So it seems that someone upstairs was determined to put a stop to this update, but oh well. As usual, I was more determined. Next time I go into hospital, I'm gonna take my laptop so I can actually write. Because Goddess knows there is shit-all else to do there. Cannot take it to work with me, though. It would 100% get covered in cow shit and ringworm. Just like I do 😔

 Few things:     - We've only got the epilogue left now :O     - Midnight Watch crew, I hope you're ready for action      - We reached 100,000 reads at some point while I was out for the count, so thank you all! Good work      - Today's art is at the top /\ and LittleLoneWriterGirl is really spoiling us with five characters at once.

I was jumping up and down on the spot. Hayden was eyeing me with poorly-concealed disgust, the folder he had been reading completely forgotten. He had been studying for the packmeet like a dutiful little Alpha. I'd called him a nerd already, but he hadn't cared much.

"Someone's full of beans today," he muttered.

"It's freezing," I told him. The words came out choppy because I hadn't bothered to stop jumping long enough to say it.

"You didn't bring a coat?"

I shook my head vigorously. "Liam's got it."

"So ... go inside and get it," he sighed.

"I dunno. That's a super long way to walk. Think I'll just keep jumping."

Hayden looked incredulously at the church, which was all of a hundred metres away from us.

"You know the people we're meeting are really important, right?" he told me waspishly. "Hell, this whole packmeet is really important. I'm seventeen. You're not much older. It's hard enough to get people to take us seriously without you acting like a bloody pogo stick."

I just smiled. To him ... sure, the people we were meeting were 'really important.' To me, they were family of the extended, seldom-visited kind. Anglesey's leader was a cousin of the Llewellyns, and he'd taught me how to catch crabs and lobsters when I'd been hardly more than a toddler. I'd played with his kids. He didn't frighten me. But I wasn't going to tell Hayden that.

"Maybe there's a spare coat in the car," Hayden was saying distractedly. "Han, do you know? If— Hey. Stop touching that. It's fine."

Hannah let out a strangled growl. It was directed at him, even as she snatched her hand away from her upper arm and shoved it deep into a pocket. She had already spent five minutes introducing me to the strange blob-like device that could measure her blood sugar for her. She had told me that she loved it, because it meant she was less of a pincushion, but within about two minutes, she had also told me she hated it, so I didn't really know what to think.

"I think I put it too high. The stupid bloody thing keeps getting snagged under my sleeve," she muttered.

"Well, now you know for next time, don't you?" Hayden told her.

Hannah went back to fiddling with it. She must have been very confident she wouldn't have to shift today, if she'd bothered to stick that thing into her skin. I wasn't so confident, given what had happened at the last packmeet.

The road to the old church was little more than a pair of tyre tracks cutting through grass and wildflowers. It looked like every other turning for a dozen miles, so we'd offered to be the walking, talking signposts. For Hayden, it was a chance to avoid entering the room where his father had died for a few minutes longer. For me, it was simply fresh air and an opportunity to stretch my legs.

We'd been expecting a car, but the Anglesey lot arrived on foot after only a few minutes of waiting. They couldn't have walked far, because they were all looking impressively neat and unruffled by the cold easterly wind. I would have felt self-conscious in muddy jeans and a Silver Lake polo shirt, but the massive smile on Kai's face made that very difficult. He had a talent for making everyone feel comfortable around him.

There were two people I didn't recognise with him. One at each shoulder. The first was a woman with hair that was so pale that it was almost white. She looked alert, but not very threatening in comparison to her companion — a tall, lean man with inky black hair, a golden-brown complexion and a distinctly feline scent. Shadowcat. Uh oh.

I tried not to stare at him. I had a feeling cats found it as rude as wolves did. So it was Kai my gaze settled on as he went about shaking hands with Hayden, who had gone forwards to meet them all in his eagerness to be a good host.

"Hayden, I assume? Goddess, you look so much like your father," Kai told him. "I ... ah. I apologise if that was insensitive. I was very saddened to hear what happened to him. He was a good man and a good Alpha."

Hayden blinked a few times. "I didn't realise you knew him so well."

"Ah, yes. Well. I was fostered with your pack when we were both young, and we did our best to stay in touch," Kai told him. He turned to me and Hannah without giving him any time to answer. "Good morning, ladies. I don't think we've met...?"

He knew exactly who I was, even though I'd been barely thirteen when he'd last seen me. The warmth in his voice and the mischievous glint in his eye told me that. But we'd decided it was best if the Alphas didn't find out how close our families were. Hayden included.

"No, we haven't," Hannah agreed. "I'm Hayden's Beta. And Eva here is the new Luna of Silver Lake. She's a close ally."

Ha. A close ally? That was certainly an improvement on a month ago, when she probably would have called me a bitch and a murderer. I was grinning to myself as I shook Kai's hand and watched him shake Hannah's, too.

"Nice to meet you both. Nate and Sav are here to 'guard' me. I left as many of them in the car as I could, but these two are stubborn, so we'll just pretend they're not here," Kai told us. He was turning slightly as he spoke — angling himself towards the church in the gentlest of cues. It soon had us all walking in that direction.

It made sense that the two strangers were guards. Every time we'd visited Anglesey, Kai had dismissed his entire cohort of bodyguards because it was a very good chance for them all to have a holiday. And granted, a contingent of the most dangerous raiders in Snowdonia was probably adequate security.

The door to the church was wide open, despite the chill, because the wind had a talent for finding its way through the crumbling mortar whether it was invited or not. There were so many people inside, all generating heat, that it wasn't too bad. I felt my goosebumps receding once I stepped through the doorway.

Most of us had already arrived. Alpha Zach from Shadowless was the only remaining member of the original packmeet. He was talking to his father, Vik, who was only here because he had been put in charge of Riverside until someone more suitable could be found. It was useful to have a spare Alpha lying around, retired or not, because the pack listened to him, regardless of the fact that he had no links to Riverside at all.

Lewis Fletcher from Ember was next to him. And the last and newest of the 'Alphas' was Olivia Vaughan, whose grip on Lowland Pack was still a little shaky. She'd sat in the seat I'd been using, obviously not realising it was already taken, in order to be close to Liam. It hadn't been easy to persuade Olivia to attend, given that this group of people had organised an invasion of her pack and the public execution of her mate only a few days ago. So she could keep the chair, as far as I was concerned, if it made her feel a bit more comfortable.

Liam was watching me, a little smile on his lips. We'd been getting on very well these last few days, and I reckoned it showed. The bond had settled down into a soft, steady stream of communication which we could both dampen down with the slightest bit of effort. And yes, sometimes we did lose control of it, and it would writhe around like a hosepipe, spraying emotions all over the place, but those incidents were rare.

"Are you okay?" I heard Hannah whisper behind me.

Hayden's answer was a noncommittal shrug. He'd gone quiet and somewhat pale, and I caught his eyes drifting to a patch of flagstones where the grout was stained red-brown, despite everyone's best efforts. We were still trying to work out what they had done with his father's body, which only added to the torture. Poor Hayden, I thought. He had been brave even to come here today.

I sat down between him and Kai. It was really the only place I could sit. Kai was already busy introducing himself to the other Alphas, who were visibly curious about him. Like most people in Snowdonia, they had never met anyone from Anglesey before. They tended to keep to themselves. Until now, anyway.

