Rhiannon’s POVAfter I’d finally managed to escape, I’d spent the night in my wolf form. I hadn’t been able to go home and face anyone, least of all Stephen; I knew he wouldn’t have left, not while I was still outside somewhere. That was the problem: he was a good man, and an even better mate. He wouldn’t have followed me, knowing that I needed some time alone to process things, but he wouldn’t have gone home until he was sure I was safe, either.“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, clenching one hand into a fist. Then, slowly, I unfurled my fingers. None of this was his fault.And I’d…I gulped. “Not now,” I whispered to myself, hovering on the doorstep of our family’s little cabin. The night’s events had left me disgruntled as fuck, quite frankly, and all I wanted now was a burning hot shower and a power nap. I had to be in the pack house for a lunch shift in the kitchen, so I had to sort myself out before then. If I saw the Alpha or Luna there, I needed to have schooled my reactions into

Rhiannon’s POVCaleb’s hand closed around my neck. He squeezed tightly, a sneer tugging at his mouth – only for his face to soften a moment later. He released his grip, wincing sympathetically, and shook out his fingers. He didn’t apologise, though; his eyes turned cold as he appraised me. “What are you doing in here?” he asked flatly.I clenched my trembling hands into fists and tried to ignore the pulsing pain in my neck. I could be meek and remorseful – or I could front this out. “None of your business,” I said, arching an eyebrow at him.“You’re snooping around in my kitchen, Omega. That makes it my business.” He raised an eyebrow right back. I scoffed. “I’m not snooping. And don’t act like you don’t know my name.”He shrugged. “Maybe I don’t. I don’t make a habit of getting friendly with liars and thieves.”“Liars and thieves?” I scoffed again, shaking my head.He ticked off his fingers. “You just lied about not snooping, and the only logical conclusion I can draw is that you’re

Amelia’s POVI strode swiftly from the meeting room, my hands flexing at my sides. How dare he? I gave everything I could to this pack; sue me for wanting to keep a tiny little thing, like the odd shampoo bar, for myself. I could have ditched Night Wind and gone home the second we knew we weren’t coming out of winter. I hadn’t. I’d sacrificed so much for Caleb and this was how he chose to repay me?He didn’t know the full extent of what I’d given up to be here with him. Even so, he did know enough that he should’ve been in my corner today. What sort of Alpha sided against his Luna and with a thief?‘You’re hiding something from him,’ said Maeve, my wolf. ‘He might be hiding something from you, too.’I rounded the corner and jogged up the stairs, the hot flare of my temper already starting to cool. I shook my head. ‘Caleb? Hiding something? I doubt it. He’s about as secretive as a glass wall,’ I replied.Maeve grinned. ‘True. But stranger things have happened, petal.’I swept into our

Kieran’s POVI gazed across the chasm in the earth helplessly, hopelessly. My beautiful Amelia had been parted from me, torn irrevocably from my grasp.For the second time.But something about this felt worse than the awful, fateful night she’d rejected me for Alpha Caleb. A rejection was supposed to be the most permanent way to part two souls, forcing them to pine for their other half eternally. So how did this feel more permanent than that?I stumbled back from the edge, my chest heaving. I still felt woozy as a giddy goose on a turntable from my unfortunate date with the knife and the resulting bash to the head, and now the ground under my feet was trying to do me in as well. “Are you all right?” I shouted over the gorge. It wasn’t too wide – perhaps the length of my body twice over – but it was enough of a distance to terrify me. More because of what it represented that what it was.“I’m fine! Are you?”“Yeah!” I lied. No reason to make her more worried than she already was. It h

Rhiannon’s POVThe breakfast shift was my favourite – once I’d dragged myself out of my cosy bed and gently tugged myself out of Stephen’s strong arms. I hated getting up early, but I loved the blush of the dawn sky as I nestled deeper into my jacket and jogged from the Omega Quarters to the pack house. I also liked that it meant my work was done by midday. So I yawned, with out-dated dreams of hot coffee filling my sleepy head, and skidded my way down the stone path. Well – where I knew the path was from memory, anyway. We’d long ago given up on shovelling the snow off it, once we realised this winter wasn’t fucking off as it should’ve. It was pretty well-trodden, so there was a layer of thick, frozen grey slush for me to slip on. Great.Mousey Marcella was hovering by the huge stove when I arrived, shaking snow from my silver hair, peeling off my gloves, and draping my coat over the stand in the hall. She was warming her hands by the fire; a single lock of pale brown hair fell forw