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088 | SCAR
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Tell me what Nazte and Scillian are planning,” I said flatly, “and this – all of this – is yours.”
My method of torture was exactly the opposite. I gestured broadly to the table before us, upon which were a myriad of foods, drinks, and clothes. Luezza’s scowl didn’t once let up, but her eyes, usually like hard chips of blue ice, seemed to melt at the sight of the steaming buns and herbal tea.
Her hands were knotted tightly to the chair I’d sat her on. Her fingers, which had not once stopped writhing in an attempt to shake off her bonds, at last stilled. She sighed. “Fine.”
I frowned at her. Was it really so easy to break her? I remembered what she had been like when I’d first met her, with a scowl that never faltered and eyes full of hatred. Even her sugared words had come out sour.
Then again… I had seen the way the Winterpaw Warrior wolves lived. Such a spread had o
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Waiting a week to speak to Ares was torture. The knowledge I now had burned a hole through my heart, and fear gripped me tight through every waking and sleeping hour.I went down to speak to Luezza every day, swapping out with the Warrior Wolf on guard for a few hours each afternoon after lunch, just to be near someone who knew Ares. Being so far from him, in a place that revelled in his supposed death, made my mate start to take on an unreal quality. Rather than letting myself wonder if I’d imagined everything that had happened between us, I spoke to Luezza. She was tangible proof that Alpha Ares had been real. That he was real.She didn’t give much away, and she alternated between spitting at my boots and begging for my forgiveness, but I took it all the same. Anything to remember that this half-life I was now living wouldn’t be my life forever. Getting away for a second time would likely arouse suspicion, so I had to go about my exploits with more caution when the time finally cam
Alpha Ares 090 | GONE FISHING
‘He – he’s what?’ I frowned at nothing, my senses suddenly more alert than they’d been a moment ago. Luezza had found me so easily…‘Gone missing. I haven’t seen him for four days. Cendres kept talking to me through our mindlink until I was out of range, and he still hasn’t returned.’‘Well, where is he? Does Cendres have any ideas?’‘I doubt he’s gone on a peaceful little fishing trip,’ said Ares dryly. ‘I can only assume that he’s gone to the Greyhide Canyon Pack. He’s not used to being an Omega in Winterpaw; there, at least, he’ll have his status back, if what Luezza has told you is true.’I twisted around, hearing sounds where there were none. ‘Yeah. Yeah, you’re probably right. Poor Cen, though.’‘At least I know where you are,’ Ares agreed, though even from here I could feel a flare of pain through the mate bond, like lightning through clouds, as it struck him. ‘If you went missing... If I didn’t know where to find you… I’d go mad, beautiful.’‘Not that much would change, then.
Alpha Ares 091 | THE LUNA'S DAUGHTER
“I went to speak to Alpha Ares.”Silence hung heavy in the air between us. Though I wanted to fidget, I held my ground. I would not bow before her. I would not lie. I met her gaze with something akin to defiance, my core burning with guilt and squeezing with anger.Her face twisted. “What do you mean?”I took a deep breath. “Alpha Ares is alive. I didn’t kill him. I just… I wanted you to trust me again.”“So you lied,” she said, her voice as flat as her expression. “Again.”I lifted my chin. “Yes. Because you had to listen to me fast, Mum. You didn’t believe that Greyhide were the real threat. I thought that if Ares was out of the picture, you’d see that it wasn’t him–”“You’re still bewitched by him. Stars, Haile,” she groaned, running a hand down the length of her braid. “I thought you were better than this.”“Mum, I–”She grabbed me by the arm. “No. You’ve said enough. You always trusted me before, Haile. You were the perfect Luna’s daughter, and I thought – I always thought that y
Alpha Ares 092 | REBEL REBEL
The room was dark and quiet. I squinted into the silence. I couldn’t believe Mum had left me here. Not only that – she’d had a bloody Omega come in and tie me to the chair. I’d let him, wanting to appease Mum sooner rather than later. If I’d fought back, she might have come back and tied me down herself. As it was, it had been almost too easy to slip free of the ropes – ropes, not chains, the fool – and stand up from the chair. But that didn’t change the fact that the door was locked from the outside. I cursed under my breath and stared at the handle again. Wiggling it would only alert the guard outside that I was free of my bonds. If only I could warn Ares from here. If only I could mindlink him, but he was too far away – And then it struck me. I couldn’t mindlink Ares, but I could mindlink anyone I liked in the Blue Moon Pack. Grinning to myself, I found the imprint of Nana Baspy’s mind and sent her a message. ‘Nana
