The Rogue Anthology

Appendix 12 Continued

~ A continuation of the previous appendix chapter from April’s POV ~

April

Something soft cradled under my head and another item draped over my shoulders, warming my body against the chill of the morning air. I rubbed at my eyes tiredly, popping my spine from the hard rock that formed my bed.

‘It’s better than that basement with no windows.’ August stretched, swishing her tail in my mind.

That it was. If I never saw that damned cell, house or pack again, it would be too soon.

I pushed myself up on my hip, a jacket falling from where it had been draped over me like a blanket, and spotted a small stack of clothes that had been my pillow. The last thing I remembered was reading the book over the shoulder of that rogue, Conner, he said his name was. Whether that was his real name, I didn’t know.

Speaking of which, where was he?

My nose followed his woodsy scent to the mouth of the hollowed overhang of rock, his back turned to me and facing out with his arms crossed. The sound of my shifting position drew his attention, casting me a glance over his shoulder. He looked exhausted as though he had stayed up most of the night, yet despite that, his eyes softened, greeting me with a warm smile.

“Morning, sunshine.” He turned and jumped off the short rock from his lookout post.

Why was this wolf so kind? He was a rogue. Weren’t rogues supposed to have done bad things?

‘We’re rogue now,’ August said flatly. ‘We haven’t done anything bad. Maybe he hasn’t either.’

‘I still don’t trust him.’ My eyes narrowed and I shuffled away as he approached, the jacket falling off of me completely with my retreat away from him. ‘What if Nicholas puts a reward out for us? This guy would sell us out in a heartbeat.’

That seemed to shut my wolf up. The rogue male might have shown some kindness now, but what if it was all a trick to earn my trust and sell me back to my captors? I couldn’t risk it and I certainly wasn’t about to tell him my name either.

“I’m gonna go hunt for us.” Conner stooped by his bag propped up against the rock. “You promise to stay here and not run off with anything?”

My face pulled in a silent scowl. I hadn’t stolen anything from him yesterday. Why would he think I was the reprobate here?

He shook his head, chuckling to himself. “I’ll take that little scowl to mean, yes, I’ll wait right here,” he said in a comically higher and nasally pitch than his deep baritone voice would allow.

…He was teasing me.

The corner of my lip cracked upwards in a smile. Ok, I would concede he was funny, but he could still be bad.

“How about while I hunt, you put those fire-making skills to use that I taught you and then, after, we can shift and I can show you how to wolf out?”

‘Like a run?’ August’s tail wagged excitedly.

‘That means he could see us… naked.’ I gulped, feeling exposed.

‘He already has, when he found us?’ My face turned red at her reminder. ‘And I want a run. I’ve been locked away for years, I want to be out.’

She had to use emotional blackmail.

‘Darn right I will. I want to feel the wind in my fur and enjoy it.’ She twirled, her paws already bouncing in excitement.

For so long I had pushed her presence down in my mind, squeezing her mental form into a lock box to keep my secret safe, to keep her safe. A single hint that I had my wolf and that evil man, Nicholas, would have had his son mark me. And I would rather die than have that Alpha, Hunter, touch me. He was no better than his father, scowling at me all the time, trying to mark me… I could have lost the chance to have a fated mate, all because of that monster.

“I’ll be back in a few hours.” Conner stood from his stooped crouch in front of his bag, tucking that large knife of his into the back of his waistband.

My heart sank. If he took that with him, I had no way to protect myself. I never learned how to fight, how to defend myself and I barely knew how to shift with any speed. Fine, I didn’t know how to use the knife, but it felt like a security blanket.

“What’s up, firecracker?” His brows puckered. “Oh, you want you ol’ trusty.” He unsheathed the knife, flipping it in the air by its handle and catching the tip of the blade just like I had seen him do yesterday. “I needed it for hunting, but I could be persuaded if you asked nicely?”

Oh, so it came with conditions and he thought he could manipulate me into speaking? I sealed my mouth shut in a tight line. I wasn’t falling for his tricks to get me to talk, to reveal things about myself. If that’s what he wanted, he could take his knife and shove it.

