Hey my doods. Tis me again. With a fresh batch of suffering for y'all. This chapter does have a trigger warning for references to sexual assault. If you want a chapter summary or just to talk to someone, you can PM me any time of the day or night.

"That's easy," I told him. "Eira."

The look in his eyes was so gentle and pitying that I felt like crying there and then. "It has to be intentional, Eva, and that wasn't your fault."

Now I didn't know. I'd tried asking myself that question a few times over the years. And Eira ... she was the easy answer. The obvious choice. Without that option, I had to consider all the other horrible things I'd done, and that was ... more difficult than I'd have liked it to be.

"I don't know, then," I said. I'd done a lot of petty, selfish things over the years, but none of them stood out. There'd been arguments with friends and family. Things I'd said in the heat of the moment that had probably hurt people. But nothing deliberately cruel. "Nia and I abducted some poor flockie woman from Ember last month. She was terrified of us. But that's probably not the worst thing."

Liam just stood there, patient as anything, because he knew he didn't have to answer unless I did.

"I do feel bad about Hayden and Hannah sometimes," I said in a small voice. "Their parents are probably worried sick, and they're not exactly happy in camp. Hannah especially ... she's always miserable, and she's getting ill, and it just doesn't feel right, you know?"

"We're treating them a lot better than they'd treat us if the situation was reversed," Liam reminded me quietly. "Don't beat yourself up too much."

I nodded and took a moment to swallow the lump in my throat before I continued, "Everyone gangs up on El. I've joined in, I guess, but I know it's not his fault he's so ... you know. After Eira got ill, our parents got very protective. They sheltered him. I try not to tease him, but he just gets on my nerves sometimes. And it's only afterwards I realise that we've gone too far."

This time, Liam had nothing to say. He'd always been good with my little brother. He was the only one who didn't participate in the teasing, and he would listen patiently when Ellis started rambling about scientific concepts the rest of us didn't stand a chance in hell of understanding.

"But the worst thing?" I sighed. "Rhodri and I were raiding Shadowless. I don't know where you were — running circles, maybe. We went into this house, looking for cash, because we thought it was empty. Soon as Rhodri and I split, this guy jumped out at me with a cricket bat. And I was so spooked that I shanked him, right in front of his kid. It was an accident, and I doubt I killed him, but I always felt awful about that."

"I remember," he said softly. "You were crying afterwards."

I nodded, moving my eyes onto the ground between us. These days, it didn't take much to put me in tears, but I still remembered the hardass little girl who'd needed an earthquake to shake her. An earthquake or learning what it felt like to screw up that badly. "Your turn..."

He let out a long breath. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Another nod. I thought it would be the dead man. That I'd get some closure on what had happened without having to poke and prod. Of course, it could never be that easy.

Liam didn't have to think about it. He just fixed his eyes on the ground and said, much too quietly, "After I shifted, Mason wanted me to start pulling my weight. It started out as taking messages and spying. It ended with me beating up some kid in the year below because his dad had been mouthing off."

"Oh," I said quietly.

"I'm not proud of it. He was a scrawny little kid, and he hardly even fought back. So yeah — that's the worst thing I've ever done, Eva. By a long way. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

No. Not even close. There was something hard and cold in his eyes now, something that I didn't recognise and didn't like one bit. The walls were up. And there were times when even I couldn't pull them down. I'd known it would be bad. But this ... this was irrefutable proof that he'd been toeing the line before he'd run away. I wondered how close he'd come to crossing it.

I ran a hand through my hair. "It's not like you chose to do it. If he made you—"

"I could've said no," Liam said roughly.

"And lived to regret it, I'd imagine."

He didn't deny it. My eyes had gone automatically to his side. His shirt hid the burn scars, but it would be hard to forget that line of melted skin.

"Charlie said you two were friendly," I murmured. "I knew it was bullshit."

Liam gave me a tiny, helpless shrug. "Except that it's not, Eva. I tried to tell you — it took me a while to realise that all the nice stuff was just manipulation. I was a kid. And I guess I didn't have a lot of options."

Oh.

If Charlie had been right about that, maybe he had been right about the rest, too. And if he was ... Liam was in some serious trouble. I decided there and then that I'd had enough. I'd been skipping around the thing I needed to know most, waiting for him to bring it up on his own. He wasn't going to.

