I was woken up by a wave of blistering fury rolling across the mind link from da, seconds before his roar of anger shook the ruins. I bolted upright, having to fight off a shift as my wolf went haywire. I ran out of my den, ready to begin the act.
"The hell is going on?" I yelled, lingering in the doorway of the alpha's cell. You didn't get too close to da when he was angry, his wolf was too on edge. You'd end up in a scrap real quick. I saw the bleary eyed Theo stirring, and the empty spot where the alpha should be, and my eyes widened.
"Where the fuck has he gone? I should bloody well kill you for this!" He roared at poor Theo, who was clearly still feeling the effects of the drugs. Da was so angry, I wouldn't put it past him to make good on that threat. I crossed to the discarded jug of juice and took a good sniff.
"It smells like sedatives, and he don't look right." I spoke up. I was guilty enough about what I had done last night, and the general bad luck Theo had had recently, to let Da snap his neck for something that wasn't his fault. He rounded on me, making me flinch back as he grabbed the jug and took a sniff for himself. When he was this pissy, even my wolf would hang her head. Not worth the arse kicking for trying to assert my dominance.
"Fuck!" He swore, hurling the jug against the wall. Even though it was plastic, it still shattered from the force. "You couldn't smell the drugs? You idiot, you absolute idiot!" He roared at the still confused Theo, who was hanging his head in submission. Then he whirled around to glare at me.
"The fuck are you doing hanging around? Shift and track him!" He ordered. I stripped out of my coat and kicked my shoes off in record time, shifting into my wolf form as I yanked at the link with Nate and Gwenna, giving them the quick version of what had happened. Usually, I would have just opened my mind and let them look through my memories themselves, but I didn't trust myself to block anything before this morning.
I put my snout to the ground and make a show of sniffing around to pick up the alpha's scent trail, leaping out the window to follow it. In truth, I was glad that da had sent me after the scent trail. Not only did it get me and my siblings out of the way of da's fury, but if anyone caught a whiff of me now it would make sense because I had been running off after him. I was barely actually sniffing, because I already knew where we had walked and I wanted to blunder over as much of the trail as I could before Gwenna and Nate arrived.
Gwenna arrived first, reeking of Ada and still half asleep. Yet again, I felt a bitter twist of jealousy in my heart. That wasn't normal for me, and it threw me off so much I lost the trail and she had to pick it up for me. I wasn't a jealous person. If I wanted something, I would get it, and if I couldn't have it, I'd just forget about it. But how was I meant to forget about Seb? I even dreamed about the bastard last night.
I had to snap myself out of it quickly, though, when Nate arrived. Gwenna was already getting impatient, able to track better than me but not able to push ahead without my permission. I picked up the pace, my nose glued to the ground with the two of them flanking me. I followed the trail to the bank of the small river we had waded through last night and paused to link the others and da.
The alpha went into the river, his scent trail has been scattered. Gwenna and Nate, go down river and scout to see if you pick it up, I'll go upstream. I instructed, turning on my paw and starting to snuff around, splashing through the water to make a show of sniffing out the trail.
'Just get one with it'. Da snarled down the link. He was panicking, so his wolf was riled up like hell. I had to absorb the worst of his fury myself, my hackles shooting up as I shielded the other two. He blocked off his mind and we all breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad that we got out of camp; I didn't envy anyone who wound up in his war path. At that thought, I reached out to my raiding team and sent them on missions around the borders of the camp, with a warning to stay away from my da.
Once I was out of sight, I sped up into a dead sprint, remembering where we had dragged ourselves out of the river. I wanted to be the one to follow the trail, or more accurately, destroy it. I hauled myself out of the icy water and shook out the water before continuing on my way. I was racing while bluntly feeling out with my mind. I couldn't tell who it was, but I would be able to sense someone else's presence before they were within eyeshot. Now was not the time to be acting suspicious.
I stopped at the edge of the woods, where the trees gave way to waist high bracken and heather of the moors, and shifted back into my skin. It was rare for humans to come this far off the beaten track, but some dog walkers did. The last thing we needed was animal control up here trying to capture big stray dogs. I dug out a cache of clothes, hidden in the middle of the bush and wrapped in a bin bag, and dressed before beginning to trek across the moors to Silsden.
