#Chapter 39 A Rogue Mess

The Royal pack run is today and even if I don’t feel like going for a jog through the woods, Gabriel says that it’s mandatory for all wolves, especially us, as we need to be a good role model for the younger pups. The run is to show solidarity of our numbers and the strength of our pack. I just think it’s to distract me from my plans against Alicia.
Gabriel has tried everything now, even going as far as pleasing me in my office a few days ago. He didn’t partake in it at all, not that I would allow that, but the feeling of him pleasing my wet core was something I’ve never felt before.
Sex with Alpha Herold was rough and abrupt, he hardly even seemed present in the moment and just wanted it to be over with so he could have his release and go through his day. But Gabriel’s actions a few days ago, that was focused on me, my pleasure, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Maybe for the day I will at least get to skip past Alpha Connor’s pack and get a glimpse of that witch in her natural habitat. If not, then I will be left to researching the computer for answers on the poison she gave my brother and that poor girlfriend of the Alpha.
I hate that she is getting away with this, but morse so that Gabriel won’t allow me to fix it. I know I can make her pay, but the King Alpha acts like it’s an obsession, and not the simple act of making a guilty woman pay for her crimes.
Alicia should be very, very concerned of her fate as I would be if she became Queen Luna.
Gabriel’s wolf leads the run, sprinting us into the woods and through the nearby neutral grounds. We circle packs playfully, as a sly warning to them of our numbers and our strength. The pups of the Royal pack stay in the center of us all, learning to run as a unit, as a strong pack, and offering them a little taste of what it would be like as a warrior or scout.
I glance over at the gleeful pups, howling and running into one another playfully. Their childhood seems so simple, so fun, while I recollect myself from thinking about my childhood. My parents passed early on and Reese and I were left with only one another. When I was kidnapped by rogues, I thought I would never see him again and that was like death itself.
Then Alpha Herold rescued me; I thought my troubles would end there.
I must be too far in thought to pay attention, Eugene’s wolf brushing up against me gently, forcing my eyes back into focus. I dodge the tree coming up before me and we jump down an embankment, just breaking out of the pack only slightly.
We both aim for the hillside recede, offering us a way back up to the pack but howling snarls break through clearing over, the noise sharp and painful.
It’s rogues, Eugene barks through the link. He jumps into my path, my claws digging into the dirt until we both skid to a stop.
I shift back first, breathless and panting. “We have to go up there, Eugene, we have to help,” I say, recalling the number of pups sequestered in the middle of the running formation. “We need to get up there! Now!”
Eugene shifts back, his face just as irritated as his wolf’s. “I can’t let you go out there, Olivia. You are the Queen Luna; I have to protect you.”
I sidestep him but he only centers himself before me as second time.
“No, Olivia, I won’t let you. Gabriel already sent through the mind link that we have to protect you, that is now my job,” he says, grabbing for me to duck behind a fallen, rotten tree nearby. “Stay put,” he snarls.
He shifts back, his massive wolf standing over me now, his head lowered as I hear pounding steps enter the embankment where we hide. Eugene growls a noise I have never heard from him, a battle partaking above but nothing like the noise that erupts from the other side of the sideways trunk.
“No, Eugene,” I pant, reaching for him but it’s far too late.
My physician friend pounces forward, being mauled by four, maybe five rogues at once. I peer over the tree trunk and cover my mouth to keep from screaming. Eugene is brave, but he isn’t a warrior. His strength is subpar and his skills are certainly lacking; the rogues overtake him at once.
I stay back, hearing him bark at me through the link.
It’s okay, just stay back and hide, Olivia, he says. Stay there—don’t move!
His wolf whimpers, a rogue sinking his sharp teeth into Eugene’s back shoulder. I cry out, unable to hold it in any longer. I shift, pouncing forward to help him but when the rogues see me, their attention to Eugene is over. He falls limp on his three good legs, one of them bloody and crooked.
I show my teeth, surrounded by ravenous rogues.
Just when I watch them lean back, preparing to launch forward, they are distracted. I watch the pack warriors from the clearing above bolt down the hillside, their sights set on the rogues. I take in an easy breath as the rogues are chased off but the warriors continue to pursue them, running so far out of sight that I feel comfortable enough to shift back.
Eugene already has, His back shoulder blade sporting a horrible, vicious wound. He flinches slightly, his arm bruising already and with black and purple streaks and crimson blood leaking down his awkward, crooked wrist.
“Oh, moon goddess, no,” I pant, my heart rattling too fast in my chest that I feel it in my throat. “Dammit, Eugene, why did you have to be so damn brave?”
He smiles, a bit of blood coughed up in the process. “Had to protect my girl.”
“Shut up,” I say, pressing my hand into the larges gap of his flesh, trying to stop the bleeding. He hisses a noise but continues smiling, his grin precious and calm. “How are you smiling, Eugene? You’ve broken your wrist and you may bleed out. Panic!”
He laughs only slightly. “How could I be panicked when I’ve got an angel beside me?”
“Stop talking like that, please,” I plead. “I’m not an angel, Eugene. I’m your friend.”
“That’s not true,” he hums, choking on his breath. “Not true at all. You know how I feel about you, Olivia. Just accept it.”
“No, Eugene, stop talking about this! You’re hurt!”
“Tell me then, Olivia. Tell me you don’t care for me.”
“That’s different,” I bark, panicking enough for the both of us. “Of course I don’t want you hurt and I care about you being okay, as my very close friend, but—”
“No, no,” he hums, laying his head back into my lap. He forces a weary smile. “Just leave it at that, please. You care for me.”
I roll my eyes, watching him slowly drift unconscious from pain. I lean forward slightly, hearing him breathe as he bleed profusely on my hands and my lap. He is covered in nicks and cuts, the rogues’ teeth marking his body all over.
I care for Eugene, just not in the way he will ever want me to. For now, I kiss his temple, seeing his grin widen even on the verge of passing out from these extensive, painful wounds. I want to tell him what he wants to hear, just in case he doesn’t make it back alive, but I can’t.
It would be a lie.
I think.