Hello y'all. I am now neck-deep in the eXaM pErIoD, so please excuse the slightly late/non-existent updates for the next two weeks. I have a year's worth of procrastinating to make up for and not much time to do it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The food truck was parked in one its usual haunts, just west of Pine Forest Pack. There were a handful of picnic benches scattered outside and a handful of people queuing for today's lunch, which smelt like beef casserole to me. We sauntered up towards the counter with grins plastered on our faces.

"Aren't you going to take the cuffs off?" Hayden hissed at Nia. "They'll see."

She just laughed at him. In all fairness, he couldn't have been expected to guess that this incredibly human-looking enterprise would be manned and visited entirely by rogues. He was dragged to the counter with her, and he was forced to stand by anxiously while she leaned over it and whistled.

She'd skipped the queue, not that it mattered. We weren't customers, and all the rogues here knew it. The rest of us piled up behind her, peering into the truck and jostling each other. It took Maggie a minute to drag herself out of her armchair and come and see what was going on.

"Morning, Maggie," Nia said cheerfully. "How are you?"

"How am I? How do you think I am?" Maggie demanded. She was coming up to ninety, I reckoned, and her joints were turning in their resignations by the dozen. "Now stow the cheek and get in here, young lady. You're overdue a hug."

My cousin laughed. "If I hugged you, I'd crack your ribs. You can have my sister, though. She's been a right royal pain in our asses today."

Yes, Poppy had decided to spend the entire car journey throwing a tantrum because she was hungry. She was sat on Sam's shoulders now, and he set her on the counter to say hello. She just burst into tears all over again. Maggie started to soothe her while she looked over the rest of us.

"How many of you are there? Sixteen? More? You'd better find some extra plates, Tomos," she said over her shoulder. There came a creaking as the other occupant of the food truck pushed his chair back and came to peer at us.

"Oh dear. There goes our lovely peace and quiet."

I snickered. The dude claimed he was there to protect Maggie, but he was also approaching triple digits, so I wasn't sure how much use he'd be. Their friendship, if you could even call it that, seemed to be entirely platonic. I reckoned they just enjoyed each other's company, although you wouldn't know it from the way they laid into each other.

"Shut up, old man. You love us," Eira told him. "Now where's the food?"

"There's plenty here," Maggie assured her. "How are you feeling today, sweetie?"

Eira always got asked that, and her patience with it was infinite, as far as I could tell.

"I've been worse," she said, scratching at the place where her IV had been only a few days earlier. It wasn't entirely a lie, but it was definitely an avoidance of the truth. She'd got so tired walking back from Llechi that she'd asked Rhodri for a piggyback, and those two weren't on the best terms, to put it lightly.

"Leave her be, Margaret," the old man scolded. "She doesn't need you fussing."

Maggie rounded on him quicker than I could blink. "You must be going senile, Tomos. How many times do I have to tell you? Maggie is not short for Margaret."

"Yes, yes. I'll believe you when I see your birth certificate," he sighed.

"It's a Bengali name, you old prat. The spelling is British - that's all. My parents compromised, as yours should have done," she said, nodding at Rhodri now, "instead of naming you after my no-good layabout of a son-in-law."

She was very good at that. Changing the subject, keeping off us off balance and veering towards a new target before her previous one could answer back. But Rhodri just rested his forearms on the counter and smirked at her. "I happen to like my name."

"Of course you do," Maggie scoffed. "I warned your father, you know. I said - 'if you call him that, it'll go straight to his head, and he'll be an ass when he grows up.' And was I wrong?"

No, she was not.

"I think I turned out alright," he laughed.

"You've got some poor girl handcuffed to you right now!" Maggie scoffed. "What, is this how you kids treat your mates these days?"

"She's not my mate," Rhodri said indignantly. "She's a hostage, and she was trying to bash Bryn's head in earlier, so don't feel too sorry for her."

"A hostage?" she asked, squinting at them suspiciously.

Nia yanked her wrist forwards to bring Hayden stumbling alongside her. "Yes, we have two of them. This here is Hayden Lloyd, and the girl is his future Beta."

Maggie's eyes widened in dismay, and she snatched up the nearest spatula to smack my cousin. "And you brought him here? What is Goddess name were you thinking, Nia? If I get murdered by flockies, I swear I'll come back and haunt you."

Sighing, Nia caught the spatula on the third blow. "He's staying at the camp, so he would have seen it tonight, anyway-"

"That doesn't excuse a thing."

