I'm not late you're late.

I didn't really have the faintest idea what was going on. I don't think Kai did either.

We followed the rogues through the forest like dogs on leads, struggling to keep up and with no say in the destination. I had grown up on the island, and I couldn't work out where we were headed. They had been here less than a day, and they seemed unquestionably certain. Maybe they were using information from my head, I thought bitterly, then set the idea aside and blamed it on exhaustion.

After the rogues had loudly rejected the idea of travelling in a large group, we had sent Nate to bring the others, much to his annoyance. They shadowed us, maybe a mile behind. So it was just me and Kai, walking far behind the rogues, whose careless laughter floated backwards on the wind and grated on my temper.

After an hour or so, they stopped to let us catch up. As it turned out, that was purely because they wanted a recommendation for a good place to find rabbits. We couldn't offer a helpful answer; neither of us could admit to being ardent rabbit hunters. So, they looked at us curiously and Skye shrugged at Rhys.

"Go anyway. Just don't go too far — Jeff is still...upset."

He was grinning as he oh-so-graciously threw his rucksack at Leo, leaving him with twice the weight, and slipped away into the undergrowth. The old man paused his whistling when his name was mentioned, only to shake it off and change the tune to something far shriller.

"Where's he going?" Kai asked. When he got nothing but a flat stare in reply, he tried talking to his cousin instead. "Where are you going?"

Rhys turned, eyes glinting. "Ah, just scouting. But if a rabbit happens to run across my paws...well, I would say no."

I felt a smile tug at my lips. Paws. Finally, something they didn't know. Watching the rogue trying to shift in broad daylight would be a welcome treat, I dared to hope. Kai was far nicer than me — he tried a warning, "Sorry, but you need the moon to shift here."

"We worked that out the hard way," he admitted.

"You already know? Then why—"

A half smile had settled on Rhys's mouth. A smile which was quickly eradicated when the shift took over. I stared, arms folded and determined not to gape while the wolf replaced the human. Even when a hulking, giant tawny wolf flicked his tail at me, I found it hard to believe.

"Werecat blood perk," a voice said lazily in our heads. "Don't ask why — I don't understand or care."

Then he was gone, melting into the trees with laughable ease. And ghostly laughter echoed in my mind long after he had vanished from sight.

"Keep your scent off," Skye shouted after him, almost as an afterthought. She turned back around, only to swear loud enough to spook a rabbit. Yet no one even twitched to chase it across through the brambles — our attention snagged on Jeff instead.

He was sat cross-legged, rocking backwards and forwards with both hands clamped over his ears. I was sure his working eye was staring backwards at his brain. And I could hear a low muttering which sounded suspiciously like, "Shutup shutup shutup."

"Shit," Skye hissed, kneeling beside him. "Rhys linked, didn't he? Dumbass."

Fion was more forgiving. As she retrieved a water bottle from her rucksack and set it within Jeff's reach, she reasoned, "It's easy to forget. Should we call him back?"

"Can't do that without the mind-link...unless... No, we can't howl — we can't shift. Dammit. This island is really a pain in my ass." The rogue girl grimaced. She still didn't dare touch the old man, who was now hunched over on his knees. "You know the drill by now. Back away. We'll wait it out."

Hunched in a wary group, the rogue retreated until they hit a tree. We hurried to join them, spooked by the strange behaviour. After a few minutes of standing still, the silence was destroying what little certainty I had left. Something was going on. Something dangerous enough to worry these dangerous people. And all we were doing was watching and waiting.

"Is there any way we can help?" Kai asked tentatively, probably to sate my emotions that rebounded across the link. He was rewarded with a snarl, layered with dismissal. My wolf had her tail tucked between her legs before the sound had faded, and even Kai himself flinched. Well, at least that answered one of my existing questions: she was 'the boss' because she had an assertive wolf and natural aggression.

"Sit down," she told us shortly, "and shut up."

We did.

