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Section 1
### Chapter 1: 1.
My father and his friends are planning another raid. Their rambunctious laughter floated into my room from the living room. This was when they were happiest, plotting a small pack's doom. They weren't as happy, though, when we got back and they started arguing over how to divide the spoils. I finish reading the last paragraph of my book, and I close it, scoffing. Of course, the girl ends up with the guy and they live happily ever after . These books always annoyed me so much, yet I couldn't help reading them. I didn't believe in the nonsense that filled the pages, though. I didn't believe in happily ever afters; I didn't believe in love at first sight. Happy endings didn't exist. Fairytales were just that, fairytales. The best you could hope to get in life was to die with honour, hoping for anything outside of that was plain stupid. Deciding I'd been indoors long enough, I toss the book onto the small bookcase my father built for me and head out. All four heads in the living room turn to me as I step out, but go back to the plans they were studying. Except Bolik. Bolik was one of my father's closest friends, but he creeped the hell out of me. "Anaya," he smiled, sending chills straight down my spine. I had known Bolik my whole life, and it had always been like this. I'd always felt disgusted by and, for some reason, afraid of him. I smiled politely at him before heading to the front door, "Father, I'm going out for a run". He grunted his approval, and I pushed open the net covering we had over the door to let fresh air in and, simultaneously, keep mosquitoes and other insects out. My lungs expanded as I breathed in the clean forest air. It had rained the night before and the grass still had little cold beads of water on them. I loved it. This was where I was born, and this was where I'd grown up and before I started going on raids with my father, this little cottage and the forest it was in was my entire world. We were rogues, you see. I was born a rogue, my parents, however, were made rogues. They were kicked out of their pack for reasons that my father refused to tell me. As a werewolf without a pack, you're automatically branded a rogue and ostracised from society. All other werewolves despised us and because of that, we usually had to live in the shadows, hand-to-mouth, until we eventually died from starvation or were captured and killed by a non-rogue werewolf. That was what had happened to my mother. I was 2 years old when my mother disappeared. After weeks without her returning, we had to accept she had probably been killed. We held a small funeral, just my father, my brother, and I. A part of me would like to hope that we were wrong, that she's still out there somewhere, alive and we'll be reunited someday. But that's a fairytale. And I've already said what I think about those. ●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○● I don't run for long because I know my father will soon be briefing us about the plans for this raid. So, before long, I'm back near the cottage, shifting back into my human form and heading inside. The raids excite me. Sure, they're the way we survive, taking a little from the smaller, weaker packs so that we had enough to keep us alive, but that wasn't why they excited me. I loved having a peek into what normal werewolves looked like, how they lived. It was amusing to me. I envied that they didn't have to fight for anything, not food, not protection, everything was sort of guaranteed for them. But I hated the hierarchy. Alphas, Lunas, Betas and the entire crowd. I found it sickening. It wasn't enough that you were part of a pack, you would still be looked down upon if you weren't high up enough on the ladder. "They won't know what hit them!" Somebody was exclaiming as I entered the house and they all started laughing again. I made sure to take off my shoes at the door to avoid tracking mud into the house before joining them at the table. "So, what's the plan Papa?" "Let's wait for the others," was the short reply I got. Bolik touched my arm, immediately making me cringe, "How was your run Anaya?" "Good". The net opened and the rest of our little group poured in, saving me from whatever conversation Bolik was about to start. There were 9 of us in total. My father; Vance, my brother; Tim, Bolik, Luther, Sonya, Devon, Eric, Gabe, and me; Anaya. Mine and Tim's were the only real names. Rogues don't use their real names. We all lived pretty separate lives until we came together to perform a raid. Rogues don't cohabit. Sonia was the only other female in the group and the closest thing I had to a mother/sister/best friend. She hugged me now as she came in. "Been running?" She smiled knowingly as she pulled a twig out of my hair and I giggled. "Okay, seats everyone," my father's voice was always loud and always commanded attention. Everybody tried to obey him now even though it was useless. The room could barely contain us all at the same time much less if we all wanted a place to sit. I perched on the arm of the chair Sonya was on and waited. "Who are we hitting, Vance?" Eric asked. He was the ticking bomb of the group. Always itching to destroy, and always on the verge of exploding. Dad shot him a look but still answered, spreading out the plans on the small coffee table in the center of the room, "The White Moon pack. Small pack near the East River. Aged Alpha and Luna, total pack size of 40." We all craned our necks to see the plans. "Quick in and out. Bulk food is kept in the Alpha's house. 2 guards at night, 1 during the day. No security alarm." We all nodded along, it would be one of our easier raids, we would be back in no time. "When?" Eric asked. "Tonight".
