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122 | HOLLOW ME OUT
Our packs converged uneasily. It was strange to walk the halls and see so many familiar faces amongst the torchlight and stone. A residual quietness followed people wherever they walked; the chasm between us seemed to grow larger as we came together physically, the Blue Moon wolves staying on one side and the Winterpaw Warrior Pack on the other.
There was one thing we shared, though: impatience. Waiting for the allied packs to strike was more painful than seeing them cresting the horizon; I felt on edge at all times, terrified to go to sleep and wake to find them here. It was a particular kind of emptiness that captured me, one that made me think being shattered would be preferable. Tension made my bones feel brittle, and I felt certain fights would begin breaking out if the battle did not come to us soon.
But the surety with which I knew we would lose made me cherish this time, strange and disjointed as it was. Ares and I stole moments of solitude, alone together in o
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Alpha Ares 123 | DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
Aliana pushed wispy, curling strands of white-blonde hair behind her ears with her single hand. The other had been lost to the cold, along with one foot and a couple of her remaining toes. It felt like such a long time ago, now, though her unsteady limp and the precarious way with which she leant on her walking stick made it apparent just how recent her brush with death had been.A shiver flayed the flesh from my back, and a prickle of unease lit up my scalp. Every breath I took felt thin and tinny, making my tongue taste oddly metallic; I decided anew that I despised waiting, with my fingers clutching the thick fabric of my cloak so hard that the bones of my knuckles showed through my skin.“You shouldn’t have followed us,” grunted Ares, when it became apparent that Aliana needed some encouragement to speak. She looked up at him then, her wide pale eyes revealing nothing. “I didn’t mean to. I was coming to speak to you anyway when you disappeared down that corridor.” She shrugged, t
Alpha Ares 124 | IN ALL OF ERANDOS
I lingered on the Omega floor of the Pack House, waiting outside the guest room that Aliana had had been moved into. My back pressed against the cold hard stone, but I barely felt it. My whole being was centred on that doorway, my eyes fixed on every person that walked past it.I bit my lip. Stars, I hated waiting. My watch shift was making my eyes bleary.‘Seen anything yet?’ Ares minlinked to me.‘No, nothing yet.’ I shifted my weight. Tucked away behind a curtain, I had only a sliver of vision to keep me occupied. The fabric rippled slightly; I froze.‘Me either.’ Boredom swirled between us, filling up the mate bond. ‘I still think we should go straight to Greyhide. We have enough information. Besides – pretty much the whole pack are waiting at our borders. We can sneak past them, sneak in, and we can hunt for the weapon without fear of being caught.’I bit back a sigh. ‘You know I wish I could agree with you.’‘You do agree with me. You just won’t admit it.’‘Yeah, okay. I do. But
Alpha Ares 125 | TOO LATE TO TURN BACK
The battle had begun. Without any of us knowing, the armies were upon us.I raced back to the Pack House, desperation burning through my veins and forcing my muscles to pull and push harder than they ever had before. My thoughts were a flurry of panicked bleating as I neared the mountain that, all of a sudden, felt something like home.‘Hans and Hanna are getting the Warrior Wolves into position,’ Ares said to me through a mindlink. ‘I don’t trust them, but I can see them from here and, for now at least, they’re following orders.’I nodded to myself. My paws slapped against the snow. For once, I didn’t skid across it. ‘Good. That’s good. But what are we going to do about the weapon?’‘I have an idea. Just – just get back here.’ He paused, and I felt him squirming through the mate bond. ‘I need to see that you’re safe.’My jaw opened into an approximation of a wolfish grin. ‘You can hear me, can’t you? I’m safe and sound, Ares. I promise.’‘Don’t fight me on this. I just… I need to see
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
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