The Hunter and the Rogue Workers Union

Chapter 3

Dinner, Alphas, and A Tolerated Guest

The next day both Sally and Russell were settled into a two-bedroom cottage just down the road from the Rogue Alpha. She would now be fighting him in two weeks instead of one week. The Silver Pack loved to make plans for people. Her boss (May) was not much better. May wanted the first week spent on union business. Turns out, May and Alpha Siman Silver had a very long and detailed conversation which produced a very long and detailed to-do list for both Sally and Russell. Sally had always been impressed with how detailed May’s lists could be, but Alpha Silver listing ability was on a whole new level. And not a good level either. Russell’s mom was not afraid of making him work. She worked 14 to 16 hour days and really expected the same from everyone else. Thank the Creator, the union allowed one day off a week or Sally would never have any time for resting and reading. Sally had a nasty workaholic problem but she had nothing on those two workaholic demigods.

“I love the smell of apples.” Said Sally while they carried their bags into the cottage. Luckily, the cottage was fully furnished, or they would have been sleeping on the ground. She had got enough of that during the war. Sleeping outside used to be one of her favorite things to do, but sleeping in general has become an issue in the last few years.

“Oh yes, well, apple pie and it smells fresh.” He said quickly as he carried his two bags into the cottage. Without asking, he took the smaller room and started to put his clothes in the closest. She had stopped trying to get him to take the better room long ago. Even if he outranks a person, he still would take the smaller room.

They had been invited to dine with the Alpha and his family on their second night at the cottage. Sally did not care for formal meals, but this was business, and she needed to represent the Union to the best of her ability. As they were leaving their cottage, she thought she heard the sound of soft giggles; she saw a fluff of brown curly hair hiding behind a bush just one cottage over from them. A smile came across her face as a tiny giggle danced her way again. “I guess we are all alone out here.” Russell smiled at her game. More soft giggles danced on the wind this time.

“Yes, it is kind of lonely being new and not knowing anyone,” he added.

“I wish there was someone who could show me around and be my friend.”

“Hi,” came from behind the bush. “I can show you around. I play around here all the time.”

“Oh no,” said Russell. “The bush can speak. Do you think it is a ghost? Will it hurt us?” The little girl jumped out from behind the bush. Her soft brown eyes and light tan skin glowed in the sunlight. A large red birth mark was quite visible on her forehead near her right eye. The sight of her was so precious that it warmed the heart to the point of happy giggles.

“Do not be afraid. I am just Starlit. I am no ghost or monster. I won’t let anything hurt you. You are safe with me around,” and then she showed off her arm muscles.

“Oh, wow, that is impressive. I don’t think I have ever met such a strong and brave little girl before.” Said Sally to the child. The little one’s face just danced with joy. “Hay, do you know the way to the pack house?”

“Yes, I do.” Starlit walked up slowly as if watching for someone and then spoke softly. “Don’t tell anyone but I fly all around this place at night. And I love to see the packhouse when the sun is setting. It is so pretty. It must be amazing to live in such a huge building like that. I heard it has a game room and a swimming pool. I love to swim. I can swim so fast. Faster than anyone. And I can run faster than anyone. I bet you can barely see me when I run. I got new shoes one time and they made me run faster than the wind in the sky. If my house had a swimming pool. I would never leave it. Would you ever leave it?”

“It would be really hard but sometimes I like to be outside. I cannot run in animal form, but sometimes I just love to run as fast as I can through the woods.” Said Sally back in her playmate's voice.

“I do too! I love to run in the woods. Do you want to go for a run now?” She asked.

“I have to ask your parents, but I first have to go to this silly dinner at the pack house. If you are out later, maybe I can talk to them.” The girl looked unsure for a moment, then shook her head yes. They said goodbye and watched the child run back into her house. She was truly fast for someone so young. Sally checked a few times, but the girl seemed to have stayed in her cottage. Soon they were out of sight of the tiny little giggle monster.

Before they made it to the pack house, Sally whispered to Russell. “Is it just me?”

