THE MYSTERIOUS SOMEONE I WAS LOOKING FOR

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

Who could be the "Alpha" on the enemy's side?

SOMEONE with access to these few hundred rogues.

SOMEONE with contacts to the hidden rogue village - which was the "outlet" Dad had allocated for them to escape to. (Come on! Dad was making it way to easy for them to run back home!)

But that SOMEONE definitely knew of this hidden rogue village. There was a reason why it was called the HIDDEN rogue village, but SOMEONE knew it well enough to hide the few hundreds of rogues there in preparation for this war.

I mean, you didn't just muster a hundred desperate rogues on a whim.

Even Roy's place, which was supposed to be the Rogue King's Summer house only had a handful of rogues living there - I remembered Beta Lorent needing to pay them too. So these rogues only worked for something in return.

SOMEONE had enough money or at least something valuable to get the rogues to work for him... And provide them with firearms too.

Like that bazooka thing that was used to shoot us in the warlock lands. SOMEONE had access to bazookas. Those weren't sold at Target. Hahaha. Get it? Target? Bazooka? Nevermind.

Back to the issue, it's like what Gamma Harry said, SOMEONE knew all our alphas and most of our betas were in the warlock lands.

Or what if Gamma Endo was right, and this was a set up? Then SOMEONE was also the one to arrange for us to leave our Packlands?

Was this an insider job? Alpha Gunter? But he was supposedly on his way back right now. Ah... River was going to be so dead when his Dad got back.

Since I knew Alpha Gunter as River's dad, I really couldn't see him as the dark mastermind behind this rogue war.

Okay, but if not Alpha Gunter, then who?

The warlock? Omo!

But..but...but... It can't be! The Warlock was friendly, okay, so that was more than ten years ago. But even in recent years, the Warlock never seemed bothered with anything outside his own land.

Okay, and I had strong reason to believe he was trying to kill us back there in his tower. Let's not forget that it was his stupid stone that started this mess in the first place.

So now what? I go back into the warlock land, grab the warlock by his scruff, and shake some sense into him?

Like should I yell at his face, "Why did you raise a rogue army and attack us? Weren't you friends with Dad?"

Or something like that?

Nevermind what to yell at his face. The challenge here was getting a face to face meeting with him in the first place. I mean, wasn't that what I had been trying to do for I-don't-know-how-long in his stupid warlock land with slow motion clocks?

But if I did manage to meet him, I remembered now that there was a question I had always wanted to ask him since I was a pup, "Why do you let bad rogues hide in your woods?"

That was a constant source of rogue trouble for Dad. They would cross our borders from the warlock land, kill, steal, rob, kidnap or something, and escape our capture just by crossing back to Fount's side of the forest.

Very annoying. We've always just thought Fount didn't want to be bothered by Lycan stuff.

Wait, but something still didn't add up. I honestly couldn't feel it was the Warlock no matter how unlovable he was making himself out to be at his Tower. It just wasn't a warlock thing to do, you know?

But if not Fount, then who?

I stopped in mid step and withdrew my foot.

{Approaching Alpha and warriors.}

Carefully, I pulled the dark cape over my face and slipped behind a large tree.

They were coming over, an unknown alpha... but I recognized the voices of the two warriors with him immediately. HEY! Weren't those two supposed to be MY warriors?

"Hey, thanks man." It was Neil!!! (Exclamation marks for how surprised I was to bump into him again.)

"Yeah, I never expected to see you here!" This was Jax. (But I kind of expected that after hearing Neil's voice so no surprise there.)

"Don't mention it." Someone answered easily enough.

Who were these two idiots talking to now?

"So... You're not mad at us or anything?" Neil was still cautious.

"I saved you, didn't I?" The someone said.

Neil laughed then, but it was an uneasy laugh, "If you say so, man."

Technically he didn't say so.

"So what are you doing out so close to the front lines?" Jax asked, "Are you helping with the war?"

"You could say that." The someone answered, without really answering again.

Actually, there was one Alpha I had ever met before who never could answer a straight question properly.

The Alpha stopped suddenly, "There's someone here."

Ah, darn it. Don't tell me he had some kind of radar too? I held my breath, I'm not here.

"What, who?" Jax asked loudly after a pause, "I don't smell or hear nothing."

"Shhh... Shut up, you fool." The Alpha told him.

Jax shut up.

Neil didn't though, "You must be imagining it, Jude."

Okay, so now Neil knew I was here too. Specifically, he knew it was me and was trying to cover for me. It was kind of obvious though. Here's hoping Jude didn't notice.

"Shut up, Neil. I know there's someone there." Jude moved towards me.

I started to panic, just a bit. What should I do? What should I do?

