ON THE RUN

16 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, BEFORE THE DAWN

"What's happening, uh, Alpha?" Todd asked from the jeep. His wife and children were sleeping. They were kind of piled up on him, the two pups sprawled across their parents, and his wife had her legs propped up over his.

"Need to find a way pass the boundary." I said, "You guys have papers?"

Todd shook his head, but I expected as much.

"My brother said he could help me arrange for that after we reach." Todd said.

"Your brother is a pack wolf?" I asked.

"No." Todd said, "He mated a human too. Us brothers... We brought great shame to our poor parents."

"Why aren't you allowed to mate a human?" I asked.

Todd shrugged, "We were a wolf town. Humans were not allowed."

"Even soulmates?" I asked.

Todd shrugged again.

Wow. So much for the land of diversity. I guess Red Packlands was more of the land of diversity as long as it stays in their own space.

"Thank you, Alpha." Todd said quietly, "I don't know why... But I believe you are really trying to help us."

Okay... Why else would I drag out those four guys and the jeep and... We were all going to be in big trouble later. I felt quite sure of it.

"Alpha, bad news. Beta Theo's mad." Barry came over to report.

Torque was close at his heel panicking, "We are dead. So dead..."

"It's fine. It's fine. It's just Theo." I assured them.

"Captain's mad too." Barry continued. He winced at the mindlink he was receiving.

"Can I say we're dead now?" Torque asked.

"It's fine. It's fine. It's just Stephan." I brushed it off.

"Rebel is on his way." Barry reported.

What no! I flared.

"Now, are we dead?" Torque asked.

Yes. We're dead! We're dead!

"Whew, it's just Rebel." Barry said, "I'm sure we'll be fine. All our Alpha has to do is bat her lashes and he will probably forgive us. Maybe he'll even overlook this matter."

I'm not sure where Barry got that kind of optimism from.

"He's not here YET." I said, we can still do this.

"There is a 89% chance that we would be punished severely for putting our Alpha in danger." Ink calculated, "5% we would be let off with light punishment. 4.2% that..."

Cobra dropped down from somewhere. I would have said tree, but he just landed in front of us on the roadside. I looked around, utility pole maybe?

"There is a human town down the road, with a park connecting to the woods that run into Gold Packlands." Cobra reported.

Good. A single slip of forest without any wolf warriors. That would be our road in.

"Seems too convenient." Ink said.

"Better be careful." Barry nodded, "That kind of place would probably be an established rogue passage."

"Maybe we'll be lucky and not meet any rogues tonight." I said.

Barry sighed, "Whenever I say that, the opposite happens."

What happened to your optimism, Barry?

"It's fine. It's fine." I decided, "I'm very, very lucky."

"Luck is definitely on our side." Ink agreed, "The chances of us making it out here without getting caught or ordered back is..."

"Come on, let's go." I said, "We'll drive as close to the park without getting seen. Then we can make a run for it across the border."

"Yes, Alpha." The guys got to work getting the jeep back out on the road.

We'd only be driving a little while more, but every step counted for the heavily pregnant mum. I'll figure out what to do about the jeep later. Maybe I'll have to send one of them back with the jeep first. Once we were in the Gold Packlands, we would be able to take a cab to Winderhill or something.

Or have Ink drive the jeep back to our last hiding spot. Once we put the family in a cab, we'll return through the forest and rendezvous with Ink and the jeep and drive back to base. No problem.

My mind raced through the options while we drove through the dark. Our headlights were off, we were driving on our wolf eyesight. It did occur to me how ironic that our driver was the only wolf in glasses, but Ink didn't mount or bump anything.

The human town had no security whatsoever. We drove straight through all the way to where the park was. It wasn't much of a park. Just an open area behind a row of darkened shophouses. It was joined to the woods, and had a set of swings.

By now the pregnant mummy was awake. I think the rest did her good, but I wasn't sure how far she could go on foot without accidentally giving birth.

"Torque, can you carry the lady? Barry take the pups. Todd will walk. Ink drive the jeep back to the last pit stop we made, and hide it. We'll rendezvous with you when we get back. Cobra lead the way." I stopped, "Okay?"

"Yes, Alpha." The men said.

{Mate!}

Oh pop. Mate was near... And from my radar, he probably brought the entire Underground Army with him.

"Quick, let's go." I said.

So we did. Because I was the Alpha and my wolves listened to me.

We were making good progress too. Until Cobra dropped out from the tree again, "Rogues. 3 males. South West. May be armed."

Did I look like I had a compass on me? But I immediately sensed them too.

"Do we engage?" Barry asked. His arms full of sleeping pups. Amazing how they could sleep while the rest of us ran for our lives. But these poor pups had been running since last night so I should cut them some slack.

"No. Find another route." I decided. Running out of time here, but who knew how long the fight would be, or if anyone would get shot? Where was Ink when I needed random probabilities rattled off to me?

Cobra nodded and disappeared.

We waited.

"Barry, hand me and Todd the pups, and ready your weapon." I figured it would be safer to have at least one gun ready.

"Yes Alpha." Barry nodded.

I took Daisy from him, she stirred, "Sleep." I pretty much alpha commanded, but very quietly. She sighed and went back to sleep. Her lips were dry and still had a slight purple tinge that I didn't think was natural.

I wondered if rogue pups smelled like rogues? I knew the two rogue teens at Winderhill smelled like rogues. I've seen them from afar. Naturally, they've always avoided me, but it's not like they didn't bathe or like they were delinquents or anything. They looked like any other student, actually they looked like good kids. They just came with a Rogue smell.

I can't describe a rogue smell... It's just bad. They stink like something bad. Not that I could smell anything right now, so I guess that could be a blessing too.

