HEY EVERYONE!! HOW'S IT GOING? A BUNCH OF YOU GUYS ARE NEW SO WELCOME TO THE BOOK :) IT'S SUCH A WONDERFUL AND HAPPY PLACE TO BE. YEAH. GET SUPER ATTACHED TO THE CHARACTERS. I DARE YOU.

"It's still raining," Liam said around lunchtime. "If it keeps going, we could ... you know."

I chewed on my lip, hardly daring to breathe. The rest of his patrol was in earshot, so we needed to be careful about this. "You think?"

He nodded. "I'm got another patrol to run, and then I'm off. Your shift ends at three, right? We'd be back before supper - no one would notice we were gone."

"Seth might. I'm technically supposed to be on-call."

"You didn't admit anything to him, did you?" Liam asked. He was looking at the doctor with a wary scowl on his face. I'd told him everything, naturally. We were still doing that whole 'communication' thing, and it seemed to be working.

"No," I said. "Course not. But he's pretty sure, and I dunno ... I don't think he'd go snitching to anyone. He seems decent ... y'know, for a flockie."

"He is. That doesn't mean I trust him. And I want to know who his friends are before we go anywhere near them."

"I don't think he's going to tell me. Seems like they're real cagey about this, and can you blame them?"

He shrugged. He knew as well as I did that unpleasant things would happen if Mason ever caught wind of their little rebel group. He looked at Seth for a long moment, the muscles in his jaw writhing and popping.

"If it's still raining at three," he said, "I'll come find you."

After a moment's hesitation, I nodded. And I leaned over to kiss his cheek, just in case anyone was watching. Liam was looking at me funny when I pulled away again, his nose wrinkled up like he'd caught a scent. "This is awkward, but has anyone told you-"

I started picking myself up. "That I'm on the burner? Yeah. Your brother did, only he wasn't so polite about it."

That got his attention. "Which brother?"

I nodded towards Micah, who was lording it over a group of recruits to our left. Liam followed my gaze, his face hardening almost beyond recognition.

"Stay away from him, Eva. Please. He's all kinds of screwed up."

I gave him a very half-hearted smile. "I'm trying."

It was still raining at one, and at two, and at three, although the downpour had worsened by then. It was torrential. That was fine for our purposes, and Liam met me after work with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

We caught a ride to the border on the patrol bus, as usual, but instead of running back to the pack house, we lingered there until the patrol was a mile away. Better safe than dead, after all.

The border was a mess of brambles and barbed wire. In some places, the bone fence had been swallowed entirely by the mess of thorns. We picked a place where the ground was thick with leaves, so we'd leave no footprints, and then we stepped over the fence. The only evidence was a scent trail, and the rain had washed that away before we got ten paces.

We weren't going for a run. We weren't even going for a jog. Liam and I walked for about ten minutes to reach a certain layby on the south side of the pack. Nia had planned it all quite thoroughly.

I wasn't dressed for the woods. My flockie shoes were soon caked with mud, my socks soaked with rainwater, and the brambles tore holes in my jeans. I was starting to shiver by the time we glimpsed tarmac.

We had to walk a few hundred metres up the road before we rounded a bend. There, parked haphazardly on the verge, was a silver Fiat. The occupants had been sheltering from the rain, but they saw us coming and got out of the car. Two people - both climbing out of the drivers' side door, for some inexplicable reason.

The first was all lean muscle and unnecessary height, with a head of tousled tawny hair and a faceful of stubble. The second was stony-eyed and dark-haired. I hadn't been expecting to see Rhodri. In fact, Rhodri was the absolute last person I'd been expecting to see. Hannah ... well, I supposed that made sense. They were handcuffed together, as usual, her right to his left.

I closed the distance with a few hurried steps. And for the first time ... probably ever ... he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed until I squealed. I was hugging him back as soon as I could get my arms in the right position. He'd taken me by surprise.

"You alright?" he asked gruffly.

"I am now," I murmured.

Rhodri let go of me. He'd held on a moment too long and given it away. He was just as relieved as I was. Maybe even more. I tried to imagine what it would have been like, sitting around all day while him and Liam were in Silver Lake. Unpleasant didn't even begin to cover it.

