Trigger warning: references to sexual assault. Feel free to PM me for a chapter summary. Lots of love as always and I pinky swear you'll have the next update within two weeks :)

There was something horribly oppressive about Silver Lake's prison. Concrete walls, concrete floors, drains everywhere and the unmistakable stench of urine. It was like they'd gone out of their way to make the place unpleasant, and honestly? I was willing to bet that was exactly what they'd done.

The fighters walked us down the central corridor at a brisk pace. Now that they were away from their Beta's watchful eye, they joked with each other and argued about football teams, acting like Liam and I weren't even there.

As they walked us past Joel's cell, I saw him scramble to his feet and come limping to the bars. The colour drained from his face. He knew better than to say something, but it was obvious that he thought we'd been caught.

For my part, I tried not to look at him. He was black and blue, but he wasn't cut up in the way Rhodri had been. Even the fact that he was able to walk around told me that they had been going easy on him. Taking things slow. Mason had learnt his lesson, it seemed. Torture was about patience, not brutality.

I was hoping we'd just walk past. The very last thing I wanted right now was a conversation with Joel, but the fighters stopped at a cell on the opposite side of the corridor and started fiddling with the lock.

"Some company for you, rogue," he said cheerfully. "Play nice."

Joel didn't rise to it. He had stopped beside the bars of his cell, and he was staring at us. It was a haunting, hungry stare that made my skin crawl and my hairs stand on end.

The cell door swung open, and I was pushed inside none too gently. Despite my best efforts, I tripped over my own feet and stumbled a few steps. Liam growled at them and was ignored.

"Separate or together?" another fighter asked.

Together. Please.

My handler paused to scratch his chin. "Search me. It's been years since we had pack wolves down here."

"The Beta will want them separate," one of the older men said firmly. "It makes them easier to control."

I felt the disappointment welling up inside me. None of this was okay, but it would have been a little less awful if they had put us in the same cell.

"Yeah, but there's twice as many latrine buckets to empty," the first guy muttered, and that made all of them laugh. The door slammed behind me. They hadn't even bothered to take my handcuffs off, so I was in for an uncomfortable night.

I didn't see them put Liam in the neighbouring cell, but I did hear the clanging when they closed the door on him. The flockies weren't hanging around. They waited only for their friend to lock the door before they walked away.

The first thing I did - the very first thing - was to rattle the door to my cell. Just to make sure. The iron was very cold against my palm, but it wasn't budging. It had been worth a try.

The second thing I did was touch the back of my head. My fingers came away bloody where the bed frame had split the skin. I could feel a headache starting, unsurprisingly.

The cell was very bare. There was a low bed in one corner which was really just a raised platform and a flimsy foam mattress. In the other corner was a small bucket to piss in. No food, no water, and nothing to do. Even so, it was bigger and lighter than Joel's cell, which didn't even have a bed. Being a flockie had its privileges, it seemed.

And speaking of Joel ... he was still staring at me. I could feel his eyes on my back. He was trying to link me, too, but it was a weak, hesitant effort and easily rejected. Liam's attempts were much more forceful, and I made no effort to block him out.

"You killed him ... with your own knife ... and then you left it ... at the crime scene?" Liam asked slowly.

Well, when he said it like that, I had to admit that it sounded bad. I scratched the back of my neck and made a sheepish face. "Yeah, but it's okay. I did it on purpose."

"That's worse," he said. "You understand why that's worse, right?"

I sighed heavily and sank down onto the floor of the cell. The concrete was cold against my legs - I could feel it leaching the heat from my body. I rested my back against the wall I shared with Liam and closed my eyes.

"I didn't think they'd arrest us," I muttered. "I thought they'd just come and ask some questions, figure out you had an alibi and then bugger off again."

I could feel his exasperation through the link. "This isn't Midsummer Murders, Eva. No one cares if we have an alibi. I could've told you that."

"They should care," I said grumpily. "You can't be in two places at once. But it doesn't matter now. I think I can still salvage this, given a bit of time."

"Salvage what? You could have hidden the knife and gotten away with it. Now we're screwed. We won't get a trial, Eva. He'll just execute us."

I'd been trying to hit two birds with one stone. And I was hoping that I still could. Explaining that would have taken more effort than I could have mustered, so I didn't answer him. I was worried that he was right. Maybe I'd been too ambitious.

