There's a picture of Hannah up top, thanks again to LittleLoneWriterGirl! Enjoy :)

"I'm tired of trying to explain this to you," Hannah whispered.

Rhodri threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. His eyes had been dark for a while now, betraying his growing frustration with her. It might have spooked a more timid individual, but I honestly wasn't sure whose wolf was stronger - his or hers. And maybe that was half of the problem.

"You haven't explained a damn thing," Rhodri snapped.

They'd been at it for the entirety of the car journey back. And as much as I'd wanted to crawl into a hole and die listening to them, I hadn't taken my chance to run away and get some sleep when we were back at camp. Since she was in handcuffs and Rhodri was going to be shouting at her and it all pertained to a romantic relationship, I didn't think I should leave them alone together. Whatever Rhodri's intentions and however brave Hannah might be, that was not a great power dynamic.

And if I was being honest, I wanted to know her reasoning too. It was still a foreign concept to me - the idea of not being with your soulmate. And to decide that without even trying a relationship ... it was controversial in our world.

Hannah put her head in her hands and loosed a long, irritated breath. "I don't even know why I'm bothering. I don't owe you an explanation. You seem like a dick, and I don't think it'll work out, so I'm turning you down. End of story."

"Oh, I'm the dick?" he spat. "Me? You tear-gassed me the first day we met."

"Yeah, well, you had that coming. And that was the same day, don't forget, that you abducted me and dragged me across half of Snowdonia with a bag over my head. So it's not surprising that we didn't get off to a great start, is it?"

Rhodri's lip curled. I exchanged a bemused look with Liam. For two people who wanted nothing to do with each, they sure bickered like an old mated couple. It made me feel a little bit better about my own situation, in some ways, but it was also making me dread my own birthday more than ever before. It hadn't been a fun evening for Rhodri, what with his mate rejecting him in front of his entire family. It was lucky he wasn't the self-conscious kind of person.

"I need a piss. But don't think that means we're done," Rhodri said after a long pause, running a hand through his hair. And for a moment, he didn't look angry or riled. He just looked a little bit lost. "I'm not ... I'm not trying to force you into anything, okay? I get that you're not going to change your mind. I just want to understand why."

And with that, he levered himself up into a standing position and limped off into the trees. Hannah was left staring after him. Her forehead was furrowed, probably because that was the nicest he'd ever been to her, and I watched her swallow the lump in her throat.

There were a few minutes of exhausted silence. It had been a very long day, and it was now nearly one in the morning. We were surrounded by darkness and tents full of slumbering rogues. The wind was howling through the trees, drawing out groans and tortured creaks, and the fire was gently crackling before us. I stared into the flames for as long as I could bear, wondering why growing up was so shit and why no one had warned me.

"You could have told me, Han. You know that, right?" Hayden murmured eventually. It had definitely been bugging him. He'd looked as blindsided as the rest of us in that pub, and he'd been sitting with a face like a horse's backside ever since.

She put her head in her hands and shook it wearily. "I know. And I wanted to, I guess? I just didn't want you telling me that it'd be fine and that he could join the pack and that we'd live happily ever after."

This would clearly be better off as a private conversation, and Hannah kept eyeing us like she wanted us to bugger off, but she didn't dare ask it. Her little escape attempt had lost her the right to privacy for a week at least. I leant back in my chair and did my best to pretend I wasn't there, for all the good it did.

Nia had disappeared to talk to the important people about things other than this. She had not returned yet. Beside me, Liam was so zoned out that I was pretty sure he didn't count as being mentally present anyway.

Hayden chewed on his lip. He'd completely missed the point of everything she'd just said, somehow. "I mean ... he can join the pack. He's your mate. I know it's not ideal, and he'd be a bit of a security risk, but we'd find a way to make it work. I'd rather that than lose you..."

"But it wouldn't work, Hayden," she said patiently. "That's the problem. I've worked my entire life for that Beta position. I'm not giving it up to go and live in the woods with some random boy who's been foul to me, so don't worry on that account. But it's not like he could come and live with us. He wouldn't do that in a million years. And I know the pack would tear him to shreds even if he did."

"Why don't you explain all that to him?" I asked her incredulously. I felt sorry for her - really, I did. It was an untenable situation. But it wasn't exactly a picnic for Rhodri either, and he was the one who would have to live with the decision Hannah had already made.

Hannah sighed to herself, a hand creeping up to rub at her jaw, but before she could answer me, Rhodri came limping back out of the trees. He'd been quick. And he'd heard that last part, if the look on his face was any indication. Stony and hurt.

