Climbing on top of the truck cabin, I got a view of a thick rising column of smoke over a mile away.
/Anyone close?/ I link out to my fellow Beta Warriors. /Half an hour south of Cragstone?/ Beta Riley answers separately /Is it that black smoke in the distance?/ /We should check it out. Meet you there?/ Then Phoebe’s voice bounced into my head. Deceptively sweet and gentle for someone who hurled a rock at me the last time I tried to get her to come home. /Sawyer, are you there?/ Goddess help me. Of course she’s finally found herself in some real trouble. No doubt the cause of that fire, I bet. I didn’t panic until the link went quiet. The trembling fear in her voice hit me hard. Almost like the air had been sucked out of my lungs. No mocking. Just a plea. For me. That’s a first. She’s called me every curse word under the sun over the past few months. Mostly amusing, sometimes seriously fucking annoying. More annoying is the blue-eyed, fussing Penelope. Like a vulture over my shoulder, constantly checking how her youngest is doing. Fucked if I have a clue. Except I tell her that more politely. So I rev the truck and bounce along to the black pillar of smoke swirling up high above the treeline, trying to ignore the little worm of worry burying into my chest. Most people have a wolf to comfort them in times of stress. Mine, Nash, only shows up for the fights. A wolf that only cares about winning, slashing and foaming at the mouth for the sensation of another man's flesh between its teeth. He’s not here for the deep conversations and musings about life. /Not entirely true/ a deep, almost sleepy voice rumbles in the back of my brain. /I’m just waiting for when you actually want to listen to my advice./ That will be a firm ‘never’ then. I’ll keep my wits about me for now. Having a mindlink is unnerving enough. Reminds me too much of those nights alone, trying to conjure up bedtime stories from memory. If I shut my little eyes tight enough back then, I could hear my mothers soft voice. For a few months anyway. Then I realised relying on shit like that is the fast way to lose your mind. “Fuck’s sake Phoebe,” I growl aloud, weaving in between the trees. Until I see the state of the fireball. Its a vehicle! Riley had just arrived on his motorcycle as together we sprinted towards the blood-spattered sisters. “Naomi are you injured!” Riley shouts, checking her over. I’ve got both hands clamped onto Phoebe’s slender shoulders, the heat of the fire painfully close to us all. Phoebe gazes up at me, her pale face streaked with blood and tears. My thumb strokes up and down, knowing no words are going to help right now. Whereas Riley shouted hysterically at the pair of them, “What about Leona? Was she not with you?” “She…she…she…” Phoebe stammered. We didn’t need Phoebe to confirm, it was clear from the smell that someone was being swiftly incinerated in the driver’s seat. "TALK TO ME!" Riley bellowed. "Leave it! They're in shock!" tightening my hold on Phoebe's slender shoulders. Riley turned and stared at the huge orange fireball, transfixed by the scene. Burning pieces of paper swirled around, scattering like autumn leaves. Someone has to keep a calm head. “RILEY! Hey!” He snaps out of his staring, rubbing his jaw. “Get Naomi into my truck, lets get them home safe.” I moved to help Phoebe. “NO!” she squealed sharply. “Don’t be all precious now Sugar,” I growl, roughly trying to drag her to her feet. Only then did I notice the chunk of metal wedged into her thigh. I'm an idiot. Maybe she's not the only one in shock. “Okay keep calm, I’ve got you, we’ve got to move, the truck might still explode.” She doesn’t say a word, just buries her head into my shoulder. My bright white hair is tied up high in a knot. Not for the first time I notice her gentle magnolia scent. Even amongst the carnage of burning flesh, paper and fuel, that gentle, soft scent winds through to me. I quickly wrap my hand around the metal lump and yank it straight out of her. Blood spurts but it’s not an artery, her wolf can heal that within a few hours. “Now, move. Come on.” Limping I place her into the truck. She and Naomi sit in the back, rocking in time to the bumps of the speeding truck. Riley looks across at me with a grim expression. /What the hell has just happened?/ I clear my throat and announce, “I’m linking the Alpha. He needs to know details. Did someone come at you? Is there someone we need to be hunting down?” Naomi said nothing. Just kept weeping, her bloodied hand on her heart, like she was searching for her own pulse. After a minute, Phoebe whispered. “It just blew up.” “What do you mean?” Riley checked, turning around in his seat to face her. “It blew up…I didn’t see anyone else around. I don’t know how to explain it. Could the truck have been leaking fuel? Did I make her drive over something and make her break the-” she offered softly, her petite face furrowing in confusion. There is blood tainting the delicate white ends of her mixed copper and white plait. I’m struggling to keep my eyes on the road, when glazing up into the mirror shows so much more. “It blew up after she turned off the engine,” Naomi states flatly out of nowhere. “It