“Listen up! We got a big gig tomorrow night!”

I perked up in my little tent and crawled out to see our leader, Kent, walking through our encampment in an abandoned parking garage with an excited expression on his face. Eager to hear more, I sat on my knees just outside my portable home to wait for the others to gather around.

“It’s a huge one,” Kent continued, pacing a little. “We’re joining forces with three other clans for this because it’s so big!”

I sat back as my interest and excitement already vanished, and worry took their place. I could already see the red flags, but I hoped I was wrong.

“Just wait until you hear this. It was Grant who came up with the plan. We’re going to live so comfortably for a long time after this!”

I peered around and saw both excited and doubtful expressions all around me. Then I spotted my best friend, Payton, who was already making his way to me from his tent. He raised his eyebrows at me when our eyes met. I let out a small sigh to let him know I didn’t like the sound of this plan at all. He rolled his eyes, agreeing with me, and came to sit down next to me on the concrete floor.

“We’re going to be so fucked…” he murmured.

“I know, right…” I mumbled back.

Big gigs meant big headlines, and our little clan was hated enough as it was. But I still held my hopes up. Maybe this was actually a good plan. Money had been so tight lately we could barely eat, after all.

“Everyone here? Good! Listen up!” Kent spoke and stopped in the middle of our tents and slowly turned around to see us all. “You know the mafia is weak right now, right?”

“Oh, no…” both Payton and I breathed out in disappointment.

“So! Tomorrow! We’re raiding The Clover Hill Village!” Kent declared, his arms spread like he expected loud applause.

He didn’t really get any.

“The Clover Hill Village?” asked Derek, one of Kent’s best friends who usually was up for anything our leader came up with.

“Yeah,” Kent said, disappointed with us because we didn’t share his enthusiasm. “Come on! That neighborhood has some serious money!”

“That neighborhood is mafia’s territory! It’s their leader’s home!” Derek argued back.

“It was their leader’s home! Michael Mercer is gone! The terrorists took him out!” Kent said angrily. “Besides, the mafia is just a bunch of old has-beens. Their era is over. But we are growing stronger. If we raid Clover Hill, we’ll show everyone just how strong our looter clans have become!”

Everyone peered at Derek, who gritted his teeth together and said nothing. Kent walked to him and kneeled in front of him.

“Maybe it’s our time to control this territory. The mafia’s glory days are long gone, and now their leader is half dead. Even True Order terrorists have noticed how weak they have become. That’s why they tried to kill him and almost succeeded in it,” Kent spoke, then turned to us. “You all know I’m right, right?”

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right…

“This city should be ours!” Kent continued, and hopped back up on his feet. “Together, our four clans are bigger and stronger than what is left of the old mafiosos. We could easily claim this territory. We could easily rule the underworld of Maryland!”

“But Mercer is not dead yet,” I said, and Kent turned to me.

“Let us alphas handle this, okay, love?” he told me with a smile and turned his back on me.

“And what about the army?” I asked, and he slowly turned back to me.

“Don’t worry about the army, baby,” he said, still smiling. “They fight terrorists. Are we terrorists? No. We are just simple little looters. They don’t care about us.”

Payton let out a quiet snort next to me. I let out a breath and chose to stay silent. For now. I decided to talk to him once we were alone because right now he was too high on his excitement to listen to reason.

“We really have nothing to worry about,” Kent spoke to us all. “We have a good, solid plan. We raid the village as one big group. We break into as many houses as we can, take whatever we can carry, and run. We’ll be in and out before the army gets their cars running, and we’ll be long gone before they arrive.”

“But the homeowners will have guns,” Derek kept trying to convince him to give up on this plan.

“So do we,” Kent said with a grin.

“No, we don’t,” Derek said in confusion.

It was clear Kent was growing frustrated with him. “We’re getting guns from Grant’s clan, all right? He’s been planning this attack ever since Mercer got himself shot. He has everything we need!”