"You're right," he said. "I don't want to join your pack. But you never even gave me the option, did you? Never asked. And who says we have to live together, anyway? I can trespass, and you're welcome in our camps if I say you are."

"You're kidding, right?" Hannah asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea how my pack would react to that kind of arrangement? If they ever found out, I'd lose my job, and Hayden would probably lose his for allowing it."

Rhodri made a face at her. "Why's it any of their business who you sleep with?"

"Because you're not just a rogue. You're a Llewellyn, you dumb piece of shit," she snapped. "And that means I should know better. I shouldn't even be talking to you right now."

"Well, would you look at that? I think we found the problem with us being mates. Maybe you should try to stop falling back on this dumb us-verses-you shit and sort out that prejudice of yours instead of just basking in your nice, comfortable hatred of everyone who doesn't lick an Alpha's boots."

Hannah's face tightened almost imperceptibly. The way she was staring at him was so far beyond anger that I was glad she was still in handcuffs. And Rhodri just sat there, smirking at her in the most provocative way he could dream up.

They'd kill each other if we let them. I wasn't sure why the Goddess thought this was a good idea.

A hand fell on my shoulder, and I craned my neck to see Nia. She managed a small, tired smile. "Sorry, puppy. We gotta split now. I'm supposed to drive you back while it's nice and dark."

I didn't want to go back. I was beginning to get an idea of what it had been like for my family while we'd been sitting in Silver Lake. They were being hunted like rats. Every few days, the flockies would get too close for comfort and they'd have to move all over again. And now that we'd lost two camps, there were an awful lot of people without a change of clothes or a tent or a sleeping bag who were having to huddle up in wolf form every night to keep warm.

But I stood up anyway, with no shortage of groaning. I knew I didn't have much choice. It might not feel that way, but we were a lot more useful in Silver Lake than we were here. Even if it did break my heart a little to leave them all again. I was pretty sure that every fleeting trip to camp made my homesickness worse, not better.

"Liam?" Nia asked. The way she was looking at him made it very clear that she'd noticed that vacant look in his eyes. "You alright, pup? Did you hear what I said?"

He hadn't moved, of course. And it took him a while to blink at her and then look around himself, forehead furrowed. Those dark eyes were still distant. He was always slow to surface from whatever fun, fun places his brain took him to. It had been the shouting. I was pretty certain of that.

"We're going, Liam," I told him softly.

"Right. Yeah. Sorry."

He went to join Nia. But as I was going, I leaned over Hannah's chair and put my head close to hers. "In the interest of giving you a way out of here ... do you want to come with us now?"

I didn't ask that lightly. Rhodri wasn't going to like it if she ran off with us. But he was allowed to get away from her if he wanted, while she was stuck wherever we put her. She deserved to have the option, whether she took it or not.

Hannah went quiet for a while. She kept throwing glances at Rhodri, who was now easing himself down into a chair, wincing all the while from the half-healed stab wound in his abdomen. He hadn't been bitching about it, in all fairness, but I had a feeling she felt guilty about it anyway.

"No, I'll ... um, I think I'll stay," she said eventually and somewhat uncertainly. "I should probably ... you know ... face up to this and not run away like a coward."

I gave her a wry smile, and then I caught her arm and began writing a long series of numbers on it. She didn't resist. I couldn't help noticing that she wasn't trembling anymore, which probably meant that her sugar instalments had finally done their job.

"Just in case you change your mind," I told her. "That's our number, and the one underneath is Nia's. Mam will let you call if you ask nicely."

And with that, I squeezed her shoulder and then followed Nia and Liam towards the cars. Rhodri didn't even glance up as we left. He wasn't having a great day, to say the least. But someone at the next fire was looking. Someone who'd stayed up just as late as we had - by pure coincidence, I was sure. He hadn't tried to talk to me once. Hadn't even ventured close to me. But I could feel his eyes on me every so often. If he thought that sitting forlornly at a distance was going to score him points with me, then he was very wrong.

"You want to hear some gossip?" Nia asked us as we walked.

I snorted at her. It was a welcome distraction. "What do you think?"

She grinned from ear to ear and then cast a cautious look around us before explaining. "Jace Lloyd's been getting very ballsy. Today, he told your mam that if she didn't release Hayden and Hannah, he'd tell the new Silver Lake Alpha about his mate's lineage."

Uh oh. That was me. And I'd probably care more if Liam had been some rogue-hating Vaughan boy I'd happened to be mated to and not my partner in crime and best friend since childhood. The trouble was, though, that if Jace didn't get the murderous reaction he wanted from Liam, he might start telling other people, too. People who were not sleepers.