What felt like hours later — although it was just minutes — Jeff straightened himself out. He had been shaking violently, but that stopped now. And breaths which had come in short rasps were suddenly smooth and effortless.

"Hi Jeff," the rogue said soothingly and moved to crouch beside him again.

He nodded sagely. "The voices ish whispering again. Oh yesh, they is. But old Jeff was good. Old Jeff was calm."

"That's right. You did a good job, not shifting. We'll go and see Rhys now, yeah?"

"I likes Rhysie," Jeff announced. I wasn't sure he had understood completely, but he offered no resistance as Skye helped him stand and let him lean on her as they walked. We set off again as if nothing had happened.

It took us the rest of the morning to reach the island's western coastline. We were on Llewellyn land, yes, but there were regular detours to skirt around civilians and patrols. No one wanted to risk Kai being seen, even by friends, while there was such a huge price on his head.

Although I wasn't privy to the mental conversations, I was aware of Rhys's scouting when we changed direction without any obvious reason. They were careful about the mind-linking; Fion would distance herself from Jeff before stopping to take or send a message. He would still shake his head irritably or start muttering but it didn't get any worse than that.

"We're going to the beach," Fion announced after returning from mind-linking the last time.

The next minute was consumed by the rogues trading high-fives and just generally celebrating. Kai and I watched with grudging smiles until they had calmed enough to keep moving. The pace suddenly increased from a gentle stroll to an energetic march.

"You'd think they'd never been to the seaside before," I muttered, too quiet for even a shifter's ears.

Kai levelled me a flat look. "Maybe they haven't. I wouldn't be surprised. The mainland colony is in Snowdonia — away from the coast."

"Well, they must have seen it on the way here."

"I suppose so. Especially as they seem to have bypassed the bridge."

Skye said without turning around, "We stowed away in a fishing boat. I was sick twice, and that was nothing compared to the others: it was tossing and frothing like a rabid animal."

Cowed that they had heard us talking about them, I bit my lip and looked down. Although Kai wasn't even perturbed — he explained, "We had people watching for you. Things might have gone more...smoothly if you had used the front door, that's all."

"Smoothly?" She snorted. "No one died. I'd say that's as smooth as it gets."

Kai looked at me. I looked at Kai. Neither of us could find a reply.

Consequently, the walk to the beach was undertaken in silence from then on. That was getting too comfortable for comfort. Talking was difficult, I found, so difficult that it rarely seemed worth my effort. I was beginning to understand why Nate was so quiet.

Sometime after noon, an azure blur began to rise above the horizon, stretching to either edge of my vision. We crossed the final mile of moorland and ended up on a cliff edge, staring down at pale sand and seaweed covered rocks. It wasn't a nice beach. Nice beaches belonged in the Caribbean. But this was the last place a family would go on a summer's day — there was no footpath or visual appeal — so it was deserted, save for a single grey wolf who was doing his damned best to skim stones without hands.

Skye was grinning as she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Is this your idea of scouting, you lazy-ass shithead?"

Rhys (because I didn't see who else it could be) looked up sharply towards us, then his tail thumped against the sand. His yipping whine reached us despite the distance, carried by a sea breeze.

"Werewolf or overgrown puppy? I can't tell." She scoffed. Then to us, "I hope you can all climb?"

With a shudder, I remembered a long afternoon at Evarlin, and nodded.

The way down, as it turned out, was scarcely more than a series of ledges. Almost invisible from above, yet surprisingly sturdy, they wound around the cliff. I dreaded to think how Rhys had managed it in wolf form, because I skidded and slid even with the benefit of my arms. It was a small comfort that Kai struggled as badly, while the rogues were quicker than mountain goats. Even crazy old Jeff.

When my feet finally sunk into the damp sand, Rhys had vanished from the water's edge. His friends were frowning at that empty space as they waited for us. Kai landed heavily beside me, breathing a little faster than normal. I suspected he was tired after the night of lost sleep and the unending walking.