I still made sure to follow the same path, taking the right route to get onto one of the pot hole riddled country roads and sticking to the edge as I made my way down to the town. After all, people round here drove wildly, and I liked being able to dive over the dry stone wall to safety if the need arose.
'Natalia, any reason you aren't reporting in?' Da butted into my mind suddenly. I hated how he did that, even if he did make a point not to look at my thoughts, so Nathan usually stopped him if he was close enough. I immediately slammed walls up around my memories before replying, wishing that he would offer a link before forcing his way in.
'Sorry, da, I've been focusing on following the trail. It followed the moor paths and a few humans have trampled it. He headed towards the town, I'm on the outskirts now-'
'The hell are you doing, girl? If the boy found his way into the town, it will be crawling with packlings! Get back here, I'll send a team of rogues who don't have a massive bounty on their head.' I had done all I could now, and humans should have trampled what was left of my trail, so I turned on my heel and started back towards the camp.
Reaching through the link, I told my siblings and raiding team to report back to the camp. If da was sending someone else to investigate where the alpha was, then the rest of us would be breaking camp and scattering. After all, da had no way of knowing that I hadn't let him know where the camp was, which meant that in his eyes, he would be back soon with a lot of packling reinforcements to kill us all.
I made my way back into camp, heading back up to da's office with a thumping heart. I was quick enough to dodge his blows, but there wasn't much I could do to deflect the anger of his wolf. Nate and Gwenna were milling outside the ruins, falling in behind me so my wolf could absorb the worst of anything da threw at us.
"Da?" I called out, approaching the doorway. I was half hoping that he would tell us to go away, but no such luck. I lingered near the window, staring at da warily. He was glaring at the place where the alpha had been chained up, silent, a vein throbbing in his temple. Usually, I'd crack a joke to lighten the mood, but the air was so tense it was stifling my very breathing.
"So, uh, what do you want us to do now?" Nathan asked him, running a hand through his hair. Da sighed and stood up.
"We need to pack up camp and scatter, move to the other locations. I'll tell the other rogues where to go, but we'll be headed for the camp above Lothersdale. Go get packed up, stow it in the car. I'll drive, the rest of you will have to make your own way there." He instructed. I groaned. I hated the Lothersdale camp; it was mostly in an abandoned quarry, so it was dark and damp, and even in the height of summer it was always cold. Now, approaching Christmas, it would be much, much worse. Not only that, but Lothersdale was a good way away, and the public transport around here was expensive and shit at the best of times.
"You got it, da." I grumbled, turning and slouching out of the room, passing on the message to my team. We began to head back to the den, or at least, me and Nathan did. Gwenna tried to slink away.
"Where are you going? You need to help us pack up, come on." I ordered. She gave me a smirk but didn't move to follow. My wolf began to stir.
"Yeah, I'll come and help out in a bit. Me and Ada have a few things we want to do, y'know? Anyway, have fun." She excused, waving her hand and turning away. I grabbed hold of her collar and shoved her into the wall, letting my eyes darken and a snarl bubble up from my chest. The full dominance of my wolf leaned heavily on her mind, and she winced and looked to the ground.
"I have tried to be understanding of you flaking off, because you've just found your mate, but my patience is wearing thin. If you want to run off and cuddle up with Ada, then you can forget about being in my raiding team." I threatened her, no small amount of jealousy pushing my words. Gwenna's eyes widened in shock.
"Alright, alright, I get it. I'll stop slacking off and taking the piss, just take it easy. I'm sorry." I was genuinely surprised that she apologised. I had been expecting her to concede and start working again, but it took a lot for a rogue to swallow their pride and apologise, whether they were in the right or not. I let her go and nodded, suppressing my wolf.
"Right then. Pack up our den first, I'll grab some car keys and start loading it up." I instructed, ducking into the safe room and picking out da's favourite car. He would be taking that one anyway. By the time I arrived, a few tents and bags had already been piled besides it, so I unlocked the car and got to work cramming everything is. A bunch of stuff could be carried with the individual rogues, but the heavier and most unwieldy items would be taken by car.
It took us only half an hour to get everything packed up and ready to leave. We didn't have much to begin with, and we were used to having to escape on the clock. Finally, I went and found Nate and Gwenna, shouldered my pack, and we left the camp together.