Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 43 - EAU DE RESISTANCE

I think the update schedule has thrown itself out of the window, lads. You'll get em when I finish em and that's the end of that. But thank you for all your patience and your love. Y'all are awesome people :)

By the time we arrived back at the pack house, we were soaked to the skin. We'd had to spend an hour sitting in the rain with Nia and the flockies, waiting for back-up to arrive, because she couldn't transport them alone. Rhodri had screwed us all over when he'd run off, but I doubted he cared about that. He'd got what he'd wanted - his freedom. And I had a pretty good idea what he was going to do with it.

Liam was yawning as I turned the key in the lock. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open. But no sooner had I pushed the door open than Liam nudged me, trying to get my attention. I turned to see a man and a woman beaming at us, their hands intertwined.

"Hi," they said in unison.

"Hi," I murmured back.

It was the other neighbours. The ones who weren't Lin and Will. We hadn't seen them before, but I recognised their scent well enough. It took me a moment to spot Lin behind them. She had her hands in her pockets, and her pale, drawn face twisted into annoyance when she saw us. Clearly, she had yet to forgive me for those rogue comments.

"You're covered in mud," Lin said coolly. "Did you sneak away to meet up with someone, perhaps?"

She meant Hayden. I was pretty sure about that. She meant him for entirely the wrong reasons, and it sounded like she was just trying to piss me off, but all I felt was a vicious streak of amusement.

I folded my arms across my chest smugly, because two could play at this game. "Sort of. I ran a little business back at New Dawn, and I have to pop in every now and then, you know. Make sure the clientele is satisfied."

Liam winced beside me. But somehow, Lin didn't hear the sarcasm, and the smirk on her lips grew wider. "Oh, I bet. But keep on like you are and you'll pick up some nasty disease. If you haven't already, that is."

I was now actively suppressing the urge to slap her. It was easy to forget she was only sixteen. She had been rushed into a relationship with a grown adult, and then she had buried him. It was a lot to cope with. I had to at least try to be understanding when she was lashing out at me.

"Eva ... um, she works in the med wing," Liam said quickly, because the other neighbours were still very much present and confused. "All kinds of infection in there, you know how it is..."

"Really? I'm surprised you're keeping up with work," the neighbour sighed, looking wistfully at her mate. "When I'm in heat, we have trouble getting out of bed."

Oh, great. We were going to talk about my intimate bodily functions with total strangers now, were we? Just to illustrate her point, she giggled, and the guy put an arm around her.

"You can take time off, you know," he said. "The boss men understand, and it's all worth it when you get her pregnant. The pups are our future, after all."

Liam and I exchanged a wide-eyed look, because this was a new level of brainwashing, but his mate nodded along happily enough. "Exactly! We've got earplugs, so don't worry about disturbing us. We haven't heard a peep from you yet! Have we, George?"

"Not a peep," George said, grinning from ear to ear.

It sounded vaguely threatening. I wondered if the thickness of the walls was a way to keep tabs on people - to make sure they weren't slacking on the pup-making efforts. These nosy robot-people were the perfect surveillance system.

"Really?" Lin asked. "Nothing? That's interesting. Unusual even, for a mated couple. Have you two had a falling out, maybe?"

"Nope," I said, forcing a smile, "all good."