C3. The Suspect Escape

Continuing Jossie's POV:

     I didn't stop driving until I was forced to stop at a gas station to fuel up the s10. It had been an hour and a half. I turned the car off and looked around the truck for anything useful. My dad's jacket was in the back seat. I could use it to cover up my blood-stained shirt. A bottle of cologne was in the glove-compartment. I sprayed my chest down in it. The smell reminded me of ashwood. Father was always smelling good in my memories of him. I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt to have a better look at the situation I was in.

'Impossible.'

     My arm was healed. There was dry blood from where a wound had been. It was still red and puffy on the surface area... Slight black and blue bruising of teeth marks. No way. It looks like it's been a few weeks since Matthew bit me. How the hell... I've never healed this fast before.

     I dropped the sleeve as a smile crept across my face. I snatched the jacket and put it on. I zipped it up and stuck the gun under the seat. I pulled out the cash I had on hand with me and counted out enough to fill up the tank. I added in a few dollars I would need for something light to eat. Maybe a water bottle? I got out of the truck and walked into the store. It was busy. But, nobody glanced my way. I walked around the store as I carefully selected my favorite 20oz water bottle and a pack of beef jerky.  I walked up to the counter and handed over the money. "Pump ten," I would tell. "Put Thirty on it." The woman at the register would nod.

"Have a good day," she'd say to me.

     I went back out to the truck and started to fuel Betty up. My mind felt empty as I focused on the numbers hitting the screen until finally... they came to a stop. I put the pump up and got in the truck. I moved the truck away from the pumps to the edge of the parking lot and tilted the seat back. My heart raced in my chest. I pulled open the jerky bag and moaned at the smell of the meat. It was mouthwatering. I picked up instantly on the strong scent of the seasoning. Pepper burned my nose but I didn't care as I picked up a piece and bit off it. The terriyaki flavor was my favorite.

     Well I think this concludes it... Fast progressive healing... Taste is developed... I'm changing. Who else would know me better then myself? I know this is different. Something is happening to me. "Where do I go now?" I asked softly. I finished off the bag of jerky and started on the bottle of water. "I need to get a room... but if I start changing?" I mumbled as I tried to debate to myself. "I can't change in a motel." I looked towards the outskirts of the town I was in. The woods seemed to be calling my name quietly. "I can't... go there... What if its another Alpha's territory?" The last thing I need is being thrown in wolf-jail for tresspassing. I looked out the window with a heavy sigh. My breath was begining to show through the air as the temperature was dropping. I'll keep driving for now. Get a motel room further up the road. Hopefully I won't be in another pack's territory. I don't know when the trasformation will come but hopefully it'll delay until its safe.

     I'm seventeen. I can lie and say I'm eighteen on applications. I'll have to find a place that doesn't quite care about runaway teenagers. I'll think about that later... for now I need to focus... if I'm becoming a wolf... maybe I should try to join a nearby pack. I should think about when the next full moon is... I bet I'll be a wolf by then.

     I cranked the truck back up. Betty having enough time to rest. I headed back in the direction I was going. Determined to find a safe place to rest tonight.

Matthew's POV:

    "Sorry ma'am... we lost your husband's truck when it crossed out of pack territory," Veronica reported. Vee- which was Veronica's nickname, was a short female. Maybe five one. She was a natrual strawberry blonde and blue eyed. She had a yellow bandanna around her neck and overalls she slipped on durring her trasformation from wolf to girl. She had just came out of the woods and there was mud stuck to her legs and arms. Twigs in her hair. Six pack mates stood by her with their heads bowed in respect. My sister April growled agressivly towards the pack mate. She raised her hand and struck Vee across the face. I flinched as I felt it as if it was my own cheek. Vee's coward eyes hit the floor in shame.

