"How much mess can they possibly make in one day?" I demanded.

Lin hefted her box of cleaning supplies higher in her arms and shrugged helplessly. "You'd be surprised. Three guys. A toddler. Lilah does her best, but they're animals, the lot of them."

I snorted. We were walking down the corridor which led to the Alpha's suite for the second time that day. This time, my arms were full of binbags and disinfectant spray. I'd be a lot more okay with cleaning up after my enemies if they paid me.

As we drew close to the door, Lin slowed right down and nudged my arm. "Listen, I was gonna say yesterday, before ... y'know. In future, wait for me outside. Please. You don't want to be in here alone. You got lucky that it was only Mason inside. He's been okay since he found Lilah, but the other two ... yeah."

I hated this pack.

"And I suppose they get away with it, too?" I muttered.

She laughed at me. "They don't need to get away with it. The law says they can do whatever the hell they like."

I stopped in my tracks and turned to stare at her, utterly horrified. "Come again?"

An awkward shrug. "We follow something called 'droit du seigneur.' Lord's Right. The ranking pack members have free reign when it comes to females. That's how the last Alpha had so many kids. When I met Will, I was fifteen. We wanted to wait. But once we'd gone a month without marking each other, Micah said he'd do it himself."

I felt sick. And not just a little sick — I wanted to throw up everything that was in my stomach, because it was clenching and tying itself in knots. I'd had enough. Enough of pretending like things like that didn't bother me. Enough of flockies. Enough of this shit-awful, backwards pack.

"And if I'm not pregnant within the year..." she continued, her entire face blanching, "he's going to ... well, I'm sure you can guess."

What. The. Hell. Was this why she and Will made such a show of sucking face in public? Why did she sound so calm? Like this was a just normal thing that people did. Silver Lake had their brain-washing game on point, apparently.

I stared at Lin for an awfully long time. "Please tell me you're kidding."

She shook her head. "They don't have that law at New Dawn, huh?"

I didn't really know. I certainly hoped they didn't. Hayden and I would be having a conversation if I ever saw him again. "No. Why do you guys put up with it? One good riot and you could rid yourself of those pricks forever..."

The word riot sent her eyebrows flying upwards, and I reminded myself that a good flockie female wouldn't even consider such a thing. Lin sounded almost offended as she said, "It's not their fault. Not really. We need loads of pups to replace the fighters who get killed. If there weren't any rogues, it wouldn't be necessary. The sooner we get rid of them, the sooner I can catch a break."

I took a deep breath. In and out. Soothing, like. "So ... the Vaughans are threatening assault if you don't have pups ... and you're blaming the rogues?

"Well, yeah."

"Okay, cool," I said quietly. "Just so we're clear."

There was a lot to unpack there. I didn't think it needed unpacking. We should probably just destroy the entire suitcase. As far as I was concerned, Nia's assassination attempt couldn't come soon enough. It was set for tomorrow morning, as things stood.

Without warning, the door swung open in front of us. I should have learnt my lesson about holding sensitive conversations in that corridor, given that I'd been the one eavesdropping only yesterday, but we got lucky. It was just the Luna.

"I thought I heard voices!" she exclaimed. "Hi, Lin. Long time, no see."

Instead of answering, Lin just wrapped her in an aggressive hug. It took them an uncomfortable length of time to break apart again, during which I shuffled from foot to foot and admired the ceiling. And that patience was rewarded with a sceptical look from the Luna when she did finally deign to notice me.

"And ... you brought the new girl. Okay. We can work with that. Come in, ladies, and I'll get you some gin."

Huh? I wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but I wasn't complaining either. She led us into the kitchen, which was mercifully empty. There was a clear bottle sitting on the counter-top, like she'd known Lin was coming, which she probably had. While we watched on, Lilah poured a generous splash into three glasses and then topped it up with tonic water.

I took the proffered drink with a murmured thank you and took a sip. It was cold, and it was alcoholic, and what more could I ask for, really?

"We were just talking about Lord's Right," Lin said cheerfully. "Eva didn't know what it was."

"Ah," the Luna said carefully. "Yes. One of the uglier parts of life here."

"Lilah's immune to that law," Lin informed me once she'd taken a generous gulp of her drink.

Lilah inclined her head. "Perks of being the Luna. Mase is so possessive that he won't let the other guys near me, let alone touch me. It pisses him off."

Sure. Yeah. That sounded like a 'perk' to me. It could be that he knew what his brothers were like and wanted to keep her safe in some twisted, misguided way, but I doubted it, somehow. And it certainly didn't excuse him allowing that kind of behaviour in the first place. He was supposed to be in charge here.

I risked a moment of timid eye contact to ask, "He doesn't get pissed at you, though, right? Someone told me he's a bit rough."

