Luna of Rogues

Part 77 - The Real Villains

Song and banner for the final chapter just in case you're not miserable already ;)

Dedicated to LittleLoneWriterGirl <3 :)

With a stone wall between me and the Alphas, I felt an awful lot better about the situation.

So I looked for a space in the crowd and moved there. If I had thought about it, I might have realised I had once stood in the same spot beside Rhodric to face down Brandon. But that had been a long time ago. I was going to do far more than talk now.

"The packs have offered us a choice." I raised my voice so the whole courtyard could hear. So the whole damn world could hear. "Surrender or die. They're both shit options, but they're the only ones we have. That's what the Alphas want you to think."

Wide eyes gazed up at me. Children, mostly. The adults listened in brooding silence, their hollow expressions off-putting. It didn't matter though. Not with Rhys on one side, Leo on the other and Fion at my back. Not with the support of an oversized housecat who could have killed us all like mice.

"I say, screw the packs. Screw the Alphas. I don't plan to bow to anyone. Surrender, or die, or do what we do best — find our own path. There's still a way out of this castle. It'll be dangerous, sure, but I reckon freedom is worth the risk."

Then I dropped my voice, frustrating the hundreds of keen eavesdroppers outside my walls. Let them think we were going to fight our way out. "I don't suppose any of you remember our tunnel?"

The resounding roar of approval was louder than I could ever have hoped for. And it played into my plans, because the packlings outside scrambled a defence. I could hear the Alphas snapping orders, scaring their fighters into line. To the outside ear, it sounded very much like we were about to attack.

But in reality, the rogues started filing towards the room where the trapdoor was hidden. I had only been through the tunnel that once, to attack Brandon, but it was narrow. We would need time for so many people to crawl through — time which could only be bought one way.

So I went against the flow of people to the small room where we kept the weapons. There were a dozen rifles and several of my homemade bombs. The smoke bombs would confuse the packlings, and the explosive ones ... let's just say I would be aiming for Keith.

Rhys went with the others by unspoken consent, taking Jeff with him. They would go first. If there were packlings at the other end, which seemed unlikely, they could clear an escape route. Fion was directing the stream of people, while Cassidy held the baby. Their newfound cooperation was admirable. Those two girls might both have wanted the same boy, but they weren't petty enough to squabble over it.

Kevin made room on the battlement, and Leo clambered up beside me. From there, we could get a panoramic view of the army that had come to kill us. Most had shifted, but a good hundred or so remained human to climb the walls. Jace was one of the few people I recognised, standing at the head of a sea of New Dawn wolves.

Shadowless were in the vanguard, unfortunately. Not so long ago, they had been rogues themselves, and their fighters were renowned. I had always thought their Alpha, Zach, was one of the most reasonable of the pack crowd ... because he was most like a rogue. But when it came down to it, he would fight me as easily as befriend me — it simply didn't matter to him, or his pack. That carelessness and indifference was why I had liked him in the first place, so I had no right to complain when it backfired.

The first team of climbers rushed forwards. Homemade grappling hooks crashed against stone, grating and screeching until they found a lodging. I shouted at the crowd below, and a dozen fighters broke off to repel the climbers. But there were too many of them, in too many different places. And there were too many wolves massing at the gates. How long before they found a way to open them?