Chapter 20 #2
We finish the walk in silence, eventually emerging from a spot in the path where the trees thin out a little.
It’s not so much a clearing but a series of gaps where tents are set up and shade cloths are strung between trees.
There are also platforms built into the branches, like tree houses, as well as hammocks and bridges linking one oak to another.
“I get why you call yourselves Pixies,” I say. “This place looks like a magical fairy village.”
“Pretty sweet right?”
Olivia and Mia lead us through their makeshift village.
It feels like a folk music festival or something out of Peter Pan.
The smell of incense wafts through the air.
Everywhere there are young rogues, with wild unwashed hair, going about their days.
Some are cooking, some working on crafts.
For the most part they seem happy to see us.
They wave at Mia and Olivia as they pass and give us welcoming smiles.
There are of course some who glare at us suspiciously, and even one woman who spots me and does her best to slam the flap of her tent shut.
“The Pixies have lived in one forest or another for over fifty years,” Mia says. “They came here around 2007 and haven’t left since.”
“It’s great,” I say.
“We provide a haven for anyone who has been cast out on their own and keep an eye on rogue outposts, helping where we can,” Olivia says.
“Where do you make the bombs?” Omar says, eliciting a glare from Olivia and no other response.
A circle of tree stumps sits in the center of the village, with a small fire burning in the middle.
A young guy in a tattered waistcoat, white tank, and what appear to be pajama pants is stoking the fire.
He looks up and winks at me as Olivia gestures for us to sit.
Mia heads to a table set up nearby, where another couple of rogues are dishing out plates of eggs and biscuits.
I’m about to ask where they get their produce from when I notice the chickens running wild through the camp.
“Eat up,” Mia says, handing me and Omar a bowl each. “You’ve got to be starving.”
She goes back to the table and grabs a couple more bowls then joins us, handing one off to Olivia, who places it on her knee but doesn’t dig in right away.
“You want to explain how you ended up in the forgotten alphas’ nest?” Olivia asks.
“Right,” I say with my mouth full. I wasn’t hungry before, too much adrenaline still coursing through my system. But after one bite of scramble, I’m suddenly ravenous. “You already seem to know about Walter and the Axis Pack.”
“Of course,” Olivia says. “Everyone knows. They’ve been out here terrorizing innocent people for months.”
“Well, we know what they want. To conquer the Elite Pack. They’re upping their assault, and it could turn into full-blown war pretty much any day.”
“Jericho must be tearing his hair out.”
Omar and I share a look. “Jericho is—out of action. There was an attack. He’s in a coma.”
“Oh shit.”
Mia sits forward, placing her half-eaten bowl on the stump next to her. “Does that mean . . . ?”
“Jasper is running the show.”
Both of their eyes grow wide. Mia shakes her head lightly, I can only imagine the similar scenarios running through her mind, the ones where she has to take over as alpha if something happens to her father.
“Poor Jasp,” she says.
“So why are you out here?” Olivia asks.
“We need help. Our army isn’t strong enough to hold off Walter and his allied troops. We’ve been traveling, visiting rogues, trying to persuade anyone we can to join us.”
Olivia’s eyebrows rise dangerously close to her hairline. “How’s that going?”
I sigh. “Not great.”
“It’s not the rogues’ fault,” Omar adds. “I get why they wouldn’t want to help a pack. But what I don’t get is why they won’t help each other.”
Two women walk by holding hands, waving good morning to Mia and Olivia, who wave back, smiling, but the second they’re gone Olivia narrows her eyes, glaring at Omar.
“And you? You’re not Elite Pack. What’s your role in all this?”
“Oh yeah, you guys haven’t met, have you?” I say, shoveling the last of my eggs into my mouth. “This is Omar, I met him when we were staying with the Rocky Pack and then again at the Rogue Sanc, he’s a good friend. He’s been crazy helpful with the whole blood-wolf thing.”
“You lived near my pack?” Mia asks.
“With Agatha,” I say.
Mia smiles just thinking of old Agatha.
Omar nods. “She was very good to me.”
Their eyes meet and I can tell they’re forming a bond in that moment, based on a shared love of their mutual friend.
“I’m sorry to be a downer,” Olivia says, interrupting their moment. “But I think you might have wasted your time coming out here.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“The rogues aren’t going to fight alongside a pack.”