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### Chapter 2: 2.
Anaya. It was sundown when we reached the East River, just on the outskirts of the White Moon pack. Each of us had our pre-raid rituals which we performed now. Dad, Bolik, and Luther brought out a bottle of cheap rum and started downing it. I said it made them drunk, they said it made them see clearer. I don't know how much clearer they could hope to see since they were already wolves but to each their own. Eric liked to bring out a cigar and smoke it quietly, probably imagining different scenarios where bloodshed would be allowed. That was one of the only rules we had. Do not attack unless attacked. It was the rule that ticked Eric off the most. Unlike most other rogues out there, even though we hated pack wolves and everything they stood for, we did not harm them. We just stole from them. Tim, my brother, well I'm not quite sure what Tim's ritual was. He always just disappeared for about ten minutes and returned looking really determined. Devon and Gabe were brothers. The only other related people in the group apart from my family. They were also the muscle of the group. All wolves were bigger than the average human but Devon and Gabe looked like they had a testosterone-filled milkshake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We needed their muscles, not for punching but for carrying the sacks of food we stole and sometimes breaking down doors and other barriers that stood in between us and the food. Sonya was a practising Catholic before she was thrown out of her pack. Before raids, she like to hum hymns to herself. She used to sing before but that almost got us caught once and she since settled for humming. Me? My pre-raid ritual was to watch everyone do theirs. Being the youngest in the group, I was the last one to join and start going on raids. The first time they took me along, I was so fascinated with everything that I just watched and I guess it's my ritual now. "40 minutes more," I announced. I was the time keeper. My mother's old watch was strapped to my wrist and it was my job to keep everyone updated on the time. Timing was critical on raids, extremely. We watched the pack, each of us mentally going over and executing the plan. With a pack size of only 40, it was easy to get a lay of the land as there were only a few houses. The Alpha's house, our destination/target stood in the centre. We watched as the guard played with his phone and flirted with some ladies. He was obviously there never being a threat. The two guards on the night shift arrived and behaved in exactly the same manner, none of them taking their job seriously. This would be like taking candy from babies. Babies who could transform into feral wolves with a mouthful of canines. But babies nonetheless. One guard guarded the front of the house while the other went to the back. The back was where we were headed. "It's time." ●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○○●○ The raid was quick and easy, as expected. The sun would have long risen and we would be long gone before they knew what had happened. We arrived back at the cottage in the woods in the very early hours of the morning very tired, the adrenaline that had been doing us was now completely exhausted and all we wanted to do was sleep. "Bullshit!" Luther exclaimed. The fighting over the division of the loot was starting. Tim's voice was next, "We have more than enough." It was true, we had found a lot more than we had expected in White Moon. Nobody seemed to care though. The bickering went on for a while until everything was divied up in a way that most of the group considered fair. The sun still hadn't risen completely when people were about to start leaving. Rogues don't do sleepovers. "Everyone," my father moved to the center of the room, "A minute." This was new. There was hardly ever any talking once everyone had gotten their share. We just went our separate ways. Until the next raid. We faced him, waiting to hear what he had to say. "These raids are getting too easy. And we aren't getting a lot. We hit a jackpot with White Moon today with all they had stored up but we won't find a lot more small pack with that much storage. It might be more of a challenge, but we will get but bigger rewards. We're hitting the Darkhide Hounds next." There was a collective intake of breath around the room. "Vance, have you gone mad?" Bolik was usually on my father's side but then I was wondering the same thing. Had my father lost his mind? The Darkhide Hounds was one of the biggest packs in North America. Not only were they strong and possibly octupled the White Moon in number, They were Lycans. "They are the closest big pack to us and we'll be hitting while they're having a celebration of some sort so they will be distracted. Quick in and out an-" Sonya cut him off, "And we'll be dead before we're 'out'. We can't raid a Lycan pack Vance! They'll have us as snacks and use our bones as toothpicks!" My father growled, his claws and fangs extending, "I said we are raiding the Darkhide Hounds next. You are all free wolves, nobody has been forced to go on raids before but obviously, do not expect a share when we return. We are hitting them tonight and that's final!" "Tonight? Papa, you can't be serious," he ignored me, stalking out of the room. We cast each other wary looks and soon people started leaving. My father has gone mad My father has gone mad My father has gone mad My father has gone mad There was a chorus in my head as I crawled into bed. I wondered which, if any, of the group would return for the raid. Which, if any, of the group would return for a suicide mission.
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