"You smell like a flockie," he told me, wrinkling up his nose. "You both do. Bloody hell."

That was a very discrete way to acknowledge Liam, I'd give him that, but he was going to have to do better. Liam had stopped a safe distance away, and he was standing there with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on Rhodri. Wary, as always.

I thumped Rhodri at discretely as I could manage. Slowly, grudgingly, he turned to look at Liam. For once, they weren't bickering with that stare. Liam's wolf was too drugged up to rise to any challenges. So I didn't have to jump between them, and I could just sit back and enjoy myself.

"Hey," Rhodri said quietly.

"Hey," Liam replied. He glanced to me, almost for reassurance, and I gave him a quick smile. "You alright? Last time I saw you, the flockies were taking chunks out of you."

More than that. The last time they'd seen each other, they'd fought, and Rhodri had killed Will. We weren't going to hold that against him, obviously, but we couldn't forget it either. He'd clearly paid a price for that day - there was a new scar running down his jawline, and I could see mottled bruises peeking out from beneath his shirt.

Rhodri drew himself up, holding his head that fraction higher in defiance. "Me? I'm fine. Weren't much of a fight. Still, I'm sorry we couldn't kill him."

"It's okay," Liam said, although I knew damn well that it wasn't. "Thank you for trying."

My cousin stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged at him.

Well ... that had been surprisingly civil. And polite, even. They were getting better. I was sure that someday soon, they'd end up hugging. And when they did, I wanted to be there to spontaneously melt into a puddle.

I'd always wanted them to get along. In fact, I wanted it quite desperately. Over the years, the aggression had morphed into a grudging tolerance, and then a very tenuous friendship. All they needed to do now was admit they actually cared about each other. Only ... boys were terrible at that.

"Hello, Han," I said, just to change the subject. "I take it you're driving us?"

"No," she sighed. "We've got Mr Reckless-Endangerment behind the wheel."

She was giving Rhodri a needling smirk, and he was quick to rise to it. His growl was returned with interest. And then both of them stood there fuming and refusing to look at each other.

"You can't drive, you dumbass," I scoffed.

"Yes, I can," Rhodri growled, clearly offended. "Lily's been teaching me. Ain't got nothing else to do, have I?"

I decided to take him at his word, although he and Lily didn't really get along and any 'lessons' would probably involve more bickering than learning. "Okay. Sure. But then ... uh ... why's she here?"

The question was accompanied with a nod towards Hannah. It was Rhodri's turn to smirk at her, quick and lazy. "Your mother reckons that as long as I'm cuffed to her, I can't do anything stupid where Mason's concerned."

"What stupid thing would you do?" I asked warily.

"I'm going to kill him, obviously. But first I gotta sweet-talk my way back into your mother's good books. Get rid of this here dead weight."

I didn't say anything. I just looked at Liam, and Liam looked back at me, and we both tried to speak without words. We should have known Rhodri wouldn't just drop it. The first attempt had failed, yeah, but he was determined to kill Mason. He was too protective over Liam and me. He always had been.

It was nice - reassuring, even, to know someone had your back. Except when it wasn't. Right now, the stakes were too high. I didn't think it was a good idea for Rhodri to try some lone wolf attack against Silver Lake. Mason was harder to kill than that. And however talented my cousin might have been, he was still only seventeen years old. He'd lose.

"If I'm just dead weight, pick the lock and beat it. You'd be doing both of us a favour," Hannah said coldly.

"And let you loose? Hard pass," Rhodri laughed. To me, he added, "She went for me the other day, she did. Vicious little bitch. I was only tryna eat my breakfast."

She let out an incredulous snort. "You were beatboxing."

"Yeah, to annoy my brother. Not you."

"It was annoying everyone, you ass!"

"Kids," I drawled. "Can you not bicker and drive at the same time? We're on a schedule here."

They had the good grace to look ashamed of themselves ... for like a second before they caught each other's eyes and bristled up like hedgehogs all over again. I didn't understand why Mam would think this was a good idea. Another week together, and one of them would be dead. Maybe both.

"Sure, I guess," Rhodri muttered.

They got back into the car with no shortage of difficulty. Hannah had to climb over the driver's seat. Once they'd finished swearing at each other - which took quite some time - Rhodri put the car into gear and pulled off. He could only have one hand on the wheel.