"-and the girl took insulin about an hour ago, so she'll probably die or something if you don't feed her."

That was a lie ... or an exaggeration at the very least. We'd fed Hannah in the car, and Hayden could usually smell the hypos on her breath before they became a problem. But Maggie didn't know that, so there was more smacking, this time more exasperated than angry. "Well, why didn't you just say so? Come over here, darling. We'll get something warm in your belly."

Nia grinned, clearly taking it as a victory. She hopped up onto the counter and swung her legs around so she could hand out bowls to the rest of us. Maggie, meanwhile, made a disgusted sound at such a blatant desecration of her nice clean surface. She bustled off to find the cleaning spray.

"Who is she?" Hayden whispered to no one in particular. His eyes were fixed on Maggie's back, and they were as wide as saucers. Nia's escapades were forcing him to hold his arm awkwardly above his head, so I did have some trouble taking anything he said seriously.

"She's our great-grandma," I told him, "and if you stick around too long, she'll be yours, too."

Somehow, I made it sound like a threat, and Hayden's confusion turned to alarm and poorly-masked fear. He edged backwards. If I didn't know better, I would have said he was trying to hide behind Nia.

Liam laughed at him even as he ducked out of the group to join the very end of the queue. Well, not quite the end, actually. The rogues who'd already been here were moving themselves over to join the new line with a series of quiet sighs and huffs. I skirted around the little kids to follow him.

We waited while the others got their food. The smell of onions and garlic cooking was making my stomach grumble. I hadn't even got a mouthful of burger earlier, thanks to the flockies, and all that running and healing had used up the last dregs of energy from breakfast, so I watched a boy in his early teens ladling casserole into bowls with a wolf's stare.

Maggie and Tom had a never-ending revolving door of helpers to do the chopping and the heavy lifting, and most of them were being punished for one thing or another, so I wasn't surprised to see that the boy's face was twisted into a permanent scowl. I'd done a few stints there myself in my younger, more troublesome days. You got to eat like a king, yes, but at what cost?

The queue moved at a snail's pace. I was drooling by the time I reached the front, but before I could reach out and take my bowl, Maggie came over to pull it firmly out of reach. She crooked an eyebrow at me. "Eva, honey, what's wrong with your arm?"

Ah. Right - that. I was still keeping it pressed to my side, and the gauze taped around the elbow wasn't exactly inconspicuous.

"Oh, that was Hayden," I said cheerfully. Not gonna lie - I did kinda want to see him on the receiving end of the spatula, since he was the reason I was in excruciating pain and all that. It wasn't snitching when you were telling on a flockie because they were snitches for a living.

But for some unfathomable reason, it was me Maggie walloped. The business end of the spatula came down across my knuckles with just enough force to make me jump backwards, straight into Liam's chest.

"What was that for?" I demanded in bewilderment.

"This isn't funny, young lady. You've got blood all over you," she snapped. Her beady eyes came to rest on Liam next. "And you? What were you doing while that horrible boy was using Eva's arm for a chew toy?"

He didn't get smacked, I noticed. Quite the opposite, actually. Maggie set the spatula down on the counter before she so much as looked at him.

"Running," Liam said, "very, very fast."

She frowned. "Not away, I hope-"

I could feel him grinning, even if I couldn't see it. His hands snuck around my waist and pulled me backwards into a very one-sided hug, which I tolerated if only because it kept me out of Maggie's reach. "Of course not. I could hardly leave her to get mauled, now, could I?"

Maggie's answering beam could have lit an entire room. "Good lad. You can have your lunch."

He was given the bowl which should have been mine. And that was all it took to make him release me and disappear off in the direction of the picnic tables. My own-mouthed horror was met with a wink.

"I... You... Hey!" I spat. I made an attempt to make off with another bowl and was met with the spatula coming down across my knuckles for a second time.

"Not you. I'm not done with you, yet," she said sternly. Her eyes swept down the line, looking for someone else to berate, but they settled instead on the person who'd invaded her food truck. "Nia Llewellyn, you're supposed to be in charge, aren't you? What have you got to say for yourself?"

Nia jumped off the counter, never one to refuse such a dramatic summons. Grinning, she came up behind me and rested her hands on my shoulders. That, of course, meant that Hayden's hand wasn't far behind. "It's her own fault, actually. She wasn't supposed to engage."

Her fingers were digging in, making me squirm around, but she held me firmly in place.