"Who told you that?" she demanded, exchanging a bemused look with Lin.

"Don't know their name," I said defensively. "I'm new, remember."

"Well, it's sweet that you're worried," she laughed, "but when he does get rough with me, he's not exactly angry, if you catch my drift."

Oh. Ew. No, thanks. I didn't want to know that. There was bile in the back of my throat now, and my stomach was heaving all over again. It would have been okay if we weren't talking about a guy who'd held a lighter to a nine-year-old for kicks.

Lin scrunched her face up. "I dunno, hun. I've seen him slam doors when you guys argue. And didn't he shove you once?"

"That doesn't count," Lilah scoffed. And oh, how I begged to differ. She did a good job of sounding dismissive, but the smile was gone. "I'm more concerned about our friend here. That mark on her neck is a tad smudged..."

"Nah. This is just—" I stammered. It was harder to make the words come out while Lin was giving me that all-knowing, snide look. "It's nothing."

Yes, pretending like Liam abused me would be the fastest way to find out if the Luna was going through the same thing, but I wasn't comfortable with that. Not now, and probably not ever. It wasn't the kind of thing you lied about.

"It doesn't look like nothing," she sighed. "But suit yourself. More gin?"

"Yes, please."

I was going to need it if I was going to make it through this conversation without murdering someone. She splashed another generous helping into my glass, and I tipped it straight down my throat without waiting for the tonic water.

"You know, Eva," Lin said. "You never told me how you and Alex met. I bet it's a cute story."

Oh, Goddess. What was she playing at now?

"Cute?" I asked sceptically. "Not really. We went to school together and everything. I can't even remember the first time we met."

"What about when you realised you were mated? I love hearing those stories."

Shut up. Please. If we were going to do this, I'd prefer that we did it a long way away from the Luna of this pack.

"Oh, me too," Lilah exclaimed.

Great. Now I was going to have to make up some bullshit story and then force Liam to memorise it. "Well, we were just—"

I heard the suite door slam, and the words died in my throat until I knew who it was. I'd decided I wasn't going to talk about Liam in front of his brothers. Full stop. I didn't trust that the wrong name wouldn't slip out again.

A dark-haired young man came into the kitchen not two seconds later. He looked ill, if you asked me, because there were dark smudges under his eyes and sweat on his forehead. He immediately dunked his entire head into the kitchen sink and turned the tap on.

"Hey, Felix," Lilah said.

"Hey," he mumbled, straightening up again. His hair was sticking up wildly and sopping wet, and he'd left splash marks all over the sideboard. Lin and I exchanged a guarded look. We'd be the ones to clean that up.

Lilah offered him a hand towel and a half-hearted smile. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

Felix shrugged at her, which meant yes, of course. "I guess. Are you going to tell Mase?"

He managed to make it sound casual, but his eyes were fixed on the three of us, and I recognised the look in them well enough. I was used to seeing it on his little brother. After a long, uncomfortable moment, Lilah shook her head.

"Thank you," he said.

And with that, he went into his room, closing the door firmly behind him, and I caught the briefest glimpse of needles and cotton wool on the bedside table before it slammed. The exchange had been smooth and monotone, like this happened a lot and they were simply going through the motions.

I kept staring at that closed door for a long time afterwards. If I was going to feel bad about orchestrating the deaths of any of the Vaughan brothers, it would be Felix. He was even more terrified of Mason than Liam was.

***

"So, tell me, Alex," Lin began cheerfully. "How did you two meet?"

She was starting to annoy me. The constant probing, the slyness of it all... If she thought she was going to catch us out on such a simple, obvious question, she must have thought we were both dumb as bricks. My own version of the story had been brief and incredibly vague.

"Oh. Uh, well, we'd seen each other before," Liam said. His eyes were on me, not her, and he was giving me that cocky little smile of his. "But there was this one time, late at night, when she came into my room and ate my dinner, right in front of me. That's when she got my attention, I guess."

I stared back at him, trying to convey exactly how I was feeling — which was delighted and taken aback and a little outraged, all at once. He wasn't supposed to be telling the truth. Especially when it made my stomach freefall and stretched the air between us taut. It wasn't fair.

Lin turned to look at me, utterly baffled. "Huh? Why would you do that?"

"Oh, I had my reasons," I said defensively with another pointed look at Liam. We'd come a long way since that quiet, rainy night, but those big dark eyes of his could still make my heart skip a beat. Except now I was nervous for an entirely different reason.

"I'd sure love to hear them," Will muttered.

Both of us ignored him. It wasn't an easy thing to explain. And when the silence had stretched thin enough, Lin jumped in with the question she'd been dying to ask from the beginning. "Is that when you realised she was your mate?"

