You all know the drill by now. The pretty picture below is by LittleLoneWriterGirl, who's really spoiling us with all her hard work. It's Skye in Lle o Dristwch :)

It wasn't my family who arrived first, in the end. The sight of rogues approaching wouldn't have had the occupants of the castle shouting warnings or scrambling to collect their belongings. I was down in the courtyard when it happened, collecting blackberries from the brambles which had taken root under the eaves.

I grabbed the elbow of one of the women and demanded, "What is it?"

"There are flockies coming," she told me. "So if you're smart, you'll run, pup. They hang us from the battlements if they catch us here."

I ignored that advice. Half of the packs were allied with us now, so the chances of these 'flockies' being friendly were actually quite high. Instead of gathering my things and legging it, I went towards the entrance and stood there with my arms folded across my chest, gazing out at the meadow. A car had pulled up on the grass.

The panic behind me had died down a little. They had noticed me standing there calmly and taken their lead from me. Just because I was a Llewellyn. It was an odd feeling — not one I'd encountered before. No one had ever looked to me to set an example before because there had always been a bigger, more competent member of my family standing not very far away from me.

There were only two of them. A tall, well-built man with dark hair that was turning to grey. He leant against the bonnet, arms folded across his chest, staring at me in a way that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The woman beside him was looking around — drinking in the trees and the castle.

Liam came to stand beside me. A frown crossed his lips as he took in the two trespassers. The car they'd arrived in was a shiny grey BMW which looked atrociously expensive.

"What are they doing?" I demanded. "Why would they come here alone? Flockies ain't usually this ballsy. Something's off."

Liam just shook his head. He looked as clueless as I was. But soon enough, he turned and met my eyes. "Only one way to find out what. Two of them. Two of us?"

"Two of us and a nice, sharp knife," I corrected him. It was in my pocket. And I closed my fingers around the hilt just to reassure myself as I started walking towards the strangers. They didn't move an inch, but I could have sworn that there was a little smirk on the guy's face as we drew closer.

When we were about twenty paces away, I felt it for the first time. It was like a tidal wave slamming into my mind. The man's wolf was strong. And he was not making any effort to reign it back. I could also catch his scent at long last. They were from Shadowless Pack.

"Eva..." Liam said, quiet but sharp. It was a warning. He'd felt it too, then.

"I know," I told him. "Believe me, I know."

We stopped a safe distance away from the couple. The man gave us a rather disdainful look up and down and then glanced back at the woman with one eyebrow raised. She heaved a sigh. I didn't know what to make of it all.

"We were expecting Alpha Zach," I said quietly.

"It seems we're both disappointed then, sweetheart. I was expecting Rhodric Llewellyn, not a pair of wet-nosed cubs. Why don't you go fetch him for me, and then the grown-ups can talk?"

"You were expecting who?" I demanded incredulously. I was beyond lost now. My grandfather had been dead for nineteen years, and I saw no reason why he would have been known to a pair of seemingly random flockies.

"Told you he was dead," the woman said matter-of-factly. She was talking to the man — her mate, I was assuming. "Didn't I tell you?"

He shook his head. "We don't know that. They never give a straight answer when they're asked."

"Rhodric Llewellyn won't be joining us today," I interjected warily. "I can promise you that much."

"See?" the man laughed. He was still talking to the woman, not to me. "The bastard's alive. I'm telling you. He's a difficult man to kill. I should know — I tried a few times."

The woman just shrugged at him. She looked like she had lost interest. Already, her eyes were back on the castle and filled with something that looked strangely like longing.

And just as I was about to ask them who they were and what they were doing here, the man pushed himself off the bonnet of the car and walked lazily around me to reach Liam. He stopped there, staring at him in a manner that was much too confrontational for my liking. But there was a little smile on his lips.

"You must be the Vaughan boy," he said with obvious amusement. "If I ever knew your name, I've forgotten it."

That would have been a good time for Liam to introduce himself, but he just stood there. He was staring at the stranger with more wariness than I was used to seeing from him.

"Do you know who I am?" the man asked. The smile playing about his lips was at its peak now. He asked it like we should know, and that made me a little bit nervous. Either this was all misplaced confidence or I was missing something.

Liam kept staring. It wasn't hostile, not entirely, but it couldn't be described as friendly either.

"Yes," he said.

I swung my head around sharply. Definitely missing something, then. But the stranger seemed satisfied with that answer. He went back to his car, leaving Liam alone at long last, and he exchanged a few quiet words with the woman, smiles on both of their lips. They were looking at us all the while, which made me think they were talking about us. I took the chance to raise my eyebrows expectantly at Liam.

"That's Vik Lloyd," he told me in an undertone. "He used to be the Shadowless Alpha."

"Used to be?" I repeated. No wonder my hairs were standing on end. I hadn't realised we were in the presence of an Alpha. It made the question of why he'd dared to come here — alone and unguarded — all the more pressing.

"His son inherited."

Oh. It wasn't very often that the transition of power went smoothly in packs. In theory, the son was supposed to take over on their eighteenth birthday, and the father would retire, but I was pretty sure that this man was the only one of his kind in Snowdonia. Not many Alphas survived to retire, and not many stayed alive once they did, because they invariably had difficulty minding their own business. It was a common trait amongst Alphas.

