Moonlight Rogue

Chapter One: The Girl

The air was crisp like the juicy apple I munched on. I let the juices linger on my tongue as I surveyed my domain. The leaves crackled to the west as someone or something made their way through them. I frowned and tensed as I watched from my perch on a high branch as a girl stumbled into the clearing. A gash ran down the length of her arm, scratches marred her face, a wicked scar on her leg, these were all signs I knew too well. She stumbled onto the ground and yelped as she went down hard. She looked around her for a moment before throwing her head back and screaming her cry echoing through the area and beyond. A siren for trouble.

Most of the animals around me fled. Birds flew away, smaller animals sought shelter and scampered as fast their little limbs would take them and that left only me to witness this stranger in our midst. Well, me and the predators that had just been alerted. They slunk through the underbrush, their tails high. They had thought they had just stumbled onto easy prey. I reached behind me for one of my blades.

The girl was still oblivious to her situation. All she did was hold her knees close to her chest and sob. I got to my feet and sidled further down the branch. The wolves came from all around her. Two at a time they came trotting out of the trees and into the clearing. I knew from their size these were normal wolves. Their only sin was believing they had found an easy mark.

As the first went in for the kill, I threw my dagger. It struck the ground right in front of the wolf’s nose and he helped and scooted backward. The other wolves looked around them in shock. All thoughts of the kill had vanished. The girl was still sobbing, not even aware of her predicament yet. I leaped from my perch and landed with a thud beside her, one knee on the ground to take the impact. I smiled at the wolves, a mere smile a greeting between predators. They yelped upon recognizing me and ran away with their tails hung low behind them.

“Hey,” I demanded as I nudged the girl with my boot.

Her sobs stopped and she finally focused on me. Her eyes widened and then she threw herself at my waist hugging me close. “Please, please, please,” she begged. “Please save me, please.”

“Wait.” I peeled her away as I stared down at her. “Why are you in the middle of the woods kid? There’s nothing around here for miles.”

She stayed glued to me and her body trembled against mine. “It’s my pack, they wanted to kill me.”

“Kill you?” I frowned. It wasn’t every day that a kid stumbled into me like this. “Who’s trying to kill you? What pack are you from, who is your leader?”

She hiccuped at me as she held close. “Mason.” Her voice was little more than a whisper against my cloak.

I tensed. I knew that name. This little waif came one of the biggest packs in the area, I tended to stay away from such huge ones. “If you come from there, why are they trying to kill you?” I demanded.

“It’s my mom. She-she had another baby.” I nodded having new kids wasn’t unexpected after all. “And it was a boy.”

I frowned. “Why would that put you in danger?” Maybe I should try to be softer with her but my senses were assaulted enough with being touched. “I’m not understanding.”

She took a deep breath and moved so she could stare me straight in the face. Her features were hard and her hazel eyes were focused on me. “Our pack is really big, and the women aren’t valued. I’m not an adult yet, I’m just another mouth to feed, I can’t even hunt yet. So with the new baby.” She stopped and whimpered. “Mom chose the baby.”

“But you left the pack, aren’t you safe now?”

She dug her toe in the dirt. “No, they’ll come after me.”

“Why would they do that?” I demanded as I searched around us. I couldn’t afford to let my guard slip even for a minute. There were more dangerous things in these woods than just the wolves.

“Because I live and die for the pack. My life is theirs, Mason said that.”

Having someone find me for help wasn’t new, not entirely. But this situation was stranger than usual. Usually, those that I came across were bands of wolves that had already left their packs, their small packs. Not huge ones like the one Mason was in charge of. “How did you escape?”

“I ran in the middle of the night. The guards were busy watching the women bathing, they didn’t even notice me leave. No one ever notices me.”

I sighed. “You can’t stay with me.”

Her head jerked up. “What? But I can’t go anywhere else! I’ll die!”

I put a finger against her lips. “I’ll take you to another pack, one where you’ll be safe. And I’ll take care of those that will track you here.”

She frowned so hard she gained little v furrows by her eyes. “No one is going to track me, they won’t even notice. I don’t want to go to some random pack. I don’t trust packs, they’ll just want to get rid of me too. I’m useless.”

“No, you’re not. You’re young, and you will grow.” I got to my feet and disentangled the girl from my arms. “If you want my help then you’ll follow me. This pack is not like the one you’ve left. If what you say is true about how your life is theirs, then they’ll come for you. I completely expect them to, and when they do, I’ll be there to stop them.”

She sniffled as she stared up at me. I could tell she was already missing my warmth. “You’ll really take me someplace safe? I don’t have to run anymore?”

I nodded. “Of course, now what’s your name?”

“Emma.”

“Come on, Emma. I’ll get you to safety and then I” ll take on those sent for the hunt.”

She frowned at me as she took tiny step after tiny step. “If they send anyone after me, you’re not going to take them on yourself. You’re just a girl, too.”

I snorted. “You must not know of my reputation, Emma. I take abusive alphas like Mason down all the time. They’re my prey.”

She stopped mid-step and almost stumbled over her feet. She turned saucer-wide eyes to me. “You’re going to stop Mason?”

Wait, I hadn’t said that, had I? “I’ll stop those after you.”

“But-but if you stop Mason himself then I could go home!” She clapped her hands in front of her and clasped them tightly. “If Mason is gone then that stupid rule wouldn’t exist and one of his sons could take over instead!”

I flinched at her enthusiasm. This was not the plan at all. “I don’t normally take on such large packs. I can save you, but-”

“But you have to,” Emma demanded. “That’s not the first time that rule has happened, and it’s not the only one. The women and kids are treated really bad. I’m only a few years away from the harem house, myself.”

I was going to regret this. I knew I was going to regret this. “What is a harem house?”

“When the girls reach a certain age they go there to live. It’s our way of supporting the pack.”

“Supporting the pack?” My words came out in a bark. “What kind of nonsense?” I took a deep breath. I knew what I was about to hear, but again I couldn’t stop myself from asking it. “How does living in this harem support the pack? What happens there, Emma?”

“The alpha and all the members of his army live there. Everyone is responsible for keeping us safe. We pay them back by living there and letting them do whatever they want. After we hit a certain age we can leave and our service is considered over.”

Great, she was talking about slavery at this point. There was no way I could just ignore it. “Okay, Emma. I’m going to take you to safety, take care of your trackers, and then I’ll see what I can do about this alpha of yours, but no promises.”

Emma squealed in my ear and I winced away from the shrillness. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” She hugged me so hard I could feel my organs rearranging themselves. I grunted from the pain.

“Okay, that’s enough, Emma. I can’t breathe.” She squeezed one last second before letting go. Her eyes were still puffy from her crying fit earlier but they were clearer now.

I groaned and rubbed the back of my neck. Just what had I signed myself up for this time?