Picture, if you will, a dark and rainy evening. It's nearly midnight. I'm hurtling down a busy road in the city centre with my uni-allocated family and as we pretend to be horses and jump over garden walls. Oh, and we're all dressed as minions, face paint included. To our right, four students are dancing naked in a fountain while their friends film the whole thing. They're drunk but not, like, that drunk. They reckon they'll get extra points for stripping. It's not true.

I have been at uni for six weeks now. This makes sense to me. This is normal. It's not even the strangest thing that's happened all day. So yeah. If you're still stuck in high school, hang on in there. It gets better. Weirder ... but definitely better.

Anyway, welcome to Austria, Belarus and Nigeria and on with the story, because you've waited long enough for this. (PS get the family tree ready, lads. It's ... it's bad. Don't worry about trying to remember everyone just yet — you'll get to meet them all properly.)

When I woke up, we were approaching the big-ass roundabout on the far side of Lowland territory. As always, Lily went around it three times to check that no one was following us. Once she took the exit, we crept around the first bend — the faded paint on the road ordering us to go slow — and turned onto a muddy track. It ran for about a mile and ended in a disused farm yard.

Arlow wasn't the fastest way to Haven by any means, and there were plenty of closer places to park, but it wasn't by chance that we'd managed to keep it secret for the last nineteen years. I'd been wrong earlier. If there was a patch of earth that was safe for us, it was Haven, if only because the flockies didn't know it existed.

We parked there and tucked a fiver under our windscreen wiper in case the farmer came by. I got out, stretched my legs, and scanned the rest of the yard idly. Sam's seven-seater was there, but Dad's was missing, so there was probably a raid on today. And I'd missed it. Great.

"So, who wants to link?" Nia asked from behind me. I jumped a little. "Eva? Wow, thanks, super generous of you to volunteer."

I gave her a flat stare. "Oh, my pleasure."

She was grinning as she bent down into the car and began hauling the woman out. She propped her up against the door and eased her onto her shoulders, crossways, with annoyingly little effort. We could have shared the load, of course, but I was still limping and Lily had the upper body strength of a stick insect.

A minute later, we started down the track. It wasn't a track, not really, because that would give the game away, but we followed a tiny little stream for most of the way. I knew where to put my feet, even if the ferns looked unbroken to the untrained eye. Nia led the way, of course, and I had to concentrate on walking slowly so I didn't bump into her.

It was lovely and scenic. You could see for miles across the forest, and there were bluebells in the spring. The walk was long enough to let you enjoy it but not so long that it got boring. Utterly perfect in every way except for one — it stank.

There was a cow field just downwind. Most days, the wind swept the stench of the animals and the shit across the path, so the packlings would have difficulty following our scents even if they somehow managed to find this place. It served its purpose, but I did have to breathe through my mouth.

Once I was settled into the rhythm of putting one leg in front of the other, I slipped away from the world to find the mind-link to my mam. It was buried deep after two months of disuse, so I had to dig for it. At the slightest tug, I felt her stop what she was doing and direct her full, undivided attention at me.

"You're never gonna guess where your favourite child is!" I drawled.

"Eira's right next to me," Mam replied without even, like, hesitating. "Who is this?"

As if she didn't know. Our minds were literally connected, and she had the audacity to pretend that— Oh, why was I even surprised? I'd brought this upon myself. By now, I should really know better than to try and bullshit my mother, because she was an awful lot better at it than I was.

I sighed. "Eva. You carried me in your womb for six months? Gave birth to me? Is that ringing any bells?"

"Oh, Eva. Right. What were you saying?"

"We're just past Arlow, and we've got a present for you."

"That's you, huh?" she drawled. "Two secs — I should probably tell Rhys not to kill you."

"No, no, send him over. Nia's starting to sweat," I said.

She wasn't, actually, but that would change if she had to lug the woman all the way to the cabin. I twisted the link shut and slipped back into my body just in time to trip over a bramble. I fell into Nia's back, nearly knocking her over, too, and then I landed heavily on a mixture of tree roots and rocks.

My cousin swore at me as she fought to keep her balance. The woman began to slip on her shoulders, and it was all she could do to keep her in place. I managed to roll over, brushing dirt from my clothes. Lily offered me a hand. I took it and let her pull me up, grunting as pain shot through my injured leg.

"I meant to do that," I muttered.

"Sure," she replied. "Testing the gravity?"

"Mm. She's working beautifully by here."

"Swap with Lily, you clown," Nia ordered, even as her mate broke into a sniggering fit.

