ROGUE HUNT AT WINDERHILL

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, CONTINUED

Harvey picked up his phone with a polite, "Please excuse me, Alpha. I need to make a few calls."

My other wolves broke up into their groups. Someone said something and they all laughed. There was a buzz in the air, it was the feeling of setting off for a school outing or something. Then after a bit of bickering over who was running front, who was on reporting duty, and whatever else, they were finally settled. Some of the men stripped off their jackets, holsters, and valuables, dumping them in the care of a trustworthy wolf, who according to the pile of stuff next to him, was Owen, who would nod and smile amiably and wish them good luck out there.

Then they each found their own space and ripped out of their clothes into their wolf forms. Large fearsome show offs - all of them, bearing their teeth and raising their hackles, but strutting around the perimeter so I knew their wolves weren't just sniffing out information about the town, they were also showing off - my wolves were big brutes, and they knew it.

By now, Harvey's phone calls were showing visible results and our other men were quickly joined by red and brown ants. My blue warriors welcomed the ants warmly, slapped them on their backs a little too hard, and then they got down to business, gesturing here and there as they spoke, as if getting advice from the local warriors about where to check out first.

Some of the red and brown ants weren't so involved in the discussion, so they had the leisure of watching quite aghast, at our warriors in wolf form sniffing at the dead giant werewolf on the road. What? It's not like they were eating him! They were getting intel. INTEL! Didn't these ants ever hunt down rogues in their wolf form before? They'll pick up all the scents on his person and follow them like threads to the culprits - no one was getting away.

This was standard practice, but from the looks of the red and brown ants, it was like they've NEVER seen it before. Come now... really? How they they hunt rogues? Eye witness accounts? Omo Was it just us? Don't tell me this was another one of our barbaric practices? But we were wolves! How did their warriors fight? With guns like the humans? WTH!

Luckily, no one called us out on our barbaric ways to make my wolves feel bad. (Actually, I don't think anyone in their right minds would say anything that might risk making one of these over-sized beasts mad - not to our faces anyway.)

"Two minutes!" Harvey got off the phone to inform everyone.

The warriors in human form synchronized their watches.

"You have 50 minutes to return with the fugitives. Dead or alive." Harvey declared, "The warrants have been issued. This mission is go. Move out!"

The first wolf (I think the one named William) howled and then the other wolves howled back and they were off.

"Come on!" One of our warriors yelled to his red and brown ant companions, "We got a good lead! You need to keep up."

Their faces! They looked so genuinely surprised when they realized they were going to run at wolf speed in their human form. Hahaha. What? Did they think we'd travel by car?

So exciting! I wanted to go hunting too!

"Pardon, Alpha." Harvey said from beside me before I could consider shifting and running out with my warriors.

Huh? I turned to my good beta, "What is it?"

"It's your Luna, alpha. He request you unblock your mindlink." Harvey informed me.

Yeah right, "request". I bet Bell more like absolutely demanded it. I nodded, "Okay, thanks Harvey."

My poor betas. My luna certainly didn't make life easy for them.

Then again, maybe it was my bad. I probably should have opened my mindlinks in the first place, but I've been keeping them close by default, and when things got dangerous, I had seriously clammed up.

What kind of reflex action was that though? Maybe I've just been hanging out too much with vampires.

Just as with my hair shield, I hesitated, feeling quite wary about reopening my mindlinks. Who knew what or who might explode into it? I thought of Mum or Dad and considered how to open a link only to Bell without my mindlink being waylaid by my parents. Technically, this was possible, but I've always been shutting down my mindlinks as a whole. It was either all on or all off. Maybe I'll just pretend I hadn't heard my Luna's request. I glanced guiltily at Harvey. Bell was going to be so mad.

Harvey was on the phone, I think he was talking to Henry because the voice on the other line was cussing freely, and rather loudly. Either that or it was Alpha George, both father and son were rather alike in their speech patterns. Henry was only a little milder than his dad in this aspect. Harvey took the verbal abuse, as with everything else that happened so far, with a terse and grown up calm I could only wish for.

Anyway, it looked like he's got everything under control over here.

Behind us the old warrior, Bert, must have thought so too. Now that the ruckus outside the school had died down, he quietly limped out of the guard house and started working to shut the school gate again.

I walked over while Harvey picked up another call. He turned away from me to say something quite firmly to whoever was on the the other end.

A large black cat joined me halfway up the road. This was the cat Bert was feeding right? Old Black.

Old Black purred like a rusty old engine. Hahaha. He weaved between my feet, nearly tripping me. I caught myself and growled at Old Black, but the large black cat only looked disdainfully back at me.

