Light Bribery

Nathan was a decent fighter, but nothing special. Certainly not kill an alpha special. There was a reason I'd left him at the border. Luckily, he wasn't so vain to not know that, so he barrelled into the alpha, knocked him over, and bit his paw hard enough to break the leg before wheeling about and sprinting after me, soon drawing level as we raced through the woods together. Now I had a little more time to play with, I lifted my broken leg again, happy to alleviate the agony. It made me slow down, so Nate did the same, dropping slightly behind me as the hierarchy dictated, though if he wanted to right now he could bully a submission out of me.

Yeah, we both know that wouldn't be a win, though, don't we? He linked, though I felt him shy away a little as my pain spilled into his mind. I sent a sorry back, trying to pinch the link closed as much as possible to stop spilling over again.

We ran together for miles and miles until we reached the ruins that marked the beginning of the rogue camp, or at the very least, our camp. There were dozens of them scattered around Yorkshire, though they tended to change location multiple times a year to stop the packs finding us. I liked this one, there were plenty of nooks and crannies to make into little dens, and we had a doctor with us.

Well technically she wasn't a doctor anymore, she was struck off a few years ago for malpractice, but we don't talk about that. We'd both shifted into our skins before entering the camp and shrugged on oversized clothes from one of the many caches we had outside, hoping the distinct stench of rogue on the fabric would drown out that of the Shadowstalker scent. It was almost inevitable that word of what we did would get around to our father at some point, but he wouldn't punish us for campfire rumours, only hard evidence. Hence why we were going straight to the doctor even though my healing would kick in soon; if she patched me up I'd probably be good as new before da even got back, and if we slipped her a twenty she would deny giving me medical attention at all.

So I limped back into camp, my brother hovering at my elbow as he mind linked the doctor. Now I could properly catalogue my injuries cos I wasn't running for my life, I knew that my arm and several ribs were broken, and I had multiple cuts that could do with stitches. All together, not half bad given I've just bumped off an alpha. I'm sorry for constantly going on about it, but it is by far the highlight of my career and I am proud of it, so you'll just have to deal with it.

"Oh bloody hell, what have you done now?" Lexi snapped at us when we tumbled into one of the only whole rooms in the ruined monastry our camp centered around. I grinned at her, the shit eating smirk my usual expression when I was dragged to her to get myself stitched back together. Jeez, even after the first time I scrapped with an alpha at the tender age of eleven, I had grinned as my da brought me in, my brother holding my entrails in. Huh. Happy times.

"Nothing. Just need a few stitches. And bandages. And a bone resetting, if you wouldn't mind." I asked as Nate helped me up on the examination table and retreated to the doorway, knowing better than to stay close to me and potentially get in the angry doctor's way.

"Honestly, one day I'm just going to say no. See if bleeding out teaches you a lesson about not picking a fight you can't win." She muttered, grabbing some antiseptic and threading a needle. Firstly, she was paid to fix up the rogues, and secondly, I failed to see how dying would teach me anything, but that wasn't what I decided to bring up.

"You think I'm roughed up? You should see the other guy." I laughed, wincing at the pain that lanced through my chest. Nate gave me a warning look as she swabbed my cuts with stinging antiseptic, sighing when I just shrugged at him.

"Oh great, I presume that'll be my next patient, then?" She muttered.

"Nah, we went into Silsden and got caught up with a packling. Last time I checked, packlings don't fall under your jurisdiction." Now she was stitching me up, and I was beginning to regret the decision to start up a competition between me, Nate, and our friend Gwenna to see who had the higher pain tolerance. The doctor had long since stopped even offering us medication for it, but that didn't mean I didn't want it. Not that I would admit to that either, though.

"Oh goody me." She muttered, but she seemed to buy it. Nate gave me a grudging nod, happy that I had come up with a plausible cover story, even if da wouldn't properly buy it. Going into Silsden wasn't uncommon for us, especially when we needed food, and it was also a popular packling haunt. Most times we went into Silsden we got into a scrap. "Deep breath." I knew what was coming, but before she even gave me time to prepare she had already seized my arm and snapped the bone back into place, causing my scream to echo around the small room. Lexi glared at me as she began to splint it, and Nathan just grinned, no doubt already linking Gwenna and telling her about my perceived failure. Goddamn snitch.

"There's not much point in warning me to brace myself if you then don't give me the time to brace myself." I muttered, holding my shirt with my good hand as she began to bind my ribs.

"Who's the doctor here?" She snapped.

"Technically neither of us-" I muttered, regretting it when she yanked harshly on the bandages, making my broken ribs scream. "Never mind." I squeaked out.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She snapped with a small smile, tying the bandages for me. I smiled back ruefully, more than used to her... unconventional bedside manner. I hopped down from the table with a wince, nodding to Nate who stepped forward with his most charming grin.

