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100 | SKELETON
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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
Alpha Ares 105 | REDWOOD
We stayed in the woods for two nights. Part of me was glad for the respite from the horrors we had faced, and those I knew we were still yet to face, but a larger part of me just felt on edge. Like we were wasting time. Like we’d been here too long. Like… Like we were being watched.But I needed Ares to heal, so I tried to tell myself that it was okay to wait. That we’d come back stronger after two nights of good rest. And I tried to tell him that, too – but he was even more restless than I was.He cracked his knuckles on the second evening. Dad had taken Nana Baspy out to hunt with him, and Grandpa Attie was curled up a few feet away, sleeping in his wolf form.Leant with his back against the broad trunk of a redwood tree, a cloak draped over his shoulders, and a beard starting to grow in past the point of stubble for the first time since I’d known him, Ares looked rugged and handsome and utterly, entirely fearsome. My stomach did a flip. With only Medic Flora for company, I shuffled
Alpha Ares 106 | THE HERBIARY
My mouth flapped uselessly, my numb tongue and lips unable to make any real sound. Ares didn’t seem to be in a much better state than me, though he’d curled his hands into fists where they lay, as uselessly as my tongue against the roof of my mouth, upon the ground.Wolfsbane. It cut a werewolf off from their wolf-side - along with a slew of other side effects. In short, we were screwed.I tried to mindlink Ares, Dad, Nana, Grandpa, even damned Flora, but it felt like I’d been cut off from that ability. I stared helplessly up at her, this pretty young girl with a bright sunshine smile, and I felt hatred like I’d never felt before.“You betrayed us all, Haile,” she said, saccharine sweet and clearly loving hearing the sound of her own voice. I sagged against the tree trunk, unable to do anything but listen as the wolfsbane held me hostage in my own body. “You chose him over us.”Not you too, I thought. And stars, Ares was going to be so damn smug about the fact that he’d been right –
Alpha Ares 107 | HEMLOCK AND WOLFSBANE
“Haile!” Dad’s voice burst through the darkness. I couldn’t see him, but I could see the colours of his voice – all warm tones, terracotta and brown and burgundy. It felt warm and safe, and I wanted to stay there.“You did this to her,” he snarled, and though the words were not directed at me the colour changed, no longer warm and safe but as bright as lighting and as hot as flame. “You nearly killed my daughter!”“I did it for your own good,” said another voice, sickly-sweet and painted in shades of lilac and rose pink. Flora. “For the good of the pack.”Was that… Was that how I’d once sounded? Was my duty nothing more than delusion?“She’ll be all right, Xander,” murmured Nana Baspy. Like Dad’s, her voice was warm and bright – fire and passion and endless, burning love. “She’s the strongest wolf I know.”I wanted to get out of here. I needed to help Ares. We had to stop Mum and Etta and Johnea. I needed to tell them everything Flora had said – Blearily, I opened my eyes. The sunlig
Alpha Ares 108 | STAND WITH US
The wolves were upon us.My heart still felt slow, still felt sluggish, but I had to try to stand. Grandpa Attie helped me up, and I felt so useless as my legs shook beneath my weight. Wolves filled the clearing; we had only a smattering of trees and vines to keep them at bay. Our last defence, and it all seemed hopeless.Because how could we survive this? Other than Dad, Ares and I were our two strongest fighters. And we both could barely stand.If I were being honest with myself, even if I’d been at my peak physical form, I wouldn’t have been able to lay a claw against any one member of the Blue Moon Pack. Duty or delusion, I couldn’t stop seeing them as my family.I didn’t know what to do. Panic set in. Not for me – but for everyone else. I still couldn’t mindlink, but I tried and tried and tried, over and over and over, my thoughts rattling around in time with my unsteady heartbeat. We needed a plan. And we needed one fast.“We need to be your prisoners,” I said again, my voice h
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