"Eva," Joel said hoarsely.

"Shut up," I snapped without hesitation.

The flockies had left. That being said, I didn't think this was a safe place to talk. There had to be guards around here somewhere. I stood up in the blink of an eye, stalking towards the bars so I could glare at him more easily.

"It wasn't me," he continued heedlessly. "I didn't say nothing. I swear, Eva, it wasn't-"

I felt the panic rising within me, and it only took a split second to boil over. "Shut up before you get us both killed."

Liam had come to the corner of his cell. If I pressed my face against the bars, I could see him. He was a lot bigger and more intimidating than I was, but it was wasted on Joel, who only had eyes for me. He had gone very quiet, and he was starting to look incredibly sheepish.

Then, through the link, he said, "They don't know?"

He sounded genuinely shocked, and I reckoned it had been an honest mistake. He thought we had been caught sleeping. It was a reasonable assumption to make, and if I'd just accepted his mind-link, the whole mess could have been avoided.

"No, Joel," I agreed, closing my eyes tightly. "They don't. Or ... they didn't. How screwed are we, exactly?"

That last part was directed at Liam, even as I stretched the link to include him. It was weird talking to both of them at once. I didn't think I'd ever done it before. To add to that, mind-linking took a basic level of trust which Joel and Liam simply didn't share, and that left me acting as a human bridge between them.

Liam gave me the equivalent of a mental shrug. "I think we'll be alright. No one ever checks the cameras, and the guards' room is a floor down."

There were cameras? I hadn't known that. Last time I'd been down here, I'd stood and held an entire conversation with Joel, and I'd gotten away with it. There was no reason we shouldn't get away with this, too. It didn't dull my anger at Joel in the slightest.

"Shit. I'm sorry," he muttered. "I thought- I mean ... why are you here, then?"

I wasn't sure how much I should tell him. He was a walking, talking security risk while he was locked up like this. If they managed to break him, we could end up in a lot of trouble.

"They think Liam murdered their Alpha," I sighed.

Joel's eyes widened. He looked properly interested now. Interested and ... if I didn't know better, I would have said impressed. He threw a lingering glance at Liam and then looked back to me. "And did he?"

"No. Of course not. But he is dead."

I could feel Joel grinning down the link, because Mason had probably been first and foremost amongst his tormentors. "Does that mean I get the day off?"

I eyed him, trying to hide the pity. "Probably."

At least if Joel was catching a break, I could stop worrying that he was about to spill our identities to the first Vaughan he saw. I might have bought us all a few days of peace in that department. I doubted Felix or Micah would remember that Joel existed until the succession was settled.

"How long before there's a new one?" he asked. He probably wanted to know how much time he had before the next beating. I wanted to know the answer, too, but for very different reasons.

"What? A new Alpha?" Liam asked wearily. "Not long. They might wait until the funeral, if we're really lucky."

I jumped onto that topic of conversation like a cat upon a mouse. "Who d'you think will win?"

Liam gave the equivalent of mental shrug. "If it comes down to politics, Micah. He has the fighters' support, and he's not a heroin addict. But if it comes down to a physical fight ... Felix. Easy."

"Awesome," I said. "That's what I'm counting on. And I take that to mean Micah would be easier for you to beat in a fight?"

He was quiet for a few moments, and I was beginning to think he wasn't going to reply. But the answer came through a new, private link between the two of us, with Joel firmly excluded. "Well ... yeah. But he can't be Alpha, Eva. Not even for a few days. He's a psychopath - we don't want him to win..."

I sighed heavily, even though he couldn't see it. "We need him to win if we're going to survive this. I know he's not an ideal candidate, but ... Mason was worse."

"No," Liam said. "Mason was just more dangerous. Micah is worse. And you just killed the only person who could control him."

***

Time passed slowly in the cell. Normally, I would have taken the chance to nap, but I was far too highly strung to get to sleep. There was also the nagging worry that I would end up suffocating. This place was a sealed box. No windows, no fresh air, and with three of us breathing it wouldn't be long before the oxygen ran out. I was pretty sure about that. And nothing Liam said about air-con or ventilation could convince me otherwise.

Every half an hour, a man would walk up and down the corridor. It was a different guy each time, but all of them carried cattle prods, and they dragged them along the bars as they walked. We had to stand and come forwards to be inspected before they would go away again. It was a jarring routine that broke up what was turning out to be a long, long night.

