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The cottage was ordinary. So ordinary, in fact, that it was interesting. I couldn't help wondering how this house managed to be so unspeakably average. It was a detached building with white-washed walls, the only decoration a trellis of roses. I stood at the end of the stone path which led right to the oaken front door. And I didn't want to take another step.

An ordinary house, I reminded myself. Ordinary people. Absolutely nothing to worry about, not when I could face off snarling werewolves without a care. Why then, did I feel so nervous?

Shallow breathing, tingling in my stomach and sweat on my forehead — all of these were the symptoms of nerves. And I'd never felt any of them before. Fear, I'd certainly felt. I knew how to deal with fear. But this? Not even the foggiest clue.

Because it was a new experience — having to worry about fitting in. My place amongst the rogues had been unquestionable since I'd entered Rhodric's care. I knew nothing about having to integrate myself with new people — make them like me, even.

So. How should I socialise with an average packling? Did they talk about the weather? Gardening? Their neighbours? I didn't know shit about any of it. Well, except that it never stopped raining in Wales. And that didn't exactly make for interesting conversation.

"Alright there?" Jace's absent-minded question pulled me out of my thoughts. Ollie and Leo turned around to stare.

"Uh ... yeah. Fine," I muttered hurriedly.

Without giving myself a chance to work myself up any further, I started walking along the crooked stones. The others followed, my flock of faithful sheep. But I needed to siphon off a few of them, so I fixed my stare at a picnic bench in the garden.

"Game of cards, Alpha Jace?" Ollie suggested. He understood my idea effortlessly, as always.

The Alpha shrugged, although I was sure his sharp eyes hadn't missed the exchange. "Sure. But I should warn you — bet sensibly."

Ollie's answering smile was nervous, but as soon as Jace's back was turned, all the uncertainty vanished. The smirk on his face was nothing short of evil. And for good reason. Although I knew he was a hustler and a cheat, and so did most of Last Haven, poor Jace didn't have a clue. The Alpha's wallet would soon be significantly lighter.

With those two sat at the picnic bench, Ollie making a show of clumsily shuffling cards, I found myself at a standstill. Until an arm slipped around my shoulder, warm and reassuring. Leo sighed, "Oh, Skye. I don't give a shit if they like you. Their opinion doesn't change a damn thing."

"So there is a good chance they won't like me?"

"Well..." He nodded grudgingly. "I told you — typical flockies. We get along okay now, but there is a reason I ran away from home."

My shoulders tensed under his arm. "You ran away?"

"That's how I ended up with the rogues. And when Bran was sent away, I was sent with him. To spy — keep an eye out and all that. But if I'd stayed ... then I guess we might have grown up together."

"I'd have liked that." It was true. Things might have been so different. Especially if the waterfall incident had never happened. Because then ... Brandon might be with us right now, as much a brother to me as Rhys. It was a scary thought.

Rhodric would still be at Lle o Dristwch, I reckoned, and leading. Maybe Fion would have had a loving mate, not a hateful one. Davies would definitely still be alive. It seemed so easy — for the threads of fate to tangle. One shove in a heated moment had jolted my world from its axle.

Leo's voice reminded me where I was. "Shall we go in?"

"Okay." The word came out hesitantly and I knew the what ifs had ruined my day. Great.

My mate closed the remaining distance and pressed a tiny doorbell. Thanks to my wolf's hearing, I could pick out every echoing chime and soon the muffled footsteps of someone approaching. The door swung open on oiled hinges to reveal a short woman. She bore a vague resemblance to Leo — the same darkish hair and defined features.

"Leo?" she asked, beaming. "I didn't know you were coming."

"I thought I'd surprise you. It's a spontaneous thing, anyway," he explained.

"Well, I'm certainly surprised. And ... who's this?"

A sweeping glance in my direction. Her eyes snagged on the mud on my trainers, on every tear and smudge on my clothes. It took all my willpower not to recoil. Never. Never had anyone given me such a swift appraisal. Never had I felt so self-conscious. It just didn't matter among rogues — no one gave a shit what you looked like. But the packs, I reminded myself, were different.

"This," Leo began cautiously, "is my mate."

Her smile, although wide now, didn't quite feel genuine. "Really? It's about time. Is it true, honey?"

No. We like to joke about these things.

"Yes, Mrs—" A crazy thought occurred to me. So crazy that it didn't even merit considering. Because if I didn't know Leo's last name...

Luckily, she didn't seem to realise I hadn't finished speaking. "Oh, please. Call me Ella. And what's your name?"

"Skye."

I had to remind myself to omit the surname. Being a Llewellyn wouldn't do me any favours here.

"That's a strange name," Ella laughed.

Not really.

Leo tensed up. "Mam..."

"What? It is," she said defensively. "And what pack are you from, Skye?"

My wolf burst out laughing — very helpful, as I was already finding it dammed difficult to keep a straight face. It was going to be one of those conversations. I gave up playing nice right there and then.

I shrugged carelessly. "Hell if I know. I guess I could ask Fion — she might remember."

