"Happy birthday, Skye," my little brother said quietly.
Both Alphas turned to stare at him. They were trapped and in danger of their lives, yet it was their prisoner who was currently worrying them. I sighed again.
"You know her?" Jace asked.
Jaden looked between the two of us and groaned, obviously remembering the time when we had tricked him into thinking Rhys was attacking me. He muttered to his brother, "They're siblings."
Rhys ignored both of them and make an attempt to walk towards us. Jace grabbed his collar and dragged him to a standstill. It was difficult for Rhys to resist without the use of his hands. I tried to go to him instead, but Jaden stepped in my path and narrowed his eyes at me.
"What you're doing right now? Not very clever," I told him. It was like the lot of them had a death wish. Keeping me away from my brother, while in my territory and surrounded by my pack? What morons.
"Now, now. Let's not get nasty with each other. It's four against four here. I don't know about you, but I fancy our chances if it came to a fight," Zach teased.
I looked around in confusion and realised that Fion, Leo and Ollie were the only wolves showing themselves. "Oh, sorry — almost forgot."
I snapped my fingers. A bird in a tower spooked and flew away squawking, but not much else happened. Things just weren't going my way that day.
"Uh, guys, that was the signal," I shout-whispered. The fighters finally seemed to get the message and moved out from the shadows to surround them. Those with rifles levelled them at the Alphas.
Zach smirked as if our efforts were amusing him. Jaden cursed. The Luna moved out from behind her mate, finally realising the redundancy of it. But Jace just kept staring at me impassively. It kind of unnerving, which was exactly what he was aiming for.
"Closer to four hundred against four," I corrected. "Don't any of you know how to use your noses?"
Finally, the Alphas moved slowly to the side. They knew they were beaten. I marched straight through the resulting gap to wrap Rhys in a relieved hug. It had taken long enough.
I couldn't see Rhys grinning, but of course, he was. "You know I'd love to hug you back, but I'm a little tied up at the moment."
I let him go, cursing the Alphas under my breath. He was restrained that way so he couldn't shift without dislocating his shoulders. A cruel but widely used way of controlling prisoners. I snapped my fingers at Jace. "Key. Now."
"Well, as you asked so nicely," he muttered and threw over a piece of metal. He didn't have much choice, now that there was a gun pointed at his head.
The lock was stiff, but after some frustrated manoeuvring, I heard the tell-tale click and opened the cuffs. His wrists were rubbed raw and ringed in yellow bruises. All three Alphas were clearly annoyed that I was releasing their prisoner, but they could hardly complain at gunpoint.
Rhys ruffled up my hair and threw an arm around my shoulder. We went back over to re-join Fion, who had her turn for a hug. Ollie received an affectionate thump, while even Leo got a grin out of my brother. The five of us stood in a close-knit group in front of the gates.
The Alphas weren't happy about any of this. Even Zach was showing symptoms of a restless wolf — oozing irritation and darkened eyes. Somehow, I didn't think they would go quietly now that they had lost Rhys and had their 'Alpha pride' dented. And it wasn't long before I was proved right.
But it was Jaden who announced in growling tone, "We're not leaving without the prisoner."
"Who said anything about leaving?" I asked. "We have plenty of room in the cellars for trespassers. When someone treads on your lawn, you lock them up, right?"
"I try to," Jace agreed. "Unfortunately, most of them seem to slip through our fingers."
He gave the three of us a very pointed look, and I suspected he remembered our scents from our many sorties into his land. I just hoped he didn't know quite how many times we had dodged his fighters. That many raids would earn a death sentence under pack law.
"We're not so careless," I teased, then sat back on a crumbling pillar to savour such an easy opportunity to wind them up. Something crinkled in my back pocket. "Oh, but before I forget, I have something of yours."
I pulled out the wad of photos and riffled through to find the stolen one. He took it warily and looked down at me with suspicion stirring in his eyes.
"This was in my car." He frowned. "Did you steal my car?"
"I prefer the term recycled," I said matter-of-factly. "You weren't using it and I needed it, so I repurposed."
"You recycled my car?" Now Jace just sounded confused.
"I helped," Rhys added proudly. He had been the one to drive it home in the first place.
Zach put his hands in his pockets and started whistling a Christmas carol, the picture of innocence. I got the message. Don't tell him. Return the favour. He had let us get away with it, and now we had to pretend like he hadn't.
