An English Rogue

Let’s get physical

POV:Lena

It was late by the time I’d locked up the club and headed home, with nothing but a shower and bed on my mind. Having a fling at work wasn’t my normal style and as good as it felt to let off steam, I couldn’t help feeling a pang of regret about the whole thing. I could feel Tala unsettled in the back of my mind.

“We need to run soon” said Tala. “We are feeling trapped in this city”.

Lena couldn’t agree more. City life gave them so much protection, they were able to stay in one place for one thing. But truthfully they still lived their lives on a knife edge. Maintaining just enough of a public life to keep them safe but not enough to get them caught, obeying the law of secrecy at all times.

Lena was relived to get back to the flat. She took off her shoes at the front door climbing the stairs to her floor in her bare feet. She let herself in and dumped her coat and shoes in the hall before heading straight to her large bathroom for a shower. She turned the heat up high and stripped off, chucking her clothes in the laundry basket and letting the hot steam engulf her. She revelled in the scalding hot water as she stepped under the jets letting them beat down on her shoulders and head. She could stay here for hours letting the water buff her life clean. Finally though she knew enough was enough. She turned off the shower and grabbed a fluffy towel off the side before wrapping her long hair in a towel too. She headed through to her room. She felt the werewolf senses prickle as they picked up a change to the room. Yep, there it was, the unmistakable little lump of a sleeping boy curled up under the covers. She dried herself and got into her pyjamas before snuggling in next to him. She sniffed the glorious warm scent of his curly golden hair as she uncovered his face from the duvet and stroked his hair.

“This is the only man we need” she reminded herself and felt Tala purr as they both looked at the sleeping pup.

She snuggled down next to him and was asleep in no time.

“Wakey wakey, sleepy head” came a little voice in her ear as she started to wake. She stretched out her long arms pretending to still be asleep and caught the little boy around the waist as he giggled and wriggled.

“Hay you squish me!” He said as she trapped him with her arm, fake snoring close to his ear.

Lena felt his eyes on her and peeked at him before pretending to be asleep again.

“I saw you peeking” he sung in his gorgeous little voice. “Wakey Wakey” he giggled using his little fingers to try and open one of her eyes.

Lena grabbed his little hand and blew a raspberry on his palm making him giggle again.

“How could we ever get tired of that laugh?” Tala said lazily, she could have done with more sleep, but even she had to admit this was the perfect way to wake up.

“I’m hungry” Lena announced, “shall we go and find breakfast?”

“Me too! Me too!” He said excitedly jumping out of bed and running to the door. “Race you!” He said excitedly.

Lena groaned dragging herself out of bed “I’m sure he drains my energy every night, how does he have so much?” She laughed to Tala

She followed the little pup into his own room and helped him select his own clothes, he was starting to develop his own dress sense and didn’t exactly except help in choosing cloths, but somethings needed to be reminded how to put them on.

Lena headed back to her own room and got dressed quickly into casual clothes. Today was a training day but she could get ready for that later.

She headed to the kitchen quickly as she heard the tell tale sign of a pup trying to make himself breakfast.

Cereal on the floor, cereal on the worktop and a heap of cereal in his bowl.

“You really are hungry” she smiled at the little pup as he carefully carried his bowl to the table. “Eat your cereal and then we’ll do some sweeping” she said getting out the little dustpan and brush from the pantry cupboard ready for the clean-up operation.

Anna came into the kitchen with little Juno on her hip and shook her head when she saw all the mess. “Morning, I see Oliver and Lena have been in here then” she said with a chuckle.

“She not Yeena, she Mummy” came a clear voice of our little beloved.

Anna turned quickly and gave me a glare. Before striding across the kitchen visibly upset, she gently tucked Juno into her high chair and made a start on her breakfast. I couldn’t help but notice the cupboard doors were taking a bit of a bashing as she moved her way around the kitchen.

“Anna I’m sorry I should have talked to you about it” I said trying to break the silence.

“Don’t you worry Lena, I’m ok, I’m always ok! I’ll be here taking care of everything you drop at a moments notice, I’ll be here at bedtime and bath time and to put plasters in knees, you just flit in and out when it suits and Goddess forbid you worry about anyone else! She sighed “Look Lena, I have a long day ahead of me, you’ve got training, Kerri is away…” she trailed off loosing steam, “can we talk about this at another time?!” She said sounding defeated.

I wanted to go to her, to put my arms around her and hug her, to apologise. But I didn’t. And a quick as that the mood changed and Anna tucked her feelings away as Jody came into the kitchen dressed and ready for the day.