It was a little while before he could escape their questions long enough to catch my eye. On my other side, Hayden was engaged in conversation with his cousin, but it would pay to be careful anyway.

"Have you come from the camp?" I asked Kai in a whisper.

"Yes, we have," he said, smiling. "Your parents were kind enough to feed us. I always wanted a chance to see Lle o Dristwch for myself, and I can't say I was disappointed. It's haunting and beautiful all at once."

"Surprised you didn't bring your daughters on the sightseeing trip. They were always nagging to come to the mainland," I laughed. Truthfully, I wasn't surprised at all. This was a dangerous place compared to their peaceful island home, and he wouldn't want to risk their lives. "Are they okay? Are you still making them go to school?"

"Yes, Eva, they still go to school," he laughed. "We all do on Anglesey. And they're doing well. Amelia has picked her GCSEs. Theo's finally started her proper hormone therapy, but she's still agonising over names. Can't find one she likes enough, so she might not change it at all. It makes me wonder why we need to have separate boys' and girls' names in the first place. Whose idea was that?"

"Dunno, but I can't see the point in it either," I told him.

"Exactly. So we're all fine, but ... how are you? I know what happened, and... There aren't words, Eva. I'm sorry."

Yeah. Good question. How was I? I froze up a bit, glancing over at Liam, who had felt the panicked jolt through the link, and more importantly, the riptide of raw, dizzying grief which had accompanied it. He mouthed something that was probably are you okay? But it was only when I tore my eyes away from him that I realised Kai was still waiting for an answer to a similar question.

"I'm ... okay, yeah," I mumbled. It was reflexive. It was robotic. It was a lie.

I trailed off then, unwilling to say anything more, since there was a massive lump in my throat and the other conversations seemed to be dying down. I didn't want to draw attention. There was a lot of clearing of throats and shuffling of papers as everyone signalled they were ready to begin.

It was Lewis, the grown-up but newly-crowned Alpha, who said, "Let's just jump straight in, shall we? Chris isn't here, which surprises absolutely no one. I doubt he'll ever show his face again. We need to talk about his pack, along with Lowland, Riverside, Anglesey, who we're prosecuting and for what, and of course, the rogues."

"Uh, that's kind of a lot," Zach muttered. "Pick ... like one thing. Maybe two. I've got better stuff to do than sit here and listen to you all argue."

"Well, Chris's pack is quite pressing... But then, so are the rogues. And our friend from Anglesey is only here for this one meeting, so it would be quite rude of us to ignore him because you were in a hurry to get back to your video games."

"Well, actually, I don't think I'll only be here for this one meeting," Kai said. "I have somewhere here... Ah, yes. Thank you, Sav. I'm here to declare a pack, in accordance with pack law and the Menai Treaties. Well, I say 'a' pack. Technically, we qualify as twelve packs, with me as the representative. So I suppose I have you all outvoted now."

With that, Kai set down a piece of paper on the table. The mood was volatile. No one had been expecting this — they'd been under the impression that he'd come here to perform some substanceless diplomacy. So we now had five Alphas exchanging near-panicked glances.

"Hang on, what?" Zach asked coldly.

Kai didn't look the least bit perturbed by that tone. "I can repeat what I said, if that's helpful...? I was, perhaps, exaggerating a little. You will have to agree to me and my twelve packs joining this alliance before I'll be able to vote on anything. But in all honesty, having read through the clauses in pack law, it sounds like you don't have much choice..."

"He can't do that, right?" Lewis demanded. "Surely, he can't do that."

"Of course not," Zach snapped.

"Oh yes he can," his father laughed. "I did the exact same thing to make Shadowless a recognised pack, and that's the only reason you're sat here today, Zach."

Shock. Horror. They didn't know what to do, bless them. This threatened their little world in so many ways, and apparently, it was entirely legal. I saw a couple of Alphas turn and hold whispered conversations with their Betas.

Lewis's next question was a little quieter but not what I would call 'calm.' "Why are you doing this? You islanders have wanted nothing to do with us for nigh on a hundred years."

Kai gave the tiniest of shrugs. "Circumstances change. I'm in favour of allowing some freedom of movement, some trade, etcetera, etcetera. And I'm rather fed up of watching from a distance as you all engage in war after pointless war, if I'm being entirely honest."

I heard a low growl. It was so quiet that I thought I might have imagined it, but chances were, I hadn't, because there were a lot of very unhappy, very grumpy faces around the table now.

"Funny you should mention the war," Olivia said mildly. "It's been a long time since I was in a history lesson, so forgive me for any mistakes in my recollections, but wasn't the Anglesey settlement established by Llewellyns? It isn't an unreasonable assumption that you are doing this with the intentions to control us on their behalf."

Well, dammit. That was exactly what he was doing.

"Your information is accurate but a little outdated, naturally. Isabel Llewellyn was our first leader. Her daughter, Gwen Llewellyn, died decades years ago. I've been on the throne ever since, and my surname is Davengard. My successor will be a Davengard too. I hope that puts your mind at rest."

Olivia's mind was not at rest. Olivia's mind was going at a hundred miles an hour because she was a smart cookie, and some part of her had caught his evasion. That, or she just hadn't entirely understood what he'd said. "So you aren't related to the Llewellyns?"

A slight frown crossed Kai's face, as if he couldn't understand why he was being targeted by this line of inquiry. A moment later, his shoulders rose and fell in the tiniest of shrugs. "Oh, I think I'm related to most of the people at this table. So it's very possible."

Hayden was leaning closer to me without taking his eyes off Kai. His voice was barely a whisper in my ear. "He's annoyingly good at lying, isn't he?"

"That's the beauty of it, though," I murmured. "He isn't lying. He hasn't lied once. He's a politician in a room full of mid-level managers, and he's having the time of his life."

The argument had continued in our absence, and I zoned back in to find that Lewis's voice was uncharacteristically agitated. "Look, my friend. Regardless of your motives, you cannot expect to walk in here, invoke some forgotten law, and be given such complete power over how we run our packs."

A slow, thoughtful nod from Anglesey's leader. "Ah, yes. I see. I'm not unreasonable. My twelve smaller packs could, if I was feeling particularly sympathetic to your concerns, be reduced down to three large ones. I won't demand a vote on the matter today. Take some time. Think it over. I'll be here next month for your decision."

"Well ... good. We'll put that aside until we've all had a chance to examine the legality of it. And your intentions. No offence."

Kai just smiled. And that was the end of that. They were content that they'd caught a break, so there was a lot of looking away, leaning back in chairs, and rubbing at faces as they let their poor overworked brains wind back down to their usual snail's pace.

Goddess. There were times when I wondered if it would be easier to leave the country and start a new life than try and make peace with these morons. And the saddest part was ... these were the better morons. We'd killed all the worse ones.

Now that everyone's attention was elsewhere, I leant towards Kai. "You did that on purpose."

"Yes," he laughed. "To give them the illusion that I'm compromising. If you want a shiny rock, ask for the moon first."

"So you reckon they'll come back next month and agree to your three packs?" I asked him, the beginnings of a grin tugging at my lips.

