Why is this update so late? Well, lads, I do have some good excuses, actually. Firstly, it's long. Secondly, this is my first day off in a month. Thirdly, I was trampled by a horse!!! Lololol. (absolutely fine btw) (just a little beat up) (was my own fault). You will all have to forgive me. Now that I actually have some time in the evenings, the updates should speed up again. Thank you all for your patience this summer :)

"We work together now, huh?" Lin told me. "That's pretty cool. You can help me swipe the toilet paper."

I made a distressed noise. "I thought you were smuggling it in, not stealing it."

We were taking our mid-morning break on the lawn behind the pack house. It was drizzling and generally miserable, but Liam and Will's patrol was training not twenty metres away, so it was worth getting soaked. We were sharing a packet of popcorn, huddled under a single, flimsy umbrella.

"We were smuggling it. But that was before I realised the girls in commissary never bother to take inventory. They just fudge the numbers and then take a nap whenever they're scheduled to do a count," Lin muttered.

Huh. Those ladies sounded like my kind of people. But that aside, I tried not to think about the sheer volume of things I could nick from the commissary. They had phones in there. Why had the Goddess decided to tempt me? I was supposed to be on my best behaviour...

But if I managed to steal even a single phone, my little brother could have a new pair of shoes. He'd outgrown his boots last winter, and he'd been walking around in sandals ever since. If I could steal a dozen, we could replace the tent with the snapped pole and still have enough left over to take the kids to McDonalds.

"So...?" Lin demanded once I'd gone quiet. "I need to acquire a key, and I could use some help..."

"You don't need a key," I told her, laughing. "You just need two paperclips and some patience."

Uh oh. Should not have told her that. This girl was crazy enough without me enabling her. And more importantly, I'd just given out information that normal flockie girls weren't supposed to have.

Lin sat up very straight. One eyebrow went crawling towards her hairline. "You know how to pick locks?"

"Me?" I spluttered defensively. "No. Of course not. I watch a lot of crime drama, is all."

I'd watched one programme while I'd been waiting for Liam to come home last night. It had been utterly shit, of course, but at the same time, I'd struggled to tear my eyes away.

"Hm," she said. "Well, if you did know, you'd stand to make a lot of money. It's a seller's market out there at the moment. I've got nearly a dozen contacts."

I brought my knees up to my chest and used them to hide my smile. Of all the things she wanted to steal, she'd picked toilet paper. I reckoned it wasn't about the money. Not really. It was just a quiet sort of protest about how this pack was run.

"I can't help you. I'd love to, don't get me wrong, but I can't. Not until my probation's over," I told her.

Lin made a huffing noise.

I closed my eyes, knowing the decision was out of my hands. A chance at mischief was just too tempting to pass up. "But I can teach you how to use a bump key. What you do with that information ... well, that's none of my business."

"What on earth is a—"

Will and Liam had broken away from the rest of the fighters, and they were headed in our direction. Lin shot me a sly wink and pressed a finger over her lips. I took that to mean she had yet to share her evil scheme with her mate.

"Thought I recognised you lurkers," Will said as he sat down beside us. The grass was sopping wet, of course, but he was already soaked through, by the look of him. "What's up?"

Lin's answer was lost to me. I was too busy making eyes at Liam, who came to lie flat on the grass beside me. He looked exhausted already, and it wasn't even lunchtime. I reached out and tangled our fingers together.

"Alright?" I asked him.

His answer was a yawn. "I'm ... yeah."

"That good, huh?"

He stifled another yawn, but I could see the corners of his lip twitching. I thought I might have successfully cheered him up until he went still, all of a sudden, and I saw him sniff the air. He was catching his brothers' scents, no doubt. It clung to my clothes and skin, and Mason's was the strongest, given that I'd been sat on his bed.

Liam pushed himself up onto his elbows, his eyes wide. "Eva, is that—?"

"Yeah," I said. "We've got some catching up to do."

He tapped his forehead, throwing a pointed glance at Will and Lin. They were too wrapped up in each other to give a shit what we were talking about, naturally, but I switched over to the link just to be safe.

"I don't work in the kitchen anymore."

Liam groaned. "What did you—"

"And you have a niece," I added through the link. "She's only about two."

