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Chapter 17
Marcus still refused to go outside while transformed, but he was fitting in surprisingly well as an ‘indoor wolf,’ in Declan’s admittedly biased opinion. He was still a bit shy around Declan, and always just a bit too watchful of his manners for it to be entirely normal, but when Liz and Kobi took it upon themselves to keep him company indoors, Marcus’s actions gradually began to resemble something like playfulness. Since being in wolf form did seem to be helping with the condition of his overwrought senses, Marcus usually spent at least half the day (and presumably most of each night) in lupine form, and it was Liz who first decided to keep him company that way. The Omega had been surprised at first, standing a bit stiffly as Liz - tongue-lolling and bedecked in her thick, reddish pelt - had approached him. Ever since that one fluke, the Betas hadn’t managed to hear any of Marcus’s thoughts, but Liz was pretty good at comm
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Instinctual Chapter 18
It wasn’t long before everyone had to admit that even in wolf form, Marcus wasn’t safe - his condition continued to deteriorate. Everything came to a head when he went to bed early, claiming that his skin itched and felt tight. Still a bit hesitant and quiet around the pack that wasn’t his, but fitting in much more naturally now, Marcus had left the living room and transformed mid-step into his pale-furred shape. On four paws, he’d padded past the couch and to the room which was pretty much his now, with Declan very nearly dropping a hand over the arm of the couch to stroke his spine as he went past. It was a totally unconscious action, and Declan just jerked his arm back in time. Of course, Kobi and Liz had totally noticed, but merely smirked and raised significant eyebrows while their Alpha had blushed and a blissfully unaware Marcus had disappeared into the bedroom. Some goodnatured, entirely telepathic teasing had follo
Instinctual Chapter 19
When Declan woke up, he wasn’t surprised to find Marcus still dead-asleep. The previous night’s episode had obviously taken a lot out of him. Declan would have liked to say that hewassurprised by how much closer Marcus had moved towards him during the night, but really, all the Alpha felt was a selfish sort of happiness that he had an Omega curled up to him. Blinking his eyes open in the dim light, Declan stayed perfectly still, lying on his back, but glanced down and couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Marcus tucked up under his arm. The smaller young man was now using Declan’s right shoulder as a pillow, left arm curled up tight between their two bodies while his right one extended onto Declan’s chest in a way that seemed tentative even though Marcus was entirely unconscious. He must have been feeling better, too, because the robe was pushed back so that pale, sporadically scarred shoulders protruded past the rumpled silk, and
Instinctual Chapter 20
~^~Things were happening quickly while Marcus felt like he was trapped in molasses. From the moment his heightened senses had informed him that law enforcement officers were coming his way, everything in Marcus had all but frozen solid - it made him think of the article he’d read once on a species of frog that survived winter by slowing its metabolism down and nearly freezing. Right now, it was like Marcus’s every thought was slowly becoming immovable ice while the world flowed around him at a mighty pace, a chunk of winter stuck in summer. Declan and his Betas must have been talking telepathically - either that, or the thud of Marcus’s heartbeat was drowning out their words, seconds before Kobi transformed so fast that he had to fight his way out of his clothing. Sacrificing concentration for speed, Kobi’s lupine form kicked itself free of what he’d been wearing with a bit of help from Liz and was soon sprinting
Instinctual Chapter 21
Declan beat Kobi home, transforming and telepathically reaching ahead - finding first the link to Marcus, which was still definitely there, but dark and quite like the path to a bottom of a well. He was still unconscious. Liz’s was bright and alert, however, even as he asked, ‘How is he?’‘No change since you left. What happened with the police? Are they on their way?’ was the rapid-fire, tense reply.Paws making soft thuds against the earth as he moved, Declan tried to push back his worry so that Liz couldn’t feel the entire breadth of it. ‘I sent them packing, but they’ll be back.’Liz’s tension spiked. ‘Declan…’‘I’m almost back,’ he cut off further questions, not sure if he’d have the answers but wanting desperately to reassure his pack, ‘Kobi, too. We&rs
Instinctual Chapter 22
Explaining everything to Kobi and Liz was awkward, but by this point, Declan was actually becoming rather used to having strange and painful talks with Marcus about startling and bizarre things andthenbringing his Betas into the loop. At least neither Liz nor Kobi seemed frustrated yet with how they were always the last to know. The only thing Declan left out of the rendition as he explained Marcus’s inexplicably omnipresent empathic link was his last confession: “Idolike you.” Then again, he expected that Kobi and Liz had already figured that out. Upon the finishing of the short story, Liz looked sympathetically to Marcus, suggesting, “Maybe this is just because you haven’t been part of a pack in so long. It’s been years since you had to deal with a telepathic link, right?”Marcus had alternated between pacing and sitting on the end
Instinctual Chapter 23
Marcus got nightmares regularly, a fact that was hardly surprising. Even if he didn’t dream of that moment when he found his pack slaughtered, he had plenty of nightmare-fodder from bad run-ins with other Werewolves since. Sleeping in his lupine form seemed to help, as if the dreams were scared away by his primitive fangs and claws, but this time he distinctly remembered drifting off in human form, with a very different wolf guarding his sleep.It seemed that one moment Marcus was closing his eyes to a dove-grey, overcast sky with a black wolf on his chest, and the next moment Marcus was blinking up at a sky too blue to be real, and a familiar, human face staring at him.The world around him was different, the close, clinging underbrush and darkly lush grass replaced by a rolling hill of sunlit green and nothing else for miles, as if the robin’s-egg sky just swallowed the world at the edges. There was nothing but grass, the occasional cott
Instinctual Chapter 24
It didn’t take telepathy to discern Liz and Kobi’s clear concern as all four of them converged again, following Ada to her own personal office, the placard next to it denoting her full name (‘Miss Ada Summerfeld’) and her certification to sign all documents relating to Werewolf affairs. There wasn’t time to explain the full breadth and width of what had just happened behind closed doors (and between entirely too-open minds), so Declan just flashed a small but encouraging smile before they all sat down.Ada slipped quietly to the other side of her desk without meeting anyone’s eyes, her steps quick and economical. Marcus acted much the same but with an added level of unease, his movements anxious and almost feral, especially to Declan, Kobi, and Liz, who were used to his mannerisms – it was heartbreaking to see him reverting, even just a little bit, to the painfully shy thing he’d been at the start of their relationsh
Instinctual Chapter 25
The color was washed out of the world, and Marcus was standing in the doorway to the worst memory of his life.Their bodies lay strewn across the floor like wheat after a threshing, artistic and macabre all at once. All twelve of the Werewolves who had been his pack, his second family. While the house around them seemed leached of all vibrancy, the blood was such a bright and lurid color that it stood out like a field of scattered fiery lilies - the color so sharp that it stung Marcus’s eyes and burned itself into his retinas, so that even when he squeezed his eyes shut the image remained. It was like his eyelids had never closed. Choking on grief and sadness, he tried to stumble back, but when he hit the door his hands couldn’t find a door-knob to turn. The blood was starting to spread like a stain - a tide - and Marcus felt his anguish turn to panic. Twisting away from the sight within the house, he began fighting with the doo
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