Rogue Wolf

Ch 54 the guard

I could tell my Max was wound up tight as he led me back down the hall reserved for scouts. I thought about what it would be like to have these dozen apartments filled up with people. Each apartment was about the same, with two bedrooms instead of my three, bathroom, kitchenette and small living room. They honestly weren't that different than my mom's apartment. My mom's kitchen was a bit bigger was all.

The apartment Max and I had been sharing was the biggest apartment at the end of the hall. The kitchen and living room were a bit bigger than the others. The main bedroom was big enough for the king size bed it held. It was the office at the entrance to the hall that Max led me to, locking it once we were inside. I had nosed around previously in here of course, while Max did his schoolwork, but the desk and closet had been locked. It was the closet Max stopped in front of.

"My scout," he started hesitantly. When I started to go to my knees he stopped me. "Don't," he said, looking like he wanted to say more. I stood there, unsure of what he wanted or how he felt about what had transpired tonight.

He unlocked the closet, pushing aside old uniforms that had belonged to the previous leader of the scouts. Stripping and shifting without a word, his look alone encouraged me to join him. There was a small opening in the bottom side of the closet, barely big enough to go through. Max went first. When I went through, dropping down almost three feet, I was faced with a wall; it was like being in a box, with barely enough room to crouch there. I sniffed, catching old scents, but my Max's scent was nowhere but the floor under me.

I literally jumped, knocking my head against the low ceiling, when Max nipped my tail. His clawed hands came up then, urging me to move backward. There was an opening in the floor behind me. The opening Max guided me through was actually under the closet floor. I had to partially shift to human to slide backward through it.

The space I found myself in was a bit roomier. Max was already moving through the dusty hall made for wolves to travel through. I was amazed at the speed Max was moving at. I eagerly followed, my tail brushing the sides and ceiling of the tunnel-like hall as we moved forward. There were openings here and there, openings that were nothing more than little cubbies to stand in, with a grate blocking the way. Occasionally there were other halls. Max ignored them all.

When he finally slowed down, I was hearing voices. Max stopped by a cubbyhole, motioning with his head for me take the spot. He squeezed in beside me, his head over my shoulder.

The voices came from the guards below me. I ignored the guards for a moment to take in the space they were in. I did some quick figuring. The guard hall must lead straight to the room I was looking at. I could see two halls off of it. Someone came into view from below me, so I assumed we were above a third hall. Three halls, three shifts, I thought, and this must be their own little common area.

The guard I had defeated was laying face down, naked like an omega. I took a breath, looking at his bruised and stitched up body. The other guards were pacing around, arguing with each other. The one that had spoken calmly with me was sitting in one of the chairs, ignoring the argument around him, focused on the naked guard. The only other guards that sat back were the two who had been here with my Max way back in the beginning.

"Alpha will kill us," the crude one whined out.
"He can't, he doesn't dare, not now."
"Beta can defeat him."
"Beta won't kill."
"Neither will our Alpha."

I listened, understanding why the few sat back. The argument helped let out their stress, but it was going nowhere. They weren't actually debating anything so much as just discussing their fears. And they all were referring to me as Beta, which made me grin. They were also counting on me being the one to take care of Alpha, which made me lose the grin. Alpha was topic they kept dancing around.