Uni seems fun. I mean, the vet welcome day was ten hours of running and getting covered in flour and having eggs thrown at you by total strangers(???) I can't say I understand what the hell is going on, but I was born for this.

Hello and welcome to Ireland, Ghana, Canada, Bolivia and the Netherlands.  

Nia pushed the door open, and we saw that the woman had her back to us. She was lounging on a leather sofa with a mug of tea in her hand. The programme that had engrossed her so thoroughly looked a lot like Come Dine with Me, which even I, an uncultured scourge of society, knew to be peak daytime TV.

Nia crept forwards. She managed to get within a metre before the woman noticed her shadow and began to turn, and by then it was too late. Nia lunged the rest of the way and wrapped an arm around her neck, squeezing to close her windpipe and, more importantly, the arteries beside it. Devin was closest and caught the woman's arms as she flailed wildly.

Yes, we were brutes, I know, but the chokehold was the fastest way to knock someone out — ten seconds and the woman sagged in Nia's arms. Lily reached forwards to tie the cloth around her nose and mouth. It was soaked with chloroform, which was the only thing Fion could cook up without spending a fortune on chemicals.

I'd gotten lucky. She hadn't seen me, let alone recognised me, so my trespass would stay a secret for the time being. In fact, the whole thing had gone so smoothly that I stood there grinning like an idiot.

Since I was the only one not contributing to the kidnapping effort, maybe I should have been guarding our backs instead of staring like a halfwit. But that was not the case, and so the woman's mate found it easy to sneak down the stairs and wallop me around the head with a walking stick.

I dropped like a sack of potatoes, slumping against the wall but managing to retain consciousness. My head was white-hot with pain, and my body was suddenly numb. The man stepped over me to swing at Lily. The walking stick caught her in the place where her shoulder met her neck, and it didn't do much to disable her, but the craft knife in his left-hand flashed upwards, aimed for her ribs.

But everything happened so fast that I was still falling, and my legs tripped him, and he was knocked off balance, so the knife nicked her arm instead. By then, Nia had dropped the woman and Devin had turned around.

The packling wouldn't have lasted a second if Lily hadn't been in Nia's way. As it was, he had Devin to contend with and he was hard-pressed to keep the massive rogue at bay. The walking stick was ripped away in seconds, but he held the knife far out of reach, jabbing whenever Devin tried to get a hold of him.

Chaos ensued — we were all in each other's way, and the man had taken us by surprise. And all the while I was slumped on the floor, stunned and useless. My muscles refused to obey me. It took seconds of desperate effort just to move my foot. It was braced across the corridor, right behind the man's calves, and the next time he stepped backwards he fell sprawling.

Straight on top of me.

The knife buried itself just above my knee. It was only a small, flimsy blade, but it was sharp, and the pain hit me hard. A low groan escaped my lips. He pulled the knife free, ready to stab again and this time at something more vital. But Nia chose that opportune moment to slam his head into the wall.

He was out cold, and the knife fell from limp fingers, landing on my chest. Nia hauled him off me and dropped him in a heap beside his mate.

"Eva?" she asked sharply.

"I'm fine," I managed to wheeze. I looked down at the tear in my jeans and the bloodstain growing around it. It was difficult not to panic — I knew there was an artery in my leg, but I didn't know where. I pressed both hands over the hole and winced because my skull throbbed at the slightest movement.

Unconvinced, Nia pulled my head forwards so she could look at the back, which felt sticky and warm. "No, you're concussed. Stay still."

Heal. Heal. Every second felt like a lifetime while you waited for the healing to kick in ... for the pain to turn into itching. Our healing abilities were both a blessing and curse: pain never lasted long, but we were quick to mutilate each other because of it.

"Dammit, Eva," Lily sighed. She touched the tear in her arm and frowned at her bloodied fingertips. It was only an inch wide and not very deep, so I didn't have much sympathy. "What happened to watching our backs?"

I tried to look ashamed of myself, really, but I was having trouble feeling anything except annoyance and the chaffing of my damaged pride. "Yeah, my bad."

"I should've told her to sweep upstairs," Nia cut across. "But we don't have time to point fingers."

"Shit," Devin muttered. He kicked the unconscious man — twice, and not gently. "Shit, guys. There's no way he didn't mind-link someone. What are we going to do?"

"Well, first, we're going to remember how to behave like decent bloody unhuman beings," Nia said, one eyebrow raised. "Step the hell back. Good. You'll carry the woman, and I'll give you a bruise for every one I find on her afterwards."

