Somehow, the fourteen year old had managed to hold himself together through the funeral. Now that it was over, and he was alone, Lukas finally allowed himself to cry. As devastating as his loss was, it shouldn’t have meant he lost everything. After all, Lukas had a pack. A pack that should have taken care of him. But that same pack also should have protected his parents and his brother. They failed them, and Lukas had no reason to believe they wouldn’t fail him as well.

                Part of him knew that the whole pack wasn’t to blame. It was only the alpha, Anthony. Lukas knew it was his fault. He never knew why, but Anthony hated his family. Lukas knew that he never would have lifted a finger to help them, and the more he thought about it, the more Lukas was convinced that Anthony was responsible for his family’s death.

                As he lay on a bed at his aunt and uncle’s house, his sorrow turned into anger. He wanted justice, vengeance. He wanted to see Anthony dead. He wanted to see the hunters who had killed his family dead with him. And not just the ones that had actually done it. Lukas decided that he wanted all werewolf hunters dead.

                Before they had died, his parents had mentioned a wolf in Idaho who wanted to take the fight to the hunters.  His parents thought that the werewolves had lived in fear of hunters for too long, and they had devised a plan to train members of the pack to find those hunters first. When they had brought it up to the rest of the pack, it gained support, but Anthony had shut it down.

                Now Lukas knew his parents had been right. They couldn’t sit back and hope the hunters never found them. He knew the pack wouldn’t support him, but Lukas didn’t care. If his pack wouldn’t protect him and care for him, he didn’t want them and it was in his right to leave. He knew what the oath of loyalty stated – if the pack couldn’t protect him and give him a home, he wasn’t under any obligation to remain with them.

                He wiped the remaining tears from his eyes, determined to make it on his own. Where he was going, he couldn’t be seen as weak. It was a long journey ahead of him, and he no longer had time for tears or useless emotions. His anger would keep him going.

                When he opened the door to the room, he could hear voices downstairs. His former packmates were down there, talking. He listened for a few moments, and heard a few people talking about him. His uncle was saying that he would be living with them. For a brief moment, Lukas felt guilty. He still had some family left, and his aunt and uncle would love him just like they did their own children. But he knew he couldn’t be happy if he was forced to stay in that pack. Not with Anthony as the alpha.

                Quietly, he closed the door. He wasn’t even going to attempt to get out of the house that way. Instead, he went to the window and opened it and stepped out onto the roof. Walking over to the edge, he looked down. It wasn’t too far of a drop, but Lukas would have preferred an easier way down. But unless he wanted to climb over to the other side of the house where there was a large tree, jumping off was the only way to go.

                Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and let himself drop to the ground below. He groaned as his body hit the ground. It had hurt, but he’d also experienced much worse. Picking himself up, he took off, leaving his aunt and uncle’s and heading back to his house. He would have left right then, but first he needed to figure out where he was going.

                It was nearly an hour before he made it home, and it was getting close to dusk. He found the spare key hidden by the back door and then went inside his home for the last time. In truth, it was no longer his home. Just a shell filled with the ghosts of happy memories.

                Those memories were almost enough to bring him to tears as he made his way through his former home. He walked past the place where his brother accidentally broke his nose when he was seven. They had been roughhousing and Paul had knocked Lukas face-first into a table. It was the same room where the two of them had built forts out of blankets and pillows and played games all night until they were too exhausted and fell asleep.

                Lukas remembered the first time he had shifted into his wolf form right there in the living room, and how happy his parents had been. His brother had shifted too and had tackled him. Because it had been his first time in wolf form, Lukas had been awkward, unsure of his movements, but he eventually felt just as comfortable as a wolf as he would be in human form, and he and Paul had chased each other around the house for what felt like hours.

                Doing everything he could to forget those memories, he went into his mom’s office, looking for the information he needed. After ten minutes, he found it and took everything he needed into a backpack. He remembered a stash of money his parents had for emergencies – technically, that money was supposed to go to the pack. But Lukas certainly didn’t want it to go to them. He didn’t want them to have anything. He ran to get the money, adding it to the contents of his backpack.

                Finally having everything he needed, he took one last look around the house. He almost wanted to burn it down to the ground to ensure that Anthony and the Mile High Pack couldn’t get anything from it. But he knew that there were some items that would go to his aunt and uncle – they would want the photos and other such things.

                He walked out the front door, not bothering to lock it up. For a few moments, he stood in front of the door, knowing he would never come back. Once again, tears threatened, but he refused to cry. He headed off the porch and ready to begin his journey when he saw two familiar faces waiting for him.

                His cousins, Sophia and Talon, stood there, just looking at him.

                “What the hell are you doing?” Sophia demanded to know. “Why’d you jump out the damn window?”

                “I’m leaving,” Lukas answered, not looking at them.

                “What? Where are you going?” Talon asked.

                “None of your business,” Lukas growled. He didn’t want to deal with his cousins at the moment. Or ever. He knew they wouldn’t come with him. They would remain part of the pack, and therefore, Lukas wanted nothing to do with them. “How’d you get here anyway?”

                “Jason drove us,” Sophia said, referencing their friend who was a few years older. The four of them had always been close, and Lukas knew that he would miss them. “Just come home, Lukas. We’ll help you get through this.”

                “I don’t need your help!” Lukas shouted. “Leave me alone!” He stormed past them, not wanting to talk to them anymore. He just wanted to be gone.

                Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to be following him. He’d made it down to the end of the street and was crossing to go into a park when he finally heard someone coming behind him. He growled, wishing they would just let him go. He turned around, expecting to see three wolves, but he only saw one. Talon.

