The Rogue Anthology

Appendix 2 - The Rogue Alpha's Return

~ The father and his two sons mentioned in chapter 33. Conner would be aged 23 at this time ~

Conner

The first spots of rain dropped on my nose and the wind through the forest started to pick up. The dark clouds and the rapidly diminishing light meant a storm was coming and would probably hit in the next half hour.

I was beginning to think I should turn around and head back to the human town I had passed a couple of miles back, to avoid the incoming storm about to hit, even though populated areas always carried a risk I tried to avoid. On the next gust of wind that blew into me, I caught the faint scent of someone nearby. The smell was slightly musky, indicating a werewolf, but it was quite muted, like that of a wolf pre-shift.

A pup?

'What is a pup doing out here on their own? We need to find them; before a rogue comes along!' Colt urged.

'...We are a rogue, genius,' I pointed out the obvious.

'We're not a danger to a pup, you f*****g potato. Now go find them before someone comes along who is.'

Colt was always a little angsty over pups. He was fairly paternal and hated the idea of any harm coming to children, not that I felt much differently. I went in search, hearing the odd sniffle between the wind rustling of the leaves above. Eventually, I found the source, a small boy with almost black hair and pale hazel eyes, no older than 7 or 8 years old, crying softly to himself in the hollow of a dead tree.

"Hey, what're you doing here alone?" I asked gently, trying not to scare the little pup, even though my voice was croaky from disuse and probably added to what I was sure was a menacing appearance.

His eyes widened in fear at seeing me, but I couldn't really blame him. My size was huge compared to most full-grown wolves, let alone a tiny child.

"It's ok. I just wanna help you get home, is all," I reassured, kneeling down to his eye level or as best I could.

"My dad said not to talk to strangers," the boy said, pulling away further.

Wise words, papa wolf. How was I going to play this, because he really shouldn't talk to strangers.

"Your dad's right. Strangers can be bad people," I pondered for a second, thinking over my words.

"How about this; if I tell you my name, then I'm not a stranger anymore, right?" I stuck out my hand. "I'm Conner."

His small hand grasped my huge and pretty dirty fingers from days upon days of trekking through the wilds.

"Eli."

"Ok, let's get you home. Do you know where it is?" I asked.

His bottom lip trembled a little and he looked about ready to cry again.

"I don't know. I was playing outside and I saw a cute rabbit, so I ran after it and then I couldn't see the house anymore and then it got windy and it started to rain…" he rushed out quickly all in one breath.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's start again. Do you remember which way you came?" Trying to get him to calm down a little.

He pointed behind me, so I guess I now had a starting point to work with.

Eli didn't have a coat on, but it had only just started raining lightly and if he was meant to be around home, his father probably didn't think much of it. But now the weather had turned and it was growing dark, the temperature was dropping. I took off my coat, draping it over his tiny shoulders and it looked more like a giant quilt on him.

"It's huge!" He giggled, "and it smells funny."

His nose crinkled up but despite his comment he still kept it on and slid his arms through the sleeves, flapping them about, amused by how long they were compared to his.

I couldn't help but laugh at his energy. His mood had suddenly taken a complete 180 from what it had been just a few seconds ago.

"It's not been washed in a very long time and I probably don't smell much better either." I leant down to pick him up, so that we were ready to run should it start really pouring down.

He gave me a quick sniff and pulled away, "you smell like a butt."

"I bet I do," I chuckled. "Let's get you back home."

'You smell like a butt, I like this kid,' my wolf, snuffled.

'That means you smell like one too, pal.'

I set off in the direction little Eli had pointed out with him securely perched around my waist and his arms around my neck. He asked a million questions, one right after the other, about everything from why my hair was so long, why I had a beard, why my clothes were torn, if I was a rogue, why was I a rogue, how old I was, if I would play games with him…even my wolf was tired by the time we spotted a house coming into view after a short 15 minute walk.

He started to squirm, wanting down and his feet had barely touched the ground before he was running off shouting for his dad. An older werewolf male with Eli's almost-black hair and hazel eyes looking in his 40's came rushing out and down the stairs of the porch, coat on and something long grasped in his hand.

"Eli! Where have you been?! I've been shouting you for 20 minutes!"

This had to be the dad.

The man's gaze shifted instantly to me, a low growl in threat rumbling off of him.

"Get in the house, Eli. Now," the man commanded his son, raising what was held in his hand, a hunting rifle.

'Leave, rogue. I don't want to kill a wolf in front of my sons, but I will if you don't get out of here,' he mind-linked, further showing his gun to prove his threat was real.

I raised my hands quickly as a sign of peace, trying to calm the situation without having a hole blown in my stomach. I noticed a second, older boy with ginger hair and the same pale hazel eyes, appear just behind his father, trying to pull Eli inside.

