Scent of A Rogue

Chapter 6 - Out of the Forest

Gideon

“Gideon!” the witch’s voice broke through my reverie.

I was so caught up with my thoughts that I did not feel the danger. What kind of wolf was I? Rapidly calculating the possible consequences of shifting, I decided to run as fast as a man with a heavy duffle bag and limp could.

Riva reversed wildly, the car careening from side to side, but the speed was constant and the driver determined. I ran to meet her halfway. She pushed the car passenger door open to make way for me. I let myself burst into my top speed, feeling like a wolf on two feet.

“We can reach it,” a deep voice whispered in my head. “Run fast! You know that f*****g limp is only in your head.”

I had been hearing voices since last night. Riva thought I had a headache, but it was a voice – one that should not be there – that had been bothering me.

The wolves were at top speed, only a few meters away now. I could only guess what they were planning to do to me. Yeah, the possibility that dad just wanted me home safe came to mind, but I would not risk it. I kept on running.

Finally, I managed to get hold of the flailing car door. I gripped it as tightly as possible, holding on for dear life. The witch had started accelerating forward this time. I threw my bag inside first with one hand and then hurled my body into the car. Then, I slammed the door shut. My left arm felt the brunt of the impact, but I knew whatever pain I felt would soon subside.

Riva drove at full speed, increasing the distance between the wolves and us. Her fierce concentration was unwavering. I made sure my seatbelt was on. It looked like I would need it.

“Thank you!” I managed to grunt out.

“You should be,” Riva agreed, curling her lips. Obviously, it was not how she expected her to drive to the city to be like that morning.

Last night, the witch was more forgiving than I thought she would be. Then again, she was weak. I felt her heart slow down considerably after she had finished casting her spells. She did not know that I sensed she did more than she said she would.

Riva did not want me to suspect her vulnerability – and she was vulnerable.

Today was another day, though. The woman driving the car did not look vulnerable– far from it. She knew the road back and front, swerving at the right turns.

“What are you looking at?” she glanced at me with fire in her eyes.

“Oh, just admiring how you’re driving.”

She grinned, but she continued to focus on the road. After about half an hour of crazy driving, she slowed her pace. We were getting close to the city, I could tell. More houses lined the sides of the road. It was a wealthy suburb, with large two-story and even three-story houses zooming past. Though they seemed to be out in the open, I knew they had alarms. The people in Oakspell could well be just that – people, or they could be witches and wolves hiding in the open in luxury. For some reason, I wondered if I would feel more like a man when I reconnected with the rest of society and not just its underbelly.

“I did not plan to have you tag along like this. At all,” Riva complained. “But here we are. Now I know that you’ve been telling me the truth. Where will you go?”

“I’ve got some money. Not much, but it should last for about two months. I need to find a place to stay.”

“Hm. There are plenty of cheap but good ones in Rover Street,” she said.

“Is that near your place?” I asked.

She narrowed her eyes at me but did not answer. Suddenly, I heard a faint buzzing in my head. It was my turn to clamp my mouth shut.

“I thought you wolves are wealthy,” she remarked.

Of course, she also seemed to want to touch on the illegal side of things. There was a slight accusation in her tone.

“Yes. Supposedly. However, my father controlled my money. I’m afraid if I use my credit card, I will be traced.”

“But you brought your wallet, anyway?”

“Yes. The cash I can at least use. The card..” I sighed. Being without it would take a lot of getting used to. I had been spoiled.

“Uhuh.”

Soon, with her driving, we were in the city. While I hated the facility, I was no longer used to all the noise from Oak City. It would also mean a nightlife utterly different from what we were used to in the Forbidden Forest.

In the forest, nightlife meant preparing the guns and counting the cash from the day’s transactions. It also meant reporting to Hotchkiss – that asshole. So, I knew that even with the loud sounds of city life, Oak City presented a more peaceful life, that is, if the pack did not catch up to me. I wondered how long my scent could remain disguised and if I could seek Riva for more of her spell.

For a while, nighttime also meant coming home to Suzanne. Making love all night long. However, she was gone. Long gone. She was much of a victim of our pack as I was, perhaps even more.

“Listen to Riva,” the insistent voice in my head demanded.

It was a rough voice, almost like the Alpha that I used to be. It was the confidence of youth, the – s**t, what was I talking about? I should not even be listening. Stephan would have a field day with this, he and his St. Michael. Mike, that lovable wolf in his head, made me wonder if my friend should not be a philosopher or a pastor instead.

Even if I had to listen to the one badgering me right now, what was this crazy voice talking about? Riva wasn’t talking. She was driving. And boy, I thought I could drive. Seeing how she did it, I wondered.

The voice was right in a way, though. When I listened in, I felt a change in her. During the chase, her heart was hammering in her chest. For good reason. However, as we went further out of the forest, it went on an easy rhythm. Despite the wild driving, she was in her element. Comfortable. The moment we were right in the middle of the city, her heart started pounding again. We were driving near wherever she called home in Oak City. At least, that was what I suspected. She had tensed, probably anxious about me wanting to know where she lived. I knew that I had overstayed my welcome in her life.