                “Go away,” he growled at his cousin.

                “Lukas, you can’t just leave,” Talon said. “This is your pack.”

                “No,” Lukas said quickly. “It’s not. You can’t stop me.” Lukas started to walk away again, but Talon seemed to take his words as a challenge. Lukas turned around quickly when he heard Talon moving behind him and moved out of the way just before Talon tried tackling him.

                Things only got worse from there. Lukas didn’t really recall what had happened. It all seemed like a blur to him. All he really remembered was when it was over. Talon was lying on the ground and blood was everywhere. He saw Sophia and Jason running over. When they saw Talon, they froze, staring in shock at what had happened. They looked at Lukas, and for several moments, they stared at each other. Finally, Lukas turned and left.

                He never wanted to return.

Lukas waited impatiently for the sun to go down, as he did every day. He absolutely could not stand the heat, yet for some strange reason, he had moved to California three years ago. At first, he thought he might just get used to it - after all, the heat in his hometown didn't bother him nearly as much, and Denver could get pretty hot. But something about the year round heat got to him. At least in Colorado, he had the winter to look forward to.

Fortunately for Lukas, there was no need for him to go out during the day, and so he didn't. While he waited for night to fall, he sat in a chair next to the air conditioner. As he had done every day for the past four months, he stared at a crumpled piece of paper on the table. No matter how many times he crumpled it up and threw it across the room, he couldn't bring himself to throw it away, and so it ended up on the table for him to read over and over again.

He knew that eventually, he needed to give his former pack some kind of response. He had made it as far as entering the phone number, pressing send, and allowing it to ring once before hanging up. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to make the call. Maybe it was the wolf in him, but he couldn't tell them to screw off over the phone. It was something that had to be done in person.

Ever since receiving the letter, Lukas had known deep down that he would end up returning to the pack. He had been able to justify not going for the past several months, always coming up with a good excuse, or sometimes, a not so good excuse. Now, as he sat staring at the paper, he could not convince himself to delay much longer. It was time to get it over with.

Instead of leaving the apartment when he decided it was cool enough, he instead spent time packing a small bag. He knew he'd be on the road for a day and a half each way, and as long as he was going back to Denver, he might as well enjoy himself. He packed enough clothes for six days, not sure if he'd spend that much time there or not.

He locked the door on his way out and threw the bag into the passenger seat of his old, beat up Subaru. Despite its appearance, the vehicle ran well. However, Lukas had doubts about its ability to cross the Rocky Mountains.

He briefly considered leaving right then, but he knew he needed to at least let the pack he was living with know he would be gone. Lukas was not part of their pack, although not because they didn't want him - they offered to take him in as an official member several times but he always had to refuse. It wasn't that he didn't want the responsibilities of being part of a pack; he was always the first to volunteer to help others out. He simply didn't want any permanent ties.

He pulled up at the home of the alpha of the Valley pack and walked in without knocking - despite not being officially part of the pack, he was treated as one. After all, he did one of the most important jobs for them. It was oddly empty, but Lukas didn't care to find out why as he had more important things on his mind.

"Hey Brad," Lukas greeted the first pack member he ran into, a young man a few years younger than himself.

"Lukas," Brad said in return.

"Is Damian around?"

"In his office."

"Thanks." Lukas headed off to the office where Brad had directed him. 

Before opening the door to the office, Lukas knocked and waited for a grunt on the other side to let him know he could enter. The man inside was the alpha, after all, and even if Lukas was not truly part of the pack, he would not tolerate disrespect.

"I'm not going to be here for a while," Lukas said immediately upon entering.

"Hm. I see." Damian didn't bother looking up from the paper he was reading. "I take it you're going to Denver."

"How do you know?" Lukas was a bit shocked. As far as he knew, Damian wasn't telepathic, and Lukas wasn't even entirely sure that Damian knew he was from Denver.

"The pack there sent me a letter about three months ago requesting that I send you home if I saw you," Damian explained as he looked up at Lukas. "From the wording, I assumed they had sent a letter to you and you didn't want to go, so I didn't say anything. I knew you'd come to the right decision eventually."

Lukas could hear the slight disapproval in the alpha's voice. For a wolf, ignoring the needs of the pack was not a good thing. Even if Lukas was no longer affiliated with the Denver pack, it was at least his duty to find out what they wanted. "I should be back within a week," he said.

"You don't have to tell me these things, you know. You are, technically, a rogue wolf, allowed to come and go as you please."

"Yes, but I've been with you guys for so long, it just didn't feel right to leave without saying a word." Lukas paused before making his request. "And I also wanted to ask if there was a vehicle I could borrow. I don't know if mine will make it through the mountains."

"I knew you wanted something!" Damian wasn't angry, rather, he was amused as was evident by his laughter after he spoke. "I can't believe you even still drive that piece of shit Subaru. You know you can borrow the pack's cars whenever you like. Any preferences?"

"Good gas mileage?" Lukas hadn't expected Damian to let him borrow a car, even though he had offered many times in the past, claiming he didn't want to see his ugly old car anymore. "Preferably not a hideous color."

"Take the blue Accord," Damian said as he opened one of the drawers in his desk to retrieve the key. "And don't crash it."

"Don't crash mine either," Lukas said as he gave his key over to Damian.

"I won't crash it," Damian said with a mischievous grin. "Torch it, maybe."

"Thanks Damian," Lukas said before he left.

He took his bag from his car and walked down the street a bit to where the Accord was parked. As soon as he got in, he realized there wasn't a clutch. He reminded himself that driving an automatic would be worth making it over the mountains, and he started the car to return home for the first time in ten years.