Her wolf was out, and his wolf was a coward, so he dropped her stare like a hot brick. Before her eyes had even swirled back to hazel, he was squeezing past her to reach the pack woman. The way he eased her onto his shoulder, you'd think she was made of sugar glass.

Nia nodded her approval. "Now run for the border. Lily, go with him. Eva and I are going to stay here and distract the reinforcements. Worst case, we'll leave the woman and try again tomorrow."

Lily scowled. She didn't want to go, I reckoned, but she knew we didn't have time to stand here and argue about it. So she just grabbed her mate by the collar, kissed her hard, and followed Devin out of the house. They couldn't go very fast while he carried one hundred and twenty pounds of dead weight — it would be walking and jogging.

So we had to delay the pursuit by thirty minutes ... somehow.

Nia stared at the place where Lily had been for an undue amount of time. Those two were unusual in that they had been dating before they knew they were mates, and I wasn't sure I had ever seen them argue. They'd been attached at the hip since we'd first found Lily sleeping in a ditch at the age of thirteen. It wasn't like them to separate willingly, even for strategic reasons.

When Nia was done staring, she rolled the unconscious packling over and used her belt to tie his hands behind his back, just in case he decided to wake up. Then she took my belt, too, and used it to lash a handkerchief over the hole in my leg, despite my protests. Afterwards, Nia sat down across from me, our legs tangled in the middle of the corridor.

"You sent Lily away because you want her safe," I said matter-of-factly. "And this ain't the safe place to be, is it?"

Nia snorted without looking at me, a crooked grin stealing across her face. "Do you want safe, Eva? If you do, now's the time to tell me."

"Are you shitting me? Do you reckon I'd have gotten tattooed if I wanted to be safe?"

I had done more than just get the tattoo. I had spent months saving for it, I'd spent two days running to the nearest town, and I'd had some stranger ink New Haven onto my skin half a year before my eighteenth birthday. Half a year before it was allowed. And I'd got caught, inevitably. This stint with Nia was my punishment — two long months away from Rhodri and Liam. So no, I hadn't just gotten the tattoo. I'd wanted it desperately, and I'd suffered for it. 

"Why not? I got mine because I wanted to be safe," she told me. She tapped her own tattoo, which said Last Haven because she had been born before the castle fell. "Because I wanted all of us to be safe."

I didn't understand, and it must have shown on my face, because Nia laughed at me.

"Ain't no way out, is there? Packs won't take us. Even if we stopped raiding, they wouldn't leave us alone and, besides, how would we live? We're backed into a corner, and we're dying out. The only way to find some peace is to win the war, and we can't do that without fighters. And me? I'm damn good at fighting."

"Not so humble, though," I muttered, and she kicked me playfully.

"You think I won't kick your ass just because you're concussed?" she demanded.

"I don't feel concussed."

It was far from the worst lie I'd told about an injury. One time, when I was about ten, I'd tripped on a run, broken my ankle, and walked around on it for an hour because I hadn't wanted to miss a game of sardines.

Nia peered into my eyes carefully. "No? That's good. You can help me barricade the doors."

Getting up was difficult, and Nia had to pull me most of the way. My head didn't like the movement much, so it throbbed with every beat of my heart, but I didn't feel dizzy, and I wasn't about to pass out. My injured leg didn't much like taking my weight. It could go to hell for all I cared.

I went to the back door and locked it. That wouldn't be enough, so I put my shoulder against a chest of drawers and pushed it towards the door. It opened outwards, but it might slow them down. Then I went from room to room, checking for any large windows. If there was no furniture to use as a barricade, I sealed off the whole room.

"Eva?" Nia asked after a few minutes. There was something in her tone which made me want to tuck my tail between my legs and roll over, so I was careful to smother that urge before I went to find her. She was in the kitchen, her back to me, staring at something on the counter.

I went to stand beside her. At first glance, I couldn't see anything amiss — just counter and a fruit bowl, but then I noticed the gleam of silver on top of a Domino's advert.

"That's your knife," she said, and the words came evenly, but her voice was too quiet.

Oh. Oh no.

"It looks like my knife," I admitted, pretending to frown at it. "Same make, yeah."

"Horseshit. It's your knife."

And she pointed to the hilt, where my initials were carved into the wood. E.M. Extreme Moron. I used my dad's surname when it suited me, and it suited me to avoid getting my ass tortured if I ever broke the golden rule and got myself caught. No reason to give them clues that I was anything more than a run-of-the-mill dumbass rogue.

"I'm waiting for an explanation," Nia reminded me sharply.

"Can I have, like, two minutes to think of one?" I asked.