"Look, I don't know who you are, but it seems tome that you're in charge here," the Luna spoke up for the first time, staring at me unflinchingly. She had stepped out even further, much to her mate's annoyance. "I know you probably hate Alphas..."
I couldn't exactly deny that. "Hate is a mild word. I prefer detest, or loathe."
"Fair enough. So let's talk without any testosterone present."
There was a shadow of her rogue brother in her. So faint that it wasn't obvious, but she was obviously more than a simpering pack female. I remembered Dan Rutherford with some fondness, so I felt inclined to listen to Emma. And her suggestion wasn't half bad. Talking girl to girl would sort out this mess a lot faster than arguing with Jace Lloyd about the finer details of car theft.
I jerked a shoulder towards the command rooms. "Alright then. We can talk in here." And, with a smirk at the Alphas, "Ladies only."
When she made an attempt to follow me in there, Jace suddenly grabbed her arm. "Emma, I'm not going to let you go anywhere alone with her."
She shook him off. "I wasn't asking you to let me do anything. And we won't be alone."
Ollie and Leo manoeuvred their way between the mated couple with significant effort. Free of Jace, Emma stormed over to join me, looking more than slightly pissed off. We passed under a crumbling arch and into the dimly lit rooms where the important decisions were made.
Officially, they were the command rooms. But I had spent many long movie nights curled up in a corner in a sleeping bag, with dozens of other kids. It also served as overspill for the canteen and a shelter in stormy weather. So, in short, very multipurpose.
Rhys and Fion followed us automatically. They sat down on the wooden benches along one wall. Emma was watching Rhys with some annoyance. "What happened to no testosterone?"
I shrugged. "Oh, don't you know? Rhys is a girl."
He rolled his eyes at me but didn't even bother to deny it. The Luna intervened on his behalf anyway. "I know for a fact that isn't true."
Fion and I exchanged sly smirks. She rose her eyebrows suggestively, and Emma flushed. "No, no, no. I didn't mean it like that. I just— I meant—"
"She has seen me mostly naked," Rhys explained, rather unhelpfully. "But not for fun reasons."
And what was that supposed to mean? Alphas didn't exactly play nice with rogue prisoners, I knew that much. I strode over to tug at the edge of his collar. He tried to stop me, until I swatted his hands away. There was a half-healed cut poking out, and more bruises than I could count.
Well, that settled it. I was going to butcher the Alphas where they stood and feed their remains to the crows.
And the Luna, who had obviously known and done nothing... I fixed her with a hateful, icy stare.
"Skye, it's not what you think. This was my fault. I tried escaping in the Silverstones." Rhys smiled half-heartedly. "My fault — I swear."
I was torn in uncertainty. Alphas were known for torture, and Zach had already admitted that Rhys was a difficult customer for interrogation. There was every chance they had resorted to less savoury tactics to find answers.
Fion noticed my hesitation and snorted. "I believe him. Why would he lie?"
"Hey, I'm right here," he protested. "Look, it's fine. They're healing anyway."
The sheepishness of his expression convinced me. I prodded his shirt roughly. "Take it off. We're cleaning you up before anything else."
"Skye..." Rhys whined. He obviously didn't want to take down the tough-guy act in front of a random Luna, and I didn't really blame him.
"They look half infected already," I told him. "So take it off, jackass."
Almost as if she had been telepathically summoned (which, with Fion in the room, was very likely), Maggie bustled into the room carrying a bowl of warm water and a cloth. When she saw our guest, her face lit up...
...with rage.
"Rhys Llewellyn! What in the Goddess's name did you think you were doing? Three days, it's been. Three! And not a peep from you — we were worried sick. Would it have killed you to mind-link?"
"I was too far away until an hour ago," he explained patiently. "And besides, I wanted to surprise Skye. It's her birthday, you know."
Maggie narrowed her eyes. "I do know. Happy Birthday, dearie." I accepted those words with a nervous smile, but her attention was back on my brother the next instant. She set down the water to slap the back of his head. "You're just like your father, boy. Always running off, never a care for who you leave behind."
"I didn't exactly choose to—"
"And you've got your mother's tongue for excuses. I don't want to hear them." She cut him off before he could even finish a sentence. Rhys, startled at a mention of the mother he had never known, fell silent. Maggie stared at him remorsefully, then wrapped him into a suffocating hug without warning.
I will never understand that woman.
"I'll leave you kids to it. Just ... don't ever do that again." She released him and left quietly, leaving Rhys looking about as confused as I felt.