"Oh? What were you doing fighting him then, you stupid girl?" she demanded, and I could only shrug because that wasn't quite what had happened, was it? "Goddess, the lot of you are ... just ... reckless and half-wild and soft in the head. Who raised you?"

"Well, you raised the people who raised us, so I think that might be a question for the mirror," Nia said coolly. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we're all wasting away here."

Maggie only tutted. I was pretty sure Nia was her favourite. Well ... second favourite. She liked Ellis the best because he didn't talk back and kept his nose clean. Me, now, I'd been absolutely horrible when I was younger, so I was still trying to redeem myself in her eyes.

Nia reached over and took two bowls. One for me, one for her, and none for Hayden, who'd just have to starve, apparently. She guided me away, one hand still resting heavily on my shoulder, before Maggie could stop us.

I was following the food. My eyes hadn't left the bowl even for a second - I was pretty sure I could feel my cells digesting themselves. It didn't actually occur to me that Nia had thrown me under the bus until she put an arm around my shoulder and leant close to whisper, "Before you complain, I know you saved my sorry arse this morning, and I'm not going to forget it."

"Oh yeah?" I asked. I wasn't surprised by the praise. I spent so much time slacking off that people tended to be blown away by the slightest bit of effort on my part. Goddess only knew what would happen if I ever started actually, like ... trying.

"Yeah. And to say thank you, I'm going to give you a word of advice."

I couldn't help my snort. "Lame."

"A word of advice and this very melted KitKat," Nia amended, rolling her eyes. That was more like it. I pocketed the proffered chocolate bar with a wonky grin. It faded from my lips quickly enough when she jerked a thumb in Liam's direction. "The advice is that life's short and you need to cut the crap."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I told her coldly.

She gave me a look. "No? Let me make it nice and simple, then. You flirt with him, and then you go off and kiss some other boy. You've been doing it for years. You're confusing him, Eva, and more importantly, I think you're confusing yourself."

I wasn't the least bit confused, actually. Conflicted, yes, but not confused. It was a pity I couldn't admit that.

I flicked my eyes in Hayden's direction. He was listening in with the distinct awkwardness of someone who was only participating in a conversation because he was in handcuffs. He had tried to put some distance between us, straying as far as he physically could from Nia, but there was no way on earth he couldn't hear us.

"Ignore him. He doesn't care," Nia told me. "Just think about it, alright? You might decide I'm actually, like, Goddess forbid, making some sense."

And with that, she put my bowl into my hands and gave me a firm push towards one of the tables. I went without a fight, partly because I wanted to get the hell away from that conversation and partly because my own stomach was growling at me.

I sat down heavily at the table. Rhodri and Hannah were on the bench beside me, Liam was opposite, and Eira was sat beside him, picking at her casserole. None of them were saying anything because they were too busy eavesdropping on the conversation which was going on behind them.

The casserole was so tender that the beef almost seemed to melt in my mouth. Once I'd downed a good few mouthfuls, I decided to tune in, too. It was being conducted by Bryn and Lily - and now Nia and Hayden, too - who had all apparently decided to ignore the picnic tables and instead sit cross-legged on the grass like a bunch of hippies.

"So ... you just live indoors?" Bryn was asking. "Like, in a house? All the time? And you just stay there your whole life?"

"Yes," Hayden said. His jaw was tight in a way that made me think he was trying very hard not to roll his eyes.

"Don't you get too hot?"

"Sometimes. Don't you get too hot out here?"

That made Bryn pause. "Well, yeah, but not in the same way. Think about it, eh? The sun goes through the windows, and it can't get out again. Doesn't it just get hotter and hotter until you all get cooked alive?"

Hayden let out a long-suffering sigh. "No."

"How come?" I demanded. I knew that houses were built to trap heat because they had these weird metal tanks that made the rooms hot in the winter. Sometimes, it would take days for snow to melt off the rooves, and yet the flockies could walk around in their pyjamas inside.

"We open the windows," he said, like it was ... obvious, or something. His tone was so flat and bored that I was surprised he didn't add a duh on the end. Further down the bench, I could distinctly hear Hannah sniggering.

I picked at my casserole and scowled. "Well, I'm sorry. The fact that you guys shut yourself away in tiny boxes somehow gave me the impression that you're scared of the 'nasty outdoors' air."

"I have more questions," Bryn cut in. He was chewing with his mouth open in his enthusiasm. "All the mud that comes in off your shoes - doesn't it just get stuck in the carpet? And over the years you get more and more mud until plants start growing?"

