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125 | TOO LATE TO TURN BACK
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Alpha Ares 126 | THE SIEGE OF WINTERPAW
With a groan, the last door was bolted shut.“Well,” said Cendres, wiping his hands on his trouser legs, “that was anticlimactic.”And then there was a thump.And a thud.And another.And more – tens more, hundreds more. Claws scrabbled at the wood, at the rock, at the stone, and menacing howls filled the air. They seeped through the cracks in the mountain: a song of death and the promise of bloodshed.“You spoke too soon, Cen,” I called down to him as I sprinted up the stairs, hunting for a window to look out from. Any low down enough to be broken through had been hastily boarded up, but some on the higher levels of the Pack House had been left open as vantage points.Ares was hot on my heels, though I could hear the laboured pants interspersing his breaths and I could feel the flare of residual pain from his wounds.A shout bellowed up from below. “Give me my daughter, Ares!” cried Scillian. “She would never side with you. Never. Especially not when death would be her only reward!”
Alpha Ares 127 | A MOTHER'S LOVE
I leant against the countertop, feigning nonchalance to hide the frantic beating of my heart. I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, the black strands catching in the low light. I felt like the world was closing in around me – which, to be fair, it sort of literally was. Even in the kitchen I could hear the constant scrape of claws against wood and stone. It was only a matter of time before they broke in. No amount of positive thinking could change the reality of that.It didn’t take long for the silence to become stifling. “You wanted to talk to me?” I pressed, moving to grab my coffee mug and internally berating myself for leaving it in the dining hall with Ares. I needed something to do with my hands.Mum’s bright blue eyes were unusually wide and soft, almost doe-like in their appearance rather than tight and shrewd. “I want to make things right between us,” she said, taking a half-step closer to me before she thought better of it and stopped.I folded my arms over my chest. “So
Alpha Ares 128 | STRAIGHT ON ‘TIL MORNING
I ran to Ares, shifting mid-stride with Mum hot on my heels. I had to reach him. We’d made only one promise to each other: fight together, die together. I wouldn’t break that promise. I wouldn’t.The hallways were loud with the sounds of growls and the meaty thud of bodies hitting the hard, stone floor. Yips and barks and pained moans were a symphony of agony, undercutting the harsh slice of claws and the silence that followed the mewls of pain. I pushed on, surging around the corner and coming out behind a firm line of Winterpaw Warrior wolves, their bodies packed tight as they held back the oncoming force of Greyhide Canyon’s allied armies. There was no sense to anything; I could barely process up or down or left or right. It was hot and the air was thick with the metallic taste of blood. My nostrils flared, scenting sweat and musk and death. I forced myself between the wall of furred bodies, dodging blows coming on all sides.‘On your left!’ Mum shouted into my mind.I turned. A w
Alpha Ares 129 | BEYOND AND WITHIN
‘We have to get the front door shut,’ I mindlinked to Ares, my jaw locked in a snarl as I shoved and clawed at the wolves surging towards the entrance to the Winterpaw Warrior Pack House. ‘There aren’t enough of us to fight a battle on two fronts.’I couldn’t feel the cold I knew must accompany the snow swirling through the air. We were so tightly packed, funnel-necked as we forced our way outside, bloodied and bruised and sweaty.‘I didn’t think they’d turn on us,’ Ares muttered, more than to himself than to me. ‘Not so soon, anyway. I thought we had a chance–’‘Don’t panic about it.’ I forced my mental voice to sound stronger than I felt. ‘All we can do is deal with what we’ve got. We still have a chance, Ares. We just need to buy Annia and Aliana some more time.’‘You’re right.’I looked around for him, but I’d lost him to the battle. My heart beat loudly in my chest. I could still hear him; he was okay. He had to be.‘Always am,’ I teased – and a tail smacked me around the head, m
Alpha Ares 130 | AN HONOURABLE DEATH
I moved without thought, flying blindly into the fray. Claws sliced at my sides and rump as I flung myself across the compressed battlefield, reaching the wolf a second too late.But Ares didn’t. He blocked the attack, turning on a sixpence and bringing up his back paws to smash into the wolf’s jaw. It howled, and the howl became a quiet keening as it stumbled back, blood spurting from the hollow above it’s shadowed eyes.I fell forwards, the momentum sending me straight into Ares’s path. I knocked into him; he swung around blindly, his teeth angled right at my throat.‘It’s me!’ I yelled into his mind. ‘Ares, don’t!’‘Haile?’ He pulled up short, his teeth just grazing the prone fur of my neck. ‘Haile! Fuck! I almost–’I cut him off, my eyes going wide. ‘Behind you!’He twisted, spotting the swipe of claws, co-ordinated with the ring of teeth, just before they tore into his backside. ‘We have to get out of here,’ I grunted to him. ‘Winterpaw have turned. We need to find a way back i
Alpha Ares 131 | LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