“I’m gonna add ‘manners’ to the list of things to teach you. But for now, here.” He held out the large knife, jingling it when I hesitated to take it. It was hard not to be intimidated by his sheer size; the guy was a mountain. “Kid, I’m not going to bite. Take it. It’s this or one of the silver knives, and I feel like you’re more likely to burn your fingers off with one of those.”

Tentatively, I reached out, and as soon as my fingers made contact with the carved wooden handle, I snatched it, scooting backwards in case he tried anything. I didn’t hold it out to wield at him this time, but I kept it close to my chest to be safe.

“At least you’re not trying to stab my heart out anymore.” He shook his head, his laugh echoing along the rock. “While I’m gone, try your hand at making a fire for the meat. If you can, stick to how I showed you with the firesteel. Don’t cheat and use matches.”

He gave me a pointed look and turned to leave, kicking off his boots and throwing his slightly tattered red long-sleeve shirt to the side. I averted my eyes, not prepared for the wall of half-naked wolf male. Thankfully, he left his pants on and quickly left, but I heard him strip off fully outside the mouth of the overhang, and the telltale crack of bone of his shift.

‘You could have peeked a little,’ August huffed melodramatically. ‘It’s not as though he’s bad to look at.’

Two minutes of freedom and my wolf was letting her hormones run rampant. True, Conner wasn’t the worst looking man I had ever seen. With his chestnut-coloured wavy curls, naturally bronze skin that clad a huge muscular physique and pale green eyes, the guy was more than pleasant to look at. But I wasn’t about to throw myself at the first random man I found.

I blew out a jet of breath over my heated face, and while I had my privacy, I grabbed up my tattered childhood backpack to prise open the old and stiff butterfly zipper. It contained the only item I cared about, my family picture of my mother and father; the single possession I had managed to preserve. Without it, I was terrified that I would forget what they looked like, that their image in my mind would filter away like sand through a crack.

Once my photo was safely hidden in the new pack I had been gifted, I set to work gathering the kindling for a fire and stripped the bark off of some dead and dry twigs to start the embers with the firesteel. A couple of attempts and the sparks ignited, slowly growing into a roaring fire in the circle of stones Conner had arranged.

The small amount of wood stockpiled was beginning to burn through, Conner was nowhere in sight and the sun was rapidly rising. At this rate, the fire would be out before he came back. He had said to start a fire for the meat and never said anything about leaving, so I would only be doing what he said by getting firewood… right?

‘Make sure to take the knife… just in case,’ August prompted in a whisper, nervous and unsure.

That was a given. I was going nowhere without it.

I tucked the leather sheath containing the blade that was almost half my weight into the back of my pants and took my first cautious steps towards the mouth of the overhang. Since waking up here yesterday, I hadn’t left. And while I had been desperate to run at the first chance when I woke and found a huge strange man next to me, now I was a little reluctant.

Outside was quiet. The only sounds filtering through were that of the gentle rustle of the trees as a warm breeze caressed their leaves and the tiny chirps of birds flitting about. I almost leapt out of my skin when something thudded next to me; a small twig with a large clump of black walnuts attached. I looked up, following its path to spot a squirrel bounding away through the branches. August grumbled away in my mind, stalking and wanting to give chase.

And wolves claimed they weren’t overgrown dogs.

I made quick work of foraging for dry wood to burn and even stumbled upon a small clump of mushrooms. They looked like the sort I was used to seeing when I was made to cook back in that hellhole of a pack, but I wasn’t naïve enough to just assume they were edible. Conner seemed to have more survival knowledge than I thought possible; he would probably know.

Back at the makeshift camp, the faint scent of blood tainted the air. I couldn’t smell any other scents than Conner’s, but I wasn’t sure if it was his fresh scent or that that lingered from before. Was the blood his? Had an animal attacked him?

I rushed inside, finding the immediate area empty and the fire still crackling away merrily, only with a quarry of quail stacked neatly by it. If Conner wasn’t back, where had these come from?

“The firecracker returns.” A tap came to my shoulder.