He stopped breathing. By the time he started again, the shock had settled on his face. He swallowed a few times before he managed to ask, "Mason?"

I nodded.

"Oh," he murmured.

"Oh," I agreed. "You don't think he'd hurt her ... do you?"

Liam seemed to wince. "Honestly, I don't know. He saw Dad beat the shit out of his mother on a daily basis, and he got himself beat trying to stop it, so I was hoping he might be better with his mate. Kids ... yeah, I just don't know."

We had a visitor. The Delta for Liam's patrol unit had come across the lawn to talk to us, and we both snapped to attention. I had known his name at some point, I was pretty sure, but it was lost to me now.

"It's cool if we hang out here, right?" I asked nervously.

He grinned at me. "Hell yes, it's cool. The boys work twice as hard when there are chicks watching. No, I just came to ask if you'd mind helping us with a little demonstration. We'll be gentle — I swear."

Like I was going to turn down a chance to humiliate some flockies. I wasn't sure why he needed us — we were supposed to be defenceless, and it wasn't like he didn't have a small army of people who had to do his bidding. So ... why us?

"We'll get soggy, but whatever," Lin muttered. "Let's do this."

The drizzle was turning into a proper downpour, and every single one of the fighters was drenched already. Normally, I wasn't the sort of person who worried about getting dirty, but our supervisor would throw a fit if we trekked mud into the pack house.

While I chewed on my lip and tried to decide if a few minutes of violence was worth being yelled at, Liam took his hoodie off. He helped me pull it over my head. It was long enough to protect my top and most of my trousers. I was swamped, to say the least. It was damp, but it was also warm and smelt like Liam, so I didn't mind too much.

"No, no," Lin said before Will could do the same for her. "I'll say I slipped on the grass. Susan will have to let me change, and then I can just take a nap in our room."

He choked on thin air. "All that for a five-minute nap?"

"Yes, and I'd do worse."

I couldn't help smiling, but it faded quick enough when the Delta whistled to get everyone's attention.

"Now, boys. The takedowns we practiced yesterday ... do you all remember them?" he asked. There was a series of very unconvincing nods from the fighters. "No? Demonstrate for us, Mr Driscoll."

Will stepped forwards, as did a man in his late thirties. The man threw a lazy punch at Will, which was quickly knocked wide. Will then caught hold of his opponent's wrist. He twisted the man's arm in the wrong direction and used the momentum to throw him onto the ground.

There was an audible thump as he hit the ground, and I was close enough to hear him swearing under his breath. I felt my arm groaning a complaint — it remembered that wrenching feeling well enough.

I recognised the technique. I'd done it myself on many occasions. But we didn't stand around and practice 'moves' like a bunch of nerds. We just scrapped with each other and learnt what worked and what didn't the old-fashioned way.

"Good," the Delta said. "It's rough, isn't it? That's because it's meant for the rogues. If you dislocate a shoulder in the process, nobody's going to give a shit. But if you have to restrain a pack member for any reason, you're going to want a gentler method. I'll demonstrate with Miss Hayes now."

I stood there, staring off into space like an idiot while I waited for 'Miss Hayes' to make an appearance. It was only when Liam gave me a firm nudge forwards that I remembered his fake surname.

I dragged my feet a bit on the way over. The Delta was waiting for me with a wonky grin on his face. Stevens. That was his name. I remembered now, and I tried to stick it somewhere more permanent in my mind.

He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around. He was going for an arm-lock of some sort, I was pretty sure, but his hands were underneath my hoodie, and that gave me pause. Not least because they were cold and rain-soaked.

One of his hands roamed higher and came to rest somewhere it definitely shouldn't have been. For a split second, I hoped it had been an accident. I hoped he wasn't seriously groping me in front of twenty other people, my 'mate' included, and thinking he would get away with it.

But then he started fumbling around, and I had to resist the urge to turn around and knock his teeth out. If I was back at camp, I'd have done it. Without a second's hesitation, without thinking twice. But I wasn't at camp, was I? Liam could take a swing at him, but he'd certainly swing back, and I didn't want that.

