Faye ran, looking back over her shoulder to see Finn wading into the mass of bikers. She could hear his voice shouting, and saw him trying to pull two huge men apart. None of them had changed into wolves yet, but if they did . . . She was afraid. She was afraid for Finn.

She was out of breath by the time she got back to the Morrow mansion. The music had stopped, and a few of the cars had already gone. Liz and Jimmy were waving goodbye to the last carload of their friends when Faye came running out of the trees, gasping for breath.

‘Faye?’ Liz asked. ‘Are you OK? We wondered where you and Finn had gone.’

‘We were walking home,’ Faye said, ‘but – but then Finn sensed the other wolves. They’re having a huge fight, out there in the woods.’

‘What – Finn and the pack?’ Jimmy asked with a frown.

‘No, of course not. Finn’s trying to break it up. I don’t know what’s happening, but it looked really serious. Liz – I’m scared for Finn. They’re all so strong. And they’re wolves! After what happened to Joe . . .’

Liz hugged her. ‘Finn can look after himself. And those guys are family. Families fight, right? Don’t worry – whatever it is, I’m sure they’ll sort it out.’

Faye leaned against her friend for a minute before nodding and pulling away. She looked around. ‘Has everyone gone? It’s a bit early, isn’t it?’

Jimmy shrugged. ‘They all got spooked. With Lucas not turning up to his own party, people started talking about Mercy and the house – one of them said they’d seen a figure in one of the mirrors . . . you know, like the one Mercy used.’

Faye sighed. The Black Mirror was how Mercy had given her victims to the underworld. It sucked them in and trapped them. She’d tried to do it to the whole school – but Finn and the bikers had destroyed the Black Mirror. In fact, they’d destroyed every mirror in the mansion, just to be sure.

‘But none of the mirrors in the Morrow mansion are dangerous any more,’ Faye pointed out. ‘Those that are there now were bought by Lucas himself.’

‘We know. It was Misty,’ Liz told her. ‘You know what she’s like. She’s always making stuff up. But it kind of killed the mood. They’ve all gone off to the Thorson cabin to carry on the party there.’

Faye looked up at the big stone house. ‘Come on,’ she said to Liz and Jimmy. ‘If I just stand here and wait for Finn, I’ll go mad. You’re right, he can look after himself. He’ll come and find me when he can. Let’s have another look round. Maybe Lucas left a note, and I missed it.’

 

Finn slapped his palm hard against Arbequina’s chest. The man was at least a foot taller than him, and probably weighed twice as much. Out of all of the bikers, the Mexican was the biggest. But Finn had to stop this fight right now. And the way to do that was to challenge the biggest man.

‘Stop it,’ he growled into the man’s furious face. ‘Arbequina. Stop. It.’ He turned and looked around the circle of angry faces. The pack had divided into two groups standing off against each other. ‘We don’t fight each other. We never fight each other. Tell me what’s going on. Right now.’

Arbequina looked down at Finn, his eyebrows knitted angrily over his dark eyes. Finn had known the man since he was small. His first ever motorbike ride had been on Arbequina’s machine, because Joe had been too busy on a patrol. But right now, the big man looked like a stranger.

‘Tell me,’ Finn ordered again. ‘What’s going on?’

Arbequina took a step back, and Finn dropped his hand. Around him, the bikers moved, unsettled. The Mexican nodded to Harris, another biker – an Englishman – standing with the group opposite.

‘They want to break up the Black Dogs,’ Arbequina growled. ‘They want to betray us.’

Finn turned to look at Harris, who had crossed his arms defiantly. ‘Is that true?’

‘Of course it’s not true,’ spat Harris angrily. ‘All we want is work. Something to live for. Arbequina seems happy to laze around all day. We’re not, that’s all.’

Finn had to hold the Mexican back as he lunged forward at Harris’s insult. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said, over the angry murmurs around him. ‘Explain exactly what happened.’

‘We had a visit,’ said Cutter, who was standing beside Harris. ‘Yesterday, at the camp. Two men came and offered us work.’

‘Where?’ Finn asked. ‘Here in the town?’

Harris shook his head. ‘No. Somewhere down south. There’s somewhere to live too, while we’re working, they said.’ The Englishman took a step towards Finn. ‘We have to do something, Finn. We can’t just sit around and wait for you to get bored playing the schoolboy. Understand? You’re supposed to be leading us, but instead you’ve given up.’

‘I have not given up.’ Finn felt a flash of guilt, but pushed it away. ‘I just need time. I need—’

‘You’ve had time,’ said Cutter, and a murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd. ‘Now you have to think about us. Or we’ll do the thinking for you, and leave.’

‘Not all of us want to,’ muttered Arbequina. ‘You are Joe’s son, Finn. The Black Dogs belong to you. We follow you, wherever you go. Whatever you decide. Some of us are loyal.’

‘It’s not loyalty to follow a useless leader,’ hissed Harris. ‘It’s stupidity.’

Finn ignored the barbed words. He wondered what Joe would have done in a situation like this, but then realized that the situation would never have arisen in the first place. His father had always known what to do, and he’d always kept the Black Dogs moving. The pack was his life, and theirs. He’d never had to worry that what they wanted wasn’t what he wanted.

‘Tell me more about this job,’ he said, trying to be reasonable.

‘There’s not much more to tell,’ Harris replied. ‘They told us it was manual labour – we can all do that – and that it was down south somewhere. They said they’d give us some time to think about it, and they’d be back tomorrow night for our answer. So this is us, thinking about it.’

Finn frowned. ‘That’s it? They didn’t tell you what the job was?’

Cutter shrugged. ‘Whatever it is, we’ll be able to do it. That’s the important thing. We’ve got to do something. We can’t waste the rest of our lives in this empty little backwater town.’

Finn crossed his arms, scowling. ‘So this is what the fight is about? Whether the Black Dogs leave Winter Mill, or whether they stay?’

‘No,’ Harris said coolly. ‘It’s whether we leave you, Finn. It’s whether we leave you.’