"Oh, I doubt it. But that's okay, because I'm not going to join the alliance. I can't. My people wouldn't tolerate it. I'm just using this as leverage to negotiate a change to the treaty so I can attend some packmeets and vote on major issues."

I let out a quiet snort. He was as rogue as the rest of his family. He just exercised those tendencies within the confines of the law. I was glad he was on our side.

The conversation had rumbled on without us.

"Riverside is easy," Vik was saying. "Let's do that first. I only have to say jump, and they do it, so I'm happy to sit there and give orders for a few years until Jaden's boy is grown up. If he's willing to play nice, he can be Alpha. If not, I'll pick someone a little more pliable."

"Doubt he'll play nice," Hayden murmured. "When I saw him yesterday, he swore at me and would've shifted if his mam hadn't grabbed him. We killed his father. And the kid is only nine — he won't forget that, no matter our reasons."

He'd know, I supposed. His eyes would wander dutifully around the faces at the table, but they still came back to the dark patch on the floor, time and time again.

"Jaden's oldest is only nine?" Zach demanded. "Shit. What was he doing, all those years? Planting daisies?"

"Having daughters and getting progressively more irritated about it," Hayden said wearily. "The oldest of them is my age, and she wasn't very enamoured with her dad, given how much he ignored her. So as far as I'm concerned, that's our solution. She should inherit the pack."

Vik Lloyd choked on his drink, and the coughing turned to laughter within seconds. He gave Hayden an incredulous look. "That's your solution? A girl?"

Dead silence. A dozen pairs of eyes snapped towards him, all with varying levels of affront and fury. He seemed to realise his mistake a heartbeat too late. He looked at Olivia, then at me, then at his stony-eyed mate, and I watched a muscle in his jaw writhe.

"I sincerely hope that comment was some kind of misguided joke," Kai said, a look of genuine puzzlement clouding his face. I suspected it was an act. He knew how sexist the packs were.

Vik's expression made it very clear that it had not been a joke. And his eyes were darkening, because he was on the defensive now, and I thought that given one more provocation, he might go for Kai there and then. I wondered how close he would get before the Shadowcat ripped him apart.

Zach opening his mouth was a useful but probably unintentional interruption to their staring match. "No, it wasn't. She won't cope. And neither will Olivia. There's a reason we've never had a Luna in sole charge of a pack. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's true."

More furious silence. More staring. Another person might have taken that as a cue that they were probably wrong and that they should shut up, but Alphas were never very good at that. His lip curled, and he exchanged an all-knowing look with his father.

"Sorry, this must be confusing for you both," I laughed. "I know only last month you were addressing an aggressively misogynistic packmeet, but they're all dead now, and you're stuck with us."

If looks could kill, I would have been dead ten times over.

"If it's misogyny to acknowledge that women are physically weaker than men, then I'm guilty as charged," he said. "None of the men in that pack will sit back and wait for a male heir to turn eighteen. They'll challenge. You're setting up these girls to be murdered."

"Oh, there's only one person in danger of getting murdered right now," I muttered.

"It's okay, Eva," Olivia said with a patient smile. "I think he's just labouring under a misperception. Challenges happen when pack leaders are weak, unintelligent, cruel or incompetent. So I understand why they might be unusually common in Shadowless, and why Alpha Lloyd is concerned for my safety, even though he doesn't need to be."

I couldn't help the first snort of laughter that came out of me — an astonished, unflattering sound. I disguised the rest of the fit as coughing, but I was probably fooling no one at all. Everyone else seemed to be wide-eyed, averting their eyes and tactfully quiet. All except Liam, who was only making the barest effort to hide a smile even as tension knotted the muscles in his bare arms. He was watching Zach very closely.

But I didn't think the Shadowless Alpha was inclined to attack her. He had gone very still, true, and his eyes were a depthless shade of black. But from what I'd seen, he wasn't the kind of guy to throw a tantrum or hold a grudge when his pride was hurt. But he was the kind of guy who would sit there quietly, ignore the insult, and then cut your throat in a back-alley a few hours later without the slightest drop of remorse. So maybe it had not been the wisest decision on Olivia's part. Oh well. Too late to do anything about it now.

"Well, she's fiery, I'll give her that," Zach's father muttered. "Maybe we can find a mate for her amongst the old families. She's too good a Luna to waste."

One step forward. Two steps back. No, we would not be letting them hand Olivia off to the first loud-mouthed guy they found. She'd gone through that once already. But the corner of Zach's mouth twitched upwards into a smile — he liked that idea. Not that he had any say in the matter. I could feel Liam's intentions to tell them as much rumbling across the link, but he didn't get any further than that.

Because his attention had gone elsewhere. Those dark eyes were fixed on the doorway, and I rested my chin on my shoulder while I looked to see what was so interesting.

A shadow fell across the doorway. And that shadow materialised into my cousin, who pulled her hood down as she entered the room with her mate beside her.

Yep. This was better. This was what I'd been waiting for.

Neither of them had bothered to dress up for the packmeet. They were in muddy cargo trousers, hiking boots and waterproofs. Nia crossed the threshold only to stop abruptly and spend a few seconds wiping her shoes on a doormat that didn't look like it had been up to the task for twenty years or more. When she realised it wasn't working, she wrinkled up her nose and continued into the room with a few sheepish backwards glances at the mud trail she was leaving.

Uncle Rhys was behind her, as it turned out. He was looking very tall in a room full of seated people and under such a low ceiling. He leant against the wall, apparently resigned to the sentry position, while Nia pulled out a chair for Lily before taking her own seat.

I hadn't expected them to bring Bryn. There was a bit of colour in his cheeks again, but I was still taken aback by the stillness in him. And the marked absence of a smile on his lips. His missing eye was not red and raw anymore, but rather a mess of silvery scar tissue. He stayed with his dad. It wasn't like there was a seat for him, anyway.

"Sorry we're so late," Nia sighed. "The first car I tried to jack had a dead battery. Thought I was just doing it wrong. It was a little embarrassing, but oh well. Live and learn, right?"

You'd think there would be consequences for rogues who walked into a packmeet, armed and uninvited, but things had changed a lot in the last few weeks. The Lloyd Alphas were pretty chill about it — Shadowless had always been rogue-indifferent, unlike all the other packs, and Hayden was of course willing to negotiate. Lewis Fletcher owed his life to my parents, so he was friendly enough. It was only Olivia who went absolutely rigid in her seat. She was looking around at the rest of us, marking our acceptance with an increasingly stony expression.

"Are you serious?" she said. "You invited rogues?"

"Oh, we didn't invite her. That's the thing about Llewellyns. They don't actually care whether they're invited or not," Vik Lloyd laughed. "We can try and kick them out if you like, but I doubt it'll work."

Nia gave us a patient, if slightly offended smile. She was addressing Olivia directly. "I'll leave if I'm asked to. I came here hoping for a chance at peace, not to start trouble. Yes, I'm a rogue. We're all rogues. But we're also people. Reasonable people."

"Sure you are," Olivia said. But there wasn't much force in those words, and the sarcasm was a little stale. I doubted she had ever actually spoken to a rogue before. Lunas didn't usually get that kind of opportunity.