Hayden gave him a strange look. "No. We take our shoes off, and we hoover."

"What's a hoover?" one of the little kids demanded.

"It's a machine that sucks things up. Dust and crumbs and so on," he said. When he got only blank looks from the rest of us, he tried again, "There's a vacuum inside, like the one in space."

That earnt him a chorus of oohs and aahs from the younger kids and some disbelieving muttering from us older ones. It was Bryn who let out a low whistle and said, "That's wild, that is. You go up into space and trap some vacuum just so you can walk on a nice clean floor?"

"Well, actually-" Hayden began, wincing, but Bryn had already moved on.

"You know what else I always wondered about?" he demanded. "Like Eva said, you're shut in a box. How do you not, like, run out of air? You could go to sleep in your room and breathe it all and suffocate in the night."

"That doesn't happen."

Bryn's forehead furrowed in indignation. "But why not? If the window and the door are closed, how does the new air get in?"

Hayden ran a hand through his air and groaned. "I- You're not... No, Bryn."

"He's got a point," I told Liam.

He grinned at me because he'd lived in a house for about eleven years without dying of suffocation. "There's gaps under the doors."

"So? Air doesn't just move all by itself. Those stupid walls stop the wind getting in..."

"Haven't you ever heard of convection currents, Eva?" my little brother asked me snottily. Clearly, everyone had found a new conversation to eavesdrop on, and it was ours.

I repeated the words back at him in a slightly higher pitch. It was sufficiently annoying to make him turn back to his food, muttering about my maturity level, as if I gave a shit. We all got a little testy when we were hungry.

It only took me another few minutes to wolf down the rest of the casserole. Well, most of the rest of the casserole. Maggie always gave me more than I could eat, and I always pushed the bowl straight over to Liam, whose stomach was seemingly bottomless. I'd saved a space the size of a melted KitKat, and I filled it now, letting the chocolate chase away the lingering taste of onions.

Hayden and Bryn were now arguing over whether central heating constituted as slow-cooking a human being. I'd lost interest in that. All too soon, I'd be getting first-hand experience of how houses worked. That train of thought got me thinking of the conversation at Llechi all over again.

"You're going, then? For definite?" I asked Liam quietly.

He didn't need to ask what I meant. He nodded without looking up, and for a moment we had silence until he pushed both of our bowls away, scraped clean. "And ... um, have you decided?"

"Yeah, I'd come," I said immediately, "but only if you want me there..."

Liam's head snapped up. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I dunno. I just don't want to intrude or anything."

"You think..." he began, only to stop abruptly and start over. "I'd love to have you with me."

I had to chew on my lip to keep the smile at bay. My head tipped to one side, my eyes wide and daring him. "Then ask me properly, jackass."

Before I even had time to regret that suggestion, Liam had broken into the cockiest, most mischievous grin I'd ever seen on him. He caught hold of my hand and pulled me onto my feet. I found myself swallowing, my mouth dry, as he got down on one knee, ever so dramatically.

The other benches had gone very quiet, all of a sudden. I could see some money changing hands over at the circle of hippies. Rhodri's eyebrows had climbed so high that they were disappearing into his hairline.

And all the while Liam was just staring at me. The grin hadn't faded. "Eva, will you do me the honour of being my fake mate?"

"Eh," I muttered. "I guess."

"Awesome," Liam said. "I was looking for a little more enthusiasm, if I'm being honest, but I'll take it."

He got back up and dusted the mud off his knees. It had been kinda fun looking down on him for once, but the circumstances made it hard to enjoy that properly. I cast a sullen eye over our stunned audience, who either didn't notice they were staring or didn't care.

"Does this count?" Ellis whispered, not very quietly. He was the bookmaker for most of the stupid betting at Haven because he was the only one of us who could actually do maths, so he probably had a lot riding on this particular scenario. "Who decides if it counts?"

"That's the problem, El," Bryn said glumly. "Nothing will count now. They're gonna have to kiss and make out and shit to keep their cover, and we'll never get any closure. Either way, I'll be wanting my money back."

We'd have to what? Mam hadn't mentioned anything about... No, oh no. Not happening. Liam didn't look surprised in the slightest, which made me wonder if I was just being thick. Goddess. Why had no one told me this, and was it too late to change my mind?

Almost reflexively, I tried to go back to my casserole as a distraction. I was met with an empty bowl and nothing to hide behind. Liam sat down across from me, watching me with wary eyes while I picked at my fingernails and avoided looking at him. The silence between us had never felt so gaping.