I surrendered my spot with a good-natured smile. I liked being rearguard, because no one could see me screwing around. When we started up again, I let them go ahead of me and spent a good minute picking the thorns out of my bare foot and shredding the bramble responsible. This was one of my running paths — I was only sparing myself another fall.

I'd just caught up with them when—

"Morning, puppies," an amused voice called from behind us. "You look a bloody mess."

Nia and Lily whirled around, startled and ready to shift. I'd been expecting it, so I turned much slower, grinning, to face my favourite uncle. He was leaning against a tree trunk, his light-brown hair tousled from a shift, and he was wearing some of the clothes we'd typically leave around the forest here — cargo trousers and a t-shirt. He looked so much like Rhodri that I felt a pang in my chest.

Rhys was Rhodri's dad, and the oldest living Llewellyn. We didn't have enough wolves at Haven for proper patrols, so we tended to do it in pairs, but Rhys was a lone ranger. It was the werecat blood in him, I reckoned. Normal wolves hated being alone — wouldn't even contemplate it.

"We've been killing flockies," Nia drawled. She eased the pack woman off her shoulders and set her down against a tree trunk. "What have you done this morning?"

"I dug a new latrine pit — you're welcome, by the way."

I wrinkled up my nose on principle, but his scent was off, thank the Goddess.

"Eva," he said next, grinning at me. "Been a while, hasn't it? Liam's been pining for you. Bloody pain in my ass, that boy. Did you have fun with your cousin?"

"No," I said at the same time as Nia insisted, "Yes, she did."

We stared at each other, eyes narrowed.

"So much fun," Lily piped up.

"Nope," I muttered under my breath, popping the 'p.'

Nia caught my eye again. A smirk was creeping across her face, slowly but surely. "What Eva's trying to say is that she loved every second of her time with us."

"Nah," I cut across.

"She wanted to stay longer, actually," Nia finished. "I had to drag her here."

I shook my head vigorously, my eyes rolling skyward. Since Nia and Lily had left home last year, I hadn't gotten to see them often, so it had been nice in that respect, but I'd hated everyone else on the raiding team, if only because they weren't Rhodri and Liam.

"Well, it was supposed to be a punishment, so let's all bear that in mind when Skye asks that same question," Rhys reminded us. He went still for a moment, then blinked a few times. "We'd better haul ass. Everyone's waiting on you."

Nia nodded. Between them, they picked up the pack woman like a sack of potatoes, and we carried on towards Haven.

"So, who's around?" Lily asked.

"It'd be quicker to tell who's not," he said. "Rhodri ain't back yet. Cass and Ellie are treating a collapsed lung for one of the Morris boys. Leo, Ollie and Liam are on a scouting trip with Ian's raiders."

"Scouting?" I asked, frowning, because that was a big-ass scouting party.

"Your mam's orders. They left an hour ago."

I had missed Liam by an hour? That wasn't fair, the Moon Goddess must hate us both, and if she wasn't careful I would excommunicate myself and worship the sun instead. Rhys, Lily and Nia noticed my scowl and exchanged knowing looks, which did nothing to improve my mood.

We were getting close to Haven. I could see the tents peeking through the trees — only a dozen of them today, which must have all belonged to Ian's raiding team. The cabin was a bit further back, and we adjusted our path to skirt the tents.

"I got her," Rhys told my cousin. "You're going to have your hands full in a second."

Full of excited children. There were four of them at Haven currently — two orphans, Rhodri's little sister, and Nia's little sister, who was only two years old. Wisely, Nia let him shoulder the pack woman and went to hold hands with her mate.

A hundred metres narrowed to ten, and I felt a grin stretch my lips, because I could see them now. They were waiting outside the cabin — my family, that was, which was really three families stacked on top of each other wearing a trench coat.

It was rare to see them assembled so nicely, even if half of them were missing. Nia and Lily had been home only last week, so the welcome party was for me. My mam was the first to step forwards and wrap me in a rough hug.

"Welcome home, Eva," she said. "Shit, you've grown."

"No way," I breathed. I'd been taller than her for a year now, but she was only five-three, so that wasn't difficult. Compared to everyone else, I was still tiny.

"She's right," Nia's mam agreed. "A full millimetre."

She piled in, and soon enough the others were following her example, and I was being crushed half to death in a press of family, all of whom found it hilarious. My brother Ellis managed to worm his way to my side, and I squeezed the skinny little bastard until he squealed.

"Missed you," I told him.

"It's been quiet without you," he murmured, and I had to bite back a laugh. The day Haven was quiet would be the day we were all dead.

I mussed his hair. "You just missed having someone to beat up Bryn for you."

