Up above is a drawing of Skye Llewellyn by LittleLoneWriterGirl!! Full props and go check out her profile / harass her if you want :)

Rhys and I took advantage of the time to mind-link. We were thinking up escape plans, and believe me, we had more than a few ideas. None of them were very likely to work though, or involved unnecessary detours to rip Brandon's throat out.

When we had finally given up hope of breaking out by willpower alone, I considered other options. "You said Leo wouldn't be helping Brandon willingly. What leverage could he have against him?"

"I couldn't say for sure. But best guess? Brandon has his mate," Rhys replied slowly. "So he can't help us without risking her life. Forget that option."

I frowned. "Not necessarily. We just need to let him know we can help."

I picked up a small stone, with difficulty. The chains were cutting into my wrists, and hot blood trickled down my hands. I used the stone to scratch at the pillar behind me. Half an hour later, I had managed to manoeuvre enough to write a message. The only trick now was letting Leo see it without the other guards noticing.

Why didn't we just use the mind-link? When you mind-link, anyone in the vicinity can tell. The guards didn't stop Rhys and me communicating because they didn't care. We were trapped and at their mercy. But if we talked to Leo, they would definitely get suspicious.

After a few hours sat in the sun with no escape, I could feel the skin on the back of my neck burning. Even in autumn, with winter fast arriving, it was still a hot day. Then the Moon Goddess must have been feeling generous; Leo arrived to supervise our transfer to a temporary cell block.

He wouldn't make eye contact with me. There was none of that earlier indifference, now that Brandon wasn't around. It confirmed what I already suspected. He wasn't Team Brandon, but at the moment, he wasn't on our team either. That needed to change.

"My father trusted you," Rhys told Leo roughly. "This is how you repay him?"

Leo didn't make any attempt to answer him; he just unlocked my chains from the pillar and pulled me up by my cuffs. He was letting me get close enough to break his neck, unwittingly or not. It was fortunate I didn't want to. While his back was turned, Rhys winked at me.

"Get up," Leo ordered Rhys, who smirked and stayed where he was.

"Don't I get unchained first?" he asked innocently.

"I don't trust you. Stand up then we'll see." Leo was being sensible, but it played right into our plan.

Rhys shook his head. Leo was forced to try to pull him to his feet, while still holding onto me. As he leant over, Rhys kicked his legs out from under him and I pulled away at the same time. He overbalanced, but he didn't let go of my cuffs. I got dragged down too and landed half on top of him.

"Oops," Rhys said bluntly.

Leo was lying in the perfect position to read the scrawled writing on the pillar. By his sudden stillness, I knew he had seen it.

We can protect her.

As soon as Leo had hit the ground, the guards had sprung into action. They worked Rhys over enough to put him off trying anything else, then dragged him away. I looked innocent in the whole thing because I had ended up on the floor as well. Leo knew I had pulled him over, but he didn't mention that to the guards. I took that to mean he believed the message.

Once Leo had picked himself up, he scowled at me. It was a mask, though, because I could see a spark of hope in his eyes. He pulled me up for the second time, and handed me to the guards, who were none too happy with him.

"Brandon told you the boy would try something and you still let him get the better of you?"

"Shut up," Leo muttered. "He's stronger than he looks."

"He was chained up, dumbass. Next time don't get so close," the guard jeered.

Leo didn't reply this time. He stalked off in the direction of the command tent, while I was led towards the cells after Rhys. Before we could get there, Brandon appeared. I didn't even have time to feel irritated because, for some bizarre reason, he let me go.

"You can release that one. She's no threat."

So something had changed his mind in the last minute. How odd. Helpful, but odd.

"What?" the guard asked sharply. "She's Rhodric's daughter. The other rogues will rally around her."

As much as I appreciate your faith in my ability, random guard, can you not?

Brandon looked close to attacking one of his own men for that particular comment. "She's not his daughter. Her parents were flockies. Besides, why would anyone want to be led by a female?"

Hmm, I don't know. Why would anyone want to be led by a cowardly asshole? I was slightly shocked to hear him talk about my birth parents. Did he know who they were? Because I didn't.

"She just helped your brother knock Leo over when they were both chained up," the guard reasoned.

"That's another reason to split them up. She stays in the camp where we can keep an eye on her; Rhys can stew in the cells until he reconsiders his best interests. If the girl tries anything, she knows what I'll do to him. Now release her. I won't ask you again," Brandon snapped.

I guessed that Brandon wasn't releasing me out of the kindness of his heart. It was probably a power play to show his control of the situation to the other rogues. I wasn't arguing though.