Rogues stank. And they were violent and cruel. They robbed, and murdered, and raped... They were bullies who feared pack warriors and preyed on weak humans, children, or if there were enough of them, female or elderly wolves. They were traitors, or pups of traitors. Some of them were plain crazy - I mean not kooky crazy or even grumpy crazy, I mean like dangerous and violent crazy.

But were there exceptions to the rule? I mean, there were vamps who drank laboratory made blood... Maybe there were rogues who were just regular wolves... I looked down at Daisy in my arms. She was scrawny like Sabre too. Maybe there were rogues just born on the wrong side of the fence.

Must be tough.

It's one thing to be the powerful Alpha and call the shots. It's another to be a weak wolf in a bad place, just trying to survive. I looked at Todd. Would he really had left his pregnant mate and daughter behind?

What choice did he have? He was a wolf, but cut of from his pack and alone for a long time. He wasn't even a warrior level wolf. Just a normal one. He wasn't strong enough to protect his family alone. It was pretty amazing that he got them out of the human village alive.

The humans too. They turn so easily on their own daughter's family. They were weak, so they scared easily. Fear did that sometimes.

Cobra dropped back down from the tree, "This way."

I nodded, "Stay alert. Move quietly."

There were more rogues now. Maybe about 20 of them, but this forest was large and dense, and if we travelled quietly, we might make it across without meeting any of them.

Plus Mate was hot on our tail. I could sense his fury through our mating bond. But it wasn't anything too terrible. Mate often got this level of mad, almost on a weekly basis. Only this time, I had a bad feeling it was directed at me.

"Let's move faster." I decided.

Last thing I needed was Mate to crash our party.

{Rogues approaching}

"Over here!" One guy yelled to the other. They trampled noisily towards us.

"Don't shoot." I mindlinked Barry. If we did, all the twenty rogues would hear it. I signed for Barry to take a position behind one of the trees.

When the rogues bashed out of the thicket, Barry bashed one with the back of his gun. Cobra dropped down and strangled the other. They dropped heavily to the ground.

"They're still alive." Barry said.

He lifted his rifle to finish the job.

"Stop." I said.

He stopped.

"We...we aren't in the Green Packlands. Let's follow the rules here." I made up.

Yeah. That was a good reason.

"Understood, Alpha." Barry answered, "But how should we secure them?"

There was no rope. I looked around... And then I had an idea, "Here, take Daisy. I'll deal with the rogues."

I just needed to use some Alpha power here. I hefted one of the rogues over my shoulder... So heavy! And then I climbed up the tree and wrapped his arms around the furthest branch that could support his weight.

Cobra brought up his friend. We tied their shoelaces together, joing their shoes on either side of the branch so even if they were to fall, they'd end up hanging upside down.

Then Cobra and I both dropped down silently. Actually, Cobra just hopped off from the high branch we were on. I nearly freaked, but decided to follow suit. Just as we were falling, I watched and copied Cobras movements. It was fascinating, how his body naturally curved and spread like a cat making a landing.

Cobra turned around surprised at my landing. "Sssss....."

Yep. Your alpha was pretty amazing!

"Alpha, you're amazing!" Barry approved as he looked into the tree, "Those guys are going to wake up in a bad way."

"It'll keep them too busy to trouble us." I shrugged it off coolly, "Let's keep moving."

Yep. Your alpha was pretty cool!

Just as I thought we were going to make it - and we were. We could even see a road... A Gold Packland road with a street sign and all, when the woman cried out, "Todd, I can't!"

Todd was immediately by her side.

You can't what? Torque was carrying you! You just need to sit tight...

"The baby, Todd!" The woman gasped.

Oh. Oh pop.

Torque looked panicked. He put the woman down in the damp dirt. Genius.

But the woman had more pressing issues, "It's coming!"

Now we all panicked. Cobra even dropped down to come over.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Barry looked frantically around.

"Don't panic." Todd said, he was stripping off his jacket and folding up his sleeves, "We've done this before."

What did he mean he had done this before? Daisy woke up in my arms and looked to her mother, "Mama? The baby wants to come out."

She wriggled and I put her down. Oh. I guess rogues couldn't always go to hospitals to have their babies huh?

Todd looked up to the big warriors who were wringing their hands,"Please, can you start a fire, and if possible, heat water?"

The big warriors looked at me, "Do what you can to help them. But one of you stand guard."

Cobra nodded and disappeared. Barry and Torque looked hard pressed, but they actually managed to start a small fire with some solid fuel and heated up a mass tin of water.

That didn't look enough... The blood and other stuff coming out... I decided to make like Cobra, I grabbed the kids, "I'll just take the pups out of the way. Come on. Let's give your new baby space."

Todd looked relieved, "Thank you, Alpha."

Yeah... Because babysitting was the scariest thing happening.

The woman screamed.

I brought the pups to hide among the thicket nearby. It would be safer in care rogues came through.

"Why is the baby hurting mama?" Daisy was crying again. I was carrying Jack who was grabbing my hair with his fist and trying to eat it. He was lucky my hair wasn't in shredding mode right now.

Daisy was still crying.

"Don't cry." I said, "It's not the baby's fault. Urm... It's because we don't have a healer. So... Anyway, you're just a pup. You'll understand when you get older."

Like older than me, because I didn't understand either.

"Please goddess. Bring my mama a healer." Daisy pleaded, tugging at my oversized t-shirt (and every heartstring I had.)

I'm not the goddess! I'm just a stoopid 15 year old with blue hair. How did Yuunie put it? I was a fake! A FAKE!

"Please goddess, bring my mama a healer." Daisy pleaded in whispered tears, "Please."

And then I think the goddess really did hear her, because suddenly we could hear the chorus of reving engines.

{Mate!}