The Rogue Trail

Morgan

Jenna’s call came shrill and urgent, slicing through the quiet of Morgan’s night. “Have you seen the news?” she nearly yelled, forcing Morgan to pull the phone away from her ear.

“Indoor voice, Jenna. TV news? Which channel?” Morgan replied, her tone weary as she reached for the remote.

“9,” Jenna whispered, but her voice was oddly still shaking. Morgan turned to Channel 9, and at once the stone-cold face of her last legal victory filled the screen. Her blood ran cold.

“He killed three people. They found them in the trunk of his car. He did it, Morgan,” her voice cracking. “He confessed. To all of it.”

“Oh, my god,” Morgan whispered. Her hands were shaking as she took in the images on screen; the police cordon, the blood splattered floor, the insane grin on the man she had represented, and ensured his acquittal just last week. Three people were dead. They were dead because of her.

“Jenna, I-

“Don’t you dare Morgan,” she cut in, and Morgan could hear the tears threatening to spill in her voice. “Don’t you fucking dare. You just did your job. And you did it well. This isn’t on you.”

Her entire body was trembling now, and Morgan could feel her phone buzzing at her ear. Messages and calls were starting to flood in. Her head was spinning.

“Jenna, I have to go,” she spoke as firmly as she could, and hung up before her assistant could reply.

Running to the bathroom, Morgan just made it to the toilet before losing her dinner. She lay down, pressing the cold tile to her face in an attempt to calm the nausea.

She lay there for several moments before soft padding on the tiled floor brought her back to reality, and a wet nose pushed its way into her naturally strawberry blonde hair with a quiet whine.

“Hey baby girl,” she murmured, running her fingers through Scout’s thick golden fur. “I’ll be okay.”

Scout cocked her head to the side, as if she did not quite believe her.

Picking her phone up from the sofa where she had dropped it in her haste to empty her stomach, Morgan saw that she already had 19 text messages and 12 missed calls; mostly from the office. She pressed redial on the most important caller: Guy Stewart, managing partner of Stewart & Associates in Denver. Morgan had worked for Guy since leaving law school four years ago. She was an associate now, with one foot in the door of becoming a junior partner. Well, she had been. She wondered what was in store for her now, as Guy would never usually make a call this late in the evening.

As expected, Guy did not waste time on formalities.

“7am in my office,” he barked before disconnecting.

Aidan

Aidan snatched up the papers that had been cautiously placed on the board room table in front of him by a nervous secretary. “What am I looking at?”

“It’s a compulsory purchase order, Alpha. The state government are gunning for your land. We have 56 days to defend their application, or we lose the land,” said Colt, Aidan’s beta.

“And how did we end up in this position?” Aidan growled. “The land is not available. Never has been, never will be.” He glanced around the table at his deltas, gammas, council elders, lead warriors and human representative for the answer.

Colt’s gaze lifted to the pack lawyer, and Aidan’s quickly followed. The small human man cleared his throat and got to his feet.

“Well, I have negotiated-

“You’re fired,” Aidan cut in. “You knew the brief. No negotiations. Remember the terms of your non disclosure. We are done here.” The small man went to protest, but caught sight of Colt’s slight head shake and Aiden’s darkening eyes, and thought better of it. He picked up his briefcase and shuffled out of the board room. No one spoke.

Aidan turned to stare out of the board room window. It was an hour’s drive to his offices in Gunnison and a further four hours to Denver. He hated being away from his lands, but the creeping legal threat that had loomed over him and his father before him could no longer be ignored. Aidan was usually able to maintain a solid distance from his business interests with humans, but when it came to the land to protect his pack: that was personal.

“What’s the plan Alpha?” asked Colt. Aidan sighed, and ran a hand through his dark hair.

“We need a new fucking lawyer.”