"He what?" Liam asked quietly. He was certainly paying attention now, but there was an edge of exhaustion tempering his voice and even the incredulous look on his face. He was too worn out to give a shit.

Nia just shrugged at him. "Yeah. Like I told you. Ballsy. Or maybe desperate? Eva's mam just laughed, of course, and I think that's put an end to it. But he's also saying that he won't do what he's told at the next packmeet unless Hayden is allowed to go with him. And that's a threat he can keep."

I kicked a bramble out of my path and scowled to myself. I didn't like Jace much. He was always scheming. And you never knew quite what he was scheming. If we let him near Hayden, he was going to try something. But we had no way of knowing what that would be until it was too late.

"Mam's not falling for that, is she?" I muttered.

She glanced back at me and rubbed the back of her neck ruefully. "Well ... you won't like it, but she is thinking about it. We can keep Hannah as a hostage, and you and Liam will be there... That way, we can make sure he leaves with you, not his father. But I'm not seeing the up-side for us - are you?"

"He wants Hayden with him because the other Alphas have been demanding it," Liam explained slowly. "The pup is what? A month or two away from inheriting the pack? He's supposed to be there. And they've been so bloody suspicious of Jace that they think his absence means something. Which obviously it does. So sending him along might just calm them down. That being said, I don't trust Jace one inch."

"Me neither. I do trust Hayden, though. As long as we have Hannah, he'll honour his promise and come back here when he's done at the packmeet. But the worry is that his dad won't give him that option. Wouldn't put it past him to slap some handcuffs on the kid and get him somewhere safe and then worry about Hannah later."

I wouldn't put it past him either. I doubted that I'd do anything to change my mother's mind about this, but I'd definitely complain about it beforehand, and if anything went wrong, I'd make some incredibly snippy comments.

"When is the packmeet?" I asked cautiously. There was a moment of silence because Nia didn't know and the only person who did was still a little distracted and distant. He'd heard me, but it took him a moment to process it.

"It's tomorrow," Liam said. "That's why we're going back."

"Hey! What? We literally just had one," I blurted.

He was soon biting back a smile, because I hated packmeets even more than he did, and he found that funny, for some reason. "Yeah, that was an emergency packmeet. This is the routine one."

I let out a strangled groan. We'd reached the car by then. Lily was already sat in the driver's seat, her legs swinging out onto the grass. Nia ducked down to steal a kiss from her before climbing into the car. They were so casual in their affection for each other - all smiles and bright eyes - that I found myself glancing at Liam restlessly.

Going back to Silver Lake did have one benefit. We could go back to falling into bed together whenever the mood took us. But I doubted anything would happen tonight. We were both tired, and besides, I wasn't going to start anything while Liam was still half-zoned out. It wasn't fair on him. No, we'd just shower and change our clothes and make sure we smelt like flockies again before morning came.

"Uncle Kai's not coming anymore, by the way," Nia said matter-of-factly. "A couple of the Alphas revoked permission. He says he's going to try again in a month's time."

I hadn't even known that he was supposed to be coming. Or maybe I had? I didn't remember, in all honesty. It would have been nice to have another friendly face in the room, though. The Anglesey branch of the family was a strange one, quite unlike the rest of the tree, but I knew them well enough.

"What was he even going to do?" I asked. It was well-known that the islanders liked to stay out of pack politics.

Nia blew out slowly then shook her head at me. "Dunno, really. Some diplomatic shit, I'm guessing. Lil, you missed the turning. We're taking these two idiots back to their flock."

Lily glanced back over her shoulder and then grimaced. She began to slow, ready to pull a quick U-turn where the road widened ahead. "Oh. Sorry. I thought they were coming back with us."

"Nah. Not a chance," Nia said. She turned in her seat to grin at us both in a way I didn't like one bit. "They've got work to do."

***

I set my tray of waffles down on the table and beamed down at them. I wasn't a big fan of flockie food usually, but there was still an exciting novelty about having things delivered to my door without even having to ask for them. Lin was very good at taking the initiative when we were the slightest bit late for breakfast.

But before I could take a bite, there was another knock at the door. I scowled to myself as I set my fork down and trudged to the door for the second time. This time, it was Mal standing on the other side, his hands in his pockets and a folder tucked under his arm.

Unlike me, our acting Beta was dressed. He looked like he'd been up for hours, while I was still yawning with every other breath and bleary-eyed. I stared for a moment, waiting for him to tell me what he wanted and then bugger off, but he didn't say anything. Just looked around the room once and then fixed his sharp, unsettling gaze on me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Come in, I guess."

