Aria   I can’t believe Sebastian is here, that he came all of this way, for me. As soon as I see him standing there, exhausted, covered in dirt from the forest, but looking unbelievable in only a pair of shorts, I want to launch myself at him, to bury my head in his muscular chest and feel his strong arms around me. But I can’t do that. The fact that he’s here is touching, but it makes no sense. “What do you mean love isn’t enough?” Sebastian asks in response to my comment. “Of course it is. Aria, we will make this work. No matter what.” I am touched that he thinks that’s possible, but I am so confused. I have so many questions. “Why don’t you come back to the pack house, take a shower, get cleaned up, and then we’ll talk?” I ask him. “You’ve got to be exhausted.”

Sebastian My body wants to stay in bed, even though my mind is fully awake and ready to go as soon as the sun comes up, just hours after I collapsed on this cot. I look around the room, the light filtering through thin blinds revealing that most of the cots are still occupied. A few are empty, and I suppose those early risers have first patrol or are preparing breakfast for the pack, that sort of thing. I wonder how many of them were up when I came in last night. Are they as exhausted as I am?My eyes fall on Aria, who is still sleeping, but she has a V between her eyebrows, so I know she is not sleeping soundly. I imagine she’s dreaming, probably of something dark and tortuous. I wouldn’t be a very good boyfriend if I didn’t wake her.Tha

Aria   Being home, seeing it desolate and burned to the ground, is overwhelming. Feelings I’ve been pushing deep down inside of myself for months begin to resurface as Sebastian and I walk along, hand in hand, down streets I had run both in my human form and as a wolf for years as a child and strolled along with my friends as a teen and adult. None of the people I used to hang out with are at the village now. I know they had not all been killed, but some had found refuge in other packs. Others had lost their lives that night during the attack. If Wilkes is truly responsible for raiding my village that night, for destroying my home and killing my packmates, he will pay severely for all that he’s done. We came to the remains of a building that had meant a lot to me. Only a pile of bricks, charred black in many places, and other debris rema

Sebastian We arrive at the rendezvou site to find the forces already assembled there, spread out, ready to rush in. It’s getting dark, which is good because it will give us a bit more cover. I don’t expect to make it too far beyond Wilks’s border without being detected, but I’m pretty sure the warriors I have in my group will easily beat back his thugs. After all, everyone that’s here on my side of the battlefield has an objective. Either they want to free a beloved member of their pack, avenge unjust murders, or both. Wilks’s assholes will have no reason to defend him to the death and break. I’m almost sure of it.Because we are not all from the same pack, we will not be able to communicate once we shift into our wolf forms. We have to have a good plan going in and make sure that each pack is aware of its

Sebastian I know something is horribly wrong with my cousin when he finally starts to reply to my mind-link messages in a groggy, almost unrecognizable voice. “Don’t come here, Sebastian,” he says to me. “It’s dangerous.”“Dez? What’s going on?” I ask him, but he won’t tell me. All he keeps telling me is not to come.When Aria and I are in the basement, and I finally make him realize that he’s not going to get rid of us, he tells me that Mim has a machine gun, and she’s planning on killing all three of us.I ask him a lot of questions about where he is and what’s happening to him, but he can’t say much of anything. Just, “Sebastian, please. Leave me. Go. Save