Nice looong chapter to apologise for the week of absence. I've been bitten, shat on, kicked in the face, stabbed with needles, spray-painted, sat on, trampled and covered in some very questionable bodily fluids, and it's safe to say I've never had more fun in my entire life. Have to say goodbye to my lambies in a few days :(

The jeering started. We had two raiding teams, which meant nearly thirty raiders. And all of them came out to gawk at Hayden. Most gathered around to shout abuse at him. It was almost dark, with most of the light coming from the cookfires, and that only added to the effect.

"That thing I told you about talking back..." I said under my breath. "That don't apply right now. Mouth shut, eyes down, alright?"

He looked at me, cool as anything, and he nodded. But I saw his throat bob, I could hear his heart thumping along in his chest, and I knew he was nervous at the very least. And why not? I knew how I'd feel if there was a small army of flockies mobbing me.

Even as I thought that, one of Emmett's men crashed into us, fist cocked to take a swing. He was very, very drunk, if the smell of his breath was any indicator. Bryn managed to catch his arm and knock him onto his arse, luckily for Hayden. But the crowd was getting braver. They started pressing too close, the cussing turned into shoving, and I had to acknowledge that I was in over my head.

I pulled on my mind-links to Nia and Liam and Rhodri and all of our parents, hoping one of them would be close enough to help out. And then I shoved Hayden backwards until his back hit a tree and put myself in front of him. It was awkward. I had to keep my arm twisted behind me, so I only had one free hand to shove at the raider's chests.

They didn't care that I was in the way, of course. Bryn was now brawling somewhere out of reach, so it was just me versus a score of half-drunk and furious raiders. One of the closest idiots even flicked out his switchblade. And all my filthy swearing didn't stop him taking a swipe at Hayden. I knocked it wide with the back of my arm — more dumb luck than skill. And a moment later, another guy dragged him backwards and took the knife from him.

Finally. Someone with sense.

"I don't need you protecting me," Hayden snapped into my ear.

"Yes, you do, flockie," I laughed. "Oh, yes, you do."

I saw a flash of motion in the corner of my eye and twisted fast, getting between the flockie and a dark-haired young man. A fist lodged in my gut, just below my ribs, knocking the breath right out of me. And while I was enduring that horrible moment when it felt like I couldn't breathe in or out and my lungs burned, Hayden decked the guy responsible.

Bloody hell.

It was a solid blow to the jaw, and it was technically brilliant, but it was a very, very bad idea. The victim— And oh, look, it was Joel. What a surprise. Colour me shocked. Anyway, he lunged for the pair of us with a very nasty look in his eye, and I took a hard knock to the cheekbone to reward my efforts to keep them apart.

I went reeling backwards. Hayden's second punch was intercepted by another guy, who caught hold of his arm and started twisting. And there was nothing either of us could do to stop Joel getting a hand around the flockie's throat. He squeezed hard enough to make Hayden retch.

Then a snarl ripped through the ruckus, and Nia's shadow fell over me as she put herself between me and her dumbass raiders. Silence came down like a ton of bricks, with each and every one of our attackers taking a few large steps backwards. The hand on Hayden's neck returned to its owner before my cousin could see it.

"What the hell is going on here?" Nia demanded. She had Lily with her, and the girl was openly smirking. She'd always liked chaos. "Scram, all of you, before I lose my temper."

And the cowards listened. Some were slower to move than others, but soon I had a good ten-metre radius in which to catch my breath and wheeze out a few swearwords. I even managed to smirk at Joel as he followed them like a beaten dog.

"Alright, Eva?" Lily asked.

I straightened up and nodded my head. Bryn limped back towards me with a rueful grin. Someone had blackened his eye, but he looked fine otherwise.

"Good," Nia said, sighing in Hayden's direction. He was standing tall and sullen, but I was close enough to smell the lingering hint of fear on his breath. "Take him somewhere quieter, would you? I'd rather not spend all evening shouting at them."

"Yeah, yeah. Any idea where my tent is?"

She pointed me towards the barn, and I spotted the mud-splattered two-man that I shared with my little sister pitched against the wall itself. I made a beeline for it, pulled the flap back and leaned into the entrance as far as I could manage without pulling Hayden off his feet. This was as quiet as our camps ever got.