He didn't do it right away, of course. Because that would have been the normal, friendly thing to do. He also didn't thank me. He openly checked my scent before stepping over the threshold. And then, once he was inside, he scanned the room a second time, for some reason.

I didn't want him sniffing me. I'd taken one shower last night, but I wanted to take another one before I let anyone stand that close to me. It was always the smell of smoke that lingered longest, and it was a scent that was strongly associated with rogues. So I took a few cautious steps back and scowled to keep him at a safe distance.

"Where's your mate?" he asked me, still looking around the room.

I folded my arms. "In the shower. Maybe I can help you instead?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Maybe you can."

And as if that wasn't warning enough, Mal looked up and down the corridor carefully, as if looking for witnesses, and then he closed the door behind himself.

I heard the shower turn off. And then a gentle, questioning nudge through the link. Liam had heard our voices.

"It's okay. It's just Mal," I told him, even though I was starting to get the strangest feeling that things were not, in fact, 'okay.' It took some effort to keep that feeling away from the link, but after a few seconds more, the shower turned back on.

Mal had been listening for that. He set the folder down on the nearest table and rounded on me, a step closer than I was comfortable with. He was annoyingly tall, and I had to look up at him past my eyelids.

"I think we need to have a talk, don't we, Eva?" he said, and that sentence was nothing less than a threat. "See, I've been watching you train with Kelsey. You have an interesting way of fighting. One that they don't teach in any pack, I'd wager."

Ah. Shit.

"Sure they do," I said. "In New Dawn. Because that's where I learnt to fight."

He just laughed, low and humourless. And then his hand twitched towards his pocket in a way that triggered a deep, base instinct. It was the exact movement someone would use to pull a knife on me. I lurched backwards, bringing up a hand in readiness. By the time I realised he was faking it, it was too late to disguise the motion.

A slow smile spread across his lips. "Why'd you flinch? I didn't even do anything."

Yeah, I'd flinched. But he'd known how to set me off, and that was almost as damning. If one flinch was the entirety of his evidence against me, I wasn't too worried.

"I'm not interested in playing games with you, Mal," I said mildly. "Tell me what you want or get out."

"What do I want?" he mused. "Well, let's see. Maybe some accountability. People have been calling me a rogue my whole life. Never mind that I was raised here and that I've been killing rogues since I was sixteen. They've been watching me all this time, checking to see if I turned rotten. Got beat over it more times than I can count. But here you are, breathing our air, the Luna of the bloody pack, and not a single one of them has noticed what you are."

My heart skipped a beat in my chest. I drew myself up, swallowing down a lump in my throat, and then I just stared at him for a long moment. The inside of my body was one big knot of panic.

His tone had not been very friendly. I'd wanted him as the Beta because he was rogue-born himself, and I figured he'd be cool with us. It hadn't ever occurred to me that his heritage might actually make him more dangerous It seemed like he had just enough insider knowledge to smoke me out and not enough feelings of kinship to keep his mouth shut about it.

"Am I supposed to take this seriously?" I asked him.

"Yes, I guess you are. Because you'd best believe that I'm serious about it," he said, grinning from ear to ear. "So ... go on. Deny it. Tell me how all those scars are from training and that you smell like rogues because you've been down in the prison."

I just laughed.

He was fast, I'd give him that. One minute, he was just stood there. The next, he had grabbed a handful of my jacket collar and used it to slam me against the bathroom door. His other hand came up to drag my collar down, and I didn't even try to fight him, because I knew exactly what he was looking for.

"That's the dumbest thing you've ever done," I told him breathlessly. It was getting harder to laugh, but it was unnerving him, so I kept trying anyway. "All I have to do is scream, and you're dead."

He really did have balls - attacking a Luna while her mate was in the next room. But it occurred to me now that he'd trapped me against this door to make sure Liam wouldn't be able to open it, even if he did work out that something was wrong.

"If you were going to scream, you'd have done it already," Mal told me humourlessly. He was eyeing the bare skin where my tattoo had been with a cold, calculating gaze. There wasn't much to see, save for the faint white line where my aunt had cut the ink out.

"Nice scar," he said. "Is it the reason he marked you on the right side? Or was there something else in the way?"

"Careful you don't pull a muscle - reaching that far," I laughed. I had yet to try wriggling. The force that he was using to keep me pinned against the door was considerable. He was a lot stronger than me, and honestly, I had my doubts about which of us would win if it came down to a physical fight. It seemed like a better idea to deescalate the situation.

