There is no doubt in my mind that that "girl" was Eli. Mainly due to three reasons. One, that "girl" was the only female at this party who hasn't pounced on me for the chance to make out. As egotistical as that sounds. Two, once I got really close, I could smell the faintest whiff of his signature strawberry scent. And three, the growing surprise he sported during the kiss. Which I'm still very conflicted about, and would very much like some answers. So that must be why I'm currently chasing after him and not brushing it off and enjoying the party. Right?

"Leave me alone Gray!" Eli shouts a few feet ahead of me, stomping through the forest brush. I can't risk getting too close in case he tries to hit me, or shift and run off. So, I guess I'll have to keep him talking from back here.

"Can we at least talk about it?"

"Talk about what, I'm just some random girl at this stupid party. So, forget about me and go hang out with those other bitches."

"Oh bullshit, Eli you're not even trying to disguise your voice."

"Well then use your imagination. Just pretend that you don't know me. It was working before the kiss."

"That was because I actually didn't know it was you! Which means you masked your scent with that disgusting scent blocking spray. Where did you get it?" He couldn't have gotten that spray unless someone from father's inner circle gave it to him; which they wouldn't. So, who did he get it from?

"Nobody, why does it even matter?"

"Because not everyone should have free access to it. Only higher-ups in the pack. So, whoever you got it from could be into some shady business!"

I guess that really pissed him off because he's finally stopped to face me and he does not look happy. "How about I ask you something. Why do you care? You are NOT my mate and we're barely even acquaintances, so why do you care now?!"

"Because I'm going to be Head Alpha and I need to know these things!"

"Goddess! Again, with pulling out the Head Alpha card. I don't care about your stupid title! I'm not going to rat out some I actually care about to someone that constantly finds a way to ruin my life. So ban me or whatever, just leave me ALONE!"

I reel back a bit from the outburst, but stand my ground. Does he really think that? It's not like my life hasn't been affected him either. Though, I guess he would be the one getting the worse of it. Still, I've never seen him this upset about it.

That's when I notice the tears running down Eli's face. He tries to wipe them away in frustration, but I've already seen them.

I don't know whether Onyx took over or I moved on my own disregard for self-preservation, but next thing I know I'm hugging Eli close to my chest. Welp, I guess this is where I die; it was a nice life while it lasted. I can't even blame this on his scent. Eli tenses up for a bit and I hold my breath, waiting for a kick to the balls. To better my chances of survival, I try to release calming pheromones. And shockingly he starts to relax, hiding his face in my neck. Somehow, despite the chill of the fall air blowing through the trees, he's still incredibly warm. To the point where I almost get lost in the hug.

Snap out of it Grayson! This is still Eli we're talking about. The bratty little omega who's probably planning your funeral in his mind right now. After a century of unease, for me at least, I hear Eli sniffle and move to rest his chin on my shoulder.

"I hate you," he says in a groggy voice.

"Right back at ya. Though I gotta say, Girl Eli was a lot nicer to me."

He pinches my side but still lets out a chuckle. However, the little gremlin isn't done, because then he starts rubbing his snotty nose on my shoulder.

"Aw gross dude!" I say, shoving him away from my now ruined costume, "This is the thanks I get for comforting you? I would rather take the pinching." He starts laughing but I don't see what's so funny about it. I'm glad that Luke was the one who bought this so at least my money wasn't waisted.

"Okay, now I feel better," he says lifting his mask and wiping away at his soaked face.

"Well I don't! An amount of money went into this costume that Luke bought."

"That makes it even better."

"Can I at least get another kiss to make ME feel better?"

"When pigs fly."

"Oh please, you were into it too."

"Was I? Or am I just that good of an actor?" he says, raising an eyebrow.

"...Don't play with me." We both start laughing, letting the tense atmosphere dissolve. It feels good to not be fighting anymore, but I know that I'll have to look into any possible leads on who gave him that spray. Since I don't think I'll be getting any more info out of Eli.

"So, not that I'm complaining, but why are you dressed like a black swan at Luke's party?" I say taking in his new look.