Ares shifted into his human form immediately, not once glancing back at the remaining wolves circling us. He strode towards Scillian, his eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, and without thinking I shifted too, following him into the fray.As we crossed the last of the distance, I realised that the wolves surrounded us had stilled. Anger rose in me, scalding my chest and stinging the back of my throat. I swallowed hard, trying to keep my expression neutral as we neared them. Ares wasn’t faring so well; he glared at Scillian with pure, unadulterated hatred burning in his bright blue eyes.But it wasn’t Scillian that I looked at. It was Aliana. She looked different like this, the wispy curls of her blonde hair somehow appearing less innocent, less delicate, than they had before. Everything about her had hardened, from her round pale eyes to the gaunt cut of her bones. Rather than frail or malnourished, she looked like a sharpened spear ready to strike.‘Where’s Annia?’ I mindlinked to Ares
Alpha Ares 132 | LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD
There was a beat of silence. One single, solitary beat – first filled with panic, followed by any and all halfway logical steps we could take to escape this situation. I thought through them, considering every angle we had and measuring up the likelihood of each option working.And then – of course – Ares leapt at Scillian. He shifted in mid-air, black fur sprouting down his back and claws reaching for Scillian’s face. My knees locked. I could only stare on in horror as my mate flung himself across the snow, only to smack into Scillian’s huge wolf form. Dark fur speckled with grey split his skin; as they stumbled back, shoved by the force of Ares’s leap, they rolled hard into the side of the nearest Warrior Wolf’s cabin.It was hard to tell the two apart as they tussled, their fur so similar in shade, the snowflakes dotting Ares’s fur in a way similar to the patches of grey on Scillian’s. Movement off to the side snagged my gaze; I turned just in time to see Aliana darting behind the
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
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Alpha Ares 141 | EPILOGUE
One year later I smoothed my hands down over my thick cloak. Nerves swarmed in my belly: not the dizzying kind that made me feel faint, but the sort that cast a hazy glow over everything as I walked along the winding woodland pathway. Torches flickered every few feet; orange roses of light bloomed across the mossy, dew-damp earth beneath my boots. “Nervous?” asked Dad. “A little.” I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. “It’s silly, I know. There’s nothing to be nervous about. I’ve been his Luna for the last year – longer, really – but this feels…” I trailed off, unsure how to word exactly how it felt. Official? Real? “It’s been such a long time coming, sweetheart.” “Yeah. Part of me wishes we’d done this straight after the battle, but it made sense to wait until the pack was remade.” Unable to help myself, a grin pushed hard at my cheeks. Everything looked beautiful today, I thought, the pine trees bottle-green beneath the golden setting sun. Everything was glazed with the
Alpha Ares 140 | COME TOGETHER
As everyone took their seats, Ares and I remained standing. I clutched at his hand: it was a physical reminder to everyone there that we were joined, that Winterpaw Warrior and Blue Moon were enemies no longer.I glanced at Ares, letting him take the lead. He swallowed, straightened his shoulders, and then smiled hesitantly around at everyone. The expression looked strange, uncertain, and it took me a moment to realise why. Ares never smiled at people when he addressed them. He led through fear and control. Not anymore, it seemed. My heart swelled.“Thank you all for coming,” he said, projecting his voice clearly and confidently across the room. “Luna Sienna and Alpha Rodriguez, of the Firepaw Pack.” He inclined his head at the dark-skinned woman my dad had been talking to before, and the bald-headed, well-muscled man sat beside her. They were both older than us by about fifteen years.The Alpha and Luna of the Storm Guardian Pack were older still, well into their fifties, their face
Alpha Ares 139 | KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
Ares had given Dad the nicest of the Warrior Wolves’ cabins to stay in. When we arrived, Ares’s arm still latched securely around my waist as it had been every single step of the way, I saw two other familiar faces peering out at us through the window, their creased faces crinkling with smiles so wide I half feared their tissue paper skin might tear.The wind whipped between the cabins, making my eyes and cheeks sting. Dawn had long since settled across the horizon, pale pink fading into the usual white-grey cloud cover. Everything looked strange out here, unreal in a way I couldn’t quite process. I clutched at Ares, suddenly apprehensive as dad moved to let us in.My nerves dissolved as soon as set foot inside. We were both pulled into an embrace on all sides, many arms winding around us and holding us close.“You did it,” Nana Baspy whispered.I scoffed and, after another long moment, I pulled away. “I don’t think I can take any of the credit, Nana. I wasn’t even conscious for half
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
