Luna of Rogues

Part 7 - An Old Face

"Oh...hey guys," Rhys stammered, keeping his feet firmly planted on Riverside land because there were fewer wolves from that pack present.

"I'd love to stick around and play fetch with you guys, but...well, places to be, things to do, you know."

At those words, all the Riverside wolves growled at Rhys, but the New Dawn wolves assumed they were growling at them, so all started growling back. It seemed that these two packs hated each other a lot more than they hated us, which we could use to our advantage.

The growls quickly changed to howls for backup and full-on teeth baring, and Rhys took advantage of the confusion and noise to slip away and re-join us. It was very lucky for him that the two packs saw each other as more of a threat than a single rogue, and so didn't bother giving chase.

"That was a bit reckless, don't you think?" Fion asked in an undertone, but she was smiling.

"We can handle a few flockies," Rhys replied with a lazy grin.

The three of us stayed to watch in the undergrowth of no-man's-land until one of the New Dawn Alpha showed up. Even from a distance, I could tell we didn't want to be messing with that wolf, so we made a run for it.

We were several miles away from the packs before we paused for breath. I knew they would have someone on our tail to check we were off their turf, but that no longer mattered. I slumped next to a pine tree and made a futile attempt to calm down my wolf. Being around pack wolves always ticked her off to no end.

Rhys watched me with some concern while I regained my control but busied himself with filling up our water canteens. Meanwhile, Fion had spotted a glow of light coming from a cave not far from us.

A sensible person would have turned around and walked away.

But to be fair, I hadn't had the most ordinary life and hadn't seen all the movies that teach children not to go into the creepy cave in the dead of night.

So that's exactly what I did.

I almost instantly picked up that there were werewolves inside. Two male rogues who smelt like they were long due a bath. And one who didn't smell so bad at all. My wolf approved, at least.

Note to self: use overpowered werewolf senses to check for danger before entering the creepy cave.

I backed up really quickly, but not before the rogues noticed my intrusion. I ended up running straight into Fion, who had already smelt the wolves and looked ready to shift at a moment's notice.

"Come out, come out wherever you are," a voice called from the cave, which must have belonged to the rogues.

Rhys had caught up by then, and he quickly ushered us to one side. I'd long since learnt to let him handle situations like this. Rhys was got on really well with just about anyone who didn't belong to a pack.

"We're outside and friendly as long as you ain't flockies," he said, loud enough for anyone in the tunnels to hear.

A shadow appeared in the cave's entrance and peered at us. "We aren't flockies, that's for sure. Who the hell are you?"

This time it was me who answered him. "My name's Skye. The other two are my siblings — Rhys and Fion. But that's not what you were asking, was it?"

"Not really. I meant — which rogues are you with?" His voice sounded like an Australian accent smoothed off from years living in Wales.

"Rhodric, of course," Fion replied, probably just to get involved in the conversation.

The rogue fumbled with something in his pocket for a second, then a torch beam flashed in our faces. I squinted past the light the best I could but ended up having to fix my eyes on the floor. I stared just enough to see a boy about Fion's age with dark brown hair and grey eyes peering us. He seemed mainly focused on me, and there was a strange look in his eyes.