The wood and mushrooms in my arms were thrown into the air along with a squeal from my lips that was far more girlish and high-pitched than I would have liked. In my state of panic, I lost my footing, tripped over my own boot and landed on my ass. As I scrambled away from the voice, I desperately tried to snatch at the knife, but because of how I had landed, it was stuck.

“Don’t worry,” the cocky voice gloated. “I’ll wait.”

Now that the initial shock had worn off, I recognised the voice; Conner. I slowly looked up to see the s**t-eating grin he was trying to suppress as he picked up the firewood I had strewn everywhere. I gave up on the knife, too red-faced that I had freaked out so badly, but mainly because I had allowed someone to sneak up on me and then, I couldn’t even get the one weapon I had on me out to defend myself.

“I’m not even gonna start on you leaving the safety of the camp— these are poisonous, by the way” – he interrupted himself, plucking one of the mushrooms I had foraged and then sent airborne – “but you really need a better handle on your environment. What if I was a bad guy that stumbled on this place? You’d be dead… or worse.”

I tried to catch the sniffle before it left my nose, but I failed with that too. My eyes welled up and I couldn’t bring myself to meet his stern gaze. I felt embarrassed, useless and completely inadequate as a wolf, and as an Alpha to boot. I was seventeen years old and hadn’t a clue about how to survive. I had eleven years with my wolf and I didn’t know how to utilise her.

“Hey.” He dropped the wood in a pile and knelt next to me. “I’m not being harsh to be mean. This life? It’s hard. Trust me, I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. I just don’t want you to make the same mistakes. You can’t let up for a second out here. You can never relax. You can’t drop your guard, ok?”

I gave a small nod, continuing to pout.

‘Look on the bright side.’ August shouldered me a nudge.

‘What bright side?’

‘You didn’t pee yourself when he scared you.’

“Firecracker?” Conner snapped me out of my pity party. “You hungry? Or are you just gonna sit there and sulk?”

The mention of food perked my mood instantly, as well as my stomach, sending a little rumble rattling into the air. I shuffled forward, expectantly looking into his jade eyes that I hadn’t been able to meet out of shame not a moment ago.

“Nuh-uh. You wanna eat, you need to earn it.” He gave me a pointed look when I didn’t move. “Start earning it by setting up a spit like I taught you.”

I set up a smaller version of the spit from yesterday using the green wood left over that was no good for burning. Conner showed me one more time how to prepare the meat, giving me my own quail to pluck, ignoring how my nose wrinkled in distaste. Like he said, I needed to learn how to prepare meat unless I wanted to exist on berries and roots, which, as a wolf, was a less appealing prospect… no matter how gross the insides of the animal smelt.

I cut the meat up into small cubes so they would cook faster and while we waited, Conner took the time to show me why the mushrooms I had picked were poisonous. They had white gills and a ring around their stems; all indications that the mushrooms were inedible. He even gave me some tips on berries too, to avoid anything with a bitter scent and check the stem they were from for an oozing milky sap.

After the chargrilled spoils of our breakfast came the moment August had been giddy for. As Conner kicked in the coals of the fire and extinguished the embers, she had bounced in excitement on the pads of her paws. I shifted in the safety of the overhang while Conner stepped out, the shift taking longer than I would imagine it would for other wolves due to my lack of practice.

‘Bundle up some clothes. We’ll do a little sparring if you’d like, show you some self-defence?’ Conner offered and I didn’t see the harm because I hadn’t a single shred of fighting gumption.

However, the idea of the giant man coming at me with those meaty fists of his, I had to confess, left me quaking in my skin. Conner could probably snap me in two in seconds and spare even less effort in the process.

With diffident steps, we crept out with our little bundle dangling within my maw, my bright red wolf with a little cream bib seemed obvious amongst the green landscape. Our eyes doubled in size when we spotted Conner’s huge chestnut brown wolf, bigger than what we remembered our father’s, Alpha Henry, to be.