I was beginning to understand why flockie girls kept their mouths shut about this shit. It felt easier to just pretend it wasn't happening than face all the consequences that came with speaking up.

The plan I cooked up in the span of a second was half-baked and not ideal, but it was better than just standing there and letting him get away with it. So I let out a little squeal and jumped away from him, retreating a few paces.

"Wasp," I said by way of explanation. "I saw a wasp. Oh, Goddess. I can't."

"I didn't see anything," Stevens muttered. "Come back, and I'll finish the—"

Plan B. I leant over and swatted at him. Not gently, either. I caught him around the ear, and I broke into a relieved smile even as he scowled at me. "Hm. Think I got it. But there could be more, so yeah. Sorry. I'm out."

And with that, I made a tactful retreat to where Liam was standing. I put my back against his chest, and he put his arms around me. I was safe, and I was warm. The other guys were throwing us disdainful looks and muttering under their breaths, but they were probably just jealous. Their own mates were still at work.

Stevens eyed me for a moment longer, disgust and frustration written all over his face, and then he hid it all behind a plastic smile. "Lin, how about you?"

Oh, hell no. I tugged on the mind-link to make her look at me, and then I shook my head ever so slightly. She was sharp enough to take the hint.

"No thank you. I'm going to stay where the wasps aren't," she declared.

Stevens didn't like that much. He threw me a dirty look, having guessed that it was all my fault. But soon enough he called up one of the boys to help him with the demonstration instead.

Liam waited until everyone's attention was elsewhere before he squeezed my arm. "Is something wrong?"

He knew perfectly well that I wasn't scared of wasps. You had to get real okay with things that flew when you lived outdoors.

"Nope," I said, but I was staring at the Delta, and that was a dead giveaway. "All good."

Micah Vaughan was looking our way, so I turned around and stood on my tiptoes, letting my lips brush against the skin beneath Liam's jaw. Anything to hide his face. We hadn't gotten very close to the youngest of Liam's brothers yet, and I didn't want him looking too closely.

And poor Liam, who didn't have any idea what was going on, must have decided to trust that I had a reason for the sudden display of affection. His hands came to rest on my hips, and he stopped looking like a startled hare, thank the Goddess.

By the time I turned back around, the demonstration had finished, and the fighters were forming queues to have a go for themselves. I eyed them all with open horror.

Lin and I were supposed to be the practice dummies, apparently, because it was unthinkable for these young men to be gentle with each other. If Stevens couldn't grope me again, he was going to make damn sure every one of his lackies got a chance. And that was great. Just great.

Not so far away, Micah Vaughan was watching with his arms folded across his chest. His face was haughty and bored in equal measure, and every now and then, he would turn to make a scornful remark to one of the Deltas. I didn't want to give him any cause for suspicion.

So when the first guy came up to me, I let him get me in an arm-lock, and I played my part well — struggling as hard as any flockie girl could be expected to.

His hands stayed exactly where they were supposed to be, and he was gentle, even if he did smell terrible. The next guy ... not so much. His fingernails were digging into my wrists before he even started. And when he squeezed the soft place just above my hips, my wriggling became less for show ... and more ... frantic.

I'd had enough of this.

I threw my head back a little too far. He swore as my skull collided with his nose. Then I just 'happened' to step backwards, bringing my heel down on the bridge of his foot almost hard enough to break the bone. And the fighter went stumbling backwards, spitting out a stream of filthy swearwords.

"Whoops," I blurted out, hugging myself and gnawing on my lip. "I'm so sorry. Did I ... um, did I do it wrong?"

The other men were laughing at him.

"No, I just— Let's start over," he muttered.

I ignored him. It was easily done, and the others were poking fun at him, so it didn't take him long to give up. He went to stand with Stevens, and the two of them muttered together. I hoped it was about me. I hoped I'd managed to thoroughly piss them off.

Liam's turn was next, because he'd pushed in line. Neither of us had been paying attention to the demo, to say the least, but he already knew how to restrain someone without hurting them. Sometimes when we broke into houses to steal things, there were people inside, and those people were rarely dangerous.

His hands came to rest on my sides. And even though it was Liam, and I knew he wouldn't do anything, I found myself flinching a little. Twice burned, eternally shy, apparently. He noticed, and he took his hands away.