The guard unlocked my cuffs reluctantly. I noticed a recent scar on his cheek and briefly wondered if I'd been the one to give it to him earlier that morning. My wrists were caked with dried blood, and I pulled down my sleeves, hiding the evidence of my rebellious activities.

But he must have smelled it, because he grabbed my arm and examined the sores. "Where did she get these?"

"I don't know, sir," the guard droned, bored.

Brandon stared at me suspiciously. "It didn't just happen. Show me where she was chained up."

He led us back to the courtyard, and my feeling of dread multiplied. Our only advantage over him, and it was about to be lost. Brandon crouched down by the pillar and frowned. "You said she knocked Leo over."

"Yes, sir."

"Interesting." He examined the rough stone, and I cursed his brains under my breath. Anyone else, and we might have got away with it. I saw his eyes fix on the scratched words and, after half a minute of frowning, he mouthed them. We can protect her.

And, to my astonishment, Brandon burst out laughing. It took a full minute to get his mirth under control, while the guard and I stared in confusion. Finally, he smirked at me. "You're free to go."

Somehow, that only unnerved me. He knew something I didn't, and it was terrifying. Had we been wrong about his mate? Was Leo intended as a double-agent? Could I trust him?

But I didn't need to be told twice. I turned tail and slipped away. Now, free of the restraints, I had two main options. I could shift, attack Brandon and get thrown back in prison. Or the slightly more sensible option: raise support and overthrow him the old-fashioned way. You can guess which one my wolf was angling for.

It took all of my self-control to turn around and walk away, but I managed it and headed straight to someone who could point me towards the resistance. Sure enough, as soon as I entered Maggie's tent, I was greeted by over a dozen delighted faces.

"Skye!"

"How the hell did you manage to get out this time?"

"Is Rhodric really dead?"

"What's the plan?"

All the people gathered were around my age, and the vast majority were a part of our usual group of friends. Ollie, Davies and his mate Sophie, to name but a few. And for some reason, they were all looking to me for answers.

"Brandon released me. Not a clue why. I don't anything about Rhodric. And as for the plan ... I was hoping you guys had one," I told them sadly.

"Well, our plan was to break you and Rhys out so that you could tell us the plan," Davies said with wry smile. "So I'm afraid you need to come up with something."

"I'm going to free Rhys first. He can find Rhodric. You need to get the rogues ready to fight. Tell them to arm themselves, but do it quietly," I decided, then realised I'd just given an order and stopped abruptly.

To my surprise, none of them seemed to mind. They all nodded and left the tent to spread the word. How many of the rogues would actually listen to me, I had no idea. But in the meantime, I had my own plan to help with the war effort and it was definitely risky.

***

I stood behind Brandon's tent by the river, debating the wisdom of what I was about to do. It could quite easily get me killed, or worse, hurt someone innocent. But the collateral damage should be minimal. I had already checked by scent that there was no one inside because, as horrible as Brandon was, I didn't want him to burn alive.

Oh no, I had a much more painful death in mind.

With that dark thought out of the way, I knelt down and held my lighter to the edge of the tent until the flame caught. The fabric was as dry as it would ever get, and it burned quickly. Praying they'd spot the fire, and it was far enough from the camp not to spread, I then used the ensuing chaos to creep to the command tent. I needed to look at Rhodric's records, assuming he was organised enough to write down the names of his allies.

The guards who were usually posted outside had run off to help with the bucket line, so I found it very easy to slip in. The inside reminded me painfully of Rhodric, and my breath caught in my throat. I had been in this tent a thousand times.

After a nostalgic moment hoping desperately that Rhodric would survive to sit in here again, I moved quickly to rifle through his belongings. I had a minute at best before the guards returned. So I scoured a box of random papers that were apparently essential to running a rogue pack.

I found several items of use, including letters to a friend in the west, discussing Brandon's exile. It turned out he had only taken a dozen men with him. So who on earth was helping him now? There were also profiles on every pack, which I took in case any of them would be willing to help (which I really doubted), but none of the important documents seemed to be there.

Desperately running out of time, I looked around the tent and tried to guess where Rhodric would put hide his valuables. There wasn't really anywhere to hide things, except...

I lifted the mat, and sure enough there was a crumpled folder and an envelope. They looked like they had been hidden there in a hurry. Stowing them under my jacket, I ducked out of the tent and joined a mob of people who were moving towards the burning tent.

Quite a crowd had gathered, but only Brandon's men were bothering to extinguish his tent. Brandon himself was shouting at watching (and often laughing) rogues. Once again, he had Fion tucked beside him. Her eyes were dull and hopeless, and she had a dark bruise on her cheek.

Oh, that piece of goat shit.

I was distracted from my homicidal thoughts by Brandon's furious words. "When I find out who did this, they won't live to see another dawn. People who start fires obviously don't care how many people get hurt in the crossfire. Turn them whoever's responsible, or I'll make damn sure you regret it."