It took me a moment to work up the courage. I sucked in a deep breath, swallowed hard, and then spat out my question before I lost my nerve. "Did he make you help when he killed Alan Presley?"

The look on Liam's face was not something I'd soon forget. For a moment, he just stared at me, frozen in place. It was chased by a tide of panic that swept me away with him. His heart started thumping in his chest, loud enough that I could hear it, and his breathing faltered.

"That's what this is about?" Liam murmured.

I nodded without taking my eyes off him. "You did help, didn't you? That's why you're so afraid of this coming out."

He winced and put his hands into his pockets to keep himself from fidgeting. "You said you'd drop it."

"I tried," I said. "But ... I dunno, Liam. You just told me that you bloodied some kid up because Mason told you to. You're willing to share that, but not this, and I keep on wondering why. You don't have to tell me, alright? But I seriously doubt whatever happened is worse than the things I'm imagining."

"Oh, it's probably worse," he said quietly.

I chewed on my lip. "So ... you killed him?"

"No."

His voice was rougher than I'd been expecting. It was enough to bring a crease to my forehead. He was on the defensive, and I was running out of patience with him. "Then why hide it?"

"Because I owe him."

"You... What? Are you serious?" I asked incredulously. "You don't owe Mason shit."

It was now as heated as arguments with Liam ever got.  We were eye-to-eye under the canopy, barely a foot of space between us. I stood there, arms folded and jaw clenched, because I'd had enough of the avoidances.

"You don't understand," he said. "He did it for me, Eva. So it wouldn't go to trial."

"What are you talking about?"

Liam's eyes were fixed on the ground now, and there was a great deal of tension in his body. "Presley deserved it."

I waited, hoping for some clarification, but Liam wasn't saying anything. Eventually, I had to try on my own. "He did something?"

"Yeah."

"To ... you?"

He nodded, his throat bobbing. This time, he managed to explain a little further, however hesitantly the words came. "That's why Mason killed him. He found out. I wouldn't tell him who'd done it, so he beat the name out of me, and then him and Felix ... they went and found him. I don't know what they did. I wasn't there. I only know that he's dead."

My heart seemed to slow down until it came to a standstill. "He ... he did something that Mason thought was crossing a line?"

Liam shrugged ever-so-slightly. He wasn't saying anything, but his eyes were begging me to drop it. They were wide and haunted and miserable, and if I was being honest ... he looked like he was about to throw up.

Oh. All at once, it snapped into place. I swallowed twice and then dropped my gaze. There was a sudden coldness in my stomach, like I was falling. I didn't need him to say it. And ... I didn't have the faintest idea what I was supposed to do now.

A little part of me wanted to hug him. The bigger, more sensible part knew it would be too much.

"I'm really sorry that happened to you," I said hesitantly. If anything, it made him flinch. He hadn't wanted to tell me, and it wasn't hard to understand why. "And ... I'm sorry that I didn't drop it when you asked me to. I shouldn't have kept asking questions."

Liam still wouldn't look at me. His voice was a lot quieter and hoarser than it should have been. "It's okay, Eva. You didn't know."

No, but I should have guessed. It explained ... a lot of things. He clearly didn't want to talk about it. I could tell that, and still I bit my lip, unwilling to change the subject so quickly. I had a feeling he'd make sure it never came up again.

"Have you talked to anyone about what happened?" I asked him.

Liam shook his head miserably.

"Would you like to? It doesn't have to be me, you know..."

Again, he shook his head.

"Okay," I said. The rest of the walk was quiet. And because of that quietness, I was aware of every step we took. Every passing second. But I gave him that space, and only when we reached the pack house did I nudge him to point out a magpie chasing a crow.

I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't my job to fix him ... and that he didn't need 'fixing' anyway. It was so much more complicated than that. And besides, if he didn't want to talk about it, there was only so much I could do.

***

Two days later, and Rhodri was still a ghost. I was getting more and more anxious with every passing second, because I knew he seemed to have vanished into thin air. Emmett's raiding team had checked a five miles perimeter around Silver Lake before they'd been forced into hiding, and they had found nothing. Not even a footprint. I was beginning to wonder if one of the anti-rogue patrols had found him and gutted him.

