You must stay the night," Easton told Marianne at the crackling fire. "It's too late to travel now."

Mam stewed at the armchair in the fire, casting me a contemplative look. "If that's alright."

I had been sitting with my legs curled up underneath me, eyes on the fire as the embers danced. I glanced up at her, trying to manage a smile.

Mam flinched.

That smile died, but my voice did not wither. "Of course."

There were drinks and bowls with crisps and nuts to be nibbled on. I watched Easton as Nyssa regaled us with a tale of her latest dancing competition. He had rolled back his sleeves, shoulders sinking into the wide-backed armchair. Dark hair tickled his forehead and as tiredness plagued him, those golden eyes had grown heavy.

My attention cut back to my mother. When I had been a girl, she was an avid Lycan hater. She had engaged in the protests and rambled on about how they had destroyed the human economy; that they were too powerful and un-natural.

Now, she sat in the sitting room of the Lycan leader, peacefully watching some silly little movie playing out on the telly.

So strange.

I drank more wine and liberally filled Lux's glass, never wanting to see it less than half-full. I was a danger and Lux told me so as she topped up my wine. That made me miss my little apartment and our nights of wine and bad movies. I doubted Easton would appreciate us throwing popcorn at his telly.

Mam spoke little, preferring to let Nyssa guide the conversation. When she passed one time on the way to the bathroom, she pressed her fingers against my shoulder.

An old habit.

When the bottle was finished, I plucked the glass from Lux's hand and the other empty glasses and spun into the kitchen. I didn't have words to fill the silence and I didn't really know why I should have been the one to fill the silence. So I was happy too, to let Nyssa guide the conversation.

"I'll help you," Easton rose.

"To find the good stuff?" I asked. Mam had always been partial to a wine and cheese night. I looked to her briefly. 'See. I remember.'

She smiled at me again.

His smile was shadowed as we stepped out into the hall. "I hide those very well. You'd never know with Blav. He would empty your house of good food and drink with a laugh."

"I doubt you would say no to him." I laughed.

"No..." Easton said it in mock shame. "He has me wrapped around his finger."

I padded barefoot through the kitchen. As Easton went for the good stuff. I popped open the fridge, reaching for the bowl of chocolate pudding. I scooped out a large spoonful and hopped up onto the counter, watching as Easton took out another bottle of wine.

He hesitated. "We are going to all regret this in the morning."

I took another spoon of pudding and held out the bowl. "Want to share? I feel like I'm going to eat it all."

He glanced at me and a half-smile rose. "You have chocolate on your mouth"

"Oh?" I snorted a laugh. "How classy. Where?"

I wiped at the sides of my mouth with the back of my hand. Tutting, Easton set down the wine and grabbed a cloth, wetting it.

"Will I?" He edged closer. "Or do you want to do it yourself?"

It was just a question. Just a question, but I couldn't help seeing it as a challenge. I just motioned for him to continue, and he drew closer still, my knees pressing against his legs.

I shifted my legs so he could stand closer.

His jaw tightened, and he stood rigid, wiping at the corner of my mouth.

"Are you afraid to stand close to me?" I asked. "Do I stink?"

"I don't want to scare you?"

"By standing in front of me?" I asked dryly. "Well, colour me terrified by your looming presence, Easton."

He wiped at my mouth again, taking the time to think.

"I don't want to make a mistake with you," He said finally. "You're my mate and you're back after all these years and I don't want to make all of this harder than it has to be, but..." He laughed, but it was darkly humourless. "- but it's hard to be so close to you and not think of all the things I want to do to you."

"Like what?" I braced my hands on the counter, a challenge in my voice. The scent of him was over-powering, shuddering through me. Addictive – more than blood. More than fear.

Those eyes turned molten. "Nova, don't..."

"Why?" I leaned forward and he didn't step back, his breath catching. His nostrils flared and I tracked every minuet change, storing it. Remembering it. Learning it. "Am I here under some sort of obligation now? Some pretty vast set on a stand, never to be touched in case it's destroyed?"

"I don't want to scare you..." He repeated the words like a mantra.

"You don't want to scare me, but do you want me?" I asked, not sure why I was asking. Maybe it was him looming over me. The taunt muscles of a man ready to lunge, but not to kill. I wanted to see how far I could push him before he snapped.

Maybe it was for my own safety – or to satisfy the heat burning behind my breastbone. Each made me curious. That had always been one of my worst traits – my unrestrained curiosity.

"Of course." He said, offended.

"We said we would take small steps, Easton." I gave him a half smile. "So, show me."

He scanned my face for a half-second and then stepped between my legs. A large hand skimmed up the length of my bare arm. Goosebumps rose, and I stared up at him, daring him to stop. Daring him to back away.

His hand cupped my face, a thumb brushing over his cheekbone.

"Admiring my fine features?" I asked. "What a waste of an opportunity, Easton."

He rasped out a laugh and titled my face up to his – then he kissed me.

It was soft at first and I had not expected that; my breath caught in the back of my throat and a growl thrummed through him. The counter was cold under me and he was so warm – starlight again trapped under his skin.