"And how are you, Eira?" I asked cheerfully.

"Doing alright, yeah." My sister was sat on her bed — a proper air mattress to spare her back, with pillows and everything. She grinned at me, but her eyes soon slid onto the towering young man behind me. She must have heard by now. "I'd say come in, but I don't think he's going to fit, is he?"

He probably would. The number of times I'd shared a two-man with Rhodri and Liam didn't even bear thinking about. But Bryn was still tagging along behind us, and four of us would be a squeeze.

"Good shout. I'll leave this idiot with you, though," I told her, jerking my head at Bryn. He'd sleep in my bed, like always, and I'd go and wriggle my way between Rhodri and Liam once the camp was asleep. "Need anything while I'm here?

Moving camp always tired her out. She had to sit in the car, and then she had to wait around while they set up the tents, and so she usually just went straight to bed when everything was done. I was surprised to see her still awake, to be honest.

"Yes, actually," she muttered. "A hand with these boots."

She was sat on top of her sleeping bag and not inside it because she couldn't get them off. It wasn't that they were particularly difficult. It was more that she couldn't reach them without upsetting her back and that her fingers were always shaky and cramping.

I tried picking at the laces with my free hand. It didn't go well, and eventually, I had to make way for Bryn to help her. Once they were off, she eased her way into the sleeping bag inch by excruciating inch, waving off Bryn's tentative offers to help.

Hayden, meanwhile, was staring at her like she had two heads. "Are you ... like, disabled or something?"

Bryn actually snarled at him — a vicious, richly-layered sound he didn't make often. Eira's mouth just twisted into a scowl which was more indignant than angry. "You can go and screw yourself, flockie."

"Sorry about him," I sighed, pushing Hayden backwards. "Zero sensitivity and still learning when he needs to keep his damned mouth shut. I'll get him out of your way now."

I should never have brought him in the first place. My wolf was pushing at the boundaries, always ready to protect Eira whether she needed it or not. It would have been ... quite unwise for my cowardly little mongrel to pick a fight with a fully-fledged Alpha, so I wrestled with her and tried to smother the growl building in my chest.

If Hayden noticed the blackness tinting my irises, he said nothing. And luckily for me, he kept his own wolf from rising to it. The last thing we needed was a dominance squabble while we were cuffed together.

Eira had managed to lie herself down by then. She even mustered up a tolerant smile for me. "Night, bitch."

I leant down to flick her ear. "Yeah, yeah. Love you, babes."

And then I put a hand on Hayden's chest and gave him a clumsy shove so we both ended up on the outside of the tent. It wasn't necessary. Not really. He had been trying to move of his own accord. Instead, he stumbled on a rut in the mud and narrowly avoided a tumble which would surely have taken me down with him. The flap fell closed behind us.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded.

Hayden scratched at his head. "I've just... I don't know."

"You know what I think?" I asked him roughly. "I think you're just starting to realise that we're people, too. You've only ever met the raiders, and it hasn't occurred to you that we have elders and kids and ill folk."

He shrugged, avoiding my eyes. "That works both ways, you know. You've only seen our civilians because you break into their homes and terrify them."

"You like falling back on the 'rogues are nasty criminals' argument, don't you? Well, you flockies have more money than you could ever need, and we don't have enough to live on. Would it kill you to share? No. Would it kill us to stop raiding? Yes, probably."

"You could hunt and forage. Get human jobs, even," Hayden offered sullenly.

"With my non-existent qualifications and a forged national insurance number?" I laughed. "Sure. I'll head down to the jobcentre tomorrow. As for hunting and foraging ... well, when was the last time you tried living off the land? It's not easy. Shoes and clothes don't grow on trees around here, neither."

He didn't know what to say to that. Hopefully, I'd made him think, at least. If he stuck around for long enough, perhaps I could even make a rogue sympathiser out of him. As things stood, it would be game-changing to have even one Alpha who didn't hate our guts. Mam could screw with his dad all she liked — I was making my own little schemes.