Stranger still, Mason hadn't even blinked in Liam's direction. It was like he was waiting for us to come to him, but that wasn't going to happen. Not in a million years. Eventually, I suspected, he'd tire of the games. Until then, Liam and I were going to enjoy our peace and quiet.

The Luna had invited me to hang out with her this morning. I'd agreed, not realising that Lin would be there, too, and now the three of us were all sat in one of the pack house's many living rooms. It would have been easier to talk to them both if Mason hadn't been with us. He was on his laptop, in theory, but I could just tell he was listening to every word we said.

"You've been to Anglesey?" Lilah asked me, the awe in her voice evident.

"Well, yeah," I said awkwardly. I'd tried to let Lilah and Lin chatter away while I sat there, staring listlessly off into space. They'd been very quick to draw me back into the conversation, and somehow we'd ended up here. "Once or twice. It's very different over there. Peaceful ... like."

I risked a glance at Mason. His arm was slung around Lilah's shoulders, and he looked up from his laptop every few minutes to give me this cold, dead-eyed look that made me want to turn myself inside-out just to escape it. Apparently, he hadn't gotten over the whole Liam situation yet. And I had a feeling that every word I said was only making him hate me more.

"I've always wanted to go," Lilah sighed. "How did you get an invite?"

I scratched the back of my head to buy myself a few seconds to think. "Um ... New Dawn is close with them."

She nodded along. "Jace Lloyd's son— What was he called again, Mase?"

"Hayden," Mason murmured without looking up.

"Yes, that's right. He was missing from the packmeet yesterday because he's over there, building bridges, as it were. We're hoping they can help us with the rogues."

Not a chance in hell. For all their supposed neutrality, the island was ruled by Llewellyn cousins. It amused me to think that the flockies had already forgotten that. They seemed to think that any civilised society would side with them, the genocidal bigots and self-proclaimed 'good guys.'

"I wouldn't count on it," I said tactfully. "They like to stay out of mainland drama."

Lilah shrugged at me. "I've heard they're sending representatives to the next packmeet. We'll see then."

Interesting. Very interesting. If they were coming, Mam would surely know about it. Perhaps she'd even arranged it. The conversation sputtered and died there, and I was all too happy to bury it because my mind was wandering elsewhere.

Because we were out and about, Lilah had a pair of guards trailing after her. They were both veterans in their forties at least, and they seemed to be in a state of constant turmoil. Mason would give them dirty looks for standing too close, talking to her ... or even glancing in her direction, as far as I could tell. All of that made it very difficult for them to do their jobs.

I pitied them. Really, I did. It was also boring. They mostly just stood still, as far as I could tell, and they were very much redundant while her mate was in the same room. Even I was bored, and I had come here of my own free will.

It was a relief for all of us when Felix wrenched the door open and crossed the room in a few hurried steps. He went to Mason's shoulder and spoke in a low voice. I wasn't supposed to hear it, in all likelihood, but the Vaughan boys had never learnt to whisper.

"He's made contact," Felix said.

Mason turned his head sharply. "Who? Adam?"

"Yeah. Just now."

That was enough to get Mason on his feet. He followed his brother towards the door, the picture of calm purpose. Before he reached it, something must have occurred to him, because he paused to look back at the guards.

"Take Lilah into the canteen," he said. "And lock the doors."

I didn't like the sound of that.

The guards snapped to attention. Before their Alpha was out of sight, they'd moved to flank Lilah. Lin and I were left to follow at their heels. The toddler, who had been occupying herself with an iPad, was snatched up by her mother, and then we were all moving at a pace that too fast for me to walk comfortably but too slow to warrant breaking into a jog.

Three corridors later, a high-pitched wailing sounded over our head, making all of us flinch. It didn't stop, and there was a moment of angry bewilderment before I realised it was the siren. And now I knew what was happening.

Emmett was here. I'd known the raid was coming. Nia had warned us yesterday, so we could make sure Liam was off-duty when they arrived. I hadn't known exactly when it would happen, because the raiders themselves rarely knew that, until they found their gap in the patrols.

It was strange that Mason hadn't raised the alarm already. He'd known early. How? Warnings of raids came through the mind-link in a split second, not by word of mouth. I didn't have time to worry about that now. Instead, I was worrying for Emmett's raiders.

