Little public service announcement real quick. I'm going lambing for a fortnight (!!!) and since there will be no wifi and no time to do anything except eat, work + sleep, I've split this super long chapter into two halves to give you some sustenance in the gap.

Also, now that 'Wattpad Paid' is being rolled out properly, I feel the need to make a little disclaimer here. My books will always be free. Always. That is a promise. I'm not down with the idea of a paywall on this site, so we can all be poor together, as far as I'm concerned.

"Yeah, it wasn't difficult. We were in and out in twenty minutes tops. We made some noises, got him outside and away from his mam, and what do you know? Caught ourselves an Alpha," Nia was saying. "The chloroform worked a treat, but he did manage to clock me one before he went down."

Yes, I could see that. Nia had a fist-sized bruise beneath her left eye, and the skin over her cheekbone had split. She was still smiling, though. We all were. Just for added effect, she opened the back door of the car to show us Hayden Lloyd. He was lying across the back seat - unconscious, hooded and handcuffed. Beneath the hood, he was still being dosed with chloroform to keep him quiet until we could get out of mind-linking range.

"Good work," Mam said. "Both of you, that is. I don't think we can keep him down much longer without doing some damage, so you're going to the rendezvous. We'll join when we've made sure we're not being followed."

We watched them load into the car, and we watched them drive off. I was drowning in adrenaline by then. Heart racing, stomach free-falling and everything tingling ... it was the raiding high that we were forever chasing - the reward for gambling with your life and winning.

"One, two, three," Mam said next, pointing at Liam, Bryn and me. "Go and help Rhodri. I want you all back here within twenty minutes."

We left our clothes in neat piles and shifted. I was the size of a large husky, and that was being generous, but Liam's wolf was bloody massive. His pelt was the ashy silver of the old families, as opposed to Bryn's classic Llewellyn timber patterning. My own fur was patchy charcoal, much to my disgust. It wasn't my mother's inky black, and it wasn't my father's grey, but rather somewhere in between.

Liam came over to press his body against mine and nip at my ears. He was above me in the pecking order, but he didn't enforce it, so I felt perfectly safe to twist around and jump on him. I made sure he saw it coming, of course. It wasn't ever a good idea to surprise Liam. He threw me off him, and the two of us wrestled lazily until Bryn came and sat on us.

"Sometime today, please, cubs," Mam sighed.

We untangled ourselves with no small effort. I set off at a dead sprint to make up for the time we'd wasted, and the boys inevitably fell behind. Albeit not for a lack of trying. By the time we'd gone half a mile, they were both panting and sweaty.

Rhodri had been sent to play rear-guard before we'd even left the tracks, since he was practically a ghost when his scent was off. It was hard enough for us to find him - we had to follow the link and still nearly missed him, sprawled on his belly in a patch of ferns. He hadn't bothered shifting.

I lodged my muzzle in the place where his neck joined his shoulder and sneezed on him. Without even looking at me, he caught a handful of my scruff and pulled me over. I ended up lying on my side, grinning like an idiot. My tail beat softly against the ground.

"We've got a little shadow," Rhodri told us. A glance over his shoulder showed him Liam and his little brother waiting at a slightly more respectful distance. "Want to guess who?"

"Nah, nah. Don't ruin the surprise," Bryn said into an open link. "Can we handle them?"

"There isn't a person on this earth the four of us couldn't handle," I scoffed. I had rolled onto my belly to look a little more dignified. And it was probably true. Two Llewellyns, an Alpha's son and ... me. There was a reason Mam had sent all of us, and I was pretty sure it was in case Jace himself had decided to track us.

Rhodri pushed himself onto his knees and brushed the leaves from his jacket. "Yeah, I should hope so. You three can flank - I'll do the actual work."

None of us felt like arguing. He was the only one with opposable thumbs, after all. We split up, and I slunk through the trees, careful to keep my footfalls light. I had to cover twice as much ground as the boys because I was going to be the backstop, so I had to be fast and quiet.

