Born Rogue

BORN ROGUE CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Chris? Chris?” He heard Rowan's far away voice, tinny, like an old microphone.

Rowan held her sleeve to Chris's head. It was split open pretty badly. Rowan knew nothing about her pack bonds or her wolf bond. “Boudica! What can I do?” She called desperately while also yanking on her pack bond with Freddy and Tigger.

“Hush, there's nothing you can do. He's not pack, dear.” Boudica explained quietly.

“How do you make a human part of a pack?” Rowan asked. “He needs help! We have to help him!”

“It's never been done, kid and nobody would try. It's against our Creed!” Freddy told her as he joined her and Boudica.

“You're wolf would know, she's a very old soul.” Tigger shook his head sadly.

“Please!” Boudica said indignantly, “You speak as if I am an ancient old hag! I assure you I am NOT!”

“I'm sorry to offend, my Lady! I was just trying to explain that you are much…wiser and don't know of a time when it had ever been done.” Tigger said softly.

“Little pup! I have no recollection of any such occurrence in all of wolf history and I'm an expert in my knowledge. Even before we began to write down our history.” Boudica tries to tell her.

“No! That's not good enough!” Rowan sobbed angrily.

“I've heard of witches becoming pack, but they're not regular humans. That boy, as far as I can tell, is just human. And it wouldn't matter anyway. There's no witches to show you what to do.” Boudica told the girl, solemnly.

Rowan wasn't willing to give up. In Rowan's mind when everyone came together it was a vast unending black, reflective pool and they all stood on top of the water. Their auras illuminated each one, so there was no shadow, only an inky black floor. Vast and empty, but for the four who were present, now.

Rowan closed her mind to the others. Their voices were removed as she took control. Their reflections faded far into the distance. Until they could only see the leads of their heartstring connection to her, fading off into the distance.

Rowan calmed her mind of all the distractions and reached, light like a feather, searching for something, she wasn't sure what. But, when she opened her eyes in the void, she saw a dim light in the distance. She ran towards it. The glow grew brighter. She saw Chris laying prone on the floor, his aura was dim, but pulsing with his heartbeat.

Rowan tried to touch him, but her hands went right through him as if he were mist. Frustrated, she tried yelling his name.

Chris heard her, but was unable to wake up, but inside his head he awoke groggy. He sat up and saw a brightly illuminated Rowan standing in front of him. For him she was the only source of light and he squinted, her brilliance hurting his eyes.

“Rowan?” Chris's voice trembled.

“I'm in your head!” She jumped triumphantly in the air. “You can hear me? See me?” She inquired.

“Yeah,” he squinted and blinked at her. “You're hurt. Knocked out! And a bad wolf put us in a trunk if you don't wake up I think he's going to kill us!” Rowan told him quickly.

“How do I wake up?” Chris's voice was warbler, like a watery echo.

Rowan didn't know how to answer, “I don't know, we have to figure it out. You don't have a lasso thingy. Everyone else I can talk to has like a lasso thingy that connects us.” Rowan told him. She looked around and could see the tethers connecting her to the others. She concentrated again on her hands and chest trying to imagine the ropes, connected to her, in her hands. She tried to imagine the feel of it. The glow, healthy and blue like Boudica's heartstring. When she opened her eyes it was glowing in her hands. Her eyes wide, she smiled big and wide and approached Chris. When she tried to put it in his chest it just fell to the ground and started to spring back into Rowan's chest. She caught it with a sigh of relief.

Boudica was the first to locate her, their souls connected they could never truly hide from the other. She approached slowly, watching in her own amazement at what the girl was doing.

“Little one!” Boudica said softly. “How did you make that?” She asked in wonderment.

“I imagined it and when I opened my eyes it was there.” Rowan told her as she gazed at the heartstring, in her own innocent wonder.

“May I,” Boudica asked politely as she nodded to the heartstring Rowan held. “Just a closer look if you please.”

Rowan nodded her approval. Boudica slicked around Rowan, placing her muzzle close. It smelled real and it looked as real as her own. She didn't know how it was possible. It shouldn't have been.

“If you tether it to him you could lose us forever, Little One,” Boudica warned.

Rowan nodded and told her, “I have to try.”

“Freddy is close. He was able to change back and call Titan on the phone in Chris's truck. They are going to be following after you any moment now. I'm begging you please wait. You don't know what this will do!” Boudica implored the girl.

“I have to try.” Rowan said, this time as an oath to Chris. “Chris! Try and take this from me,” Rowan instructed the man.

His aura was getting weaker and had begun flickering like interrupted electricity. Rowan thought, no, she felt, his life was fading. Chris tried to grab the heartstring, but his hand went through it like hers had before. He looked at her sadly. Rowan got on her knees and put the heartstring inside his chest, her hands flicking in and out of the surface. Then, she closed her eyes. She imagined a pure light and energy coming from her heartstring into Chris. Chris arched his back in shock. Rowan poured energy into him. It pumped through their link into his chest one burst at a time, in rhythm with her heartbeat.

In the trunk, Chris's eyes burst open like he'd been injected with adrenaline. He cried out in panic!

Rowan, still inside her mind, looked at what she'd done. When she stepped back she let go of the heartstring and it stayed!

She looked in awe at Boudica and Boudica returned her gaze with equal amazement. Chris's new heartstring pulsed and his form became no longer misty; instead he became as solid as the wolf was in Rowan's mind.

Rowan looked at her other heartstrings to see if they were still there. They pulsed and glowed, seemingly empowered by Rowan's triumph! Freddy and Tigger both emerged from the shadows, no longer blocked by Rowan's stubbornness. They saw what she'd created and that they were all linked through Rowan.

Freddy looked askance at Boudica and she seemed to sense his question because she was thinking it herself.

Boudica answered what they all were questioning, “It's extremely rare, but not impossible. I've never heard of it before they've had their first shift! Never even in boys!” Boudica shook her head in disbelief.

“It's not possible!” Freddy and Tigger said in equal disbelief.

“Why? What's wrong?” Rowan worried. “I'm connected! We all are and I'm healing him! I didn't break the pack bond to Freddy and Tigger.” She couldn't conceive why they looked so worried and in awe.

Boudica turned to all the males, “You can never let anyone get a hold of her. They'll kill her. They'll kill ALL of us!"