Since the packmeet, every rogue in Snowdonia had been hiding out in the hills. In the valleys and nooks that only we knew. This was the first time anyone had dared poke their nose out of those hiding places, and the Goddess only knew if they'd make it back again. I would have warned them off had it not been a dead giveaway that I was a sleeper.

We rounded the last corner. The pack house was like an overturned beehive. People were coming from all directions, streaming towards the canteen, and the result was panic as they crashed into each other and fought to get ahead of the swell. Flockies were easily frightened.

Lilah's guards muscled their way through, the crowd parting before them like the Red Sea. I followed in their wake and reached out to steady a teenager who'd tripped in her hurry. It was a stampede — and anyone who fell wouldn't get a chance to find their feet again.

If I had stopped and taken a good look at the people around me, I might have seen him then. He was walking against the flow — heading away from the canteen. His hood was up, his head was down, and his hands were in his pockets. Within them, rough and calloused fingers curled around the handle of a gun.

He certainly saw me. He saw Lilah, too, and with her the chance to bring this entire pack to its knees in a matter of seconds. I'd never know how long he hesitated, staring after us, trying to decide, but he chose right in the end, if only because laying a finger on her would get him killed. No ifs or buts. No miraculous escapes. It was a death sentence.

I was blissfully ignorant to it all. Swept along with the crowd, I narrowly avoided a collision with one of the dining tables, and then I fought my way back to Lilah's side. She had stopped beside the doorway, sheltered from the throng of people by her guards. One was trying to tug the door closed — to protect his Luna at the expense of everyone else.

"No," she said firmly. "You'll leave them open until everyone is inside."

"We have orders," the older man replied.

I could read between the lines as well as anyone — they were going to do what Mason had told them, regardless of common sense. He seized the door handle and yanked it closed, even as Lilah jammed a foot beneath it and raised her eyebrows. "Yes, you do. I've just given them to you."

Both of them knew that Lilah's authority paled in the light of her mate's. They knew that Mason could override her with a suggestive blink, let alone the clear instructions he'd left, but that didn't help the guard now. He couldn't shout at his Luna, and he couldn't lay a finger on her, and she knew it.

I had no such protection. It didn't stop me putting my shoulder against the other door and staring down the guard who was trying to close it. He reached out and caught a fistful of my jacket, trying to tug me clear, for all the good it did. I might as well have been standing in cement.

The guard swore. He brought his other hand around, making a snatch for my wrist, only to drop it just as quickly. A heartbeat later, he'd released my jacket, too. I didn't understand why at first.

I hadn't seen him arrive. My only clue was the tightness in the air and the way the guard's eyes slid over my head. I checked by taking the slightest step backwards, and I knocked into someone's chest. The tiniest of smiles flitted across my lips unbidden.

"Alright?" Liam asked me.

"Yeah."

The rest of Liam's patrol was behind him, a towering mass of muscle and scowls. They stuck together, I'd learned, and the different patrols feuded almost as enthusiastically as our raiding teams did. There was something incredibly human about that kind of bickering — draw a line between two groups of people, real or imaginary, and they'd be at each other's throats sooner or later.

"Move," the guard told me. I did no such thing. He knew he was outnumbered, but he looked to the patrol anyway, almost pleading. "Look, lads. We need to get these doors closed. Alpha's orders."

Liam stared him down over my shoulder, saying absolutely nothing. It was somehow more terrifying than any refusal.

The guard swallowed and tried again. "What do you think the Alpha will—"

"Mason can go and screw himself," Liam said coldly.

I winced. The guard just stood there, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, because he had no idea how to respond to that. It wasn't something that happened in Silver Lake. You didn't even lift a lip to the Alpha, if you knew what was good for you.

Even the patrol members were caught off guard. Stevens leaned over to hiss something inaudible into his ear. It could only have been a reprimand, but it was ignored. Liam knew he played by different rules.

But — more worrying — Lilah was watching us from across the doorway. I had no idea if she'd heard that, but it seemed likely. The look on her face was very difficult to read. Her jaw was tight, her eyes were wary, and her eyebrows were lowered, but there was no anger coming off her. It was more ... hurt, but that didn't make any sense.

