While he’s gone I get changed into pajamas, or really an old T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. I sit on the edge of the bed and take a breath. I’ve been farther from home and I’ve spent time with rogues. But never quite like this.
Rogue City was a derelict settlement, where desperate rogues went for shelter. The Sanc was a massive tent-city, full of lifeand easy to feel lost in. Here, this place, this is my first glimpse at how most rogues probably live. Quiet lives, out of the way of pack wolves. Sitting under stars and playing cards. A normal, peaceful existence.
And here I am, a pack wolf, disturbing the peace and asking them to go to war for us.
I shouldn’t be here. Even with Omar to make introductions and to vouch for me, these wolves know I bring danger with me. I’m like a foreign disease arriving on the shores of a new land, likely to decimate the local people. My chest feels tight as I think through all of this.
Maybe I’m wrong to think the rogues are the answer. Maybe I’m wrong to make our problems theirs.
I feel on the verge of tears, my lips crinkle and my chin quivers.
And then a strange sense of relief trickles into my consciousness and Jasper speaks.
“Max,”he says via mind-link.“Hey, you there?”
“Hi,”I say, somehow breathless even though I don’t need breath to speak like this.
“Are you okay? I felt like ... I just had this feeling.”
“I’m fine,”I say, warmth spreading through my loosening chest just hearing his voice.“Or maybe a little homesick, or ...”
“What? What is it?”
I let out a long exhale.“These rogues, the way they live, I ... They’re just trying to exist, you know? What right do I have to ask them to leave to help us?”
“They’re under attack as well, Max.”
“I know. But isn’t that our fault? Shouldn’t we clean up our own mess?”
“I wish it worked like that,”he said.“I wish we had another option.”
“You still think I’m doing the right thing?”
For a moment he doesn’t answer, and I worry our connection has conked out like bad Wi-Fi. But then he clears his throat.
“Max, there was another attack.”
I sit up straight.
“What? Was anyone hurt?”
Again, he pauses for too long.
“Luckily there were no casualties. But ... it was a school, Max. They attacked a school.”
What the actual fuck?
“And that’s not all,”he continues when I can’t seem to say anything.“Rogues have started showing up at the borders, asking for help, saying they’ve been displaced. We’re taking them in but there are more than we can handle. This isn’t just our fight anymore, Max. It may have started with us. But it’s bigger than that now. I know it’s a lot to ask, but we need you to convince the rogues to fight with us. If not ... I don’t know what will happen.”
Above me a hatch is open, and I can make out a patch of starry sky through it. I stare at it as Jasper’s words register with me, landing like a sack of bricks.
No matter how uncomfortable I may feel, the guilt I carry, I have to push forward. I have to convince the rogues to fight with us.
ROGUE NATION
In the morning, Omar is awake before me. I head out into the blinding light to find him at the back door of the house chatting with the woman from last night. She glances my way and I nod to say good morning.
“Hungry, pack wolf?” she calls out in a stern but not unfriendly tone, like I imagine she talks to everyone.