“No,” he shook his head, referring to unseen eyes that were following them. She had expected some curious eyes, but she felt as if the eyes were being burned into her skin. It was not the fact that it happened because they were new in the pack, but the sheer intensity of it. She felt as if the eyes were directly behind her just under her skin.

The site of the pack house took her breath away and the thought of eyes did not seem so important anymore. The building was a mixture of blue and grey with an ancient grandeur that few places could possess. The west wing had visible scorched marks with windows boarded up. No real sign of any repair attempts had been made on the grand beast. It was hard to tell from the front, but she almost wondered if a bomb had landed in the middle of the wing from the manner of the damage. The Great Creator knows she had seen enough of that during the war. But none of the possible horrors from its past could have taken away from the sweeping beauty of the manor as it was thus laid before them. She almost hated to walk into the building, but she knew separation from beauty only made it sweeter.

The ghosts from the past were not present inside the center of the building. If there had been any damage then someone had done an expert job of repairing it. “Welcome!” came from an overly excited woman dressed in a soft purple dress with blue crystal eyes and a hint of fresh rain. Her almost white blonde hair wrapped loose around her head. “We almost never get visitors… well, that we want. So, this is so exciting!” She stopped and took them both in as if memorizing them for a test. “My dear, you are so beautiful and what a handsome man.” She said as if it was the first time she had seen any other living being in years. “This is so exciting and a war hero to boot. My first war hero, that is not blood or part of my pack, of course,” looking at her husband. “Oh, I am sorry I am Luna Bethari Silver, and I may get a little excited about real guests. Towards the end of the war and because of our location being so close to the Queens border, we had a lot of fire and sometimes ended up being pulled into their borders. The red queen did not mind non-alpha blood Lunas ruling over a pack, but all our Alphas had to leave the pack to save them from her. I was forced to house and feed many of her officers during those times. You have no idea how wonderful it is to have someone to dine with that is not forced upon you.” She said as they all took their seats at the table. “We will begin as soon as the other three guests arrive.” This came with less excitement in her voice. Both Sally and Russell took note of her sudden change. “Well dears, how do you like the cottage? I picked it out of you. I am afraid I do not have a lot to pick from furniture wise. I do hope it is to your taste.”

“It is wonderful. I am very grateful for anything you allow us to use. It is very kind.” Said Sally, very honestly, back to the Luna. This seemed to please her very much, which seemed to quickly fade just a little when the last guest walked into the room.

Alpha Siman addressed him first. “Aww, the Rogue Alpha, I see you have finally decided to join us and alone.”

“My apologies to the Luna of the pack, to her honored Alpha, and their guest. I am afraid my mate had a sudden headache. I had to settle both her and our child down for the night.”

“Has the child eaten?” asked the Luna, not asking about his mate.

“Yes, I keep small meals set aside for her just in case her mother takes a headache. It is a very common thing, I am afraid.” He took his seat just across from Sally, looking her straight in the eyes. “This must be the famous Hunter and her mate?”

“Best friend,” she said quickly as she looked just as hard back into his eyes to show him, he could not make her submit. “And he has not found his mate yet.”

“How about you?” Asked the rogue, still staring right into her eyes.

“That topic is off limits,” Sally replied quickly.

“I see.” But before she could reply, the Luna cleared her throat.

“Bring the first course, please. Now my dear, there is a question I am hoping you can answer for me. Well, I am sure I will ask more than one thing, but at least this one thing.”

Sally smiled at her. It was just so easy to like her. The Alpha just laughed at his mate. “She asks every new person she meets the same question. But go ahead my dear, maybe you will get the answer you want this time.”

“I heard you fought in the mountains. Now my Siman and his brother were in the mountains only for a little time with our warriors before they joined in with the Rogue army that was working its way towards the capital of the Queens. Well, this is just me being a little bit of a fan, of course. Did you ever meet or know the Ghost of the Mountains?”