Mal let my collar curl back across my neck and patted me down next, checking each pocket in turn for a knife. He wasn't going to find one. I still wasn't carrying, and I was very glad of it right then.

At some point, unnoticed by both of us, the shower had turned off again. The scuffle had not been without noise. And it never took much to put Liam on edge.

"Eva?" he called from the bathroom. So, so wary. He could feel that something was wrong through the link, I'd wager. When I didn't answer him, I felt the handle turn. It clipped my arm, and then there was pressure against my back as he tried and failed to open it. Mal didn't loosen his grip on me. He just watched the door handle cautiously.

"If I were you, flockie," I said to Mal, "I'd be very careful right now."

His eyes flashed at the word flockie, as I knew they would. I didn't see much point denying it anymore. He knew. In fact, he'd known for a while now, and he waited until he was absolutely certain before confronting me about it.

Liam tried the door a second time. It was a lot more forceful, and the door actually opened a crack before Mal leant his weight against it and slammed it closed again. Caught between them both, I could only wince.

"It's you who needs to be careful," Mal told me in a low voice. "Tell him everything is cool, or I'm going to include him in this conversation, and then you'll be in real trouble, won't you? I remember him from when he was small. Always half a step behind Mason. So I think you'll agree that he learnt from the best when it comes to hating rogues."

"Oh, you'll 'include' him in the conversation?" I repeated incredulously. "As if he can't hear us through the bloody door. He already knows about me, jackass."

Mal's eyes flicked from the door handle to me and back again in quick succession. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. So take your hands off me."

But something was still bothering him, and the muscles in his jaw writhed as he asked me, "If he already knows, then why didn't you just scream when I first grabbed you?"

Goddess. Wasn't it obvious? I let out a low, weary laugh. "Because I don't want you two hurting each other."

"Eva," Liam called again, and this time it echoed across the link too, carrying a considerable amount of concern for me with it. "What's going on?"

"Everything's okay," I told him. "Just hang on for a second."

I was very aware that being locked into a small space was one of the things that was guaranteed to set him off the quickest. So I did give Mal a shove, for all the good it did. It was like pushing a boulder. I hadn't realised how big he was until he was looming over me.

"Let go, you ass," I muttered.

Mal released my jacket. He took a wary step back, and I used that extra space to pull the door open for Liam even as he thumped on it for the third time.

I must have given away more through the link than I'd thought. Because the very first thing he did was shove Mal away from me.

He hadn't taken the time to get dry, so his t-shirt and jeans were soaked through, and his hair was still tousled and sodden from the shower. He glanced back at me just long enough to check that I wasn't hurt.

"What the hell was that?" Liam asked him. Pissed off, by the sound of it. He was in Mal's face, which was a sure sign that those few seconds when he'd thought he was stuck in that little room had properly riled him.

Mal didn't bow easily, which was a good trait for a Beta under usual circumstances. The full strength of Liam's wolf was enough to make him all tense and edgy, but it wasn't enough to get him ducking his head. The most he ever did was move his eyes to the side. Right now, he wasn't even doing that much. He made no effort to answer the question.

"We've got a problem," I told Liam wearily, once the silence had begun to drag. "Mal here thinks he's so clever. But he forgets that the quarry is nice and empty these days. Plenty of room for him if he doesn't watch his big, dumbass mouth."

Liam swore quietly, because he knew what that meant. "He knows?"

"He knows some things," I said, a little smile tugging at my lips. "But not others."

And now Mal was pissed off. That made two of them. They were still dangerously close to each other, but all they did was stare. Neither of them wanted to be the one to throw the first punch. Liam because he never did, and Mal because he'd been oddly and wholly protective over Liam after he'd happened to witness one of his breathless, panicky episodes a few days ago.

Eventually, Mal seemed to get a handle on his wolf. He rubbed at his jaw and flicked his gaze to me to ease the tension a little.

"Is she informing on us?" he asked.

Liam didn't miss a beat. "No."

"Do you know that, or is that what she's told you?" Mal tried next. His voice was rough, and he couldn't seem to stand still. "Because if she is, the whole bloody pack is in danger. You included, mate. Rogues aren't too keen on your family, in case you didn't know."

Liam shook his head wearily, even as he turned away, now it seemed like this wasn't going to turn physical. "Mal. I said no. Eva is on our side."

"I doubt that somehow," he said. "If there's one thing I've learnt from my mother, it's that rogues don't stop being rogues. Not until they're dead and cold."

Well, he wasn't wrong.

"What about you?" I asked.

Mal's forehead furrowed. "What about me?"

"When did you stop being a rogue?"

