aimed at rhoan, not me.

fury swept me. i should have known the bastard wasn't going to play by the rules.

blake lunged. i twisted around, rolling under his leap, then ran, with every ounce of strength i had, toward rhoan. heard the crack of a gunshot, and dove, shifting shape as i did so, straight at my brother. i hit him just as he was leaping at tyson, heard his grunt of surprise as i grabbed him with both arms and rolled us both out of the way. tyson flew over the top of us, but blake was right behind.

the bullet that had been aimed at rhoan's head went through my leg instead. it was silver, and it burned like a bitch, but it also went in one side and came right out the other without appearing to do any serious damage. for once, fate was giving me a break.

"sniper on the rooftop," i said, releasing his midriff and rolling to my feet. he scrambled to his, meeting blake's charge chest first as the big red wolf leapt, knocking him to one side before twisting around to meet tyson's charge.

i kept in human form and ran, every sense i had focused on the sniper. he was aiming again. there was only one way to stop him. i threw open my shields and hit him with every ounce of telepathic power i had. i felt the brief resistance of a nanowire before it shattered under the force of my attack and i plunged into his mind. this was no gentle attack. it was hard and fast and brutal, and his mind snapped as easily as the nanowire.

lodden jenson wasn't dead, but his mind was.

i bent, scooped up a rock, then twisted around and threw it at blake. i moved so fast he didn't even see it coming, and the rock smashed into his face full force, shattering his nose and jaw. his furious growls turned to a high sound of pain and he stuttered to a halt, shaking his head to clear the blood that was spurting into his eyes.

"we gave you the chance to play fair, blake. we were obeying the rules of the arena when, by law, we could have just walked in here and killed you both. you chose to fight dirty, so that's exactly how i'll kill you."

and with that, i shifted shape and lunged at him. he saw me at the last minute and jumped away, but anger fueled my movements now and he was far too slow. i hit his side and sent him tumbling. he rolled, desperately trying to regain his feet and get away, but i hit him again, knocking him back down.

and then i repeated the process, again and again, driving home the point that he couldn't get up and couldn't beat me.

he kept trying, i'll give him that.

i hit him one more time, then shifted shape, crossing my arms as i watched him slowly climb to his feet. across the arena i was aware of low growling, then there was a godawful howl that cut off abruptly.

rhoan, finishing off tyson. it was just me and blake now.

he climbed to his paws, his head snaking low and broken teeth bared. there was anger in his eyes and tension in his body. he was waiting for the final blow.

"as i said, you started this dirty, so i intend to finish it that same way. blake jenson, shift shape." the words were barely out of my mouth when i hit him with every ounce of psychic strength i had left. it crashed through the barriers of his nanowire and swept into his mind. his eyes widened a fraction before the fist of my thoughts wrapped around his. change shape, i whispered into his mind. become human.

he had no choice. his fury lashed around me, useless, impotent, as his body shifted from one form to another. in human form, his face looked more battered, and his gray eyes gleamed with maliciousness and fury. but he couldn't move. my grip on his mind was too strong.

i walked forward until i was nose-to-nose with the man.

"this is for our childhood," i said softly. "for the innocence you snatched away."

i raised a hand and chopped it across his neck. felt muscle and flesh give away as his throat collapsed inward. he made a low sound of pain, but he still couldn't move. couldn't fight.

part of me wanted to end it swiftly, to just break his neck and walk away from him and everything bad he represented. but i couldn't.

i needed this vengeance. hated it, but needed it.

"and for my mother, who had no recourse against your treatment of us; for my grandfather, who was an old man when you slaughtered him in this arena; and for my stepbrother, whose mate you kidnapped and tortured. for all of them, i give you the inglorious justice of being killed in the arena in human form." i paused, letting my words sink in. watching the hatred and fury and finally fear roll through his eyes and his mind. "maybe you will find the hell in afterlife that you gave us in life, blake."

and with that, i hit him a final time, crushing his larynx and breaking his neck. he dropped like a stone, dead before he actually hit the ground.

i took a deep breath and released it slowly, then looked up.

straight into my mother's eyes.

she was standing at the fence, her face serene and her gray eyes giving little away. i might have been a stranger for all the emotion she was showing, and i guess in many respects i was. after all, i was still a teenager when i'd left. now i was an adult, and a trained killer besides.

but she hadn't changed all that much - there were a few more lines around her eyes and mouth, and perhaps a little gray in the red of her hair, but otherwise she was still very much as i remembered her.

i continued to stare at her, unsure what to do, what to say. unsure if i even wanted to say or do anything. awareness prickled across my skin, and i knew without looking that rhoan was approaching. he stopped beside me, his fingers weaving through mine, then he, too, stared at the woman who had given us life.

after a moment, she smiled - a short, warm smile that said more in the few seconds it appeared than any words ever could.

i took another shuddering breath and felt like the weight of the world had lifted off my shoulders.

the horn rang out again, haunting, mournful. as the last notes died away, i said, not raising my voice, "by this death, and by right of ad vitam aeternam, i now lead this pack."

my gaze swept around them. no one looked away. no one countered or objected. they were all tense, waiting. it made me wonder just what blake had told them about us.

i continued on in the same soft tone. "and my first order of business is this: the jenson pack will no longer suffer the rule of one man, or one wolf. by my right of leadership, i declare that from now on, the jenson pack will be ruled by a council of three."

a murmur ran through the crowd, a sound that was excitement and satisfaction and surprise all mixed together. for a pack that had been ruled for so long by tyranny, being given the right to have a say had to come as a complete shock.