The doors remained open. Once most of the pack was inside, I moved away from my door, letting the poor guard close it at long last. Lilah stayed where she was to make sure the stragglers would be allowed inside. For once, her daughter wasn't crying. She pressed her face into her mother's shoulder, peeking out every now and then to throw a shy look in my direction.

It must have been five full minutes since the siren. In the corridor outside, I could hear shouting and running feet and the sound of distant howls. It went against every fibre of my being to stand still and listen from afar when all of my training demanded that I react.

I sat down heavily at a table, trying to calm myself down. I was a little bit puffed, which astonished me. I must have been out of shape, having missed so many of my morning runs.

Liam sat down beside me. It would have been comforting if it weren't for the slight rift between us. He'd been unusually quiet with me ever since our conversation in the woods, and I'd been walking on eggshells. Sleeping in separate bedrooms didn't exactly help us bridge the gap.

The guards were watching the people coming in, making sure they weren't any foxes amongst the hens, but Lilah was watching us. I felt the weight of that stare and nudged Liam. He looked up, and he understood what it was about, even if I didn't.

"Hey, Lilah," he said quietly.

All of a sudden, I was sitting up straight. There was too much familiarity in those words. Lilah edged closer, chewing on her lip and only confirming my suspicions. She stopped opposite us and offered him the tiniest of smiles. "Hi, Liam."

I hadn't realised they knew each other. It made me uncomfortable, for some reason. I also hadn't realised that Mason had told her. She hadn't given me any indication over these last few days, not even a funny look, and now I was worried that I'd underestimated her.

"Is he angry at me?" Liam asked. It sounded light enough, but his eyes were fixed on her, wary and restless, and they told a truer story.

"He's furious," Lilah sighed. "And can you blame him? We thought you were dead."

"I know."

She sat down cautiously on the bench opposite and let the toddler settle in her lap. "You could have called. Texted. Anything. Just to let us know that you were okay."

Liam shook his head wearily. "It was more complicated than that."

"No, it wasn't. He's your brother. He loves you. You can bicker all you like — you're family, and that means something."

And those were the immortal words of someone whose parents had clearly loved them unconditionally. I could see the look on Liam's face well enough. He was clearly trying to be patient with her. She didn't know, after all, but that was kinda the whole point. She didn't know what their relationship was like, and she still felt entitled to meddle.

"They're related," I said firmly. "That's all. Family is a choice. And I'm not sure about the whole love thing, actually. You might want to fact-check that—"

Screams from the other end of the canteen cut me off. There was a horde of women gathering by the windows, and most of them were pointing outside. Once they'd got a good look, they had to fight their way back through the crowd, pale-faced and shaken. Something out there was clearly scaring them.

Liam cut a path through the crowd to see what was happening, and I followed in his wake. He wasn't on duty this afternoon, but he would be expected to help anyway if things went sideways. His patrol was only here to protect the civilians.

The windows looked out on the front lawn. I could see them. There were wolves tussling in the fringe of the trees. But ... that wasn't right. We didn't go for the pack houses. If they were this deep into the territory, they must have been chased this way, and that meant the raid was over before it had even begun.

Even from such a distance, I could see that there were three flockies for every rogue. There was a tightness in my chest, the likes of which I hadn't felt since Nia had crossed the border. They were going to die, and all I could do was watch.

"Shit," Liam breathed behind me.

I chewed on my lip. "Yeah. Something went wrong. Mason knew it was going to happen."

"Those are Emmett's guys?"

I nodded.

He swore softly. There really was nothing we could do for them now. I hoped that they died quickly and that the flockies weren't in the mood to take prisoners, because I wasn't sure I could cope with an encore of ... that.

A gunshot rang out. It was a sharp, deafening bang that made me flinch. It was quickly followed by another, and then another, and then a silence that was almost worse.

Half of the flockies screamed. The other half threw themselves to the ground instinctively. But it wasn't coming from the canteen. No, it wasn't nearly loud enough. It had come from the other side of the pack house or even outside, but that was no comfort to the sobbing, hysteric women around me.

What the hell was happening, anyway? We didn't use guns. The flockies usually kept a handful of rifles and handguns lying around, but they rarely used them as anything more than a threat. You couldn't fire at rogues in woodland — you'd only hit tree trunks and your own guys.

