Everything around me was colour, bright and bold and wholly overwhelming. I swerved and darted between wolves, unsure which ones I was meant to be fighting and which ones I was meant to be defending. I didn’t know Winterpaw like I did Blue Moon; I couldn’t pick out a member of my new pack in their coloured forms, let alone the greyscale I was more used to.
Blue Moon ran in my blood. It was built deep into my bones. Even if I’d wanted to be part of Winterpaw Warrior, it could never compete with that.
Two wolves knocked into me at once. I growled, low and rumbling in my throat, yanking myself upright and twisting around to tear into them. They were smaller than me, but one ripped into my hind leg and another clawed my shoulder. I hung back, pretending to be more hurt than I was; they wasted a half-second glancing at each other, and then I struck.
I leapt at the first one, snapping my jaws around its neck. I winced as blood hissed from the w
One year later I smoothed my hands down over my thick cloak. Nerves swarmed in my belly: not the dizzying kind that made me feel faint, but the sort that cast a hazy glow over everything as I walked along the winding woodland pathway. Torches flickered every few feet; orange roses of light bloomed across the mossy, dew-damp earth beneath my boots. âNervous?â asked Dad. âA little.â I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. âItâs silly, I know. Thereâs nothing to be nervous about. Iâve been his Luna for the last year â longer, really â but this feelsâŠâ I trailed off, unsure how to word exactly how it felt. Official? Real? âItâs been such a long time coming, sweetheart.â âYeah. Part of me wishes weâd done this straight after the battle, but it made sense to wait until the pack was remade.â Unable to help myself, a grin pushed hard at my cheeks. Everything looked beautiful today, I thought, the pine trees bottle-green beneath the golden setting sun. Everything was glazed with the
As everyone took their seats, Ares and I remained standing. I clutched at his hand: it was a physical reminder to everyone there that we were joined, that Winterpaw Warrior and Blue Moon were enemies no longer.I glanced at Ares, letting him take the lead. He swallowed, straightened his shoulders, and then smiled hesitantly around at everyone. The expression looked strange, uncertain, and it took me a moment to realise why. Ares never smiled at people when he addressed them. He led through fear and control. Not anymore, it seemed. My heart swelled.âThank you all for coming,â he said, projecting his voice clearly and confidently across the room. âLuna Sienna and Alpha Rodriguez, of the Firepaw Pack.â He inclined his head at the dark-skinned woman my dad had been talking to before, and the bald-headed, well-muscled man sat beside her. They were both older than us by about fifteen years.The Alpha and Luna of the Storm Guardian Pack were older still, well into their fifties, their face
Ares had given Dad the nicest of the Warrior Wolvesâ cabins to stay in. When we arrived, Aresâs arm still latched securely around my waist as it had been every single step of the way, I saw two other familiar faces peering out at us through the window, their creased faces crinkling with smiles so wide I half feared their tissue paper skin might tear.The wind whipped between the cabins, making my eyes and cheeks sting. Dawn had long since settled across the horizon, pale pink fading into the usual white-grey cloud cover. Everything looked strange out here, unreal in a way I couldnât quite process. I clutched at Ares, suddenly apprehensive as dad moved to let us in.My nerves dissolved as soon as set foot inside. We were both pulled into an embrace on all sides, many arms winding around us and holding us close.âYou did it,â Nana Baspy whispered.I scoffed and, after another long moment, I pulled away. âI donât think I can take any of the credit, Nana. I wasnât even conscious for half
The world shattered. For a time, it was nothing more than a series of fragmented images and distant, distorted sounds. I heard screaming, felt the tell-tale burning in my throat, but I couldnât connect the noise to me. I was weightless, without a body, and then there was nothing but silent darkness.Words I couldnât understand split apart the quiet. âItâs the other packs,â someone said excitedly. I recognised the voice, familiar enough but not someone I was close to. A hazy, half-formed image of a missing hand and foot beneath determined eyes and wispy blonde hair floated just out of reach, and I gave up trying to identify the mystery voice as they spoke. âFirepaw and Storm Guardian. They made it just in time. We did it! We survived.âNo, we didnât, I thought bitterly. Not all of us.âItâs not over yet.â That growl, gravel and honey â that was Ares. Something in me settled. But why had he shifted into his human body? That thought, along with all my others, drifted away, becoming nothi
