Becoming The War Baddie

CHAPTER 2: ODD SAFETY

My father used to say that the boundary road was where humans went when wolves were done with them.

He said it like a warning. Like it was the worst thing that could happen to a person. To end up outside and unguarded, walking the line between pack territory and the world that did not want you either.

I told him he was being dramatic.

I put my hand flat against the wall of the boundary and stood there for a moment with my eyes closed.

He was not being dramatic.

All I want now is to get somewhere safe and live a good life. Sell the flash drive containing Derek's security updates to the highest bidder and watch him burn from afar.

The road runs straight in both directions and ends in darkness either way.

The flash drive is in my front pocket.

My hand goes to it every few steps. Not because I think it will disappear but because it is the only thing of value I have.

I walk for twenty minutes before the screech of a car draws my attention.

The car slows down as it gets closer to me.

A car outside the boundaries means patrol, or worse, it means someone who does not answer to patrol. Neither option ends well for a woman walking alone.

My hand closes around the strap of my bag.

The window comes down.

The man inside is not on patrol. He is young, in his late twenties, maybe thirty, with dark eyes. Unhurried.

"It's a long road," he says. "Get in."

I look at him, the car and the dark road ahead.

"I'm fine," I say.

He does not argue. He does not push. He simply holds the car at my pace and waits.

He waits for thirty seconds, then it becomes forty and the rain starts.

It does not start gently. It starts the way October rain starts immediately, cold and heavy.

I got in the car.

This should be suspicious, and I am aware that it is suspicious, and I watched him from the corner of my eye for the first ten minutes.

He does not ask questions or say anything except when he says his name is Jackson.

He's a wolf, the orange eyes give him away, and I've had my fair share of wolf troubles.

When he would look outside, I looked too. Turning my head towards the watery mirror.

"There's a hotel," I say. "On the service road near the lower district crossing."

He nods once and changes direction without comment.

The hotel is a small building with a lit sign and a woman behind the desk.

I reach into my bag, but my hand comes out of the bag empty.

I reach inside again, knocking the contents together, but my hand comes out empty again and again.

No money.

I stand at the desk with my empty hand and the rain outside has not stopped.

I walk back out to the car.

Jackson is leaning against the car in the rain as the weather is a mild inconvenience at most.

He looks at my face and asks nothing.

"I don't have money," I say, "Thanks for the ride, I'll be on my way now."

He opens the passenger door.

"My house is twenty minutes from here," he

Says. "One night. Then you can go wherever you want to."

The gates appear out of the dark, there are guards outside that bow as we drive in.

I watch the guards lower their heads as

Jackson drives through without slowing down. The kind of gesture that says he owns the place.

"You're the Alpha,"

He parks the car, turns off the engine.

"Yes," he says.

He does not explain.

Or do any of the things men do when they want you to feel safe about a situation you should not feel safe about.

He simply walks to the entrance and opens the door for me.

The house is spacious but well decorated.

Like heaven to a lady pushed out of her home.

The room is clean and warm and nothing like Derek's world.

No pack markings on the walls. No framed declarations of territory and lineage. Just a window, a bed with white sheets, and a lamp that gives off the kind of light that feels like it is not trying to impress anyone.

"One night," Jackson says from the doorway.

"One night," I agree. "Thank you.”

He nods and leaves.

I sat on the edge of the bed and put my bag down and, for the first time since I walked out of Derek's compound, I let my shoulders drop.

Just enough to admit that I am exhausted in the specific way a person gets exhausted when they have been holding themselves upright by will alone for too many hours.

The rain hits the window harder now, loud enough to drown a scream.

I take the flash drive out of my pocket and hold it in both hands.

I still do not know why he did it.

The why sits in my chest like something unfinished.

My grip tightens on the flash drive.

He is going to know what it feels like.

I do not yet know how I'd get back at them, but the why of my own plan is clear enough to sleep on.

I lie down without changing clothes and closing my eyes.

I am not sure what pulls me from sleep. It feels like I just opened my eyes after closing them for 3 minutes.

But the sun pouring through the windows betrays my thoughts.

I sat up to listen to the growing hum outside the window.

Distant but growing. Voices, many of them, rising and falling in a particular pattern.

I watch from the window.

The compound walls are high but the road beyond them is visible, and it is full of people, humans and wolves, dozens of them, moving together saying the same chant.

Their voices reach me through the glass.

"Bring down the Lunar Pack. Bring down the Lunar Pack.”

The Lunar Pack, Derek's pack.

These people want what I want. They want Derek to answer for something I don't know about. I don't

My hand finds the flash drive on the bedside table.

I close my fingers around it.

I promised him if the opportunity ever came for me to ruin Derek, I'd do it.

“Watch out Derek, she's coming back,” I said to myself.