Hayden noticed her hesitancy and leant forwards in his chair, nodding towards my cousin. "Olivia, this is Nia. She has been cooperating with us these last few days. I'd be inclined to let her stay — she wants an end to the violence as much as we do."

"Yes, I do. But right now, I think a little violence might be warranted. Do people usually lurk outside these meetings with guns?"

"What?" Zach demanded, already half out of his seat. One hand had strayed behind him, and it was doubtless closed around something heavy, metal and illegal. It seemed he hadn't forgotten the last packmeet. Beside him, Hayden had frozen in place, looking a little stricken. Hannah leant forwards to murmur in his ear.

Nia shrugged at him. "Tall guy. Looks like a flockie. Maybe even an Alpha. He's parked in the lane with a car-full of blokes. Didn't you know?"

They hadn't known. I reckoned their facial expressions made that pretty obvious. But there was only one person who it could have been. Zach crossed the room in about one second flat, and then he was striding out of the doorway. A snapped command stopped his Beta and guards from following him. He wasn't scared of the Pine Forest Alpha.

"Come inside, you bloody coward," Zach called.

And to my astonishment, Chris did. One of his coat pockets was oddly lumpy, and I had no doubt it was a gun, but he wasn't the only one who had brought one, so I wasn't too worried. His eyes darted around the room at near-frantic speeds, his shoulders were painfully tense, and he looked for all the world like he might turn on a heel and sprint outside at any moment. But he was here.

There were no seats left for him. Nia and Lily were in the chairs meant for his pack, and they were remarkably indifferent to his plight. He was left awkwardly hovering in a gap between two chairs with a slight pink tinge to his cheeks.

"I'm here as a gesture of goodwill," he said, all too quickly. "You guaranteed my safety."

"Yes, we did. But we didn't think you'd actually dare show your face."

There was an uncomfortable silence as Chris tried to decide if that had been a statement of intent to harm him or just plain derision. He must have settled on the latter, because he then launched into what sounded like a very rehearsed, very unfeeling apology.

"I'm sorry for what happened. I regret my part in it. Vincent and Jaden pointed out that going to war with your pack would be catastrophic and cost hundreds of lives. Whereas attacking your father at a packmeet ... cruel and immoral as it may be ... was the kinder, less damaging option. I am ashamed to say that I listened to them. And that I believed their accusations against him."

"So..." Hayden said dangerously, "if we kill you now, despite promising your safety, wouldn't you agree that it would save a lot of lives? Because then we wouldn't have to go to war with your pack..."

Chris visibly paled as he shook his head. "Jace's death didn't avert a pack war. Mine wouldn't either. This is what I'm trying to tell you. I was wrong to listen to them."

"You can't kill someone in cold blood and then say sorry and expect everything to be fine. Please tell me you know that, Chris," Lewis murmured.

I knew that this was an impossible situation. Under pack law, we could try him for Jace's murder, but I doubted Chris would meekly show up for his execution. If we killed or arrested him here and now, his pack would probably declare war. There were no good options, and the only one that would end without anyone dying was to let him go unpunished — for Jace and for killing innocent people at Haven.

That didn't sit right with me. I doubted it would sit right with Hayden either. I didn't plan on being a Luna for much longer, but he would have to sit here at packmeets for years to come, talking civilly with the man who had helped murder his father.

"Perhaps, if I could be allowed to sit down, we could discuss—"

"Sorry, but no. Packmeet's full," Nia told him. "Are you even supposed to be here? We've got six packs already, so you seem like surplus. No offence."

"Who's she?" he demanded abruptly. I saw where his eyes were going — to the Haven tattoos that my family were making no effort to hide, to the tattered clothes, and to my uncle, who had been in this church with Chris before.

A lack of forthcoming answers meant he had to piece all of that together by himself, but it was a jigsaw any two-year-old could have solved. "Is that— Goddess. Why are there rogues here?" Chris asked, his voice dangerously quiet. Well, that hadn't taken him long.

"Good. Question," Olivia murmured.

No one else bothered to reply.

"So they were right about Jace after all," Chris said slowly, dangerously. "He was colluding with the rogues. And the rest of you ... you were all in on it. Goddess above."

Nia laughed at him. "Er ... no. Interesting that you should think that, but Jace was very much a dickhead, and we wouldn't have worked with him if he'd begged us. I'll ask again — are we sure you're supposed to be here? You seem poorly-informed, and if I'm being honest, a little hysterical."

Chris slammed a hand down on the table. "I'm the Alpha of Pine Forest. Of course I'm supposed to be here! You've got a nerve asking that. More than a nerve, actually. A death wish. I can have you arrested right here and now, you filthy, murdering—"

"Pine Forest?" Nia interrupted, scrunching up her entire face. It was like she hadn't heard those very passionate threats. "Where's that?"

"It's south-east," Lewis told her dutifully. "Past the A road."

"I've been all over Snowdonia," Nia said, not ungently. "If there was a pack down that way, I'd know about it. I think you're fibbing to us. You're not really an Alpha."

Chris turned towards her, his eyes wide and incredulous. "Excuse me?"

I leant forwards, bracing my arms against the table, and then I made a long, ponderous face. "That's an interesting theory. It would explain a lot."

"It would ... explain..." he spluttered. "What? What would it explain?"

"Oh, so much," I replied. "Like why no one has ever seen your pack, why you don't contribute to the anti-rogue patrols, why you've got this old without being challenged and overthrown by someone, and why our pack's so-called 'feud' with yours has been one of the least bloody in history, despite lasting for well over fifty years. Need I go on?"

Liam was giving me what I could only interpret as a warning look from across the table. Or rather, it would have been a warning look, if it had been spoiled by the smile that kept getting the better of him and the open adoration on his face. He shook his head slowly at me. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought Nia and I would dare take it this far. It was one thing joking in camp. It was another thing joking in front of the entire packmeet.

Then, down the link, I got a long, drawn out and slightly exasperated, "Really, Eva?"

"What?" I asked him innocently.

"You know exactly what," he said. "You're loving this, aren't you?"

"The only thing I'm loving is watching all these people wake up to a dark and sordid conspiracy," I told him. Gentle derision washed back across the link. "That being said, I'd probably love it even more if you ... maybe ... joined in?"

He pulled back from the link without answering. Only to keep staring at me across the table anyway. I was only too happy to meet that stare. My eyes were daring him to do it, and one eyebrow was raised ever so slightly.

"I've never actually been to Pine Forest," Liam said aloud. He still hadn't looked away from me, and I could feel my wolf starting to wake up, just as he'd intended. She knew we were playing. There was no such thing as a hierarchy between mates. "Have any of you?"

"No," Zach replied, making a face. "I mean, I don't think I've been to Ember either. But it's true that I haven't seen it with my own two eyes. Lewis?"

Lewis gave an apologetic little shrug. "Can't say I have. But I don't think—"

"Well," I cut across loudly. "You heard, everyone. Something fishy is going on here."

Hayden didn't hesitate even for a second. "You're right, Eva. We may have to strip Pine Forest of its status as a pack."

I nodded along, slow and serious. And I cast an irritated look around the table when I realised someone was laughing. It was the old Shadowless Alpha, and that surprised me, because he was always cold or smug or downright hateful. Now, he actually looked like he was enjoying himself.