Ellis was the shy, indoorsy type. A nerd, as the humans liked to say. He needed a bit of looking after occasionally, because he didn't like using his fists, but I didn't mind one bit. I kept Bryn in line, and he did my maths homework — it was a fair trade.

Except that I never really upheld my end because there wasn't a person on this earth who could control Bryn Llewellyn.

The hug fractured after about a minute, and I took a second to appreciate the ability to breathe freely before seeking out the second round of greetings. It wasn't hard to see where I was supposed to go next, and Nia threw an arm around my shoulders and dragged me in that direction.

Sam, who was the oldest of us and probably the best babysitter to walk the earth, was waiting just behind the others. Somehow, he had little Poppy on his shoulders, Matty and Ahmed in one hand and Jess Llewellyn in the other.

"Whenever you're ready," Sam said.

"Sic' em," Nia replied, crouching down.

Sam released the kids.

The boys barreled into Nia, nearly knocking her onto her ass, which only made her laugh. She managed to pass them off to Lily and then went to take her baby sister from Sam. I got Jess. She was six years old, and she liked me because I'd taught her how to throw knives when her mother wasn't looking. She jumped at me, and I swung her up into my arms.

"Oof," I sighed. "You're getting too big. Another few years and I won't be able to do this."

It might not even be a few years. She was a Llewellyn by blood, and she was growing faster than she had any right to. She only giggled at me and tried to filch my pocket knife, so I had to put her down again. She had an aptitude for violence and a love for anything sharp or pointy. Like her big brother, I supposed.

Someone pulled my hair from behind, and I turned around to see Poppy leaning out of her sister's arms and giggling.

"Hi, Popsicle," I said.

"Say hello to Eva," Nia told her.

"Hello, dumbass," Poppy said.

She started giggling to herself. She'd been talking for a year now, and boy had her vocabulary expanded since then. She even knew three swearwords (Rhodri's fault), so 'dumbass' was actually far from the worst thing she'd called me. I didn't know what I'd been expecting from a kid whose first word had been 'beer.'

"Come here, you little monster," I growled, taking her from Nia. "Let's throw you in the river."

"No!" she squealed.

"It's too late — we're going. Hope you can swim."

And we were going. I only had to take a dozen steps to reach the edge of the stream, and there I held her out, my arms burning. Poppy clutched at me, nearly breathless with laughter.

"Got anything to say?" I prompted her. "A little word, maybe. Starts with sss."

"Shit," Poppy shouted.

I winced. "No, not that word. Say it after me, now. Sor-ee."

"Shitty," she tried.

Oh, who was I kidding? She didn't know the word sorry. I swung her out, once, twice, and she clung to me even though she knew I wouldn't really drop her.

"Stop terrorising that child, Eva," Mam said from behind me. She was smiling because I had very vivid memories of her doing the exact same thing to me when I was little. One time, she'd actually thrown me in, and I was pretty sure that was the root of all my trust issues.

"Ah, you're lucky she saved you," I told Poppy, who had started laughing all over again. I put her down and gave her a firm nudge in Sam's direction, and she did the rest all by herself. I scanned the crowd to make sure I'd said hello to everyone. Someone was missing, I noticed. Two someones, actually, but they would be together, wherever they were.

"Where's Eira?" I asked softly.

"Sleeping, and don't you dare wake her," Mam replied. "She had two fits yesterday. Bad ones."

Fear coiled in the pit of my stomach, cold and heavy. My sister was getting worse — she had been for some time, and we all knew it, but two fits in the space of a day was a new milestone on the road to ... well, nowhere any sane person would want to go.

"Bryn's with her?" I asked.

She nodded. "If you stop by later, take him some lunch. He's been there since dawn."

I nodded and trudged towards the cabin, and Mam cleared her throat to catch everyone's attention. The noise level went from excited chatter to silence in the span of a heartbeat.

"Alright, Nia and Fion with me," she said. "Sooner we finish this, the sooner that poor flockie can go home."

Nia tore herself away from the kids with Sam's help, and Fion broke off a conversation with Lily. Mam waited for them, but I took the head-start and trudged towards the cabin.

I opened the door and ducked into the closest thing I had to a home. The kitchen was the only real room we had, and 'kitchen' was a loose word for a collection of mismatched counters and a brick fireplace. There was a dining table in the middle which took up ninety percent of the floor space. It wasn't big enough for all of us — when everyone was home, we had to sit on the counters, too.

Rhys had settled the pack woman on one of our dining chairs. The chloroform rag was gone, and she was beginning to stir, her face twitching every now and again. My uncle was making a cup of tea. He glanced up as I came in and grinned.