The other fighters were staring. Nearly a dozen of them were stood there, waiting their turn, and I knew they'd find it weird. He was supposed to be my mate. They were expecting us to cling to each other like magnets, not jumping apart like ... well, magnets. I laced my fingers through his and guided them back, telling him it was okay.

Instead of wrenching at my arms like the other guys had, he crossed them over my stomach and trapped them against my sides. It wasn't the most secure of holds, but it was the gentlest. And for all of my wriggling, I couldn't seem to break free.

Before ten seconds were up, I was frustrated enough to try something more drastic. Liam saw it coming a mile off, because he knew all my tricks. His feet moved when mine did, and I ended up stamping on solid ground. The next time I picked the foot up, he hooked my ankle with his own and took it out from under me.

I didn't fall over. Not quite. It was more like a gentle lowering, and then I felt the grass under me. Instead of scrambling to my feet, I lay there and giggled for a little while.

"That's not the exercise," one of the other guys complained. "You're just supposed to hold her, man, not put her on the bloody ground."

"Nah," Liam said, and that was literally all he said.

He offered me a hand, and I used it to pull myself up. It was a smooth, practiced movement. And if the fighters had possessed more than three braincells between them, they might have found it suspicious.

"Oh, damn, Eva," Lin exclaimed all of a sudden. She was on the wrong side of the pack of fighters, but she had a very loud voice, so it carried well enough. "We should really be getting back. Break's over."

She must have been getting fed up, too. I didn't bother replying, let alone waiting for papal dispensation. I just nodded vigorously, and I was halfway across the lawn before anyone could stop me.

Lin caught up with me. But before we'd gotten much further, I heard raised voices. At first, I was tempted to dismiss it. This was training, after all, and tempers were bound to run hot. Only it sounded like more than that. It sounded like they were beyond furious, and it also sounded like one of the voices might belong to—

I turned around just in time to see Liam punch the Delta. His boss. I didn't see the build-up, or any reason whatsoever why he might have done it, but I did see the aftermath. Stevens went reeling, earning himself another blow to the stomach before the two of them ended up on the ground.

They didn't stop there. Stevens swung back, and they were soon fighting like they wanted to kill each other. This wasn't some dumbass squabble over hierarchy — that much was obvious.

I started towards them. Lin scrambled to follow me, the umbrella abandoned on the grass. I only made it about three steps before Liam yanked on the mind-link. Hard. Don't, he was saying, and I had to stop and check myself.

What was I going to do, anyway? March in there and take a swing at a Delta? No. Even checking on Liam was going to make waves. I didn't think many fighters had their mates come and coddle them every time they got in a fight.

But shit — it was hard to do nothing. I'd been trained to react my whole life, and those instincts were carved into my very bones, demanding that I moved. It didn't matter whether it was towards the danger or away, as long as I didn't just stand there like a bloody melon.

So it took all of my willpower to keep my feet planted. But I did it. Somehow. It was the only way I could help him, really — by not making things worse. And how I hated that it had come to that.

I flicked out my knife. I kept it in my pocket, but I held tight to the handle. And I extended a mind-link to Nia, letting her into my head so she could see what was happening. She couldn't do much from miles away, but it made me feel an awful lot better.

The fight was still going. The other guys had formed a rough half-circle to watch, and they didn't look worried in the slightest. Liam was winning — I could tell that much. Stevens was taller and broader in the shoulders, but he'd never really stood a chance.

I didn't see Micah Vaughan walk over, but I did see him pull Liam backwards by his collar and throw a vicious punch at the underside of his jaw.

There was a sickening crunch as his knuckles made contact, and then he dropped his brother onto the grass like a sack of bricks. He didn't bother throwing a second punch. There was no need. Liam wasn't really conscious. He lay where he'd fallen, his eyes vacant.

Staying still had just become an awful lot harder. I squeezed the knife hilt until my knuckles were white. I didn't dare take a breath until he came around, blinking and visibly confused. Micah was still standing over him.

Stay down. It was a useless plea, or so I thought. Although it wasn't my intention, it went ricocheting across the mind-link, and Liam must have heard it. Slowly, painfully, he managed to sit up. He spat blood onto the ground at Micah's feet with the same disinterest I'd use to spit toothpaste.

