I sat in the shade of an oak tree the next morning, shaping a branch with my penknife. Around me were other members of the resistance — as many as could be in one place without arousing suspicion. Dotted around the fringes of the woods were other clusters just like ours, all with a purpose.

Some were thinking up strategies for attack. Some were watching the guards for signs of weakness or carelessness. But the majority were making weapons for the fight to come. My group was mainly comprised of children, who were collecting stones for ammunition, while the few older shifters made catapults: a weapon that all rogue children could use.

We had taken the necessary precautions. Our gathering was disguised as a picnic. The guards glanced over every few minutes, but none of them seemed suspicious. Our backs hid the bundles of completed weapons from them.

While I whittled a soft, lime branch, I spoke in an undertone to the girl next to me. It was Sophie, a cheerful girl in her twenties. She was mated to Davies; they had grown up together and recognised each other when they were old enough.

Mating rules are complicated. Only an eighteen-year-old can identify their mate. Before that birthday, you could live your entire life under your mate's nose and never notice. But as pack law decreed, if your mate is underage and can't recognise you, you must tell them who you are. Although we didn't usually follow pack laws, it seemed a sensible rule.

"We need to distract Brandon, so Fion can mind-link Rhys," I explained to her. Sophie had been playing I-Spy on our new leader all morning, to learn his routine.

"Even if you can get rid of him, Fion always has at least one guard. From what I've seen, they're as likely to leave her alone as I am to turn into a giant marshmallow," Sophie replied gently. "So you can either just mind-link her the information, or kill the guard, which would be like leaving a sign saying Skye was here."

As I wanted to talk to Rhys personally, the former wasn't an option. But I did have one idea left — Leo.

"Who are the usual guards he leaves with Fion?" I asked. There couldn't be many people Brandon trusted with his mate. "Does one of them have dark-brown hair and a weird accent?"

"Yeah..." she said slowly. "But why does that matter?"

I just shook my head in dismissal. "Let me worry about the guard. You just get Brandon out of the way for ten minutes."

Sophie regarded me out of the corner of her eye, gathering the courage to ask something. Then she put down her knife completely and turned to face me. I felt as if I was about to be ambushed.

"How's this going to end, Skye? Brandon won't stop, not ever. You've got to ask yourself what you're willing to do to keep everyone safe from him. Can you kill him in cold blood, knowing that Fion will lose her mate and Rhys will lose his brother because of it?"

"Fion lost her mate when he marked her by force," I replied. "And Rhys lost his brother when he was pushed down a waterfall eight years ago. I'll do whatever it takes."

And I really meant it. Rhodric was gone. Rhys and Fion wouldn't do it, because deep down, they both cared too much. Who else but me could kill him? Who else had the right?

Sophie watched me for a while longer, to see if I was being honest with her, but she didn't seem to find anything objectionable, because she stood up and tucked her knife into her belt.

"Alright then. Ten minutes, Skye. That's all I can promise you."

"Thank you." I smiled. "Just don't get yourself killed."

She answered that with a reckless grin that seemed to be the sole province of rogues. I watched my friend pick her way across the field, and disappear into a maze of tents. The guards watched her leave with bored diligence.

I handed my finished catapult to little Sammy, whose black eye was still swollen enough to annoy my wolf. Standing up, I brushed myself off and snuck to Brandon's new tent. One sniff told me he was still inside, so I waited a few feet away for Sophie to work her magic.

It was only a minute before loud bangs rocked the camp. In every direction, rockets, roman candles and fountains screamed and crackled. Sophie must have had help, and a lot of it. As if that wasn't enough, every rogue with a music player simultaneously decided to listen to 'Firework' on full volume, I guessed they'd received a mass mind-link.

Brandon stormed out of the tent in a matter of seconds, on a Guy Fawkes hunt. I strolled right on in as soon as he was out of sight. That was my first mistake of the day. I'd been so busy checking for Brandon's scent that I'd forgotten to identify the guard. And, as my luck would have it, Leo wasn't on duty.

So when I entered the tent flap, hands seized my waist and throat. Callum had me pinned. Despite that, I aimed a kick behind myself at a sensitive area. It hit its mark, leaving the rogue bent over in pain. I took advantage of his temporary incapacitation to pull free. But something cold touched my abdomen.

Another mistake — I hadn't seen his gun.

I froze, and Callum smirked. Ever so slowly, I showed him my palms. And that would have been end-game for me, had someone not growled from the doorway. Leo was there, and aiming his own gun at my captor's forehead.

"Put it down," Leo warned Callum calmly. "Put it down, or say goodbye to your frontal lobe."

"Traitor," Callum snapped but lowered his weapon. Leo flipped the gun in his hand and brought the handle down sharply. It struck Callum's temple, and he dropped like a sack of stones.

Now I wasn't in immediate danger, I noticed Fion sat on the camp bed in front of me. As the entire fight had gone down in a matter of seconds, she hadn't even had time to process my arrival. But before I could even think about talking to her, Leo scowled at me.

