Chapter Three: Emergency Exit

Tiberius POV

If I were completely honest with myself, I hadn’t been goaded into the stupid party because my brother threatened to dance with my mate… or whatever he’d been implying he’d do to her. No, I think deep down I knew the minute he mentioned it that I was going to have to go with him, lest he pick a fight and get his assed kicked. If he got his ass kicked by a human, the family would never live it down.

My family was three generations worth of proud and powerful warriors. Despite being the youngest of my siblings, I was the biggest and strongest of them. Because of that, I tended to have to look out for them more than I would have liked.

And parties weren’t really my scene.

I dressed in simple jeans and a black T-shirt, with a necklace of a little carved wolf that most of my family wore. I wasn’t looking to ‘wow’ anyone tonight, just to keep my i***t brother out of trouble. On the ride over, I asked a few questions with the intention of deciding rather or not this was a legitimate assignment from Alpha Servando.

“How long have these rogues been in the area?” I asked first, making sure to sneak a glance to see how hard he was thinking about it.

Cai looked up as if he’d forgotten I was in the car. “Oh, uh. Couple of months I think.”

“Have they encroached on our territory?” I asked. Alpha Servando was the type to leave well enough alone with rogues. Unless they entered our territory, or risked the secrecy of our people, it was none of our business.

“A little, actually,” Cai replied. “Mostly the outskirts. Feeling us out, I think. It’s strange- there seems to be a lot of them traveling together. Like a pack.”

I snorted. “Rogues don’t have packs. That’s what makes them rogues.”

“Sure,” Cai replied. “I mean, they wouldn’t be able to claim territory or mind-link each other, but they could claim each other well enough. It’s not impossible.”

“Without an Alpha, wolves don’t pack up,” I argued. “There’s no way.”

Cai shrugged, “I’m just telling you what I’ve been hearing, man.” He looked out the window again, “But they’ve been terrorizing the town from what I’ve heard. Petty theft, some robbery, even a violent mugging. And that’s rogue behavior.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Rogues were most commonly exiles from packs. Severing the pack bond hurt them- and a lot of them never recovered. There were few packs that would take in an exile without talking to their previous Alpha, and few Alphas that would have anything kind to say about an exile. It’s part of what made rogues so dangerous- they were cornered, panicked, desperate creatures.

And cornered, panicked, desperate creatures tended to lash out violently.

“Do you really think this guy will show up here tonight?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Cai said. “Someone said he sniffed a wolf on a contractor crew. When I talked to them, they said their new hire was from out of town. Rolled in a few months ago looking for work. The whole crew will be at this party, as well as some of their clients. You know small towns. Any excuse to light a fire and rub up on each other.”

I nodded, though I didn’t know. I was employed by the pack, so I didn’t leave the territory often, unless accompanying Alpha Servando on one of his business trips, or attending a New Moon Ball.

I hadn’t told my family yet, but I was pretty sure I had attended my last one. The events were organized to help wolves find their mates. I’d been to every one since turning eighteen, and she eluded me. If I had a mate, she was probably somewhere far away, and probably going to a different region’s ball.

I had considered going to another region’s ball, if it meant finding her. As much as I didn’t want to admit it (to Cai specifically), I was getting impatient.

I sighed as I pulled up to the bonfire. We were late, and everyone was already drunk and rubbing up on each other, as my brother had said. I stepped out of the car and smelled the air, immediately stiffening.

“There’s definitely a rogue here,” Cai said, though his reaction was much more casual. “Let’s split up.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said, grabbing his arm. “Rogues are dangerous, remember? Especially if cornered. And we’re operating outside of our territory-” I glanced around to check that the coast was clear, and lowered my voice before continuing- “surrounded by humans.”

Cai shoved my arm off. “That’s precisely why it will be fine,” he said. “No rogue is going to out himself in front of a pack wolf. He’ll bolt before that happens.”

“Even worse,” I argued. “Isn’t the idea to catch this guy?”

“Not really,” Cai replied. “Alpha just wants us to identify and confirm that he’s around. Catch his scent if you get me.”

I frowned. I didn’t. Rogues were dangerous, and having them around was dangerous. I would prefer chasing them off, or killing them to ‘catching their scent’ and letting them go. “Fine,” I said, finally agreeing. I jerked my thumb towards the drinks, “I’ll be over there.”

I would need a drink to get through this night.

I grabbed a beer and caught a whiff of something delicious. Like mesquite embers and cherries. I followed the scent to the wine coolers- whoever it was had been here several times tonight. I looked up and scanned the crowd. They were sparse enough to travel through easily enough, but thick enough to create a confusing cacophony of smells that made me lose track of the mesquite and cherry easily.

No matter. It wasn’t what I was here for anyway.

The smells were underwhelmingly human, and it didn’t take long for women to approach me, giggling and asking for my height, or to touch my arms. I answered politely and declined, excusing myself to look for ‘my girlfriend.’ That usually shut them up. I started prowling the outskirts of the fire when I caught the whiff again.