He scowled at me, caught off guard because he hadn't seen that coming at all, somehow. "I- What? I never was."

"Well, you sure act like one," I muttered. "Blood ain't everything, of course, but you were born with us, right? And what you just did - laying hands on a Luna? That ain't something flockies do. So yeah, I reckon you're one of ours. Whether you know it or not."

That stunned him, I reckoned. He just stared at me, all confused and riled and wary. I didn't think it had ever occurred to him that rogues might not resent his flockie ties as much as the flockies seemed to resent his rogue ones.

Liam eyed him all the while. They were very close in height and build, but I didn't have to wonder which of them would win in a fight now that he had calmed down a bit. They were quite the pair, I'd admit. One flockie raised by rogues and one rogue raised by flockies. And they hadn't turned out very different, all things considered.

"Sit down," he told Mal eventually. "Tell me what you came for, and then clear off."

The whole room still reeked of mistrust, but Mal did pull out a chair after only a moment's hesitation. He sat cautiously, never once taking his eyes off Liam. Just to set an example to the boys of how to behave in a civilised manner, I took the seat opposite and began tucking into my waffles with all due enthusiasm. They'd gone cold, and I didn't think I would forgive Mal for that.

"I was going to ask where you went," he was saying to Liam. "Because the pack members have been asking me nonstop ever since you left. I think I can take a pretty accurate guess now. But I'm still asking. Because I'm no use to you if you don't trust me."

"I'll tell you. As long as you're aware that there will be consequences if you repeat any of this."

Mal eyed him warily. "I don't keep secrets from Kelsey."

"Fair enough," Liam said. "But if she talks, it's on you. We were with Eva's family. Trying to negotiate some kind of peace. And I guess it worked, because they're not going to raid us anymore. And in return, all we have to do is stop hunting them down and slaughtering them."

The look on his face was nothing short of incredulous. "Surely there are safer ways to negotiate than walking into a rogue camp. You were lucky they didn't just kill you on sight."

"It wasn't luck. You really shouldn't believe everything they tell you about rogues," Liam said. He didn't try to explain any further, and the way he regarded Mal, with a half-frown on his lips, made it very clear that he thought that had been a stupid thing to say. "What's in the folder?"

A very welcome change of subject. I finished off the last mouthful of waffles and set my fork down. First Seth, and now Mal. We clearly hadn't done a flawless job of keeping our cover. But if I'd had to pick any two people to find out, it would have been them. Neither had gone running to the elders about it, after all.

Hesitant all of sudden, Mal opened the folder and placed an official-looking piece of paper in front of Liam. "The results of yesterday's legal proceedings. He was found guilty. And they did file for execution, but it needs your signature before it's binding."

Oh. I'd forgotten about this. The elders had been taking their sweet time in evaluating the evidence against him, and it had dragged on for an entire week, but it seemed like they'd reached a decision now.

The name on the execution warrant was Felix Vaughan, and the crime was, of course, the murder that I'd committed and then framed him for. And did I feel bad about it? Not really.

It wasn't so easy for Liam. He'd gone very still, his face paler than normal as he stared at that single sheet of paper. He had known this was going to happen. He had known he would have to put his brother to death. But knowing something was going to happen was very different to being faced with it.

Liam looked up at me for a moment. His eyes were as lifeless as I'd ever seen them. He didn't want to, but we didn't have much choice, did we? Felix was the last real threat to us at Silver Lake. And we couldn't keep him locked up forever.

***

The hospital wing was bright and airy. It was one of the highest floors of the packhouse, overlooking the lake, and every corridor had a glass wall to let the patients savour that view. The sunlight was bouncing off the water that morning, leaving beautiful golden and white hues in its wake.

We could hear Felix's voice long before we actually reached his bed. "You got any strawberry ones? I don't like these so much."

"No strawberry, hun," a nurse said. "I'm sorry. Is lime okay?"

"Yeah. Cheers," he muttered.

I stopped at the edge of the curtain which separated his bed from the next one and peered at him. He was sat cross-legged on his bed with a pot of jelly on his lap and a spoon between his teeth. He was wearing an oversized white t-shirt and a pair of joggers, which the hospital seemed to prefer to gowns. One hand was cuffed to the bed. The other had the IV line taped to his elbow.

Liam went a few steps closer than I did. We had two fighters trailing behind us, and Mal was holding the handcuffs.

The nurse took one look at us all and ducked out of the cubicle, probably going to fetch someone higher up the hospital hierarchy to deal with us all. Meanwhile, Felix's face broke into a grin.

