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058 | AS IT WAS
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Alpha Ares 059 | GRAVEL AND HONEY
Blind panic consumed me. I barely felt the bite of the cold as I ran, my body nothing more than muscle and sinew and tendon, each working with the next as I coiled and sprung, coiled and sprung, slipped and skidded across the Winterpaw Warrior Pack’s frozen territory.My wounds closed up as I ran, but there was a rush of dizziness from the blood loss that slowed my pace every few hundred yards or so. I did not dare look back for fear that Nazte would be at my tail, his teeth gleaming with my blood.There was one thought, one name, at the heart of my pounding blood and straining muscles. Thinking it made the panic flare brighter, so I tried to think of nothing as I ran. I pictured him instead, the wolf I had first seen in my dream, all those long months ago. Black, with a white crescent on his forehead. The smell of cedar and woodsmoke, earthy and warm amidst the barren landscape of snow and ice and rock. His voice – that low, warm growl, the one that made my insides heat and squirm. G
Alpha Ares 060 | A BOY AND A MAN
And then a wolf leapt at me.It was a blur of pale fur against the snow, crouching low, well beneath my eye line. Before I could move to help the boy, a head butted into my chest and I was sent stumbling backwards.I snarled; without thinking I dove back into the fray, knocking the pale wolf to its knees and taking a chunk out of its neck. It bared its teeth at me, but I couldn’t look past the dark patch on its neck.Dark, like a slick oil spill. Dark, but not red. In the dusk-light everything was painted in shades of grey, and I was overwhelmed with panic for a split second that Ares was gone. That I was cursed to see the world in black and white again. That the colour in my life had faded, torn from me along with my heart.But the sky was purple, and Ares was growling as he slashed at the two wolves circling him, and I had lost precious time to my worry.The pale wolf took its chance, snapping its teeth and clipping my ear. I spun, disorientated, and it grabbed my throat between its
Alpha Ares 061 | RACE AGAINST TIME
“Ares?” Panic made my throat tight. I grabbed at his shoulders, trying to pull him upright. “Ares? Ares, wake up!”The man snorted at me. “He’s fine.”I rounded on him. “He doesn’t look fine to me!”“Some Alpha.” A smirk pulled at his lips. “Can’t even take on two wolves.”He did that for me, I thought, his words hammering against my skull. He threatened you. I had to give in.I staggered back to Ares’s side. The man was not worth my attention. Not now. I hauled Ares upright, checked his pulse, checked his breathing; all the while the man mocked me, his laughter tart and cruel. My bones felt hollow, empty, as I made sure Ares was all right, as though the snow had wormed its way inside me. My heart was another matter – it was burning, fury and agony aflame in my chest.“Get him up,” said the man, his voice bored. Two of his wolves, his friends, were dead, and he sounded bored? I bit back a shudder and stared at Ares, begging him to wake up with gentle touches and silent, screaming wor
Alpha Ares 062 | THE GREYHIDE CANYON PACK
Ares and I were left alone after the Medic had checked him over. I’d felt numb throughout, staring blankly at the deep, oozing marks slicing down Ares’s chest. He was yet to wake, and I was helpless to do anything but wait by his side until he did.I’d tried the door six times. I knew it was locked. It didn’t stop me from getting up and trying it a seventh. We were only here because Ares needed to rest and heal, but I didn't like feeling trapped regardless.With a sigh, I slumped back onto the end of his bed. I curled my legs beneath me; I’d heard young wolves in Blue Moon call it sitting “criss-cross apple sauce,” and remembering that faint sound, of girlish laughter and high-pitched voices, made me smile. It faded as I looked around the room, re-assessing it for the hundredth time since we’d been brought here.There wasn’t much to look at. Redwood planks made up the walls, and a few makeshift cots unfurled down the length of one. Only one bed had a frame – the one Ares had been plac
Alpha Ares 063 | ALPHA BLARE
Alpha Blare stepped forwards. Without greeting us, he worked his way around the sconces, lighting the torches in the room. Only then did he step back, and at last I could make something from the shapes of his face.I had never seen Alpha Blare before, save for on the battlefield in his wolf form. My parents had always dealt with him whenever the need arose, although the last occurrence had been years prior. Mostly, they communicated through letters.His appearance was of no great shock to me, though. Like most of the wolves inhabiting the eastern stretch of Erandos, he was pale in both skin and hair, which was long, draping down well below his shoulders; but his eyes were brown – a rare sight amongst the snow. His face looked unaccustomed to smiling, drawn from harsh lines that did not soften, not even as he looked upon Ares’s crumpled body in the bed. It aged him; I knew from my parents and my ravenous study of the packs of Erandos, the ones I had thought I would one day have to know
Alpha Ares 064 | COLISEUM
There was a high-pitched ringing in my ear. It crackled and buzzed over the ever-present sound of a distant ocean, making my head feel fuzzy – fuzzier than it already did. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter. I did not want to be awake. I did not know why, but I did know that.My mouth tasted stale. I worked my tongue over the backs of my teeth, wrinkling my nose at the fur there that spoke of a long, too-deep sleep. My brow furrowed. Where was I? Why had I been sleeping? It felt like months, years, even, since I had slept so soundly, without even dreams piercing the veil of oblivion.My bones felt stiff. They creaked, like rusted hinges, as I stretched out my long limbs. My muscles ached, and it was only then that I realised how cold I was. That was why my body felt all wrong – my hands were numb, my feet were frozen, and my skin felt like ice stretched too thin over my bones.I was hit with fear. It overwhelmed me; I did not want to open my eyes. The dread that filled me was so potent I
Alpha Ares 065 | FIGHT ME
“Nothing?” My voice trembled. “There has to be something we can do.”“Look around.” Unlike mine, his voice was firm, unwavering in its despair. No – it was thick with acceptance, tragic and terrible. “The only door is locked. No doubt there are wolves waiting behind it, waiting to kill us if we don’t comply.” Ares sighed bitterly, and when he turned to look at me his eyes were full of agony. What scared me most of all, though, was the lack of fire in those familiar blue eyes; in fact, they were so cold, so distant, that I barely recognised them as his at all.“There is always a way out,” I said, my breath snagging in my chest. I wouldn’t give in. Not like this. Not to this pack, and their evil Alpha. “We just have to think about it logically–”“There is no logic here. You should never have followed me, Haile.”“But they would have killed you!”“But they wouldn’t have been able to hurt you.”I crumpled, sinking to the cold stone beside him. “We will get out of here,” I said. “I swear
Alpha Ares 066 | THE WOLVES DESCEND
Ares was crumpled on the snow-flecked stone. Blood seeped across the earth beneath him. His chest did not move. His eyes did not flicker.Was he… Dead?Panic flared, bright and heady. I stumbled forward, losing my wolf form as my emotions overwhelmed me. I barely saw Alpha Blare as he wiped his knife on Ares’s tattered clothing, though the knot of anger in my chest grew as he did so, somewhere subconscious beneath the waves of agony wracking through me.“Ares!” I screamed. My voice did not sound like my own; it was too ragged, too defeated. “Ares!”“I gave you a choice,” said Alpha Blare. “You failed to make one.”“I thought you wanted me dead,” I snarled, rounding on him, “not him.”Blare shrugged, his silver hair slipping over his shoulders. He was so callously casual. I focused on him, kept my anger burning, letting it heat me from within – Because if I didn’t, if I looked at Ares, I would break.“That was the plan, yes. But you made it too easy for me by following your mate here
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