Chapter 178: A Rogue Problem

Dirge POV

Rogues again?

Hunting south of the city towards the Mossy Lakes, Dirge and Patch sniffed the air for any sign of the rogues. 

"Mangy mongrels," Patch growled, using one of the worst insults for a wolf shifter. "To bully an innocent little fairy."

Dirge grunted. "Don't even get Thessi started. She'd have come with us, except she's starting to feel more ..."

"Pregnant?" Patch's teeth flashed in a wolfish grin. "That happens, little brother. It happens with a mate."

"Very funny. I hadn't noticed. And also, she's looking after Dane's and Lilia's three. Getting practice for our own pup or pups."

Patch howled with laughter. "Your really think you'll just have one? That's cute. Only children are nonexistent in our family."

Dirge woofed in agreement. "Anyway, she was furious. A tiny fairy being mauled by any shifter is beyond the pale."

"At least it wasn't one of ours, or a Silverpaw or a Crimsontail," Patch growled, his fur puffed out and his ears forward. 

Dirge grunted in answer, sniffing the air to try and detect the scent of the rogues. After a moment, his nose sifted through the melange of smells. "Why do rogues smell like they haven't bathed in days?"

"Because they think not bathing makes them seem more untamed and fierce?" Patch quipped. "Because they believe bathing is for civilized shifters? Because they like smelling like a stink bog?"

Dirge howled with laughter. "How about all three?"

They followed the rancid stench past the Mossy Lakes, and before long, Dirge perceived a wolf shape past the Mossy Lakes. They didn't smell like Evenhiders. Keeping low to the ground, slinking through the grass, they crept closer and closer to the rogue.

Suddenly, the rogue sprang at them, claws out, swiping with the intent to injure. 

Dirge met the big red-brown wolf head on, claw to claw, snapping and snarling. "Who are you?" he asked.

"And what made you think taking on Evenhide enforcers and spies was a smart plan?" Patch hurled at him. 

No answer. The rogue was definitely not a wayward Evenhide wolf, or Crimsontail, or Silverpaw. But they had to check.

Patch knocked him sideways, while Dirge slashed with his claws. Bits of greasy red fur flew. If nothing else, they were giving this rogue a badly-needed haircut. And they seemed to be wearing him down. He seemed young, about Dirge's age. His attacks were undisciplined, frenzied, impulsive. 

Patch head-butted him, and he rolled away with a whine and a crunch of leaves underneath.

Dirge shifted, and demanded, "Who are you?"

The rogue shifted, becoming a young man with wild fiery red hair, a blaze out of control, and eyes the color of the metal in cages. "I am Deo Volonte. You Evenhiders think you'll reign forever--but your days are numbered."

Checking the belt that managed to stay fastened around his middle despite the shift, Dirge pulled out a broadsword and balanced it in his hand. "Come closer and say that again."

* * * * *

Deo POV

All he remembered of his early life was awakening alone as a pup in a canebrake, and fending for himself. Smells, unfamiliar, friendly or threatening. He crawled mostly. He crawled backwards. He rolled. He didn't walk. He felt like the animals in the wild, except he didn't seem to look like them. He bum-shuffled forward. 

Eventually he saw things like him and they walked on two legs, so he tried to pull himself up. When he did, he fell right back down in the mud and started to cry.

A big female wolf approached him, her paws squishing in the mud. She nuzzled him.

The sound of an electric blue serpent crackling behind him scared him. Maybe if he climbed up on the nice wolf's back, the serpent wouldn't get him. So, he hauled himself up on the nice lady wolf's back.

Whoosh! They flew like the wind and he had to cling to her fur, grabbing fistfuls of it to keep from falling as she raced away from the danger.

After what seemed like days, she reached a grove of trees, where a ring of tents awaited them. She slowed and finally came to a stop at the center of the ring ... 

"HEY."

The stranger's voice jolted Deo Volonte from his reverie. Facing the young blond enforcer, he lifted his head. "Who in the goddess' name are you?"

"Dirge Cresta, royal enforcer."

"La-di-da. Am I supposed to bow?"

He tasted something coppery, wet, and sticky in his mouth. His lip was bleeding. Luckily, he'd heal in no time.

The other blond enforcer smirked, making Deo want to wipe that smug grin off his stupid face. "You should. We just defeated a bunch of rogues on Abandonnado Island--that's in human territory. Compared to some of the threats we've dispatched, you'll be an after-dinner snack. Or maybe dessert."

His hackles rising and the moon hitting his wolf eyes just right, Deo thought he looked intimidating. "Is that so? Alpha types. Always so overconfident."

"It's in the job description," the one named Dirge quipped. "My brother Patch and I--"

Patch. He'd heard that name. He'd also heard he shouldn't tangle with the Crestas. But Patch ... people used the words "dangerous" and "trickster." Patch was also rumored to have mated with a human witch. 

"Patch? The human witch's mate?" he asked.

Patch puffed out his chest. "Well, it seems some of us Crestas are more famous than others."

A darkness filled Deo's mind. A swirling darkness and fog. The same one that had come to him weeks ago. It whispered to him. "Attack. They are your enemies. Kill them. Why shouldn't you have what they have, orphaned one?"

The words and the darkness stabbed his brain, making him whimper like a pup. He clutched his head and sank to his knees.

Dirge's expression changed to concern. "Hey. Did we hurt you that badly?"

Patch narrowed his eyes. "This could be a trick."

"Knock it off, Patch! He's in pain," Dirge snarled with authority. "I'm in command of this mission, and I say we get him to Azandra right away."

Patch eyeballed Dios, and his scowl softened. "He really doesn't look good. Alright, pup. Let's bring him in."

Taken in like some kind of charity case? No! His wolf, Skilaki, whimpered, trying to convince him to see reason.

Shaking, Dios got to his feet and shifted, then loped away as fast as he could. 

The dark voice plagued him. "Did you not hear me? I said attack them. Kill them. Finish them. Go back now and ..."

The pain exploded, and he swayed as if intoxicated, then crashed to the mossy ground. Patch's and Dirge's shouts echoed.

"... dark magic ..."

"... Lilia can help ..."

"... Annie can, too ..."

He lay in the darkness, sinking fast, the moss smell strong and green in his nostrils. Then, a feeling like floating and flying surrounded him. Lifted into the air. Then, dissolving into oblivion. What bliss. The most peace he'd ever known in his hardscrabble life, especially since his adopted mother died ...

* * * * *

His eyes fluttered open and light stabbed them.

"He's waking up," said a deep voice that smacked of Alpha authority.

"Dane, no questioning him until he's lucid," an authoritative young woman's voice chided.

Another young woman's voice added, "He's been through a lot. More than we probably know. Especially with HER energy in him."

"Her?"

He didn't recognize the scratchy, feeble voice that came from his own dry mouth.

The authoritative woman's voice said, "Yes. The Dark Goddess."

No! Not the evil one. The enemy of the Moon Goddess. SHE had been influencing him?

Horrified, he howled, a pathetic sound. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO."

A warm male hand rested on his shoulder. "You are safe, Deo Volonte. The fiend has been cleansed from you. And I have issued an order as Alpha absolving you of anything you did while you were possessed."

He sobbed. "I swear ... I didn't know. Thank you. Alpha. I'll never be a rogue again!"

"Indeed," Alpha Dane Cresta said. "Because from now on, you are part of the Evenhide Pack."