"i hereby declare that evin and rayanne jenson will rule in my stead until formal elections can be organized and held. these will happen within two months." i paused, my gaze sweeping the arena, searching for my stepbrother. he and lyndal were standing near the gate, and there were tears in evin's eyes. we hadn't told him this part of the plan. "evin jenson, do you accept the duty?"

he stood up a little straighter, his eyes shining. "i do."

my gaze returned to my mother's. "and rayanne? do you accept the position?"

"in honor of my father, who would be so proud of what his grandchildren have done here today in this arena, i most certainly do."

tears stung my eyes and i had to blink them back. proud was a word i'd never thought to hear when it came to our grandfather and us.

rhoan squeezed my hand lightly, and i cleared my throat. "then i formally step down from the leadership and hand over control to you both."

a roar erupted, the sound almost deafening. rhoan tugged me into his arms and hugged me fiercely. "it's done," he said. "we made it."

i didn't reply immediately, just held on to him as reaction set in and my body shook. after a while, the awareness that someone was near grew and i pulled away, turning to see evin and lyndal.

"come and meet your brother and sisters," he said softly, then spun around and walked away.

"brother and sisters," rhoan said, a silly grin on his face as he glanced at me. "how damn good does it feel to say that?"

"brilliant," i said, as we followed evin.

and it was brilliant. this place might not be home anymore, but we had family.

finally, after all those years in the wilderness, we belonged somewhere.

epilogue

the wind meandered through the treetops, filling the dusk with the whisper of leaves. the mountain air was cool, fresh with the recent rain and rich with the humus of the forest.

i walked through the trees, my bare feet sinking into the grass and leaving a trail of wet prints behind me.

in a couple of hours, the full moon would rise and i would become a wolf.

but before then, before the sun had fully set, there was the time of promises.

soon quinn would become mine, and i would become his.

it was all i could do not race up the remainder of this hill, to where he and rhoan and liander waited, to say the words that would bind us as one forever.

the only thing that could have made this night more perfect would have been for rhoan and liander to perform the ceremony alongside us. but rhoan was still refusing, and liander wouldn't push. he understood rhoan's reasons. we all did, even if we didn't agree with them.

but i wasn't about to spoil this night by dwelling on such matters.

not when i was about to commit to the man of my dreams.

my pulse was racing and my heart was light, and every now and again the sheer force of it all had my feet breaking into a happy little dance.

high above the treetops, the sky was a blaze of color, and though the moon had yet to crest the horizon, the heat of her was in the air. her music sang through my veins - a richness that was sweet and intoxicating. the change would come with darkness, but before it did, our promises would be made.

i walked up the rest of the hill. the last of the day's sunlight broke through the trees as i did, warming the clearing ahead and spotlighting the three men who waited there.

rhoan and liander stood to one side, their arms entwined and grins as silly as my own on their faces. quinn stood in the middle, as naked as i was despite what he'd said earlier. and oh, he was beautiful. simply beautiful.

he smiled as i stopped in front of him, and briefly reached out to caress my cheek. i pressed into his touch and silently said, do you know all the words?

they have been very firmly drummed into my brain by your brother and his lover, he replied. they made sure no mistakes would be made.

they'd made sure i would make no mistakes, as well, hammering the words into my still somewhat faulty memory banks. despite quinn's best efforts, not all the past had been recovered. some of it would remain forever gone. but the past no longer mattered. the here, the now, and the future did.

good, i replied softly. i did threaten to cook for them for the next year if things went awry.

his laughter was like quicksilver through my thoughts, bright and shiny. then he dropped his hand and bowed formally.

i watched him, struggling to contain my joy, struggling to reach the seriousness this ceremony required.

"does my lover know what night this is?" i said softly.

his eyes shone like black jewels in the dusk, filled with such warmth and love that it threatened to steal my breath and words away.

"it is the night of the full moon," he returned solemnly. "the night of promises."

i stepped forward, pressing my body against his. feeling in the no-longer-slow beat of his heart an echo of my excitement. feeling in the rigid heat of his erection the equal of my desire. "the night of destiny."

the air stirred around us, running with slivers of energy that raised the hairs at the nape of my neck.

"you are my heart, my soul," he said, his arms going around my waist and holding me tightly.

"as you are mine," i repeated. the magic in the air got stronger, thrumming through the forest, matching the rhythm of our breathing, matching the beating of our hearts.

"dance with me, this night and for the rest of our nights," he said. "for as long as the moon shines in the sky and for as long as we live underneath her."

i shifted my stance slightly, readying myself for the more intimate requirements of the ceremony. "in her name, i offer you my body."

desire and something else - something more ethereal and powerful - swirled around us, warming my heart, tugging at my soul. the heat of him slid inside of me, so deeply that it felt like he was claiming every single inch of me. and lord, it felt good.

"in her power," he said, as he slowly began to rock inside of me, "i offer you my heart."

the energy in the air was becoming fiercer, burning across my skin, making all the little hairs stand up on end.

"in her shadow, i offer you my soul." my words were breathless, almost inaudible, lost to the pleasurable assault on my senses and the thrumming in the air. it didn't matter. the magic in the night heard and acknowledged it.

his hands slid down to my rear, gripping my butt fiercely, holding my body tightly against his as his movements became more urgent.

"do you accept the gift of my seed?" he growled.

his thrusting was deep and hard and urgent, and the world was spinning, burning, with power, until it felt like there was no separation between any of us, that our flesh, the magic, the moon, and the night were all one being.

"yes," i gasped. "do you accept the binding of the moon and the promises we have made on the night?"

"yes," he cried. "yes!"

the words were barely said when he came, his body going rigid against mine, the force of his release tearing my name from his throat. heat and power and magic exploded around us, through us, and my climax came in that moment, stealing all thought and plunging me into an abyss that was sheer and unadulterated bliss.

i rested my forehead against his, desperately trying to catch my breath, desperately trying to ignore the rising heat of the oncoming night. i would change soon, but there were still words to be said.