It was Nia who saved me, that look in her eyes altogether too knowing. She leaned over to slap Hayden between the shoulder blades and exclaim, "Isn't he cute? He's just sat there, watching us all eat without a word of complaint..."

Hayden looked up sharply, and I could see him swallow what was probably a mouthful of saliva at even the vaguest hint that he might get fed. I felt the briefest stab of pity for him, only for it to be smothered a heartbeat later by an answering stab of pain from my elbow.

"I say he can eat," I piped up, a wicked grin stealing across my face, "but only if he apologises."

That suggestion proved very popular amongst the others. The resounding cheer made Nia nod her agreement. Hayden himself remained silent and glared at me in a way that made my wolf want to roll onto her back.

"Do it," Hannah advised him. She'd dragged Rhodri up to get seconds at some point, so she was still eating. "This stuff is much better than their shitty campfire food."

Well, excuse her. I happened to like our shitty campfire food.

The poor flockie looked skywards and swallowed again. This time, it was his pride that bobbed its way down his throat. "Fine. Whatever. I'm sorry for defending myself, Eva. That was ... that was out of line."

"And I accept your apology, Hayden," I told him smugly. "Have some casserole."

"Thank you," he sighed.

***

"What's with the blood, kids?" Mam asked. We were getting out of the cars, and she'd come down to meet us. While all the little tooth marks had healed over the last few hours, they'd left telltale spots of blood on our clothes. I was still too scared to move my elbow.

"Oh, we were just training," Nia said cheerfully. "The flockies were feeling a little on edge, so we kicked their asses. Let out some pent-up aggression and what not. Everyone's happier for it."

No point telling her the truth. We would only get in trouble, and I was in no mood to wash a mountain of dirty plates this evening.

Mam smirked. "I see. You can uncuff them for a few hours. They've behaved themselves so beautifully - I think we can let them have a bit more freedom."

We all grimaced. Nia most of all, because she'd just dug her way into this hole, and now she'd have to lie in it. "Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I reckon they've realised it's not even worth trying to run away. That it would be painful and horribly unpleasant for them."

She turned the key in the handcuffs, staring hard at Hayden the whole while, and it might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn I saw a tiny smile flit across his lips. He rubbed his bruised wrist. Hannah was next to be freed, and the first thing she did was put a few metres between her and Rhodri.

Beside me, Ellis opened his mouth like he might say something about the events of this morning, but Bryn moved like a lightning bolt to snatch him backwards and put a hand over his mouth. Eira provided the distraction in the form of a vigorous coughing fit. Mam was so preoccupied with worry that she didn't notice her youngest kid being abducted right behind her.

"How did the meeting go?" Nia asked as soon as Eira finished coughing. Another excellent distraction. Bryn was still in the process of carrying my little brother off into the trees, no doubt for a stern talking-to and some precautionary threats. When we were actually putting our minds to something, we all worked like a well-oiled machine.

Mam shrugged. "After Jace and the Fletchers stopped laying into each other, it was quite productive. New Dawn will be releasing all their rogue prisoners over the next few days, and we'll have the application for these two to join Silver Lake by the end of tomorrow."

Shit. That was ... fast.

"Whether we'll actually make use of it ... well, that remains to be seen." She glanced in my direction then, but it wasn't quite me she was looking at. "I don't want to rush you, Liam, but I'm going to need a decision soon."

I thought she'd at least wait until we were alone, but ... nope. Maybe she reckoned the peer pressure would work in her favour. It was more likely to be the opposite, in my opinion. The others were all bristling and subtly closing ranks around us before she'd even finished talking.

"Yeah, I'll go," Liam told her. Just like that. No hesitation, no hint of nervousness. I didn't doubt for one second that it was because we had an audience.

Mam's eyes widened, like she hadn't really dared hope he'd agree, but she masked it quickly and turned to me. "And you, Eva?"

It still didn't sit right with me. I doubted it ever would. And yet I nodded, my heel scuffing at the dirt.

"Good. We've got a lot of preparation to do and not much time to do it, but you can start by reporting to Fion," she told us. "She's going to sort out your mark."

My mark. Right. I'd kinda forgotten about that bit. Liam looked at me with wide, alarmed eyes and I stared right back, finding that my mouth had gone very dry all of a sudden. I was starting to wonder what the hell we'd just signed up for.