His driving was a little bit ... like a near-death experience. He didn't seem to understand what speed-limits were, and he clipped the hedgerows at every corner. I was thrown against the door hard enough to make my injured shoulder scream at me.

Liam, who didn't like cars at the best of times, was making concerned faces at me from the moment we pulled off. It was lucky, really, that the roads were so quiet. There was only so much damage Rhodri could do on an empty B-road.

"But aside from that unpleasantness, we've been getting along, haven't we?" Rhodri drawled. She made a face that closely resembled sour milk, and I bit my lip to hide a smile. He didn't miss the scepticism.

"No, really," he insisted. "Watch this. Han, could you pass the water?"

Hannah turned and gave him a look so scathing, so contemptuous ... that Rhodri seemed to visibly recoil.

"Please," he added grudgingly.

Nothing. Not even a twitch. Eventually, he reached over and grabbed the bottle himself, the car lurching dangerously towards the oncoming traffic. I reckoned he only did it to make a point, and Hannah swore at him filthy while she wrestled for the wheel with her free hand.

"She did it earlier," Rhodri muttered as soon as we were safely back in our lane. He uncapped the bottle one-handed and took a good long swig before dumping it back in Hannah's lap. "I swear she did."

"Sure, Llewellyn," Liam said.

"She did!"

And the rest of the journey ... went much the same way. The only benefit to Rhodri's breakneck speed was that we didn't have to spend more than ten minutes in that death-trap before he pulled into a forestry carpark.

We couldn't go into camp stinking like packlings - they'd all know we were sleepers in a heartbeat. This was the next best thing. We could have a few hours of restbite, and Liam had three talented fighters with whom to hone his Alpha-killing skills. I reckoned we'd have to do this a few times if he was going to stand any chance of winning.

Nia was standing at the far end of the carpark. Hayden Lloyd was sat at her feet with his back to a tree trunk, looking miserable. He'd been signed up for fight club too.

I was out of the car before it had stopped properly, collecting a well-deserved hug from my cousin. She was gentler than Rhodri had been, although she did take the opportunity to muss my hair up.

"You're looking well, pup," Nia told me fondly. "You've even put some weight on."

And that was probably true, but for every pound that I managed to gain, Hayden had lost one. He was looking more and more like a rogue with every passing day, now that the muscle was melting off his bones. He needed more food than he was getting ... but didn't we all?

"Hey, Eva," Hayden said, even managing a smile. He'd noticed me looking. "How are you enjoying pack life?"

It was a friendly, genuine question that I snorted. "I'm not. Toilets are nice - I'll give you that. And I like pillows. Everything else is shit, so I dunno why you guys think you're so high and mighty. I did bring back a souvenir, though."

As I was talking, I hooked the duffel bag off Liam's shoulder and dropped it at Nia's feet. Inside was our change of clothes, because we couldn't very well go back smelling like rogues, and the phones we'd nicked from the attic. The zip was half open, and the sight of a dozen screens was enough to make her eyebrows fly upwards.

"What's this for?"

"Anything, really. But El needs new shoes," I said. "And ... get the flockie some boots while you're at it. His feet'll rot off else."

Hannah had been on duty when she'd been abducted, so she was wearing sensible outdoor shoes. Hayden, on the other hand, had been snatched from his house. His trainers had fallen to pieces during the last month, and they now stank from being constantly sodden.

"You don't have to do that," he said, shifting uncomfortably. "Shoes are expensive."

"Aw, look at that," I cooed. "He feels bad."

"Nah. I just know you're all broke."

"Never said we were going to pay for them, did I?"

I was teasing him. Mostly. A lot of the department stores had upped their security to the point where it wasn't worth the hassle. We got a lot of shoes and clothing from charity shops for a couple of quid. Sometimes, we could get away with running a distraction at the army surplus shop, but that was playing with fire, because it was often filled with veterans who didn't hesitate to chase a thief.

Hayden took it seriously, and his jaw actually dropped. "You steal from humans?"

He sounded so scandalised that I couldn't help myself - I bleated at him. The others joined in with a good deal of enthusiasm. We kept baa-ing and meh-ing until he looked suitably pissed off.