"Alright, kiddo?"

"Alright," I agreed. It was nice to have a second just to catch my breath, although it was literally just a second, because the others weren't far behind me.

"Watch the door, little brother. Eva, you can finish that," Mam told me, gesturing at the tea. "Fion and Nia, stop her linking."

Rhys left, closing the door behind him and putting his back against it just in case she decided to run for it. I took over the saucepan of water. The flames were licking at the base, so tiny little bubbles were beginning to form, but I had a while yet.

"We can't actually do that," Fion explained. "Think of it like a house. I'm outside. I can look in the windows, but I can't physically keep her away from the phone unless I break down the door and enter, and that's considered impolite. Also, there's about a twenty percent chance she'd die."

"Well, tell me if she is linking."

"Can't do that either. If she thinks about linking — picks up the phone, say — there's no way to tell if she's actually talking. Do you want me to fetch Bryn?"

"No," Mam sighed. "We'll make do."

I peered at the water again. Nothing seemed to have happened in the last thirty seconds, so I put the lid on just for something to do. When I turned back to the others, I realised that they were all looking at me, for some reason.

"So ... how was it? Did you make any friends?" Mam asked me.

"She made plenty of enemies," Nia offered. "Friends ... not so much."

Mam regarded me through narrowed eyes. "Hmm."

"What? They're assholes."

"Watch it," Nia told me, because that was her raiding team, and she had to like them.

I snorted.

"Forget friends," Mam interrupted. "I didn't send you there to make friends. No, more importantly, did you learn your lesson?"

I scratched my tattoo and grinned. "Nah, don't think so. Getting inked six months early didn't bring the world crashing down around me — I stand by that."

Mam smiled, and there was a smugness to it which had me worried straight off. "Well, I'm sure getting it removed won't bring the world crashing down either, then."

Horror. Complete, abject horror — those were the only words for it. "What?"

"You heard me," she said. "You can enjoy it for a few more weeks, and then it has to go."

What ... possible reason could she have for removing my tattoo? It felt a lot like waiting seventeen and a half years to join the world's most exclusive club, only to have your membership revoked straight away. I opened my mouth to complain and demand answers, but it was at that moment that the pack woman finally woke up.

And she was afraid. She was so very, very afraid, because she had no idea where she was, we were all blatantly rogues, and she thought we were going to kill her, probably. Her eyes went to my mam first, then flitted across Nia and Fion standing side by side, and finally, they landed on me and widened in recognition. She was staring at me with bewilderment and hurt. Like I'd betrayed her, which was strange, given that she'd told her Alpha where to find me only yesterday. We'd hardly been friends.

She stood up, kicking the chair back, and lunged for the door. It took her a little while to work out that the door opened outwards, and even longer to realise that it was blocked — in this case, by an eighty-kilo Shadowcat hybrid. We all stood and watched her with bored indifference. We rarely chained prisoners. It was better to let them get the panic out of their system and accept that running wasn't a viable option.

"Sit," Mam said after a while. Her tone was lazy, but there was a sharp bite beneath which was hard to defy. Slowly, reluctantly, the woman lowered herself back into the chair and sat there shaking like leaf. Fion coughed, which meant she was probably linking someone, but it wasn't like she could tell them anything. She had no idea where she was or who we were.

The saucepan was boiling over. I snatched the lid off and poured it into three mugs — one for me, one for Fion, who loved tea, and one for our guest. The steam seared my hand. I dropped a teabag into each of the mugs and watched the water darken.

"We are not going to hurt you," Fion told her firmly.

"Yeah. What she said," Mam agreed. "You've lived in Ember your whole life?"

The woman clamped her mouth shut. The teabags were extracted with a spoon. A splash of milk later, they were ready, and just in time — my part was coming up.

"Look, we need your help," I said, sliding into the chair opposite her and pushing a mug towards her. I was the good cop whenever my dad wasn't around. "We'll drop you home afterwards. No tricks, no games. Answer a few questions and we're done here."

"And if I won't?" she asked quietly.

I glanced at my mam and ... well, I did wonder. "Honestly? I don't know what'll happen. I don't call the shots. I'm just hoping it won't come to that."

The woman took a sip of her tea. It was slow and cautious, like she thought we were trying to poison her. I downed a mouthful of my own and burned myself in the process to encourage her. Fion's mug lay untouched on the sideboard: she could do without the distraction.

"I'm Eva," I said. "What's your name?"

"Josie," she murmured, thawing at last. "These questions... If you want to know about patrol schedules or—"

"Nothing like that," Mam cut across. "Just a bit of history."