Lilah was trying to say something. Her words were lost in the ruckus, and her guards were too busy shoving the terrified women away from her to notice. The panic was rising like the morning tide, and it was beginning to spill over. I could see grown-ass women diving under tables and screeching at anyone who came too close.

I stood in the middle of all that chaos and scratched at my chin. It wasn't my problem if they terrified themselves. And ... as horrible as it sounded, their fear was almost ... satisfying. We had to put up with so much shit because of their prejudice and their hatred, and I was glad to see them suffer for it.

No one else was enjoying it. Lilah was nearly in tears trying to make herself heard. Her daughter had been upset by the noise and was now bawling. Apparently, they weren't the only ones who were fed up with the racket, because Liam stood up and shouted across all the noise. It was something along the lines of 'oi' and 'shut up.'

He had a louder voice than his sister-in-law. It was a good way to get a few dozen rogues to settle down. But I didn't think it was what the flockies were used to. They were shocked enough to fall quiet, if only for a moment, and Lilah took her chance.

"I understand that you're all concerned for your mates, but you need to calm down. We are safe here. They can't get in. Sit down, take a few deep breaths, and let's set a good example for the children."

Yeah. An example of how to behave like a flock of headless bloody chickens. I smiled to myself as the women found a new, slightly quieter level of panic. Lilah sighed, but she didn't try a second time, instead turning back towards us.

"Thank you," she said.

Liam just shrugged. He was looking at the toddler, not her, and I realised that this was the first time he'd seen his niece. Lilah was bouncing her up and down in her arms, letting the tears turn to giggles. It was nice that she was feeling better, but I certainly wasn't.

I steeled myself to take another look at the treeline. The handful of rogues were lying in the ferns, lifeless and bloodied, and the flockies were standing over them. It didn't look like they'd lost a single man. I swallowed hard and looked away again, fighting back tears. I'd known most of Emmett's raiders my entire life.

"If it's safe," Seth said through the link, "can you come to the back entrance and bring a first-aid kit? There are a few guys out here who are badly hurt..."

That wasn't good. I should have made up some bullshit excuse and refused. I knew it was dangerous. If the flockies had taken prisoners, and one of them saw my face ... well, there wasn't a rogue in Snowdonia who didn't know who I was. As usual, curiosity beat common sense into a pulp, and as usual, it would come back and bite me in the ass.

By the time I'd decided that, Seth had dropped the link. He was clearly too distracted to wait for a reply, which meant the situation out there was probably bad. I knew I'd win tons more points for dragging myself over there than I would for flaking out.

I sighed and said aloud, "I have to go."

"I'll take you," Liam said. "If some dumbass is waving a gun around..."

I nodded automatically. It took him a minute to get permission from Stevens, and then we were traipsing through the corridors. Seth had taught me not to run if I could help it. Unless someone was about to drop dead, you walked calmly to the patient, because that was professional, apparently. It rubbed me up the wrong way. I loved running.

We swung by the lobby to pick up the first-aid bag which was kept there for emergencies. After that, I couldn't resist breaking into a little jog, taking care to slow again before I left the pack house.

The back courtyard appeared to be the flockie headquarters. The fighters were all converging in twos and threes. Some were helping injured friends. Some pulled up in their trucks and stayed inside, waiting for orders. They'd set up a triage at one end, with three flockies already lying on the tiles.

One of them looked like he was turning blue. Seth was crouched over him with a stethoscope, and the relief was plain on his face when he spotted me. "Thank the Goddess. Do what you can for the others while I deal with this. And you — Alex, is it? Hold him down for me."

Liam knelt down and put his weight across the young man's shoulders. It was hardly needed, because he was too weak and breathless to thrash. The poor kid was one of the trainees — and I doubted he was a day over seventeen.

I dumped the first-aid kit and turned my attention to the other two guys. They were both bleeding heavily, but I'd been trained for that already. And to my surprise, I was getting good at packing wounds. You shoved the gauze in there, and then you pressed until the bleeding stopped. Simples.

I kept one eye on Seth. The boy he was helping had tooth marks under his chin. It wasn't bleeding too badly, but he was gurgling with every breath, his windpipe mangled. Seth made an incision and then put a tube into the base of his neck so he could breathe. I shivered a little at the sound of air rushing in and out.