"No, of course not, little lamb," I cooed. "We would never steal anything, because stealing is wrong. Does that help you sleep at night?"

That amused everyone except Hayden, for obvious reasons. It wasn't often I managed to get on his nerves, but he scowled at me now and muttered, "I'm not a bloody lamb."

Nia shrugged at him. "Yeah, you are. All flockies are sheep. 'Cause you all do what you're told. You're just a baby sheep, you are, but you'll be the sheep-dog one day. And sheep-dogs are allowed to think for themselves. What do you think? Are we evil for nicking a few pairs of shoes from a multi-million-pound corporation?"

"I guess ... maybe not."

"Spot on," I said happily. "There's a rogue proverb which goes-"

"-be gay, do crime," Nia finished. It wasn't the proverb I'd been thinking of, strangely enough. Hayden seemed more ... 'confused' than morally changed, but whatever. "Enough teasing him now. We could waste a whole-ass day. You ready, Liam?"

He nodded, the beginnings of a grin spreading across his face. He'd always liked training more than the rest of us. Why was anyone's guess - it was physical exertion in its worst possible form. "Who's first?"

"This one," she said, prodding Hayden with a toe. "Up you get, then. We ain't got all day."

"Why?" Hayden asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Nia sniggered, and I was the one to take pity, as usual. "You didn't tell him?"

He let out a low growl. "Tell me what?"

"Couldn't be arsed," Nia said, reaching down to clap him around the shoulders. "But look where I sat him."

Hayden had his back to a yew tree, and I stopped trying to fight a smile. He was, of course, so useless with trees that he sat there, squinting at the canopy and trying to work out what we all found so funny.

She prodded him again. Harder, this time. "Get up and shift, pup. You fight like a flockie, so you're gonna train with Liam here. He's got an Alpha to kill before the month's over."

He glowered at her and set his jaw. "No, thanks."

"Do it, and I'll take you for a run after."

Those were the magic words, apparently. He sat up very straight all of a sudden, looking like one of them meerkats with his big, hopeful eyes. "Yeah? Two hours, no guards. Hannah can come with me."

"You must be shitting me, Lloyd. One hour, with guards, and you'll go separately."

Hayden looked to Hannah, and she returned the glance with interest. They were very good at talking without saying anything, but Nia had baited them well. They must have been desperate for some exercise after so many weeks of sitting on their arses.

"Alright," Hayden said eventually.

"Good lad. I'll take the cuffs off you now. Don't you go trying anything, mind. I don't want your teeth anywhere near his throat."

She made him stand up before she turned the key in the lock. Under the metal, his wrists were mottled yellow and purple with bruises, and there were open sores over the bone. Hannah was no better. I tried very hard not to feel guilty about that.

Hannah had to stay beside Rhodri - insurance while her cousin was shifted. There were four of us here, but there was no point taking risks. He didn't bother with subtlety as he flicked his knife out and span it between his fingers. Hannah made a point of rolling her eyes. If she'd ever found him intimidating, it must have long since worn off.

Hayden stretched his newly liberated shoulders, exaggerating for sympathy points, and then he pulled his shirt over his head. He looked to Nia for permission to shift, because he was just that well-trained. She waited until Liam was in his fur before nodding.

Hayden's wolf was unusual. His pelt was more white than anything else, although there were grey areas across his head and back. He looked like a chunky, oversized husky. Liam, on the other hand, was a mottled silver-grey colour because his family was descended from the massive tundra wolves.

"Whenever you're ready, gentlemen," Nia drawled.

I watched as they circled each other. Just once. It was a lazy courtesy, and the second they were done, they collided in a muddle of teeth and claws and snarling. Because they were both male (Goddess help us) and had a lot to prove, I doubted there would be any refreshment breaks. They'd keep going until one of them was belly-up.

But it was - technically - training. They kept their muzzles closed around the more delicate areas, as was considered polite. Face, ears, belly and throat. The scrape of teeth on skin was enough to remind you to defend yourself. Everywhere else, their jaws closed around pelt. They weren't trying to break the skin, but it always happened every now and then, when someone wrenched away at the wrong moment.