He huffs out a breath and even in the barely available moon light I can see a cute blush spread across his cheeks. "A friend of mine wanted to come here, and I needed a good disguise so Luke wouldn't recognize me. So why not dress up as the opposite gender?"

"You definitely have a creative way of solving problems."

"Hey, I thought it was a good idea at the time."

"Yeah well, I'm pretty sure you could have gotten away with a guy costume too. If anything, dressing like a cute girl might attract his attention to you." And something about that doesn't sit well with me or Onyx.

"Oh please, you heard him. A negative a-cup like me wouldn't show up on his douchebag radar," he says, rolling his eyes.

"Good. No one should be touching you like that," I say stepping closer to him.

"Let me guess, no one but you," he says with a chuckle.

"If that's what you would prefer, princess," I say, giving him a sly grin but serious eyes. He scoffs, and looks away from me. But I can still see that blush growing on his face. It's so easy to tease him, that sometimes I just can't help it.

Our talk gets cut short as I get a faint whiff of a foreign rogue smell. Grabbing Eli, I pull him into a nearby bush, crouching us down as low as possible. Eli gives me a confused look, but thankfully stays quiet and watches with me. Not a minute later we hear, then see, a rogue stroll past us towards the direction of the party. My instinct tells me to rip him apart now, but I wait and see what he's up to first. It's not uncommon that a few rogues join the party now and then, but this guy didn't seem like a teenager to me. A few minutes later he passes by us again, this time sprinting back to wherever he came from. We wait a few more minutes before getting up from our hiding spot. Something about this seems really suspicious, so I guess it's time to play detective.

"I'm going after him. Eli, you head back to the party."

"No way. I'm coming with you."

"This isn't up for debate. Go. Now," I say striping off my costume, and immediately shifting. I pick up the rogue's scent trail easily and start to follow it. Leaping over thick roots and plowing through underbrush that gets thicker the deeper into the forest I go. Tapping into a Head Alpha ability that lets me hide my scent, with the obvious name, Camouflage. The scent goes on for a while before finally ending at a slope leading into a clearing where the smell of A LOT of rogues is coming from.

Not wanting to get thrown into an unknown situation I scope out the edge area until I find a cliff that peers over the clearing while also hiding me from them. I start to make my way closure to it but the sound of rustling leaves stops me dead in my tracks. Without hesitation, I pounce onto whatever is trying to sneak up on me, claws poised to kill. The "what" however turns out to be Eli in his wolf from. I quickly form a mind link so I can chew him out for defying my orders.

G:Eli? What are you doing here?! I could have killed your dumb ass.

E:I said that I was coming with you, and I meant it.

G:And I meant it when I said to drop it, and go back!

E:Well, we're here now, so we might as well see what's going on.

G:...Fine. Just follow my lead and stay hidden.

I carefully get off of Eli, trying not to make any more noise. Praying that none of the rogues heard our scuffle. Honestly now I'm grateful that he has on that scent blocking spray, so that we aren't sniffed out. We both stalk towards the edge of the cliff, and peer down at what I can only assume is fifty-ish rogue warriors getting ready for battle. They're mostly in their human forms though some are in their wolf forms, too busy fighting each other to be patrolling. The wolf that I was following shifts and greets his comrades. Thanks to my enhanced hearing I can pick up him telling them what he saw, and bragging about how defenseless the teens are. They agree to leave for the attack in thirty minutes giving me a narrow window of time.

Eli nudges me to look at another area of the base and my stomach starts to turn as I see weapons piled-up in one spot, and on some of the rogues. From daggers, to machetes, to shot guns, they have it all. Guns are rare and outlawed from pack areas, since most conflicts are settled through old fashion fighting. Which means, if they get to that party, all hell will break loose into a bloody massacre.

E:I'm guessing they're here to crash the party.

G:Well, I highly doubt that they're just passing through the neighborhood.

E:And I don't think that we'll stand a chance against their fire power with an army of drunk teens.