I spent most of the time nudging at the mind-link. We were underground, which made it very difficult to link the outside world. I wanted to reach Micah Vaughan, but since we had barely spoken to each other, it was nigh on impossible to connect with him, let alone hold a conversation.

At some point, I knew Nia was going to try mind-linking me. She liked to check in every morning and evening. But today she wouldn't be able to reach me. And then she would assume - quite rightly - that something had happened to us. There was no way she wouldn't involve my mother. And the very last thing I wanted right now was for them to stage a rescue mission and get themselves killed.

So yeah. We needed to get out of here. Sooner rather than later. Both to keep my family off the territory and to reduce the risk that Felix would discover any of the things I'd hidden in his bedroom.

"Morning, everyone," someone called, snapping me out of a daydream. "I won't say good morning, because ... well ... it's hard to have a good morning down here."

The voice belonged to a cheerful-looking man in his fifties who was coming down the stairs. His dark hair was just starting to grey at the temples, but there were no wrinkles to be seen, save for a frown-line on his forehead. I recognised him - at least in passing.

Here was my chance.

I sat up and then clambered onto my feet, inching towards the bars as I sized him up. He was carrying a tray which smelt a lot like food. He dumped a box outside Joel's cell and then crossed the corridor to peer at us.

"Hi there! You must be the new arrivals. Mr and Mrs Hayes, right? I've got some breakfast for you both."

I watched him warily as he bent down and passed a cardboard box and a cup of water through the bars. He did the same for Liam. It smelt like bacon and eggs, and I'll be damned if my stomach didn't grumble.

"I don't care what you've done to get in here," the flockie told us. "You have a clean slate with me - so don't go throwing that away by acting up or hurting someone. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir," Liam said, while I nodded along distractedly. The food smelt really good, and I was wondering how impolite it would be to start wolfing it down while he spoke.

"Good," he said. "Come here. Let's get those handcuffs off you."

At his direction, I put my hands through the bars and waited patiently while he turned the key in the lock. Once he'd taken them off, I rubbed my hands vigorously, trying to get the life back into them. Felix had done them tight - probably out of sheer sadism - and my fingers had been tingling for an hour at least.

Liam came to the bars to take his turn. I could hear the clinking of metal and a murmured 'thank you,' but I still couldn't see him properly. It was making me edgy. I knew he had a problem with confined spaces, and he'd been so quiet these last few hours.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" the man was asking. "Things are a bit hectic right now ... what with the Alpha ... but I'll do my best."

"I need to talk to Micah Vaughan," I said instantly and without hesitation.

The man stared at me, aghast. He hadn't been expecting that, I'd wager. Although it wasn't that far-fetched, was it? We weren't going to get a trial, so it was understandable that I wanted to make my case to someone.

"Eva..." Liam said. Confused. Worried. There was a warning in his voice, too - a warning that I failed to heed.

The man seemed to be thinking along the same lines. He cast a wary glance towards the stairs and then rubbed the back of his neck. "If our third-in-command wants to talk to you, he'll come and talk to you."

"You won't even ask him?" I demanded. "That's all I want. Let him know. Say that I need to speak to him alone. Please. It's important."

"I'm sorry. I don't think that's a good idea."

What the hell did that mean? Of course it was a good idea. I would have kept harassing him, but he was already heading off down the corridor, and my throat was too hoarse for any shouting. I watched him walk away with no small amount of frustration and then sat down to eat my breakfast. The water tasted like chlorine, but the box contained a bacon sandwich, straight from the canteen, and that definitely made up for it.

I had almost finished it when Liam started tugging on the mind-link. I couldn't concentrate on eating and talking at the same time, so with a heavy heart, I set the sandwich down to listen.

"What do you want with Micah?" Liam asked me.

"Just to talk."

"Right. Pick anyone else. Felix, Lilah, Seth - I don't care. As long as it's not Micah."

It had to be Micah, though. That was the problem. I didn't want to argue with him, so I just didn't reply. I was busy taking my arms out of my sleeves and loosening the ties on my trousers. I was still in my pyjamas, and they were loose enough that I could shift without flashing anyone.

