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Chapter 9
The old hunting cabin was in pretty good shape, all things considered. The Fen pack had only moved here in the past year, but Liz had always liked exploring, and Kobi had always liked working with his hands – so the former had found the place and the latter had been working on it off and on to patch it up. There had been quite a few jokes about the dating pair making a ‘love-nest.’
As Declan stepped inside the door and finally brought himself and Marcus out of the rain, he decided that the cabin wasn’t quite up to the standards of a decent love-nest, but at least Kobi had sealed it against mice and weather. He remembered when Kobi had driven the truck out here, depositing the worn futon that was now one of the few pieces of furniture within the place. It smelled of Kobi and Liz and warm happiness, getting Declan to relax even as he tightened his arms around Marcus and wished he could impart some of that feeling to him. The little Omega ha
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Instinctual Chapter 10
It was a bit of a risk, but by now, Declan trusted that Marcus wasn’t going to attack him – if he needed any more proof that the Omega preferred peace immensely to violence, this would be it. Flat down on his stomach now, Declan ended up grabbing Marcus’s forepaws to drag him out from under the bed. A regular wolf’s paws would have felt different from a Werewolf’s. Instead of the stiff, hard bones of canine paws, Declan felt the more catlike flex of Marcus’s paws against his hands, even as his grip got some of the other’s retracted claws to extend. They were pearly and sharp, but with the exception of a bit of halfhearted whining and wriggling, Marcus didn’t fight the slow drag forward. With nary a nip or a nick, Declan had Marcus back out from under the bed.Not wanting to have to explain how he’d known what Marcus was thinking (especially since Declan didn’t understand that fluke of telepathy hi
Instinctual Chapter 11
Declan liked to think that he was a reasonable fellow and not prone to acts of violence or vengeance, and was therefore a bit disturbed to find himself considering those options as he stared at Rob Karly and his aunt Clarissa.Finally, Rob at least couldn’t take the stalemate any longer, and shifted his weight with a growl, “Well – say something.”“How could you do this?” Declan’s mouth and vocal cords were working, but his voice came as if from outside himself, as if it had to beat itself past a ringing in his ears, “How could both of you do that to another Wolf? Another person?”It was Clarissa who replied, her voice level and gentle by contrast, as if she were calming a spooked colt instead of defending herself against attempted-murder charges before her Alpha, “What’s best for the one isn’t always what’s best for the pack, Declan dear, and
Instinctual Chapter 12
Marcus felt comfortable and warm in a way that went beyond skin-deep, and for a moment he burrowed deeper into blankets and pillows, not realizing that they didn’t smell like him. That startled him a little bit, but only enough to half-open his eyes, because the scent literally wrapped all around him seemed to have taken all of his fear, wariness, and panic and spirited it all somewhere far away. Lying there and still breathing slowly, each blink slow and torpid, Marcus belatedly recognized the most prevalent scent as belonging to Declan – although he was smelling Liz, too, and Kobi more faintly. In fact, his feet were unexpectedly warm, and when he unconsciously stretched a leg out to seek that heat, he felt something solid. That finally made Marcus’s head jerk up, looking towards the foot of the bed and finding himself looking at a russet-furred she-wolf that could only be Liz. Her ears were turned towards the door, however, and Marcus cam
Instinctual Chapter 13
Kobi transformed back first, slow and purposeful like everything else about him. He straightened out his shirt a bit, pretending to be focused on that as he said to the room at large, “He’ll probably stick with her. Rob liked to act independent, but he’s always been a follower.” He said it in a tone that made it clear that he wasn’t just referring to Rob’s identity as a Beta, but as a personality flaw – probably one of many.An uncomfortable silence followed in which Kobi seemed to ignore the room at large in favor of staring at his girlfriend’s lupine form, although after a time Kobi turned to Marcus with an unexpectedly embarrassed face. “Sorry, Marcus, I was talking to Liz. She was just saying that that’s for the best – if Rob sticks with Clarissa, then hopefully he’ll be allowed into the Tomlin pack, too.”Surprise hit Marcus hard, and he blinked before saying the only respons
Instinctual 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 torun. 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
Instinctual Chapter 15
~^~“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
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