G:Which means we need to get rid of as many of them as possible, quickly, while also destroying their weapon supply.

E:How? It's not like we have a fighter jet that can drop bombs on them.

We sit and ponder what our next move should be, and that's when an idea comes to mind.

G:Actually, we might have something close to that.

Eli gives me a confused look, which honestly looks really funny in his wolf form. I nudge at him to follow and we sneak away from Camp Kill-A-Lot. When we're a good distance away we start sprinting as fast as we can back to the party.

E:Mind telling me what the plan is?

G:My friend Jaden has a massive amount of fireworks that she's planning on launching for the party. We can use them to blow up most of the army and their weapons. Then me and Vic pic off anyone who's left.

E:That, might just be crazy enough to work.

G: If there's anyone crazy enough to try it, it would be Jaden.

E:But what about the forest? I'd rather not burn it down with the rogues.

G:Already covered. After a ...few past incidents, Jaden has a few guys on standby that can fly overhead and crop dust fire retardant over the area.

E:Incidents?

G:Stories for another time.

Once we're at the house we shift, grabbing some of the towels by the pool to cover ourselves. Eli heads off to see if any of his friends can help with the plan, while I look for Jaden. It's not long before I spot her chatting with Vic by the outside bar. Well, more like talking his ear off while the poor guy listens.

"And that's why she only uses dildos now, instead of cold carrots," Jaden says downing the shot in her hand as I approach them. Vic rolls his eyes taking a sip of his soda, before turning towards me.

"Sorry to interrupt your interesting story but we've got a problem," I say.

"I'll say. Did you lose horribly in a game of strip poker?" Jaden says, pointing to my towel.

"Jaden, I'm serious. There's big group of rogues not far from here planning to attack everyone. They have weapons and no one here is sober enough to defend themselves. I need your help."

"Shit, sorry dude. How can I help?" she asks, her and Vic getting serious now.

"I need your fireworks so that I can take out most of their group and make shift camp. Don't worry about covering our scents, I have that covered. Just contact your guys and meet me at the back of the pool house with all that you've got in the next five minutes." With that said we part ways, with Vic and I hastily looking for Luke.

Every minute matters and I need to make sure that Luke keeps everyone here, so no one wonders off and gets hurt. Unfortunately, for my eyes, we find him drunkenly making out with one girl while another sucks him off. I look at Vic and we silently agree that it's not worth wasting time interrupting and arguing with him to help us. We head back outside and run into Eli and his three friends, who I guess were looking for us.

"Okay, we're ready to help," Eli says.

"Great. You all stay here and keep people from wandering into the woods. We'll be back in a sec," I say, trying to move past them.

"Or, Milo and Beth here, distract the guests and keep everyone here, while Atlantis and I help you carry all of those fireworks. Since I know that five wolves can carry more than three," he says, giving me a glare that dares me to argue against him. The beta and omega, Beth and Milo, give me a thumbs up and wink. While Mr. Wards daughter, Atlantis, just gives me a nod.

"Ugh, fine! I'm only agreeing with this because I need your spray and can't waste time arguing. Do you, have it?"

He hands me the small glass spray-bottle and we head towards the pool house, leaving Eli's friends to hopefully keep this party together. At the back of the house Jaden is there waiting with crates full of massive fireworks and rope. The four of us waste no time stripping and shifting, with Jaden securing as many fireworks as she can to each of us and spraying them all down before shifting herself. I take the lead and start sprinting for the base, everyone else staying close behind.

Only when I get a whiff of the strong rogue scent do we slow down and sneak to the cliff from before. Jaden and I shift back, taking off all of the fireworks from ourselves and the others who stand guard. That's when I realize that the "rope" she used to tie them to us was actually fuse rope that she plans on using for the rockets. We're definitely talking about this later, since one loose spark from a cigarette could have blown us sky high.