My claws clicked against the concrete. I took a moment to stretch out and sneeze, and then I plonked my fluffy arse on the floor and lifted my muzzle skywards. A deep breath filled my lungs, and then I emptied them again in the form of a long, wavering howl.

No sooner had the sound faded than I was taking another breath. I howled again. Joel was watching me from across the corridor with a bemused look on his face, but it was Liam who reached into the link and Liam who asked the all-important question.

"Eva?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"What ... exactly ... are you doing?"

"Making a nuisance of myself," I said. "What does it look like?"

The guards' room might have been on the floor below, but there was no way they couldn't hear me. A few hours of this, and they'd be begging Micah to come down here, if only to shut me up. Or so I hoped.

***

It took seventeen minutes for a fighter to come storming down the corridor, demanding to know what all the racket was about. I told him I wanted to talk to Micah. He said no. I told him that I wasn't going to shut up until he did. He said he'd make me. I told him I was sorry, and that I'd stop. I waited for him to bugger off down the stairs.

And then I started howling again.

Over the next few hours, they tried pretty much everything. Threatening me with cattle prods. Throwing things. Gassing me. At one point, they came in and tried to put a muzzle on me. Clearly, no one had told them that I had training, because they came at me like I was some helpless flockie girl, and they left again missing a fingertip.

I could sense Liam's restlessness throughout it all. He hadn't tried to talk me down. Not yet, anyway. But he had to listen to the howling, too, and he got more and more frustrated that he couldn't get to me when the fighters were throwing their weight around.

That frustration wasn't helped by the fact that he hadn't taken his pill this morning, and I could already feel his wolf waking up from that drug-induced stupor. With every that passed, the aura of dominance got a little stronger. I began to suspect that it was the only thing stopping the fighters knocking me unconscious.

Our fellow inmate didn't like the howling. At all. He swore at me and snarled and spat, for all the good it did. I didn't rise to it ... but Liam did. That quickly, their grudging tolerance of each other was at an end. They couldn't physically fight, of course, so they just had to settle for threats and swearing. Needless to say, it made all three of us miserable.

Dinnertime came and went without any dinner making an appearance. They were probably hoping I'd wear myself out. And yeah, my throat was raw and parched, my stomach was tying itself in knots, and the howls lacked energy, but I didn't give up that easily. Stubbornness ran in the family.

Joel thumped the bars of his cell. It wasn't the first time - his knuckles were split and bleeding - but the noise was still jarring enough to make me jump. "I swear to the Goddess, Eva. If you don't shut up, I'm going to knock your bloody teeth out."

He sounded like he meant it. And I might have been scared had there not been two sets of iron bars and an Alpha's son between us. Plus, my howling drowned him out for the most part.

"Like hell you will," Liam snapped. "Leave her alone."

Joel spat at him. "Stay out of this, flockie. Two words from me and you're both dead, so she'd better-"

Somewhere down the corridor, a door opened, and the boys fell silent within a heartbeat. Sounds tended to echo down here. I broke off mid-howl to see who was coming. It was the man from before. The nice one. He hadn't been here since breakfast time, and my tail started wagging hesitantly, hopeful that this might mean I was finally getting my way.

He crouched down outside my cell and regarded me with a frown. "You need to stop this, sweetie. I'm serious. It's not helping anyone - least of all you. My colleagues are going to sedate you if you keep it up for much longer."

I padded closer to the bars and stared at him. One lip lifted, revealing the razor-sharp ivory teeth beneath, and a growl rippled through my entire body. I was tired and thirsty and fed up of seeing the same four walls. If he thought he could talk me down, he was very wrong.

He just sighed at me, no doubt seeing the determination in my eyes. From his own cell, Liam said, "You want her to stop? Get Micah."

I felt a shiver run down my spine. That voice ... it wasn't his. It belonged to a dead man, and it was enough to make the guard freeze.

I broke into a grin, my tongue hanging loose. I knew Liam didn't want me anywhere near Micah, but he was still helping. The guard kept blinking in his direction, no doubt trying to shake off the effects of Liam's wolf.

"I can't do that," he said eventually. "He's in a meeting with the Deltas. I'm told it's important, but if you're quiet all night, I promise I will bring him here first thing tomorrow morning."

I licked my lips as I thought it over. He could have been lying. This might just be an attempt to trick me into giving them twelve hours of peace, but it would have been sneaky on a level that flockies weren't capable of.