I wasn't needed. None of us were. By the time we got there, Rhodri had already grabbed the stalker from behind. He had a hand around their throat and a borrowed switchblade nestled beneath their chin.

I slunk a little closer, letting my tail swing back and forth as the captive writhed in Rhodri's arms. She was quite obviously a girl - long hair and pretty bronze eyes. I recognised her, too, and I couldn't help grinning a little. It was the prison guard who'd gassed us.

Rhodri had his hands full. She didn't seem to care that there was a pointy object touching her jugular, so she was thrashing and gouging bloody furrows with her fingernails. It was only when she noticed us three wolves in the bushes that she gave up. Outnumbered and surrounded - her chances of escape had just plummeted.

Her hand did sneak towards her waistband, though, and I snarled a warning. Rhodri slapped the hand away and filched the gun she'd been reaching for. It was tossed rather unceremoniously into a bush, where Bryn went to snuff at it. Liam, on the other hand, came to stand alongside me so that we were nose-to-nose and tail-to-tail.

"If you link, I'll have to kill you," Rhodri warned the girl. "If you twitch again, I won't have to kill you, but there's a fair chance I'll do it just out of spite, okay?"

"Go to hell," she growled. But she didn't link, and she didn't twitch, so I reckoned we were alright.

Liam was leaning against me with all of his considerable weight, so I just stepped sideways and watched him tumble over. He lay where he'd fallen, sprawled out on his side, and he nipped at my forepaw and stared at me with those big dark eyes. They were somehow full of more adoration than reproach.

Rhodri loosened his hand on her throat a fraction but left the knife in place. "That's more like it. You're going to mind-link your Alpha now, and you're going to tell him that we're headed south. And don't think you can bullshit us - Bryn will hear every word you say."

She turned her head just far enough to glower at him. "I'm not doing that."

Liam had climbed back to his feet, and now he shook himself off vigorously. He clearly hadn't learnt his lesson. He leant against me again, this time so forcefully that I decided it wasn't worth arguing and just pitched onto my side, letting him fall against me. We lay in the bracken, tangled together and wonderfully distracting for the two people trying to have an actual serious conversation.

"Okay. That's cool. I'll just link my cousin and tell her to give Hayden a good beat-down," Rhodri was saying. It was an obvious bluff. Well, from my point of view, anyway. Rough as Rhodri was, he didn't stand for hurting people unless they tried to hurt someone else. The girl didn't seem to think so.

"You're a piece of work," she said furiously. "You know that? Hayden hasn't done shit to you."

"Yeah, but I'm a rogue, right? Why would I care?" he asked, starting to grin. "You have about three seconds to decide."

Cursing him out, she closed her eyes for a moment. We all looked at Bryn, who stretched his forelegs and wagged his tail. I guessed that was the 'all-clear.' When she opened her eyes again, Rhodri patted her down properly and took everything he could find, her wallet included. And then we hauled her back to our parents, because we didn't have the faintest idea what to do with her.

***

The girl was on her knees in the clearing. Rhodri had her arm twisted behind her back, and it didn't look very comfortable, but it was doing the trick. The rest of us were trying to get dressed and listen at the same time.

Liam was standing there shirtless, his belt undone and his hair tousled from the shift. My eyes were drawn as always, to the scars littering his chest. Some new, but most old. They were all shapes and sizes, but the most noticeable were the jagged slash beneath his collarbone, the line of silvery burn scars running down his left side, and the mess of teeth-marks around his throat.

There were occasions - this being one of them - when I got the overwhelming urge to murder each and every one of his half-brothers. I'd start with Mason, of course. Liam noticed me staring and pulled his shirt over his head. His smile was more teasing than smug, but it frustrated me all the same.

The flockie girl was wriggling again. She spat at Mam's feet even as Rhodri twisted her arm a fraction higher. Mam looked her over impassively and crooked an eyebrow. "New Dawn has girls fighting?"

"For years now," the girl said. "But I'm only the third."

She nodded. "Rules may change, but attitudes don't. What's your name, pup?"

"Hannah Rutherford."