"Who's that?" I had forgotten Emma was even there until she spoke.
"Maggie," all three of us said at once. I added, "She's like the grandmother we never wanted."
"No, seriously. Who is she?"
Rhys shrugged. "Hell if I know. She babysat Bran and me whenever Dad was away. No idea why — we learnt not to ask about those kinds of things."
"I wasn't asking you," Emma said icily.
I rounded on her with a fury usually reserved for Brandon Llewellyn and Alphas. "What the hell is your problem?"
She threw him a dirty look. "He's a feral, you know."
"No." I cocked my head at Rhys. "I didn't know. When'd that happen, little brother?"
"The day after I walked on the moon," he scoffed. "They're stereotyping, little sister. I'm mean and I smell funny. So I must be a feral."
"He was with them," Emma insisted. "They attacked our pack and killed pups."
"Aw, bless you," I cooed. "They dumped you on New Dawn's territory during a feral attack? Poor little thing."
Rhys harrumphed loudly. "Yes. They did. I've been putting up with this shit the whole time, and no one came to rescue me. Really feeling the love by the way, Skye."
"Whoa now. I was busy dealing with your psychotic big brother. Remember him?"
"Oh, yeah. About Bran... What happened, exactly?"
That was the question I had been dreading. "He didn't leave me much choice in the end. Sorry about that."
A nice way of saying, I ripped your brother's throat out. And kinda enjoyed it.
Rhys sighed and winced at the same time. "I was hoping it hadn't come to that. But it's probably for the best. I was half-expecting to find him still playing king of the castle."
"And you brought your Alpha buddies here anyway?"
"I think those guys are actually more annoying than Bran— And hey, I see that look. It's true. Besides, I figured they'd fight each other and I could kill two birds with one stone."
"Fair enough."
I was forgetting all about the three Alphas on my doorstep, I realised. And even the Luna in the same room. It was easy to do, when my siblings I were together again. There was so much relief and catching up to do, that I was neglecting to diffuse the situation. That needed to change. Work first, reunion later.
So I grabbed the bowl and cloth, and with a bare minimum of complaints, convinced him to let me clean his wounds. Wrists first, because they were filthy and swollen. By the time it was done, I had seriously considered cuffing him to the chair just to make him sit still.
The whole time, Emma stared disapprovingly. I could feel the force of her glare on my back, but I didn't bother acknowledging it until he finally drew the line by knocking over the water bowl. 'Accidently,' of course. Fion took over the first-aid duties once she had fetched more, and that bothered him a lot less. With my brother in safe hands, I turned to the Luna and raised an eyebrow.
"I just don't understand why you're helping a feral. They enjoy killing," she said by way of explanation.
"You think Rhys enjoys killing?" I had to try very hard not to burst out laughing, and Fion was disguising chuckles with coughs. "Didn't you get the message? He's no more a feral than I am a buttercup."
Rhys put a hand on my shoulder encouragingly. "You'd make an excellent buttercup, Skye."
"Why thank you."
Emma sighed and her demeanour slacked. I wasn't sure if our banter had convinced her he wasn't a feral, or if she realised she wasn't getting anywhere with her complaints. "Can we just talk honestly with each other? Forget that we're enemies for a few minutes — I was like you once."
I considered her doubtfully. "I know. Your brother made a good rogue."
"Personally, I think it's a shame that he turned flockie," Rhys added. "Not many people do it that way around. Usually, it's pack wolves joining us."
Not helpful, I thought loudly. With our mind-link as developed as it was, I had no doubt he heard me. More gently, I mentally suggested he shut up for a bit. Emma was prejudiced against everything he said anyway. Fion had already taken the initiative to stay out of it.
"Alright. Let's talk and shit. Maybe you should start by telling me what the hell you think you're doing here," I began.
She took a seat on an empty bench and motioned passively for me to join. Oh, Goddess. She was being such a ... Luna. Righteous and proper and all that. But I sat down just to appease her and listened to a very hesitant explanation. "We're looking for someone. A nine-year-old girl with dark hair. She's been missing a long time."
"What's her name?"
Emma bit her lip, full of reluctance. That only made me more determined to know. "Err ... Aria. She might go by something else though."
"Surname," I demanded sharply. A girl who could get three Alphas searching had to be important. Maybe even important enough for me to join the hunt.
She wouldn't have told me, I don't think, if Alpha Jace hadn't spoken softly from the doorway. "Lloyd. Aria Lloyd."