Lying to the in-laws. Great start. But it wasn't a total lie. I didn't know which pack I'd come from, and I had never asked, if only to resist the temptation to burn it to ashes. Those wolves had been willing to let me starve for the crime of knowing Rhodric Llewellyn.

Deep down, of course, I did know. It was the only pack I'd never raided, the one Rhodric had been so careful to keep me away from.

Her mouth hung slack, disbelieving. "You don't ... know?"

Someone else clattered into the hallway, sparing me the need to answer. A man's voice asked, "What's going on, Ella?"

"Leo's here, love."

She moved out of the doorway and the shadows shifted to reveal an extraordinarily average middle-aged man. Again, he looked like a rough version of Leo. But this one had been a fighter in his lifetime. I recognised the guarded stance, the watchfulness, from countless rogue veterans — Rhodric most of all. But that was where the similarities to my father abruptly ended. His looks and attitude couldn't have been more different.

"So I see. What I want to know is why there's a rogue contaminating our doorstep," he spat.

Hateful. So hateful. I didn't envy Leo his childhood when that sneer was compared to the constant smiles I had grown up with. And I had envied it, maybe just a little. A quiet pack life with a loving family. But now ... now I knew I would take those ten years of neglect over this any day. Better nothing than hatred.

"Dad!" That was Leo, and he sounded hella pissed. "She's my mate."

The words had already hit their mark though. Ella's accusing stare burned a hole through me. "You're a rogue?"

"Well, yes, technically." As if it wasn't cut and dry.

Her face closed off, disgust replacing the horror. "I want you out of my house."

Screw her. I wasn't even in her house. Leo was — he had taken a few angry steps at his father's appearance. But me, stood awkwardly in the doorway? I was easy to shut out.

The father and son kept arguing over our heads. Not difficult, when they had half a foot on both of us. "It isn't enough that you to live, eat and fight with those vermin? Now you need to breed with them as well?" the man was demanding.

I didn't get a chance to hear Leo's reply, because the door was slammed in my face. I could have eavesdropped, but frankly, I was too pissed off to think that rationally.

There was a dull click as she turned the key in the lock.

Great. What to do?

First of all, I needed to cool off. I walked around the house until I found an empty stretch of wall, and leant against it. That was not exactly how I'd planned meeting the in-laws. And worse — the hatred between flockies and rogues ran so deep that their feelings were unlikely to change. But even we would accept pack wolves if they were mated to our own. This was just ... extreme.

It raised other concerns, too. If the way Leo's parents felt about rogues was even remotely similar to how the rest of the pack felt, Jace was probably risking his leadership by talking to us, let alone letting us on the territory.

My wolf drew my attention to a whisper too quiet for human ears to detect.

"There she is," an icy voice announced.

"Spread out. I don't want any chance of her escaping," came the low reply.

I didn't know for certain, but if I had to bet on it, I'd guess they were talking about me. Because my luck was apparently just that shitty. Was it hate-on-rogues day or something? Did I miss that memo?

My body went slack, as if I didn't know anything was wrong. But I took a sniff of the air and the briefest glance at the words. There were five males standing in the forest, shirtless and tousle-haired, as if they had just shifted.

Bleeding hell. What kind of odds were those? Not in my favour, that was for sure. My hand closed around my switchblade. I was in deep, unending shit.

I let them get close — too close, probably — before I acknowledged their presence with a cautious smile. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, you've got a nerve, rogue," the tallest one snarled at me. I decided he must be in charge and so ignored him in favour of a broad-shouldered shifter who looked calmer and leaked authority. Anything to fracture the group.

"I'm sensing some hostility," I told him.

"Hostility? Your kind murdered my parents. So yeah, I'd say I'm feeling a tad hostile." Sure enough, the leader had stepped into my direct line of sight so I would notice him. Ha.

My eyes didn't leave the silent man. "I'm sorry to hear that. But it's hardly my fault."

"She's sorry," the rogue-hater said eagerly. "Your heard her, boys — she's sorry. Will sorry bring my parents back?"

"Well, I think it's about as effective as attacking teenaged girls. But hey, I'm no expert. Necromancy is a tricky art."

I tried so, so hard not to smirk as pure rage crossed his face and he stepped forward. But the guy I had been staring at threw out a hand to restrain him. Score. "She's right, Ryan. What's this going to accomplish?"

"It's going to remind the rogues that they'd do better to keep their filthy paws off our land. So shut your mouth and stay out of this. I'm third, not you, and it's my call."

My defender bowed his head and let his hand drop, much to my disappointment.

"Booo," I jeered. "Stand up to the jerk, buddy. I'm rooting for you."

Apparently that was it took. Even the skittish shifters who had tried not to involve themselves began to close in, trapping me in semi-circle of flockies. It occurred to me for the first time that maybe I should have called for help. Jace and Ollie were on the other side of the house, Leo was just inside. But I didn't trust Jace to side with the flockies over me, and my mate was kinda busy with his awful parents.

Besides. I didn't want anyone's help.

"So I guess you're okay with hurting girls?" I tried, just to buy another minute.

"We're not going to hurt you, darling," Ryan snarled. "We're going to kill you."

No matter how much I thought about it, that just didn't sound right. "Without hurting me? Is that ... possible...?"

