Stede and Tarar left me in the woods, my skull cracked and blood seeping into the thick wool of my cloak. I did not let myself cry, even as time blurred into nothingness and I was swept between wakefulness and unconsciousness. My only constants were the red-hot pulsing of my wounds and the ragged blade of betrayal that was stuck deep into my heart.
But I did not let myself cry. I had never been one to give into tears before. It was not in my nature to feel sorry for myself – but then I supposed I’d had little reason to fall into self-pity before. I’d been the strongest, the fastest, the bravest – and now I’d let two Warrior Wolves best me, simply because they were my Warrior Wolves and it felt entirely wrong to hurt them.
I drifted in the darkness, clutching to the memories of burning blue eyes that unravelled me to my core.
And, after an indeterminable amount of time, I felt pressure on my head wound. I hissed through clenched teet
“Haile!” cried my dad.Ares set me down gently, giving me one last squeeze before I ran into my dad’s arms. I beamed up at him, taking in every inch of his familiar face: his black curly hair, which he huffed a breath at to force it out of his face; his brown eyes, crinkled at their corners; his cheeks, which were well accustomed to smiling.“Dad!” I beamed up at him.“Are you okay?” He frowned at me, turning my head back and forth to inspect my scars and my latest head wound.“Haile was attacked on the edge of your territory,” said Ares, stepping forwards. His face was set in grim, rigid lines, but he held out a hand for my dad to shake. “Alpha Ares,” he added, as my dad gripped his forearm. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”“Alpha Xander,” said Dad.I snorted. I’d not heard anyone call him that in years – to everyone in Blue
I stared at her, stunned. “To kill him?” I repeated. I felt stupid, numb. This should have made me ecstatic. So why did it feel like my heart was breaking?Mum nodded excitedly, her face pulling into one of its rare smiles. Her bright blue eyes flashed in the lamplight. “Yes. We can free you soon, sweetheart. You won’t have to spend much longer pretending to love that monster.” Her upper lip curled, and her eyes roved over the scars on my face. “What has he done to you?”I swallowed around the razor-sharp lump forming in my throat. “Nothing more – nothing since I sent you that letter.”She raised an eyebrow at me. “Did he not attack you on the way here? I had assumed – you were clearly lying, after all, sweetie, you are a terrible liar–”I snorted. “I know. I was lying – but not about him.” I sighed heavily. “It was Stede and Ta
I felt strangely nervous about showing Ares my bedroom. I had no real reason to – after all, it was far nicer than the cold grey stone and the views of endless snow that made up his chambers in the mountain, but it was another piece of me that I was offering up to him.He already had too large a part of my soul held in his heart. Every time I revealed something new about myself, he took it and claimed it as his own. Damn mate bond.I bit back a sigh and pushed the door open.I half expected him to make a sarcastic remark or, at the very least, smirk at me. Instead, he stepped inside quietly – even taking small, timid steps – across the floorboards, and said nothing as his gaze roved over my belongings. My space. My home.It was tidy in a way that spoke of my absence: the blanket folded over the end of my bed just-so; the chair tucked in under the wide wooden desk; the books stacked neatly on their shelves, rather tha
I stared at him and he stared back at me. Our noses brushed; we were so close I could hear every shaky inhale of breath he took and every thump of his heartbeat. He eyed me ravenously, as if I were another meal he could never get his fill of. I remained unguarded, the walls I had so meticulously built to keep him out catching fire in the heat of his burning blue gaze.He swallowed noisily. I watched as his throat bobbed. Stars, he was handsome. He made me dizzy in all the best ways – although that might have been the concussion. If I even had one. It was a convenient excuse, so I decided I most definitely did.My morals went up in smoke as his lips brushed mine.“I’m not pretending,” he murmured, his breath warm and his lips soft. A shiver ran through me. “You have claimed me, heart and soul. I did not think it possible, Haile, but despite all odds I find myself consumed by you. That is why…”“Why what?&rdq
For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel safe in my own home.I held Ares’s hand as we walked down to the meeting room. The back of my neck bristled with tension at the simple touch; I felt as though every Blue Moon wolf that passed us was judging me for it. Thoughts of Tarar and Stede clouded my usually logical mind, turning friends into foes everywhere I looked.But I ignored the hateful whispers, imagined and real, as clusters of Omegas slunk past us. Because Ares and I had agreed to pretend and, judgement aside, it was far too easy for me to do so. It didn’t feel like we were pretending – and that terrified me.Ares squeezed my hand. I glanced up at him through my lashes, my cheeks warming as I met his intense blue gaze.“Are you ready for this?” he murmured, his gravel-and-honey voice catching in his throat.I lifted my chin. Ready to listen to his lies? Yes. Ready to ignore everything that came ou
“You know,” Ares said, his deep voice unusually soft, “I would do anything for you, beautiful.”My heart swelled and my stomach churned – the same nauseating duo that I had become all too accustomed to as of late. It had followed me back from the Blue Moon Pack, all the way up into the mountains of Winterpaw Warrior. My body and mind were at war, my heart and soul lost to conflict, and I was left to pick up the pieces. A muscle in my jaw ticked. Stupid mate bond.I couldn’t be honest to him – couldn’t say that I knew he was lying. So I forced my lips into a smirk and put a hand on my hip, and leaned back to survey him as I said, “I do know. You called a retreat when your pack had the upper hand in battle. I’d say that counts as a pretty big anything, Ares.”He reclined further on the bed and patted the empty space beside him. Joy and irritation sparked at his invitation; I shoved down the
“What happened, Haile?” Ares's voice sounded gentle – too gentle. I levelled my gaze at him across the table. We’d gathered in the council room, and I could feel Nazte and Cendres sending burning stares directly at my flushed face. My throat worked on a swallow. The fire behind me suddenly felt too hot – much too hot. I ran a hand beneath my collar. This was the first time I’d felt warm in Winterpaw, let alone boiling. The one saving grace for me was that this meeting intercepted neatly with morning training – meaning that Hans and Hanna, the Senior Warrior Wolves with seriously big sticks rammed up their backsides, weren’t able to come. Someone had to keep the pack running, after all. And cancelling morning training because of a murder would cause mass hysteria. It was such a terrible shame that they couldn’t come, I thought, struggling to keep my lips from twitching into a smirk. “I was running.” My voice sounded ca
Ares was nowhere to be found.I was on the cusp of giving up looking for him when I heard his raised voice bellowing from the Omega’s floor. My eyebrows pinched. What was he doing down there?I crept closer, coiling back down the staircase until I was hovering on the short landing by the guest room that I’d once called my own – if only for a matter of hours upon my arrival. I wrinkled my nose at the memory of the cold, damp, windowless room, but quickly shoved it aside. Ares’s voice was getting louder.My mood dampened further when I recognised the voice speaking to him. Her tongue clucked against the roof of her mouth. Luezza.“I stand by my actions, Alpha.”A smack of skin against skin rung out through the hallway, clear as a bell. I gasped - and clapped a hand over my idiotic mouth. Had he hit her?“Insolence will not be tolerated,” he growled, low and rumbling. &ldqu