She said her surname the same way we said ours. Like it was a weapon to be wielded, and I didn't like it one bit. Especially when Mam, Ollie and Fion exchanged a heavy look.

"I see why Jace sent you. I happened to like your dad," Mam said slowly. "Wouldn't feel right leaving his kid dead in a ditch, so ... I guess we have a second hostage. Rhodri, was she carrying handcuffs?"

He produced them, along with a can of pepper spray and a little pocket knife. Mam accepted them readily enough, and then she had Rhodri hold the girl's wrists out. Instead of simply cuffing her, she cuffed the two of them together.

Poor unsuspecting Rhodri let out a low growl. And growling at my mam ... that was ... that was not particularly wise.

Today, she must have been in a good mood because she just laughed at him. "Oh, shut up. You found her, you can watch her."

Hannah, meanwhile, was eyeing the cuffs with unmasked disgust. "He's a prick. Honestly, just knock me unconscious. I'd be much happier."

"I second that," Rhodri said. "She's a vicious little bitch, this one."

But, of course, pleading got them absolutely nowhere. Rhodri climbed into the car looking for all the world like someone had pissed in his cornflakes. Maybe his little crush on her had worn off. And if so, more was the pity. Rhodri tended to make the girls chase him, so it would have been nice to see him doing the running for once.

***

We were a long way from civilisation. Fion and Nia had tested the distances over which they could mind-link, since they were both tappers and both related, exactly like Hayden and his father, and it had turned out to be somewhere in the region of thirty miles. So naturally, we'd gone forty and ended up in a patch of dense forest north of Silver Lake.

Dad parked behind the other car. Rhys and Nia were lounging on a nearby verge because they'd been waiting for us, and they were grinning at something below them. Something we couldn't see yet. I didn't even wait for the car to stop before jumping out and strolling over to see what was going on.

Hayden Lloyd was sitting with his back to the car, all sullen like, legs sprawled out in front of him. His dark hair was tousled from the hood, and there was dried blood on his temple. He was still cuffed to the tow bar, so he wasn't going anywhere. He was now very much conscious ... and furious, by the look of it.

Rhodri, Liam and Hannah were in the other car, but I had Bryn with me, at least. He bumped his shoulder into mine and peered down at the flockie.

"Oh, how the tables have turned," he drawled, crouching down beside him.

"Not too close, Bryn," Nia said. She climbed to her feet and came to join us, folding her arms across her chest. "He's in a bad mood."

When Bryn was too slow to heed her warning, she caught the back of his shirt and pulled him over backwards. I was allowed to stay where I was, if only because I had left just the right amount of distance. If he really stretched, he might be able to skim the toe-end of my boots, but that was about it.

I stared at those sapphire blue eyes, wondering if there was a slip of fear hiding behind the frustration. He was alone amongst rogues, and we had no reason to be gentle with him.

"Your fans await," Nia told him. "Up."

Without breaking eye contact, he got onto his knees and waited while she unlocked one of the cuffs and pulled him up the rest of the way. She kept a knife point pressed against his back the whole time. He didn't struggle, so he'd clearly learned the hard way that Nia was not to be screwed with.

Mam had joined us by then. She looked at him with a wonky smile, and his whole body stiffened as he realised exactly whom he was dealing with. "Hello, Hayden. It's nice to meet you, and I do apologise for the circumstances."

Hayden scowled and stared at the dirt. He was not feeling particularly chatty, then. I wasn't sure I blamed him.

"This is Eva," Mam said next, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Take a good look at her. If you ever decide to run, she'll be the one who chases you down and drags you back here."

He lifted his eyes for a moment to stare at me, and I smirked back at him. The way he was eyeing me, with that typical Alpha arrogance ... I knew he reckoned he could outrun me, so it would be all the more enjoyable proving him wrong when he inevitably tried to escape.

"Hey there, flockie," I said.

No answer. Not even a growl. He just moved his eyes back onto the ground and let out a long breath which could almost have been a sigh.

"Give me your arm, Eva," Mam said.

