Running with Rogues

Did Mason know something we didn't? Or was he just a cocky son of a bitch? I had no idea.

I supposed he wouldn't care much if they killed his brothers. It was only saving him the trouble of doing it himself. One day, inevitably, they'd get tired of his shit and challenge him. He knew that.

He seemed to guess the rogues wouldn't touch him while he was holding a child, and so he took his sweet time to move. Eventually, he turned to me, just because I was closest, and he handed me his daughter. I rested her against my hip, astonished as always that someone so little could weigh so much.

Finally, Mason shifted. Amidst the chaos, he wove through the churning mess of bodies and teeth to tear out a rogue's throat with deadly precision. A heartbeat later, a russet-brown wolf knocked him sideways, and the two of them rolled over and over, snapping at each other's throat. It was either Rhodri or his father - I couldn't tell, and I didn't have time to stop and squint at them.

"We need to move," I hissed at the girls. They had screamed when the wolves had appeared, and Lilah was in tears now. She tried to snatch her child from me, but I caught her jacket instead and started dragging her away from the fight. She was too weak and terrified to offer much resistance.

We went towards the trees. Lin followed willingly enough, but her face had gone ghostly pale, and I reckoned she might faint before we got very far. That was okay. I took them a few dozen metres, and then I pushed Lilah to the ground. Only then did I hand the kid back to her.

I crouched over her, my shoulder pressed against a tree. I needed to be close enough to see what was going on. And I could. Just about. I could see teeth flashing and bloodied pelts and bodies on the ground.

I couldn't tell who was winning. The Vaughans were descended from the older bloodlines, so their wolves were silver-grey, like Liam's. But in that writhing mass of fur, they would have needed to be bright green for me to pick them out.

Lin crouched behind us. They were hidden by the tree trunk, which made them feel safe, but I had no doubt Nia knew exactly where we were. The toddler was still crying, albeit quietly. She was old enough to know that something was badly wrong.

"Why aren't we running?" Lilah demanded.

"Because I don't think they're here for us," I told her in a rough whisper. "Keep your mouth shut and your head down, yeah?"

She dug her fingernails into my arm hard enough to draw blood. It was more fear than malice - I could smell it on her breath, overwhelming and sickly-sweet. "What if they come over here?"

"Then I'll kill them, won't I?" I snapped. My wolf was feeling gutsy, all of a sudden, and hers was cowering. It was a nice change.

Lilah shut up. Lin seemed to have been rendered speechless for the first time in her life. I was free to turn my full attention onto the fight. It had fractured into several smaller skirmishes in the seconds we'd spent bickering, but there was still a distinct lack of flockie bodies on the ground.

It should have been easy. Liam's brothers were outnumbered nearly three to one. Nia, Rhodri and Rhys should have been able to take them out individually, given enough time. But time was the one thing we didn't have. And all three of them were putting up one hell of a fight.

The rogues were trying to leave Felix alive, which meant they could only wound him. That had been the plan, anyway. I had no doubt Nia would abandon it if he made too much of a nuisance of himself.

A group of four wolves came charging down the gorge to throw themselves into the fight. Reinforcements for the flockies, I guessed. Mason had used his few seconds of grace period well. The raiders still had the advantage of numbers, but I did wonder how much longer that would last.