Chapter 3 - The rogue thief!

Blanca

I ran after him as fast as I could, but he disappeared into an ally and was gone by the time I got there! I couldn’t shift in the middle of the damn human town! I felt infuriated! None of the dead around me would tell me which way he went until I helped them first. My beautiful bracelet was gone and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

“Damn girl! You are fast!” Lilith finally caught up to me and tried to catch her breath.

“I’m sorry, Lil. The bastard got my bracelet!” I rubbed my wrist and looked into her sad eyes.

“It’s okay. It was just a bracelet.” She tried to shrug it off, but I knew better. I knew she had probably spent weeks looking for just the right gift. Had my luck now been cursed as well that I wasn’t even allowed that one precious gift?! Neither of us felt like having ice cream after that and I took her home before going home myself.

My mother tried to convince my father to go to the town and look for the thief, but he told her that he was proud of me for not taking things further. It would have looked far too suspicious if I had taken the thief down by myself. Humans would have noticed. Lilith would definitely have noticed and made a huge thing about it. My birthday bracelet was gone and that was that.

THE NEXT AFTERNOON after school, Lilith and I went back to the town to try and have our ice cream. She couldn’t stop talking about how fast I ran. I was grateful that my father convinced my mother. If Lilith could make such a fuss because I ran fast, just imagine what she would be saying if I got my bracelet back. After we finished our ice cream, she wanted to go to a store, and I had a feeling she wanted to replace what I had lost.

As we walked in, I felt fury rise from deep inside as his scent hit me! The thief was standing at the counter with my damn bracelet in his hand trying to sell it back to the store!

“You bastard! That is my bracelet!” I shouted and his head snapped in our direction. His eyes grew wider as he realized we were standing between him and the doorway, but that didn’t stop him. With the bracelet still in his hand, he stormed past us, pushing poor Lilith to the ground in the process. I helped her up, but didn’t hang around to check if she was okay.

I wasn’t going to let him get away this time, and I stormed out of the store. I could see him running away on the other side of the street and quickly calculated how long I had before Lilith would be outside. Taking two huge strides, I made my way across the street before she could see anything and I ran after the thief.

“Stop that thief!” My calculations were perfect and I heard my dear friend shouting from behind us. I was just about to grab his jacket when he ducked into an ally yet again and I watched as he jumped over the fence and disappeared. Again! Damn he was fast! He had to be some supernatural creature to be able to run that damn fast. I faked trying to catch my breath as Lilith caught up with me.

“Where … Did … He … Go?” She tried asking in between breaths and I pointed down the ally. He was long gone by now. If I could shift, I would have been able to track his scent, but in my human form, my senses weren’t as strong as they were in wolf form. I had missed the bastard again, and this time I was sure he wasn’t going back to that store. I will never see my bracelet again. “You should really join the track team.” Lilith smacked my arm as we started walking back to the car. “You will leave all of those prissy runners in the dust!”

I burst out laughing. Lilith was a track runner in primary school. That’s what she told me. Unfortunately, when she reached high school, she stopped growing and now everyone was faster than she was. My darling friend was almost a head shorter than I was, but I was tall for a girl. It had everything to do with my beta status, which I couldn’t tell Lilith, of course.

“I guess he needed to look prettier than me.” I shrugged, making Lilith suddenly burst out in fits of laughter. I drove her home and when I told my parents what happened, my father frowned. I knew I shouldn’t have run after the thief, but he had my bracelet. I sat through the speech about having to keep up the human façade and apologized a million times before they finally let it go.

I knew that if we ran into the thief again, there was no way I could go after him. My father would be furious. It was over. My beautiful bracelet was gone. Sadly, the gossip about me around the pack house wasn’t gone. At dinner, I sat wondering what the thief’s life was like. Did he have a family he was trying to feed? I shook my head. It couldn’t be. The bracelet wasn’t that expensive.

Maybe he was a street rat that needed money so he could move on to the next small town? I wondered what kind of creature he was that he could run so damn fast in his human form and I was blissfully happy with my own thoughts when Carlo’s mother cleared her throat.

“Blanca, honey. I just wanted to apologize for my son’s terrible behaviour on your birthday.” Her smile was filled with kindness and sympathy. She was the complete opposite of her son and I was again reminded of how many times over the years I wondered how such a beautiful woman could have had such an ugly son.

