Stephen’s POVMy hands grasped at nothing but air as I stared after Hyacinth. I felt thrown by the whole thing. What had just happened?‘What just happened, young man,’ huffed Brian, ‘was that you let yourself forget you’re a committed man! Back in my day, you would have been thrown in the stocks until you learnt your lesson!’‘Back in your day?’ I rolled my eyes at my weirdo wolf, eager to cling to that slice of normality. Everything else felt so strange that his particular brand of oddity felt comparatively safe. ‘Do not try to pull the wool over my eyes! Do not attempt to push aside your fiddle-dee-deeing and put the blame on me!’‘My what?’ I muttered, squinting at nothing. ‘My fiddle-dee-deeing?’‘A-ha! Precisely!’‘Brian.’ I sighed. ‘Look–’‘No, Stephen, you look.’ He sounded more serious than usual and I froze, still stood in the doorway where I’d kissed Cin. ‘I understand how you feel. I feel it, too. It makes my old heart trip over itself and my eyes turn to hearts whenever

Rhiannon’s POVWhen I heard that mindlink, telling me that Alpha Caleb had been poisoned, I went through something similar to the five stages of grief.The first wasn’t denial, though. It was a weird-ass sense that justice had been served. I felt vindicated, glad that the man who’d been such a bastard to me had met his comeuppance. Then came anger – anger that I hadn’t been the one to do it. It seemed Tiger felt the same. ‘If anyone was going to kill that arrogant ass, it should’ve been me.’‘We would have done it fairly, too,’ I agreed, letting her rage merge with mine, twin flames growing and burning bright. ‘Not taken the coward’s way out and poisoned him.’And, instead of bargaining, next came guilt. I felt guilty for my initial reaction and knew it was all a way for me to cover up the truth of how I felt. I felt guilty for not being there for him, for not foreseeing this. Though it had weighed on everyone’s mind, the return of the Eternal Winter had taken front and centre in th

Rhiannon’s POVMy hands were bound roughly behind me with rope.“Hey,” I snarled. “Is that really necessary?”“I can’t take any risks.” Alvin shrugged, then yanked the rope even tighter. “You can’t seriously think I’m behind this.” I wriggled my wrists around, trying to create a bit more space in my bonds. “It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the Gamma thinks.”Alvin dragged me into the pack house. I met the gaze of every Warrior Wolf that stared at me, keeping my expression cold, almost bored, as I was pulled along. He took me down the main corridor before turning off into a room I’d never been in before. Hell, I hadn’t even ever noticed it before.The doorway led to a stairwell, which took us down what felt like half a floor. The lighting grew dimmer as we descended, the stairs coiling around before opening up into a large, grey room.I understood why I’d never seen the inside of the room before the second I was forced inside it. It was tucked away from the hubbub of t

Rhiannon’s POVI woke up slow and groggy, my mouth gummy, my eyelids practically stuck together. I went to scrub at them and found that my hands were tied together behind my back.Huh, I thought, a sliver of amusement curling through my chest, this is becoming something of a habit. The air smelled musty, and from the dim light turning the insides of my eyelids red I figured I was inside somewhere with a window. I couldn’t be outside; I was cold not but sat-out-in-the-snow cold. I knew, from the mate bond, that Stephen was beside me. Thank the goddess for that. I’d found him – but at what cost?At last I managed to peel my eyelids open. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give for some makeup remover. I blinked, feeling crusty mascara crumble onto my cheekbones, and wrinkled my nose. Disturbingly, that wasn’t the worst thing I felt.I pressed my dry tongue to the back of my teeth. It stuck to the roof of my mouth and wouldn’t budge. Worse again was the soft, repetitive pounding in my head, the cras

Hyacinth’s POV‘Cin, sweetheart?’ murmured Dolly.I hadn’t moved. Alpha Caleb had a hand on the door and was looking at me expectantly.It was so unfair. Now I’d let myself consider it, this great truth that had been lurking over my shoulder this whole time, it had shattered me. I couldn’t dismiss it; it made too much sense for me to do that.But I didn’t have time to let it break me, either. If I wanted to see Stephen, to tell him, maybe, I had to find him – and fast. I straightened my shoulders and nodded at the Alpha. “Let’s go.”The door swung inwards before we could leave. Alpha Caleb staggered backwards, reaching out to grab anything to steady him. All the blood rushed from his face and fear gripped me. He looked like he was a breath away from death.“Alpha?” I murmured.A middle-aged woman swept into the room before he could speak, though he did jerk upwards and attempt to make himself look a bit less like he was on the brink of collapse. It was oddly endearing, seeing our ever