"Hey, little brother," he said. "Wasn't expecting to see you back again so soon, if I'm being honest..."

His voice gradually trailed off as he looked around properly. And he saw Mal and the other fighters and me, and more importantly, he saw the looks on all of our faces. Slowly, he set the jelly aside and then sat there looking fidgety.

"Put your shoes on, Felix," Mal told him. "If you make this easy for us, we'll make it easy for you."

"Yeah? Where are we going?" Felix asked warily.

It was Liam who put the execution warrant down on the table beside him. Felix eyed it for a moment, then looked up at him with something near panic on his face. He reached up to scratch at his jaw with his free hand. I didn't think he'd expected to die this morning.

"Put your shoes on," Mal repeated.

Felix's eyes were wide, and I could see the whites of them standing out starkly, even with sunlight streaming in through the window. He swallowed visibly. He was very good at looking like a wounded puppy when he needed to, and that was probably the only reason he had survived Mason for so long.

"You know I didn't do it," he said. It was directed at Liam, unsurprisingly. "You know that."

Liam didn't answer him. He just stared blankly at his brother, and I could see exactly how torn he was. His walls were lower than usual today because he was still zoned out more often than not, and I could feel the turmoil raging behind them with eerie clarity. Even the backwash was enough to get every muscle in my body tensed and knotted.

Unnoticed by me, the nurse had returned with Seth not far behind her. He gave me a quick, solemn nod as he came to stand beside the bed. There were dark circles under his eyes.

"Is he well enough to leave?" Liam asked.

Seth looked at Felix hesitantly, as if wishing he could give a different answer. He could guess who'd really killed Mason. "Yes. He is. Will he be coming back?"

"No."

A slow nod from Seth. He went to take the cannula out of Felix's arm. I doubted he'd needed to be on the ward these last few days, because he was physically fine now, and they could have given him injections in the prison. But no one had even suggested moving him back there. Mostly because he'd behaved himself so beautifully.

When Seth was done, Mal unlocked the restraints and got him sitting on the edge of the bed before he put the new ones on. The whole time, Felix sat quietly and let them. I didn't think it had even occurred to him that he could resist. He pulled on his socks and then his shoes when they were brought to him.

One of the fighters found him a jacket, and then we were leading him down the corridor. There was a spot by the lake where they shot rogues, and if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for Felix. Mal had a firm grip on his arm, and the two fighters flanked them, their eyes fixed straight ahead.

I stayed beside Liam. We were about a dozen paces behind the others. I bumped my shoulder gently against his and then murmured, "You don't have to watch, you know. I know you're still torn up about it, and honestly ... I get it. He's your brother."

He didn't even look at me. His eyes were fixed firmly on Felix's back, and his hands were in his pockets as he walked, but I could see the tension in his jaw and his shoulders.

"It's just- I don't know. I keep on wondering, like ... at what point did he stop being a victim?" Liam asked. He looked so desolate that I felt my heart breaking a little. "And at what point would I have stopped being a victim?"

Oh. So that was it. And I understood why he was always thinking this way, because I reckoned I'd be doing the exact same thing in his place, but this wasn't helping him. It wasn't helping anyone. We could play what-ifs all day.

"I don't know exactly when, Liam. I can't pinpoint a moment for you. But we do know that he did stop being the victim at some point. Because the girls from the boathouse have named him, and I don't think Mason made him do that. Do you?"

"I didn't know about that," he admitted quietly. "But ... you know where that leaves me? Feeling guilty that I didn't find a way to stop them sooner. Ashamed that I can even hold a civil conversation with Felix. And terrified that I would have ended up doing the same thing, if I'd stayed here."

I eyed him sidelong, trying to ignore the sudden ache deep in my chest at the utter misery in his voice. "But ... like ... isn't that fear exactly what makes you different to him and Mason and all the others?"

We'd had this conversation before.

Liam shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. That's the point. And I could ask him, but I don't think I'd get an answer. I'll come to the lake, and I'll watch, but I'm not ... I don't know. I don't think I want him dead."

The walk out of the pack house seemed to take forever. And that only worsened when we got out onto the lawn, and everyone we passed turned to stare and mutter to each other. Felix kept his head down and kept walking without the slightest bit of fuss.

Our destination was a quiet spot at the water's edge. There was an old jetty and a wall beside it, and that was where Mal brought Felix to a halt. Not much effort had been made to clean the bricks, and I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away from those horrible rust-brown splatters.

One of the fighters had a handgun tucked into his waistband. He took it out now, earning himself Felix's full and undivided attention, and he spent a minute loading it and checking that everything was in working order. When he was done, he pressed it into Liam's hand, much to his alarm, as if he was expecting him to do the shooting.

