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050 | BEGIN ANEW
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Alpha Ares 051 | WINTER
The scream rang out, crisp and clear. Without stopping to think I hauled on Ares’s hand and yanked him towards the sound. It was not hard to find the source of the noise. A group of Omegas were clustered around an open door, their hands clapped over their mouths to hold back their cries.“There was no wood for her fire last night,” sobbed a young woman from just inside the room. “I told her to stay with me, but she told me to stop fussing. Stars–”“What’s going on here?” Ares’s voice lanced through the noise and silenced it immediately, save for the wet, sticking breaths of the Omegas.“She died!” wailed the woman, digging her nails into her palms. “My grandmother. From the cold…” she dissolved into sobs. Ares and I pushed past her. The room was much like the hovel I had been put in when I’d first arrived at Winterpaw. It was windowless, with a single bed, complete with a lumpy mattress, one thin blanket, and one thin pillow, and a decaying dresser at the foot of the bed. There was
Alpha Ares 052 | THE HAND THAT REACHES
“Max,” I hissed, grabbing his wrist and yanking him into step beside me. I pointed with my other hand, proud to see that my finger did not tremble.“Shit,” he breathed. “Okay. Oh–”“Hello?” I called, cutting him off. “Can you hear us?”The fingers twitched, but there was no change.“They can’t be alive, Haile. That snow… It could have been on top of them for hours.”I ignored him. “Click your fingers if you can hear us.”Slowly, shaking violently, the fingers clicked.Max’s eyes went wide. “Okay. Okay. Okay.”“It will be,” I said, dropping his wrist, “if we get them out of there. Come on.”I grabbed the hand sticking out of the snow. It was frozen, and the fingers were stiff as I bent them around my palm. Max shifted into his roan wolf form and started to dig, flinging sheets of ice and compacted snow up into the grey sky. I tightened my hold on the frozen hand, willing my fragile warmth to pool into their skin. “We’ll get you out,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. “You’ll b
Alpha Ares 053 | THE FIRST WARRIOR WOLF
“Me?” I arched an eyebrow at her, forcing my face to remain otherwise cool and expressionless. Her bared teeth were making me uneasy, but I held her cold stare nonetheless. I would bow to no-one – least of all a woman who would be dead if not for me.She sat up straighter, a grunt of effort straining from her throat. The grimace on her lips faded, her mouth drooping down slowly as she searched my eyes for – something. I narrowed them back at her, and a tiny, hardened part of me wondered if I should’ve left her in the snow.Things had been okay. For months, I’d had only to deal with the problems that Winterpaw had always faced. There had been no attacks, no murderous plots, no nothing. I had the horrible feeling that that was all about to change with whatever came out of her mouth next.She pushed back thin, blonde hair that had stuck to the sides of her pallid face. “Yes. I am here for you.”“How convenient,” drawled Ares. I could feel the tension radiating from his frame from where I
Alpha Ares 054 | BLIZZARD
“It’s too dangerous, Haile. You can’t go.”“I have to, Ares. It’s my pack. My family.” I ran my hands through my hair, helpless in the face of what Aliana had told us. I leant hard against the windowsill, digging my palms into the cold rock and focusing on the dull spike of pain the rough surface caused. Outside, the blizzard was so thick I could barely see the mountains beyond. Six Warrior Wolves. Six.And I only knew the identity of one of them.“If the cold doesn’t kill you, then one of Greyhide’s wolves will.”“They can’t be out there. Not in this snow storm.”“They’re used to the harsh winters here. You aren’t.” His tone left no room for argument. He sighed as he crossed the room, winding his arms around my waist and pressing a soft kiss to my temple. “You know I would go with you if it were possible. But to make the journey to Blue Moon now… It’s suicide.”My throat worked on a swallow. And then, slowly, I nodded. I didn’t like it, but Ares was telling the truth. But… “But wha
Alpha Ares 055 | HAILE AND ARES
“No,” Ares said flatly. He crossed his arms over his chest, and I was sure he did it just to distract me with his muscles. It wouldn’t work this time, though.“But why not?” I jutted my chin out, aware that I looked – and sounded – like a child, but unable to stop the petulance wheedling into my tone. “It makes sense, Ares.” I fixed my gaze on the fireplace behind him, letting the embers of it fuel my own fire.“Do you have no sense of self preservation?” He laughed, but it was cold and unamused. “Aliana has literally said that Greyhide Canyon are out to kill you. Whether we can trust her or not, that is too much of a risk to take. So no, Haile – you can’t run home to Blue Moon and gather up an army.”I huffed, annoyed at being spoken down to. “I understand the risk.”“I can’t lose you!” he roared, crowding into my space, but his touch was gentle, so gentle, as he cupped my cheeks with his large, warm hands. His bottom lip quivered and his chin dimpled, and he swallowed hard before sp
Alpha Ares 056 | A PIT OF VIPERS
“Are you sure about this?” I asked, picking at a flap of skin beneath my cuticle. Ares stood in the doorway, his figure shadowed by the darkness of the cavernous hallway beyond.The arrangements had been made. Ares was to go to the Greyhide Canyon Pack to discuss their alliance – alone. He nodded tightly, a muscle feathering in his temple. “I am. You know why you can’t come, don’t you?”I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms. The bulk of my multiple jumpers made it less sassy than I would have liked. “Because you can’t take me if you want their Alpha to believe you’re working on a way to break the truce,” I said, my voice flat as I repeated his words verbatim. “But, in truth,” I added, arching an eyebrow at him, “it’s because you don’t want me to risk going out in the snow. Even though the storm stopped over a week ago.”He shrugged, a small smirk pushing at his lips. “Yeah, you’re right on both counts.” Then he sighed, the air puffing out of him. “I don’t want to go without you
Alpha Ares 057 | MOUNTAINTOP
It was hard to keep my voice from shaking as I asked, “How are you, Nazte?”He smiled, and the slow stretch of the skin around his mouth made me shudder. I stepped inside, and every inch of me ached to step right back out again. There was nothing wrong with his room – in fact, it looked almost identical to Ares’s room, with its distant window, gnarled wooden dining table, and its crooked double bed – though its sheets were neat, primly tucked and pristine, whereas Ares’s were rumpled more often than not. Maybe that was it – the neatness of the space was putting me on edge. Even though I now knew he shared this room with Cendres, who was one of the messiest people I’d ever met, everything was organised. Yeah, that was what it was. It absolutely had nothing to do with the six-foot-four man stood in front of me, his bright blue eyes gleaming in the pale light of the cavernous room, his smile set in such a way that it looked forced. I tensed my muscles, holding back a shudder.Nazte bru
Alpha Ares 058 | AS IT WAS
I knew what he meant. I knew, and yet I still asked, “What do you mean?” Because I didn’t want to believe it. I’d started to hope that Nazte and I could one day be friends. If I believed this, if I let it sink in, then that hope was not merely gone – it was dead, ripped to shreds by the conniving Beta wolf wearing the same smirk he had when we’d first met. When he’d first tried to kill me.I refused to shudder. I refused to look weak. I refused to do anything but eye him warily, holding my ground, holding his gaze. His smirk became a lolling, wolfish grin. “You aren’t stupid, Haile. I’ve seen you play at it – pretending to be lost, pretending not to understand. But then you say things that no idiot ever could. No Young Luna is dense, and you certainly aren’t. You know what I mean; do not belittle yourself by pretending otherwise.”Ouch. I jutted out my chin, determined not to let him fell me. “What do you want with me?” I asked instead. He huffed out a humourless laugh, his upper
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