Silvia POV "Wolf Moon," I say slowly. So many memories crowd my mind. "Next month will be Wolf Moon, that's in just ..." I think back to the events of the past few weeks that have felt more like months or even longer. "... ten days!" Darius is staring straight ahead, transfixed by the scene unfolding before our eyes. I recognize my old home, the Wildlands. But it seems somehow smaller. The training ground looks dusty and ragged. The earth is torn up with weeds. The houses look rundown and the fields are patchy with limp-looking crops. Dust settles everywhere. Even the pine trees seem dimished. Thinner or thinned out, I can't be sure. It is not the same verdant land of my memory. As we watch, three figures climb the hill toward the packhouse. They bang on the huge oak doors. The doors remain closed though there is light within. In the darkness below the three, there is movement. At some invisible command, a pack leaps from cover and rushes toward them. The attackers are intercepte

Vuko POV The moonlight casts shadows everywhere and something in the stillness makes me anxious. There is no movement other than mine and Ana's. There are no calls of owls or other nightbirds, no small creatures scurrying through the undergrowth. In the silence our movements sound too loud. Beneath the scent of pine leaves and earth is another smell. The sweet-foul smell of rotting things. Death. What has happened here? "Look," whispers Ana, pointing through the trees to the training ground. The training ground has been closed off by an enormous silver cage. What madness is this? "The prisoners are enclosed in the silver cage," she says. "My father ..." I hear the catch in her voice as she pauses. "... My father and the other Alphas as well as anyone who opposed Abir's takeover." She turns to me, takes my hands in hers. "Vuko, there's something else ..." I close my eyes, not wanting to hear it but knowing it wa

Silvia POV I look up at Fulvio and he breaks into a grin then pulls me into bear hug ... ... at the same time as Wiley gives a chirrup of disapproval and jumps off me onto the carpet taking at least some of my flesh with her. "Ow," I say and Fulvio instantly releases me, looking very worried. "It's okay it wasn't you," I reassure him, eyeing Wiley who sits swishing her tail and cocking her head at me. She'll love me again when I feed her. I sit up and instantly feel dizzy and a weird phantom pain around my throat. Like I've had a cold or ... or .. .. or a wolf's jaws around my throat. My hand flies to my throat and I start feeling around as the memories start crowding back. Seersha shouting at me. Didi angry. The Hemming. My little brother's wolf! It's so unfair. That was another moment stolen from me. A moment I should have shared with Didi that I couldn't. His Naming ceremony. And under any ot

Vuko POV He doesn't put me in the silver cage. If I were there would I feel better or worse? Better because I would at least be with my mother, with Gray, with the other Alphas. Worse because then I would have to see the disappointment in their eyes. They were depending on me and I let them know. My head sags between my knees. I've managed to slip my shackled wrists over my knees though I have to hold them a little way away from my ankles, avoiding contact with the silver. My wrists feel scorched. It hurts even to move them. Fer whimpers in pain and I have to work hard to not let his sad little whimpers escape. I hadn't even known about this space beneath the pack house. The earthen floor is damp and the cold seeps through my trousers and into my bones. The smell is rank and bitter. Like the forest, there is a smell of rotting things. How long has this place been used for people like me? All those banishments during my father's tyranny--were they banishments? Or had they just been s

Silvia POV I'm having a hard time understanding Tidiane-as-a-wolf. I feel a Fer-growl rumble in my chest and try to remind Fer to be patient because Tidiane is a shapeshifter and not an actual werewolf. Cook has caught up to us and is crouching down. Elbows on his knees, hands hanging down. He looks around and sniffs. "Ugh," he grumbles, then says something unintelligible. I begin to wish I had chosen travel companions who were better communicators. Tidiane shimmers and re-emerges as Mrs Choudry. It's disconscerting to see her fling her long black braid over her shoulder and raise a finger at me as she says, "Sewer Trolls." I actually feel myself turn green. Of course I should have expected this. A city with so many living beings, especially magical ones, is going to be a land of milk and honey to a sewer troll. Or a land of ... ugh ... I can't bring myself to think of what flows in the sewers beneath the city. The viaduct tunnels run underground. Luka was imprisoned there and s