Whatever it was, I probably shouldn't just punch him without reason again, right? I mean, sure I didn't like Jude, but that didn't make it okay to beat him up whenever we met.

He took another step forwards, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Ahhh... I panicked properly now. An excuse, I needed a good excuse!

"It's probably just a racoon or something." Neil said.

"Shut up, Neil." Jude said.

Okay, yeah, I'm just a racoon. No... There was no way I'd get away with that without coming across as crazy. Okay, I'm crazy. No... That won't work. I might meet Jude led a minor pack in our Packlands, so there was a good chance of having to see him again in the future, and having to act crazy everytime would really be hard on my PR.

Jude was walking over now.

"You don't really need to use a gun on... on a racoon!" Neil yelled from behind him.

"It could be a bear." Jax worried, "You'd need a gun then."

"Shut up." Neil hit him. I heard the loud thump, "If it were a bear it'll be hibernating."

"Hi what now?" Jax asked sounding sullen but otherwise unhurt.

"Hibernating! Sleeping! It'll be sleeping!" Neil yelled at this stupid friend.

Which was exactly what I decided to do at that moment. I crouched as low and as silently possible to the ground, leaned back on the nearest tree, and pretended to sleep.

Here's hoping Jude wasn't the kind of guy to shoot raccoons/bears/girls he meets sleeping in the forest.

"Alpha Princess?"

I took the chance to quickly open my eyes. Jude's face was WAAAYYY too close!

{Can I punch him now?}

"Alpha Princess?"

Jude sounded honestly shocked. Like I was the last person he'd expect to see here. Which might just as well have been the case.

I leaned away from his face which was way too close.

"Ah! It's the princess!" Neil shouted loudly from behind him, "Don't shoot, man!"

Jude turned to glare at the two warriors clomping noisily towards us. I took the chance to inch to the side away from Jude's larger frame and stand up.

"What? Like our princess?" Jax sounded genuinely surprised as he jogged over, "I thought you were..."

"Weren't you at home, princess?" Neil interupted.

Eh, wasn't Neil on the Alpha Channel? Shouldn't he know I was out and about?

"You shouldn't be here, Princess!" Neil didn't give me a chance to correct him, "It's very dangerous! Where are your betas?"

Wait... What was Neil talking about? He should know my betas were still in the warlock lands.

"Her betas are back?" Jude asked sharply.

Yeah, even Jude knew. Hey wait, how did Jude know my betas weren't around?

Neil shrugged and looked around helplessly.

"Neil, if you know something, you better say it." Jude warned.

"Ah, it's pack stuff and we're in different packs now." Neil winced as he avoided the Alpha's direct glare, "You understand right, man?"

Oh, I know what was happening now! We're playing the game of lying without getting caught by the Alpha. The rules were simple. Alphas can detect lies, right? So the aim of the game was to not tell the Alpha the truth without getting caught.

Jude, the dude who can't give a straight answer to any question was probably a natural at this.

My own betas were quite proficient at this skill too. But thanks to that, I wasn't left helpless in such a situation.

"Jude?" I rubbed my eyes and gave my most sleepy puppy expression, "Why are you here?"

>> My betas' favourite strategy when dealing with uncomfortable topics around me: ACT INNOCENT.

"I should be asking you that, princess." Jude answered. Wow, well played. I see I was dealing with an expert here.

"I'm dream traveling." I told him because it was the truth, and I knew his wolf would register that I wasn't lying at all. Anyway, Jude wasn't stupid. He would notice I didn't have any scent sooner or later.

>> My betas' basic strategy: Start with pointing out the obvious.

Jude straightened to his full height, so now, Jude, Neil, Jax, and I were standing in a circle in a four-way face off.

Wait, Neil and Jax were in my team, right?

"Why are you guys here?" I asked.

>> My betas' escape strategy: Change the subject.

"We chased some rogues, got caught in a rope trap, Jude cut us down." Neil summized with a shrug.

"They caught us up like animals!" Jax sounded way too proud about it.

In the first place, this place was the outlet Dad had carved out for the rogues to escape through. Those two shouldn't have chased the rogues this far in.

But I couldn't continue this line of conversation without giving anything more to Jude who was at this point just standing there listening to us.

"Where exactly is this?" I asked next. My guess would be quite close to the hidden rogue village. I was directing this question at Jude, but he didn't seem to notice at all.

>> So much for applying my betas' attack strategy: Be the one asking the questions.

"Just off the front line, princess." Neil answered in Jude's stead.

I see, Neil was also well versed in the art of pointing out the obvious.

And then he had to add, "Which is way off the safety zone. Come on, Jax and I will bring you back to your mother."

Proving that he was probably one level up me because not only did he change the subject, he provided a good excuse to escape with.

But I had other plans.