Many of us peered at each other, trying to decide what to think of this plan. Kent gave us a moment, but his frustration was taking control over him.

“Come on! I thought you guys would be happy! We can get so much money out of this that we don’t have to worry about anything in months! Or would you rather keep stealing one wallet at a time and risk getting caught every time you try to steal bread so you can eat at least something, huh?”

With that, he was finally gaining attention. Even Derek stopped to consider his words.

“…How much money are we talking about?” Derek finally asked.

“Loads. They have jewelry and money and electronics and art and all the good stuff we can get our hands on! Grant knows people who will buy everything we steal! And the houses in the Clover Village are so easy to break into because they’re so tiny!” Kent said, getting his excitement back. “Trust me, guys. We should do this. It’s such an easy fucking gig! And we won’t be alone this time. There’s like a hundred of us. It’ll be fine.”

The others were really warming up to it now…

I glanced at Payton. His attitude had changed, and he was now staring at Kent like he was an amazing miracle. I elbowed him and frowned at him in a scolding manner when he looked at me. He quickly dropped his amazed expression and changed it to an unimpressed glare when he turned back to Kent.

I let out a silent sigh. I knew he was already sold, just like the rest of them. He liked money too much…

But I still had my worries. We’d be fine, sure. We were criminals, homeless thieves living under bridges and collapsing buildings. Even if we got caught by the army or cops, we’d probably avoid getting thrown into jail because the terrorists had bombed most of them to smithereens. There simply wasn’t enough room for us, and if there was… Well, we didn’t need to sleep under bridges while we served our time.

And the mafia… Kent was probably right. There weren’t many of them left, and those who were still around were getting old. They didn’t like us, anyway, so there was no reputation to take care of.

But those people in that Village… Many of them used to be just like us. Homeless and hopeless. They, too, had lost everything when the war against True Order terrorists broke loose two decades ago, and still continued. They’d just gotten their lives back in order, thanks to Governor Morgan and her attempts to erase homelessness in our state. That village was one of the many tiny-home societies she was building all over the state.

It felt wrong to attack those people… And I seriously doubted they had serious money like Kent claimed.

Our dear leader spent a moment longer hyping us up, then told Derek and his other two friends to follow him. I hesitated, but I ended up running after them when they headed to a small building that used to be a guard station, but which we’d turned into our little shelter from bad weather.

I caught up with them when they reached the door.

“Kent, wait…” I said, and he let out a sigh, but faced me, anyway.

“Yes?” he asked, while his friends entered the building.

“I don’t think we should do it,” I said.

“Why not?” he asked, clearly just to humor me.

“It’ll just piss people off. It’ll be all over the news. Our lives will become much harder in this city,” I said calmly.

“You’re saying that like our lives are somehow easy,” he noted.

“It could be worse,” I said, stepping closer to him.

“What did you eat today?” he asked.

“I… I found some apples this morning,” I said.

“Hmm. Apples,” he said. “You found them in a dumpster?”

“I… Yeah…” I mumbled.

He chuckled, then rested his hands on my hips and pulled me against him.

“After tomorrow’s gig, I’ll take you out to a restaurant,” he told me, and planted a kiss on my lips. “We’ll celebrate like movie stars!”

I chuckled a little and placed my arms around his shoulders. “It just feels wrong…”

“We have to do what we have to do,” Kent said. “They’ll get their money back through insurance.”

“I guess…” I mumbled. “But I’m still worried.”

“Hey,” he said gently, and hugged me tighter. “It’s my job as your alpha to worry about these things. You just look pretty and leave thinking to me, okay?”

“Okay…” I murmured, taking in his scent.

“Good. Now, go put on something nice for me and warm up the bed. I think I deserve a little treat for my hard work today,” he told me with a smirk and roughly squeezed my butt, then stepped back. “I’ll be right there with you once I’m done here.”

“O-okay,” I murmured, and watched him enter the building.

I guess there was no changing his mind, then… I wished everything would go just fine, but…

I really doubted it.