"If you're not actually an Alpha anymore, tell me why I should bother talking to you," I said. "I could just talk to Zach himself."

Vik Lloyd shook his head slowly. He didn't look the least bit annoyed. "My son is many things, but he's not stupid. He helped burn this castle. He won't be stepping inside it without an army around him. Since you can't kill me, I'm here on his behalf as a liaison, and I'll be making sure you behave yourselves. You might have started this war, but we're the ones who'll finish it. Our way. Not yours."

Oh dear. We had a problem here. He thought he was in charge. And while I was sure Shadowless would be taking the lead where our pack allies were concerned — Zach was, after all, the only Alpha on our side who had been doing his job for longer than a month — they needed to understand that it didn't extend to the rogues.

"That's a bold claim — that we can't kill you," I said, letting a grin steal across my lips to see if I could spook him. "Why is that, exactly?"

But the former Alpha just nodded towards Liam. "Why haven't you killed him?"

"We like Liam. You ... not so much."

Something in my tone must have tipped him off. His eyes dipped to my throat, searching for something, and it wasn't long before he found it. I tried to resist the urge to tug my collar upwards and over the mark.

"Ah," Vik Lloyd said. "I see. He's your boyfriend. Isn't that adorable? As it happens, you won't lay a finger on me for much the same reason. Lexi here is a rogue as well as a Luna. I say is and not was because after all these years, she is still incapable of doing what she's told. Aren't you, darling?"

'Lexi' gave him an overly sweet smile. "Like I keep telling you, love. The problem is not me being a rogue. The problem is that you can't swallow your misogyny for even five seconds."

The old Alpha gestured to her, the exasperation clear on his face. "See what I mean? No one talks to me like that."

I didn't say anything. They were making me uncomfortable. It was like watching my parents arguing. But with these two, I genuinely had no idea if they disliked each other, or if this was all just some weird flirtatious game.

Vik Lloyd was eyeing me all the while, his hands in his pockets. His smile didn't reach his eyes. It wasn't even close. "Tell you what? Why don't you get in the car, sweetheart? You and your boyfriend can come back to Shadowless with us, and we'll talk there. It's nice and warm. There's good food. We can even get you some medical attention — you both look like you could use it."

He looked genuine about the offer. His Luna even offered us a small, welcoming smile to accompany it. Both of them had turned almost imperceptibly towards the car, as if they were ready to climb in there and then. We were expected to say yes, and why wouldn't we?

But I stood there and returned their friendly smiles with an extra sprinkle of smugness.

"No," I said.

There was a moment of tense, astonished silence, and then—

"No?" Vik repeated coldly.

"No," I agreed. "It's a kind offer, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather not be your hostage. Counter-proposal. You wait here. I go and talk to one of the big, adult rogues. And then we all reconvene in half an hour to decide on a new course of action. One that suits everyone, not just you."

Vik mulled that over sullenly for a minute before giving me a forced smile. "You know what? Because I'm in such a good mood today, I'll allow it. Come on, Lexi."

"Nah, nah," I said. "I said you can wait here. Lexi is welcome to come inside and eat with us."

She burst out laughing, and it wasn't difficult to tell that it was directed exclusively at her mate. She dodged his attempt to grab her wrist and ducked around him to join us. I could feel his wolf's irritation washing over us all, but he didn't try and chase her. He just leant against the hood of his car and simmered there. Alphas weren't the sort to forgive and forget, but it was a risk I was always willing to take, when given a chance to piss one of them off.

Joel was standing in the entranceway, leaning casually against the stone with his hands in his pockets. He barely glanced at us as we passed him. His eyes were fixed firmly on where Vik was waiting.

"That's a beautiful car, that is," he said.

I didn't think much of that at first. It was only when I was a few steps past him that my eyes widened. I turned around and gave him a hard stare. There was trouble written in the angle of his shoulders and the glint in his eyes.

"Don't even think about it," I warned him.

Joel just smiled in a way that wasn't the least bit reassuring.

"He's been here before. He's wise to you lot — believe me. It's probably best not to try," Lexi said with obvious amusement. A glance back at her mate, and then she moved closer to Joel to murmur, "That being said, he keeps the keys in his back pocket."

Goddess above. She wasn't helping. She didn't wait for his response — she just went further into the castle, smiling to herself. I gave Liam a look to ask him to stick with her while I sorted out the knucklehead. She might have been rogue born and raised, but her son was the Shadowless Alpha, and I suspected he'd have her complete loyalty. We couldn't have her roaming around unsupervised.

"I swear to the Goddess, Joel," I growled. "Don't. He'd actually kill you."

He stretched lazily and then turned to face me properly, his attention finding a new home in the blink of an eye. "Only if he caught me."

"He would. Because you're a dumbass."

Joel took a step closer to me. "It's cute that you're worried about me, but I'm a big boy now, and I can make my own bad decisions."

"You can say that again," I muttered. "You should never have come with us. You're lucky I didn't kill you, because believe me, I was tempted."