"There you are," someone said from behind me. I turned fast enough to crick my neck, and I found myself staring at Liam. He must be answering the distress call. A little late, perhaps, but at least he'd stirred himself.

"Yeah, you found me. And just look at this shit," I muttered, waving my cuffed wrist.

Liam started laughing at me. Once he'd started, he didn't seem to want to stop, no matter how loud I growled. It was only when he saw the blood dripping from my arm that the sound died in his chest. His eyes flicked to Hayden and back, doubtless wondering if he was responsible, but I shook my head ever so slightly.

I knew the knife had nicked me because it was stinging, but I'd been pretending not to notice to intimidate the flockie. Now the whole sleeve of my jacket was soaked red, and it probably looked a lot worse than it was.

Liam caught my wrist and checked the cut, his scowl growing with every passing moment, and then his fingers lifted my chin to look at the bruise darkening on my cheekbone. "Who did this?"

Normally, I would have considered that snitching and kept my mouth shut, but it was Liam. It didn't count. "Who'd you think? He was after the flockie, mind, not me."

I could blame Joel for both. Better that than admit I didn't know knife-guy's name even after years of sharing a camp with him.

"I could give a shit who he was after. He'll take any bloody excuse to hit you, and I'm getting tired of it."

"Forget him, alright?" I said, knowing full well he wouldn't. "Let's focus on the real problem here. Like what did I do to deserve this?"

I jangled the handcuffs pointedly and tried not to laugh when Hayden looked offended. He was the one who'd been kidnapped today, and I was the one who was complaining, but I reckoned I was well within my rights. I was a pleasure to be around. He was tolerable at best.

"It's more likely to be what you didn't do," Liam said.

True enough. On any other day, I might have agreed with him, but I'd done everything I'd been told today, and I'd done it perfectly. So perhaps Mam wasn't trying to punish me at all. Perhaps I'd made the mistake of appearing reasonably competent and now she was trusting me with other things ... like guarding the hostage.

Huh. If that was the case, it was very easily remedied. All I had to do was screw up, and I was incredible at screwing up.

"Are you calling me lazy?" I demanded, rather belatedly. Not because I disagreed, but more because I loved bickering with him. "Say it again, I dare you — and we'll see if your fists back you up."

His eyes sparked with amusement, and he took a mocking step backwards, holding his hands up in surrender. "Mm. Thank you, but I'll take a hard pass on that one."

"Because you know you'd lose," I drawled. Liam answered that with a lopsided smile, not even bothering to deny it. And it was the truth, if only because he had never once fought me properly. He was too soft for that.

"You're cute when you're angry, Eva," he told me, slinging an arm around my shoulder and squeezing tight for a heartbeat despite my squirming. "We've got some chairs. I'll join you as soon as I've taken a piss."

And with that, he released me and trudged off into the trees. Hayden stared after him, his eyes wide as saucers and his voice tight with wariness. "Who's that?"

"Oh, you can feel his wolf, huh?" I laughed. "Some more advice for you, flockie — leave him well alone."

"Is he a hostage, too?"

He reckoned Liam might be friends with him just because they were both flockie-born. I might have laughed at that, but I was far too busy laughing at the question itself. Because, yes, Liam had technically been a prisoner to begin with.

I'd found him in a ravine just south of Silver Lake. I'd watched him run from a couple of pack fighters, and I'd watched them catch him. It had been the seventh time he'd run away from home, so they hadn't even bothered waiting for his brothers to arrive before beating the shit out of him.

I'd hidden in some ferns and summoned the full force of my family to deal with the flockies. You might have thought Liam would be grateful for such an unlikely rescue, but he'd had a few minor trust issues, so he'd tried to shank my uncle. And ... well, kidnapping was the only word for what had happened next. He hadn't spoken to us for several long weeks, let alone expressed any desire to stick around.

"Oi, Liam. Hold up a sec," I called, and he turned around to raise an eyebrow. "Hayden here wants to know if we're holding you hostage."

Liam came back over, his mouth stretched into a lazy grin, and he stopped a little too close to Hayden, who'd gone very tense. "Oh yeah? Guess he's dumber than he looks."