Waiting until morning would be risky. I was betting that Felix wouldn't go digging around in his bedroom and that the Vaughan brothers wouldn't kill each other before then. But what choice did I have, really? I couldn't keep howling forever. Putting aside my misgivings, I nodded my head.

The guard beamed at me. "Okay. Can you shift back - as a sign of goodwill?"

He didn't even wait for me to agree. He just turned his back. I retreated into the far corner of my cell, where Joel couldn't see me, and then I shifted back and dressed myself. It was damned cold down here. So cold that my pyjamas could only take the sting out of the air.

When the guard turned back towards me, he gave a brisk nod. My forehead creased as he walked up to my cell and turned the key in the lock. Instead of coming in, he just let the door swing open.

Uncertain, I took a step back and eyed him. It could have all been a trick to get me shift back so he could restrain me more easily. But if that had been the case, he would have brought back-up. One against one, I was confident I could get the better of him. He was old.

"Come on out," he told me.

So I did. My steps were slow and hesitant, but I didn't want to be a coward while Joel and Liam were watching. He shepherded me up the corridor, and then he stopped to open Liam's cell.

I watched on with wide eyes, hardly even daring to hope. And then there was a gentle hand on my back, guiding me inside. Liam was waiting with one of those heart-melting smiles on his lips. I wanted to hug him, but ... physical contact and a confined space was not a combination he could usually cope with. We bumped fists instead.

I glanced back at the guard with no small amount of puzzlement. I didn't understand why he'd put us together, but I wasn't complaining.

"The other guys are furious ... and I can't stay here all night," he said by way of explanation. There was a heaviness to his voice that went beyond exhaustion. "They'll think twice before attacking you now."

I nodded warily. It hadn't even occurred to me. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," the flockie sighed. "I doubt it will stop Micah. So ... for your sake, I hope you know what you're doing."

I hoped I did, too. But I was already so knocked off balance, so deep into the realm of improvisation, that I really did wonder. This was a last resort ... and probably a last chance for both of us. I was betting both of our lives on the hope that Micah would fall prey to a few clever words and some clumsy evidence.

The guard left us alone. He'd probably be back with our dinner in a few minutes, but until then...

"I'm really sorry, Liam," I murmured. "I never meant for you to get caught up in this."

To my surprise, he just shrugged. "It's alright. I've been wanting a day off work for a while now."

I knew he was only saying that to make me feel better. I gave him a little push, letting my eyes take a lap. "You're not funny."

Liam was grinning at me now - sure of himself and smug and mischievous all at once. It was a rare combination, and one I happened to love. "I am, though."

I turned away from him, shaking my head, but I was fighting a losing battle with a smile.

***

The man had been right. Sometime after dusk, three of the other guards had come padding down the corridor, armed with their cattle prods and a pair of handcuffs. They had walked right up to my cell, grinning away, and then I'd got to watch their faces fall when they saw it was empty.

They'd spotted me not long afterwards, half-hiding behind Liam. And they hadn't fancied their chances, thank the Goddess. All three of them had settled for jeering and some very personal, very disgusting threats against me, and then they'd buggered off back downstairs.

It was safe to say we hadn't got much sleep after that. The bed wasn't big enough for two, so we had to take turns sleeping, the lights were permanently switched on, and the guards made sure they woke us up every time they carried out one of their checks.

I was dozing when I heard footsteps in the hallway. It echoed off every wall - the thumping of boots against concrete. And that sound was louder than usual, like the person making it was heavier than most of the prison guards.

I scrambled to my feet. I had no idea what time it was, because there were no windows and no clocks, but it felt like morning. And sure enough, it was Micah Vaughan who was coming down the corridor. I was always struck by the sheer size of him - six-foot-five at the very least and corded with muscle.

He stopped by Joel's cell. Within a heartbeat, Joel had thrown himself at the bars like a wild animal. It was a display of sheer, unfettered aggression. Clawing, gouging and swearing.

He managed to get his fingernails into Micah ... even land a clumsy punch or two. But the Third had known that he was within range. He was grinning as he caught one of Joel's hands. Used it to hold him against the bars. And then kicked him - once to the knee to knock him down, and then a solid boot to the ribs to keep him there.