I couldn't tell who was winning. And honestly, I didn't much care. This was my flockie restbite time, and I wasn't going to waste it watching Liam train. No, I was going to make full use of my cousins, because I'd missed them both terribly.

"No parents, huh?" I asked, leaning towards Nia. "And here I was, ready to get torn a new one."

"Sorry, kiddo," she sighed, slinging an arm across my shoulders. She hadn't taken her eyes off the fight. "They have bigger problems right now. There's an army of hired wolves camped down south, just waiting for the green light to hunt us. Westerners. And we're told they've got bears with them."

I looked at her aghast, while my stomach twisted and a shiver crept down my spine. "Did you say bears?"

She nodded. "Black bears. The little ones, you know? They're from the States, and I reckon they'll tear right through us."

I shifted from foot to foot. "Only if the amendment passes."

"The packmeet is tomorrow. We have five votes for a massacre and two against," Nia said, and then she shrugged, not because she didn't care, but because there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. "It's going to pass."

"Can we help?"

"Well, yeah," she said. "Pass your probation. Kill Mason. Flip Silver Lake in our favour, and with any luck, the Fletcher boys will do the same down in Ember. Until then, all we can do is pull back into the hills and weather it."

I didn't say anything, because that all sounded very difficult. Kinda like a wild hope, not a solid, well-thought-out plan. The raiders could pull back all they wanted. People were going to die. That was more pressure on us to succeed, as if there wasn't enough already.

While I was drowning in my thoughts, Nia was actually paying attention to the fight. Neither of them had managed to get the upper hand, and they'd disengaged to snap at each other from afar. She nodded towards Liam. "He's not right."

"No," I agreed after a moment's hesitation. "I found coke on him yesterday."

Nia's eyes went wide, because that surprised her as much as it had surprised me. Liam barely even drank. "Shit, Eva. Do you reckon he's using?"

"I have no idea."

"He wouldn't," Rhodri said, coming to stand behind us. He tugged a very sulky Hannah after him. "I reckon he's just worn out."

I shrugged. Last night couldn't have helped with that, but he'd needed the distraction more than he'd needed to sleep. Of course he was exhausted. "He is. Soon as we're done here, we're going to crash."

He shook his head patiently. "You're marked, you're warm, and you're sharing a bed. He ain't gonna sleep, Eva."

"He'll be fine," I said defensively. It was true that I'd always made an effort to sleep in my actual bed, the one in Eira's tent, whenever I was in heat. But that was more to avoid awkwardness than anything else. It wasn't a big deal.

Nia and Rhodri turned to look at each other. The way they were smirking said it all. It was true that I'd never experienced heat while I was marked, but neither had Rhodri, and neither of them knew it wasn't a real mark, so ... yeah. We'd be fine. We'd managed to be fine with everything else.

One of the boys yelped, and all three of us turned our heads. I didn't see what had caused it, but I did see the aftermath. Liam overreached with a step, leaving his side exposed, and Hayden used the opportunity to knock him flat. He landed heavily against a tree, and I winced in sympathy.

It would have been okay if he hadn't been so slow to find his feet again. The two of them rolled on the ground, their muzzles locked together, getting nowhere. Nia made a tutting sound, tongue against teeth. "He's out of practice."

"Yeah," I said. It had been a month since Liam had been pitted against a real partner. Hayden was equally disadvantaged - you could see it in the hesitancy of their movements. The slight second-guessing of every move.

"And his brother's not," Nia finished.

"No," I agreed quietly. "You got the measure of him - what'd you think?"

I wanted another opinion. Because saying I didn't think Liam could kill him ... it felt like a betrayal. To keep my mouth shut and let him try, knowing perfectly well it would fail, well, that was just another kind of betrayal.

"I think we underestimated him," Nia sighed. "He's like twenty-five, and he knows what he's doing. Rhys said he could do it, maybe, given some time, but the rest of us? I'm not so sure."

Rhodri made a grunting noise which might have been agreement or derision. It was hard to tell with him.

"I'm not going to watch him die," I said, stuffing my hands into my pocket. "I'm not. There must be another way to do it."

"I dunno, kiddo," Nia said softly. She was looking at me, not the fight, all of a sudden. "I think you could. If you were really trying."

"That's some bullshit, Nia, and you know it."