They were obviously squaring up. I squirmed between them and put a hand on Liam's chest to stop him getting any closer. "Hey, hey, now. Play nice. He's not so bad, I don't think. A little too smooth around the edges, maybe, but he's been throwing punches at the raiders already, so I reckon we'll be able to fix that."

That caught Liam's interest. "Who'd he punch?"

"Joel," I said and watched his face sour. "See? You and the flockie will get on fine."

"We'll see," he said grudgingly. "Seats are that way."

He pointed us to a circle of camping chairs around one of the firepits before taking his leave. Rhodri and Hannah were waiting there, their chairs pushed together and their cuffed hands sprawled across the armrests. I followed their example with Hayden.

He took a long time to notice Hannah. Like ... an embarrassingly long time. When he finally did, it was more because she coughed than his alertness.

"Han? What are you—?" he began haltingly. "Oh no. Tell me you didn't—"

Hannah thumped his shoulder. "Of course I came after you, dumbass. It's my job, isn't it?"

Hayden groaned and put his head in his hands. If I'd thought he was upset about being kidnapped ... well, it didn't really compare to this. I even wondered if they might be mates for a moment, but they had been looking at each other with the practised nonchalance of family members, not making lovey-dovey eyes.

Rhodri sniggered at them. "Is she your bodyguard or something? She's kinda scrawny. No offence or anything..."

Hayden looked up again and made a facial expression which... might have been a grin. "Hannah is my Beta."

"Why didn't you just say you were mated when I was flirting with you?" Rhodri demanded of her. "Bloody hell. Never stood a chance, did I?"

I could almost see his ego mending right before my eyes.

"I'm not mated, actually," Hannah said, and she sat up a little straighter.

"Hannah is my Beta," Hayden repeated.

So ingrained was the flockie sexism that we all struggled to make sense of that for a full minute. I reeled through the possibilities — that her mate had died, that she might be trans, that they had decided to appoint their male and female Betas separately. And I finally settled on the realisation that Hayden had simply chosen a girl, and New Dawn had accepted it ... somehow.

"Oh," I muttered after what felt like an age. "Well, it's about damn time. Have you decided to stop being homophobic while you're at it?"

Having a female Beta was a leap. Having openly gay Betas would be a jump through the space-time continuum for certain packs. Probably further away than having a rogue for an Alpha. There was no point applauding them for the tiny bit of progress they'd made when there was still so far to go.

Hayden looked at me sharply. "We're not homophobic."

"No?" I asked. "I'll believe it when I see it, and even if you aren't, your parents will be."

"There is so much you don't know, rogue," Hayden said, and his grin was back.

He was welcome to think so if it made him feel better.

Someone had bought marshmallows. The packet was passed around. I didn't really trust Hayden with a pointy stick, so I roasted two and let him take one when they were beginning to melt. I could hear his stomach grumbling periodically. It was safe to assume the packlings ate dinner a little earlier than we did, but they'd have to wait. I wasn't walking all the way to the cookfires for their sakes.

Hannah refused hers, so Rhodri had two every time the packet came around. I knew she wanted one because her eyes followed the little pink things ceaselessly, but I reckoned she was still having trouble swallowing her pride. Her Stockholm Syndrome hadn't quite kicked in yet. Hayden, on the other hand, was drowning in it. He actually said thank you for his.

We'd make a rogue of him yet. The first step would be knocking those nice flockie manners out of him.

The wind howled through the trees. It might have been summer, but no one had told the weather yet, so it was cold up in these hills. There was usually one day — two if we were really lucky — bang in the middle of August when we could walk around in t-shirts from dawn until dusk, but that day was not today.

The flockies kept looking at the creaking branches above them, doubtless wondering if they were about to become human pancakes. The next time the wind blew, the alder behind us let out a piercing shriek, and Hayden nearly jumped out of his skin. I'd probably have laughed at him if I hadn't noticed that the latest gust carried a new smell.

Rhodri had flicked his scent switch at long last. He could usually hold it for two hours comfortably and five when he was really trying, so I reckoned he must have a nasty headache by now. Unfortunately, the longer he kept it off, the worse he smelt afterwards.