It had been bait - bait that he'd known his prisoner would take. Joel had spent the last week being beaten and half-starved. He was weak, and Micah was just playing with him.

"Someone's grumpy this morning," Micah laughed. "Relax. I'm not here for you."

He left Joel in a heap and came strolling down the corridor. Hands in his pockets, he looked me up and down and then tipped his head to one side.

"Not everyday I get a prisoner asking for me. What is it that you want, sweetheart?" he said.

"Just to talk."

Micah's smile grew wider. With every second that passed, it was looking more like a smirk, which didn't feel like a good sign. "Sure, we can talk. Why don't we go somewhere nice and private?"

Liam had come to stand behind me. He put a hand on my waist, which might have been affection had I not been able to feel the tension there. He was warning me against getting any closer to Micah - a warning that set my heart to racing. He knew his brother better than I did ... and if he was worried, I should be too.

"You can talk right here," Liam said quietly.

"I wasn't asking you," Micah snapped. The anger was gone as quickly as it appeared, the very second his eyes next landed on me. "Well? What do you say?"

I knew it was a bad idea to go with him. I knew he wasn't planning to talk to me. But I also knew that now he'd come all the way down here, he wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. If he decided to get me out of the cell by force, it would be Liam who got hurt.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I nodded. I even tried to smile, although it felt like a weak, miserable effort. "Good idea. We'll need someplace quiet because if this gets back to Felix ... we're both dead."

And that easily, I had his attention. I saw his forehead furrow and his mouth tighten. It was human nature. Curiosity could overpower almost any emotion, I'd found. He wanted to know what was important enough to make his brother kill him.

But to my frustration, he shook it off in about two seconds flat. He opened the cell and jerked his head at me. But when I started towards him, there was a hand on my arm, stopping me in my tracks.

"Don't," I said.

Liam's eyes were wide. "Eva, he's-"

"I know," I told him, my voice breaking. "I know. You're gonna have to trust me."

And with that, I pushed gently on his chest, making him take a step backwards, and then I slipped out of the cell. Micah closed the door behind me with no small amount of satisfaction.

"There's a good girl. Come on."

He took hold of my arm, squeezing hard enough to cut off the circulation, and then he started dragging me down the corridor. In the blink of an eye, all pretences at niceness had fallen away. I yelped at the force of his grip, but he took absolutely no notice.

Liam was shouting at him, for all the good it was doing. He was stuck behind a set of iron bars, and he couldn't help me now. I watched him throw his weight at the metal in his frustration, over and over again, but it was all so incredibly futile. In some ways, it was probably worse for him.

Joel was still on the floor, holding his ribs in a way that made me think they were broken. He watched my struggle with Micah with wide, horrified eyes. I hadn't been expecting it from him. Hadn't been expecting him to care. He didn't dare add his voice to the ruckus, probably realising that it would put me in more danger, not less.

Between him and Liam, I was in an absolute state. I couldn't do this. I just couldn't.

I dug my heels in, and Micah hardly even seemed to notice. He was just too much bigger than I was. So instead, I loosened every muscle in my body, all at once, and let myself fall to the floor. Boneless and floppy. Micah hadn't been expecting it, and he swore at me as he tried to haul me upright again.

He was bent over me. One hand on my arm, the other on my waist. And that meant he had no way to defend himself when I drew my leg back and kicked him with all of my strength. I'd been aiming for his balls, and if the way he fell over, cursing and groaning, was any indication, I'd found them.

And then I was scrambling away from him. I put a few metres between us, and then I stopped.

"Listen," I blurted. "Just listen, okay?"

Micah pushed himself onto his knees. His hands were still cradling the place where his legs joined, and he was breathing hard, but now ... now he looked furious.

"You're going to regret that," he told me.

My heart was going about a hundred miles an hour, but I stood my ground. "Alex was at the party. He was there all night - you saw him. You must remember. And even if you don't, there are people who'd vouch for him. Charlie Owens, for one. Link him if you don't believe me."

Micah clambered to his feet with some difficulty. "Who cares if he was at the party?"

He started advancing towards me, but for every step he took, I took one backwards, maintaining the distance. If there was one thing I was good at, it was running away.

"You should," I said. "Felix should. Because it means he can't have killed the Alpha. Doesn't it bother you, that Felix never checked? That he saw the knife and decided Alex was guilty?"