And then he pitched forwards into the sand and a grey blur leapt over him. Rhys. He had been behind us somewhere, somehow. He succeeded in knocking over both Skye and Leo in a similar manner, then the situation descended into a tussle between the humans and wolf. By the time it was finished, sticky sand coated skin, fur and clothes alike.

Kai rolled over and groaned, throwing a loathing look at his cousin. "Can you not?"

The wolf's teeth glinted white as he grinned.

Once everyone was on their feet and behaving with some semblance of maturity, I turned around to inspect the rocks. There – a narrow fissure hidden by a barnacled rock. It was a cave, and almost certainly where the rogue had been hiding. I decided against exploring until I could retrieve a torch from the bottom of my rucksack.

Rhys needed it first, anyway, to shift. He took the proffered clothes and disappeared into the darkness for a minute, returning fully dressed and in human form.

As my legs were shaking with exhaustion, I sat down and stretched out, my back against cold rocks. This side of the cliff was western so the sun was only just beginning to reach it. The shade retreated from the sea, to be replaced by warmth and light. Kai sat beside me, the rogues directly opposite.

They faced us with an uncomfortable air of interrogation. Rhys pointed at the horizon. "That the island?"

Kai squinted, unnecessarily because the green smudge couldn't have been anything else. "Well, I reckon Gilbert the massive green whale is napping right now, so the chances are —"

A muscle in Rhys's jaw clenched, but Leo smiled. "And here I was, wondering if you two really were related."

They both turned to glare at him in such an identical way that I found myself smiling too.

"How do you get out there?" Skye asked, cutting through the tension like a knife.

"There's a few ways. The bridges are closed, the ferry runs—"

She stopped him with a raised hand. "No. You lived there, right? How did you get back and forth? And how did everyone else?"

Kai's head tilted sideways in a way which reminded me he wasn't entirely a werewolf. He must have understood the point of the questions, even though I didn't. "My family had a boat: we kept it moored at the closest pier. The residents use their own boats too, the guards get across by the ferry, and the same for visitors. The ferry stays across at night, so they would expect you to use a bridge, all of which are watched."

Oh. They were trying to determine the best way to get to Holyhead. I let my head rest against the rock while I listened.

"And where's the usual crossing?"

"A lot further north. There aren't as many currents."

Skye's fingers tapped her knife hilt in a hypnotic rhythm. "So. It's bad down here. They wouldn't expect it. We'll swim across at nightfall and bring the kids back in that boat of yours."

The other rogues nodded, with the single exception of Jeff, who was occupied by popping seaweed pods and making a sandy paste from the pus. But I was doing my best not to look at him.

"Are you sure?" Kai asked bluntly. "Not even a boat? It must be half a mile, whatever that is in leagues. You could all drown..."

"We're good swimmers," she assured him. "If I were you, I'd worry less about us and more about yourself. Jeff will have to stay here. Rhys will have to come. So you'd better hope your werecat buddy arrives before dark."

She stood up, her feet facing seawards. The others followed suit after Rhys had winked at us and offered, "Pro tip. Don't mind-link. And don't shift — he hates wolves. Try not to act like a wolf either, or even smell like one."

"You did all of those things earlier," I pointed out shortly.

"Ah. I did. Me, not you." His mouth twisted into another grin. "Just think about this. I'm his favourite person in the whole wide world and he still puts a kitchen knife in my shoulder when I screw up. What he'd do to you lucky mutts... I don't even want to consider."

"Hey, don't listen to him. He's being an asshole again." Fion clasped my shoulder, not at all reassuring. "But I'd rather not scrape you off the walls later, so don't piss Jeff off, okay?"

I looked over at the old man with a new fear. He hadn't even noticed we were discussing him — he was too busy singing a word which was either ice-cream or scream. I couldn't tell. And I wasn't sure I wanted to.

"Okay."

It was so not okay.