"I swear you have a death wish, Skye Llewellyn. Don't you know whose tent this is? Please tell me you have a good reason to be in here."

"I had to talk to Fion," I explained. "She's the only one who can mind-link Rhys from this far apart. Don't you want to know if your mate is okay?"

Just as he had before, Leo smiled slightly, as if there was some joke we didn't understand. Definitely a double agent, but as he seemed to be helping me now, I wasn't complaining. "Of course I do. She's the only person who matters to me now."

"Then the best way to protect her is to stand watch while we do this."

Again, a small smile before he said, "Yes, I suppose it is, isn't it?"

I tried to ignore his strange behaviour and sat down opposite Fion. "Are you ready?" she asked quietly.

I nodded, taking a deep breath and placing my hand on hers so that I could join the conversation. All at once I was in Fion's mind as she reached over miles of forest to locate Rhys. There was a faint sense, pulling her in the direction of family. The next thing I knew, Rhys's voice was echoing faintly in my head — quiet but audible.

"Fion. What's going on?" Rhys didn't ask if she was okay, because he knew she wasn't.

"Not much here," she lied. "Worry about yourself. Brandon sent a whole pack of fighters after you."

"Why would that worry me?" he asked, mentally smug.

"I think you have enough ego for all three of us," I teased.

Rhys, who hadn't realised I was listening, sent us only a muddle of thought and emotions for a while. It was a weak connection, and his words weren't quite taking form. Fion's grip tightened on my hand, but it finally came back into focus with the question, "Any idea why you were released?"

"Not really. Maybe someone persuaded him to."

"Well, it can't have been me," Fion muttered. "He's made it very clear that he won't listen to me."

"Asshole," I growled. "We don't have much time. Did you find Leo's mate?"

"That's the weird thing." Confusion radiated through the link. "I couldn't find anyone in Pembrokeshire who knew that Leo had found his mate. Either he met her on the way here, or we guessed wrong and he just went along with it."

"I think he's lying to us. What about Rhodric?" I tried.

"Not a trace," Rhys replied miserably. "If he's alive, I can't find him."

I felt my heart sink. There was no one to save us. So I supposed we would just have to save ourselves.

We were quiet for a while, before I remembered what I had needed to tell Rhys in the first place. We reeled off the list of allies, but I left out the Llewellyn name. It wasn't the time or the place for family drama.

I wanted to talk to Rhys for longer, but a hand on my arm drew me back to reality. My eyes flickered open, and I noticed Leo looking at me with concern.

"Brandon's on his way back. You've got a minute at most."

I didn't waste time — leaning forwards to hug Fion. She was shaking slightly, terrified at the news of her mate's return. "Hang on, okay? We'll get you away from him, no matter what it takes."

"Okay," she whispered.

Time flew by after that. Dazed and miserable, I picked myself up and headed for the exit, before realising that Callum was still on the floor. Leo noticed what I was looking at, swore, and then helped me drag him outside.

"Tell Brandon that Callum went out to find out what the noises were and didn't come back," I told Fion as we left.

Leo led the way over to the ruins, taking care to choose a route that would avoid Brandon. He hoisted the unconscious rogue over his shoulder. That would have been conspicuous, had my rogues not moved to shield us from view everywhere we walked, offering winks and smiles.

Callum's weight hardly slowed him down, which shouldn't have surprised me, because he was quite well-built. I didn't realise where Leo was taking me until he stopped outside the Mercedes we'd stolen from New Dawn a few days ago.

"Good plan," I said. "If we get him a dozen miles away, he won't be able to mind-link Brandon even when he wakes up."

"Yes, Skye, that was the idea. Only thing I haven't worked out is where we're going to hold him," Leo sighed. He eased open the boot and stuffed Callum's body inside. The back seat would have been more spacious, but we needed anonymity now, not comfort.

"Easy. Drop him in Shadowless territory. They're closest and they definitely won't let him get away with trespass. But what are you going to tell Brandon you're doing?"

"How about this? Someone tipped me off — a sighting of Rhys nearby. I went to investigate. Brandon won't ask too many questions." Leo grinned at me as he hopped in the car. I knew I shouldn't trust him, yet I found myself doing it anyway. It was stupid, and it could get me killed.

***

That night, under the cover of darkness, a team of the strongest rogues snuck up to the castle after curfew. We worked on the outside wall of the ruins, piling loose stone into the gaps to reinforce it. Fixing too much at once would arouse suspicion, so we built on the less visible parts.

There was a completely open stretch of grass which proved problematic. It was too long to rebuild, but a crumbling tower directly beside it gave me a few ideas about how to seal it off. We would need explosives, though.

Our plan, which I had spent hours devising, aimed to neutralise their advantage of numbers by drawing them into a trap. The rogues in camp would form a mob and take over the castle, luring Brandon's men to the walls. When they tried to form siege lines, our allies would arrive from the forest, trapping them between us.

Sounds simple, right? A good, solid plan that couldn't possibly go wrong. Well think again.