He should have been named for the stars. Not me. Not when he was the one whose skin burned like white-fire.

A large hand moved up my thigh, catching at the fabric of my sun-dress. The other was soft as it skimmed along my jaw, but firm as he kept my chin tilted up. The moment struck me as hilariously odd. That I could hate someone for so long and yet have them touch me so intimately.

"Nova," He rasped my name, as if drawing his voice over sharp stone.

The hand on my jaw knotted in my hair, fingers pulling taunt. The pain shrilled through me, chased by heat. My legs hooked around his hips and I wanted that pain again if the heat would come too. I wanted more, and now it was not blood and flesh that I was hungry for. He splayed a hand against my lower back, hauling me into him.

He groaned low in his throat as my arms banded around his neck. My strength, unchecked, was enough to haul that long, taunt body against me without resistance.

"Nova." He said my name again, as soft as a whisper, and ragged and needing. He pulled back, eyes dark and molten. "This is too soon."

I didn't know if was the Omega or me, demanding more. Demanding some release from the built of tension of being so peaceful since my escape.

"Kiss me again." I asked, breathless. "How you want to."

His gaze skewered me there, and he loomed over me, a hand dragging down the swell of my hip. He moulded the fabric of my dress against my skin, torn.

"I won't beg," I said. "So don't try and make me."

He kissed me – this time without restraint. With wild abandon, he was on me. The wild Alpha with the scarred face and bloodied history. Hands in my hair. On the slit of my dress, sliding up my leg only to leave a scorching path.

I melted into it, coaxed by the ceasefire it brought to the constant fray inside my head. I ran my hands over those fore-arms, up the ridges of his powerful arms and over his shoulders without a care for how it might look. Muscled legs held him to me and he let out a growl of pleasure, breaking away to run his nose along my check.

Lips on my jaw.

A snarl against my skin.

Then a venture lower. To the healed ridges of an old bite.

And despite the heat trampling through me, the growing want – I froze.

My body locked, rigid and unyielding. No memories swamped me, but I could not move – could not breathe.

Easton stepped back swiftly, hair ruffled. Concern melted away that dark want. "I – I...are you alright?"

I wanted to hide away the mark. Hide away the first mark of the old Nova's destruction. My jaw tightened and I swallowed it down. I fixed him with a cool look, lacing my shoulders back. "What would you think I'm not."

"Hey, Easton, do you need help with the glasses?" Nyssa wandered in, then paused. "Oh – did I interrupt something?"

Nyssa took us both in and I was aware of my rumpled clothes and mussed hair. Her lips pinched in condemnation and I felt suddenly as if I were the younger sister who was caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing. She was still wearing her dress from dinner; the fabric rumpled and that sleek hair pulled back away from her face.

My chest squeezed. Nyssa was so beautiful—I had missed so much of her life.

"I'll bring them right out," Easton told her, but his attention did not move from me. "I will be right back."

I didn't answer. Shame burned in my heart.

Nyssa managed a smile at him as he left the room. We listened to him bringing more wine, and Lux's loud crow of delight. I could hear Kale laughing under that, shy and unsure.

Her smile faltered. Her gaze cut to me again. "I have a hair-brush you can borrow, Nova, if you decide you want to look decent."

"I have my own hairbrush, thank you." A frown pinched my brow. Where was this hostility coming from?

Nyssa smiled prettily. "I would have thought you lost it."

I bit down the rasping snarl. I recognised that tone from Rachel, the other cleaner I used to work with. It was condescending condemnation – always from someone who thought they were better than me.

"I think you should go to bed." I told her.

"You stopped being able to tell me what to do a long time ago." Nyssa said.

"I'm still your older sister." I slipped down from the counter, watching as that bravado flickered as I neared. I held back – I didn't want to scare her. Never the twins.

"An older sister isn't just is a given title," Nyssa's tone dropped to a hiss. "It's earned. You should have been there for broken hearts and our first discos and bickering about our behaviour. You can't just waltz back in and claim a title."

I yielded a step, stricken.

Nyssa took a breath. "You can't just come back and ruin everything we've done for ourselves."

Ruin everything.

My skin skittered and I yielded another step, feeling the burn before the change. Nyssa watched me, her expression turning perplexed.

"You think – "I choked out. "You think I stayed away on purpose. That's idiocy. You're not stupid Nyssa."

The thoughts flooded in unbidden. Her throat torn open. Eyes gouged and that cutting tongue pulled from her mouth.

No. She was not bad. She was just hurt.

I closed my eyes, but the images just bloomed into vibrant colour. Blood on my curled hands. Her insides spilling out onto the ground. The blood would pool and it would be hot. Not starlight, but warm enough.

I yielded another step.

A frown pinched Nyssa's brow and she took a step towards me, holding out a hand. "Nova? I – I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

Too late. I would break her into tiny pieces and let that disrespect scatter into broken bones and torn flesh.

No.

"I –" I clenched my hands, my talons cutting into my palms. " I need to use the bathroom."