Olivia was frowning. Even as I watched, Liam leant towards her and said something long and meandering and reassuring. I had no idea what it might be. Perhaps just a reminder about what Chris had done to deserve this.

"Hayden..." the Alpha was stammering now. "You've... We had you over for a barbeque. You and your father. What kind of nonsense is this?"

Hayden turned his head and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. Happy? he was asking. Is this making your day? And yes, it was, so I just beamed at him as he said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. And it's worrying me that you feel the need to lie about me visiting — what have you got to hide, Chris?"

"You know what?" Bryn exclaimed. He was talking to Nia, but it wasn't exactly a quiet conversation. "Remember that place? The one down south? There were all kinds of signs and shit that said keep out and no trespassers and stuff, like it was a pack. But when we tried raiding the place, it was just empty land. No pack house. No wolves. Freaky, like. It was called Pine Forest, wasn't it? We thought it was just the name of the wood ... but oh, man. What if..."

"Oh, Goddess," Nia murmured. "Yeah. I do remember. Shit. You think...? Because that's so messed up, if it is..."

We weren't the most functional of families, and we didn't always get along, but we'd always been good at putting on a show. And if that show involved collective lying, all the better.

"Right. Okay. I was worried before. But now I'm really quite concerned. It would never even occur to us to verify a pack's existence because you would never expect someone to lie about that," Liam said, because he was just that cool, apparently. I pressed my forefinger against my thumb and flashed the gesture at him across the table.

"Vik," Chris pleaded next. His face was a mottled shade of red. "You— Tell them."

Vik just kept on laughing, even though he'd run out of air a long time ago, and it was coming in ever-degenerating stops and starts. Since he was so entertained, I wondered if we should try and pass a motion declaring that Chris was actually three rats in a trench-coat next.

"Let's vote on it," Hayden said decisively, "and put the matter to rest once and for all. Everyone in favour of revoking Pine Forest status as a pack, please raise your hands."

I put my hand up without a second's hesitation. So did Liam, and yeah, we were from the same pack, so it only counted as one vote, but I reckoned the psychological effect of more hands being up made the other Alphas feel like they needed to join in. Hayden's hand went up slowly and deliberately, and he stared at Chris the whole time he was lifting it.

The other two Lloyd Alphas joined us. Both of them hated Chris for what he'd done to Jace and had little-to-no regard for the morals of it. Nia's hand was up. Another vote that technically didn't count.

Lewis looked at us all, one by one, in the way I might have stared at a long and complicated book. At first, there was interest. A slight hope of understanding. But it faded very quickly to resignation. He put his hand up.

Olivia was staring at all, aghast and horrified. But it didn't matter. We had a majority already — five packs out of seven. And soon to be five out of six.

Chris had gone almost sheet white. There was no sign of the anger anymore. A little bit of fight had gone out of him

"Well, there you go," Hayden said coldly. "Pine Forest is not a pack. You'll need to leave the packmeet now. Although I will say — if a new Alpha should come to us in the next few weeks and declare a pack, we won't turn them away. Even if they also happen to use the name Pine Forest and come from a similar geographic region."

"So this is all a ploy to replace me as Alpha?" Chris demanded. A few drops of saliva splattered the table with the force of those words. So the anger wasn't entirely gone, after all. I wrinkled up my nose and tried not to look at them. "I see how it is. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. This is disgustingly transparent—"

"Call it what you want," Hayden said. "You're alive. Stay here much longer, and you won't be."

Chris spat on the ground. But he wasn't stupid. He could feel the hostility heating our gazes and crackling in the air. Hayden's voice in particular had a hard edge — one I didn't recognise, and one that didn't suit him. I watched Chris's eyes go to the stained flagstones, and without another word, he turned and left the old church with his pack members scrambling at his heels. Good. Riddance.

In the silence he'd left, Vik Lloyd gave one last snort of laughter and then got a hold of himself at long last.

"I've been to Pine Forest," he told us. "It's a real pack. Promise."

"Then why the hell did you vote?" Olivia snapped.

Vik gave her a lazy shrug. "Just wanted to see the look on his face, in all honesty. That, and it saves us all the mess that would come from killing him."

"Yeah, it was a clever solution," his son said. The words were directed at Hayden more than anyone, but sat so close, I got a little of the overflow. "I give him two weeks of sulking before he steps down and someone else takes his place. Would appreciate a head's up next time, though."

Oh. I hadn't been trying to do anything clever. Or tactical. Maybe Hayden had, though. Honestly, the power had just gone to my head, and I'd been finding it funny, so I'd rolled with it.

"Don't get me wrong," Hayden murmured. "I'm glad he's not an Alpha anymore. But it's hard to accept that as the extent of his punishment. He really is getting away with murder."

Nia wasn't slow to correct him. "Nah, pup. He's not getting away with jack shit. I'll give him a few weeks to let his guard down, and then I'll go and cut his throat myself. I don't have to follow pack law."

I would've liked to have joined her. But unfortunately, until I could escape Silver Lake, I did have to follow pack law. I scowled down at my lap and wriggled in my seat as that thought send a shudder of disgust through me.

"Well!" Zach exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "Okay then. That solves our problem beautifully. Good work, team."

"It's not very legal," Lewis murmured. "But oh well."

Olivia pounced on the pause in conversation to direct a sharp, scathing comment at poor Nia. Until then, she had settled for staring. "You really will take any excuse to kill someone, won't you? A minute ago, you were saying you hated Jace Lloyd. Now you want to avenge him?"

"It's not Jace I'm avenging, Luna," Nia told her in a steady, even tone. "Last week, flockies attacked my home without provocation. Chris was one of them. Your dirtbag mate was another. They murdered quite a lot of children. My foster brother and baby sister included."

Olivia stared at her for a long moment. I saw her throat bob, and then she was looking around at the rest of us with wide, searching eyes. "Is that—"

"True? Yes. What, your mate didn't tell you?" I muttered. I already knew the answer, though. She hadn't known.

Her face was very pale now — almost bloodless — and her voice was little more than a whisper. "No. He did not. But it must have been an accident. Surely. I mean ... children? How can you assume they would do that deliberately?"

"Because they've been doing it for years, Liv," Liam said softly. "I think the idea was to wipe out rogues altogether. Because genocide is the fastest way to get peace, right? Can't have a war if there's no one left to fight you."

I was stretching out in my chair, trying to ignore the half-hearted but increasingly frequent growls from my stomach. I didn't really want to listen to this conversation. I was so tired of having to convince flockies that their passionate and blinding hatred of rogues had actual real-life consequences.

"Right," Nia agreed. "Makes sense and all. Solid plan. Twenty years of that, and lots of us have died, so who knows? Given another twenty years, maybe it would have worked. But believe it or not, there is actually a faster way to get peace. And I'm going to demonstrate it for you all right now. Should take about five minutes. Ten max."

I wasn't going to cry in the middle of the packmeet. I wasn't.

But hearing that had snapped something inside me. I wiped my eyes with a sleeve out of sheer paranoia. They felt too watery. I didn't know how much it was showing ­­— whether my eyes were red, and whether my constant, gentle snuffling had caught anyone's attention. I didn't know why I was upset now, when we were so close to actually fixing this.

