Okay, okay I know I said every other Monday. But the updating less plan can go to hell because I've been waking up in the morning with 60+ notifications :o That means y'all are getting chapters twice a week even if it kills me.
The rest of the lunch break passed far too quickly. We fell into a familiar routine of insulting each other and joking about things which weren't funny. By the time we started down the mountain, I was beginning to wonder if Maggie had spiked our water bottles with vodka.
Walking downhill was, as always, easier than walking uphill. Yet we took it slowly in consideration for our full stomachs. Fion lagged behind all the way, dropping right to the back as we approached the church. Leo and I waited for her when we realised, even though Rhys was already hovering at her elbow.
I glanced her up and down. "You alright?"
From the annoyed look she shot me, I knew Rhys had been pestering her too. "Yeah, I guess. Just feeling sick."
"Like queasy sick, or I'm-going-to-throw-up sick?" I asked.
"The second one," Fion admitted reluctantly. She would rather suffer in silence than have us fussing.
I didn't realise quite how literally she meant it until yellowy nausea flooded across the link. She must have been overwhelmed enough to lose her grip on the mind-link, which was rare, but an occupational hazard of her overly-sensitive mind.
We barely made it to the church in time. I had taken a chance that there would be toilets, which paid off, even though some part of me hoped she would vomit on the packmeet table just to spite the Alphas. But as my luck would have it, there was a single toilet stall in the back of the building, and that's where Fion ended up retching her guts out.
I slammed the door in the boys' faces and knelt beside her, holding her hair out of the way and trying to ignore the insistent hammering on the door. Although those sounds stopped as soon as the vomiting noises started.
"Is she being sick?" Rhys yelled the question loud enough to startle a dormouse. The tiny rodent dashed from its hiding place to take refuge in the sewage pipes. Nice.
"No," I shouted back. "She's making an offering of stomach acid and half-digested food to the toilet gods!"
Genuine confusion. "What?"
"She's being sick, Rhys," Leo sighed.
Fion gave one last retch and tried to stand up, only to end up on her knees again. I squeezed her shoulder and went to the sink for her. There was a chipped mug full of toothbrushes, so I emptied it and refilled it with tap water. What was with the toothbrushes, anyway? Somehow I couldn't see the Alphas having a sleepover.
Fion gulped and spat out water until the taste of vomit was gone, then slumped against the wall. Weird. It could have been something she ate, but I had eaten exactly the same and felt fine. She couldn't have been ill either — I'd have smelt it on her. So that only left one thing...
"Fion, is there any chance you could be—"
She shook her head vigorously, warning me to shut my mouth before the idiots outside heard anything. I took the hint.
There was a tentative knock on the door, and this time I opened it. Rhys poked his head in, the look on his face making his concern when the tree fell on my leg feel non-existent by comparison.
"What's wrong?" he asked cautiously.
Fion's glance at me was nothing short of pleading. She didn't want him to know, and he hadn't guessed, so it probably hadn't been him... A horrible thought occurred to me. So horrible that I physically recoiled and had to shove down my wolf.
No. It couldn't have been Brandon, because she would have told me. There was no way that he'd done anything like that. She would have told me. Right?
I slammed down the thought and did my best to smile, although it must have come out more like a nervous twitch. "It was probably that funny-smelling milk. I did try and warn you, you know."
"I know," she said, her eyes filled with gratitude. "And I should have listened."
Rhys narrowed his eyes. "Milk?"
How Fion managed to laugh then, I have no idea. "Yeah. With breakfast. It must have been off."
"So you're okay?" Leo checked.
"Perfectly fine," she promised.
The boys accepted that easily enough, and went back outside. But I stayed and stared at my sister, who returned to looking thoroughly miserable again. I stared at her, she stared at me, and we tried our damned best to speak without words.
She would have told me.
***
It took another few minutes to reach the cars, by which time the rangers had been tipped off to our presence. One of them squinted at our licence plates as we drove away, which were all stolen, so I could only hope he didn't have a very good memory.
The cars split off at the first junction. The fighters were going home (and Fion with them after the vomiting), but Rhys, Ollie, Leo and I headed in the opposite direction, straight through the Silverstones. I had a war to plan — true — but having dragged my mate around for weeks, I could afford to spend a few hours on him for once.
So we were going to meet the in-laws. Leo's parents, who lived in New Dawn Pack. As Jace had seemed well-disposed towards me in the packmeet, I felt safe enough to ask for permission to trespass. Because getting caught on his land while we were supposed to be allied wouldn't help anyone.
"Hey, Skye?" Rhys asked suddenly. "Should we talk about how you gave an Alpha assassination tips? Was that smart?"
I readjusted my seatbelt so I had enough slack to poke him. "Yes, thank you very much. A well-placed sniper would be the biggest danger. Hopefully now he won't dare try it."
"Isn't he even more likely to try it?" Leo reasoned sceptically. "Now he's got the idea?"
"Well ... no. Let me put it this way: if someone told you to punch them, would you do it?"
"No. I'd think it was a trap," Rhys said without hesitation.
"Exactly." I smirked, smug. "Keith would be too suspicious to try a sniper now."
Through the open car window came the overwhelming stench of packlings. This was the borderline, where they insisted on marking their territory on every tree. I leant out of the window despite the stench, searching for the visual clue to accompany the olfactory one.