“I can get off here,” I said. I had asked her for too much already.

“Okay.”

Her voice was a croak. It was not like her at all. It sounded like a less confident woman. Something was up, but I had no right to ask. She offered her house yesterday and even saved my life today.

The car skidded to a halt. She was rough, this one, a complete opposite of Suze.

“Here you go. Don’t forget to get rid of your old phone. I hope it’s not on right now. Is it?”

“It’s not, mom. It’s off.”

She gave me a crooked grin. It was not something I would expect from someone I had just bitten. I noticed that she was wearing another loose blouse. This time, it was forest green. The top of her bra peeked out on one side. Meanwhile, the Coven pentagram tattoo seemed to intersperse with my bite. The bite was no longer that noticeable, but a bluish outline was. It almost created a new tattoo, like a bite out of the pentagram. Feeling a little silly, I thought of the iOS Apple bite. The one I made on her, however, was more violent.

“We bit that Coven symbol. Didn’t we?” the triumphant voice observed in glee. “We’ve got a lot of things to bite on.”

It did look like I had bitten off the pentagram. Was that a sign of things to come? Suddenly, the bluish bitemark left on Riva’s shoulder reminded me of someone else. I could always hear Suze’s moans in my ears as I marked her all those years ago. A decade ago.

I shook my head to get rid of the image – Suzanne’s sweaty, flushed face and the passionate night that followed. We had saved ourselves for each other. It was a vow that seemed like it would last forever – until she died.

“Well, are you going or not? It’s not like I’m trying to push you away – which I probably am – but you said you need to get off here.”

The sound of angry honking brought me back to the boisterous present. Of course, Riva would not want to park just to let me off. She was a woman in a rush - to go where I did not know. Perhaps moving on to face the rest of her life was something she wanted to hurl herself into so that she did not have to dwell on past mistakes.

I should not dwell on past mistakes.

I opened the door and let myself out.

“Thanks, Riva. Take good care.”

“Oh. If I had let you out of my house last night, you know that I’m confident I can take care of myself.”

With that, she sped away from me. I stood there on the sidewalk, feeling a little lost. It was the first time that I was not part of something. I had always belonged to the Wolfless Pack, the most feared pack. Godless. Corrupt. I had also always belonged to Suzanne. We had been friends since childhood. We thought ourselves fortunate to have had each other all the while. The engagement had been welcome. At that time, Hotchkiss was still on the fringes. My father was still luring me into a life of crime. Once I was mated, he knew I had so much to lose. Suze had become a means to scare me into submission. Now that she was gone, there was just a gaping hole and perhaps room for recklessness.

I had nothing to lose but my life.

“Move it, Gideon,” the bossy voice in my head rasped.

“Shut up!” I snapped.

A couple of city folks turned to me, taking in my disheveled appearance, my rough 5 o’clock shadow, and my dusty duffel bag. Add in the fact that I was talking to myself, and I could find myself hurled into some cell or asylum. Wouldn’t that be the easiest way to hand myself to Hotchkiss?

“Listen. You have drowned me for so long. It’s time for me to talk, Gideon.”

Drowned it for too long? I thought of the pill that we got every lunchtime at the facility. I had been taking it since I started shifting. But I had only missed one of them – two – so far. Could it be? I shook my head, thinking of all the times I laughed at Stephan’s Mike.

“Get yourself f*****g checked by a doctor, Stephan! We’re wolves. We become wolves. It didn’t mean we should be hearing some growling thing in our heads. That’s us, all along.”

“Yes, you can probably say that, Gideon. You can call it our conscience -.” Stephan had faltered, but it was clear what he wanted to say.

“You’ve lost your conscience a long time ago, my friend.”

“Can you hear me now, wolf?” I made sure I did not say it aloud this time.

“Look to where the witch is headed. Face it. Keep on walking. It’s easy to follow. Keep on going straight until I tell you to stop.”

I groaned. With the money I had, I didn’t think I could afford a psychiatrist. Still, I followed the voice.

“Why are we following her?” I asked in my head.

“Go on. I will tell you.”

So, I walked – a madman in the city streets. I did not have much to do. I probably was bored, too. So, I followed a crazy, bossy voice in my head. I passed two blocks and crossed twice too. Then, it gave a gruff order.

“Stop!”

I looked at the building to my right. It was a condo apartment. It was probably around twenty stories high, not the most expensive in the city but by no means cheap. I was hoping I would lodge into one of those seedy motels so that I could probably make my money last for three months. Of course, I was planning on finding a job. Somewhere decent for something legal. You could never tell if a shady business was owned by nobody else but Hotchkiss.

“Oh, you want us to live here? I don’t think I can afford this. We probably would be evicted by the second week.”

“You’ll find a way. You must find a way – for her, Riva.”

“Why? What’s so important about her?”

“Well, she’s your mate, Gideon.”

There was no way. She was a witch, and I was a wolf whose ancestors went back centuries. We had always been wolves.

I was about to rebel against the voice in my head, but I suddenly smelled jasmine and moss clinging to rocks where the creek flowed in the Forbidden Forest.

“Damn.”