I wrinkled up my nose, making sure Rhodri saw me, but Hannah ... her reaction was entirely disproportionate. First, she flinched, then she took a few good sniffs, and then shock trickled down her body. Her pupils flared, her mouth gaped open, and she went rigid. Horror and confusion warred in those pine-bark eyes.

Rhodri noticed her expression and laughed at her.

"What the hell did you just do?" she demanded, eyeing him with open contempt.

He shrugged and took another marshmallow. No reason to explain the magic to the flockies — they called the scentless raiders 'ghosts,' and it was always fun to watch them puzzling over how anyone could move without leaving a trail. And even when he was right in front of them with his scent off, as he had been today, no one ever noticed. It wasn't something you actively checked for in human form.

"I know you did something."

"No comment," Rhodri said, the sudden tension in his body singing a warning.

Thoughts raced behind Hannah's eyes. She took the hint and dropped it even as she sat forwards in her chair. "How old are you, anyway? What, like twelve?"

I sniggered, but Rhodri knew she was trying to annoy him and didn't rise to it, much to my disappointment. His marshmallow was starting to char, so he pulled it from the fire and ate it whole. "Seventeen."

"And what? Three days?"

"And ten months," he said as he licked the melted remnants from his fingers. "Why all the questions? Have you got me a birthday present?"

"Just curious," she muttered. And that was it. She sat back in her chair and chewed at her fingernails while the rest of us teased Hayden and fended off the many raiders who came to a fireside for a look at the Alpha-to-be.

She didn't speak again until Finn turned up with a six-pack of cider. I did feel a little bad that I'd cancelled the dinner with him yesterday at the last minute. It had felt too much like a date, in the end, and I didn't do dating. Not with anyone. Not even for free food.

So Finn was being a little cool with me, and that was exactly the way I liked it. I made an effort to introduce him to the flockies. I accepted a cider when he offered. I even asked him how his day had been. But you wouldn't catch me sitting at his heels like a lovesick puppy, and you certainly wouldn't catch me chasing after him.

"You didn't tell me you were going raiding," he told me.

I regarded him through slightly narrowed eyes. "Yeah, well, you didn't tell me what you ate for lunch today."

Finn blinked at me. When he'd recovered, he looked Hayden over, probably wondering if he was the reason for my sudden disinterest in him. "Pretty boy, ain't he? The flockie, I mean. Hope he knows you're cousins."

What a creative and yet obtuse way to mark his turf. He may as well have pissed in a circle around me. Hayden looked up at Finn for a moment and might have started a staring contest if I hadn't smacked his chest. He didn't look the slightest bit surprised, so it was safe to assume he'd been keeping track of his family tree.

I moved my chair forward a few inches so they couldn't look at each other, then drew my legs to my chest to keep the chill at bay. "He hasn't tried hitting on me yet, so I'd imagine he does."

"Damn. The ego on you, Eva..." Rhodri drawled.

I shrugged at him lazily. "Look who's talking."

With that, I took another sip of cider. Just to make a point to Finn, I extended the can to Hayden next, who was looking quite nonplussed that we were talking about him like he wasn't there. He took a tentative sip and then a fully-fledged gulp. He'd need every drop of the stuff if he was going to escape this evening with his sanity, I reckoned, so I ignored his attempts to return the can.

And that seemed to give Rhodri an idea — a way to make peace with his newest archenemy. He, too, offered his can to Hannah, who looked away coldly. "No thanks. I don't want herpes."

Well, at least he'd tried. I'd give him that. Normally, when he got grumpy with someone, that was the end for them. If we hadn't grown up together, I wasn't entirely sure we'd be friends. I was exactly the sort of person who'd get on his nerves — a big mouth and zero work ethic.

He must have been a brilliant mood today, because even that failed to get on his nerves. He finished the cider and crushed the can, the beginnings of a smirk on his lips. "That's a strange way to imply that I go down on girls, but you're not wro—"

"Rhodri, you whore," I complained, swatting at him. "No one wants to know, alright? Literally no one. Oh, and you need to revise the birds and the bees, I think, because that was reaching at best."

"How the hell else would I have got—"

"Kissing, you jackass." At this point, Rhodri made a soft oh sound, and I rolled my eyes skyward. "Now can you lay off her, please? She's a prisoner — it's not cool."