"I had to come with you," he said, sounding almost bewildered that I didn't know that.

I put a hand on his chest and gave him a light shove backwards because he was a little too close for comfort. "No, you didn't. You really didn't. And you need to stop this, okay? You need to stop following me around, and you need to stop with the puppy dog eyes. It's going to end very badly."

"I mean ... I do try to stay away," Joel murmured. "Goddess knows I try, Eva. Because every time I talk to you, it feels like I'm only making things worse."

"I can tell you right now. You are," I told him frankly.

"Yeah. I know that, and you know that, but I don't think I can stop doing it. It's my wolf who's so desperate to be near you."

"Right. Well, like you said, you're a big boy now, so you can just control yourself, can't you?" I said roughly and then turned to walk away.

He caught my arm, forcing me to halt before letting go in a great hurry. He held his hands up, as if it excused grabbing me in the first place. "Just tell me something. Did you let him mark you so you could be sleepers, or did you let him mark you because you're in love with him?"

"Doesn't really matter at this point, does it?" I snapped, making a face at him. "What's done is done."

Joel's face didn't budge from that strange, intense desperation. "Answer the question."

"No," I said shortly. And then I made to walk away a second time. Joel's second grab for my arm was knocked away with enough force to make him reconsider. I was halfway back through the gate when the sound of car engines stopped me in my tracks.

Slowly, I turned around. I was worried that Vik Lloyd had called in some reinforcements to take us back to his pack by force. But the cars that pulled onto the field weren't sleek, expensive flockie trucks, but rather the battered old vehicles that rogues tended to use. One of them pulled up right in front of Vik's BMW, as if to stop him buggering off in a hurry, while another one parked behind it.

I was walking towards them long before they got out of the cars. It wasn't just any random rogues. I could see my mother and my aunt and even Ellis at a glance. Vik Lloyd was watching them warily. He was pinned in, and he knew it. I watched him slam his car door and lean against the window. One hand was suspiciously near his waistband, and it was probably safe to assume he hadn't come to the rogue stronghold without a gun.

Uncle Rhys was first to walk over and look the stranger up and down. I was so used to seeing him with a smile on his face that it actually took me a moment to recognise him. He had Jess in his arms, and the little girl looked half asleep, even in the afternoon sunshine.

"Vik...?" my uncle said. No hesitation. They clearly knew each other. "What are you doing here?"

"Look how big you've got, Rhys. Last time I saw you, you must have been ... what? Thirteen?" Vik mused. He didn't get much of a reaction. My uncle was not in the mood today, by the look of it, and the older man didn't take long to realise that and get to the point. "I'm here as the liaison for Shadowless. My son is currently at New Dawn, helping little Hayden, but he has plans to do much more than that."

"What, kill Jaden? There's a surprise," Uncle Rhys said dryly. He adjusted Jess's weight in his arms, and the little girl opened her eyes blearily. She barely glanced at the stranger before burying her head back in her father's chest.

"He's got it coming," Vik said firmly, and I detected a note of cold anger in his voice now. "I can't say I had a perfect relationship with my brother, but I certainly never put a knife in his back, and when he died, I looked after his son like he was my own. So I'm sure you can understand why Jace's murder has ... shall we say ... pissed me off."

"Oh, I understand, Vik. My oldest kid had his throat torn out by flockies two days ago. So if you're wanting a go at them, you'll have to get in line."

"It was a Lowland fighter who killed Rhodri," I told him. "It was Lowland fighters who killed all of them. Well ... everyone at the cabin, anyway. So it's Vincent we want. Let him have Jaden if it means so much to him."

My uncle nodded, a muscle in his jaw writhing at the mention of Rhodri's name. "Alright. Then maybe we don't need to work together at all, Vik. You and Hayden can go for Jaden, while the rest of us deal with Vincent."

"I wish that was true, but they're both hiding out at Lowland," Vik Lloyd said. "Jaden has no pack to run back to. But since they're still paying the western men, they have a fair-sized force there. We'll need to coordinate an attack carefully."

"Alright," Mam said. "There's clear roads to Lowland from here. We'll get all four packs together, we'll add them to my raiders, and then we'll go and dig out those two bastard Alphas and kill them. Jaden is yours. Vincent is ours. Does that sound okay to you?"

Vik's eyes glinted. "Yes."

"Great. Then you and me will get along just fine. Come inside."

The old Alpha didn't need to be asked twice. He seemed quite reasonable when faced with the real adults. I suspected it was because he knew he wasn't going to get away with messing them around like he had with me. He fell in beside Rhys easily, but I noticed that Mam made a beeline straight for me.

I rubbed the back of my neck, excuses ready long before she got close. But as it turned out, she didn't want to tell me off for coming to the castle.

"Why are you and Liam here and not in Silver Lake?" she asked me. It was a sharp, impatient question, and I found my hackles rising a little before I got a hold of my wolf. I knew it had been an impossibly difficult few days, and I knew we were in the tricky situation that she was my mother and my boss, but I was still sensitive to that tone. It made me feel like I'd done something wrong, and I hadn't.

"Because we reckon we'll get murdered if we go back there," I replied shortly.