'I don't want anything. I just wanted to bring your son home. That's all, I swear.'

He lowered his gun a little, not completely, but enough for me to feel like I wasn't about to be shot. Eli managed to break free of who must be his older brother, to run up to his father.

"Daddy, can Conner stay? Please? Please! He's funny and super big and it's sooo high when he picked me up. He's really stinky, though, he needs a bath," the little boy burst out pulling on his dad's leg.

'He really doesn't hold back, does he?' I laughed. 'I'm not here to cause any trouble. I was just passing by and saw the kid. I couldn't leave him out there alone.'

At that moment, a strong gust broke through the surrounding trees and the heavens opened, starting to drench us through. The man fully lowered his gun and looked to be having an internal debate with his wolf.

"Fine, let's get inside," he relented, in a gruff voice.

"YAY!" Eli exclaimed, running straight for me to grab my hand through the sleeve of my coat he was still wearing. He could barely see under the hood and almost ran into the railing of the steps in his eagerness.

The inside of the log cabin was simple but incredibly homey, with a newly lit fire crackling away in the potbelly stove in the living room. The exposed wood walls were covered in what must've been the children's artwork and their photos; their dad was obviously proud of his boys. While Eli pulled me around the living room showing off his handiwork, I noticed the other boy eyeing me warily, much more standoffish than his brother. He looked only a few years older, around 10 or 11 years old.

"Eli! Calm down. It's rude to pull people around," his father scolded. "Go wash your hands and set the table with Nolan."

As the young pup scurried past his parent, the man quickly grabbed the back of the coat collar and pulled it off of his son with practised ease. He grimaced at the filthy attire with an almost identical nose crinkle Eli had worn.

"Maybe I should wash this, instead of hanging it up," his eyes flickered over me, taking in the rest of my state and, I was sure, my size too. "Do you have anything clean, at all?"

'Define clean,' Colt gruffled to himself.

I ignored him to answer the man instead, "not really. I've kinda been living rough for a while."

Two years to be precise. Ever since I left White Cloud pack in Alaska.

"Conner, was it?" I nodded to his question. "I'll be putting dinner out soon, why don't I show you the bathroom and you can get yourself cleaned up a little."

'Not a bad idea, since apparently, you smell riper than a rogue's asshole.'

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at my wolf, mainly because I knew he was right. Washing myself in a river with a little soap could only do much and I deliberately avoided populated areas where I could.

"I'm Jaxon, by the way," he spoke as he led me further into the single-story house. "My other boy is Nolan, he's the quiet one so he probably won't talk to you much. Eli, on the other hand, will probably pester you non-stop, as you've already gathered."

Jaxon left me at the bathroom for a moment before returning with towels and what looked like a change of clothes, warning me they were probably going to be a little tight. It was something I was used to by now. Even by wolf standards, I was abnormally big. He also handed me some scissors and a razor, so I could shave off my manimal beard if I wanted.

It had been a while since I had seen myself clean with less hair covering my face. My former state had become the norm these past few years.

I stepped out with my backpack in hand and the clothes I had worn shoved inside it. I made my way back to where I had started by the front door, remembering the direction the two boys had run off in.

"Ah, just in time. I was about to plate up," Jaxon called to me as I stood in the kitchen-dining room archway. "You can drop your bag down there by the coats if you want."

I noticed the leak, dripping into the bucket near the fridge.

"You'll have to ignore that for now," the father said, spotting me eyeing the leaky ceiling. "The damn shingles on the roof need replacing."

"Where'd your beard go?" Eli jumped off of his chair to pull me to sit by him.

"Eli, what did I tell you about pulling people around?" His dad sighed, ladling out what looked like stew and drop dumplings.

The little boy pouted, but awaited my answer to his innocent question.

"He shaved it off, stupid," Nolan grumbled, placing his brother's bowl down carefully in front of him and even buttered some bread for him.

"Don't call your brother names," Jaxon called out over his shoulder, turning to carry over the last two bowls.

'Sorry about these two. Eli's not usually this level of chatty around strangers.'

'It's fine, honestly. He's pretty funny,' I looked over at the small boy making faces, openly, to his older brother, who simply ignored him or at least tried to.

'Hmph, tell me that again in a week,' he commented, while giving Eli the 'dad look' which meant 'quit it'.

The one thing I noticed missing from around the dinner table was the pups' mother. Was she just not home yet? Or was it that she would never return home? The lack of a fourth person's scent told me the latter was most likely the case.

I hadn't eaten a hot meal like this in weeks. I had existed on a mix of game that I hunted; if I was successful, and canned food. There were times it was difficult to remember what a full stomach was, what warmth was, what security felt like and it was dangerous to start remembering those simple comforts. It made you want them when you couldn’t have them.