Micah only smiled. He seemed satisfied that Liam hadn't even tried to get up, let alone fight back. He crouched down now, close enough to murmur, "Let's not throw that word around, yeah?"

What word? What exactly had happened in the five seconds I'd taken my eyes off him?

Liam said absolutely nothing. He just kept his head down, probably as worried as I was that his brother would recognise him. That passed for submission in Micah's eyes, so he took hold of Liam's collar and hauled him to his feet.

"Oh, and fresher?" Micah asked, almost as an afterthought. There was enough lazy menace in those words to send a shiver racing down my spine. "Learn your goddamn place."

Stevens was climbing to his feet. He looked absolutely livid, but he could hardly go for Liam with Micah in the way. And that was it, apparently. His face was bloodied almost beyond recognition, and he was limping, but he had to accept that one of his subordinates had just beaten the shit out of him in front of everyone.

Micah shouldn't have intervened. It went against the natural order, and I wondered if he'd only done it because he'd realised Liam was going to win. I wondered if Stevens had realised that, too. He shoved Liam on his way past. Liam didn't shove him back, but he didn't drop his eyes either.

I took my hand out of my pocket. I must have nicked myself on the knife blade at some point, because there was blood on my fingers, and they were starting to sting. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was still having to check my urge to go to him.

"Does Micah know?" Nia asked me. That was her only question. She was good at getting straight to the point.

I looked at him. He was already back with his friends, laughing and joking around as if nothing had happened. Every so often, he would throw a scornful look at Liam, his bottom lip curling. But that explosive anger was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and he was, for intents and purposes, chilled out.

"I don't think we'd be alive if he did," I said softly.

"What was that about, then?"

My eyes wandered further, and they came to land on Liam, who was coming our way. "Honestly? I have no idea."

Nia had to wait after that. The moment Liam stopped beside me, I rounded on him. There was blood under his nose and along his jawline, but the bruises were still forming.

"What happened?" I demanded, keeping my voice low.

Liam didn't even bother looking at me. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

I knew he was already shutting down. It was what he always did. He didn't get upset. Quite the opposite, actually. He went quiet, and he just stopped thinking and feeling altogether. So you wouldn't see him cry, but you wouldn't get a smile out of him either. It was the perfect defence mechanism, and I hated it.

"I know how to behave, Eva," I hissed at him. Maybe I could get him angry, if nothing else. "I'm such a good little flockie. What the hell did he say to you?"

It must have been something truly horrible to make Liam throw the first punch. I hoped it hadn't been about me — some brag or offhand comment to make Liam realise why I'd jumped away from his boss like someone had lit a fire beneath me.

Liam just shook his head, throwing a pointed glance at his brother and Stevens, both of whom were still watching him. "Not here, okay?"

I bit back my frustration and nodded. He wasn't going to tell me later, either. Eyeing him, I wriggled out of his hoodie and gave it back to him, because he was starting to shiver.

"Eva, I can have you out of there in ten minutes," Nia told me through the link. I'd almost forgotten she was still in my head. "It's your call."

Yes, it was. My call. And I didn't have a bloody clue what I should do. On the one hand, I'd been hoping we could get through the month without any of Liam's brothers laying a finger on him. On the other hand, I didn't want all of this to have been for nothing.

"We'll ... yeah, we'll stay. At least until I've had a chance to talk to him," I replied.

I felt Nia sigh, and I wondered if that hadn't been the answer she was hoping for. "Okay, kiddo. Look after yourself, and look after him. I'm only a mind-link away if you need anything else."

She cut the link, and I came back to awareness. Lin was staring at my hand. Well, more specifically, she was staring at the blood. That, and the hairline cuts across two of my fingertips. There was a puzzled expression on her face, but it faded to wariness when she realised she'd been caught in the act. Her eyes snapped up to meet mine and then flitted away again.

I curled my fingers inwards and eased them back into my pocket. It was too late, of course. And she was clever enough to work it all out, maybe, but I didn't have time to worry about that right now.

Shit.

"We should go," she said. There was a new note of caution in her voice, and the way she was looking at me... Yeah. Shit was an understatement.