She snorted at me. "How would you know? You ain't done any real trying since what happened with Eira."

I worked the muscles in my jaw and looked away. That fast, my mood had soured. My hands found their way into my pockets, kneading at the fabric. "Shut up."

"Because you don't want to hear it, or because I'm wrong?" she asked.

"Both," I snapped.

Rhodri made an alarmed noise. He took Hannah back to the treeline, creeping away like I wouldn't notice. I was chronically stressed, and Nia's ethereal state of calm was getting on my nerves, and he probably sensed it wasn't going to end well.

She watched him go, and then she nudged me gently, oblivious to all the warning signs. "You still feel guilty, don't you?"

"No, of course not," I said automatically. I'd had years to memorise the answer to that question. "That would be dumb, because it wasn't my fault, and there's no way it could have been my fault."

She looked at me for a long, long time. "That would be super convincing if you could look me in the eye while you say it."

I lifted my gaze to fix her with a furious stare. It was more defensive than challenging, and Nia was cool-headed enough to realise that. It only made me angrier. "Screw you, okay? It's not like it's any of your business."

Nia sighed heavily. "No one blames you, kiddo. Eira certainly doesn't. It was just a thing that was always going to happen. Shitty genes and horrible timing - that's all."

It was stuck in my mind, playing on loop simply because I tried so hard not to think about it. Eira and I had been training. I'd just flipped her, and I'd shaken her a little in the process. She'd started seizing, right there on the grass. I hadn't known how to help her, so it was safe to say those had been the longest minutes of my life. I'd been in tears by the time help arrived.

That had been the first tonic-clonic seizure. There had been many since, of many different kinds - and none of them had anything to do with me, but it was hard to convince myself I hadn't been responsible for all of it. That the fighting hadn't triggered it somehow. And yes, I felt guilty. I could've been gentler with her.

"Maybe you should consider how it's affecting Eira," Nia went on. "She got to watch you spiral, and that girl ain't stupid. She knows it's because of her. She feels guilty, too, you know. Feels like it's her fault."

I knew Eira felt guilty about a lot of things. People had to spend a lot of time taking care of her, and it didn't matter that they were happy to do it. She hated that even when she was feeling okay, she couldn't pull her weight. While her seizures were so out-of-control, she couldn't drive. She couldn't fight. She couldn't even go near the campfires.

It was a lot to deal with on top of the pain and the exhaustion and the embarrassment and the constant threat of death hanging over her head. I hadn't known, however, that I featured in the guilt-trip.

"It's not her fault," I mumbled, almost too quiet to hear.

"No," Nia agreed. "But guilt's not always logical, is it, Eva? Deep down, I'm sure she knows it's not on her..."

And now we were back to talking about me. Great. I'd managed to avoid this conversation for five years - from Mam, from Dad, from every other adult at Haven. Nia had never tried before. This was new. How desperate was she to try this, of all things? Maybe the situation at home was worse than she was letting on.

Even as that thought crossed my mind, Liam and Hayden came tumbling in my direction, and I had to take a hasty sidestep to stay on my feet. They were snapping at each other with a new level of frustration, now that it was clear neither of them could get the upper hand.

Realising that, Nia stepped between them, careless of the snapping teeth near her ankles. It took them a while to go still. Their coats were spotted with red, and they were both panting heavily. Not even the rain was enough to keep them cool, and biting could sometimes interfere with like ... getting air into your lungs.

"Take a break, Hayden. Rhodri can swap in. And let's have Eva, too, shall we? Two against one, just to shake things up."

"Me?" I asked incredulously.

Nia leaned closer to speak in an undertone. "So they don't kill each other."

"I know what you're doing," I shot back. "And it's not gonna work."

She shook her head fondly. "Quick to leap, ain't you? That's not what I'm about. You're soft on that boy. If I'd wanted you trying, I'd put you on his side."

I growled at her - more frustration than anger, and then I went to shift. For once, I wasn't dreading the training. I needed to work some of the tension out before I said something I'd regret. Nia was only trying to help. It was just that she was trying to help in that annoying, all-knowing-big-sister way.