     "You're all an embarassment!" April shouted. We stood outside of the victorian style family home we grew up in... and now April took over. "A god damned embarassment!" She flew her hands up on her head and breathed in and out heavily. "The lot of you! You couldn't do one job... Stop Josephine from leaving the territory?" We kept quiet as I swallowed a hard lump on my throat. Vee trembled under the pressure of the question. The front door to the house swung open and a few pack mates carried William's body out on a stretcher. April's eyes switched to look at his covered body and she threw up a hand over her mouth. A small gasp came from her broken expression. She didn't shed a tear as she eyed over the stretcher. "Look at him!" She shouted as her hand fell. "Dead and his killer got away." She looked out at the seven. Suddenly she looked at me. "Where were you?" She hissed through her teeth. "What happened?"

     They loaded William's corpse into a van to take to the morgue. I didn't talk until the van left the driveway. I looked back at April and a curl of my lip rose up. I had good news for her. She would like what I had to give her. "Jossie wasn't the killer," I proposed.

     "Like hell!" April shouted. "She's as good of a killer as anyone else is. Did you not see what my kitchen looks like, Matthew?" She didn't believe me.

     "We got back here where I was going to apprehend Jossie. But, a rogue attacked me and that's how she slipped through my fingers."

     "A rogue?" April raised her eyebrow in disbelief.

     "It does smell funny," Vee muttered under her breath as she smelled the air and glanced towards the closed garage door. The seven started to move towards it cautiously. Now aware of the rogue's scent. April's smile broke out onto her face in pure joy.

     "A rogue?" She asked me.

     "I tied it up in there," I explained.

     "W-well... That means..." She trailed off as she thought about it. She turned to me and grabbed my arm to yank me closer. "Matthew! My innocent daughter is missing! YOU LET HER RUN AWAY?" She asked and looked around at everyone. "THE FUTURE ALPHA is missing! We've got to send out a search party. Call the neighboring Alphas! We have to get my daughter home!" I think that's one of the few times she's ever called Jossie her daughter.

     Veronica pressed the button on the garage to open the door. As it rolled up for us to see the rogue... our smiles turned to frowns of confusion. There was rope shredded and the chair I got from the house was smashed in pieces. The side door into the backyard was wide open. Vee sniffed the air as she walked around the garage before looking at the open door and looked at the six. "Scent is still fresh," she growled before she started to trasform. The rest followed suit as they turned into their wolf forms and took off towards the woods. Hot on the trail of that rogue. I turned to look at April. Her jaw was clenched tight but her eyes shined bright in happiness.

     "We'll find Jossie," I promised her. Like it or not... Jossie will have to be delt with. We can't pass on leadership until she comes back to claim or openly pass the Alpha position onto another successor. "And, they'll find that rogue. We'll get William's murderer and burn him alive for his crimes." She flinched as she looked to be thinking about it. She nodded as she wrapped an arm around my waste.

     "I'm just so worried," she whispered. "Everyone thought- I thought- she killed her father. But... what was that rogue doing here?" She asked as she looked up into my eyes. "Why would it come back to a crime scene it committed? What if they were both in on it?"

     "Jossie and the rogue?" I asked her and raised an eyebrow. Jossie was always the quiet child. Hell... I thought it was bizzar to accuse her in the first place but to accuse her again?

     "Cromwell blood is rogue blood. This is what I get for choosing a rogue for a mate, Matthew. I should have rejected William... maybe, I wouldn't be in such a heartbreak now." She covered her eyes as I heard her breath sharply. My shirt began to feel damp as she cried into my chest. She trembled as her voice shook against my chest with a terrible question. "What if that rogue wants to kill Jossie?"

     I never liked William... he was a decent Alpha... but I didn't like that he came from being a rogue. So I never understood it myself... why she didn't reject his ass years ago. It would have saved us all this trouble now. "Come on April... let's get your mind off it and clean your kitchen?" I asked her as I grabbed her chin and made her look at me. "Crying and cleaning work hand in hand." Vee and the others are working hard to get that rogue. I'll interrogate him when they bring his ass in for questioning.

     A horn honked which brought my attention towards the driveway as a familiar sports model Kia pulled into the driveway. It was a red sedan and I knew who it was right away. There is only one person with a red sports car in the pack, Juliette Radbidcrest. My niece was Josephine's opposite twin. Juliette was born with her father's eyes, the ocean blue. But, sometimes people said they looked like mine. She inherited the Rabidcrest albino hair that she kept curled with cotton candy pink highlights. Juliette was the star of our pack. She accelled in her school courses, played sports, and kept an alpha female precense amongst her. She was truly nothing like her shy sister.

