He mind-linked to the gate guard and asked, “Did a pretty rogue she-wolf in a blue dress come to the gate and asked to come to the ceremony?” he asked.
“No, Alpha, just you and Lotti after that flash flood,” he was told.
Jared cut the link as he realized what it was, “Oh, father is going to be pissed.” He muttered and turned to look out the ballroom doors in the direction his father had gone. “Fuck.”
“Jared, what is it?” Dwane asked him.
“There were the remnants of a flash flood down the pack road when I brought Lotti into the pack… f**k, she’s wolf-less, and wouldn’t have been able to hear it, smell it or…” he trailed off as he tried not to think about her getting washed away in it.
“Get out of the way of it, like a wolfen folk could,” Dwane murmured.
Jared closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, he surely had screwed this up royally and he knew it. He was getting more than just a lashing. It was likely going to 10 or 20.
Wynta
Some Alphas were just plain rude and arrogant; she’d been told she’d get picked up, then he’d been late and texted her he wasn’t going to pick her up and that she wouldn’t be missed; the not being missed part. He was probably right about that. But then he did turn up like two and a half hours later. He’d broken into her apartment, basically stolen her things, if she’d not been in her office for him to give them to her. He would have just stolen her dress and shoes.
He’d dragged her from her office and yelled at her for not waiting on him, when why would she after his text message? Even if he’d not texted her or called her, how long was one supposed to wait? According to him, until he decided to turn up because he was an Alpha and she was nothing but a lowly rogue that needed to do as she was told.
Now this, he just kicks her out of his car, with no jacket and tells her to walk up the mountain road to the gate. His car was out of sight, and she no longer cared at all to be here, not only had she never been here before. She knew that whoever was at the gate wouldn’t know who she was, and she wasn’t carrying her invitation. Did he think it was such a precious item to her that she just carried it everywhere?
He probably thought she felt special or something, just for being invited to something like a Luna Ceremony. Little did he know she had absolutely no interest in standing there inside any pack watching a Luna Ceremony. She stood there and pulled her phone from her bag. At least she still had that it had been on her lap for the entire drive.
She shivered as the wind whipped about her, and she pulled up a map of the area, looking for a way back to the city that wouldn’t see her have to walk down that road he’d just gone. So he couldn’t stop her from leaving. One, Jared Hayes, could explain to his own father and Alpha why she wasn’t there. Didn’t arrive with him or couldn’t be found for initiation into the pack.
It was now a solid no in her book. She saw on the map that the forest before her across the road was a massive hiking and biking, trail-riding area. She turned and looked up the road and, yes, up the hill there was a blue sign that had the forestry trail name on it. She turned and walked up the road towards it.
“Let’s just see Jared Hayes, who the Alpha is mad at, me or you? For him not getting what he wanted, when it took five years for him to find a way to get me into that pack of his.” She knew that she, as a rogue, could take Jared’s refusal to drive her into the pack, as that he didn’t want her in the pack, That was her prerogative.
She walked into the car park and found the trail map and looked at it. The boardwalk went to three different locations, including all the way down the mountain. She took a photo of it for reference. There would be a car park or suburb down there, she thought.
Wynta then turned to look at the trail before her. It was wet from all the rain but the boardwalk for those that wanted to walk the forest trail was still intact. She made her way down the stairs and headed off into the forest. This was the only way down and away without walking the road they’d come in on.
It didn’t matter which boardwalk trail she took, they all linked up and there were only three junctions to choose from, and each one lead to an exit. She’d end up somewhere on the other side of the forest and away from this pack. She put her phone away and rubbed her hands together, breathed into them and rubbed them on her arms to try and keep some warmth in her.
She’d been homeless once and learned to just grit her teeth and endure the bracing cold winds. Sometimes it was all one could do. She stopped walking as she saw a torrent of water cutting across the boardwalk she’d been moving along, not long turned on to it at all, stood and watched as it washed some of the wooden planks away.
That way was now not an option, she had to turn around and make her way back to the T Section, she’d turned right onto this track. She came to the junction and moved on past the trail that had brought her down here, and was head off into the forest once more.
She could hear rushing water some time later as the rain started to fall once more, and she turned about looking for it, saw a swollen river through the trees. Though its water was rough, it was still contained in the banks from what she could tell. She continued on to find herself walking over a foot bridge high above that river.
Likely the Cedar Rapids, she thought to herself absently as she walked over the bridge. She was willing to bet this was very pretty on a clear sky day, and that river water wasn’t brown, and full of loosened soil. She continued on and followed the boardwalk at her own pace. There were many slippery places, and she slid a few times on the wood and landed on her back side, cursed out loud and got back up.
She was walking down a steep set of wooden stairs that had a handrail, but they were so bloody slippery in the rain that she wondered who on earth thought it was a good idea to make this from wood. She could see that it had been there for a few years and there were many slippery patches where, in all likelihood, algae or moss or something was growing and stepping on to that was a deadly game of will I fall and die?
Her heart rate shot through the roof as each time her foot hit that, and she kind of slid and lost her balance. Some places on this boardwalk didn’t have railings, considered safe, she supposed, only being a foot off the ground. But it wasn’t or not for her in this weather.
She screamed as she stepped off the stairs and hit an unknown slimy part of the boardwalk and her foot slid hard and fast, forward, and then she was overbalanced in trying to correct herself and then off the side of the boardwalk. One leg was kind of down there and the other was still up on the deck and her right knee screamed in agony, and then she slid off and onto the muddy ground and just sat there clutching her knee.
Her breathing was erratic as she tried to deal with the pain, and her chest hurt. She knew she had other injuries, but it was her knee that was the worst. Even though she’d felt the impact of her hip to the deck and her back and side had scraped down off the edge of the boardwalk, and she could see there was blood on her palms where she’d tried to grab on to anything at all to stop the fall.
Seems all that had done was just cause more injury to herself. Wynta had no idea how long she sat there and kind of just sobbed in the rain as it fell around her. She’d tried to get up several times but just couldn’t. Her knee screamed at her each time and pain shot through it.
She knew even as she looked around for anyone to help her, and that no sane person would be out here like she was. She had done this to herself, and right this minute not even she had sympathy for herself. She was cold, miserable and in a great deal of pain, and it was all her own doing. She couldn’t blame anyone for her current state.
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