Vik Lloyd was looking amused. "Thirty seconds, more like. You gonna stop raiding us, sweetheart? Because if you do, I think we can all get along. It really is that simple."

Such a honeyed tone for such sharp, biting words. Nia seemed to soak it all up, and then she started to smile. There was something very unnerving about it. "Mm ... no. But nice of you to offer."

That didn't go down well. A muscle writhed in the old Alpha's jaw, but he didn't get as far as opening his mouth. Nia had turned her head to look at Bryn, waiting for something. It didn't take him long to oblige her.

"We're going to keep on raiding you," Bryn explained. There was no smile on his lips, but his voice itself was deeply layered with mischief and satisfaction. "And you're going to let us."

Vik's lips curled in amusement. "Really? Because that doesn't sound like me."

Bryn's eye narrowed. "Oh, right, yeah. Because you were executing rogues for trespass long before it was cool, weren't you?"

"Yes, he was. So often and so enthusiastically that most of those rogues didn't even get a trial," my uncle said. He was staring at Vik so unapologetically that I was worried the two of them would come to blows.

"If I'd executed a few more rogues ... perhaps even just one rogue in particular," Vik mused, "there wouldn't have been a war. Because you wouldn't have been born, your bitch of a sister would be working in the kitchens at Silver Lake, and your merry band of thieves and murderers would still be living hand-to-mouth in the bloody woods, too busy bickering to cause problems for anyone."

"Hindsight's a beautiful thing," Uncle Rhys said, smiling at him. "And our merry band of thieves and murderers is still hand-to-mouth in the bloody woods. So..."

"You know why you're all starving?" Zach Lloyd snapped, and whether it had been his intention or not, the staring contest was broken off. "Because you spend more time committing crimes than collecting food. Stay off our land. Stay away from our pack members. You'd be surprised how many more hours there are in a day."

"You say that," Nia laughed. "But you've never tried to run your pack without being raided, have you? Might not be as easy as you think. Hating us gives you a common purpose. It keeps those sheep of yours quiet and obedient and fearful. It gives you all something to do. It's the whole reason this system of packs exists. To separate us from you."

Zach let out a quiet snort but didn't bother to correct her.

"Like it or not, you need us ... or this all falls apart. Without raids, your fighters'll get bored and lazy. They'll pick fights. With each other. With other packs. With you."

"Guess we'll see, won't we?" he laughed.

"You sure you want to see?" she asked innocently. "To find out the hard way? I'd give you a few months, maybe more, before there's a pack war brewing. A year before one of the packs splits in two, like Stormhaze did when there were only a handful of rogues left in Snowdonia. Five years before you're feuding with the English packs again, just for something to do. Wolves are peaceful animals. Humans are not."

"It's true that since the conflict with the rogues escalated, there hasn't been fighting between the packs. And that has held true for nearly twenty years now," Hayden piped up. "Well, until recently, anyway. The previous record was seven months, and that was only because everyone was hiding indoors during Foot and Mouth."

"Ah, I remember that. Good times," Vik murmured, nodding along. "If it had gone on much longer, you'd probably have a little brother or sister, Zach. There wasn't much else for us to do."

His mate swatted at him. His son gave him a flat, tight-lipped look to make it very clear he hadn't needed to know that. I was pretty sure the rest of the packmeet hadn't needed to know either.

"Well, there you go," Nia said dryly. "You know what boredom feels like. Problem is, the women in your packs will still have to work just as much as they did before. And meanwhile, their mates will be sat on their arses and getting sick of running patrols in empty woods."

"It's nice that you're so concerned about our pack members' feelings and the ease with which we can run our packs. But I would rather my fighters were bored out of their minds than being killed by rogues, and that's the end of it."

That was Alpha Lewis, and it was uncharacteristically sharp.

Nia blew out, one eyebrow creeping upwards. "No one will be killed, if I get my way. I'll keep raiding your packs. You'll stop meeting us with lethal force, and we'll stop responding with lethal force. That's the way things used to be, ain't it? Before you all got so jumpy and murderous. Try and remember that we're not bloody rabid animals. Trespass and stealing ain't actually that bad, as far as crimes go."

"Keep talking," Lewis said quietly.

Well, thank the Goddess for that. I leant back in my seat and rubbed at my face. These were supposed to be the more reasonable Alphas, and I'd been close to wondering if they were going to bite. Lewis wouldn't have a pack if it wasn't for us, so it was about bloody time. Hell, I was pretty sure Lewis wouldn't have survived into adulthood if it wasn't for us.

"If one of your guys kills one of mine, I want them prosecuted for murder," Nia told him. "And I'll do the same on my end. That should keep people in line. No maiming either, alright? Reasonable force, that's all. No more roaming around Snowdonia, trying to find our camps and burn them. No more blockading supermarkets. If you catch a rogue on your territory, then sure. Lock them up. Whatever. Find a reasonable punishment. But no death penalties, no torture, no starving them— Actually, you know what? No war crimes at all. Reckon that's fair?"

"This all sounds great for you," Zach laughed. "But I don't see how it benefits us to let you steal without any consequences."

"Well, I'm sorry," Nia said shortly. "I thought you might appreciate your fighters not getting killed in the line of duty. My bad."

Zach made a face and rubbed at his chin and tried to come up with a way to make himself look less of a dickhead. Nia was talking again before he had any success.

"What you'll find," she was saying, "is that when we're not being forced to move our camps every week, we're nearly self-sustainable. And all our little trips over the border to grab tins of food and pocket change will stop, so—"

It was Vik's turn to laugh at her. "Doubt it, somehow. You lot steal whether you're hungry or not, and if you know nothing bad will happen, what's to stop you coming across the border whenever your stomach growls?"

Nia gave him a half-smile. "If you had let me finish, maybe you'd know."

He lifted an eyebrow and waited expectantly.

"At the moment," she said, "we can't store firewood for the winter, because you lot'll find it and kill us when we come back for it. We can't risk going to our usual campsites, where we've got edible plants along every trail. We can't go hunting properly because it leaves long scent-trails for your scouts to follow back to our camps. We're having to raid defensively so that you won't dare send out more than half of your fighters to kill us at any one time. Shall I keep going? Because we could be here all day... We'd rather find our own food than take yours, but you're not giving us a chance to do that."

Vik's eyed took a slow lap in their socket. "Yeah, yeah, I think we get the gist. You want to be able to dance around in the forest without a care in the world and then come raiding whenever the mood takes you. You've dreamt up your ideal world, and now you'll have us all bend backwards to build it for you."

"No, this is the way things used to be," she told him. "Before a tableful of dickhead Alphas decided it would be easier to murder every rogue in a hundred-mile radius than argue with Keith Vaughan."

"It was a lot more complicated than that, sweetheart," Zach snapped. He was the only one of that tableful of dickhead Alphas left. "Why do you need to raid at all if you're so great at finding your own food, given enough breathing room?"

Nia's sigh was barely audible, but it gave me the impression she was losing the will to live. "We don't. You're the ones who need the raids, not us, remember? But I guess we have the same problems with boredom if we're not crossing borders. That, and the money we steal buys us tents and medicine and shit like that from the humans."