wasn’t an accident. Only bombs do that. It was murder. Planned.” In the rear-view mirror I noticed Phoebe blush, looking down at her bloodstained white gown. Naomi returns to her spaced out weeping. Phoebe didn’t get anything wrong, she was only offering ideas. Before I can reassure her we’ll investigate every possibility, Beta Riley reaches out his hand to take hers. “I am so sorry Phoebe. I can’t believe Leona is gone. We will find out how the humans did this. Don’t you worry. We’ll get justice.” I tell Cillian everything over the link. Soon after, the mindlink for the whole pack is shut down whilst he investigates, and I purposely hit a pothole so hard Riley almost leaves his seat entirely. Before long, we trundle into Cragstone. Matilda and Penelope have already set off with Cillian, but a weeping Eleanor is waiting to greet her sisters. As discreetly as possible, we park around the back of the packhouse and help them out. “I’ll run the bath. We’ll be okay. I promise. We’ll stick together. Just like when Papa died,” Eleanor twittered. Naomi walked towards the packhouse instead. “I’m getting Rami. Leave me alone.” “But Naomi shouldn’t we stay together?” her youngest sister asked. Phoebe watched her big sister walk away without even an answer. She looks so small when she folds her arms like that, almost crumpling in upon herself. There is nothing for her to do now but grieve. She’s lucky to have her family, even if Naomi isn’t in the best place right now. For me, today is the warning sign that war isn’t over. It will soon be time to fight once more. It’s sad to have lost Leona. She was a talented fighter. Even if she did completely stop giving a fuck after Aria arrived. “Phoebe, come on in!” Eleanor shouts, like one would summon a small child. But instead of obeying she turns towards me. Her chocolate-coloured eyes are at odds with the stark, dark ruby blood dried onto her face. Stood on the threshold of her front door, Eleanor appears and places a hand on her arm. I should take my leave. “I’m guarding your house tonight,” I announce instead. “Those your orders?” she asks. “Yes,” I lie. I’ve had no orders. But I want to be here. It hasn’t been ruled out that the Kharkov family are not still targets. I’m not naively assuming Leona was the only intended victim. This could be something bigger. Humans took Gustav’s body parts and scattered them like potpourri across White Forest, who knows what else they’ll feel bold enough to try. So I’ll stay here until Alpha Cillian returns.“I don’t need babysitting Sawyer,” Phoebe complains. Of course. As always. “It’s not babysitting. It’s guarding. It’s also not an option. Now go inside,” I bark. She slams the door in my face, muttering expletives before gentle, sobbing noises eke out from under the wooden door. Half an hour later, Eleanor reopens it and whispers, “Thank you Sawyer. You’re a good friend to us.” “Just following orders,” I lie again. It’s just responsibility to the pack. I’d do the same for anyone else. We’re not even friends. I’m fairly certain I’m her nemesis. Well in a few weeks she’ll be chasing full moon dances like the rest of them. Probably mated to someone easily bossed around like Dash or Theo. Phoebe Kharkov coming of age. Bizarre, considering she sometimes has the temperament of a five year old. I imagine when she isn’t scowling, cursing or running away, she could be considered a beauty. She's clever too when doesn’t shrink in on herself or resort to childish insults. Comi
The orange dress Mama picked out was only one of the reasons I had to get out of the house. The sobbing takes me straight back to losing my father. I head over to Finn’s cottage for the first time in my life and find Naomi slumped on the floor bawling, the same position as I left my Mama. We don’t talk about that. We don’t talk about Finn either. Finn was exasperated when we crossed paths. Maybe that’s why he gave me the crap advice to suggest Rami is trying to fight like Naomi. He isn’t. Rami is just a whirling lump of chubby fists. So I received yet another withering look from Naomi. It’s like Leona is still here. Identical ire and exasperation. Nothing I want to say comes up during my brief time at the cottage. Like, what were all the books? Why were they coming back so soon? What were they rowing about before Naomi jumped out? Naomi refuses to wear the dress. I hate my orange, itchy monstrosity, so why did I agree? /Because you’re the baby Kharkov/ Huli sneers. Wh
By the time Easton and I got back from the bombsite, I was fit for nothing more than crashing into the bunkhouse. “Looks like we missed a party, wasn’t it meant to be a pyre?” Easton grimaced, stepping over abandoned bottles of whisky and tequila outside Riley’s room. He’s got some newbies he’s meant to be mentoring. Doesn’t seem like much of that is going on. I’ll raise it to Cillian, making a mental note for the morning. I glare at Rileys closed door. “Bet it was that fucking card game again. Want some food?” gesturing to the two wrapped plates waiting on the counter. “Yes please, I’m starved. Did you know stress, fear makes you hungrier? You send your body into fight or flight it fucks with your blood sugar.” I don’t know what he’s trying to say. He’s chunky because he’s greedy. Not because he’s battling untold levels of mortal danger on a daily basis. He notices my amusement and laughs. “You know what I mean. I bet you ate less during the war. Anyways, you know I much