Alpha Ares 093 | BEYOND THE DARK PASS
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Alpha Ares 094 | BLUE FIRE LAKE
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Alpha Ares 095 | STARLIGHT TO STARLIGHT, SOIL TO SOIL
In the darkness, there remained spots – sparkles, glittering sparkles – of light, which shone silver as the stars. I brushed past them, uninterested in their beauty. I had suffered so much. Was this not my right? Was peace not more than I was allowed?And then I heard a voice. Real or hallucinated, I didn’t know. But the voice drew me close, pulled me into strong arms, arms that smelt like snow and woodsmoke and pine, and I could taste wine on his lips, and the voice inside me grew louder.‘Don’t give in, beautiful. Don’t give up.’It was a voice I knew even in death, and I clung to it. It was gravel and honey, sin and sorrow, beauty and pain and good and evil and whimsy and smirks and sardonic and oh, how I loved it.How I loved him.The past and the present separated. Memories untangled, leaving behind the raw, rasping sound of my throat as I screamed for help, as water – cold, icy cold water – rushed over my head, rushed down, down, down into my lungs. But that was the past, and I
Alpha Ares 096 | AN OLD FOE
I shoved myself up – only to wobble on my still-chained legs and stumble back down onto the sand. I slumped down; there was no strength in my arms, and I struggled to haul myself back up into a sitting position. To their credit, neither of my grandparents rushed to my aid. I knew the offer of help was there, but I’d never been one to enjoy being mollycoddled. I would get myself up.“He got away?” I grunted, brushing my sandy hands on my sandy, chained thighs.“We were lucky to find you, little wolf.” Nana Baspy’s creased face twisted with sympathy. I met her gaze, hating the pity I found there, and nodded.Then everything else that had fallen to the back of my mind hit me, all at once. “Shit,” I muttered, looking between them with wide eyes. “Mum – has she left for Winterpaw?” “Not yet,” said Grandpa Attie, and the knot in my chest loosened slightly. “Your dad has been holding her up, for as long as he can.” A smile played at the corner of his thin, lined lips. “He’ll get himself loc
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Alpha Ares 141 | EPILOGUE
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Alpha Ares 140 | COME TOGETHER
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Alpha Ares 139 | KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
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Alpha Ares 138 | SURRENDER AND SACRIFICE
The world shattered. For a time, it was nothing more than a series of fragmented images and distant, distorted sounds. I heard screaming, felt the tell-tale burning in my throat, but I couldn’t connect the noise to me. I was weightless, without a body, and then there was nothing but silent darkness.Words I couldn’t understand split apart the quiet. “It’s the other packs,” someone said excitedly. I recognised the voice, familiar enough but not someone I was close to. A hazy, half-formed image of a missing hand and foot beneath determined eyes and wispy blonde hair floated just out of reach, and I gave up trying to identify the mystery voice as they spoke. “Firepaw and Storm Guardian. They made it just in time. We did it! We survived.”No, we didn’t, I thought bitterly. Not all of us.“It’s not over yet.” That growl, gravel and honey – that was Ares. Something in me settled. But why had he shifted into his human body? That thought, along with all my others, drifted away, becoming nothi
Alpha Ares 137 | BATTLE OF THE MOUNTAIN