He stretched his legs out and scoffed. "What the hell does it matter that she's a prisoner?"

"It's called a power imbalance. If she tells you to go to hell, you could break her face, for all she knows," I told him.

This was stuff Nia had taught me. She'd seemed to have it all sussed out at the age of sixteen, somehow, and she'd made damn sure Eira and I knew it, too. It was only now occurring to me that she probably should have told the boys, because as much as I loved them, there was always room for improvement.

I couldn't help but think of Liam. It was safe to assume that his mam hadn't exactly offered to sleep with his dad, who'd been twice her age and vile. There was no one to tell an Alpha no, and there was the constant threat of eviction from the pack to keep everyone in line. So I could only hope Hayden was paying attention to this discussion.

"Oh," Rhodri said eventually. "Okay. Sorry, flockie."

He didn't get much response, unsurprisingly. Hannah was pretending she couldn't hear us, but I could see the lines around her forehead deepening. She looked ... confused, mostly. What about was anyone's guess.

"So ... if she were to flirt with me," Rhodri continued after a moment, his mouth once again twitching upwards at the corners, "would that be okay?"

Hannah's eyes were now fixed on the sky above her, and I could see her knuckles whitening. She wanted to punch him, probably, and I couldn't say I blamed her.

"Yes, but you'd have to ignore her," I told Rhodri. "And there you go again, by the way. Stop it."

He looked wounded. "That wasn't— Nah. It was hypothetical, like."

"Let's just avoid talking about flirting and all related activities, yeah?"

Hell would freeze over before that happened, and I knew it, but Rhodri offered me a careless shrug. "Fine with me."

Yeah, sure. I'd believe it when I saw it. There was a moment of blissful quiet during which I looked around the circle. Finn was sipping his cider and minding his own business, thank the Goddess. Rhodri and Hannah were engaged in a subtle form of warfare wherein they each took it in turns to pull their cuffed hands slightly closer to their own side of the armrest.

To my right, Hayden was eyeing the marshmallows and swallowing every so often. To my left, Liam was— Wait a minute... Where was Liam, anyway?

It was only then, far too late, that I realised he had never come back from the toilet. I tugged on our link and got radio silence, which was ... strange. Normally, Liam never left me to ring for longer than a heartbeat. The only times I didn't get an answer was when he was too far away or sleeping or— Uh oh. Fighting.

Shit.

Even as I came to that conclusion, Nia opened our link and sighed at me with the patient exasperation that only raiding leaders could muster.

"I've just pulled your boyfriend off Joel Hopkins," she told me dryly. "If I bring him over, can you make him heel for the rest of the evening? Me and Lil are in serious need of some alone time, if you catch my drift, and all this fighting is beginning to piss me off."

"Yeah, whatever," I said, fumbling with the link as worry splintered my concentration. "Is he okay?"

"He's getting there. Dumbass boy. You should keep him on a shorter lead."

I snorted and cut the link. It didn't take her long to arrive. She had her fingers curled around the collar of Liam's jacket, right at the back, like a puppy being carried by his scruff. He was wearing one of his best rueful grins. And yes, it was easy to see that he'd been fighting. There was dried blood under his nose and bruises all over his face.

Hayden was once again staring at him, his brow furrowed and his eyes wary. He was probably trying to work out which pack he'd come from, and it shouldn't take him long. If Isaac Fletcher the social pariah could guess, so could Hayden. Even Hannah paused her sulking to look him over.

Nia dragged a chair over and pushed Liam down into it. She wasn't being gentle, but she was taking care to avoid crowding him, too. To make sure she wasn't setting him off. And that was why I loved Nia so much, I reckoned. Firm but fair.

"Sit," Nia said roughly. "Stay."

Liam offered her an apologetic little smile. Reaching over, I caught hold of his wrist to examine his knuckles, which were split and swollen. One of them might have been broken. I had to leash my instincts to slap him upside the head. Joel wasn't worth it.

"I suppose you started it?" I asked him with a sigh.

"Joel did, actually," Nia told me, even as she squeezed Liam's shoulder. "I've left him to Emmett's mercy, and Emmett's in a foul mood, so you can rest assured he won't be bothering you again."