I didn't flee- but I locked myself into the bathroom as the Omega shuddered under my skin. Even half of that disrespect would have ended up in a death. The doctors in that facility would only dare to insult me when I was strapped down or locked behind glass.

I heaved over the sink, my eyes burning in the mirror. Inhumane. It would be obvious that I was not right. Not right.

Wrong. Wrong.

Spider-cracks appeared on the sink as I held fast onto the marble. I sucked in a breath. Maybe it was the wine sending my self-control spiralling.

A sort of panic began to set in as my senses warped.

Panic set in as the bathroom shrank around, the oxygen sucked out as I heaved in shaking breaths. I lurched again, fumbling with the latch on the window. I threw it open, breathing down gulps of air.

I whimpered as the bones in my hand began to shift, eyes squeezing shut. I had almost forgotten how much it could hurt to become the Omega.

I was forgetting.

I was becoming weak.

I hooked a leg over the window sill and dropped into the garden. As silent as a whisper, I was across the garden and vaulting over the high back wall. It was easy to escape Lunar – it wasn't a white cell. There were walls to climb, guards to skirt around but they weren't looking for a lanky girl in a dirty sun-dress. They were looking for a threat.

Chest heaving, that panic melting into panicked aggression, I barely made it to an empty field before my skin began to tingle. I let out a breath and my body folded, breaking and reforming. Claws, wickedly sharp, cut into the soil.

Ahead, a herd of sheep bleated in panic.

A tongue ran over sharp teeth. They weren't people, but they were ... alive.

I caught a ram beneath my claws, ravenous even though I had eaten a three-course meal only hours before. As I ripped at flesh, dipping my muzzle into warm flesh – a crack shot through the night.

I raised my head.

At the fence, a middle-aged man cocked his rifle. He stared down at me. "By the moon, what are you?"

That rhymed.

Did it?

I'd have to ask my tutor.

The ram bleated weakly as I raised my head, scenting the man's quick rush of fear. I tasted the hot blood on my tongue and the quick rush of excitement. I ripped out a ribbon of flesh and snapped it down, never moving my attention from the farmer.

Grass rustled in the night wind as I rose, teeth flashing.

The rifle cocked up. "You are not natural."

I pressed forward, sharp claws splaying on the earth.

That fear deepened and as I took the scent of it in, I knew I was going to do something irreversible. The Omega was waiting for him to run, eager for a long missed hunt. A smaller part of me begged to stay still. His heart was racing – thump, thump, thump.

Another shot cracked through the night and I lurched, avoiding the bullet that cut past me.

I swallowed a ribbon of flesh as the man tossed the gun to the ground. There was a change in the air – a certain static. A certain smell that came before the rapid crack of bones. The man shifted into a Lycan and bit out a challenging snarl.

The Omega grinned. Finally.

A fight.

A hunt.

I rolled my neck, vicious delight rising.

I was on him before he could centre himself, ploughing into him as a wall of muscle and aggression. Worse still – I was well fed. Stronger than I had been in the Mad-Maze where I was a half-starved maniac. The Lycan scrambled at the soil, his muscled back-legs kicking at me. Sharp claws scraped at my stomach before I tossed him back, snapping at his throat.

He whined and kicked back. A large claw swiped at me and as I teetered to the side, I let out a delighted laugh. It was rough and gravelly, warped by my mal-formed vocal chords. Any Lycan who listened would know I wasn't right.

Wasn't normal. The Ravi could not replicate the exact sound of a Lycan.

He scraped and kicked at me as I heaved him up and tossed him into the fence. The wood cracked under his weight and he scrambled to get up. I was on him again. He sprung for my throat again and I let out another laugh as he drew blood with an errant blow.

It wasn't nice to play with your food, but it was fun.

I cut ribbons into his flesh and laughed as he scored his own blows. I had never fought a Lycan, but he wasn't living up to my expectations.

A whine slipped through clenched teeth as I pinned his battered body. I was barely winded, but his breathing was whistling and broken. If he was in his other form, I imagined he would be begging.

As he should be, I thought dispassionately. Though it never worked.

A ram bleated as I pressed a splayed claw to his jumping pulse. It would be so easy to tear it out – so easy to end his life. Every instinct, every nerve screamed that I do just that – that I rip his throat open and end him.

Lordie.

I yanked myself back, gripping the earth as if the land itself could hold me back. I wish it would. Lordie, I wanted to finish it.

But this was not the Mad-Maze. This was not the Mad-Maze. I tasted the blood on my teeth – ram's blood mixed with Lycan.

In the distant, the sound had roused a farm. Lights began to illuminate the night and I knew my time was over.

The farmer's form shrank. Before he was in his human form, I had vanished into the night. I took the long route back, dunking myself into an icy river and twisting back into a two-legged form. I scrubbed at my hands and mouth, trying to spit out the blood coating my teeth.

My dress was torn when I reached Lunar. I had left without my shoes and they were caked in dirt. There was a buzz in the air and I slowed, staring at the town. Lights illuminated the housing estates and I could see blue lights flashing into the night.

Lordie.

I was in trouble.