The woman was drinking properly now. She gulped the tea down, not seeming to notice that it was made with Tesco own-brand tea bags which had probably cost about two pence each. "Okay..."

It was as close to agreement as we were going to get. I got a tug on the mind-link which meant 'well done,' and I knew my part was over. Mam sat down beside me and laced her fingers together.

"First things first. Do you recognise me?" she asked and got only silence for an answer. "No, I suppose you wouldn't. It's been a long time."

Josie's forehead creased.

"I was the one who snuck into Ember when the ferals had you caged up. I saved your life. I saved your entire pack," Mam said. "And a few months later, you thanked us by laying siege to the castle. The men I rescued from the ferals came and murdered my friends. But that's justice, right? We deserved it, right?"

There was a knot of anger in the pit of my stomach. It had been there as long as I could remember — since I was born, maybe. Most of the time I could ignore it, but very occasionally, it started to twist and burn, and then I'd find myself furious about the people who'd died at Lle o Dristwch. People I'd never met, whose names I didn't know.

It was stirring right now.

Josie stared into her tea as if it could answer for her. Seconds passed, and all she could come up with was, "You're rogues."

"Rogues," she mused. "It's funny, isn't it? The way you say that word ... it's the same way we say flockie."

Time to get this conversation back on track, maybe. This woman hadn't murdered anyone, so there was no point getting into an argument about morals. I took a long sip of my tea and used the cover of the mug to give my mam some serious side-eye.

"Anyway," she said, taking the hint. "The questions. Back then, you had a pup for an Alpha. Lewis Fletcher. What happened to him?"

Josie seemed surprised by that question, and I must admit I echoed the sentiment. Why the hell should we care about the kid who'd been Ember's Alpha nineteen years ago?

"Jackson challenged him. Killed him. Everyone knows that," Josie said.

I saw Nia and her mam close their eyes. They shared the same talent for exploiting the mind-link. The difference was, Nia was all brute, tactless strength and Fion was carefully honed skill. Right now, they'd be peering into the fringes of the woman's mind, checking that she was telling us the truth.

"Did you see him die?"

She shook her head. "No. I didn't even see the challenge. It happened off the territory."

"And let me guess — the only witnesses were loyal to Jackson. How ... convenient," Mam muttered. "What about the other Fletcher kids?"

"One of them stepped up to the Alpha and got his neck snapped. The other two disappeared after Lewis died. We're not allowed to talk about them."

Fion and Nia hadn't given us any signal, so she was probably telling the truth.

"Huh." Mam turned to Fion. "Link Ollie. Tell him to start near Silver Lake and work down towards Pine Forest."

"On it," Fion muttered. She went very still for a minute.

What the hell did the scouting team have to do with this? And ... was that it? We'd kidnapped this poor woman and dragged her fifty miles so she could answer three questions about some kid who'd been dead for two decades?

Oh.

He wasn't dead, was he?

But how did Mam know that, and more importantly, why did she care?

Mam stood up, her chair scraping against the tiles. She set a bottle on the table. It was small, tinted, and half full of liquid.

"You're free to go," she told the woman. "Nia — she's the tall one — is going to drop you home. You can't see the way back, so you'll have to be unconscious, sorry. Put this in your tea or get punched. Your call."

Josie eyed it nervously. I didn't blame her. My mother could be quite ... abrupt, and she didn't have much patience for people's feelings.

"Paint your front door with walnut oil and you won't get raided ever again. Call it a thank you," Mam finished. "If your Alpha asks, we grilled you about the pack house and you lied. Got it?"

"I... I think so."

"Awesome."

With that, she knocked twice on the door so my uncle would move his ass, and then she left. I was inclined to follow her rather than clean up the mess she'd left behind, so I downed my tea like a dirty pint, stood up, and threw my arms around my cousin.

"See you soon, pup," she murmured.

"I did have a tiny, tiny bit of fun once or twice. Maybe. Don't quote me on that," I replied. "Bye, I guess."

And then I trudged out of the door to find my mam. She hadn't gone far — she was talking to Rhys. I waltzed right into the conversation, not giving a shit whether I was interrupting, because they wouldn't stand in plain view in Haven if they cared about being interrupted.

"What are you playing at, Mam?" I asked. "What goes on in Ember is none of our business."

"I'm about to make it our business," she said. Rhys was grinning. "All part of the diabolical plan, kiddo. All part of the plan."

I blinked at her. "Are you going to tell me this diabolical plan?"

Mam found that hilarious. "No, of course not. Where's the fun in that?"