She took her leave then — messing up Liam's hair as she took her hand away, much to his disgust, and then trudging in the direction of her tent.

"You thought I'd gone to beat him up for you?" Liam asked the moment she was out of earshot. His voice was edged with wicked amusement. "You're confusing me with Rhodri."

I shrugged and rolled my eyes. It was true that Liam tended to avoid confrontation when he got the choice, and I was eternally grateful for that, but he had seemed so pissed earlier.

"He's gone for both of you tonight, then?" Rhodri asked, to which we both shrugged. He sat forwards in his chair and cracked his knuckles. "Right. I've had enough of this now. I'll sort him out."

Hannah looked up sharply, the cuffs clinking between them. There was an alarmed look in her eyes which told me she thought 'sort out' meant murder and not a good, hard thrashing. Flockies. Honestly. They were so quick to think the worst of us.

I snorted. "Not tonight, you won't. Nia's at the end of her tether."

Rhodri hesitated because even he knew to stay on Nia's good side. "Tomorrow morning, then?"

"If you want, I'll wake you when I go for my run, and you can catch him drowsy. Put the fear of the Goddess in him, or whatever."

Finn sat up straighter in his chair like he might volunteer to help, but I caught his eye and let my eyebrows climb to new heights. I was more than happy to let Rhodri fight my battles. The same went for Nia. But they were both family, and Finn was not.

"Sounds like a plan," Rhodri said, stretching his legs out and leaning back in his chair. Even handcuffed to a girl who would kill him given the slightest chance, he looked ready to fall asleep there and then. I was too scared of Hayden to do the same. He might be playing nice for the time being, but he was like twice my size and grumpier than my grandma.

I glanced over at Liam to see him dozing in his chair. His eyes were still open a crack, but I could see him starting to slip. He wouldn't go all the way — not with strangers so close. We needed dinner and then our beds, I reckoned. The sun was long since set, and we were left with the orangey firelight which made the shadows dance around us.

"Can I please go to the toilet?" Hannah asked after a while. She avoided looking at me, and for good reason. I was sat there smirking. Yes, I had just reached the absolute pinnacle of smugness, and never again would I see such heights.

"Yes, of course you can," I told her sweetly. "We wouldn't deny anyone access to a toilet, now, would we? That would violate your human rights."

"I get it, okay?" she sighed. "And I am sorry — I really am — but a future Beta can't be seen bending the rules. I get enough shit from the guys as it is."

"Chill out, flockie. I was just teasing," I said, balancing my chair on two legs and grinning in her direction. She was so ... uptight. "Sooner you get used to that, the better. We're all heathens here."

"I've noticed," Hannah muttered.

Hayden stood up when I did, the faithful little hound that he was, but Rhodri had to pull Hannah up. Her reluctance made me all the more certain that it was just an excuse to get away from my cousin and not an actual emergency.

"See you," I told Finn. It would have been a good night to sneak away with him, since we were both pretty sober, but I reckoned I was too tired for that.

"Night, Eva," he said. Still playing it cool, then. Good. If he could live with casual, I could keep him around for a while. I was running out of half-decent guys around my age, seeing as there were only a few hundred rogues left in Snowdonia now. It would be a shame to dump him so quickly.

We took the flockies into the barn and turned them over into the adults' custody for the night. There were two sleeping bags laid out for them, both beside one of the rings for tethering livestock so they could be restrained. The looks on their faces when they saw their 'beds' was not something I'd forget easily. I was willing to bet they'd never slept on anything less comfortable than memory foam.

It was a relief to get the cuff unlocked. Having to measure my every step and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Hayden had been getting tiresome. I rubbed at my bruised wrist and threw Mam some overly dramatic reproachful looks which were ignored. She then sent me to the cook-tent to fetch them two bowls of curry.

They turned their noses up at that, too. Hannah pushed her bowl away without even looking inside, and Hayden managed a grudging 'thank you' before starting to pick at the rice. No, it didn't look like your average flockie meal, and it probably tasted a lot worse, but it was all we had. They'd starve if they didn't suck it up and eat.