We start setting up our weapons, and you know, at first this seemed like and easy idea in my head. Place the fireworks, and light 'em up. But the actual process of sneaking around the edge, trying to stay hidden, placing AND angling the death rockets, attaching the fuses to each of them, and praying that the slightest nudge doesn't send the whole thing tumbling over the edge is way to meticulous. And taking way to long for my already limited patience. Any minute now they could start their attack or even find us.

I weigh my odds of being able to just take them head on when Jaden secures the last rocket and gives me a thumbs up. Finally. We slowly crawl away from the edge, carefully moving the ropes to end at one place to light. I shift back to wolf form and mind link to the others to start running. As they take off, I give Jaden a nod and she lights all of the fuses. Hastily shifting and backing away with me. Once we're curtain that they all stayed lit, we take off after the others to get a good distance away. We all wait with baited breath for the chaos to literally explode any second now. I can't help but knead the cool dirt under my paws, as millions of questions race through my mind.

Are the fuses still lit?

Did they hear us running?

Did they find the fireworks?

Will this work?

Maybe I should go che-

f-whoosh...

The ground shakes from the force of the explosions against the earth.

Burst of blinding light and color shine from the area of the base.

Screams from the fireworks and rogues fill the air.

Dirt, weapon fragments, and body parts fly high into the sky like gruesome confetti; only to rain back down onto those who remain.

Then, as quickly as it had started, the grand show ends. Leaving only an empty silence, dust clouds, and tons of collateral damage in its wake. The planes come in soon after, crop dusting fire retardant over the area just in case.

We wait a few more minutes for the dust to settle and also, so we don't get killed by any late boomers. Though once I hear the sound of groans and pained howls, I start leading the others down for part two of the plan. Capturing prisoners or cleaning up stragglers.

Upon reaching the remains of the base I instantly spot ten rogues scouting out the area and helping one or two people who are still alive. They must have been slacking nearby when the fireworks went off, since I didn't notice any scouts nearby. No matter. We can make quick work of them and drag the injured ones to father. But first, I shift to human form letting out a dense wave of my dominant alpha scent, which makes the rogues growl but back-up a little.

I boom out loud enough to even startle those on my side.

The rogues shake off the brief fear and start to snicker, shifting into their wolf forms and letting out nasty snarls. I guess we're doing this the hard way. Shifting as I sprint, I pounce onto the closest rogue, catching him off guard. Using my massive size to slam them into the dirt and claw out their throat and stomach. The other rogues don't get time to help out their comrade as my group follows my lead and attacks without mercy. A sharp pain rips through my left shoulder as a rogue latches onto it with their teeth. Snarling in pain I roll to my right, taking the rogue with me, and pinning them down. Before they can escape my grasp, I swiftly rip out their throat, leaving them to bleed out.

I scan the battle scene before me, and slightly sigh in relief to see my team doing well. Vic, being the unit that he is, thrashes rogues against trees and rocks. Repeatedly cracking their skulls and ribcages against the hard surfaces. Jaden uses a stray dagger held in her mouth and jabs it into a rogue's neck before biting their face. She never did have a normal way of fighting. Eli and Atlantis tag team their attacks, Eli taking the rogues down and Atlantis dealing the killing blow. I can't observe the different fighting techniques for too long, as a rogue lunges for my injured shoulder. Dodging to the right, I deliver a swift kick to their face. Stunning them long enough to tackle and taking them down.

The battle doesn't last very long, considering the massive gap in skill between us and the rogues. The only ones left alive are two injured rogues who surrendered after we delt with the others. Jaden ties them up with the excess "rope" she had left over, while Atlantis runs back to the party to see if father and reinforcements have arrived. I called them before we left but it still takes an hour to get here, so it was best to deal with rogues sooner than later.

I scan the area for anymore threats; however, my eyes seem to settle onto Eli. He's staring blankly at the field littered with blood and bodies, but he's shaking slightly and I can smell his scent going sour with distress (the spray must have worn off). This might be the first time he's been in a fight that ended in this much death. I nudge him away from view of the carnage, nipping at his ear to distract him from the scene. It takes a second, but finally he shakes me off in a huff of annoyance, thankfully not scared off.