They ignored me, which I thought was rude, but I forgot all about it when the third-in-command of New Dawn Pack shifted into his wolf. My back was against the wall, so running clearly wasn't an option. But I still had several choices, shifting being foremost of them. Although I had absolutely no hope of beating all five of them, at least I could take a few with me.

Then there was the option of surrendering and putting myself at their mercy. But it wasn't even remotely plausible that my pride would sign off on that idea. Besides, I didn't think for one moment that they intended to let me live, submission or otherwise.

As something pressed against my spine, I considered a third, reckless-beyond-belief plan. My knife lay heavy in my jacket pocket, my lighter was stashed adjacent, and my hands itched to be doing something — anything. This ... this madness might even let me escape the garden alive. Because that long, cylindrical object behind me was a gas pipe.

It was a really shitty idea. I knew that. But I went ahead and did it anyway.

I turned my back on the flockies and slashed the pipe with the tip of my blade. And then, in some fit of insanity, I held a burning lighter to the tear. I knew what was coming, so I did the sensible thing and threw myself out of the way.

The flockies didn't.

It worked even better than I had hoped. Like an out-of-control Bunsen burner, a stream of fire spewed from the pipe in short bursts. Long enough to singe the flockies and fill their lungs with smoke. Ryan was closest and got a face-full of flame. He was lucky to survive it, really.

But I didn't actually see any of that — I had to piece it together from the curses and screams —  because as soon as my body hit the floor I was up again and running for my life. And by some blind, dumb chance, I ran straight into Jace and Ollie's picnic table without intending to, just as an explosion sounded behind me. I like to think I walked out of the smoke in slow motion with a backdrop of flames. That may be an exaggeration though.

Jace and Ollie were on their feet in seconds, just in time to see the flockies round the corner. Those who weren't trying to extinguish their own clothes had elected to chase me. Everyone single one of them took one look at their Alpha's obvious annoyance and opened their mouths to spew accusations. But Jace shut them up with a single glare, instead turning to me. "You want to explain what happened?"

"Would you believe me if I said Pepsi and Mentos?" I asked hopefully.

He just raised his eyebrows. "Don't make me ask them. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, and right now it's all that's keeping Rhys alive."

As if it was that simple. Although a full-blown conversation would have been too obvious, I stirred up the mind-link until it was buzzing like a hornet's nest. Rhys would pick up on the disturbance and hopefully get ready to run if it came to that.

Running feet pattered against the earth, and I tensed. But it was just Leo, who was as pale as a ghost. "Skye! What the hell happened?"

As soon as he reached me I crushed him to my chest and felt him loose a long, relieved breath. "I'm fine," I promised in response to a query which ran deeper than words. "Think I blew something up, but it's cool."

"If I don't get an explanation in the next five seconds, your brother is going to die," Jace cut across us. "Five, four—"

"He asked me to light a cigarette for him," I blurted out, pointing vaguely at the nicer man. "Gas pipe beside us must have been leaking, 'cause the whole place lit up like a Christmas tree. Oh well. What can you do?"

I could have told Jace the truth. But that would have been a shitty idea, because I would be pitting the reliability of a rogue against his third-in-command. Who would — should — Jace believe? Definitely not me. This lie was better, if only because no one got the blame.

The flockies and I were both in a bad position. Instead of pushing and shoving our way out of it, we could help each other out. At least ... that was the idea.

"Is that what happened, Bradley?" Jace demanded of the man I'd chosen.

"Uh ... yes, Alpha." Bradley eyed me with suspicion but went along with it, to my relief. "Complete accident, but no harm done. Well — not much harm."

"I didn't know you smoked," the Alpha commented dryly. I could tell that he didn't believe us, not even for a second. But he knew better than to question it and make his life a thousand times more complicated.

"Neither did I," Bradley muttered, then added in a louder tone, "It's a new hobby."

"Enthralling. Now I suggest you get back to patrol — maybe it slipped your mind, but the border is two miles from here."

He inclined his head. "Yes, Alpha."

The group trailed off into the forest without an argument, although several of them shot murderous looks at me. Ryan-the-douchebag stumbled behind, every hair on his muzzle seared black. Oops.

"And you lot ... you should leave. No goodbyes. I'll hand-deliver Rhys to the border once you're safely in your car, and I can tell Spencer and Ella what happened," Jace decided.

"But what about—?" Leo started to ask.

"Next time there's a gas leak," he said, dangerously slow, "I might not be around to help."

Anger seethed in my chest like a caged beast. "I don't want your help, Alpha. I don't need it. But as you can't seem to control your own men, maybe you're the one who needs help."

"That's not fair. I can't tell my wolves how to think, or stop them acting on those thoughts. But I can — and will — punish them for it. Rest assured that once I'm finished with them, they'll thoroughly regret this afternoon."

Those words were better than a bucket of cold water. My wolf was certainly satisfied. The anger drained away, to be replaced with a nothingness with always made me feel unbearably weary. I was tired — of arguing and fighting and running.

"Thank you," I mumbled, well aware that only hours ago I had thanked another Alpha for trying to kill me. What a shitty thing to make a habit of.