I was happy to leave them. I was too tired to tease them, and there was absolutely no bloody point hanging out with flockies unless you could tease them.

Rhodri and Liam had been waiting for me outside the barn. They were standing closer than they usually would, and they had their backs to me. And they were ... like ... talking? I wasn't sure why I was so surprised. I'd always assumed that they must interact when I wasn't present, but I'd never seen such blatant evidence of it before.

So obviously I had to know what they were talking about. I moved closer, being careful not to spook them. I just wanted to be close enough to hear the conversation — see if they were talking about the weather or the flockies or what. So my intentions, to begin with, were completely innocent.

"Just find your balls and ask her out already," Rhodri was saying. "Can't know unless you try it, eh, flockie?"

"Firstly, you're wrong about this," Liam told him. "Secondly, even if it were true, which it isn't, why the hell would I risk screwing things up?"

Shit. This was ... not what I was expecting, and I was damn sure I shouldn't be eavesdropping on this particular conversation. Still, it was almost too late to run away now. I stood there frozen like a deer in the headlights.

Rhodri swore at him quietly. "Yeah, alright. I get it — I really do. You can deny it until the cows come home, if you want. It doesn't change the fact that you're probably eighteen already, aren't you?"

"Probably," Liam said sullenly. "But what the hell does that matter?"

Rhodri's answering laughter implied that it mattered very much and that Liam knew that already.

"What are we talking about?" I asked, since I was now quite lost and they seemed to have stopped talking.

Liam jumped halfway out of his skin, and I realised he probably hadn't heard me coming. I'd been so wrapped up in my attempt at sneakiness that I hadn't processed that I was creeping up on him and breaking the golden rule.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "I didn't mean to... Um, yeah, I'm sorry."

It wasn't often that I was the one to screw up in that regard. I backed up a few steps for good measure and scuffed my heels against the ground, waiting for him to settle again. It didn't take very long. He even managed a little smile to tell me it was alright.

"Yes, good question, Eva. What were we talking about?" Rhodri asked, grinning at Liam.

I raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Rhodri answered in the end, if only because Liam seemed to have misplaced his tongue. "Oh, there's a girl he likes, but he won't admit it. Typical teenage melodrama."

Liam scowled at him over my head and mouthed something very, very impolite. His anger was almost disproportionate, but Rhodri just smirked right back at him. I was surprised — I'd admit that much. Rhodri and I got around, but I wasn't sure I'd ever seen Liam alone with a girl.

"I'm with Rhodri," I said after a while. "Ask her. The worst thing she can do is say no."

And I was sure she wouldn't. Liam had grown into one fine looking young man, in my opinion, and I reckoned half the girls here would be all over him if he showed the blindest bit of interest. But he just kept glowering at my cousin like he hadn't heard me.

"Coward," Rhodri sighed at him.

"Dickhead," Liam snapped back.

I had to shove my way between them before they started something they'd regret. Eye contact was always how it started — that ceaseless come-at-me-bro type of staring. "Don't start now, please. I want my dinner and then my bed."

They were quite well-trained at this point. All I had to do was poke them both in the chest, and they averted their eyes at the same time. That way, no one was 'backing down.' No one's pride had to bend an inch. And then, without a word, Rhodri let out another growling sigh and trudged towards the cook fires with Liam not far behind him.

The moment they turned away, I closed my eyes. Probably best not to think too hard about that conversation. In fact, it was always best not to think too hard where Liam was concerned. Still, I squirmed as if someone had poured cold water down my back and tried to pretend like my treacherous heart wasn't skipping along.

It was definitely time for bed. We only ever started slipping when we were drunk or tired. And Rhodri knew it, damn him.

Speak of the devil, he'd noticed me lagging behind. He stopped to 'tie his shoelace' and so dropped back to walk alongside me. Liam threw a wary glance over his shoulder, but he didn't go as far as stopping to eavesdrop on us.

"Too much eye contact or not enough," Rhodri told me in a whisper. "That's how you tell, see."

"Tell what?" I asked, playing dumb. If he wanted to be cryptic, that was fine with me, but I was going to make him work for it.

"You know what, Eva," he laughed, "and you do both."