“It’s okay, Luna.” I smiled and then caught a glimpse of Carlo looking disapprovingly at his mother. So, my father had probably spoken to his parents and they probably tried to get him to apologize publicly and he refused. It was the only thing that made any sense. Dinner went off without a hitch for once and I went back to my room after dinner.

I had a mountain of homework to catch up on after being away from school for three days and although I normally preferred my own company and loved my school work, all I could think about was that damn thief. Where was he now? What was he doing with my bracelet? Who was he? What was he?

“I see you’ve healed.” Carlo’s voice interrupted my thoughts and I chastised myself for not smelling the bastard as soon as he stepped onto our floor. I glared at him as he walked into my room touching everything! Didn’t his mother teach him that you looked with your damn eyes and not your hands?!

“I’m fine. You don’t have to waste another moment worrying about me.” I smiled, but it was so clear it was fake. His smile, on the other hand, filled his green eyes with mischief.

“I’m glad to hear that. I would hate it if my rejection caused you discomfort. I myself was bedridden for just a day. You know. Since I’m the alpha, it hit me far harder than it would have hurt you.” I fought the urge to roll my eyes. The idiot probably thought that he was throwing his rank in my face, when, in fact, he had just humiliated himself by admitting he felt some pain.

“Anyway,” He sighed, turning on his heel. “I’m sorry.” He mumbled before walking out of my room. I didn’t know what the hell to think. Did he actually apologize? Was that even an apology? The bastard didn’t even look me in the eye! Fury raged through my body and I couldn’t sit there and do homework in that state! I changed into my yoga clothes and stormed out. I needed to run. I needed to feel the dirt under my paws and the wind blowing through my fur.

I knew my mother was going to kill me if I shifted with my clothes still on, but for once I didn’t care. Shifting mid-stride, I felt my paws hit the ground hard and I made my way into the thick brush of the forest. Sunlight pushed through between the leaves and turned the entire forest into a wonderworld of lights. The dirt felt cool under my paws as I ran between trees and ducking branches.

I felt myself slowly calm down as the physical exercise worked off some of the anger I felt before. The forest always smelled so clean. Untouched by the scent of othe… My head snapped to one side as the familiar scent drifted into my nose.

The forest was part of the neutral territory. It came right up to the back of our pack house and we had border patrols making sure that the other packs didn’t trespass in our territory, but it was part of neutral ground and the thief was there somewhere! His scent was strong, which told me he hadn’t been there for at least a couple of hours, but this was definitely his hideout!

Holding my nose in the air, I tried to figure out which way he went and as soon as I caught the scent, I darted in that direction. I was hoping I could find his camp. If I was lucky, my bracelet would be there, wouldn’t it? Unless he was there as well … I slowed down a little. What if he was there? I didn’t know what kind of creature he was. His scent didn’t give him away. I wondered for a moment if I should call my dad and then decided against it.

I was so close to finding my bracelet. His scent had grown stronger and in the blink of an eye I made up my mind. I will confront him … Now! I wanted back what was mine! Picking up speed again as his scent got stronger. It led me to a small cave in what seemed to be the centre of the forest. Slowing down, I twitched my ears to try and figure out if he was there, but there was no sound coming from the cave.

The wind was blowing my scent away from the cave and I closed my eyes for a second, trying to listen for any sign of life. There was nothing. I wondered if he was out robbing other people as I slowly made my way closer. I was going to stay in my wolf form. It was my only protection. If he were a human, he would think I was a wolf looking for food.

“HEY! That’s my cave!” A male voice shouted behind me. I whipped around to find my thief standing behind me glaring at me. His eyes glowed amber! He was a wolf?! Was he a rogue? No, he couldn’t be? Rogues didn’t look that good! I couldn’t talk to him through a mind link because he wasn’t part of our pack and I couldn’t very well shift so I could talk to him because I would be standing naked in front of him!

I growled, scanning his body to see if I could see my bracelet, but it was probably in one of his pockets. We circled each other carefully and I knew that he had already caught my scent. He would have known by now what I was as well.

“Look, I’m sorry about the bracelet.” His hand dipped into his jacket pocket and I growled at him. “Okay, okay, easy!” He put his free hand in the air and as his hand pulled out of his pocket, I saw my bracelet. “Here, you can have it back.” He put it down on the ground lifting both his hands in the air this time. I studied him for a moment, grabbed my bracelet with my mouth and ran as fast as I could.

If I was fast enough, I could get back into our territory before he caught up with me! I could warn border patrol that there was a rogue in the forest. Not that I thought they would do anything about it, but I could still warn them. No! I had to tell my father!