"We need a medic over here," someone called from the other side of the courtyard. I knew it was Felix's voice, and I cringed, because I was not in the mood to tangle with the Vaughans right now.

Luckily for me, Seth ignored him. He kept working to stabilise his patient without even looking up. And Felix took great offence, of course. When he got close enough to realise he was being ignored, he growled long and low. "Are you deaf?"

"Shut up, Felix," Mason snapped. "The bullet needs to come out — that's all. I can wait."

He was the patient? I dared to glance up, and I found his eyes were on me already, dripping with that lazy malice of his. His right arm was soaked in red. He was doing a good job of burying the pain, but I could see his fingers trembling from where I crouched.

So it had been a rogue firing those shots. That was ... unusual. Was Mam plotting things and not including me? Or, Goddess forbid, had it been Rhodri? I pushed the link and was reassured by the fact it wavered before I ran into the usual brick wall. He was blocking me, not dead.

"Good," Seth said. "Because this young man can't. Sit down, and I'll get to you in a minute."

He didn't sit down, unsurprisingly, instead choosing to snap at his Deltas, who were hovering like worried mother hens. Half of them were dispatched to let the girls out of the canteen, which I took to mean that there were no raiders left standing.

One of my patients was crying. He was doing a good job of hiding it, but I was too close to miss the sniffles, and I started a reluctant stream of reassurances. The bleeding had almost stopped. He wasn't going to die. I tried to ignore my aching arms and increased the pressure.

Mason was a little too close for comfort. He was staring at Liam, who was — by some miracle — too busy helping Seth to notice. I kept one eye on him and one ear open, just in case he decided to bring Felix into the loop. He'd told Lilah, after all. I was beginning to suspect we wouldn't have much longer before the whole damn pack knew.

"We got lucky, Mase," Felix was saying. He looked very worked up about something. It might have had something to do with the bullet hole in his brother's arm. "He shouldn't have got as far as he did. And if I hadn't turned up, you'd be dead."

Mason regarded him with a curled lip. "I was handling it."

Felix looked down at his feet, unwilling to push back and get himself in trouble. "Look, I'm just saying. We need to be more careful. They're clearly trying to kill you. I mean, the ambush and now this..."

"You can be careful if you like," he laughed. "I know how I'm going to die, and it won't be some bloody rogue with a gun and a half-arsed plan. It'll be in my own damn bed, with my mate beside me and—"

I didn't hear the rest. A dozen triumphant, jeering flockies had come into the courtyard all at once, and my heart stopped dead in my chest. Because they were dragging two rogues with them.

One of them was unconscious. He was wearing his blood like a second skin, but I could see enough of him. Dark hair, olive skin, and the careless good looks which had caught my eye in the first place. Finn Sullivan.

A coldness trickled down my spine. It spread slowly, creeping its way into every distant corner of my body, until all I could do was stand there, frozen in place. I didn't know what to do. 'Nothing' felt abhorrent. But any attempt on my part to free him would end in both our deaths, and probably Liam's too.

I'd told him that I was coming here. He knew. And he was not a seasoned raider like Mortimer Morris, who could have spat in Mason's face with literal hellfire licking at his heels. No. Finn was eighteen years old. He'd break.

I shouldn't have spent so long staring at him. Because in doing so, I failed to notice that the second prisoner was Joel. Unlike Finn, he was conscious, but he'd clearly been beaten. Blood sheeted down one half of his face. It looked like they'd dislocated one of his shoulders when they'd cuffed him.

He'd spotted Liam first, standing amongst the flockies, and I could see confusion and fury warring openly on his face. He must have suspected treachery. He opened his mouth, probably to shout some abuse that would have got us killed ... and then his eyes landed on me.

His mouth closed. In that moment, he didn't look like the cocky, self-absorbed prick I'd grown to hate. He looked like a kid. All the uncertainty and the fear and the shock — it spilt over into his face, all at once. And there was something more. Something I didn't recognise. It was like he was seeing me properly for the first time.

I didn't mean to do it. But the knife was in my hand, and I had no idea when I'd reached for it, but I felt the coarse wood against my palm and made an executive decision to be a dumbass.

It was the kind thing to do. I knew that, and Joel knew that, which is why he didn't flinch when I lunged for him.