"Well, we're going to have to do something about that, because you need to go back there. Preferably today. We need Silver Lake's fighters."

We had passed beneath the gatehouse. Joel had made himself scarce, wisely. Mam gave the looming walls around us and the courtyard only a cursory glance. There was no awe, no astonishment. This place was familiar to her, after all. And if she was finding it strange to be back here after so long, she didn't show it.

"Did someone threaten you? What happened?" she pressed me.

I would have answered, but someone wrapped me in a crushing hug from behind before I could manage it. Maggie might have been ancient and very tiny, but she wasn't half strong. I would have recognised her scent anywhere. It stirred a lot of affection in me ... and a little bit of wariness.

"Skye Llewellyn," she scolded. "The poor girl's clearly exhausted. If you want to interrogate her, at least get her somewhere warm and comfortable first."

Well, thank the Goddess that she was on my side. Not even my mother was stupid enough to argue with Maggie. She gave a little nod and gestured me towards one of the half-collapsed rooms at the back of the castle. It didn't look very structurally sound, but it did offer some privacy from the gaping, astonished traders.

I settled down in the least dangerous corner and found myself staring out at the courtyard while my mam and my great-grandma dumped their stuff and shed their coats. I was surprised to see that Old Tom, who 'guarded' the food truck for Maggie, was embracing Shadowless's old Luna with astonishing rigour. And the weird part ... her mate wasn't even snarling at him. He was just stood there watching, hands in his pockets, not looking the slightest bit surprised. And when they finally broke apart, he went over to shake hands with Tom as if they were old friends.

"How do they know each other?" I asked.

"Oh," Maggie said softly. She sounded astonished. "Didn't Tom ever tell you? Lexi Powell is his sister. It's been years since they saw each other, granted, but they've always been on good terms. Just like we used to be on good terms with Shadowless."

I made a soft huh sound. "Okay. It's weird. I sometimes forget you guys all had lives before I was born. Did you know them well?"

"No, not really. When Lexi was a rogue, I was still living in Silver Lake," Maggie said. She shook her head fondly at the wide-eyed look on my face. "Yes, dear. That was my birth pack. I raised my daughter there, and I would still be there today ... if she hadn't fallen in love with a rogue."

***

I had never seen Mal look so wary in my life. He had been met at the gate by a pair of big, quiet raiders, and he'd put his hands up and submitted to a search. They'd tossed aside a handgun and a folding knife before he had been allowed into the castle itself.

Liam and I watched from our fireside. I hadn't really been expecting him to obey our summons, in all honesty. And it had been even more of a surprise when he'd turned up alone, without a flockie army behind him. Our friends from Shadowless had cameras on a lot of the main roads. It had been Mal and Mal alone who'd made the journey, they'd assured us. I'd almost convinced myself that he'd betrayed us in the last day. Now ... I wasn't so sure.

Then again, it was entirely possible that he was just here to scout and see how many fighters we had before organising an attack.

I took a sip from the mug cradled in my hands. We didn't have any milk for the tea, but it was still caffeinated, and that was the important part. Beside me, Liam got to his feet and dusted his hands off on his jeans. He waited there while they brought Mal towards us. He kept his hands up and kept his cool despite being crowded and jeered at by a big group of the raiders. After Haven, their feelings towards flockies had reached boiling point. I didn't blame them.

Finally, he was brought to a halt in front of us.

"After you drove us to Haven," Liam asked him, "did you give its location to another pack?"

I had never heard his voice so cold before. We hadn't talked much about what had happened at Haven, but I reckoned it was safe to say it was affecting him. He and Mal had struck up an easy, almost effortless friendship. And now he was looking at the guy like he was deciding whether to kill him.

"No," Mal said quietly.

"Did you speak to another Alpha at any point that day? And bear in mind, before you answer, that I can check the phone records."

"No," he repeated.

"And yet you knew that they were about to attack us," Liam said. "How'd you know, Mal?"

Mal rubbed at his jaw. He looked behind himself, and then he turned his gaze back to Liam.

"I didn't know. I just suspected. In the space of ten minutes, half our fighters got texts from friends in other packs. Lowland, Riverside, Pine Forest... Those texts were asking if they were home. And I know Alphas order that shit when they're trying to work out if a pack has fielded their fighters. I figured they were about to attack something. So I tried to warn you both. I was too late, evidently."

I hadn't even noticed Vik Lloyd standing in the doorway until he spoke up. "He's probably not lying, you know. The same thing happened in our pack."

Well, that was encouraging. Mal was telling the truth about something. But it didn't mean he was telling the truth about everything.

"What d'you think?" Liam asked me through the link. "I honestly can't tell. I'd like to believe him, but that's the trouble, isn't it?"

"I think he'd say anything right now," I said aloud. "He's surrounded and unarmed. If he admits to it, we'll kill him. He knows that."

"Then we should do some fact-checking, shouldn't we?" Liam asked. He looked towards my aunt, almost instinctively, because she was the only person here who could find the truth lurking behind lies. But she was just sat beside the fire, gazing at a stone wall, and I got the impression that she hadn't heard anything we'd said. She'd just lost her two-year-old daughter. She wasn't in any fit shape to help us.