Oh. I definitely needed to invest in this, then. This kid had Alpha blood, if she was from the Lloyd family. She would be a useful weapon in the right hands, maybe even to get a legitimate pack under rogue control. But evil plots aside, I could've sworn he wasn't allowed in here...
I glared at Ollie. He hovered at Jace's shoulder, looking sheepish and not entirely sure if he should have physically stopped him. At least the other two Alphas had stayed put, thank the Goddess.
"What part of 'ladies only' did you not understand?" I asked him.
Jace nodded towards Rhys. "The same part as him, I'd imagine. But relax. I just came to see what was taking so long."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," I muttered. "Now get out."
This time Ollie caught my pointed look and began dragging the back of the Alpha's shirt. Jace shook him off like an irritating fly. "Aria's my baby sister, and she's in danger. How would you feel?"
I stared at him in disbelief. Sarcasm felt like an appropriate weapon here. "I don't know. How would I feel if someone was holding my little sibling captive? Probably very angry. I might even want to kill the bastard responsible. Especially if they used torture."
Rhys opened his mouth to make some bullshit comment about it being his own fault. Luckily, before he could speak, Fion subtly pushed him off the bench. She, at least, knew I was just making a point.
Jace narrowed his eyes at my rant and regarded the bloodied cloth in my sister's hands. "I didn't torture him, if that's what he told you. Not physically, anyway. And I don't believe that the two of you are related. You look nothing alike."
"We're related in every way that matters. That's all you need to know," I explained shortly. It was unusual to have to explain this to people — normally Rhodric would call me his daughter and no one even thought to question it. Jace wasn't so easily convinced, apparently.
Rhys got up from the floor and dusted himself off, looking entirely nonplussed. The wounds on his back were filthy all over again, which gave Fion something to do and him something else to be annoyed about.
"You aren't Rhodric's kid," the Alpha told me bluntly.
"Did I say I was?" I snapped. He was right, and it was irritating me. What was it with packlings and poking their muzzles where they didn't belong?
"You implied it. And I quote 'every way that matters.' Except blood? Doesn't that matter?"
"Not to us. My real family is dead." I rolled my eyes at his immediate impassivity. What were a few dead rogues to him? Sarcasm seemed the way to go again. "So excuse me for finding another one."
Emma stared him in a frozen, mind-linking sort of way. I sincerely hoped she was telling him to shut his insensitive mouth. Seconds later, she smiled at me. "What do you want, Skye? Money? Territory? Grovelling?"
Now she was speaking my language. "All of the above, please."
"Territory's easy. We'll respect the boundaries you have. Is a twenty-kilometre radius around the castle good enough?" Without waiting for an answer, Emma looked to her mate. "And as for money: there's no shortage."
Jace nodded grudgingly. "Funds are passed down through the generations. At this point, our pack lives off the interest alone. I could afford a payment of—"
He frowned, thinking it through, before naming an outrageous sum of money which would feed a thousand rogues, let alone my few hundred. It was difficult not to gape at him, but I managed to keep my mouth firmly hinged and scowl a bit before accepting. "I suppose that might be enough..."
Jace saw straight through it. "Save the bartering tactics, can't you? I'll give you double if you let us leave with the prisoner."
I considered exactly what I could buy with that much money. Guns and weapons — proper defences for the castle. Certainly enough food, and perhaps clothes for everyone as well. And if we were careful, it might amount to a fortune of our own. Then I processed his last eight words and put on my best scandalised expression.
"Are you trying to buy my brother?"
"Well..." He paused, about to deny it. "That depends. Are you willing to sell him?"
Rhys or money. It was a difficult decision which would require a lot of thought. I liked my brother, but that was a metric butt load of cash. As I hesitated, Rhys narrowed his eyes.
"She's actually considering it," he said in disbelief. "She's going to sell me."
Fion laughed at him. "She wouldn't do that. Right, Skye?"
"Shhh," I replied, only half joking. "I'm thinking."
"You're not serious," Rhys insisted.
"No," I agreed. Of course I wouldn't do such a thing. Unless there had been another zero on the end... "I'm not. Rhys stays with us. You lot can walk free, but he stays here."
Jace exchanged a meaningful glance with his mate. "We need him. For safe passage with the rogues, and to get Aria back."
