The swamp near Mae's bar

Terry POV

I lie on the roof of the bar looking at the stars. Doggy is lying curled next to me with Pearl in her wolf form snuggled in him. Quite funny I think as I gently pet her head, she is in deep sleep. It's calm, it's so calm lately that it amazes me.

Since I had a talk with Danny three weeks have passed and during this time there was no rogue passing this city, I presume because of patrols from Howl Pack. Since Danny knows about girls it is easier to get the scent suppressants. It turned out that Aunty Mae got them from Alyssa, the pack doctor, and now, thanks to Danny, we have a safe carrier of the medicine.

Thanks to that I can take girls on trips more often and all three of us enjoy it very much. Especially that I do with them things I'd never had on occasion to do before. Picnics, water parks, cinema, bowling, and many more activities I never had a chance of doing being busy with hunting and killing.

Ivory is making progress with her combat skills and... speaking of the devil Ivory enters the roof and sits next to me. She has this serious face, the one I already know well enough to be sure this will be some serious talking.

"Can you be honest with me?" she says and I sit to look her straight in the eyes, I'm sure I know what she wants to talk about.

"Were you a hunter? Is it why you know how to fight werewolves?"

I take a big breath, I've known this moment must come sooner or later.

"I was, my clan was destroyed years ago that's why I live here now," I say as she nods.

"Did you kill many werewolves?"

"Yes, many. Not only rogues, my clan was also involved in attacking packs" I say, I look at her and yet I feel shame. I can't change the past no matter what, but the shame I feel right now is there, ready to choke me.

She shifts a little uncomfortably and gulps and yet doesn't avert her eyes.

"Why did you do it?"

"I was born in the hunter clan, since I was a baby everybody was saying that werewolves are cruel monsters. My father's family was slaughtered by werewolves, my parents were slaughtered by werewolves when I was around your age. That made me hate werewolves, made me believe that I have the right to kill because none of them deserved to live anyway."

"Why don't you kill anymore?" she asks, she is nervous I see it.

"My sister got pregnant with a werewolf and my grandfather and uncle decided that she was guilty of treason and ordered her lynching. And I obeyed them, I let my clan members hurt her. She survived because she is strong, but that was when I started to doubt my clan's beliefs. So 10 years later when werewolves wiped out all hunter clans in this state I made sure that those who survived can start over not as hunters anymore and I came here. I was tired of killing."

She bites her lips and has to gather herself to ask another question:

"Did you.. did you... do you think you are a bad person because of what you did?"

Tough question, she got me with it.

"Yes, because of what I did I am a bad person Ivory. But I was never proud of what I did, I never liked it and I will never do it again no matter what. But I have lots of blood on my hands, both from people who were guilty of bad things and those who were innocent. Ivory, what do you want from me? Why suddenly all these questions?"

"We had a deal for 3 months and it's already 2 months passed so... I don't want to live in a pack but... but I... Pearl and I have nowhere to go. Do you think you can allow us to stay with you a little longer?"

I smile a little, this is a bad thing to do. They should live in a pack, a cold-blooded killer shouldn't take care of anybody and yet I don't hesitate even for a moment when I put my arm on her shoulders and pull her to me.

"As long as you want to stay here you will stay here Ivory, that's our new deal."

So this is it, I have no more secrets from her, unfortunately, it doesn't work in the other direction. Danny checked and we know for sure that no one is looking for them at least not through official canals but he couldn't try to figure out their identity without dragging too much attention or questions.

"I need to tell you something," she says" And you may be angry."

I don't interrupt and let her finish.

"I called someone when we were in the bowling center two days ago. From public phone and this bowling center is three hours of car ride from here and... and..."

She starts trembling and I hug her stronger saying that it is okay and she can tell me everything.

"I called my aunt, my mother's sister, I wanted only to let her know that we were alright and it was so long since I saw her so I thought that there would be no problem. She picked up and talked with me for a while, seemed concerned about me and Pearl, and so on. But she started being pushy, she insisted to tell her where we were with Pearl. And I told her that we would never go back no matter what and that when she told me..." her voice breaks and she need some time to compose herself.

"She said that I should've never called her again no matter what and if I knew what was good for Pearl and me I would be back on my own. Because it will be much worse if he finds us himself and he is looking for us. She told me he was alive and was looking for us. I hung up but I don't know if she tells him about my call or not. I don't know what she will do and if he can track my call, I don't know..."

"Ivory, who is looking for you?" I ask gently, by the corner of my eye I see that Pearl is no longer sleeping but is listening to our conversation.

"Our father, Alpha of Ravenswood Pack" she whispers. "We can't go back, no matter what we can't."

"Okay, first of all even if he tracks the phone it's a public phone far away from here. It can point him in the right direction but nothing more. And we don't know if your aunt is a snitch or not. And even if he comes here I promise you will go nowhere you don't want to go, I'll see to it."

I hug her and she clenches to my chest as if she is trying to hide there.

I probably should've asked more questions, but I don't want to trap them in the corner. At least now we have a lead I can check to make sure that they are safe. If they don't want to go back to their father they won't no matter what.

The next day as I stand behind the bar chatting with customers and pouring drinks as always when Alexa enters the bar and she looks pissed off. She sits in front of me and demands something strong.

"Bad day?" I ask and she gives me a "better shut up" look so I just pour her what she usually takes. It's strange, Alexa is rarely agitated. I patiently wait until she will be able to speak but I don't get that because the door bust open and very angry Julius also rolls inside. He spots us and comes closer.