Mam knew it, too. She stepped in front of Fion and shook her head at us wearily. "She can't do it right now. Nia will be here later tonight with her raiders. We'll have to wait for her."

"No, you won't," Vik Lloyd said lazily. He had left the doorway and was now standing in the middle of the room, regarding our Beta with a lazy and unnerving smile. The Lloyds had a talent for mind games, I knew. "But I'll want a knife on him. I don't take chances with this shit anymore. Too many people can tap these days."

Mal looked to Liam. That gaze was somehow both pleading and resigned.

"Sit down," Liam said. There'd be no mercy for him, evidently. Because if we screwed up and trusted him a second time, more kids were going to die.

Mal let out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair, looking, I would have to say, a little nervous. But he did get onto his knees, and he stayed there while one of the raiders put a knife to the back of his neck. Liam went and took hold of his collar so he could steady him, and then Vik joined them. He put a hand on Mal's shoulder, skin on skin, his nails digging in and his knuckles white. And then he closed his eyes.

I watched on warily. I'd never been a fan of this line of work. And it made me remember the time Mason had done the same thing to me. Just thinking about it, I could taste vomit in the back of my throat.

Vik opened his eyes, frowning, and then he moved his hand from Mal's shoulder to his neck.

"If you keep fighting me, you're not going to like what happens," he warned.

Vik's eyes closed once again, and I saw a little shudder go through Mal's body. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he swayed dangerously. It was only Liam's grip on his collar that kept him from pitching forwards onto his face. I didn't envy him. I really didn't envy him.

Once Vik was actually inside his head, it only took about thirty seconds. But by the time he peeled his hand away from Mal's neck and stepped back, Mal was breathing heavily. Liam kept hold of him while he came back around properly. He retched a few times before he found his feet.

I sipped my tea. My eyes were on Vik, and they were expectant. Despite his exertions, there was no blood under his nose.

"He's telling the truth," Vik said eventually. "It wasn't him."

Well, thank the Goddess for that. It wouldn't have been easy finding another Beta, and despite my best efforts, I'd gotten pretty fond of Mal. He wasn't bad, for a flockie.

"You satisfied now?" he asked. And he spat on the ground. There was blood in it, and there was another smudge beside his lip. He must have bitten his tongue.

"Yes, we are," Liam told him. There was a tightness around his eyes that I recognised as guilt, but he knew, like we all did, that it had been important to check. The adults were already turning back to the fires, having lost interest. Vik included.

We were left with our Beta. Mal sat himself beside our fire with an excessive amount of tension in his body. I was wondered if he was using it to hide the muscle tremors that occasionally broke through. Clearly, Vik hadn't been gentle with him.

"I didn't do shit intentionally," he said. "But I realised afterwards that I should never have driven you there. All the cars owned by our pack have locators on them. And there's a system we can use to share that data with other packs. It helps coordinate assaults and stuff like that. I thought you knew, but you probably didn't. Mason only started it a few years back. I brought my own car here today because I don't trust the pack ones anymore."

Liam swore quietly. "Who can access the locators?"

"Almost bloody anyone. All of the fighters. Half of the support staff."

"Shit," Liam said. "Shit. We'll trace it back. See who's been snooping. Can you think of anyone who might have done it?"

"I have no idea. There's been a rumour going around that you two are rogue-friendly. A rumour that probably started in another pack. So I'd say most of our people are suspicious and not sure what to believe, but no one has been making overt trouble. Yet."

Liam winced at that. He was preoccupied with a mug and a sachet of something, so it was me who answered Mal.

"We'll come back with you. Sort all that out. But you'll have to wait for an hour or so," I told him. Looking at him, I realised exactly how ill-at-ease he was here. Like a fish out of water. And yet ... there was a drop of curiosity in all the wariness. "Tell you what... Your mother was a rogue, right? What's her surname? Do you know?"

"Morris," he said.

I would have laughed if I'd not been so bloody miserable. "Of course it is. See that group of lads near the gatehouse? The dark-haired ones? They're your cousins. Go and say hi, if you want. They're not the friendliest bunch, but I doubt they'll shank you. And hell, even if they do, there's another lot of Morrises out by the cars who might be feeling more sociable."

Mal looked from the raiders to me and back again, his eyes wide. "You're kidding."

"Nope. Go on."

Liam put a cup of something warm and steaming into his hands. It smelt like coffee. And Mal was still looking a little blanched, so he could probably have used it. He took the drink, nodded a thank you, and then cast another sceptical glance at his newfound cousins.

"What the hell, right?" he muttered. "Come find me when you're ready to leave. My car is parked a mile up the road."

"We know," I said pleasantly. "We had you watched."

The look on Mal's face was not something I'd soon forget.

***

I sat with my head in my hands and tried to block out the ever-increasing noise in spirit, if not in body. I'd never heard my little brother raise his voice before, but now that he had, it seemed that he wouldn't shut up again. Maybe it was because he needed to make up for lost time. Maybe it was because he was beyond frustrated.

"I'm not going," Ellis snapped. "I'm not. I want to stay here."