As he sat back on his haunches with a fold of fabric between his teeth, studying our wolf form, a wave of inadequacy flooded over us. We were a tiny wolf in contrast to his. I knew we were small, but seeing our paltry comparison in size sank our stomach. We were meant to be an Alpha and yet my wolf was barely bigger than an Omega’s; a quirk I assumed that was due to our advanced shift at the young age of six.

‘This is my wolf, Colt,’ he mind-linked, mentioning nothing, but I could tell there were a myriad of questions mounting behind his eyes. ‘Let’s go.’

Giving my wolf the reins of control, she trotted along behind Colt and Conner, containing her elation for so long before it got the better of her and she dashed about all over animatedly.

We heard the wolfish chuckle behind and found Conner and Colt sitting and leaning against a large boulder. I could distinctly tell under his wolf’s muzzle lay a smirk.

‘Your wolf got the zoomies?’

But August was too enthralled with being out to be offended or even take notice, prancing in circles around the trees and sniffing out the nearby shallows of a stream. Around the submerged plants teemed with little fish and, as our bottomless stomach pointed out, some nice mouth-sized fish; dotted and with a pink band running down the side.

August showed instant interest, plunging her face into the waters to catch, only to come up empty. The more she failed, the more her frustrations grew until they boiled over and began barking at the fish, as though that would solve her lack of skill and they’d just swim into her mouth thereafter.

‘It’s like a labrador had a love child with a fox with your wolf. You sure your parents weren’t telling you something?’ I felt Conner and Colt wading over to us. The water barely grazed halfway up his legs, yet lapped at our chest.

He nosed us out of the way and instructed us to stay over on the bank. The water reverted to its gentle flowing state, sweeping around his submerged legs. When I thought he had fallen asleep standing, he suddenly surged into the water and threw out something flapping in our direction, one of the very fish August had been trying to catch.

‘And that’s how you catch a rainbow trout.’ Conner shook out his fur, flicking the end of his tail like a whip. ‘You need to stay still and have patience. Shockingly, barking scares them away.’

If my wolf could have pouted, she would have, but our stomach had other ideas and was already fixated on the fish.

After a long strung-out silence in the sun, after we had finished our trout, Conner lifted his head. ‘I don’t suppose you’ll tell me how you’ve kept your scent suppressed for as long as you have?’

Our eyes darted away from him in response, our ears flattening to the side of our head.

But he continued to press for answers. ‘I don’t think I’ve known Alpha she-wolves that have been able to hold it as long as you have.’

Our lithe wolf body curled tighter in on itself, our thick fluffy tail fanning over our face to hide away and, thankfully, he dropped the subject. The last people who sheltered me… helped me… were dead because of me. If Nicholas ever found me and discovered Conner had aided me in any way, the rogue’s fate would be sealed. Conner had been too good to share that end.

Or, he had been good and nice so far. How nice would he be if he saw the price on my head?

If he knew, would he sell me out? Nicholas had displayed vehemently that there were no lengths or expenses he wouldn’t go to track me down. Putting a fat bounty on my head would have been his first port of call.

And I didn’t actually know how I could hold my scent or my aura for as long as I did. I just could, like an innate instinct. But I did know it was strange and was somehow linked to my early shift and my lack of a heat cycle which hit every she-wolf after they got their wolf. Mine had yet to make an appearance.

‘Ok. firecracker. You’ve lazed long enough and since you won’t speak with your mouth, let’s see what your fists have to say.’ Conner stood and stretched his legs out behind him, picking up his wad of clothes and vanishing to change.

We picked up ours we had left near the stream bank, before August had made her fishing attempt, and ducked behind the shrubs that drifted into the water’s edge.

Once dressed and on a level plane, I did as Conner instructed to plant my feet, standing toe to toe with the rogue and only just clearing his shoulder. I gulped, loudly. I didn’t just feel dwarfed by his height. His build matched. The diameter of his bicep was probably bigger than my waist.

“Alright.” He held up his palms and indicated his right. “Give me your strongest punch right here.”

I reared back a fist and let it fly, directly into a surface that may as well have been concrete. A jolt of impact pain flared up my arm, and I shook my hand out, spinning away from him as though I wasn’t doubled over and could hide it.