I was almost certain that every rogue in the crowd knew exactly who had started the fire, or could make an accurate guess. My rebels had started spreading the message that everyone should watch for my signal to start a rebellion, but fortunately, our pack was loyal enough to stay silent. It would only take one scumbag to give me away, though.

Instead, an elderly man spoke back to Brandon, "I only regret that you weren't inside the tent, pup. You don't deserve to call yourself Rhodric's son."

Brandon just muttered something to the guards standing next to him, who started pushing through the crowd to get to the old man. Oh no. Oh hell no.

I also struggled to reach him, and the crowd parted easily for me, while they seemed completely oblivious to the guards' efforts. What I intended to do when I got there, I had absolutely no idea. Diverting Brandon's attention might work, if I could make him angry at me instead.

I reached the man before the guards did, and stood in front of him protectively. It was Tom, an elderly rogue who had always been close to my father.

"It's okay, child." Tom put a hand on my shoulder. "I can fight my own battles."

"He'll blame you for the fire and execute you. But me? I'll just end up back in a cell," I promised, leaving out the word hopefully.

Just as the guards reach us, Tom smiled faintly. "Rhodric raised you right, you know that? We all thought he was crazy, taking in more kids when he already had a pair of troublemakers. But he was right about you two girls, as always."

"Move aside," a guard ordered me. I ignored him and folded my arms. Brandon noticed the defiance and opened his mouth to give the order. But I never did find out whether he was going to have me killed or not.

Because luckily for me, my brother had brilliant timing. A guard ran towards the crowd, shouting, "He's escaped! Rhys has escaped!"

Leo's work, I suspected. He had believed our promise to protect his mate, and jumped ships. And now, we had our inside man. But I couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was off.

"Shut up, you idiot," Brandon hissed. Obviously, he didn't want everyone to know that his current archenemy had given a dozen guards and a dungeon the slip. It was too late, though, because they let out a ragged cheer. "What the hell happened?"

The panicked guard spluttered out a response, "I don't know. We just found his cell empty. No one saw anything."

"So find him!" Brandon growled. "I want him brought to me alive, so everyone can see what happens when you run."

My blood ran cold at those words. Would Brandon really kill his own brother just to set an example? I could only hope that Rhys wasn't stupid enough to stick around, no matter how pissed off he was. If he was sensible, he would get far, far away and start rounding up allies. He wouldn't get caught unless he wanted to.

The crowd started to disperse. Luckily, Brandon had forgotten about Tom in the confusion, so I slipped away with everyone else. Once I was safely back in Maggie's tent, which was currently empty, the folder in my pocket saw the light.

It was exactly what I'd been looking for — a list of all the rogues who owed us allegiance, and where to find them. To my surprise, there were pages and pages of names. We had plenty of friends. But getting their names to Rhys would be the problem. Only Fion would be able mind-link over such a distance, and Fion was too close to Brandon.

The first, crossed out name suddenly caught my attention.

Gwen Llewellyn, Anglesey.

It was the first I'd ever heard of other Llewellyns. Who was she? A mother? Sister? Cousin? Rhodric was keeping secrets, and lots of them. That only became more evident when I examined a few faded photographs from the folder. There was one of Rhys and Brandon as children, long before I came into the picture. Except they were with another young boy. He had hazel eyes though — marking him out as a Llewellyn.

The more I looked through the pictures, the stranger they got. Rhodric as a child, surrounded by family which he had never mentioned. Rhodric and a girl who could only be his mate, laughing with two people who looked an awful lot like me. And in a strange moment of clarity, I knew they were my parents. My existence felt like a tangled web of secrets. What had he neglected to tell me?

Next I turned over the envelope, and to my surprise, it said my name in Rhodric's familiar, scratchy handwriting. Underneath were the words, do not open.

Like hell I wasn't going to open it. Surely he knew that. And why just me? Why not Rhys or Fion? I was confused and uncertain.

I decided to wait for word from Rhys before reading it, in case he managed to find Rhodric alive. In truth, I was just afraid it would a goodbye. I didn't think I could handle that.

I'd been trying to stay strong today, for everyone else's sake. But my world had fallen apart, my father had skipped town, and my family was scattered to the winds. Ever since waking up this morning, I had been slowly falling apart, even as I knew Rhys and Fion must be too.

Because Rhodric was gone, and he had lied to us. For good reason, yes. But I didn't know that at the time.

I thought about what he had always told us. Be good, and if you can't be good, don't get caught.

That's what I'd been brought up to do — cause trouble and never go down without a fight. And it was what I was going to do now. Brandon could only break me if I let him.