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Chapter 14
Declan had followed Clarissa and Rob to the edge of his territory, as he’d promised he would… but then he’d just started to run. He needed to burn energy like he needed to burn away memories. Everyone said that being an Alpha was hard, but they never explained just how much it would hurt to go through turmoil like this.
Liz would set up the fine details about the Tomlin pack later, knowing that even if Clarissa and Rob had left just now with only the clothes on their back (‘More than they gave Marcus, by the end,’ something vicious in Declan’s head snarled), the Omega would be able to find an internet café and check her email. Rob was also almost never without his cell-phone, so it had probably transformed with him, so some brief, formal text-messages could suffice, too. There was a very large part of Declan, right now, that wanted to just let Clarissa suffer as a lone, pack-less Omega, but another
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~^~“Declan?” Liz’s knuckles tapped on the door again, and Marcus and the Alpha being called for just continued to stare at each other in pure, trapped horror until Marcus – seemingly without thinking – let go of Declan’s ankle, which proved to be rather pivotal to his balance. No longer anchored by the Omega’s curled fingers, the Alpha overbalanced backwards and fell right off the bed with an ungainly yelp and a hard thud. Marcus immediately scrambled to the edge on hands and knees, but before his mouth could form an embarrassed apology, Declan recovered enough to wave him into silence. Looking at the Omega firmly, Declan tapped a finger to his ear and then pointed at the door, before moving said finger in front of his lips to remind Marcus that silence was in his best interest right now if he wanted to keep their shared bed arrangement a secret.The way Marcus’s pale skin immediately flushe
Instinctual Chapter 16
Wanting to test and see whether his presence was more tolerable to Marcus’s nose just as it’d been more soothing to his ears than the rest of the pack, Declan left Liz and Kobi to their own devices and slipped quietly into the bathroom. Marcus heard the door easing open and flinched where he was huddled over the toilet, but he aborted the movement to cover his nose when he saw that it was Declan. “Alpha,” he greeted, a bit more formal than he’d been all day, which was yet another sign that he really wasn’t feeling well - or that he was feeling more ostracized than ever. Sitting on the floor with his arms draped over cold porcelain, Marcus certainly looked pathetic and lonely, reminding Declan that this was what having no pack meant to an Omega. Marcus took a cautious but obvious sniff through his nose, then sighed and dropped his head in relief. “Okay?” Declan asked, ready to leave again if necessa
Instinctual 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
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
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