I offered to clean up because I was already imposing enough as it was. Eli and Nolan helped to dry, or more accurately, Eli tried to dry and Nolan sneakily finished it off properly and put it away. The older brother was still quiet but was far less wary of me and I found myself watching out of the corner of my eye how, even though he annoyed him, he still looked after his younger brother. It made me wish I had that sort of relationship with my older brother. We had never seen eye to eye and it had only grown worse as Alex and I grew older. He would always roll his eyes whenever he overheard our parents giving me any sort of praise and he was always making shitty snide remarks about me being ‘daddy’s little golden boy’.

“Now you don't smell funny anymore, will you play? I'm building Lego,” Eli tugged at my arm when we were done.

‘How can you say no to that face? Let's go build some s**t!’ Colt begged like a big pup.

I looked up to his dad, unsure how close he wanted his young son to a complete stranger. To my surprise he nodded with a gentle smile on his face at his son, reminding the little pup he only had a few hours before bedtime for school in the morning.

Eli was busy building some animals, an otter and an owl and just as vocal as ever on where he wanted each piece placed. Nolan sat cross-legged opposite, reading quietly to himself.

“The Hobbit? I loved that book,” I commented, spotting the title on the cover. “My dad used to read it to me all the time as a kid.”

Though he didn’t say anything, I saw the slight smile on his face.

“Why doesn't he now?” Eli asked from next to me.

“Huh?”

“Your dad, why doesn’t he read to you anymore?”

I was momentarily taken aback by the innocent question. How would I explain this to a child and also without divulging the whole truth?

“He can't anymore. He passed away.”

“What about your mom?”

“She's gone too.”

“So's mine, that's why we don't live in a pack anymore,” he said while trying to affix the owl's eyes to its head.

“Come on, bedtime,” Jaxon announced, clearly trying to cut off the conversation.

I wondered what had happened to his mate to make him so disillusioned as to leave the safety of a pack? I hoped it wasn’t because he was thrown out; what sort of Alpha would throw out a widower with young pups?

“If you need a place to stay for the night, you can crash on the couch,” he offered.

“Are you sure? I’m a complete stranger. How can you trust me so quickly?”

“Because I’ve never seen my two pups that at ease with someone in my life, so you can’t be all bad. And I’ve got my Sako Finnlight rifle with me most of the time too,” he chuckled, but he was only half-joking. The warning was still very present and I had no doubt he wouldn’t hesitate to act on it to protect his children.

He brought me a spare pillow and blanket and left me to get comfortable on what was luckily a long sofa. The rain outside had started to slow, but I could still hear the drip into the bucket from the leaky roof. It started to give me an idea of what I could do for this family for taking me in, providing, Jaxon accepted my help.

*

*

*

The next morning I was woken easily by the sound of Eli getting up and running around. Did this kid secretly chug red bull? However, with me, he could have been as quiet as a mouse and he would've still woken me up. Years of sleeping outside had sharply honed my senses; anyone who thought they could sneak past me were sorely mistaken.

I broached the idea of helping to fix the roof to Jaxon while the kids got ready for school. Unfortunately, Eli overheard and became hyper again at the prospect of me sticking around a little while longer. It was nice to feel wanted I guess, even though I still couldn't believe how quickly he had attached himself to me.

Jaxon seemed happy to agree to it, not because of the peer pressure from his son, but because he was relieved he wouldn't need to spend money on hiring a professional. While I was no pro at this sort of thing, I had fixed and built plenty of roofs while I had lived in White Cloud pack during my time in Alaska. So while my host did the school run, I made an assessment of what needed doing and what supplies we would need.

One side of the roof was fine, but the whole other side needed redoing, though luckily it wasn't a full tear done. The underlay was toast where the leak had sprung, the wooden shingles needed replacing in quite a few places, but only one of the sheathings needed replacing along the rafters. It wasn't forecast to rain again for a few days, so we had plenty of time to get the job, though we would need a tarp to cover our work, just in case.

I gave the list of things we would need to Jaxon when he returned and while he grabbed them from the nearest home depot, I made a start stripping back the shingles. Once he was back, he jumped in to help me strip back the roofing.

"I do hope my Eli hasn't put you off having pups of your own," he gently huffed in quiet laughter, recalling his son's antics of the morning.

"Not really. But it doesn't matter how much I want them…can't really see my future mate wanting a rogue like me," I stopped my prying up the shingle, feeling suddenly depressed at thinking about whoever she might be. What sane woman would want a homeless, wanted criminal drifter as her life partner?

"I don't know, your mate might just surprise you. You shouldn't write it off that they wouldn't understand," though, I took Jaxon's advice with a pinch of salt. "Plus you're a tall and decent looking young man. The only thing I'm surprised about is that you don't have an Alpha aura rolling off you."