She was trying to catch him on a lie. Or failing that, she wanted to see my eyes glaze over in a frantic mind-link as I tried to get the story straight.

"No," he said. "But that was when I started hoping she might be."

Shit. Shit. How was I supposed to just there and act like everything was cool when he was going around saying things like that? It didn't matter if it was bullshit for Lin's benefit. I sat there and chewed on my lip and tried to ignore that warm, fluttery feeling in my stomach.

It shut her up, in any case. The way we were looking at each other helped — hard to deny there was history there. I was glad of it. Lin was dangerous. Not because she was close to the truth, but because she was so ridiculously far from it. Sooner or later, she'd realise her story didn't make sense and start looking for a different explanation. And needless to say, the word sleeper was never far from a flockie's thoughts these days.

"Lin and I knew each other before, too," Will went on, when neither of us bothered replying. "I found her on my eighteenth, not ten minutes after midnight. Couldn't believe my luck. Still can't, if I'm being honest."

She turned to peck him on the cheek. "Oh, shush. Keep talking like that and I'll have to jump your bones right here."

I winced. Beside me, Liam took a sudden and all-consuming interest in his scrambled eggs. But when they did kiss, it wasn't their usual display of aggressive tongues and strange slurping sounds. It was a softer, more loving version which didn't make me want to claw my eyes out.

"We're running late," Liam said.

Liam and Will were on patrol this morning. So while I'd be stalking Lilah to the sanctuary, he would be telling Nia when it was safe to cross the border. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, because it meant he'd get caught in the crossfire if things went wrong.

"Yeah, you go on," Will said. "I'll catch up."

Liam didn't need telling twice. Stevens had been breathing down his neck ever since the incident on the front lawn, and the bruises had yet to fade. No need to give him an excuse. Liam gave my hand a quick squeeze, and then he was gone. With any luck, the next time we saw each other, Mason would be dead, but I was beginning to doubt it.

But the second Liam was out of earshot, Will leant across the table towards me and said in an undertone, "I'm a bit worried about him, y'know. He keeps chucking his food up, and he's been quiet. Quieter than normal, that is."

"It's this new medication," I said wearily. I was surprised he'd noticed, to be honest, and I was astonished that he cared enough to tell me. "They're still fiddling with the dose."

"Well, I hope you get it sorted. He's not right. And he'll probably kill me for telling you this, but he's been passing out, too. It's only ever for a second, but—"

I swore viciously. "I'll sort it. Thanks, Will."

"Don't mention it."

He got up, too. The rest of the patrol had gathered around Micah Vaughan, who was having a quiet word with them. Beside him, Felix shovelled cornflakes into his mouth. His hair was so tousled that I was willing to bet he'd rolled straight out of bed. Mason and Lilah's seats were empty — they'd ordered breakfast in bed this morning, so I'd felt safe enough to bring Liam down for some proper food.

Will leant over to give Lin one last peck on the cheek. "See you at lunch?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'll save you a seat."

***

I was sticking to Lilah like superglue. I'd followed her to the sanctuary from breakfast, using the pretence of asking dumb, unnecessary questions about how the packs worked. And then we'd sat through two whole hours of religious nonsense on chairs without any lumbar support.

Liam had warned me about the 'Moon Day' services so I could avoid making a fool of myself. I'd listened to a choir of little girls sing some weird, haunting tune without words. Mason had killed a deer with a ceremonial knife. We'd all drunk some special 'moon-blessed' water from a crevice in the rock, and then we'd headed for home.

I didn't get it. These traditions dated back to the Ancient Britons, like the bone fences, and at no point in the last two thousand years had anyone stopped to think 'hey, hang on, what the ever-loving hell are we doing?'

"We're leaving now," I told Nia though the link. It was shuddering in time with my heartbeat, and I had to bit my lip to concentrate long enough to say those three miserable words.

"Good. So are we." She sounded so incredibly calm, somehow. I knew it was her job to be calm, but it still surprised me. "Just breathe, kiddo. All you gotta do is keep the girl and the kid out of harm's way. Let me worry about the rest."

"Nah, that's cool," I said wearily. "I'm going to worry about it. How many fighters have you got?"

Nia's answering laugh was deep and oddly careless for someone who was about to brave mortal danger. "Me and Lil. Rhodri's here, of course. We've got some of the older raiders — the one who ain't afraid to cross your Mam, and we're about to rope Uncle Rhys in, just like you suggested. Give him no time to snitch."

"Okay. That's ... that's good." It wasn't good. If she was blackmailing our uncle, she must have known she didn't have the numbers to pull this off. "Link me when you get closer."