Mesquite and cherry.

Intoxicating.

Unable to help myself, I entered the crowd, inching closer until I found the source. She was beautiful, with long brown hair in a braid that fell to her buttocks. She wore shorts so short I could see the pockets in the front, and a shirt that exposed the tawny skin of her stomach. She was dancing with an unremarkable girl next to the fire, and when she caught my scent on the wind, she jerked to a stop and looked dead at me.

Her eyes were green, a deep emerald like the leaves of the trees in the deepest spring. My heart stopped. “Mate,” I breathed. Then, I made some kind of mistake. Perhaps the look that came over my face was like a glower. Maybe it was my size, or the way I stalked towards them. The unremarkable blond grabbed my mate’s wrist and pulled her away, breaking into a sprint and knocking over anyone in her way.

I followed at a more respectable pace, apologizing to those they’d knocked into. After all, as soon as I was out of the crowd, there was no way they could outrun me. And I would take what was mine.

Amelia POV

I had been dancing with Birdie, feeling rather good. I had enough of a buzz not to feel self-conscious, but not so much that I’d become uncoordinated. It was the happy point where I usually stopped drinking (any more and it made it hard to read, I’d learned). Birdie and I didn’t dance like Kyle and I had danced. Our hands were in the air, our hips swaying. Occasionally, I would reach out and twirl her, or she would twirl me.

Then I smelled it. Like pine and cinnamon, a smell that made my stomach knot up with anticipation. I stopped dancing and looked at the source. He was tall, a wall of muscle with dark eyes that locked onto mine in a moment. My mouth went dry, and I felt a warmth in my core I’d only felt when reading the weird smutty stories Dale brought me.

The man looked like s*x incarnate.

His black hair was shoulder-length and fell about in loose waves. His skin was a deep shade of brown, and his shirt hugged him tightly enough to accentuate his muscle.

Birdie stopped dancing when I did and followed my gaze. I was about to step in his direction- I wasn’t sure why, but I was drawn to the stranger in a way I’d never experienced before. But Birdie grabbed my wrist and shouted, “Run! To the truck!”

“What? Why?” I asked, stumbling into a woman as I was dragged along. I stole glances behind me- the crowd filled the gaps between me and him, and I lost sight of him. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

But why? I wondered.

When we broke from the crowd, Kyle was already there. “Birdie, Ames, to the truck now,” he said.

“There’s a wolf,” Birdie said. “I think he’s following us.”

“There’s another one that way,” he said, nodding his head in the opposite direction. “I’ll face him down, you two get in the truck.”

“What? No,” Birdie said. “Ames, wait in the truck. I’ll stay with you.”

“Birdie, it’s not the time,” Kyle growled.

I glanced back at the fire. The man that smelled like temptation itself was walking towards us, and from the direction Kyle had come from, another one was jogging. “Guys,” I said. “They’re getting really close.”

“s**t,” Kyle muttered. “Stand behind me Ames.”

I didn’t know what else to do but obey. I’d been told from a very young age that other pack wolves were dangerous. They were slaves to their alphas, who made them bully weaker packs, like ours. I was about to witness that firsthand, I thought.

“Rogues,” the smaller of the two said. “Why so flighty? I only wanted to say hi.”

“Cut the s**t. What do you want? We’re not in your territory, so you can back off,” Kyle said, growling and standing toe to toe with the smaller one.

The larger of them pushed him back. “But you have been, haven’t you?” he asked. “If you’re interested to see what our pack has to offer, I can offer a demonstration tonight.” He cut his glare short, his eyes cutting to me and he stared, as if looking right through me.

I swallowed and pressed myself closer to Birdie, hugging her arm.

“Ames,” she whispered. “Things are about to get bloody. As soon as the fight starts, run for the truck, okay?”

“No more running,” the big one said, on us with an unexpected quickness. He grasped my arm and pulled me towards him with a surprising gentleness, while he glared at Birdie as if she were vermin. The touch was warm and electric, but his expressions confused me. What was even happening right now?

“Hands off!” Kyle growled, lunging. The second, smaller male used that opportunity to pounce, tackling him away from the larger before he reached us.

A growl more savage than I thought Birdie capable of escaped her, and she also came near. The larger pushed her away, pulling me closer. “Um,” I said, unsure of what to say. “Please stop. Let me go,” I pushed away, and his arm fell away easily.

He looked confused, and maybe even a little hurt.

Kyle whimpered, and Birdie cried out, coming to his aid, and pulling the smaller one off of him. I jolted to join them, but he reached out and caught my wrist again. “Mate…” he said, looking at me expectantly.

Somehow, it hurt to pull my eyes away from his. Nonetheless, I pulled my arm back and ran to my friends. Birdie held the smaller off while I got under Kyle and hefted him to his feet. I cast one last look at the larger of them. He was sitting there, looking as confused as I felt.

He’d called me ‘mate.’

What was that supposed to mean?