I hoped he hadn't noticed me freeze a little at mentioning an Alpha aura. I didn't know if it was dangerous for him to know who I truly was and it wasn't something I wanted to gamble with to find out.

"So...you lost your parents?" He carefully asked, as we worked.

"Yeah," I sighed. "It was a long time ago, about six years."

"You must've only been a kid when it happened. Is it…why you're a rogue?"

"Yeah. I was 17…they were attacked and killed, and I was blamed for it. Pretty much been on my own ever since." It was probably safer for him and his children to not know the full story.

"Nolan only just about remembers his mom. She died five years ago when he was 5 years old and Eli was 2," Jaxon began. "Drunk driver as she was coming home, she didn't stand much of a chance."

He stopped what he was doing, throwing the last bit of underlay down to the ground from his hands.

"The Alpha did nothing about it because the culprit was his youngest son, so he got away scot-free. I left with my boys and I've never looked back at pack life."

He noticed the time and had to leave for the school run once more. I thought about his story he had just shared and some of the similarities I had seen with my own dad and Alex. My brother had gotten away with more s**t than anyone else would've, simply because, even though Alex could be a real mean bastard at times…our dad loved him, maybe a little too much. If I was ever granted the opportunity and although I looked up to and admired my dad, this was the one aspect I wanted to be different from. If I ever did have pups, I would love them more than anything but they would never get away with the things Alex had; not that I would let them turn out like him.

I didn't need to see the truck coming back with the kids, I could've heard Eli a mile away with his excitement. He wasted no time in telling me everything he did at school and how he had told all his friends he had a cool giant now living at home.

'He thinks we're cool,' Colt preened. 'Probably don't say we were a chess champ at school.'

'I doubt that would change much.'

"Can I use this thing?!" Eli called out, waving a saw around above his head.

I almost s**t a brick seeing him wield it, grabbing it from his fingers quickly and looking around to make sure his dad hadn't seen.

'Model babysitter,' my wolf slow clapped, but I was too busy trying to swallow my damn heart to think of a witty comeback.

"Maybe when you’re older and you can actually grip the handle properly. But how about you come mark this beam for me?" I indicated the piece of wood for the replacement sheathing.

I noticed Nolan sniggering at my mild panic attack so at least I had amused someone, and, thankfully, he didn't rat me out to his dad when he turned his attention back to us. Eli had sulked a little at not being allowed on the roof, but we managed to appease him by letting him and Nolan hand me the beam up. It was mainly Jaxon lifting it secretly, letting his youngest think he was super strong and able to carry the long piece of wood.

This went on over the following few days. The job would have been completed quicker, if it weren't for the energetic little pup constantly wanting to play. Not that I minded much. This had been the most 'normal' I had felt in so long. It was a nice departure from the day-to-day grind of constant alert and readiness, the neverending pressure of basic survival. But I kept telling myself we couldn't get used to this, no matter how much my wolf wanted to just settle here.

I had been pulled into a game of hide and seek, even Nolan had begun wanting to play more. Jaxon had been sharpening a couple of his hunting knives and had offered to sharpen mine. All I had on me was a large Bowie knife, something that I had made sure Eli never spotted. The image of him waving a saw around was burnt on my brain, no way was I letting him see the f*****g knife!

There used to be a few silver blades in my possession, but I had met a young rogue she-wolf a year ago. When we parted ways, I had given them to her; she needed them more than I did.

I finished my loud counting and proceeded to dramatically make a show of finding Nolan and Eli.

‘It’s cute they think they can hide from us,' Colt huffed in laughter. 'I am impressed that the older one is using dirt and leaves to hide himself. That one’s gonna be a smart wolf one day.'

----------

Unfortunately, the day came when I had to leave. I was finding myself zeroing in on any sounds around us constantly, expecting it to be someone sent to track me down and attempt to drag me back to Black Forest pack. I couldn't risk the safety of this family anymore and the longer I stayed here, the more stressed I felt about it.

Nolan had gripped me tightly in a hug, quiet as always, but sad nevertheless. Eli had been crying heavily ever since I had said that morning that I should leave.

"Why can't you stay? You can be our nanny," he begged, clinging on to my pant leg and looking up at me with his huge pale hazel eyes.

'Nanny Conner, I'm tempted to stay just for that alone and listen to you explain that one at the school gates,' Colt sniggered, but I knew it was because he didn't want to leave either.

'You can stay longer. I know they'll miss you something fierce,' Jaxon mind-linked me as I slung my backpack filled with food and water, courtesy of my host.

'I can't afford to get comfortable here. Trust me, you don't want to be caught harbouring me.'

He shook my hand in thanks for everything I had done, even though he had given me more than anything I could repay him for. Turning away, I walked off in the direction I had been heading when I found a small lost little pup, wondering where my next unknown destination would be.