She says it so matter-of-factly, as if there’s no possible world in which rogues and pack wolves could work together.
“Why not?”
“They’re too scattered. There’s no governing body or unifying system. You can visit all the settlements you want but no one is going to sign up on their own.”
“She might be right,” Omar says. I shoot him a look that says How long have you been mulling this hopeless thought over? He holds up his hands in apology. “I’m just saying. It’s a thought I’ve been having these last few days. What we’re doing, isn’t it starting to feel a little futile?”
I think back on how many rogue settlements or camps or communes we’ve visited and still no one has agreed to help us.
Omar continues, “Maybe I should have known. Hell, if I was in their position there’s no chance I’d leave the safety of my community to go to war for a pack that never cared whether I live or die. It’s only because rogues were getting hurt that I care now.”
I give him a dirty look.
“And because you’re part of the pack in question.”
That’s better.
“So what are we supposed to do?” I ask. “Give up?”
Omar looks sort of like he’s already resigned to defeat. Olivia has her lips pursed in a way that suggests this result should have been obvious. Mia though, Mia is chewing her bottom lip, her eyes shifting focus, like she’s mulling something over.
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
“There is maybe a way to unify the rogues,” she says carefully, thinking through each word before letting it out. “Have either of you heard of the Big Howl?”
“The Big Howl?” I ask. “No, what is it?”
Olivia, Omar, and I sit facing Mia, waiting for her to explain. She takes a second, twisting one toe into the soft earth littered with fallen leaves and twigs.
“The Big Howl, as far as I know, is like a battle cry or a call to action,” she says.
“I’ve only read about it and only in the context of a wolf pack.
It’s supposed to be something an alpha can do to speak to their whole pack at once, in case they’re separated or spread out.
It’s supposed to unify them toward a single goal. ”
I almost jump out of my seat, my bowl toppling off my knees and onto the ground. “That sounds perfect.”
“Just one problem,” Omar says. “Are you forgetting something?”
He scans the rest of us and I realize, even though we’re in a rogue settlement and even though Mia and Olivia live here, Omar is the only legit rogue of the group.
“What?”
“The rogues don’t have an alpha. Even if this Big Howl would work, there’s no one to do it. That’s sort of the problem.”
All four of us cast our eyes low, defeated or in thought, it’s hard to say.
Then an idea comes to me.
“What about Mal?”
Omar turns to me. “Mal wasn’t an alpha. She sat on the council at the Sanc, but she’s no more in charge of the rogues than I am.”
“But they would listen to her,” I say. “She may not be an alpha but maybe she could do this Big Howl thing. If she did, we might stand a chance.”
“So what?” Omar suddenly sounds incredibly tired. His shoulders slump forward. It’s firmly tomorrow now, the morning birdsong scoring our conversation, the sunlight through the trees reminding me we’ve been awake for a very long time. “We head to the Sanc?”
“One more problem,” Olivia says. “Mal’s not at the Sanc.”
Omar squishes his face up, as if he’s offended Olivia might know more about Mal than he does.
“We met her,” Mia says, “she passed through here a while ago.”
“Mal would never abandon the Sanc.”
Olivia shrugs, crosses her legs. “She would if the Sanc no longer existed.”
Omar and I share a glance, our mouths open in shock.
“Walter,” Olivia says as if that explains everything.
“The Axis wolves trashed it, not that there was much left to trash after my father, well”—her gaze darts to the ground—“you know what he did. You were there. Even before Walter attacked, a lot of wolves had left, looking for safety elsewhere. A few of them ended up here. Others moved to parts unknown. Mal stuck it out until there was nothing left to stay for. She left. Her and her mate.”
I remember Mal’s mate, Kairos, who chose to live exclusively in his wolf form.
Omar shakes his head like he can’t understand.
Olivia’s tone softens for the first time since we started talking, she leans forward toward Omar. “I’m sorry.”
“So we have to find her,” I say, trying to add some pep back into the conversation. “We find Mal, ask her to perform the Big Howl and gather the rogues to battle the Axis Pack with us.”
“It’s a good plan,” Mia says. “But how will we find her?”
I take a breath and let it all out at once. Because I can’t wait any longer, I need to do the thing I’ve been avoiding. Use my blood-wolf powers to help win this war.
“Leave that to me.”