"You know we can't officially agree to you continuing to raid us," Liam said grudgingly. The way he was eyeing Nia, you'd think she'd just picked the seat beside him on an empty bus. "But it's possible we can reach a quieter sort of agreement. I'd be open to it if it meant fewer people losing their lives."

"Well, you would, wouldn't you?" Vik Lloyd said lazily. "You're mated to one of the dirty little criminals."

It took a not-very-subtle cough from his son before he seemed to remember that he was also mated to one of the dirty little criminals. His Luna, whose name was Lexi, I was pretty sure, turned towards him with her lip curled and her eyebrows raised. She looked like she wanted to kill him. He didn't bother to return that stare. He grimaced, and he kept his eyes fixed on the table.

"Well, that's awkward," I muttered. "Not a criminal, by the way. I was born and raised in New Dawn. He just thinks that any woman with an opinion must have something wrong with her."

I was only saying that for the benefit of my sister-in-law, who had been looking at me with wide eyes and her mouth ajar ever since Vik's unhelpful comment. Everyone else at the table had a pretty good idea of who I was by then and didn't much care. It seemed to satisfy her.

"Yes, he does," she murmured. "If he's not careful, we'll only bother to invite Lexi next time."

I'd like that. Her mate was a little too sure of himself and a little too dangerous for my liking. But if we did manage to put Jaden's daughter in charge of Riverside, he'd go back into retirement anyway, and we'd all be free. Their son was ... a little better. Wouldn't be my first choice, though. Still, by the look of him, he would also be retiring soon, and we'd have a young, impressionable and easily-bullied Alpha in his place.

"I think it will take a lot more discussion, and a lot of time," Hayden said slowly, "but what Nia's suggesting could work. The main barrier will be persuading our fighters that they don't need to be aiming for the throat anymore, but it won't be insurmountable. I will say, though, that I don't want to wait a month before we discuss this again..."

"No, agreed," Lewis said. "We'll meet back here in a few days, and I think you'd better attend, Nia. Be prepared to prove that you can actually control the rogues well enough to uphold your end of the bargain. I know your way of governing isn't as rigid as ours."

"It's not a dictatorship, if that's what you mean," Bryn muttered. "She doesn't control anyone. We just listen when someone's talking sense."

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see," Zach Lloyd said sceptically. He was already rising to his feet, clearly eager to escape the church. He probably wanted his lunch — I could hear his stomach growling from here. "Well, gentlemen. Until next time."

We let them all clear out. I didn't bother so much as wriggling in my seat. We'd brought our own food, but I hadn't seen any point telling the other Alphas that. Most of them were not people I'd hang out with by choice. It wasn't long before it was just New Dawn, Silver Lake, and the rogues left at the table. Even Kai had disappeared. He was probably getting himself invited to someone's pack for lunch so he could do some sneaky lobbying.

The second we had the room to ourselves, Nia flashed me a grin. "Hey, puppies. That went well."

"Well-ish," I conceded.

"They'll come around," Hayden promised. "They know there's not much alternative. None of them want to carry on like we were."

I just grunted.

Bryn took the newly-empty seat beside me. He managed a small, rather unconvincing smile. I returned it and then I knocked my leg against his because that meant hello, and it meant no hard feelings. The last time we'd spoken hadn't gone very well.

Before I could ask him how he was, Mal leant between us to set something down on the table. I hadn't even noticed him go out to the car, but there he was, with a hot-bag full of handmade pizza from the Silver Lake kitchens. We were all hungry, and we all pounced at once, with the exception of Hayden and Hannah, whose manners had clearly survived those long weeks at our camps.

"Oh, take some already," I told them, my mouth already half-full of pizza. I'd stood up to pry open the boxes for everyone else, and that position gave me a bird's eye view of the pizzas and unrestricted access to it all. "It's good. We've got a pizza oven, apparently. Don't know who paid for it, but it's there, and it seems to work miracles."

Hayden dragged a box towards himself without any further prompting. Hannah tugged her phone out, so I imagined she was probably doing her sums and didn't hassle her. Eating was a slightly slower, slightly more complicated process when you had to do a task that one of your internal organs was too useless to do itself.

With two slices in hand, I tried to return to my seat, only to find that someone else had beaten me to it. He hadn't wanted to be left on the other side of the table, so impractically far away from the pizza. And maybe, if I was being soppy, he hadn't wanted to be so far away from me, either.

"That was very rude of you, Liam," I told him.

"Yeah, it was," he agreed seriously. "And I'm pretty sure it was deliberate, too, so that's even worse. You should file a complaint at the office later."

"Oh, I will," I promised. "And guess who'll have to spend an hour processing the paperwork? Yeah, that's right. You."

He nodded. "It's the least I deserve."

I couldn't help the grin. I'd missed this — the playfulness, the messing around, and the slight competitivity of it all. It had all been dampened down at Silver Lake, given that we'd been in constant danger of being killed, etcetera, etcetera. But it didn't come free anymore. Every time I laughed with him in that easy, carefree way, it was chased by a stab of guilt, like I wasn't supposed to be enjoying myself.

Because there had always been three of us. I'd had nearly a decade of Rhodri without Liam. But I wasn't used to Liam without Rhodri. And the part that frightened me most was how sometimes, for a minute or two, I would forget he wasn't here. It felt like a betrayal. How long before I'd stop noticing his absence altogether? A year? Two? It wasn't a thought I could bear.

I must have done a good job of keeping all that from the link, because Liam hadn't even blinked in my direction. And a slightly sheepish grin had crept across his lips. "Um, Eva, could you maybe ... could you pass me some..."

He didn't bother finishing the question. The look in my eyes told him everything he needed to know. Yes, I had realised the power I had, and no, I was not in a merciful mood. The guilt could be shoved down somewhere where it would eat at me quietly until the next time it decided to rear its ugly head and take a bigger bite.

"Please?" he asked with big, innocent eyes.

"Sure," I said. "You like mushrooms, right?"

Liam made an unhappy noise. But the slice was already out of the box and in his hand, and although he sighed at it, I didn't hear any protests. Smug, I hauled myself up to sit on the table itself, crossing my legs in front of me. I could look down at him, and that was a rare thing. His face looked different from this angle.

"This table was actually custom-made," Hayden told me. "It's Mahogany wood, and it wasn't cheap, so can you watch where you're putting your—"

Slowly and deliberately, I moved one of my boots onto his knee, and the other to Liam's knee, and then I gave him a big, big smile. He closed his mouth. He went back to his pizza. And I went back to mine without bothering to move my feet.

I snorted upon realising that Liam had used my distraction to heap his unwanted mushrooms onto my slice of pizza. I shook my head at him slowly, making my disappointment known, but I didn't bother returning them. You couldn't grow up in the woods without learning to tolerate strange and slimy things.

"This is good pizza," Hayden said after a while. "See, you can't make this on a campfire. Are you starting to warm up to pack life?"

I nearly spat out a mouthful of food in my indignation. "Nah. Course not. Are you dumb? The plan is... What's the plan again?"

"Stay for a year," Liam said. "And if things are calm, we'll stay on the register but leave the pack, and put someone else in charge. Mason's daughter won't be able to inherit for quite a long time."