I shifted. There was a lot of wincing, and a lot of scowling at the rainclouds over my head, which soaked me to the skin before my fur had finished growing. Across from me, Rhodri was doing the same. I padded over to Liam while I waited for him to finish.

Hayden snuffed at me as I went past. He was too polite and too wary of how Nia might react to approach, but I did see his tail swish back and forth. Just the once. I turned around to knock my head against his shoulder and sneeze on him ... which was more polite amongst wolves than it sounded. Honest.

I rubbed up against Liam's side, enjoying the warmth, and he nipped at my ears. That was all nice and friendly and reassuring. I had to leave him when Rhodri came over to greet me in the form of a massive, ungainly timber wolf.

Liam must have sensed the hostility before I did, because he came to stand behind me, head low and hackles on the rise. He was close enough to intervene if he decided Rhodri had overstepped, but not so close that my cousin felt the need to confront him.

Rhodri came closer, heedless. His wolf was annoyed - that much was obvious. That I'd left and that I now smelt like our enemies. He came padding towards me, ears up and his head high. I dropped mine as far as my pride would allow.

Instead of greeting me, like he normally would, he lifted a lip. It was a warning that I failed to heed, and then he was jumping at me. His claws scraped my back, with ninety kilos of crushing weight behind them, and I went down like a sack of bricks.

Rhodri darted towards my throat. Not to do any real harm, of course, but I let out an involuntary whimper. It was too rough and too rushed. His jaws closed around the loose skin below my chin, and he held me there, waiting for a submission.

I pinned my ears back and whimpered again, because that was as far as I was willing to go. It didn't satisfy him. His grip only tightened on my throat. It was getting harder to breathe, and I'd really just had enough.

I made a weak attempt to rise, and Rhodri snarled at me. His teeth were digging into my skin, close to drawing blood, and his hind legs were pressing on my stomach. It didn't feel playful anymore, and I was pretty sure Rhodri's wolf had got the better of him, so I yelped the way pups did when their littermates were being too rough.

He barely loosened his grip. Another yelp, and Liam decided to involve himself. He only had to close the distance. Rhodri dropped me and found himself some proper footing, just in case. I got all the breathing room I needed.

Liam stood over me, my head between his paws. I lay there, smug as anything, and I nipped at his belly while we waited for Rhodri to cool off. He stood there, showing his teeth and breathing heavily. Yes, this was his wolf, and he was pissed.

Wolves didn't understand subterfuge or long-term strategy. But they did notice when their packmates upped and left for long periods of time. It was considered rude. And besides, the dynamic here had shifted. It would take us a while to get to grips with the new divide. Liam and I weren't so much a part of the pack as we had been. We smelt wrong.

"We don't have all day, kids," Nia told us. "Fight each other."

So we did. I forgot what side I was supposed to be on every few seconds, but that was fine. The boys seemed to be having trouble remembering that this was training, not a fight to the death. I spent more time getting between them than I did participating.

Liam was very careful with me. When I did start gnawing on him, he would tip me over and collapse on me until I changed my mind. That was it. He knew how much I hated training, so he made it a game instead. We'd stopped trying to be subtle about our ... no, it wasn't flirting. Goddess sake.

Nia got fed up with our shenanigans after about five minutes. She stopped telling us to fight properly and let me stay there as a tension diffuser. They'd get too rough with each other, and I'd jump into the middle and make them both feel guilty about it. It was a perfect system.

Eventually, they started to slow down, visibly exhausted, and Nia called a halt to that fight as well. It was her turn next. I went back towards her, because my clothes were there, but she caught hold of my scruff. My answering growl went unheeded.

"Stay there," she said. "When he's done, I'll try you."

This time, my growl was much louder and harder to ignore. Yes, I'd have loved the chance to knock her over, but I also knew I wasn't good enough to come close. When she was too slow to take her hand away, I snapped at it.

Nia would have played chicken with me all day, I think, but her reflexes took over - snatching her hand back so that my teeth missed the skin by a hair's breadth. I padded over to Hannah and lay down beside her, resting my head on my paws. My eyes were just daring her to challenge the decision.

"Suit yourself, Eva," she said eventually. Her hazel eyes left mine, and I could breathe properly again. I stayed there to sulk while she shifted. Poor Liam was still panting from Round 2, but he didn't shirk from the fight.