“Jack won’t get up! I’ve told him three times, but he said he won’t” she said matter-of-fact, one hand on her hip. “I told him he won’t get any breakfast!” That made both Anna and I smile.

Jody and Jack were twins, but she was like a little mother to him even though they were both only ten. These pups had been through a lot before Kerri had brought them to live in the flats. The trauma they’d been though continued as nightmares and they refused to sleep apart. She plonked herself at the breakfast bar with a bowl of cereal.

“Right, let’s have a coffee, before I go and wrangle the other two” I suggested as a peace offering. I was going to have to have a proper chat with Anna. But now wasn’t the time. I put the kettle on and grabbed the cafetière determined that if coffee were used as a white flag, it should really be good strong coffee. While that was brewing I tackled our two late risers.

I went down the narrow stairs to Kerri’s flat first. It felt really strange being down there without her. I knocked on Mia’s door. I could hear her steady breathing of deep sleep and decided to give her 10 more minutes. She was a hard worker, doing her A-Levels at 6th form as well as a part time job at a coffee shop, so I couldn’t begrudge her being tired. Mia was 17 and not far off getting her wolf, I thought back to a time without Tala how nothing seemed to make sense back then, I thought, shaking my head as if I could shake out any last memory of those painful years. I went back upstairs to see to Jack instead.

“Right Jack, up and at um!” I called as I knocked on the door and poked my head round to see the boy sprawled sideways across his bed. “Come on Jack, time for breakfast!” I said more forcefully “If you get up now there’ll be time to make you eggs” I suggested tantalisingly. Jack sat up so quickly he nearly fell out of bed!

“Sausages?!” He said hungrily still half asleep. I couldn’t help laughing, this boy was such a classic wolf and had the appetite to match, he even dreamt about food!

“Yep but only if you get up now and get in the shower!” I said firmly. Giving him his marching orders.

I went back downstairs to Mia’s room and gave her another knock. “We’re getting our steps in today anyway” I thought to Tala.

“Mia are you ready for breakfast” I called through the door hearing her stir. “It’ll be time to leave for training in 40 minutes” I ventured again.

“Ergh I’m not going!! Anna said I didn’t have to if I didn’t want too!” she said moodily.

“Give you a room full of Wolves and you could kick all their asses, but one moody teenager and you tuck your tail!” Tala scoffed as we headed back to the kitchen for coffee. “I can hardly make her come!” I answered back feeling annoyed at my wolf.

“Umm are you forgetting something…? You literally can make her come!” Tala argued

“Yeh I know you mean well but that idea literally sucks!” I replied crossly, tired of hearing Tala’s voice already this morning. She knew as well as I did how inappropriate it would be to use my gift on Mia!

I grabbed my coffee and checked on everyone in the kitchen. Kissed Oliver on the top of his golden head and headed back to get ready for training. The training studio we rented was across town and I liked to jog there. It wasn’t the same as letting Tala run, but that was hardly an option in the city. Anyway jogging gave me a chance to think, it gave me space from life to step away from ‘it all’. As I jogged today all I kept thinking about was my fall-out with Anna, was she jealous that Oliver had called me Mummy? Or maybe just maybe I hadn’t been considering the pressure she’s been under, she has taken on more jobs with Kerri being away too. Bloody Kerri! Where the bloody hell are you?! One thing was clear. I have to talk to Anna later!

My first class of the day started promptly at 10.30, it was strictly a human self defence class. It didn’t bring in a great deal of revenue but helped to give something back to the community we lived in, and hopefully helped the woman who attended gain valuable skills too.

Next up was a wolf class. We used a mixture of techniques and styles for these classes, wolves were usually quicker learners than humans as we didn’t need to build up the muscle memory. I found it interesting to apply human forms of martial arts to our fight lessons. Although when it comes down to it no martial art I’ve ever studies took into account someone might be trying to rip your throat out with their teeth. Dominic was great at these classes. He often came to aid the lessons by being the attacker. His natural humour put everyone at ease, but his pure size and strength made him a formidable assailant.

My last class of the day was a scenarios class. We taught a massive range of subjects and situations in these classes, ranging from basic reading and writing, to wolf history and computer studies, all with a flip side of being attacked or humiliated at any moment. Today’s exercises were working towards our self restraint, one of the most important things to do as a wolf living amongst humans was suppress our natural strength and speed. Doing things at a half measure wasn’t in a wolf nature, but if the occasion ever arose that you felt challenged by another wolf or cocky human whilst shopping for couscous, other humans will notice if you smash half the shop in a rage, or worse get so worked up you start to shift! That’s one of the reasons most rogues end up in the forest running wild! We have a constant battle between freedom and sanity.