It wasn't obvious at first. But my wolf's sharp eyes picked out the tag, sprayed onto oak bark near the road. The language of graffiti symbols belonged to rogues really, but packs acknowledged it when the time came to outline their borders. This one was a crude sun rising over a dark horizon. That was a clear enough message — New Dawn Pack. Keep out.
I wished I could. Because this felt weird. Using the main entrance was new enough to us without the envoy waiting for us on the roadside. Ollie had been the one to organise our permit, so I didn't know the specifics, but apparently we had to be escorted through the territory. And since Jace didn't trust us as far as he could throw us, he was the one who would be doing it.
Leo tried his dammed best to ignore the waiting flockies, but our car was stopped before we could even cross the borderline. Deltas formed a rough ring around us — because they didn't trust us as far as they could spit — while Alpha Jace pulled open the driver-side door and even deigned to smile.
"I didn't expect you so soon," he commented. "You must be eager."
I shrugged noncommittedly. "Sure. Something like that."
Jace shifted his weight, and something crunched under his feet. I studied the ground, picking out slips of white in the leaves. Yet another pack tradition, I knew. They heaped bones at the border to scare us off. It had never worked as far as I knew. the bones were blatantly prey, not wolves.
"So as we were trying to kill each other just last week," Jace began carefully, "I'm going to need a hostage to make sure you behave yourselves. He will stay with my Beta and be treated as a guest — really, he can go play Mario Kart at the pack house for all I care. But if for any reason my pack is threatened..."
He left the last few words unsaid. It would be the Beta's job to put down the hostage should we set a toe out of line, difficult when I didn't think I'd ever been on the right side of that line.
I thought wistfully of trespassing — so much easier. We were in less danger too. Beginning to regret my decision to do this the right way, I scowled. "Why do you need a hostage? You know we're here, you know where we'll be. Are you just trying to fuel your ego with control?"
"Not even close. My pack members are agitated enough about the ferals without having rogues running loose all over the territory. I won't scare them unnecessarily." Jace narrowed his eyes. "You'd better decide who the lucky victim is. But I'm going to warn you, Tyler is extremely annoying."
The young Beta grinned at us. He didn't even bother to deny it.
"Actually, Tyler's my favourite flockie," Rhys slipped in.
Right — he'd know the Beta. Because he had spent a week with New Dawn Pack. That still took some getting used to.
"Aw, and you're my favourite rogue, Rhys," Tyler said, nonchalantly directing a middle finger at his Alpha's back. That explained why my brother liked him. But. still, I eyed him sceptically, then looked back at my family. As I needed Leo to hide behind and Ollie wasn't really the suicidal solo mission kind of guy, there was one obvious choice.
So I brushed the mind-link with Rhys. "Can you take the Beta?"
He eyed Tyler, considering it. "Yeah. I wouldn't want to, but yeah."
"A friend?" I guessed. "Are you willing to kill the guy if it comes to that? Because I can ask Ollie..."
"Screw that. If Tyler tries to kill me, I have no problem returning the favour. But I don't think he will, and I don't think it'll come to that."
"Neither do I. Just making sure," I promised.
I focused again on the outside world, particularly on the impatient Alpha who waited with folded arms, utterly oblivious to our mental conversation. He raised an eyebrow after a minute had passed. "Well?"
In answer, Rhys opened his car door and joined Tyler on the roadside, saying, "Guest, you said? Reckon I'll go see Emma. Is she at the pack house?"
"Not if you're going to be there," Jace said flatly. Then, to his pack members, "Keep him the hell away from my mate."
"Yes, Alpha." The Beta hurriedly dragged Rhys — who was failing to smother a grin — into the forest, headed for the pack house. Several Deltas followed, which I hadn't accounted for. Could he beat all of them at once? I wouldn't want to bet on it.
"That took an unreasonable amount of time," he grumbled. "There's one last condition to this. I have to stay with you the entire time."
"Why? You think you can fight three of us and win?" I demanded.
Jace shook his head impatiently. "Of course not. I have no doubt that three of you together could thrash me, especially if the stories about you are true."
"Stories..." I repeated slowly.
"The rumours say that you killed Brandon Llewellyn. Now, I don't know — or particularly care — if it's true. But the Llewellyns are ... let's say renowned. People take note of whoever drops them, even if it's complete fabrication"
I frowned. "Okay ... so if you can't stop us, why stay with us?"
"Again, for appearances. Don't worry — I won't be going inside with you," he reassured me. "Oh no, I'll leave those two bundles of joy to you."
Somehow, I got the feeling that Leo's parents weren't well-liked, even among their own pack. My sense of foreboding tripled.
"Fine, get in," I grumbled and he ended up sitting where Rhys had been, far too close to me for comfort. My hand touched my knife hilt and didn't leave it. "Because this won't be awkward at all."
Jace, looking damnably unaffected by our proximity and situation, narrowed his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something? Please, don't mind me. Feel free to plot your future misdeeds."
I scoffed. "Pft. You think that's what we do all day? "
An indifferent shrug. "So go ahead. Pretend I'm not here. What would you talk about?"
I cringed and admitted, "The loopholes in your patrol system."
His mouth tightened, but somehow he refrained from asking what, exactly, the loopholes in his patrol system were. As if we'd tell him.
Leo started the ignition and pulled out again, leaving Rhys far behind. And just like that, our group of four went down to three. Little did I know that someone watched us from the shadows with hatred in their heart and ideas in their head.
Ideas about how they could get me on my own. Ideas about how to go about killing a rogue.