We were all so focused on Aliana that none of us heard the quiet tap-tap-tap of claws pacing the stone hallways of the Pack House behind us.And then Scillian smiled. Behind him, the Sable Stalker Alpha and Luna smirked, too, a cruel hook of their lips that made my blood boil; off to the side slightly, Bloodpelt Prowlerâs Alpha grinned toothily. They were all so smug, so sure of themselves. So sure that theyâd won.âWhat is this?â Dad asked flatly.âOh, this?â Scillian brightened impossibly further as he gestured to Aliana. âA game.ââYou wouldnât hurt your own daughter.â Dad sounded less convinced about that than he had a minute ago. âLet her go, and let the battle recommence.ââMy daughter is a traitor. And, worse than that: she was running from a fight.â Scillian scoffed. I watched his face closely as he walked, every stride slow and purposeful, towards Aliana. He caressed her cheek, but I looked beyond that. I searched out his eyes through the snowfall, and I found only adoration
I knew, deep down, that this was my last hurrah. I knew, deep down, that if it were not, I wouldâve let the pain and the shock hold me back from fighting one last time. My body was weak, but I would not succumb to its needs. This was no ordinary battle, and I had never been one to give up.I felt the pain and let it make me stronger. Adrenaline surged through my veins. I would fight by my mateâs side, and I would try to make it mean something. That was all I could do, now.We neared the Pack House. The tension surrounding it was thick with foreboding; the stillness of the battlefield was somehow worse than when the air had been metallic with spilled blood and the snow melting from the heat of the felled bodies upon it. Now, fresh snow dusted the blood soaked fur of the dead, masking the worst of the atrocities that had been marked upon the land in stark pools of red.Everything was calm. Everything was quiet. Some dark premonition made the back of my neck crawl with the sense that, at
I was numb, inside and out, as I watched. My mind struggled to break free of the overwhelming melancholy, the agony so strong that the only way I could deal with it was to feel nothing at all.The cold helped. A bitter wind whipped between the boulders, sending snowflakes into a flurry. They turned my vision blurry: everything was black and white and grey again, as it had been in the time before Ares. Everything, that was, except for the blood.And there was so much blood.It was start against the pale backdrop of the mist and snow. A physical mark of violence, marring the purity of the white beneath. And, atop its own puddle of red, sat my ear. I shuddered every time my gaze drifted over it; it was the sort of thing I didnât want to look at but also couldnât look away from. It was grotesque, torn at a ragged angle, the flesh pink within â My lip curled. It looked so alien to me now, that missing piece of me. I couldnât imagine how I looked, bloodied and battered, one ear gone. A sn
Claws ripped into me on both sides. I flung Elena off easily enough; she was so small that, even exhausted as I was from hours of adrenaline-fuelled fighting, it didnât take much effort on my part to dislodge her. Distantly, I heard her pull herself to her paws again. But in this fight, both physically and in the heart of it, she didnât matter. This was between Etta and I.I winced as Ettaâs claws ripped free of my fur and flesh. Blood spat from the wound, hitting the snow and melting the ice surrounding it. I wrenched myself backwards, darting behind the nearest boulder and peering out around it. âWhy are you doing this?â I asked â no, I begged.âI promised myself.â Her mental voice was nothing like the one I remembered. Etta was often sarcastic and teasing, but there had been a warmth beneath even her cruellest of jokes that had dissipated after Damonâs death. âAfter you left, and after the attacks began. I had to do something for him.ââDamon and I were friends.â I edged backwards
Iâd made my choice when Ares mindlinked me. He sounded weak and weary, but very much alive. My heart leapt at the familiar sound of his voice, of gravel and honey, loosening the knot that had been pulling my chest taut ever since the battle had begun.âI had to run, beautiful. There were too many of them, but I managed to get away.âThat was all I needed to hear. I turned and shifted into my wolf form, preparing to race across the empty stretch of battlefield that had been left behind the attacking armies as they approached.âAre you okay?â I asked. There was one other thing I needed to hear, it turned out.âIâm fine.â I was pretty sure he was lying, but if he was well enough to lie then I didnât have to worry about my mate too much. âAre you? What happened with Nazte?ââNothing. It was weird.â I fell forwards, landing on paws and snapping my jaws. âHe wanted to know how Cendres was. We just⊠Talked.âThe cabinâs front door banged open behind me. I twisted around, catching sight of Na