"Be careful, gal." Bert called out, "Wouldn't want you falling over and hurting yourself."

Did he not see me just take an explosion in my face?

Bert stopped closing the gate at this point. I thought he was resting his leg, or the gate was stuck again, but he only waved me up, "Right. Best come in. Let's leave the fighting to the big men."

I flared but walked over to the crack in the gate, "I'm the alpha. I can take care of myself. I can take care of everyone."

Bert wasn't too impressed, "I wouldn't exactly call hugging a bomb taking care of yourself, gal."

So he did see! But for some reason, Bert saw things quite differently from the way I did.

"If the Alpha Princess died today. What do you think will happen to all your blue warriors?" Bert asked, and then he grumbled at the gate, "Damn those rogues... they really stuck up the hinges there."

I looked over and for the first time notice that one of the hinges on the gate had been plaster with... what was that? Silicon glue? Hahaha. That pretty much explained why it wouldn't open. The hinge had to be unscrewed off the post. I would have to remember this trick for future reference. Silicon glue, huh? My ghost could do with a tube or two.

"Warriors are supposed to live and die in battle. Not Alphas... And definitely not little gals like you." Bert continued grumbling. Old Black got tired of our conversation and slipped past Bert to look for his bowl.

"Do you think any warrior will be happy if you died in his place?" Bert's eyes flashed for a moment. And for that moment, I felt like I could see the Bert who was a brave and proud warrior wolf, and then just as suddenly, he dropped back to his usual gruff tired old wolf self again, "Come on in, gal. My Luna is absolutely frantic. I have some hot coffee, but if you go to her office, I'm sure she can set you up with a nice milky tea and some sweets."

Oh right. Principal Laura was also Bert's Luna. I felt a little like my brain was disjointed. Truth to be told, I could still hear the sirens at the back of my head.

I shook my head to clear it. And then I gave the old warrior a bright smile, "Thanks Bert, but you don't have to worry. I'm tougher than I look."

And then I added proudly, "So are my warriors. No matter who lives or dies, they won't be sad forever."

The Ceremony of the Departed was still fresh in my mind. Bert was right. I can't die now. I have to be alive to protect everyone's happiness. After all, a ghost could only do so much. I would know! Even with silicon glue!

I lifted my hand to wave a casual bye to the old warrior. Enough of these depressing thoughts, I was going to be the Alpha who would protect my wolves' happiness. "See you, Bert! Tell Madam Principal, I'll have tea with her after I deal with this."

Yep, that's exactly what a cool Alpha would do. Kick butt first, and be back for the next meal. At least that's how Dad always did it.

Got a rogue problem at the border? No problem. Just call Dad.

"I'll be running out with Luc for a bit, darling." Dad would say to Mum while I did my homework at the dining table. Then he'll lean over and kiss her.

"Ewwww... cooties!" I would say (because lets not forget what a dumb pup I used to be).

And Dad would laugh, reach over, and rest his large hand on top of my head. If Savy was there (but Savy usually did her homework in her room), he would pat Savy's head too.

"No touching!" I'll punch the air, I had really meant to land the punch on Dad, but he would be already at the door, "Be good and listen to your Mum, Sam."

"I'm always good!" I would yell at him as he opened the front door.

"Alpha, we have to go." Beta Lucas would be waiting outside, "Our bikes are out front."

Dad would nod at his beta and then tell Mum, "I'll be home for dinner."

And he would be gone. But I wouldn't worry at all. Unlike Mum.

"Don't worry, Mum." I'll tell her, "It's only an hour or two before dinner time."

Because Dad said he'd be home for dinner.

And Dad always got home for dinner - and on the occasions he didn't, it would be because Beta Lucas and him had gone to Gate City to buy us candy or milk or something like that. But I would always see him at breakfast the next day so it wasn't a big deal.

Dad always made everything he did looked like it wasn't a big deal. Beta Lucas said Dad could beat up three rogues at one time - even without shifting!

"And that's just to warm up!" Beta Lucas boasted.

Yeah, that's the kind of Alpha I wanted to be!

But just before I considered shifting to run out with my warriors, a distant noise caught my attention. It started so quietly, I thought perhaps I imaged it, or that it was the accompaniment to the residual ringing siren in my head.

And then I headed back out to the Porsche because I could hear it from the distance, the rumble of motorbikes, like the sound of thunder threatening to storm. The rest of my underground army was now at Winderhill.

And...

{Mate! ~❤️ }

Yes, of course, mate was here.