Micah laughed deep in his throat. He sounded like he was losing patience ... and fast. "Oh, and I suppose you're going to tell me he's innocent?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Of course he is. He had no motive. Mason had just promoted him - why on earth would he turn around and kill him?"

"Don't know. And don't care."

And all the while, I crept inching backwards, and Micah kept following me. He wasn't rushing. He knew, like I did, that the corridor ended quite abruptly. We were already beside Joel's cell, and I knew I was running out of time.

"Do you know who did have a motive?" I asked slyly, even as my back hit the wall. "You. I know what he did to you. Those scars..."

Micah slammed into me. His hand closed around my throat roughly, holding me in place, and his legs were crushing mine against the wall. I clawed at his hand, trying to loosen his grip, because he was hurting me. And I was scared that he would cut off my air if he squeezed any harder.

"This is your big plan?" he demanded. "You want to convince me that I did it? That's funny, that is. You're even dumber than you look."

I wasn't fighting him, because I didn't want to piss him off more than I had already. "I know it wasn't you. But ... you're not the only one Mason hurt, are you?"

"Felix wouldn't do that," Micah snapped. He pulled me away from the wall only to slam me back into it, my head smacking against the bricks with enough force to make everything go black, if only for a few seconds. The whimper of pain that escaped me was unbidden and breathless.

The repercussions came a second later. Liam had seen and lashed out the only way he could - with the link. The full force of it struck Micah, but Liam wasn't very good at controlling it, so I saw Joel flinch and felt the mental backwash crash over me. It was a feeling like no other. Like someone was squeezing your brain with their bare hand.

Micah swore, turning to stare at Liam over his shoulder. He was confused, at the very least, and I used those precious few seconds to recapture his attention with another torrent of words. Anything to keep that anger on me.

"He was in such a hurry to arrest us because I saw him arguing with Mason," I said hoarsely. "A couple of rogues had claimed that Felix was a traitor, and Mason seemed to think it was pretty convincing. There was something else, too. Something about bodies in the woods ... and a quarry."

That easily, Micah was looking back at me, and the hand around my throat loosened. I'd shocked him so much that he'd forgotten about hurting me, for the moment at least. Because these were all things I shouldn't have known.

"When was this?" he demanded.

"Yesterday," I told him. It was, of course, a big fat lie, but there was plenty of truth scattered throughout that lie. Plenty of things Micah knew already. "Can't you see? We're being framed. Alex couldn't have done it."

"Maybe you did it."

He sounded reluctant even to say it. He didn't honestly think that I, a girl, was capable of murdering his brother. Felix hadn't wanted to think that, either. It was why they'd accused Liam and not me, even with my initials on the knife hilt. There were times - albeit few and far between - when misogyny actually came in useful.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" I asked incredulously. "There's a deadbolt on that door, and Mason was twice my size."

Micah squeezed my throat hard enough to make me retch. "He was killed with your knife! I'd say that's pretty damning evidence. If it wasn't you, it was your mate. We should kill both of you and be done with it."

"Yes," I wheezed. "The knife. Here's the thing, Micah. I didn't have it. After I attacked that rogue, it was confiscated in front of a dozen witnesses. I know you weren't there, but there were plenty of people who saw. I never got it back."

Micah seemed to have stopped breathing, and the intensity of his gaze was burning a hole through me. "Confiscated by who?"

"Felix."

He worked his jaw up and down, wrestling with the enormity of it. "He wouldn't have dared. You're wrong ... or you're lying."

Uh oh. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, and if he succeeded, I didn't fancy my chances.

"Look, I don't know for sure," I said quietly. "But I don't see who else could've done it. If I'm right about this, he thinks he's got away with it. The fighters listen to you, not him. Grab a few of them and see if you can't find some proof."

Micah was not very clever. He wasn't stupid either, I didn't think, but he didn't have the mental togetherness to notice my increasingly clumsy attempts to manipulate him. He scowled at me as he tried to decide.

Torn. Indecisive. He just needed on last little nudge.

"Ignore me if you want," I told him, "but you'll only have yourself to blame when you're the next one to wake up with your throat cut."

That did it. Micah released my neck, leaving a handprint of sore, battered skin behind. And he dragged me towards the nearest cell. He didn't even bother putting me inside it. He just handcuffed me to the bars and left me there.