"So, Lexi, I was wondering-"

"Gimme a twenty and you were never here." She sighed, holding out her palm expectantly. I stifled a laugh; when she first arrived she had just left her pack, and any suggestion of anything that wasn't totally above-board horrified her. Ah, how she had changed.

"Thank you muchly." Nathan sang, placing a dirty and crumpled twenty pound note in her palm. She nodded and herded us out, the stench of air freshener following us as she covered up our scents.

"Ok, we need to talk about what exactly happened back there." Nathan said as we made our way through the camp towards the collapsed room we had claimed for our den.

"I mean, I killed an alpha, you tackled another alpha, we ran away. I don't really get what you don't understand about that." I pointed out, knowing full well what he was referring to.

"I meant, as you full well know, how the alpha pup paused when he saw you. I mean, don't you think that was a little weird?" He pressed, but I just shrugged.

"Not really. He'd just learnt his dad was dead, I feel like freezing was an appropriate reaction." I commented, eyeing a squirrel roasting over a campfire hungrily. We'd each had half a rabbit this morning, but that had been a long time ago and fighting and healing took a lot of blood sugar. The rogue cooking it caught me staring and scowled, moving a little closer and yet still not daring to stare me down. That was a challenge he knew he wouldn't win, but I wasn't that mean. I wouldn't steal food; I'd make my brother get me some.

"If he was in human form, it would have been. But he was in his fur, his wolf would have been in charge, so his initial reaction should have been to attack. I saw the whole thing, his eyes were gold. It wasn't him in control. And, speaking of reactions-" I groaned and threw my head back dramatically, effectively shutting him up as we reached the caved in room we used as our den. The roof and one wall had collapsed inwards years and years ago, the rubble now settled enough that we felt safe enough to crawl into the gaps under it to sleep. I mean, it was probably incredibly dangerous, and neither us wanted to go by falling rubble, but it also kept the rain off.

"Give it a rest, Nathan! We did it, we pulled it off, end of story! Now go and get me some food before my healing stops due to starvation." I ordered, flopping down on one of the beanbags in the one whole corner of the room and tugging on the mind link to Gwenna. No words were needed to tell her where I was or that I wanted her; she just knew, and I had long since learned not to push my way into her mind to speak to her. Oh the scarring things I had seen.

They both arrived back at the same time, Nathan balancing three plates of what smelt like lentils and chicken and Gwenna flushed and out of breath. I decided not to ask why; even if the answer wouldn't bother me at all, Nathan had long since harboured a crush for her and didn't need to hear that. None of us had turned eighteen yet, and given that we wouldn't recognise our mate until we did, there was still a strong chance that they were mates. I both hoped they were and they weren't. Gwenna had a crush on him too, and yet he was the only boy she hadn't slept with in our raiding band, if only because she was afraid doing so could ruin our friendship. I think they would be good together, but surely a relationship starting off as they did couldn't be healthy? And, on a more selfish note, I didn't really want to be pushed into third wheel position in our little gang.

"So, did ya do it?" Gwenna asked, visibly excited and unable to keep still. She was the only one who we had let in on our plan, the only one we trusted not to rat on us. As the most tech savvy of our trio, she had stayed home to remotely hack into Nightstalker's security and disable the cameras and sensors as and when we needed them.

"Hell yeah we did. As of today, mam and Naomi have officially been avenged." I answered with a grin. The adrenaline from the fight still hadn't worn off, and I doubted the feeling of accomplishment would either until I did something better or majorly fucked something up. Nathan didn't look half as happy though, simply handing us our food before sitting down and digging into his own plate. "Everything ok, Nate?" He shrugged and sighed.

"Nothing's like, wrong, if that's why you're asking. I guess I just thought I'd feel better knowing he was dead, feel some kind of satisfaction that we were the ones to do it? I dunno, I just don't really feel anything. It's a good thing he's dead, he was a piece of shit, but mam and Naomi are still gone too, you know." He muttered, poking at his food sulkily for a few moments before tucking in. Now I thought about it, I realised I felt the same. I mean sure, killing an alpha was cool and all, and he couldn't hurt any more of my friends and family, but it still physically hurt me when I thought of what had happened in that dungeon.

"Yeah. You know what? You're right." I sighed, completely bummed out even as I tucked into my meal. I know in movies when a character is sad, they'll push their food away and sigh dramatically, but food is hard to come by as a rogue and I'm always hungry.

"Ugh, you two need to lighten up. Tell you what, tonight I say we all get absolutely wasted. Celebrate, y'know?" Gwenna suggested, bringing a smile to both our lips. Alcohol was always a sure fire way to cheer any rogue up.

"Hell ye-" I started, only to be cut off by a furious yell that boomed around the entire camp.

"NATHAN! NATALIA! GET YOUR ARSES HERE, NOW!"