Russell started to laugh as Sally smiled. “You have to excuse him. His mom fought with the Ghost and she is usually the one who gets that question all the time. I fought more in the area of the Lost King. I should meet the Ghost soon as she is now my boss’s boss but I have only heard wonderful things about her. Even now, May says what a great person she is and all. She is a true shifter, after all, and those are rare, especially after the red queen decided she wanted to be the only true shifter. I did meet her husband once though, Lord Edward. I have never met such a human in my life. We were in desperate need of medical supplies just outside of the Redsun Labor/concentration camp. It was an impossible flight but he somehow pulled it off. He then flew even further into the war zone to meet up with Ghost and joined her and her army in the Battle of the Queens. I tried to get to the final push but we ran into a death walk. I was ordered to stay with the survivors. By the time the battle was over, we were almost back to the Redsun camp. We had already decided that if the battle went against us, the camp was going to be our last stand.” The Alpha looked at her with sad eyes.

“I passed by that way after the battle. I remember how heavily armed that hell hole was. We left a few of our wounded men there that just could not make it all the way back to our pack's lands. It became a medical center right after the battle.” Said Alpha Siman.

“I must have already left at that point. I was sent to another team to help round up a group of vamps that had made it out of the battle alive.”

“I remember that. They called every hunter we had to go after them. It was the right call. Shifters and vamps are equal in skill. But a large group of hunters is a formidable force, to say the least. I heard it was very one-sided,” said Alpha Siman.

“Very one side. We also picked up some nasty hags trying to flee. It was fine until we ran into that group of 15 trolls. I smelled like sewer water for a week. Never have I seen such a nasty beast and it takes nothing to make them bleed and anything you are wearing has to be burned. The smell never leaves fabric. We had split up into smaller units at that point and there were just 6 of us in my group. I imagine we were a sight when we made it back to the temp base set up just outside of the battlefield.” Said Sally. The Luna seemed quite content with the conversation. Sally ran through the files that she had studied before coming onto the pack territory to recenter her mind. Luna Bethari Silver, Sister to the Beta Maxwell Dimas of the Hidden River Pack and mate to Alpha Siman Silver. She stayed on the Silver Pack land during the last years of the war, using her natural socialite skills to keep the pack safe when the Alpha fled with the warriors. She was one of our best spies and her dumb motherly act was so natural they never knew who she really was and it was better that way.

“How many?” asked the Rogue Alpha to Sally with no emotion on his face.

“How many, what?” Asked Sally with a confused look on her face.

“How many trolls did you kill?” As if it was the most obvious thing ever.

“Four,” she replied, as if it was nothing to kill. He just stared at her while he started to tilt his head to the side. “Four alone, and I assisted with 2 others. The main problem is suppressing the desire to be ill due to the smell. If you can get past that, they are not really that big of a deal.”

“Trolls, not that big of deal?” He said, raising one eyebrow at her. The others in the room just moved their heads back and forth like they were watching a tennis match.

“Nope, like I said, as long as you have the stomach for it, they are quite easy. Do you have the stomach?” A humorless laugh left his chest.

“Yes, but I have never heard anyone say they are easy.”

“As easy as defeating an Alpha,” she said with a smile crawling across her face. He just looked blankly at her, then he slowly started to laugh. The others slowly started to join in with his laughter. Sally looked at the Indigenous man sitting before her. She has yet to hear a name. She had files on everyone in this room but this man. “So may I ask which pack you were born into?”

“Can you not guess by looking at me?”

“I am guessing the ice cap but that is still quite an area. How do you feel about vodka?” He tried to take a drink but sucked the liquid into his lungs when asked about vodka, which caused him to choke and cough. “That is what I thought. No real stomach for it. Poor man, that must be rough.” The Luna and Alpha were loving the interaction, but Russell was looking uneasy. He hated conflict. Being a wolf was very hard on Russell.

The Luna felt it was best to move the meal forward and called for the second course. The evening went on without much more from the rogue. He was the only one who did not seem happy about the dinner or the people in the room. Sally and Russell enjoyed their hosts and too soon it was time to go back. After the 5th goodbye with the Luna and Alpha, Sally and Russell started to make their way back to the cottage. It seemed like it was going to be a pleasant walk back until someone crashed their party.