Luna of Rogues

Part 32 - Packmeet

So school started again, huh? Fun fun fun.

The update schedule has been messed up over the last few weeks, but now it'll be returning to normal. Which will be three times a fortnight instead of four, because I have twenty-three GCSE exams to take, and that means a lot of work. Ugh.

We were discussing the events of the night before in the command room when my phone rang. I swiped across the screen and lifted it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello, sweetheart," someone said slyly. "Remember me? Zach?"

I sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. You're still alive then?"

"Yeah. And I'm told that I have you to thank for that ... so thanks, I guess. You saved a lot of lives with that warning. Against my better judgement, I'm actually starting to like you."

Leo shuffled uncomfortably beside me, obviously able to hear and probably wondering if he would have to fight an Alpha over me. I patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, we can go back to comfortably hating each other as soon as the ferals are dealt with. Let's not get too attached in the meantime, hmm?"

Zach laughed. "Oh, believe me. That won't be a problem. Now I figure you want to know what happened?"

"Sure."

"It was easy enough. My pack house is practically a fortress, so I just pulled everyone inside and armed my fighters with rifles. We shot maybe a dozen before the ferals decided it wasn't worth the trouble. They didn't act organised — more like a leaderless rabble looking for easy slaughter."

"So where are they now?" I asked cautiously.

He paused before saying, "I wish I knew. Their trail leads east, but I'm not risking my scouts following it."

East was the worst direction. Until now, the ferals had confined their attacks to this side of the Silverstones. But if they crossed the mountains, they could threaten the other four packs, who had been safe so far. Screw it, we would have to cooperate now. With two packs down and the other five at risk, maybe the Alphas would realise that too.

"Alright, well tell your bastard cousin to move his ass. New Dawn is closest, and I'd bet anything they'll end up there."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about Jace — he takes his job very seriously," Zach assured me. "I just got off the phone with him. The ferals will cross the mountains and run into a brick wall of fighters. The other packs are... Actually, I'm not supposed to tell you that. Forget I said anything. And thanks again for the warning."

I knew from his hurried tone that he was about to be hang up on me, so I didn't bother to ask about the secretive preparations. "Just ... don't throw that away by doing anything stupid."

And with that, I hung up first and turned my attention back to the table. His phone call had interrupted us, and now five faces stared at me, waiting for a decision. Rhys, Fion, Ollie, Leo and Tom had appeared when I had summoned the council and told me that Maggie was making lunch and Mortimer was apparently too lazy.

"So where were we?" I asked.

"As I was saying, we questioned the surviving children. The people murdered last night were survivors from Ember. They escaped the ferals, I assume, and they were coming to us for refuge," Ollie explained.

We fell silent at that announcement. If the ferals would attack innocents not two miles from our home and not us, there was something wrong here. They seemed more than happy to attack rogues, so obviously we had nothing to do with it. It was the castle they were avoiding.