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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
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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
Instinctual Chapter 26
As they stepped out into the midday sun, Declan smiled wanly at the sight of Marcus scratching at his inner arm. Declan’s own right forearm was still a tad tender, but he could understand why the court had demanded that the chips be inserted subcutaneously. For any human person of interest, a tracking anklet would serve just fine, but when it came to a person who could also transform into another animal entirely, the idea of fixed anklets was ultimately tossed. The subcutaneous chips would at least stay with their wearers through every change in shape, and while it was less effective for actively tracking someone (by dint of the fact that the chips were obviously smaller), the court had decided that this was safety enough. Having the word of three Alphas, saying that they’d watch Marcus, helped.Marcus, of course, disliked the whole idea on principle, and Declan would have felt terrible for him if he didn’t find the Omega’s disg
Instinctual Chapter 27
Before today, Declan would have been able to count on one hand the number of times he’d heard his father swear, but now he’d have to count on two hands, because the news about Aunt Clarissa hadn’t gone over well.“My sister tried tokillyour Omega?” The cursing had petered off, but Leander’s head was still in his hands as he tried to process this.Unsure what to address first as he sat next to his father on the back porch, Declan decided to awkwardly remind, “Well, technicallyshewas my Omega at the time…”The shake of Leander Fen’s head cut Declan off, tacitly making it clear that that made no difference - attempted homicide was still attempted homicide. “Damn,” the older Alpha muttered into his hands, adding another swear to the list and making Declan jump involuntarily. He’d known that this conversation was coming from the m
Instinctual Chapter 28
“So,” Melba said, as she rolled out the dough for her pie-crust. She was aware of Leander washing up in the sink behind her, covered to the elbows in flour from helping her make said dough. “Your sister has made some poor life-choices.”Leander puffed out a sigh that sounded like he was dragging it all the way up from his toes, a long and gusty breath. “That’s one way of putting it. She’s honestly lucky that my son didn’t turn her in on an attempted murder charge.”“Or try to kill her.” Out of everyone in the pack, Old Melba was the most qualified to talk about killing and death. She’s seen the most of it. “I’ve seen Alphas makes themselves judge, jury, and executioner before.” Melba listened as Leander made an unhappy sound before she added more gently, “Your son is a better man than those others, however. His capacity f
Instinctual Chapter 29
If Declan had been a gambling man, he’d have betted that any intimate interactions between Marcus and himself would have to be initiated by the latter. Marcus had been hurt too many times and much too badly for Declan to be surprised by his distrustfulness and chronic hesitancy. Just a week ago, Marcus had been afraid of just about everything related to his own kind, to say nothing of how afraid he’d been of Alphas in particular. It was still all too easy to remember the way that Marcus had watched him, fear a sickly scent on his skin and acid-sharp adrenalin dilating his pupils. Now, as Marcus’s mouth landed on Declan’s without warning, it was something else entirely making his pupils dilate. Sometimes, Declan though that Marcus worried too much about the nonconsensual empathic link they shared, because while Omegas had a natural understanding of emotion, most of it was Greek to Declan. Now was no different
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