"Mm."

Lin started walking, and I walked with her. We were both hopelessly muddy. I wore it like a second skin, actually revelling in the cold and damp because I'd been too clean these last few weeks. But Lin kept fidgeting — picking and rubbing at the mud. She only managed to make it worse.

"They didn't need us to help," she sighed as she wiped her hands on her jeans. "Pricks. I'm going to snitch on them."

"Who's there to tell? Micah was right bloody there, and he didn't do jack shit. What makes you think his big brothers will be any different?"

She shot me a sly smile, and it was like nothing had changed. "You're barking up the wrong tree, sis. I talk to the Luna, and then she tells Mason they did something to her. It always works a treat."

"You know the Luna?" I demanded. It was all forgotten now — the way she'd been looking at me, that crease in her forehead, because my jaw was hanging loose.

"Oh, yeah. Me and Lilah go way back. She only pretends to be useless."

Uh oh. Of all the people I could have befriended... Still, I supposed it would help in my quest to make the Luna love me.

I found a grin spreading across my face. "Do you think you could introduce me? We've met, but I'm not sure I made a good first impression..."

"Sure. I clean those rooms twice a week, so we'll just ask Susan to fiddle with the rota."

So many visits to the Vaughans' residence would be dangerous, but Goddess only knew what I might overhear. I thought it was worth the risk. I'd never had a sensible bone in my body (it seemed to be genetic), so I nodded vigorously. "Yes, please."

***

The next time I saw Liam was at lunch. He thumped down beside me and didn't say a word as he started piling food onto his plate. There was a dark, blotchy bruise on his jawline where Micah had caught him, and there were half a dozen fainter marks from the fight itself.

"Whoa, Liam," I whispered. "We can't take the food before ... you know..."

He did know. But he'd forgotten, I reckoned, amongst all the chaos, that he would have to wait for all three of his brothers to be in the room with us before he could eat. I watched him go very still, the muscles in his forearms tensing. He couldn't seem to sit still, all of a sudden, and he kept throwing worried glances at the doorway.

"Shit," Liam said under his breath. "Mason's going to recognise me."

I nudged him with my elbow. "Hey. Felix didn't. Micah didn't."

"They're idiots. He's not."

I believed him. It was also true that the dining room wasn't the best place to have a confrontation. Most of the pack was in here, and that included every single one of the fighters. No, I'd much rather that our first encounter with the Silver Lake Alpha took place outdoors, so we could run if we needed to.

I chewed on my lip while I thought it over. Liam was bouncing his leg now, and it made me nervous just watching him. To make matters worse, Lin and Will were looking at us funny. I doubted they could hear much over the chatter of the dining hall, but I switched to the mind-link anyway, just to be safe.

"We'll have to face him at some point, but ... it doesn't have to be right now. You want to skip lunch?"

"Yes," Liam said without hesitation.

"Okay."

And that was that. Liam headed straight for the exit, keeping his head down. There was a risk he'd run smack bang into his brothers as they came in, but it was a risk we'd have to take. I was slower getting up because I stopped to snatch a packet of crisps first.

Our neighbours were staring. Of all the hundreds of people in the room, we were the only ones moving. Aloud, I answered Lin's confused frown. "He's not feeling well, that's all."

"Don't reckon anyone feels right after taking one to the face like that," Will muttered, offering a dry smile. "Specially not when Micah's the one dishing it out. Go — we'll cover for you."

I didn't think we needed 'cover' to miss lunch, but I didn't stop to argue. Liam had paused beside the doorway to wait for me, and that was a very dangerous place for him to be standing. I hauled ass to reach him.

Together, we ducked into the hallway. I could hear voices approaching, and they were men's voices. Loud voices. So I caught Liam's arm and dragged him down the first side-corridor I saw before the owners of those voices came around the corner.

We came to a stop about halfway down the corridor. Yes, we were still in plain sight, so we could only hope they didn't look our way. It was as far as we could safely get. If there was one thing I'd learned about the art of sneakiness over the years, it was that movement caught people's eyes, even when they weren't paying attention.

Sure enough, three people came around the corner, all walking fast and purposeful. Micah trailed behind a pair of young men in their twenties. The closest was Felix, looking even more haggard than usual, but the second...