I winced pre-emptively, my wolf half expecting a clout, but instead she grabbed hold of my collar and twisted. It wasn't painful or uncomfortable, because she wouldn't hurt me in anger, but it did suitably remind me that she could be scary when she wanted.

"I ain't playing, Eva. You were here yesterday, weren't you?"

I didn't deny it. I just picked up my knife and tucked it into my jeans pocket.

"You really are a reckless piece of shit," she spat, shoving my chest with just enough force to make me take a wobbly step backwards. "Raiding alone? I can't think of a quicker bloody way to get yourself killed."

Well, it was hardly the first time, and I hadn't been caught yet. Admittedly, I would usually have Rhodri or Liam with me, but ... they actually slowed me down. I met Nia's stare with all of that arrogance, and she blinked.

"Do you want to chew me out or do you want to survive the next hour?" I asked. "Because I'm cool with either."

"If I told your mother..." she began.

"I'd be stuck with you for another two months," I finished. "Not in your interests, not in mine."

Nia snorted. She didn't respond to blackmail, but she did respond to bribery, so I opened the fridge. And sure enough, there were the two cans of beer I'd abandoned yesterday, chilled and waiting for us. I popped both and handed one to Nia. She took it, frowned at it, then downed half in one go. I sipped my own slowly.

"Not bad, this," Nia said grudgingly. "Go find us a way out, idiot — I'll finish up down here."

I nodded. She gave me a grim smile, and before I had even left the room she was rooting around in the cupboards, looking for anything we could set fire to. I trudged up the stairs with one hand on the guardrail to steady myself. The second floor was exactly what you'd expect — a bathroom and four modest bedrooms, each messier than the last.

I checked all of them. There were no tree branches near windows and no easy escapes. The smallest had a drainpipe within reach, but Nia would be too heavy to shimmy down it. I wasn't even convinced it could hold my weight.

It was a nice bedroom, though. Not that I had any idea of bedroom standards, because I'd never had one. The concept was strange to me — why did anyone need a whole room just for sleeping? Half the house was taken up by bedrooms, and it wasn't like they were even aware of the time they spent there. At Haven, we had a loft between fourteen of us and a curtain to separate boys and girls. If you wanted privacy, you walked into the woods. This... I didn't understand.

The bedroom belonged to a girl. The pink walls were plastered with pictures of some human boyband. She had a collection of half-full glasses and crisp packets on her desk. Half of her clothes seemed to be on the floor while the other half swamped a laundry basket. I chugged the beer while I eyed the room.

She'd be at school today, blissfully unaware. Later, some pack official would pull her out of lessons to tell her that her father was hurt and her mother had been kidnapped. Not for the first time, I hoped Mam had a damn good reason for all of this. There were times, few and far between, when I felt like I really was the villain. This was one of them.

And then I heard Nia shouting my name. I crumpled the beer can, dropped it, and took the stairs two at a time. She was in the hall, standing over the man, who was beginning to stir, and she raised her eyebrows when I reached her.

"Nothing," I sighed.

Nia swore softly. And rightly so — in keeping the flockies out, we'd trapped ourselves in. "Then we'll have to jump for it."

"Sorry?"

"You heard me," she laughed. "It ain't gonna kill you."

Before I could even begin to unpick the holes in that logic, the man groaned at our feet. His eyes were open and pitch black. He was lying rather awkwardly on his front, and his attempt to roll over failed without the use of his hands, so Nia leant down and hauled him onto his knees. He thanked her by spitting in her face.

"Where is she? What the hell have you done with her?" he demanded.

"Your mate is upstairs, and you'll get her back soon enough. Unharmed. Rogue's honour," Nia told him, one hand on her heart, the other wiping away the spit. "We ain't gonna touch you either, as long as you don't do nothing stupid."

He scowled because he didn't believe her, but then his eyes landed on me and my blood-soaked jeans, and he smiled instead. I answered with a grin. He was surprised, but I didn't hold grudges against people for trying to protect their families — not now, not ever.

"You can mind-link your friends, by the way. We don't mind," Nia continued. She gave me a nod and then disappeared off in the direction of the kitchen to fetch an armful of homemade Molotov cocktails. While she was gone, I unwrapped the belt from my leg, which had stopped bleeding, and I used it to tie the man to a radiator. Just in case he got any clever ideas about running off.

Howls outside the front of the house. I saw the door handle turn and heard it squeaking. But Nia had locked it, and there was a chest of drawers holding it closed, so nobody would be getting inside any time soon.

"Someone get this bloody door open," someone shouted.

Ember's fighters had arrived.