Da didn't look up when I came strutting into his office, which was a shame. I wanted him to see my ridiculously expensive coat (I mean, a hundred pounds? Really?) and shit eating grin. Everyone else in the camp had seen it. I half thought that Nate and Gwenna were going to mob me on principle, shake me down, but those thoughts were killed when I pulled out the brown envelope and handed them both a hundred quid, keeping two hundred for myself. The last five hundred was for da and the camp, which was why I dared to disturb him when he was working. That and I had never actually respected his requests to be left alone.
I strutted over to the desk and threw the envelope on top of the paper he was writing on, almost making him smudge the ink all over the place. He looked up at me, wolf flashing in his eyes with irritation and making me glance on the ground before he snatched up the money, counting it with a raised eyebrow.
"The money is welcome, the interruption is not. How did you get all this?" He asked, pointing at the chair opposite and taking a good look at my coat.
"I found a pack wolf walking alone in a dark ally, roughed him up and shook him down. Had an envelope full of cash on him, reckon he was buying a car or something big. I took it, bought my coat, messed around for a bit and then came back and handed the rest over to you." I told him the fabricated story with ease, because I had been lying to da since I was a pup. He encouraged it, really, so long as he couldn't catch us out on it.
"And aside from the coat, you've given me all of it?" He asked, his voice suggesting that he damn well knew the answer. It was the way of the rogues; whenever we got a decent haul, we were meant to hand it over to the leader of the camp and they would decide how much was given back to us, and how much went towards food and tents for the camp.
"Of course I did. I ain't lying." I lied. He chuckled and shook his head, pulling out twenty quid and handing it to me.
"I would give you more, but that coat looks like it was bloody expensive and we're due a big food shop." He explained, his eyes telling me that he knew full well I'd pocketed more. I nodded and stood up, stretching out.
"Right then, I'll be off. Gonna go into town and buy myself some vodka." I explained, tucking the twenty pound note into my top pocket and giving him a wolfish grin. He returned his attention to his paperwork, waving his hand to dismiss me. Just as I left, he spoke up again.
"I hope you introduce me to him soon, Natalia." My heart stuttered in my chest, but he wasn't even looking at me. Just staring at his paperwork, a knowing tone to his voice. I tried to come up with a response, or a rebuttal, but for once in my life no words came. Instead, I turned and all but ran away. He knew something, but not everything, and that was fine. He thought that my mate was a pack wolf, and he wasn't wrong, but he didn't know the most important part, not yet. I needed to keep it that way.
But da did pride himself on knowing everything in the camp, and that included knowing everything about his kids. In poking at me like that, he was letting me know that he knew I had a secret, and he was giving me some time to tell me himself. If I didn't tell him soon, however, he would look into himself, and I knew that he had no limits short of breaking into my head. He would have me followed, my things rifled through, my phone searched (not that I had one right now) to figure out who my mate was.
That was fine, though. He'd tried that before on the three of us, when we'd first starting disappearing into the towns by ourselves and he wanted to know where we were going. He asked us, of course, and we lied about going anywhere. So, he sent members of his team to follow us to the abandoned old house on the outskirts of Silsden we broke into and made a den for a while until it was bought and we were chased off by the police. No harm would have come from him knowing, but that was never the point. For six months we ran rings around our tails, leading them off the scent and then running away, until he gave up and called them off.
That was his policy for lies and secrets. If we could keep them, he'd respect us for it, but he always tried his damn best to figure out the truth behind them. He took great pride in how well we could lie, because he had spent years teaching us how.
So, even though the stakes were far higher now, and I doubted he would give up on learning who my mate was, I should be able to keep him off my trail. I could do this, I just needed to keep an eye out.
I returned to Nate and Gwenna, and now Ada too, all relaxing in our den. From the sweat on all of them, and the general rumpled look of their clothes, they'd just finished up a play fight. It shouldn't have bothered me as much as it did. It was just because it had been so long since we acted like litter mates, and then they went and had fun without me. With Ada, no less, like a replacement.