Mason. It had to be. He looked more like Liam than any of the others did. I'd been expecting another giant to match the Third, but he was pretty average in height and build. That being said, there was a subtle, coiled tension in the way he walked that made me very, very wary.

The three of them were talking. I heard their voices before they came into view, and I heard them long after they'd left again. They weren't making any effort to be quiet, but their words were so sharp and biting that I wondered if an argument had thrown secrecy by the wayside.

"It's always the person you least suspect," Micah insisted.

"Well, the person I least suspect is myself, oddly enough," Felix muttered. "So ... are you accusing me?"

"That depends. Did you open your big fat mouth when you were high yesterday?"

Felix laughed at him. "Careful, little brother. I'd hate to have to knock your teeth out."

There was a thumping noise that made me think Micah might have shoved him from behind. The scuffling that followed was much harder to decipher, and I did wonder until if they'd started fighting until a new voice cut in.

"That's enough," Mason said, his voice dangerously soft. "We don't have time to fight amongst ourselves. Someone killed him. Find that someone if you can, but first and foremost, I want to know who leaked this shit. It's about damage control, not revenge."

Felix made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "Alright, Mase. It's your funeral."

There was more, of course, but they had gone too far by then, and I couldn't hear the rest. Before long, my eyes were back on Liam. Just to check. He was still staring at the place where they had been. Even that barest glimpse had been enough to drain all the life from his face, and where our arms brushed, I could feel him shaking a little bit.

I let my thumb brush against the palm of his hand, even that much contact was enough to make him flinch. "You still with me?"

His nod was distracted and entirely unconvincing.

"Good. Do you know what they were talking about?" I asked. It was meant as a distraction, mostly, but I really was curious as to what the Vaughans were so desperate to keep hidden.

"Maybe," Liam said quietly. "I overheard some things. One of the retired fighters was found dead yesterday. That's why the sirens went off. He was torn to shreds, Eva, and he was nowhere near the border. It was dry as hell, so there's no prints. No witnesses. No scent trail."

Uh oh.

"You don't think..." I began hesitantly. "Rhodri wouldn't—"

Liam gave me a flat look. "He's here, and he's angry and he's bored. So yes, Eva, I think he would. It can't be a coincidence that it happened the same day he arrived. Unless you think it was his dad?"

No, I didn't. Of the two of them — the only two people in all of Snowdonia who could turn their scents off — Rhodri was the more volatile by far. He must have snuck onto the territory for a laugh and then run smack bang into the dead man.

"No," I agreed. "Should we talk to him?"

"Probably. You heard them — they think it was an inside job. That's more heat on us."

I ran a hand through my hair and grimaced, because Rhodri had never taken well to criticism. "Okay, I guess I'll try tonight."

Or maybe I'd chicken out and get Nia to talk to him instead. She was one of the few people he would still listen to, and she was close enough to do it face-to-face. That was always best with Rhodri. If he wanted to throw a punch, he could, and that would stop him stewing in his anger for the next few days.

"And I'll help, of course," he told me. "But ... on a completely unrelated note, I'm going to be sick."

It seemed nothing was going right today. We found the boys' toilets after a minute or so. Liam was true to his word and heaved his guts up in one of the stalls while I stood in the doorway and kept watch. I couldn't stop picking at my nails and shuffling in place, because I didn't know if this was the pills at work ... or something else entirely.

He came out and rinsed his mouth out at one of the sinks like nothing had happened. I wasn't convinced. The speed at which his chest was rising and falling told me this wasn't pill-related. The incident with Micah had set things into motion, and seeing Mason for the first time in seven years had sent them hurtling out of control, and now here we were.

"You should get back to lunch," Liam told me. He was still leaning over the basin, looking like a bloody corpse, and he thought that half a smile could distract me from that. "I'll be fine now. I'll just go lie down or something."

He wanted to get rid of me. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. He was breathing fast and shallow, and his heart was going twice its normal speed. So I swore at him, and I went to close the door.

By the time it clicked shut, I could hear every breath. They came in short bursts — hoarse and choked and much, much too short. He'd ended up on the floor, leaning forwards to ease the pressure in his chest.