     Juliette got out of her car once she parked it. She combed her hair and put on a clear lip gloss before jumping out. She had on a black cocktail dress that showed off her young figure and black pumps to give her extra height. She shut the door as she glanced around. "What happened here?" She asked innocently. Juliette was home early. A day early. She wasn't due back in the pack until tomorrow. Juliette was truly puzzled... and I cringed because I knew I would be the one to tell her about her father's passing. "Mom, what's going on? Why did you ask me back home early?" April moved out of her arms as she walked to her daughter with her arms wide open. She wrapped her favorite daughter up into her arms and sobbed.

"Your father is dead."

"What?"

     Juliette raised her eyebrow in disbelief. "What happened?" She glanced around us as she widened her eyes in some realization. "What happened?" She shouted as she brought her mother away from her chest and shook her. She shook her as she demanded an explanation.

     "We think a rogue did it," I told her. My voice made April look my way. Juliette's face paled as she looked towards the house. I took this as a chance to explain further. "Your sister was accused at first... until I was attacked as well by a rogue. Jossie took your father's truck and drove off. And... the rogue escaped."

     "Oh no... Jossie," Juliette whispered softly. She looked shook with disbelief. "What if the rogue goes after her?" Juliette asked us. "She can't protect herself." I never heard Juliette worried for Josephine... Maybe they were closer then I thought.

     "You better go inside and help calm down your mother," I said as I realized... I don't have to be here for April. I can go after Vee and the six. I can help them hunt down that rogue.

     "Where are you going?" April asked as I started for the woods.

     "To help Vee," I shouted back.

     I shifted into my wolf when I reached the tree line. My white paws truded through the nice blended enviroment of the cold artic woods. Snow was falling light. If we weren't fast enough we could loose the rogue's trail. I howled as I began to track down my pack's scents. I picked up on Vee's scent the most and followed it towards the pack's outskirts. The hunt begining for me as I picked up on the rogue's faint scent.

Jossie's POV:

     My stomach burned and my mouth watered as the sensation of wanting to puke hit me. I pulled off the road two hours after my last stop. I ended up at an abandonded gas station with dirt and wet moss overgrowing the parkinglot. The lot was iced over and an inch of snow covered the trees and ground. There was a wired fence seperating the woods from the lot.

     I searched the truck one last time. Under the seat I felt a bag touch my fingers gently. I yanked it out to reveal the purple buds of wolfsbane. I wrinkled up the bag and stuck it into my pocket before searching further under the seat and found what I was looking for. Dad's papers and a lighter. Wolfsbane... if used properly... is a drug as well as a medicine. The papers and lighter was put up in my pocket together. I took the keys out of the ignition and locked up the truck. I walked over to the fense as I swallowed the heavy liquid on my stomach.

'Pull it together.'

     I found an opening in the wire and slipped through. My feet taking me into the woods as the thought of my first trasformation remained on my mind. The sun was falling in the sky. It was past lunchtime. I put the truck keys gently under a log so they wouldn't be lost and found a spot to sit down at. I was cold. Shivering in my father's jacket. I whined quietly as I rocked back and forth. My stomach burned as I could taste the jerky wanting to come back up. Keep it down, keep it down. I swallowed the heavy saliva as I refused to puke up my only meal of that day. I pulled out the wolfsbane and picked it apart onto a paper before rolling it up. I flicked the lighter until I caught the end on fire and breathed through the joint.

     A sensation of ease filled my body as I inhaled. I fell back into the snow and stared up at the trees blocking my view of the sky. My body's aches stopped as I felt light. The air around me seemed denser. I put out the joint after a few more hits and let my ears open up to the forest around me. Off in the distance I could hear an elk's heavy footsteps tudding through the snow. Unaware of how much sound he made to a wolf's ear. The world seemed to drift off as I lost consciousness.