"El," Mam said patiently. "You are going, and that isn't up for debate. You're not big enough to help us. Ask me again when you turn eighteen."

He shook his head with more conviction than I'd known he had. "It'll be over by then, and you know it."

"I know no such thing," she told him. "We'll be doing this for years to come if I'm too busy arguing with you to do any fighting. Now come on. Seriously. I need you to look after the little ones, kiddo. Go with Eva."

"I told you. I'm not going. You left us all at the cabin. You left us alone. And half of us got slaughtered," Ellis shouted. It was, I would admit, a low blow. "If Eva had been a few seconds later, they would have killed me and Ahmed and Jess too. And now you want to send us all away? No. We're safer together."

I flinched a little. Because if I had been a few seconds earlier, we might not have been having this discussion, because little Poppy and Matty might still have been alive.

Mam regarded him with a face that was suddenly more tired than I had ever seen it. He'd had hurt her — I could tell that much. But it hadn't shaken her determination in the slightest. "I know you're stubborn, El. But so am I. Get your stuff."

"No."

Mam looked at me, eyebrows slightly raised, almost as if she was asking for help. She wasn't used to him acting like this. None of us were. So I just shrugged at her.

It was Eira, who had been sat so quietly in the corner, who stood up and grabbed El's collar. She used it to drag him towards the door. A few paces later, he got over his shock enough to dig his heels in. She shoved him then. He brought his arms up to fend her off, looking furious.

"What are you going to do? Are you going to hit me?" she demanded. He just stood there, wide-eyed and furious because he would, of course, do no such thing. "No? That's what I thought. Walk."

I looked on with no small sense of relief. It hadn't been fun to see my family at each other's throats for the first time. Eira was fragile, yes, but she was remarkably good at wielding that fragility as a weapon when it suited her. When the world dealt you a shit hand, you simply had to learn to win with the cards you were given.

Once they were gone, I turned to Mam and gave her a look. I didn't think this was a great idea. I didn't think it was the worst idea, don't get me wrong. But we'd feel pretty damn stupid if we walked the kids into a pack of our own volition and something ended up happening to them.

"Surely there's somewhere else," I murmured. "Anglesey, even..."

Mam just shook her head. "It's safer there. Sure. But not for Llewellyn children. Jess and Bryn ... we can't risk it."

I let out a long unhappy breath, but I turn and leave, following in my brother and sister's footsteps. I didn't get very far before I saw Bryn standing alone with a rucksack at his feet. Unlike El, he wasn't putting up a fight about leaving. He wasn't putting up a fight about anything right now. I'd thought that maybe he would react in the same way his father had —with a single-minded determination to kill the people who'd taken his brother and mam away from him. But it was almost the opposite. He wasn't in some trance-like state like my aunt, but he was so far from his usual self that it made my heart ache.

He was leaning against a wall, and he turned his head to look at me as I stopped beside him. And there was a pit in my stomach, because I could suddenly see the other half of his face. His eye was gone. There was a thin film of swollen flesh where it had been, and that was all. I'd known he'd been badly injured, obviously, but I hadn't known about that. It was a devastating injury at any age, let alone sixteen. Our healing wasn't very good with eyes, and it was so, so easy to get a stray tooth in there when you were fighting.

It was a given that he was miserable, and that was, of course, written all over his face. But I wasn't expecting to see a knot of tension at his jawline, a crease in his forehead and a slightly hostile glint in his remaining eye as he looked me up and down. It wasn't an expression that suited him.

"How are you just ... fine?" Bryn asked me. I blinked at him, a little taken aback, because I'd never heard him use that tone before. It was rough and almost ... accusative.

"I... What?" I replied. I rubbed at my face, trying to hide my puzzlement. I didn't understand the question really.

"How are you fine?" he demanded. A nod towards Liam. "How are you and him walking around like everything is just okay?"

"You think I'm fine," I repeated slowly, giving him a wounded look. "You think I'm fine? I haven't been fine for months, Bryn. Liam has never been fine in his life."

Bryn just shook his head. He wasn't angry, exactly. There was a little tremble in his voice that told me it was misery more than anything. "Yeah, well. Just saying. You wouldn't know by looking at you. Sam. Matty. Poppy. Rhodri. Mam. What, are they not enough? Go on. Tell me. What would it take to break you? How many of us?"

I was now fighting a lump in my throat which threatened to choke me, even as my temper rose a little, more defensive than anything. "In all honesty, Bryn, I wasn't expecting any of us to get out of there alive. You have no idea how much they hate us. They wouldn't have stopped."

He opened his mouth to reply but closed it again just as quickly, thankfully for me. Because his dad was coming over with little Jess in his arms. I didn't think he had put her down once since he'd got here. Everyone was a little reluctant to let the kids out of their sight, and it was understandable, but now they would have to say their goodbyes. Ahmed was trailing at his heels. He was only ten, but he had a rucksack of his own, and his eyes were determined.

We weren't taking five kids back with us. We were only taking one. Jess. The others would never be kids again, I didn't think. There were some things that could make a child grow up overnight, and watching your friends get murdered was one of them.