Nope. Not happening. Not over my dead body.

I glowered at the fighter and reached out to pry the gun from Liam's fingers. He was happy enough to give it up. And I passed it straight to Mal, who had his hand ready for it. He'd said earlier that he had killed rogues, so I thought it was about time he killed a flockie instead.

"Kneel down," Mal said.

"Seriously?" Felix demanded, his voice almost breaking.

"Yes."

He looked down at the gravel and then shook his head slowly. "I'm going to stay on my feet. And if you don't like that, I guess you can shoot me."

Mal's face didn't soften. "You can kneel, or we can force you to kneel. Your choice. I'm not firing blind into woodland."

The wall wasn't high enough. That seemed to be the problem. The flockies hadn't bothered modifying their shooting range because they had no issues with making rogues kneel. But Felix eyed the new Beta with barely concealed disgust and then spat on the grass, making it very clear that they would have to force him.

"Let him stand," Liam said, after what felt like a lifetime. "And aim high."

Mal nodded. He directed us all out of his line of fire, leaving Felix standing alone. He was trying to be brave about this - I could tell that much - but it was hard to mistake how fast his chest was rising and falling.

Liam's phone was ringing. He fumbled to mute it, and I could see that his hands weren't very steady. Before he could put them back in his pockets, I caught his fingers and tangled them with mine for the briefest of squeezes. I didn't like this. It felt the way Mason's death had. Icy cold. Neither of them got a chance to fight back.

"Anything you want to say?" Mal asked.

Felix hadn't once taken his eyes off the gun. His breathing was getting more even, and he looked like he was moving past the nerves and into something close to acceptance.

"I didn't do it," he said. Distant. And uncaring. He knew it wasn't going to make a difference now. It was the same tone I'd use to talk about the weather.

"For what it's worth, Felix," Liam said, "I'm sorry."

Felix just stared, because it was worth absolutely nothing to him. His breathing was quickening again, and Liam gave his Beta a tiny nod before Felix could get any more worked up.

Mal had him turn around. He put the barrel of the gun close to the base of his skull, tilted towards the sky. And then, without warning, he pulled the trigger. The shot made all of us flinch a little.

Felix was dead before he hit the ground. One moment there, the next gone. It was a fast way to die, if not a particularly clean one. There was a new pattern on the bricks now.

Liam let out a slow, shaky breath. It wasn't relief, I didn't think. He was looking at his brother's body without really seeing it. I tried to keep my eyes on him, both to check on him and to avoid looking at anything else.

His phone was ringing again. It was probably the last thing he wanted to do right then, but he did answer it this time. I was close enough to hear Alpha Vincent's gravelly voice on the other end.

"Morning," he said. "I wanted to thank you - for the tip about the rogue campsite. You were right. They were gone by the time back-up arrived, but you saved us a lot of casualties."

"Good," Liam said quietly. He was still staring at Felix, and his voice sounded very distant. "Glad to hear it. Is that all?"

"No. That's not all. Jaden caught a familiar scent in the camp grounds. His nephew. Jace's son, that is. And one has to wonder what he could have been doing there, so far from home."

Ah, shit. I did not like that. Not one bit. If they'd caught Hayden's scent, there was a chance they might have caught ours, too. And it wasn't like they'd tell us. No, we'd find out the hard way when they had us killed.

Liam eyed me, probably thinking along the same exact lines. It was a while before he asked, "Was he sure? That it was Hayden Lloyd's scent?"

"Eighty per cent sure," Vincent said. "Or thereabouts. So we feel like we have all the proof we need now. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I suppose," Liam replied, because what else could he do?

"I've been talking to the others. We want to deal with it at the packmeet tomorrow. And I was wondering if you would mind taking care of the son? The rest of us will worry about Jace himself."

What did that mean? It could have been almost anything. They were probably planning to start some dumbass legal proceedings against New Dawn. I was pretty sure they could kick them out of the alliance if they wanted. Even revoke their status as a pack. Fraternising with rogues was no small crime these days.

"Okay," Liam said slowly. "That sounds reasonable. About the packmeet - are we using the same hotel as last time? I haven't had the formal invitation yet."

"Oh, no," Vincent said with a low chuckle. "It's not at the hotel. We'll be holding this one in the old church. We thought that would be best. Just arrive sometime before two."

"Right."

"Oh, and Vaughan? Come prepared. Bring more than two guards, if it makes you feel more comfortable. But please ... leave your Luna at home. She'll be much safer there."