Rogue

1. Without Purpose

Brennan was blinded by the intensity of the light that flooded the van the moment its doors were thrown open. He recoiled reflexively at the same time that he gasped in a merciful breath of fresh air, regardless of the pain the lanced through his injured ribs because of it.

"Everyone out! Single file, make it fast!" A guard barked.

The back of the van was dark, filled to the rafters with werewolves - the heat was stifling, as was the smell of bodies crammed together for far too long. Brennan was plagued by discomfort: pins and needles in cramped, crushed limbs; a head muzzy with dehydration and a stomach twisted with hunger. And yet, he, along with the other wolves, recoiled back from the chance to get out of their current prison.

"Bloody wild animals," scoffed the guard. "I said OUT!"

The sunbursts going off in Brennan's eyes had receded enough that he could make out his surroundings if he squinted. A shadowed figure looming in the painfully bright light reached in and grabbed a young woman by her hair and dragged her out of the vehicle. Panicked unease thrilled through the rest of them, people with watery eyes scrambled back away from the opening. It was nonsensical, but Brennan felt himself moving to do the same - if only to avoid being crushed as their collective body surged backward like a wave moving toward shore. But there was nowhere to go. A foot connected with his ribcage and stole his breath, an errant hand dug into his face.

"Oh for fuck's sake."

Abrupt yells of panic rose into a clamour as guards reached in and yanked people out by whatever they could grasp. Brennan's watery eyes finally cleared enough for him to see the guards grab a small girl by her leg to drag her to the ground. She was screaming, anchoring herself using Brennan's ankle as best she could. The sight broke through his own irrational instinct to shrink back away from the guards. Resisting wouldn't get them anywhere. He grabbed the girl's arms.

"Alright! Alright! We're coming- just leave her alone. Let go of her! We're coming out."

He kept tight hold of the young girl and clumsily manoeuvred them both out of the back of the van and into the harsh, unforgiving heat of the outside world. The young girl clung to him, eyeing the guards with more fear than anger. One of them snorted derisively and rolled his eyes.

"Goddamn I've had enough of you fuckin' freaks for a lifetime," he spat, looking Brennan right in the eye. "GET IN LINE BEFORE I LOSE MY DAMN PATIENCE, DOGS!" The veins in his neck popped out and his face reddened as he bellowed abruptly enough to make even Brennan take a surprised step backward. "And the pup can walk on her own just like everybody else, too. Jesus."

Teary-eyed, she buried her face in Brennan's bad hip instead and shook her head.

"Come on, man," Brennan pleaded. "She's just a kid, she's not hurting anyone."

The guard laughed. Brennan flinched and tightened his hold on the poor girl.

"Are you kidding me? I'm sorry but who in the hell do you think you are to be making demands here? You're gonna have to learn your place pretty quick here, mongrel."

He wrenched the girl out of Brennan's grip, sending her stumbling and crying in her chains. The other men in uniform seemed pretty uninterested by the whole scene, like they were accustomed to it. Brennan reacted before he could think about it, enraged.

"Leave her alone!" he snarled and shoved the guard away from her.

Before he could so much as blink he was on the ground, floored by a well-aimed right hook by the offending guard and then pinned down by another two. Agony speared through his chest as his injured ribs were pressed into the ground and he spat out blood.