipping and the fence was taller than we were, but eventually we got to the top -- I guess all those Saturday training sessions paid off. When we were at the top of the fence, which was a few feet higher than either of us, we had to carefully slide our way onto the other side and lower ourselves down. My palms were sore and sweaty from clinging onto the fence and my arms ached like nobody's business, so when I saw that I was only a few feet from the ground I was relieved.

I let myself drop the last few feet, landing upright and doing a little bow to the invisible audience. I laughed before going to help Celina down. She fell to the ground with a thump, uninjured but with a slightly bruised ego, and we brushed down our hands on our jeans. With that, we set off into the forest.

The trees surrounded us in a matter of minutes, blocking the fence and our friends from view. I shivered. The leaves seemed to block out all warmth and light from entering the forest, and as we walked further into the woods we heard less and less outside noise. We were alone.