"Natalia, there you are! We were waiting for you to tip up, we're going to go into the village and get some booze and goodies. It's been too long since we've had a party, and we need to welcome Ada." Nathan explained. It had been a week since we last got pissed, and we had partied with Ada before, just not as part of our group. But since when had I needed an excuse to get drunk?
"Alright then, let's go. Grab the fake IDs, you know the stuck up snob who runs the corner shop always asks for them." And even then, it was fifty fifty if he would serve us.
"So, no plans for getting proper IDs now you're old enough?" Ada asked, as though she was years our senior and not just three months older- No, Natalia, be nice.
"What's the point? It claims we're a year older than we are. Besides, we can't even get proper IDs- unlike you, we were born rogue, so legally we don't even exist." I told her, gesturing for her to let go of Gwenna so we could all just go already. Gwenna looked a bit upset with my brusque tone, but didn't call me out on it. Soon, we had made the trip, and were carting back our spoils to our den. We snuck it past da on principle, because even though none of us were on watch tonight, he might not approve of us getting drunk if another group had decided to drink tonight as well.
We didn't bother going to the food tent in the evening, me because I was still full from lunch and the others because we had bought a lot of snacks. Soon, the vodka was flowing (wine for Ada, pack wolf born snob), and it finally felt like everything was back to normal. I stopped remembering what was going on around ten, and we must have crashed shortly after, sleeping through the clouds of spirits in our heads.
.
.
.
I was woken by a sharp stab of pain through my head, more than the usual hangover. It was a pain I had only felt once before, but not the kind that you soon forgot. It was the sensation of someone forcing open the mind link and yelling down it into your mind against your will. My first instinct was to roll over and yell for Nathan, make him jump into my head and push the intruder out, but then I realised it was Sebastian who was in my head. I wasn't scared anymore, but I was angry, ready to lash out and try to wound him, until he started to talk.
'Natalia! You have to wake up and run. The Cardoli Pack know about the Lothersdale quarry camp, they're coming to break it up, you have to go!' The panic his words brought me lent me enough strength to shove him out of my head and put up some barriers. Questions flew through my mind, how did he know where I was, or that the camp had been discovered, and how did I know he was telling the truth? I dismissed them all at once. The first two could be addressed later, and I wasn't willing to take a gamble on the last one. Besides, at the very least one alpha knew about the camp, even is it was a 'friendly' one.
"Wake up! Everyone wake up, the camp has been discovered!" I bellowed despite my aching head, scrambling to my feet and kicking my brother to make sure he was roused. I staggered out of our den, seeking out my da, yelling the whole time about the camp being compromised and telling people to evacuate. It was one of the few cries that all rogues would immediately take seriously; a fire was commonly lied about for a distraction, but it was an unspoken rule that you didn't eliminate an entire camp for a distraction.
"Natalia!" Da yelled, stumbling out of his den, eyes glowing gold with his wolf. I turned to him.
"Da, I have a spy in a pack and they know about the camp, they're coming, we need to leave." I hurried out, stumbling over my words in haste and panic. His eyes widened and he nodded, immediately sending out a mind link to all the rogues in our camp at once.
'The camp has been compromised. Pack up and leave immediately. Scatter, ensure you weren't followed, and reconvene in the Pinnacle Towers camp.' He instructed, turning back towards his den and snagging up a rucksack.
"Natalia, pack up and then come and help me. You kids will travel with me." Uh oh. I nodded and darted back to where I had been sleeping to do as he said, but that wasn't a good sign. We hadn't travelled with him since we were ten and he decided we could more or less fend for ourselves, so him keeping us close now definitely had ulterior motives. He was going to interrogate me, and all of us by extension, to figure out what exactly had happened, so I needed to come up with a damn good cover story. Nate and Gwenna would cover me no matter what I said, so I didn't have to worry about them, at least.
They were all awake, desperately packing up with a focused vigour rarely found. It took us five minutes to have everything packed up, and then we went to da's study and started to pack up his things as well. We were maybe half way through packing up his things when the patrols near the border started to bark and howl, the mind link going wild.
We were too late. The pack wolves were already here.