I took a few hurried steps backwards. "Nah, you're going to-"

"Arm," she repeated, this time a lot sharper.

I let out a strangled groan and looked from my mother to Hayden and back again. "Please, Mam."

She just waited there, merciless and expectant, until I put my hand beside Hayden's and let her cuff the pair of us together. It was a good way to stop prisoners running off, I would admit - no one would get far with fifty kilos of dead weight, but it would ruin my entire evening.

I knew why I'd been chosen. Rhodri would kill him, Liam would kill him, and Bryn would drive him to kill himself. All the adults had 'better things to do' than babysit our hostage. Nia was off the hook because there was a fair chance he would be homophobic, since he was from New Dawn - the most devout of the packs by far. So that left me. The least problematic member of the new generation.

Mam left. She took Rhys and Nia with her, and they were headed into the trees. Emmett's raiders had set up camp this afternoon outside a disused barn. Bryn and I were left with Hayden, and I wasn't in a hurry to follow. There would be a score of raiders jeering at him from the second we set foot in that camp. No reason to rush into that. I wasn't sure if I was at the mercy of pity or caution.

"You're going to want to give me your wallet now," I told him. Now that we were alone, I was acutely aware that he was well over six-foot and probably twice my weight. He could kill me - no question there, and he looked grumpy enough to try it.

Hayden let out a disgusted snort. Not so quiet now that the adults were gone, eh? Interesting. "And why would I want to do that?"

I plastered on my best shit-eating grin. "Because someone is going to take it, and it'll be much less unpleasant for you if that person is me."

"She's right, mate, if you ask me," Bryn chimed in cheerfully. "Get it over with."

He looked between the pair of us and shook his head. "No. You want it, you can come and take it."

Well, obviously I wasn't going to do that. He'd probably break my arm. Instead, I pointed off into the distance. "Do you see that, flockie? That rainbow above the Silverstones? Do you know what that means?"

Hayden squinted at the distant clouds. "I- Where?"

And all the while Bryn had slunk behind him and was now reaching into the pocket of his jeans.

"Are you blind or something?" I demanded, moving my finger so wildly that he couldn't possibly follow it. "Right by there."

"I don't see anything," the pup-Alpha told me sternly, and I couldn't help smirking then. He noticed, he guessed it faster than I would have liked, and he twisted around to see Bryn, who was ... empty-handed? Shit almighty.

"Sorry," he groaned, skipping out of Hayden's reach before he could retaliate. "Wrong pocket."

"Bryn, you walnut," I sighed.

"That was a nice try. Ten out of ten for effort, but I'm left-handed," Hayden told us. And I grinned because I was a leftie, too, and I got a lot of shit for it. Something about being 'evil' and 'unlucky.'

"Shut it, would you?" I growled. "Can't you just believe I have your best interests at heart?"

He actually choked on his disbelief.

"She has her own best interests at heart, actually," Bryn said matter-of-factly, and I would have hit him if he'd been within reach. "You're stuck together all evening. If you get jumped, Eva gets jumped too. You can be stubborn all you like - she'll be the one who pays."

Oh, he was clever. The little Alpha was too proud to admit any fear for his own wellbeing, but he could protect the poor scrawny rogue girl. "I wasn't... I didn't think about that."

I shrugged at him, moving my eyes onto the floor and playing sullen. As if the raiders would dare hurt Skye Llewellyn's daughter. They'd push me around if they had to, and they might throw a few punches, but it would be nothing that wouldn't heal in a few days. Hayden fell for it hook, line and sinker, though. He sighed, reached into his jeans pocket and tossed me his wallet.

It was ... substantial. I could see the edges of notes even before I opened the thing. There were several shiny cards, a book token for Waterstones, his driving licence and half a dozen twenties. A good haul for a raid, let alone for picking a pocket. I palmed off two of them to Bryn for his contribution, and I pocketed the rest. It was a shame we couldn't use the cards, really.

"How much is on here?" I asked Hayden, spinning one of the cards between my fingers. "Just out of curiosity, like. Ten grand? Hundred-thousand? More?"