We were all so focused on Aliana that none of us heard the quiet tap-tap-tap of claws pacing the stone hallways of the Pack House behind us.And then Scillian smiled. Behind him, the Sable Stalker Alpha and Luna smirked, too, a cruel hook of their lips that made my blood boil; off to the side slightly, Bloodpelt Prowler’s Alpha grinned toothily. They were all so smug, so sure of themselves. So sure that they’d won.“What is this?” Dad asked flatly.“Oh, this?” Scillian brightened impossibly further as he gestured to Aliana. “A game.”“You wouldn’t hurt your own daughter.” Dad sounded less convinced about that than he had a minute ago. “Let her go, and let the battle recommence.”“My daughter is a traitor. And, worse than that: she was running from a fight.” Scillian scoffed. I watched his face closely as he walked, every stride slow and purposeful, towards Aliana. He caressed her cheek, but I looked beyond that. I searched out his eyes through the snowfall, and I found only adoration
Alpha Ares 136 | THE END OF US
I knew, deep down, that this was my last hurrah. I knew, deep down, that if it were not, I would’ve let the pain and the shock hold me back from fighting one last time. My body was weak, but I would not succumb to its needs. This was no ordinary battle, and I had never been one to give up.I felt the pain and let it make me stronger. Adrenaline surged through my veins. I would fight by my mate’s side, and I would try to make it mean something. That was all I could do, now.We neared the Pack House. The tension surrounding it was thick with foreboding; the stillness of the battlefield was somehow worse than when the air had been metallic with spilled blood and the snow melting from the heat of the felled bodies upon it. Now, fresh snow dusted the blood soaked fur of the dead, masking the worst of the atrocities that had been marked upon the land in stark pools of red.Everything was calm. Everything was quiet. Some dark premonition made the back of my neck crawl with the sense that, at
Alpha Ares 135 | BE AMONGST THE STARS
I was numb, inside and out, as I watched. My mind struggled to break free of the overwhelming melancholy, the agony so strong that the only way I could deal with it was to feel nothing at all.The cold helped. A bitter wind whipped between the boulders, sending snowflakes into a flurry. They turned my vision blurry: everything was black and white and grey again, as it had been in the time before Ares. Everything, that was, except for the blood.And there was so much blood.It was start against the pale backdrop of the mist and snow. A physical mark of violence, marring the purity of the white beneath. And, atop its own puddle of red, sat my ear. I shuddered every time my gaze drifted over it; it was the sort of thing I didn’t want to look at but also couldn’t look away from. It was grotesque, torn at a ragged angle, the flesh pink within – My lip curled. It looked so alien to me now, that missing piece of me. I couldn’t imagine how I looked, bloodied and battered, one ear gone. A sn
Alpha Ares 134 | HAUNTED
Claws ripped into me on both sides. I flung Elena off easily enough; she was so small that, even exhausted as I was from hours of adrenaline-fuelled fighting, it didn’t take much effort on my part to dislodge her. Distantly, I heard her pull herself to her paws again. But in this fight, both physically and in the heart of it, she didn’t matter. This was between Etta and I.I winced as Etta’s claws ripped free of my fur and flesh. Blood spat from the wound, hitting the snow and melting the ice surrounding it. I wrenched myself backwards, darting behind the nearest boulder and peering out around it. ‘Why are you doing this?’ I asked – no, I begged.‘I promised myself.’ Her mental voice was nothing like the one I remembered. Etta was often sarcastic and teasing, but there had been a warmth beneath even her cruellest of jokes that had dissipated after Damon’s death. ‘After you left, and after the attacks began. I had to do something for him.’‘Damon and I were friends.’ I edged backwards
Alpha Ares 133 | ON THE WINGS OF FATE
I’d made my choice when Ares mindlinked me. He sounded weak and weary, but very much alive. My heart leapt at the familiar sound of his voice, of gravel and honey, loosening the knot that had been pulling my chest taut ever since the battle had begun.‘I had to run, beautiful. There were too many of them, but I managed to get away.’That was all I needed to hear. I turned and shifted into my wolf form, preparing to race across the empty stretch of battlefield that had been left behind the attacking armies as they approached.‘Are you okay?’ I asked. There was one other thing I needed to hear, it turned out.‘I’m fine.’ I was pretty sure he was lying, but if he was well enough to lie then I didn’t have to worry about my mate too much. ‘Are you? What happened with Nazte?’‘Nothing. It was weird.’ I fell forwards, landing on paws and snapping my jaws. ‘He wanted to know how Cendres was. We just… Talked.’The cabin’s front door banged open behind me. I twisted around, catching sight of Na