I watched my uncle wrap his son in a hug that was barely returned. It wasn't deliberate on Bryn's part, I didn't think. He was just ... so ... not himself. Once they broke apart, my uncle kissed Jess goodbye, gave her one last, unhappy squeeze and then handed her over to Bryn. It wasn't easy for them to be separating like this — hell, it wasn't easy for any of us. But it did have to be done.

It wasn't like they would be going alone. Mam was sending Uncle Ollie and Aunt Fion, for starters. Although I was sure they would have tried, they weren't going to be much use in the war effort. What had happened to Poppy was heart-breaking, and I reckoned it would be a long time before they were okay again. Maggie was going, Old Tom was going, Eira was going, and of course Bryn was going. The kids wouldn't be undefended. But they would be in danger. Silver Lake was not a rogue-friendly place.

***

The cottage we'd picked to accommodate nine fugitives was near the edge of the territory, abandoned, and surrounded by a seven-foot fence to keep out any prying pack members. They would have to stay inside, and they'd have to keep one eye on the door, but it was preferable to our original plan, which had been to instil them all in the prison under the pack house under the watchful eye of some trusted, level-headed guards. I'd wanted to avoid that. For now, it was safe, but if we'd lost control of the pack for any reason, they'd have been in big trouble.

It was dark by the time we'd got them settled. We'd started the long walk back to the pack house as soon as Seth had arrived to look them over and deal with the stubborn wounds which hadn't already healed on their own.

Now, we were walking back to our rooms. I was too tired to sustain my usual pace, so I was a little way behind Mal. He was texting while he walked with a half-smile on his lips. It was probably Kelsey. I'd accidentally caught a glimpse of the messages they liked to send each other once and promptly regretted it. Mated couples were just ... a little too intense.

"You two good?" he asked as he was about to turn a corner.

"Yeah, we're good," I told him. "Go get some sleep."

"Sure," he said, but his eyes were saying the opposite. He'd be fighting in the morning, like all of us, so he and Kelsey would probably be making the most of tonight. "You two should sleep, too. And I really do mean sleep. Lilah says the walls are a bit thinner than you'd think."

That made me blush like few things could, but Mal was gone before I could think up a retort. His room was close to ours. There was only a hallway between us. Lilah and her daughter were staying on the other side of us ... which would probably need to change, if Mal had been telling the truth ... and Lin had taken the next room over. Now I only needed to persuade Seth to move, and I'd have all my favourite flockies gathered in one place.

Liam went to push open our door and then stopped dead in his tracks. I saw a frown creep across his face, and then he glanced over our shoulders in both directions warily. It was a couple of sheets of paper which had caught his attention so thoroughly. Probably because they were tacked to the door with a short, vicious looking knife.

Liam pulled them free. He was better at reading than I was because he'd actually gone to school when he'd been little, so it didn't take him long to get the gist of it.

"Well, shit," he said. "Pretty clear message, if you ask me."

I took the sheets of paper off him and peered at them. "What is it?"

He let me take them, but he also used my jacket to steer me through the door, and then he shut it behind us. Oh-so-wary. While I began to read, he checked around the room carefully, and then he checked the bathroom too.

The first page was the Symptoms of a Sleeper poster which I'd first encountered in the attic. Someone had checked off each item in red pen. I understood Liam's reaction now. Yes. I'd say that the message was clear enough. Someone knew — or at least suspected. And they'd had the guts to come and pin this to our door, which meant they were probably relatively pissed about it. The second page was titled 'Rogue Factsheet,' and that one was new.

I read through it, and with every new word, my eyebrows climbed further up my forehead.

The boundary fence is for their protection, not ours, and if they cross it, we are not responsible for what happens to them.

That was just plain untrue. They were responsible for literally all of their actions, especially when that action was murder. I snorted to myself, but then my eyes trailed further down the list, and I realised it got a whole lot worse.

All rogues must kill a pack wolf before their thirteenth birthday. This is considered a rite-of-passage.

Simpers say innocent until proven guilty, but we don't put rats on trial. We just wipe them out.

We have a Goddess-given right to protect our property.

78% of rogues admit to partaking in cannibalism.

Rogues refer to pack wolves as 'flockies' and 'sheep' because they believe that we are nothing more than livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

Packs who don't use the death penalty have 3x more raids and 5x more murders.

One third of rogues have smallpox.

I put it down. There were a lot more bullet points. Like ... a lot more. But I reckoned I'd seen enough already. There was a cold knot in the pit of my stomach, making me feel the tiniest bit queasy.

"I must have missed the cannibalism survey," I mused. It was easier to joke about it because the alternative was ... well, not something that I wanted to face.

Liam had checked the locks on the patio doors and windows. He came back to join me, apparently satisfied that it was nothing more than a threat. He took the paper off me again and sighed at it. "Weird. Me too."

"And ... what is that word?" I muttered, pointing vaguely at the fourth row of text. "Lin kept saying it. And I— I know what it means, but I feel like they're using it differently."

"Simper?" he asked. "Flockies use it as shorthand for rogue-sympathiser."

I let out a low, involuntary growl. "Of course they do."