Whoever said shifters don’t get hangovers are dirty, lying scumbags. They are painfully real. The instant dawn breaks, I flop out of bed, grab a towel, stick a dark blue, baggy dress over some exercise wear and vanish out of our house. Still, I was spied on the way by Dash and Kian. “Fun times Kharkov!” they called out, miming drinking actions. But they were smiling, a smattering of brown freckles dotting Dash’s nose and cheeks. Kian blushing as normal. Normally, they would pretend they hadn’t seen me and glanced the other way. I mimed a gun to the head, rolling my eyes and getting another laugh. /Well done!/ Huli chimed. “Nah, think of us, Phoebe. Shaw was sick on our feet on the run home!” “No way!” I joke. The happiness at having someone new to talk to other than Huli almost made me forget Riley. I head to the riverbank. The tyre swing I have spent endless hours mulling things over at. However, today, I have a different purpose. Untying my plaited hair, wondering wha
Naomi’s pep talk was the kick I needed. Probably nothing noticeable, but I can feel it. Even Naomi losing her cool and having a swipe at Riley didn’t derail me. It felt good hurling a fruit basket at her, though. Finally, I have plans. One I can soon talk about and the one I must take to the grave. I found Jane straight after leaving my Naomi’s, loitering skittishly around the Beta Warrior’s bunkhouse. “Hey, can we talk?” Her blonde ringlets jumped into the air, her entire body jerking in surprise. “Phoebe! Of course, sorry, I was just checking…no matter!” a forced smile stretching across her face. “Can we talk in private?” I add, aware that the longer we stand here, the more chance there was of Riley appearing. Looking down at my red-stained hands, I made a show of innocence, raising them in the air, “Hair dye, I swear!” Until she chuckled, and we made our way together. “If you want, let’s head out of town,” Jane offered calmly as together, arm in arm we strolled. Cr
It’s been a long six weeks. White Forest was of course a fucking bust. Nikolai was in no mood for house guests. Dressed in black with dark, sweeping locks to his shoulders. I received one reluctant night's bed and board before he suggested I try the inns of Silver City. His attempt at politely telling me to go away. “Nikolai,” Luna Genevieve whispers, her hand entwined in his. Her delicate peach gown floating to the ground in waves of soft tulle, disguising the power she wields. “Stay for dinner please?” “The Alpha is correct. I should go-” “Please. Do stay for dinner.” Nikolai stated, with all the temptation of a live embalming, a ruby glint in his dark eyes. Genevieve rolled her eyes, clearly mindlinking a reprimand. “I should go. But thank you.” They should be a riotous storm. A marriage of unhappiness. But somehow, they shine together. I think that is why he doesn’t want me lingering. He has found his perfection. She adores him exactly as he is. Readying my bike, I
Stopping halfway back on the bike ride back to Rising Star I wrench my hands into my bright white locks. I have to get my shit together. Why can’t she see how foolish she’s being! “FUCKING HELL!” cursing the sky above. I’ve not put a foot wrong since joining the Beta Warriors, leaving my shitty non-life in the south behind. Now I’m holding secrets. I bet she hasn’t considered the wrong person finding her notes. Or if she could control herself in the heat of an argument from striking someone down. The chaos she could awaken. I don’t mind admitting that anyone else, even men I’ve fought alongside, would have been arrested instantly. We have those two idiots locked up in Rising Star with their legs broken for lesser crimes. How could she think she would get away with this? Nash, my so-called wolf, is silent. Shifters are meant to be superior because we have these guardian angel advisors. Well I’m flying blind. Again. I should have talked it over with her. Suggested some groun
I’ve never hated my wolf more than in those few furious minutes with Sawyer out in the fields. Or slapped and pinched myself more often in the days after. Everything he said was right. Of course it’s criminal activity. I could lose everything. My family would never forgive me. It's the same dark misery that fuelled the last war. There’s a reason Rising Star has kept that library under lock and key for generations. Listening to Huli I’d convinced myself I was exceptional, someone special. Too clever to be caught. The perfect person to study such dark ways. There is no spotlight for me to stand in. It’s just me and a wolf’s ego I can ever satisfy. Sawyer knew I was lying to him, too. Huli stopped me from mentioning the other four. I was going to, when I felt my heart constrict, my legs cramping. /NO! We’ve not studied them yet!/ Huli screamed, almost making me stumble into the grass. Already trembling from being discovered, Huli was trying to overwhelm everything I had le