"Whatever she has, just made it double," he says and I gladly follow his wishes. He drinks everything in one go and asks for more. Alexa gives him a look and says:

"Has he said anything?"

"Only that he wanted a new game and that kids in school do it from time to time! Both he and Chen's boys are so lucky Natasha was present because I was this close to killing all three of them." He spits.

"Bad day?" I ask and both of them sigh heavily.

"My son and his both friends tried shoplifting today after school and not sweets but cash and they got caught. Good that Alexa was in the shop and managed to convince the owner not to call the police."

"I spent with them the whole afternoon in the shop and made sure they cleaned every fucking centimeter of it, they helped with carrying heavy stuff so the owner promised to let it go," she says.

I understand why they are so pissed off, the cardinal rule for werewolves is to lie low no matter what, and putting yourself in human court even if only juvenile is very unwelcomed and stupid.

"And both Chen's sons said that it was all Trist's idea and he confirmed saying that he wanted to buy a game" Julius whines irritated.

"Well, teenagers have a tendency to act stupid," I say "Just make sure to punish them enough so they will never try it again."

"Cheers to that," Alexa says "I'm their trainer so they will get hell."

We chat for a while as Julius keeps complaining. I understand him, I didn't scream at Ivory because I understand why she did what she did, but still, it was dangerous. With Julius's son,  nothing happen this time, but it can be only this one time that irresponsibility destroys your whole world like my irresponsible behavior got my parents killed.

The door to the bar gets burst open once again and three men enter. They look around and I notice both Alexa and Julius getting tense, so I know those three are rogues. Yet here is not the pack territory so according to the customs as long as they stay in their human form and far away from pack lands Alexa and Julius may observe them but shouldn't get involved.

Our for sure unwelcomed guests get themselves comfortable at the end of the bar and the waitress is coming closer to take their order. Julius, Alexa, and I start talking about everything and nothing. I don't have to hide that I watch the newcomers, it's a small town, and newcomers don't happen too often. And yet I have a hunch.

"You look at them too much, Terry" Julius says "Something bothers you?"

"I run the bar Julius, I just have a hunch that they will be a problem" I smile, and Alexa giggles.

Hour pass after hour, a normal day in a normal town, the bar is slowly getting empty as our three unwelcomed guests stand up and come in our direction.

"Is any motel here?" one of them asks "We plan to stay for around a week to get some rest."

Alexa smiles and gives them the details. Smart, I think. Disclosing the information about the place they intend to sleep gives the pack chance to monitor and can be treated as a sign of trust, and there is no way the pack warriors would attack a human motel so it's also a safe place for rogues to stay.

It really seems that this night will be peaceful, I was never that wrong in my entire life.

I awake in the middle of the night because Pearl shakes me.

"Daddy someone is downstairs, I can smell" she whispers and I stand up instantly. I walk downstairs slowly holding my gun, Ivory waits for me behind the door when I enter the bar, he is standing there, one of the rogues with our cashiered ripped open.

"Get away from my house," I say pointing my gun at him, that's when comes my first miscalculation. I presume that he will try to run away since rogues also are very careful about interfering with humans, I presumed that he will just try to escape fast to avoid problems, after all, we are in a populated area, but he doesn't.

He jumps at me with his claws, but I'm a hunter after all so I manage to push him away. He is a little surprised and charges at me again this time sending me fleeing to the wall. It hurts like hell, I try to stand up as he shifts. That's when everything is happening too quickly.

One more wolf jumps at me, he was probably waiting outside but came lured by the noise. But I don't get touched because both Doggy and Ivory's wolf come into the bar. She pushes the one who just entered the wall as my dog jumps on the back of the one who was about to attack me.

Fuck, we can't make too much noise.

"Ivory, swamp now!" I scream and she snarls and bolts through the door and both of them instantly run after her. The first instinct of shifted rogues is always to follow the running prey no matter what. I stand up quickly, Doggy who was bitten whimpers on the floor and Aunty Mae comes downstairs carrying my long-distance gun and my night-vison device.

"Ivory is carrying the collar," she says but still I know I must be fast.

I run in direction of the swap observing Ivory's movements on my smartphone. Smart girl, she took the longest route possible to there to give me as much time as possible. The swamps which surround our town are quite big and difficult for animals to move around.

But as I get to the edge of it I hear sounds of fights and I know I'm late, but still, I won't allow her to die no matter what. As a move through the mud growls and whimpering only intensifies. I get to the edge of the open space in the middle of the swamp, my knees are in the water and I see them. Ivory is crawling in the water as she tries to get into the bushes and probably disappears there. Behind her I see two wolves fighting, one of them is probably the rogue, but the other one?

"Ivory!" I scream and she notices me and starts moving in my direction as fast as possible.

I hear the cracking noise and painful cry and I know that one of the fighting wolves died. The one who survived make the move in the Ivory direction so I shot, not into him but into the water, he makes one more move so I do it again. Now he knows that I'm here and I'll kill him if he dares to go after her, so he just growls not daring to move. He is in an open space I could kill him if I want.

As Ivory manages to get next to me one more wolf jumps from the bushes and tries to kill the one who is standing in the middle of open space yet his opponent notices him and acts so fast. I turn around and start running away. Ivory and I must disappear before one of them wins. The mud will destroy our scent, if Howl Pack's patrol is close they will come but focus on fighting so it's my and Ivory's only chance and we must take it. 

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