I came back to awareness and nearly tripped over a bramble. Lin and I were walking alongside the Luna. They were chatting about some TV programme which I didn't care about. I smiled and nodded whenever their eyes drifted in my direction to hide that disinterest.

Mason and his brothers were slightly ahead of us. They'd lowered their voices to make sure we couldn't hear them. I'd only caught a few muttered words about strange pawprints on the north border and decided it wasn't worth listening to.

All three of them were giving us dirty looks when they did deign to glance backwards. I could tell they were annoyed that Lin and I were intruding on their family time, but Lilah seemed delighted to have company, and I could give a shit. I needed to be close enough to help.

Five minutes later, the girls were still chattering away beside me, but now we were trudging through a narrow gorge. It was a roundabout way to get back to the pack house, but Liam had assured me they walked it every week.

"I see you, pup," Nia told me. "You look bored as hell. Which one is Mason?"

I eyed the undergrowth as discretely as I could. "The one with the glasses. Micah's the tall one. Where are you?"

The link hummed like she was laughing at me. "Look left. A little further. Under the holly — there. You're looking right at me. Rhodri's behind you."

I couldn't see a damn thing. There was just plants, plants and more plants. But I supposed that was the point. Our pelts camouflaged us as long as we stayed still. I risked a glance behind me and saw another fat load of nothing. It was both reassuring and terrifying that they were so close.

The toddler burst into tears. There was no apparent reason for it, but her bawling was loud and piercing enough that Lilah stopped walking to try and shush her. I stood there wincing the whole time, because that kid was loud.

"Give her here," Mason said.

Lilah hesitated for a moment, but he'd fixed those expectant, unrelenting eyes on her, so it didn't take long to change her mind. He put the toddler against his shoulder, and no sooner had he laid a finger on her than she quieted. It was eerie and more than a little worrying.

I tugged on the link again. "Shit, Nia. Hold for a sec."

"Why?"

"He's holding his kid."

"Yeah, I see him," Nia said quietly. "If we rush him, he'll give her back quick enough. Just you watch."

Worry coiled in the pit of my stomach and crept up my throat. I tasted bile, and breathing was that little bit harder. "And if he doesn't?"

She sent the mental equivalent of a shrug rolling down the link. "We can't wait any longer, Eva. We've got a minute before the patrol finds our scent trail. Maybe less. We'll just have to go for the other two and cross our fingers."

I didn't like that. Not one bit. They'd lose the element of surprise, so Mason would get a chance to shift, and then they'd have to fight him properly. But she was right that time was running out. It was now or never, I reckoned.

"Shit," I said eventually. "Okay. Ready when you are."

"We're ready now."

My heart was going at a hundred miles an hour. I could feel it thudding in my chest and hear every beat echoing in my ears. My lungs were trying to keep up, with every breath shallower than the last. For the second time that day, I wanted to be sick.

The raiders were here. They'd crossed the border, and they'd traversed miles of enemy territory undetected, and now they would have to fight tooth and nail if they wanted to leave in one piece. It would be one thing if they were battling ordinary flockies. It was quite another to face the Alpha, Beta and Third of a pack all at once.

And if they died trying ... I'd lose a good chunk of my family in the span of a few minutes. And I'd have to stand here. And I'd have to watch. And then I'd have to play nice with the people who'd killed them.

I tripped over a fallen branch. It wasn't entirely deliberate, because I'd been too busy panicking to care where I was putting my feet. But I made the split-second decision to pretend like it had been deliberate and roll with it. Any distraction right now would help the raiders.

So, as I tumbled to the ground, I made sure to let out a little shriek, just to get the men's attention. All three of them turned around. Micah turned back just as quickly, hiding a smirk, and Mason's vicious amusement didn't go unnoticed. It was Felix who came trudging over to haul me back onto my feet.

"Watch your step, yeah?" he asked. "There are old shafts around here. Trip into one of those and you'll break your neck."

Shafts like ... old mining shafts? Like ... a quarry? Holy shit. I was too busy getting excited about that to fully process the moment when Nia decided that two out of three backs turned was good enough. She broke cover and charged headlong at Micah.

He was looking, of course, but the time it took him to process what was happening and shift allowed her to rip his stomach open.

And suddenly, there were wolves everywhere. They were snarling and snapping and colliding at bone-breaking speeds. Felix had shifted, too. His teeth were closed around the pelt of a small timber wolf, and he was shaking it like a terrier would a mouse. Micah and Nia were now locked at the jaws, their pelts turning redder by the second.

Mason stood alone in the middle of the chaos, regarding the wolves around him with a smile that sent shivers down my spine. He was the one being ambushed. But the way he was looking at them ... you'd think they were lambs who'd wandered into the slaughterhouse.