He watched me with a sort of weary amusement. "You don't know how credit cards work, do you?"

"Nah, not really," I admitted, tucking the wallet into my back pocket. "And why would I? If you've got more money than you can fit in your pockets, you've got too much money, and that's a bloody fact."

"She's right. But thanks for the cash, mate," Bryn said cheerfully. The twenties had vanished as quickly as they'd appeared, and I had no doubt at least one would be spent on alcohol before midnight.

Hayden's eyebrows flew upwards, a scowl twisting his lips. "A rogue saying thank you? Am I dreaming?"

"Stow the prejudice for just one minute, would you?" I laughed. "We're going to head to the camp now. They'll shout at you - fair warning. Try not to look too ... Alpha, or whatever."

Hayden looked into the trees and scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. "Right. Any more helpful advice?"

He was joking, I reckoned, but it was too good an opportunity to miss. If we were going to have him here for months, we might as well make a proper rogue out of him. "Yeah, actually. Don't screw with Nia. In fact, don't even, like, look at her funny. Don't do anything you shouldn't in front of Ellis, 'cause he's a bloody snitch. And if Bryn starts talking to you, it's socially acceptable to just walk in the other direction, and I'd advise it, to be honest."

Here, Bryn made a little noise of protest. I just stared at him until he looked skyward and scratched his head, thinking about it. He even muttered, "That's fair."

"Yeah, it is." I looked back at Hayden. "Stay away from yew trees. You're gonna want to be nice to Rhodri if we see him. And don't pretend like Pine Forest is real, because none of us appreciate that flockie propaganda."

"Pine Forest is - what?" Hayden demanded, turning to face me properly, which proved to be quite awkward. I had to keep my arm raised to keep a reasonable distance between us.

But it was Bryn who stepped in with a delicate cough and an utterly deadpan expression. "Well, Mr Lloyd, some of our number have expressed a ... ahem, disbelief in the existence of Pine Forest. Myself included, if I'm being honest."

"Careful, Bryn," I muttered, throwing him a dirty look. "He might think we're kidding. This isn't just superstitious nonsense, alright? There's hard proof that-"

"I've been there," Hayden said flatly.

"I believe you think you've been there," I laughed. "And what did I just say, mate? Don't fight us on this. We don't appreciate it."

He closed his eyes as if I was causing him actual physical pain and then just went back to staring at me. There was at least ten percent more exasperation in his eyes now, and that was a win in my books.

"The last piece of advice," I said, "is stick up for yourself. This whole rising-above-it thing you've got going on ... it's cute and all, but it doesn't work on rogues. Talk back, for Goddess' sake."

"I'll be half a rogue myself if I do all of that," Hayden muttered, looking to the sky like he was hoping a dragon would swoop down and rescue him.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Why not?" he laughed. "You're all thieves and murderers, for a bloody start."

I tried not to get too offended - I had literally just told him to stick up for himself, after all.

"It's not murder when it's self-defence," I told him. "As for the thievery ... well, I steal only what I can't afford."

"That's everything," Bryn chimed in, like I knew he would.

We walked towards the camp, and he broke into song, of course. I murmured along for the parts I knew - few and far between, because it wasn't like I'd ever seen the movie. Our evening campfires were the only reason I had even heard of it. Any song about stealing was a campfire song.

"Gotta steal to eat, gotta eat to live, otherwise we'd get along," Bryn belted out for the entire forest to hear as we passed the sentries. If he'd been human, he would have been a theatre kid, because he had a real flair for the dramatic and absolutely no fear of embarrassing himself.

"I doubt it, somehow," Hayden muttered.

We could see the edge of camp by then - camouflage-print tents arranged in a rough semi-circle. The barn was a little further back, but I could make out a splash of red paint. As soon as we laid eyes on the camp, the inhabitants laid eyes on us. There was a lynch mob of raiders gathering around one of the campfires, waiting for the arrival of their shiny new Alpha hostage. And boy were they angry.