"If you want to get along with rogues, you'd do better to arrive without Rhodric Llewellyn's son in handcuffs," I advised them honestly. "Ask nicely, and see how far it gets you. But Rhys has been gone long enough already. He's not going with you."
"Well, actually, Skye—" Rhys interrupted bluntly. "I am."
If he hadn't been the most stubborn bastard I had ever met (short of his father, of course), I would have thought they had tortured him past breaking point. No fibre of my being could understand why he would say such a thing of his own free will. But as it was difficult to put that into words, I just said, "What?"
"I'm going with them," he repeated. "She's with Jaz and Makayla, and they're camped near Blackwater for the winter. It'll take two days max. Little girl reunited with her family, peace amongst the packs, balance restored to the universe and all that."
"Wait outside," I hissed at the Alpha and Luna. They both bridled and began to complain, so I cut them off with an exasperated, "Oh, just go."
Once my siblings and I had the room to ourselves, I stared down Rhys with barely restrained fury. "What the hell has gotten into you? You only just got back, and you want to go running off with some jumped-up pack mutts on a treasure hunt for a kid you never met?"
"For a kid with feelings and a family who miss her," he explained matter-of-factly. "You wouldn't want someone to do the same for you? Because I certainly would."
Oh. Oh. Jace's plight had awoken the big brotherly instincts in him. How could I argue with that?
"Rhys," Fion began quietly, "please."
It seemed like he would crumble there and then, with just one word from my sister, as opposed to dozens from me. There were two different kinds of love at work here. But the last week had hardened even his feelings for us. Distance and pain would do that to a person, even a person like Rhys.
"No."
"It's gotta be more than empathy," I reasoned.
"Think about it. If I do this, they'll owe us. Do you really think you'll see a penny of that money as soon as they're free? Jace is all about that honour shit, but I don't think it extends to rogues. Unless, of course, I save his sister. And it'll fix the whole feudal mess, so then they'll be free to help us deal with the ferals."
I could have ordered him. I could almost imagine it happening. He would stare straight back, frustrated, but he would give in eventually. My family could be together again (well, almost), leaving the packs to sort out their own messes. With us though, it was never quite that simple. It wasn't fair to pull rank on him, and I knew it.
"They'll still hate us and we'll still hate them, but we could learn to work together," I admitted.
"Mutual hatred is the best kind of friendship," Rhys agreed, making Fion snort.
This is what it meant to be a Llewellyn, I realised. They seemed to be in the habit of dropping everything for ditch-all attempts to fix the world. There wasn't any point trying to stop them. All I could was aid and abet.
I threw him his shirt. "Alright then."
I could feel Fion's disagreement rolling off in mental waves, but she would have to accept it. At the end of the day, it was Rhys's decision. And it was selfish of us to keep him here while the outside world crashed and burned.
We went out into the courtyard together, to see the Alpha squad standing in a rough triangle under one of the eaves, and Emma hovered outside the doorway. There were still at least a dozen guns trained on them. And Leo wasn't far off, to my wolf's relief and delight. He looked fine, if a bit weary.
"Rhys goes with you," I said quietly to Emma. "But no chains."
What guarantee did I have that they wouldn't bring out the cuffs as soon as they were out of sight? None, except the knowledge that Rhys wouldn't just stand still and take it. Which was even more worrying in a way, because he could get badly hurt fighting back.
She smiled sincerely. "Thank you. But if he tries anything ... you know I wouldn't be able to stop Jace—"
"Yeah, yeah. He won't try anything," I promised.
The Luna went to explain everything to her mate. A minute later, the Alphas were getting ready to leave. I signalled for the gates to be opened, revealing a crowd of curious young rogues on the outside. So much for curfew.
Rhys looked between Fion and me regretfully. "Two days, I promise."
"I'm counting on it," I told him. "Be good—"
"—and if you can't be good—" Fion continued.
"—don't get caught," Rhys finished with a grin. "Don't worry, I know."
He hugged both of us at once, and I was careful not to press on the spotless wounds. Although with the state of his shirt, I didn't think they would be clean for very long. When we were done saying goodbye, he went to join the packlings in the gateway.
None of the Alphas looked very happy with our arrangement, but they could hardly complain. I was starting to make a habit of letting trespassing Alphas get away with it, I realised. But at least this time I would get something out of it.
The adventure squad didn't linger long after that. They pushed their way through the onlookers to reach the cover of the woods. I stood on the parapet to make sure they got out okay, and from there I watched my brother leave me behind for the second time that week.