I stormed back out into the dining room, my eyes narrowed as I hunted out Ares’s smug, arrogant, despicable… Handsome, muscular body. Damn it.Of course he wasn’t there. Of course he wasn’t. He just had to make everything difficuclt, didn’t he? Seething with rage, I glared at anyone who dared come near me and stomped out into the hallway. He couldn’t have gone far.I squeezed my hands into fists. I wanted to shift into my wolf form – so intense was the anger burning through my veins – but that would achieve nothing. My nails bit into the soft skin of my palms. I focused on the tiny spark of pain – and looked down to see red crescents making the soft flesh. I had to get a grip.Okay, I thought, cramming my temper down. It smouldered, a fire waiting to be stoked again, but it was quiet enough that I could see past the red haze edging my vision. It was Sunday tod

I didn’t want to admit, even to myself, how easy it was to forget about everything important when I was wrapped in Ares’s arms. Even as I brushed my fingers over his bare chest and saw bruises blooming where I had gripped him, and fingernail marks beaded with blood, I did not remember the reasons why I had been angry. My soul came alight at his touch, and damn it – I’d had a hard week.I could even forget my responsibilities to my pack, if only for a short while. They would hit twice as hard when I came out of my mate bond induced stupor, but as Ares and I lost ourselves in one another’s bodies I frankly did not care about anything beyond the reaches of his bed.But after, when it all came crashing down, the guilt was ravenous. It ate away at my insides, leaving me hollow as we dressed ourselves. This wasn’t a conversation we could have in a lover’s embrace. I wouldn’t be able to focus if we did.“Tell me about the attacks,” I said, sitting down at the little dinner table. “You told

The wolf stalked us, darting from tree to tree, using snow banks to hide as it got closer. I kept my eyes focused on Ares’s slack face, not wanting to give away that I had seen it until I attacked.Next to nobody had known we were going to be travelling, let alone on this particular route. Ares had barked at Nazte that he was in charge while we were gone, and I had to assume that, as his mate, Cendres knew too. Was this wolf, of average height and average build, the same one that had killed Ares’s wolves? Was it the same one that had killed Damon?Wake up, Ares, I thought, staring at his face and begging him to somehow hear me. My parents could mindlink through their mate bond, as could Etta and Damon – the sting of pain at thinking of them, of Etta, was like a whip’s lash upon my bare back – but Ares and I had never been able to. I had even heard tales of some mates being able to feel each other’s emotions when they were close, but we couldn’t do that, either. I thought it and I th

I’d never thought coming home would fill me with dread. But, as the cart pulled in alongside the Pack House, my stomach tied itself in knots and my heart beat out a staccato rhythm in my chest. Everything around me blurred into a haze of sunlight and colour, and even as my parents rushed out to greet us I felt like I was watching my own body interact with them from a distance.The warmth of their hugs was even separate from me, as though there was a thick layer of air between their skin and mine. I blinked slowly at my face-full of my dad’s black, curly hair and Mum’s dark brown braid, and slowly eased back out of their embrace.“How is she?” I heard myself asking, my eyes darting through the blur in the hopes that I would be able to pick out Etta’s familiar face and red-brown hair.“Haile…” my dad breathed, his crinkled brown eyes drooping sadly as he pulled me in tight again. He whispered in my ear, “Etta isn’t doing well, sweetheart. I think seeing you will do her some good.”I nod

I stared at one of the lush green plants in its terracotta pot, my mouth moving over silent words that kept getting lodged in my throat. Nothing about this room had changed, from the heaps of messy parchment on my dad’s desk to the organised piles on my mum’s, but I felt too still, too awkward, as I shifted my weight on the sofa. Like I belonged in this room, but not in this time. Dad had eyed me knowingly as he’d left, shoving his feet into his sandals and shaking his head at me fondly before he’d slipped out – no doubt to find Mum and tell her that he’d caught me eavesdropping. Well… He had been the one giving the Alpha of our enemy pack a free therapy session, so we both had things to answer for. I picked at my cuticles and waited for Ares to say something. My gaze darted from the plant to the wooden shelves, to the coffee table with two fresh mugs of tea on it, both untouched. Ares had had plenty to say before, so…“How much did you hear?”Even though I’d been waiting for him to