"Now, don't go anywhere," he drawled. "This won't take long, and we can pick up right where we left off."

And with that, he disappeared towards the stairs. I had no idea if he was going to take my advice, but it seemed likely. It wasn't easy - standing there ... waiting, while my future was being decided somewhere upstairs. I needed Micah to search Felix's room, decide that he was guilty, and then arrest him, all in one go.

There was plenty of evidence up there. Bloody clothes, latex gloves, and the flare cap. If Felix hadn't already found it...

Liam tugged on the link before Micah was even out of sight. "Shit, Eva. You alright?"

"Oh, yeah. Fine," I said, even though my heart was thundering in my chest and my skull was throbbing. I lowered myself into a sitting position to fight the dizziness. "Did you hear all of that?"

"Enough of it," he said. "Can you get free?"

I tried to slide my wrist out of the handcuff. Unsurprisingly, it stopped short at my thumb and wouldn't budge, no matter how hard I pulled. "No."

Not without breaking something, anyway. And that would be a last resort. Until my life depended on it, I was happy enough to sit there with all my bones intact.

So we settled down to wait. It didn't take long, as it turned out. Fifteen minutes, and Micah was back again. Only now he had four fighters with him. They were dragging a handcuffed and furious Felix down the stairs.

It had worked?

Well, thank the Goddess for that. I'd been half afraid that I would just kickstart the murdering-each-other part of the succession.

It took some gutsy fighters to arrest a Beta. They were all older guys, most of whom I recognised vaguely as part of Micah's own unit. For all of Felix's thrashing, he couldn't make them break a sweat, let alone release him.

He was helpless as they tossed him into a cell and locked the door. He scrambled to his feet within a heartbeat, turning on them, but it was already too late.

"It wasn't me," Felix spat.

Micah stopped near the bars and grinned at his brother. "See, I think it was. But we'll see what the jury says, won't we? Sit tight until then. It'll only be a week or two."

Felix swore at him - a vicious, desperate torrent of words that made me think he was close to breaking point. Even from the other end of the corridor, I could see the blood on both their faces. They'd traded punches on the way over here, I'd wager.

Micah just laughed at him, even as he turned away. He reached into a pocket and produced a set of keys, which he tossed unceremoniously at Liam's feet.

"You're free to go, I guess," he said. "Just don't go too far - your mate and I have some unfinished business."

I watched Liam visibly wrestle with the urge to punch him in the face. There were some disadvantages to having his wolf at full strength, and this was one of them. He got the better of it eventually and bent down to pick up the keys.

By the time he'd got his cell open, Micah was gone, and half of the fighters had gone with him. He'd need the pack elders on his side before he could declare himself Alpha, so for the moment at least, Liam and I were forgotten.

Liam came straight to me. He tipped my head forward gently, so he could look at the back. There was some blood where Micah had cracked open the scab from yesterday, but it was hardly life-threatening. I didn't even feel concussed.

But I put up with him fussing, because the very next thing he did was wrap me in a fierce hug. I took that to mean I was forgiven. He was really warm. I buried my face in his t-shirt and savoured the feeling of being squeezed.

"Can we get out of here?" I mumbled into his shirt.

In answer, Liam unlocked the handcuff from my wrist. Together, we walked towards the exit, his arm around my shoulders. We had to pass Joel, who'd taken to staring at his new neighbour with the same empty-eyed intensity that had been directed at us.

I didn't dare acknowledge him while Felix was watching, but he gave us a half-nod as we passed. We were never going to be friends, I didn't think, but he'd been right before. We were on the same side.

Felix was in my old cell. Good, I thought. Seeing one of the Vaughans enjoy the same conditions that they inflicted on their prisoners was great for my wellbeing. As we went past, he growled at us from deep in his chest.

"You did this, didn't you?" he demanded, verging on hysterical. "You set me up."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said. It was the right answer - the sensible answer. Liam pulled me a fraction closer to him, keeping that arm around me, keeping me moving on. He didn't see me turn my head back to smirk at Felix. It was a victorious, mocking expression, and purely to piss him off, I added a wink.

Felix was so shocked that he didn't even cuss me out. He just stared at me, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open as he realised for the first time how badly he'd underestimated me. Liam and I climbed the stairs, heading for the pack house above and our hard-earned freedom.

One dead, one imprisoned.

And one left.