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My father and his friends are planning another raid. Their rambunctious laughter floated into my room from the living room.

This was when they were happiest, plotting a small pack's doom. They weren't as happy, though, when we got back and they started arguing over how to divide the spoils.

I finish reading the last paragraph of my book, and I close it, scoffing. Of course, the girl ends up with the guy and they live happily ever after. These books always annoyed me so much, yet I couldn't help reading them. I didn't believe in the nonsense that filled the pages, though. I didn't believe in happily ever afters; I didn't believe in love at first sight. Happy endings didn't exist. Fairytales were just that, fairytales. The best you could hope to get in life was to die with honour, hoping for anything outside of that was plain stupid.

Deciding I'd been indoors long enough, I toss the book onto the small bookcase my father built for me and head out. All four heads in the living room turn to me as I step out, but go back to the plans they were studying.

Except Bolik. Bolik was one of my father's closest friends, but he creeped the hell out of me.

"Anaya," he smiled, sending chills straight down my spine.

I had known Bolik my whole life, and it had always been like this. I'd always felt disgusted by and, for some reason, afraid of him.

I smiled politely at him before heading to the front door, "Father, I'm going out for a run".

He grunted his approval, and I pushed open the net covering we had over the door to let fresh air in and, simultaneously, keep mosquitoes and other insects out.

My lungs expanded as I breathed in the clean forest air. It had rained the night before and the grass still had little cold beads of water on them. I loved it.
This was where I was born, and this was where I'd grown up and before I started going on raids with my father, this little cottage and the forest it was in was my entire world.

We were rogues, you see. I was born a rogue, my parents, however, were made rogues. They were kicked out of their pack for reasons that my father refused to tell me. As a werewolf without a pack, you're automatically branded a rogue and ostracised from society. All other werewolves despised us and because of that, we usually had to live in the shadows, hand-to-mouth, until we eventually died from starvation or were captured and killed by a non-rogue werewolf.

That was what had happened to my mother.

I was 2 years old when my mother disappeared. After weeks without her returning, we had to accept she had probably been killed. We held a small funeral, just my father, my brother, and I. A part of me would like to hope that we were wrong, that she's still out there somewhere, alive and we'll be reunited someday. But that's a fairytale.

And I've already said what I think about those.

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

I don't run for long because I know my father will soon be briefing us about the plans for this raid. So, before long, I'm back near the cottage, shifting back into my human form and heading inside.

The raids excite me. Sure, they're the way we survive, taking a little from the smaller, weaker packs so that we had enough to keep us alive, but that wasn't why they excited me. I loved having a peek into what normal werewolves looked like, how they lived. It was amusing to me.

I envied that they didn't have to fight for anything, not food, not protection, everything was sort of guaranteed for them.

But I hated the hierarchy. Alphas, Lunas, Betas and the entire crowd. I found it sickening.

It wasn't enough that you were part of a pack, you would still be looked down upon if you weren't high up enough on the ladder.

"They won't know what hit them!" Somebody was exclaiming as I entered the house and they all started laughing again.

I made sure to take off my shoes at the door to avoid tracking mud into the house before joining them at the table.

"So, what's the plan Papa?"

"Let's wait for the others," was the short reply I got.

Bolik touched my arm, immediately making me cringe, "How was your run Anaya?"

"Good".

The net opened and the rest of our little group poured in, saving me from whatever conversation Bolik was about to start.

There were 9 of us in total. My father; Vance, my brother; Tim, Bolik, Luther, Sonya, Devon, Eric, Gabe, and me; Anaya. Mine and Tim's were the only real names.

Rogues don't use their real names.

We all lived pretty separate lives until we came together to perform a raid.

Rogues don't cohabit.

Sonia was the only other female in the group and the closest thing I had to a mother/sister/best friend.

She hugged me now as she came in.

"Been running?" She smiled knowingly as she pulled a twig out of my hair and I giggled.

"Okay, seats everyone," my father's voice was always loud and always commanded attention. Everybody tried to obey him now even though it was useless. The room could barely contain us all at the same time much less if we all wanted a place to sit.

I perched on the arm of the chair Sonya was on and waited.

"Who are we hitting, Vance?" Eric asked. He was the ticking bomb of the group. Always itching to destroy, and always on the verge of exploding.

Dad shot him a look but still answered, spreading out the plans on the small coffee table in the center of the room, "The White Moon pack. Small pack near the East River. Aged Alpha and Luna, total pack size of 40."

We all craned our necks to see the plans.

"Quick in and out. Bulk food is kept in the Alpha's house. 2 guards at night, 1 during the day. No security alarm."

We all nodded along, it would be one of our easier raids, we would be back in no time.

"When?" Eric asked.

"Tonight".

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