I sat down on our heap of bedding and hugged my knees to my chest. Although I would have liked it to, joking about it wasn't working. I couldn't stop eyeing that miserable little piece of paper. It was no doubt intended as propaganda, and while I hadn't seen any around the pack house before, I supposed they didn't need to leave them up when the whole pack already knew them by heart. I also made a point of never reading anything unless I absolutely had to.

"People actually believe this shit," I murmured.

"Yeah."

"Did you?" I asked him. An unfair question, perhaps. But then again, he'd only been a kid when he had lived here. It didn't really reflect on him.

"I guess. I didn't know any different," he said quietly. "You just think ... like ... why would they lie about it? Why would they make that stuff up?"

No wonder it had taken him so long to thaw. I'd been scared of flockies when I'd been growing up. Hell, I'd even been a little bit nervous of Liam when we'd been alone together for the first few weeks. But it had been nowhere near ... this.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I don't think I ever appreciated exactly how terrified you must have been when we met you."

Liam just shrugged a little. "I wasn't ever scared of you, Eva. Your parents ... yeah, okay. Rhodri and Nia ... it's possible. But not you."

That made me smile. He set the papers aside. They'd be a problem for later. I doubted we would find out who had left them, but we would certainly find out how much the pack's feelings towards us had soured.

"What time are we meeting the other Alphas?" I asked him.

He stretched his legs out lazily. "Um. Four in the morning. So we should probably get some sleep in the meantime. What time is it now?"

I picked up the phone. "Half ten."

And then my heart stopped in my chest. Today's date was written beneath the time. I'd lost track of the days entirely after what had happened at Haven. But it was the eighth of August. And just like that, I knew that I was not going to be getting any sleep tonight. Because I would be turning eighteen at midnight.

"What is it?" Liam asked. He must have seen something on my face.

"Just didn't realise what day it was," I muttered. "It's fine, though. Not a big deal."

Liam clearly didn't know either, because he had to peer at the phone screen before I saw him go very, very still. His eyes darted up to meet mine. I didn't know what to do now. If we talked about it ... things were just going to be weird between us. We'd never properly talked about this. Because I supposed it was pretty self-explanatory, wasn't it? Either we were mates or ... we weren't.

"Do you want to shower first, or should I?" I asked. Anything to change the subject. Anything to distract me.

He nodded towards the bathroom. "You can go first. I don't mind waiting."

"Might as well just go together," I said. And I was joking. Mostly. My period had stopped that afternoon, to my astonishment. Maybe it had realised, a little bit too late, that this was not a great time. And if tonight was going to be our last few hours in blissful ignorance, then maybe it would be worth following in Mal's footsteps and getting laid. But midnight would probably be a little harder to cope with if we were both naked.

"I don't know..." Liam said. "To be honest, I liked our bath better."

"Clothes on?"

He gave me a tiny, puzzled smile. "Of course. There isn't any other way to take a bath, as far as I know."

I had no idea how he was so good at making me laugh, even at times when I wouldn't have thought it possible. But I did laugh then, and I went to turn the taps on, and for a second, I could pretend that time wasn't running away from me.

We managed to waste an hour on the bath. And so, by the time I found myself lying beside the fire, my hair damp against the pillow, it was terrifyingly close to midnight. Physically, I was drowsy. Mentally ... not so much. There was no way I'd have been able to sleep.

Thirty minutes became twenty. And twenty became ten. I could tell that Liam wasn't trying to sleep either. He was restless beside me, and his eyes drifted to the clock as often as mine did. Yes, the chances were, he'd turned eighteen a long while back, but as long as there was a chance, I had to keep hoping. I didn't know what else to do.

The minutes turned to seconds. My heart was pounding so vigorously in my chest that it seemed to count out each second in turn. I sat up when it was getting close, kneading my hands together and trying my best not to look at Liam.

By the time the second-hand reached twelve, I was about ready to throw up. Liam slowly eased into a sitting position beside me. The weight of his gaze was a tangible thing. I did my best to ignore it, because I was busy trying to work out if I felt different in the space of a few heartbeats.

People said it was obvious. That you knew it was the mate-bond without thinking twice. It wasn't a subtle feeling, they said. And if I was sat right next to my mate, it was safe to say that the bond should have been an all-consuming magnetic pull.

But the truth was, I didn't feel anything like that. I didn't feel different at all. My wolf was being damningly quiet. All I was feeling was a tidal wave of terror rising up above me, threatening to break over my head. I'd waited all these years for ... nothing?

Liam was looking at me. From the intensity in those dark eyes, I knew he was trying to work it out just from my reaction. He didn't actually ask. But I felt like I should tell him, if only to put him out of his misery.

"We're not mates," I told him. My voice was quiet and a little bit rough around the edges. I'd wanted to sound normal. I'd wanted to sound like it was just a casual observation.

Unlike me, Liam wasn't trying to hide it so much. He went still, his eyes falling to the floor. I watched him swallow back ... something. Because that was it. The last chance was gone. And now we knew. I was almost glad that it was affecting him too. It would have been much, much worse if I'd been sat here on the verge of tears while he just rolled over and went to sleep.

But the pressing question was...

Now what?