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096 | AN OLD FOE
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Alpha Ares 097 | FOR HIM
Despite my protests, I spent two nights recovering at the cabin. Nana Baspy and Grandpa Attie stayed with me, certain that they would not be missed while the Warrior Wolves prepared to march on the Winterpaw Warrior Pack.I was restless, which my grandparents took as a good sign – as a sign that I was healing, that I was recovering from my most recent ordeal. Of course, they didn’t wake with me when nightmares pulled me from my sleep, or when the gleaming, clear surface of my bathwater suddenly became dark and rippled. I shoved these things down, preferring to focus on what I could do, on the future I could change, if only we hurried up and damn well left this lovely, warm, cosy cabin behind.I’d not heard my grandparents mindlinking me – but I had heard Ares. I still had no idea if that had been my own subconscious trying to wake me, desperate for me to get a grip and swim to the surface, or if, somehow, Ares had found a way to communicate with
Alpha Ares 098 | WE RUN HARD
‘So,’ I mindlinked to Dad, running beside him in his huge dark-furred wolf form, ‘tell me everything I need to know.’I relished in the steady thud thud thud of my paws against the hard soil. For the first time since I’d run with Annia, Cendres, and Ares, I felt like I was part of a team again – damn it, like I was part of a pack. Dad had cried when he'd first seen me - actually cried - and I was unashamed to admit that, well, damn it, I'd cried too. It had only been days since I'd last seen him, but it felt like months. Years. Decades. Everything was blurred, made hazy by the residual tang of fear tainting my mind and my memories of the last week.We were curving up around the western section of Blue Moon’s border, staying well off the path and using the trees to mask our journey. With Mum and her wolves a day ahead of us, a fact that still made my blood boil and my heart clench with fear, it was unlikely tha
Alpha Ares 099 | HONEYDEW
Darkness crested the horizon. It swelled within me, too, eclipsing all logical sense and plans when I heard Ares speak, his words drilling straight into my mind and leaving a gaping hole in their wake. He was too damned close. And, because he was too damned close, he was at risk. Every worry – every fear – I’d had while we’d been running bloomed anew, settling in my stomach like lead as I heard his beautiful, damning voice. ‘Haile! Haile, can you hear me? Shit, you’d better be able to hear me, you’d better be safe, damn it, please don't be dead–’ I cut him off. ‘Ares! Why can I hear you? We shouldn’t be close enough to mindlink, not yet–’ ‘I thought you were dead!’ He swore viciously, and I felt his emotions surging through the bond. There was shock and relief, heady and giddy, which made his head spin; that encompassed everything, save for the knot of worry that remained somewhere near the centre of his chest. ‘Why did you think I was dead?’ My own worries were replaced by con
Alpha Ares 100 | SKELETON
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. I could feel it in my bones. My whole body shook with the force of it; blood pounded against my skin, threatening to break through if I didn’t move, and move now.‘No,’ I mindlinked to Ares. ‘No, she can’t be.’He didn’t answer. My stomach rolled.‘Ares?’Nothing. I twisted around, trusting my instincts to guide me forwards even as I locked eyes with my dad. ‘Mum’s found him,’ I mindlinked, sending the message to my grandparents as well. ‘She’s there.’‘Shit.’ Dad didn’t often swear. Hearing him curse made the reality of the situation sink in further. This was bad. Really bad. My muscles burned with exertion and my lungs strained against my ribcage, but the physical pain of running hard after being in that damned lake was nothing compared to the pain of knowing I might never hear that gravel and honey voice ever again.No. I couldn’t think like that. ‘Ares?’ I tried again, every part of me aching to hear from him, to know that he was okay.‘Do
Alpha Ares 101 | INTO A NIGHTMARE
‘I’m sorry, Haile,’ Etta mindlinked to me. ‘It’s for your own good.'I lunged in front of her, letting my own shift rip through me. ‘No, it isn’t. It’s revenge, Etta – misplaced revenge, damn it.’‘You'll see that I'm right soon enough. He killed Damon, Haile. He killed my mum. You can’t love him. You just can’t.’I slammed into Etta, sending her stumbling back – and away from Ares’s prone form. I wanted to mindlink him, to turn and check on him, but her paws were lifting off the ground, the pads of them dotted with dew, and they were reaching for me.I ducked under her blow. I knew how she fought; I’d stood at her side, defending her weaknesses and uplifting her strengths on the battlefield, time after time. And yet now here we were, opposite one another rather than standing shoulder to shoulder.Behind me, I could hear the tussles of another battle taking place. I had to ignore it; I had to ignore the fact that my parents and grandparents were fighting. Our once secure family unit h
Alpha Ares 102 | HOUNDS OF LOVE
The sun climbed steadily overhead as we sprinted through the woods. Determination, driven by terror over Ares’s condition, led the way. Birdsong and the chirping of crickets swirled through the air like dust motes, undaunted and uninhibited by our presence in their woodland home. They sounded too sweet, too jolly, for the sour mood that clung to us as we ran. A perpetual cloud hovered over me, casting the pale winter sunlight in shades of grey.I had to keep blinking to make sure my vision wasn’t truly returning to the grey scale I had once known. Between the shadows and my sadness, it was hard to tell. The claw marks on my arm, sliced there by Mum by accident, had already healed, but they still hurt somewhere deeper, somewhere darker, within my soul. If I’d been in my human body, I would’ve rubbed at the healed wound, irritated by the force of my emotions.I had bigger things to worry about, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. The way my mum had looked when she’d seen what she’d d
Alpha Ares 103 | HOURGLASS
My legs shook as I stepped out of our cover. With my right ear irreparably damaged, my hearing still wasn’t as good as it had been before. I tried to pick out the number of wolves approaching, but all I could hear was the dull rush of water and the steady thud, thud, thud of an indiscernible number of paws.Pale winter sunlight fractured over the mossy ground. I moved slowly, avoiding dry twigs and rotten logs that might snap or crumble beneath my paws. There was no grey to my vision anymore – thank the stars – but misty shadows coiled around the base of every tree and silhouetted every curling vine.‘Haile!’ Dad’s voice rang out, clear as a bell, in my mind. I tensed; was this an update from a battlefield, a cry for help, or – please, please, please – would it be good news?‘Dad?’‘Medic Flora is with us. We’re almost back. I just wanted you to know it was us.’I risked stepping out further into the small clearing. Across from me were four wolves – four wolves that I recognised as Da
Alpha Ares 104 | NIGHT-BLOOMING WILDRUSH
Mist swirled around my ankles. My brain felt heavy and slow as I looked down, tracing the way it coiled, snake-like, up my legs. There was something ominous about it. Something I didn’t like.I tried to kick it away. It didn’t move; it just kept coiling, around and around, up and up, until it reached my thighs.Huffing out a sigh, I pushed myself onwards. Forcing my legs to march, darting through the undergrowth in the dense patch of woodland we’d set up camp in – if it weren’t too rudimentary to be called a camp, with nothing more than a couple of cloaks scattered across the ground to keep the damp and the frosty winter’s chill from settling into our bones – I curved away from the tree line and the clearing, where I’d be too exposed, and ducked under strands of ivy as I began my hunt.Dawn light painted the horizon in sweeping brush strokes. I squinted at it through the thick foliage; it took on an unreal quality the longer I tried to watch the colours shift with the sunrise. Shaking
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