I didn't try talking. I knew he couldn't answer me. Instead, I just sat down with my back against the door in case anyone tried to come in. We were at opposite ends of the room, and that was probably for the best. He only got worse when there was someone nearby. Even when that someone was me.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my own breathing. Slow and steady. In and out. One of us needed to be calm, and I'd always been very good at calm.

This had happened a lot in the first year he'd been with us. And the second, and the third, I supposed, but it was those first twelve months when it had been a weekly occurrence. At first, the terror had been real enough. The smell of it would fill the room, a noxious cloud that was powerful enough to make you feel dizzy.

But that had faded over the years until he'd become entirely numb to it. He was just going through the motions now. His body reacted even when his mind didn't. It took maybe ten minutes to ride it out, and even then his breaths came in wracking gasps more often than not.

Eventually, he sat back. His eyes were red-rimmed, and his face was pale and drawn. Not being able to breathe was exhausting, apparently. It certainly looked exhausting. Sometimes, I wondered if that was why his body did it. The nervous, restless energy was spent, and he was too tired to do anything much afterwards. 'Calm' became the only option.

Liam wiped his eyes and splashed tap water onto his face and neck. When that was done, I watched him sit back down. He let his head fall back against the wall. We were facing each other, but he wouldn't look at me, as usual.

Ashamed. Furious at himself, as usual. I knew he liked to go and find somewhere quiet and get it over with alone because he was a proud piece of shit. So yes, he might have wanted me gone, but I couldn't ever bring myself leave him. It was hard enough just sitting there, let alone walking out...

"I'm sorry," he murmured, and I winced at the hoarseness in his voice. "I didn't mean to ... yeah."

I scrubbed at my face. "What exactly are you sorry for?"

He just shrugged.

"You didn't do anything wrong," I said firmly. "I should be the one apologising for ever going along with this shit. It's got you all screwed up, and you know what? It's not worth it. We'll find another way."

Liam looked almost indignant. "I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," I retorted. "It's been a long time since that happened."

He looked down at his hands. He was picking at his fingernails, making them bleed. "So? It won't happen again."

"You mean you won't let me see it happen again," I said quietly, "Screw this, okay? We're done."

"You don't get to decide that," Liam told me. He was on edge again — his entire body tensing and his eyes wary. He didn't want to leave. That much was obvious.

I folded my arms across my chest. "Yes, I do, actually. Mam said we could leave if you weren't coping, and clearly, you're not, so—"

"You do what you like, Eva," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm staying here until they're all dead."

"Careful," I snapped. "Your Alpha's showing."

I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. It wasn't a fair thing to say. Liam didn't rise to it, although he had every right to. Instead, he just looked at me with those big, dark, wounded eyes. It was like kicking a puppy.

"I didn't mean that," I said hurriedly. "Really, I didn't. I'm sorry, Liam."

He swallowed. "You're angry at me, aren't you?"

I wondered if he knew how deeply those words cut me. Shame bled from the wounds they'd left, because he didn't need this right now. I should have bitten my stupid tongue.

"No. No, of course not. I'm just worried about you."

"I don't want us to fight," Liam said, and now he was staring at the floor tiles.

"We're not fighting," I said softly. Not because it was true, but because we'd never had an argument before and I didn't want to leave a stain on that impossibly clean record.

He nodded. He wasn't entirely convinced, by the looks of it, but he seemed to have relaxed now. "I'm okay, you know. Really. You don't need to be worried."

I ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, well, it's hard to tell that when you keep pushing me away."

"I don't mean to. It's just ... habit."

"I think we need to break that habit," I sighed. "What set you off just now? Do you know?"

A pause. It started with him taking a breath and then stretched into nearly a full minute. He wasn't looking at me anymore, which I was almost thankful for. There was something about that stare — something intense and hopelessly complicated ... and it got my heart beating a little too fast.

"Mason," he admitted eventually.

Mason. The root and stem of all our problems, apparently. I'd never even met the guy, but I could understand, even from the briefest of glimpses and a handful of overheard words, why he might have that effect.

"You said he would recognise you," I said.

Another nod.

"Then maybe we should kill him before he gets the chance."