“Was that a punch or a tickle?”

Even though his expression only quirked a brow upwards, I had the distinct impression he was mocking me, and I couldn’t blame him for it. When my knuckles connected with his palm, it may as well have been a cinderblock wall for the lack of movement and ricocheting twinge.

“Ok, I’ve seen your wolf and you’re fast. So let me show something that relies on technique and minimal strength.” He righted my position by the tops of my arms. “The downside is you need your opponent up close to pull it off, but it’ll knock a grown wolf down like a sack of bricks.”

*

*

*

The days bled into each other and before I could realise it, it had been a week since Conner and I collided paths.

My weight was on the rise, thanks to a regular supply of game Conner hunted. I accompanied him on many chases, but my finesse was still lacking and, most of the time, I was a hindrance, not a help.

I hadn’t spoken once, unsure what to say, and because it had been so long in his presence remaining silent, it felt weird to speak up, like I had left it too long. Conner filled the silence easily, sharing the source of all his survival skills: his time as a wolf scout from the age of seven until he was sixteen with a friend from his pack, a boy named Hanson.

Conner had shown me how to tell time by the sun’s position, using my fingers to measure the sun’s proximity to the horizon. It wasn’t foolproof or fully accurate, but it gave a decent rough estimate. In time, he said it would become second nature and that eventually, I would know just by sight alone.

Every now and again, I caught the odd couple of notes of him singing or humming to himself. And when he saw that his talent had been discovered, he quickly covered it with an awkward cough and a small hint of blush over his bronze skin.

When it came to self-defence, Conner had focused on techniques that would get me out of danger or a situation gone south, such as how to do a roll to evade and not lose too much momentum; handy for if I was being pursued. I wouldn’t be winning any bare-knuckle fights as my fighting techniques remained raw, but the main point was, they were improving.

Today was knife skills, using one of the silver knives I had been gifted. They were lighter and more balanced in my unskilled hands. The only downfall was if I touched the blade with my bare hands, they would burn my skin off, hence the fold of material around my fingertips.

My target was the tree in front of me; a wide target with a mud-painted cross to aim for. The silver blade tip held hot in my hand, heating my skin through the cloth but not enough to burn it.

“What you want is a relaxed body so you don’t overthrow and because you’re right-handed, you want your right foot slightly more forward to lean into the throw,” he called from behind me, safely out of the way because this knife could go anywhere. “And follow through with your arm, keeping your wrist unbent.”

All I was hoping for was to hit the tree. It would be a tall order to hit the ‘X’ and if it did, it would be pure luck. I raised my arm and flicked back to follow through on my throw, only my hand was empty when it flew forward and a startled gasp erupted behind me.

‘If you stabbed him, this is definitely on you.’ August hid her eyes under her paws.

I slowly cranked my head back, dreading to see if Conner was hurt, and was relieved that not a speck of blood soiled the air. It had been a close call though.

The knife had landed directly between his legs, skimming his groin precariously close to his family jewels. He grasped the knife handle and gingerly pulled it out, only daring to breathe again once it was removed from his danger zone.

“I’ve been circumcised once. I don’t need another.” He offered out the handle, holding the tip of the blade, and I gawked that he could stand to grasp onto silver with his bare hand.

“Don’t be too shocked, firecracker. I’m full of surprises.”

“April,” I peeped, almost instantly regretting opening my lips to spill my secret.

“Holy s**t, she speaks!”

My face flamed instantly and, suddenly, the ground beneath the toe of my boot seemed the most interesting spectacle.

“April, huh? Pretty name.” He gently placed the handle safely in my hand. “Well, April, try again. But this time, I’ll stand over there, behind the tree.”

He had been so good to me and patient, never once growing tetchy that he was teaching a complete novice. But how much longer could I remain travelling with him? Conner was the least inconspicuous person I had ever met, I would never fly under the radar with a man like him. And being in my company put him at increasing risk with each passing day.

I would be forever indebted to Conner; without him, I would be dead, starved from my own lack of skill.

As much as I didn’t want to part ways… the time was rapidly stalking upon me.