I leapt to my feet. “Try,” I snarled, “and I will kill you, Cendres.” My hand reached uselessly for a knife that wasn’t there, but I shoved my fingers under my cloak and clenched my hand into a fist, making a lump beneath the fabric to create the illusion of a weapon there.He held both of his hands up, palms facing forward. “I have no intention of doing as he says. You can trust me. Why would I come all this way to patch up Ares’s wounds if I was just going to kill him anyway?”I huffed. “I guess.” Lowering myself back to the ground, I kept my narrowed eyes on the Gamma the whole way down. I still half expected him to shift and rip Ares’s head clean from his shoulders, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. For now, at least.“I know he wants me dead,” I said flatly. “Me. But not Ares.”“Like I said – I look at Naz, and I don’t even see my mate looking back at me anymore. He’s gone. Losing his parents last year changed him, but not… Not like this.”The memory of the matching

We raced across Greyhide’s snow-slick terrain. As we’d agreed, I sprinted with Ares on my back, never once looking behind me, letting Cendres and Annia fight off any attackers we faced on the way. I wanted to help them, but keeping Ares safe was my priority.I’d never been so damned excited to see a canyon before. Hoping to the stars and sun and moon and everything in the world that Cen and Annia would catch up with me, that they would both meet me when we were in safer territory, I surged along the side of the canyon. The sun rose and fell, and still I ran.‘You need to rest, beautiful,’ came Ares’s voice through the mate bond.‘Not until you’re safe,’ I replied, every time.‘You were hurt, too.’‘Not badly. Even the knife wound is healed now.’‘Yeah.’ His mental voice was thick with disbelief. ‘So you say.’It was true. Mostly. ‘I’ll stop when we can. But we’re still well within Greyhide’s borders.’‘Even Winterpaw Warrior territory won’t be safe. You were attacked in Blue Moon bef

I drifted through the familiar rooms, traipsing away from my parents as we reached the long dining hall that the wake was being held in. None of the places or people looked real to me. It didn’t even look like my Pack House anymore. People greeted me, but not as their favoured Young Luna anymore. Not as the bright and bold child, or the sharp and smart young woman, that I had been to them before I’d gone to the Winterpaw Warrior Pack to be with Ares.Five wolves were dead. On top of the ten already killed. Aliana had told me about six; another four had been taken in that time. I traced their names in my mind, picturing their faces, mourning each and every one of them. My eyes glazed as I stared at different parts of the room, seeing plates of finger food and steaming mugs of tea and coffee and half-drunk glasses of berry wine, glancing over them without taking any of it in. Families clutched each other and cried. People spoke loudly of their memories of the wolves that had died. Four

Already embarrassed by my meltdown, I shifted back into my human form and tried to gather myself before replying to Ares’s mindlink.‘I’m okay,’ I told him. ‘I’m sorry for leaving you with them like that. I’m in the first wildflower meadow – you can come and find me. I think we need to talk.’His relief, heady, giddy, dizzying, swelled through the mate bond. I pressed my palms flat on the grass, the rush of it overwhelming me as my anguish drained from my veins, leaving me hollow.‘I won’t be long, beautiful.’I undid my braid and combed my fingers through it, almost as nervous to see Ares as I had been the first time we’d met. It was like walking up to the front door of his mountainous Pack House and knocking, with so much left unknown, uncertain, on the other side.“Hi.”I looked up. His bicep bulged as he lifted his arm to scratch the back of his neck; he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Everything as yet unsaid hung thick in the air between us, darkening the twilight sky and

I barely had time to process Tymote’s words before he pounced.“Don’t kill him!” I shouted – to Ares. An Omega would be no match for him, especially when he was so fuelled by anger and arrogance, so it was not his safety I was concerned about.If he hurt Tymote, Blue Moon would never believe us. Ares would prove himself to be the vicious monster they thought he was.With a loud, over-dramatic sigh, Ares grabbed Tymote’s hands and wrestled them up behind his back. Tymote grunted, straining against his grip, but he had no chance against the infamous Alpha Ares.I breathed a sigh of relief. Ares had listened to me. We could go in and talk to my parents now, make them see sense – People filled the hallway. They spilled in from all different rooms; I turned around, and saw Warrior Wolves and Omegas alike leaving their homes to surround us. Damn it. What in all of Erandos was going on?My parents’ Gamma, Triss, was the first to reach us. She held her hands up and, for the first time ever,