I was too busy brooding to pay any attention. I'd been in the right ... hadn't I? Nia was pushing me in a direction I didn't want to go. Not here, not with this audience. And ... maybe never. It was almost too late to start trying now - I was five years behind and I wasn't ever going to catch up. It didn't mean I was useless, but it did mean I'd have to be cleverer than this. Brute force wouldn't work for me.

But, then again, maybe I had been too quick to jump. Nia had never said anything about me fighting Mason. She'd only said I could kill him. I lay there and mulled that over while she and Liam took their turn. Unlike the previous fights, this one was inherently one-sided.

Nia was very good at showing him his mistakes. They would often disengage and freeze in a linking trance for minutes at a time before starting over. And I notice that she was more controlled than usual, more ... rigid in her movements. She was trying to adopt Mason's fighting style.

After a minute or so, Rhodri flopped down beside me. Hannah made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat and turned away, but he wasn't there to annoy her. He was after me.

"If I can get onto the territory," he said through the link, slowly and cautiously, "can you tell me where Mason will be?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," I said quietly. Usually, it was wise to keep your mouth shut if you disagreed with Rhodri, but he was backing me into a corner - forcing me to make the choice.

Rhodri swung his head around to stare at me. "Have you got a better one?"

"Well ... no, but Mason's like ... he's never on his own," I said, shuffling nervously in place. "You'll get yourself killed."

He couldn't take on the entire pack. There was no point telling Rhodri that, though. He'd take it as a challenge. As it was, his eyes were narrowing with every word that came out of my mouth. "So you won't help?"

"Honestly? No."

He put his head back on his paws, all casual like, but I could smell the frustration rolling off him in dizzying waves. All he said was, "That's cool."

Obviously, it wasn't, but I didn't want to annoy him any further by pressing it. Nia had flipped Liam for the second time, and she kept her teeth around his throat until he understood where he'd gone wrong.

They managed a whole twenty minutes before they were too worn out to continue. Then Hayden had another turn. Hannah and I tried together. By the time the sun was dipping, Liam was struggling to stay upright.

When they were finally done, I climbed onto my feet and stretched my aching joints. The rain had lessened to a drizzle, and we needed to get back before it stopped altogether.

"Rhodri?" Nia asked me. She was in the process of getting dressed after her shift.

"Um," I said through the link, and then I looked around. It was true I hadn't been paying much attention, but I should have known where he was. His wolf was so bloody massive that it was easy to keep track. "I dunno."

She pulled on her hoodie with sudden urgency and scanned the tree line. "Where the hell did he go?"

He had been lying beside me. He'd gotten up, presumably to go and piss, but that had been ... a long time ago. Shit. Where was he? He'd been uncuffed when he'd shifted, and that had given him the perfect opportunity to ... uh oh.

My questioning link was 'returned to sender' very abruptly. As was Nia's, if the scowl on her lips was any indication.

"I have a few guesses," Liam said. He was drop-dead exhausted, so I wasn't sure where he was finding the energy to care about Rhodri's little solo mission.

Nia rounded on him, her eyebrows flying upwards. "What's that mean?"

Liam and I squirmed in place and looked at each other, because neither of us wanted to answer her.

"He's going after Mason," I said eventually, almost too quiet to hear. "He said as much. I just didn't think he would ... you know."

She scrubbed at her face and swore with every other breath while she tried to come to terms with that. "Stupid, dumbass boy. Does he want to die? Because he will. It's bloody suicide to go into that pack alone."

"Good riddance," Hannah muttered. We managed to ignore her, somehow.

The next minute was a flurry of panicked activity. Liam and I cast around for his scent, but the rain and his ability to turn it off were working against us. The ground was so saturated with water that footprints disappeared within seconds.

All the while, Nia was pushing at his mind, trying to force her way in. She didn't get very far. Rhodri was a tapper, too, albeit untrained and too volatile to do anything with it. His walls were formidable.

I stared into the trees and tried to ignore the feeling of nausea building in my stomach. We were only a dozen miles from Silver Lake. He could be there before midnight. And we could spend a week looking for him without glimpsing hide or hair.

No, Rhodri was gone. And only the Goddess herself could stop him now.