Yep. A whole year. I wasn't built for that. But we would be able to sneak back to camp from time to time ... right? We'd gotten away with it so far. And when that year was up, I'd never have to set foot in Silver Lake again if I didn't want to.

"Someone else?" Hayden asked cautiously, because he'd have to put up with them long after we'd buggered off. "Like who?"

That made me bite back a smile. "Well, Mal doesn't want to be Alpha. But he also doesn't want some other jackass to be Alpha. So ... he's the hot potato, I guess."

"Yep," Mal sighed. "Kelsey's keen, though — aren't you? She can do all the work, and I'll just aid and abet."

His mate nodded along enthusiastically. She did have Alpha blood, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. "I think it'll be fun. Everyone having to do what you tell them to? Man ... I mean, what's not to like?"

Someone caught hold of my ankles. Liam, of course. He was rearranging my feet so they were both on his chair and not on anyone's freshly-laundered trousers. I let him. And when he was done, and he was looking up at me with a lazy, contented smile, I couldn't help myself. I darted in to steal a kiss and nip at his bottom lip. It was fleeting and rougher than usual, and it had woken a nest of butterflies in my stomach.

"You taste ... a lot like mushrooms, actually," Liam told me, and he didn't sound very happy about it. I couldn't help giggling a little.

"Let's get you a drink, mm?" I asked him. "Something to wash it down. Mal, where's all the other stuff? I swear we packed alcohol. Didn't you bring it in?"

"You packed what?" Nia demanded. She was on her feet all of a sudden and looking very interested. There was the beginnings of a grin on her face.

Mal leant back in his chair. "I would've brought it in, but I only have two arms. Here you go."

He tossed the car keys onto the table. I wrinkled up my nose and looked towards the doorway, trying to remember how far away we'd parked. I didn't want to return to cold pizza — or worse, no pizza at all because the idiots around me had bottomless stomachs and no manners.

"I'll go," Nia said. She grabbed the keys and was out of the door in about two seconds flat. I grinned to myself and took another bite of pizza, because I hadn't even needed to get up, and that was a victory in my books.

"Do you think she'll come back, or do you think she'll nick my car?" Mal asked in a slow and somewhat resigned way. "Because I just did make it very easy for her..."

"Uh... Yeah, good question," I said, wincing. "You can never be sure with Nia, but she did leave Lily behind, so I'd say your chances are about sixty-forty in favour of her coming back."

"Um, hey, no," Lily muttered. "Don't even fib, Eva. She wouldn't leave me behind."

"She's admiring it right now," Uncle Rhys called from the doorway, where he'd been standing watch ever since the other Alphas had left. Lily's face was an absolute picture, and she craned her head around to see it with her own eyes.

"Yikes," I whispered. "Forty it is, then. Sorry, Mal."

He put his head in his hands. Kelsey put a gentle hand on his shoulder and rubbed little circles, whispering something reassuring while she tried her best to fight off a smile. I imagined he felt like a right muppet, but the truth was, if Nia had been so inclined, she could have taken those keys out of his pocket as easily as she'd taken them from the table.

But not a minute later, Nia was thumping a crate of beer down onto the table and pulling out her knife to open it. Mal lifted his head again. Relief and hope brightened his entire face, and it was almost heart-warming to watch. He watched Nia run the blade across the cardboard. It didn't take him long to realise that there were no car keys in her hand, and she had made no effort to return them to him.

"Did you leave the keys out there or something?" Mal asked her. Still relieved. Still hopeful.

"Oh, you're not having those back," Nia told him. She had the audacity to look confused that he would even ask. "But don't worry. I've seen how many spares there are at Silver Lake. You'll be fine."

"Still have to ... y'know ... get back there first," he muttered.

"You've got legs, haven't you? You can run. It'll do you some good. Eva loves running — don't you, Eva? Think of it like a special treat for her."

"I do love running," I agreed. "But I don't love beer. Do we have anything else?"

"No," Mal said. "You said to bring alcohol. You didn't say what kind."

"There's a sink back there," Hannah said. She was just finishing up her first slice of pizza and wiping greasy fingers on the empty box. Her insulin pen was beside her, rolling softly back and forth every time anyone knocked the table. "But I wouldn't drink from it, if I were you. Lead pipes. Very old. Might even kill you."

"What?" Bryn demanded, mouth open in horror. "You... The things that bring you water... They're ... poisonous? Why?"

"Some of them, yeah. I don't think it was deliberate, Bryn. When the pipes were first built, people didn't understand the risks of—"

"You people really will do anything, won't you?" he seethed. "Why'd you need pipes at all? You know you could just collect your water from a river like a normal person, right? Give it a quick boil if it's clean. Add in some filtering or condensing if it's not ... and voila. Nice and safe. No poison."

"It's not that safe, though, is it?" she mused. "There's a lot of raw sewage in rivers these days. And fertilisers and insecticides and microplastics and Goddess knows what else. Some companies just tip their waste products straight into the water."

"They what?" he spluttered. My own reaction wasn't much different, and even Nia was sitting there with her jaw hanging loose and her forehead creased. It was hard to understand why someone would do that to a poor, innocent river. They had to know they were damaging it. Did they just ... not care? And was this why our drinking water sometimes tasted a bit weird and metallic?

Hannah just shrugged at him. "Yeah. It's not ideal."

The silence was deafening.

"I guess I'll just drink the beer, then," I muttered. I popped a can open, and I took a packet of crisps. They were cheesy and contained more air than potato, but I wasn't very picky when it came to snack-food.

Nia had already finished her first can and was grabbing another. She popped the lid but lifted it instead of taking a sip.

"Here's to stealing without consequences, as Zach Lloyd so eloquently put it," Nia said. "And here's to getting along with flockies — but only the cool flockies."

Most of us laughed because most of us were rogues. Hannah looked mildly alarmed. Her wide eyes followed Hayden as he clinked his can against Bryn's without a second thought. Either the stealing part of the toast hadn't registered with him or he was a lot less uptight than he'd used to be.

"Cheers to that," I said. I was too lazy to knock cans with anyone except Bryn, Liam and Nia, all of whom were within arm's reach, but it was the principal that counted.

"Love how he assumes he's one of the cool flockies," Lily murmured with a sly smile in Hayden's direction.

"Wait, I'm not?" he demanded, setting his can down on the table in his indignation and looking wildly between us all for even the barest hint of assent.

"Hey," I told Lily sternly. "He's alright. I agree that cool is a strong word, though."

Hayden tried to push me over. It would have been easy for him, balanced on the table as I was, but he had to lean out of his chair to do it. And when that chair began to tip, Liam kicked it out from under him with one foot and only the tiniest amount of effort. He went sprawling onto the floor, the chair falling on top of him, and he hadn't even managed to touch me first, which was a little embarrassing for him.

Bryn had taken advantage of the chaos to steal Hayden's abandoned drink. He put it between his knees now and downed his own beer before starting on that one too, all while Hayden was too busy swearing and picking himself up to notice.

"To getting along with the cool flockies and Hayden," Bryn said. He toasted it by knocking the stolen can against his own. "Do you think there's enough beer for us all to get hammered?"

I looked at the crate, which was already a quarter empty, and then I looked back at Bryn and shrugged. "No, I don't think there is. But that shouldn't stop us trying."