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홈 / Werewolf / Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate / Stillness before storm

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Stillness before storm

작가: Hannah Boniface
last update 최신 업데이트: 2025-10-23 00:21:59

A month passed.

The world pretended to heal.

The news spoke of reconstruction, of “technological malfunctions” and “power anomalies” now under control. The Council’s name was whispered like a superstition—something half-remembered, half-denied. And through it all, Aiden and Dante lived quietly by a lake that didn’t care about the world’s lies.

The cabin was small, rough-edged, half-forgotten by time. The porch creaked when the wind shifted. The lake glimmered like a mirror on clear mornings and roared like a wounded beast when storms came. Dante said he liked it because it was real—unforgiving, unpredictable, honest.

Aiden liked it because it was far away.

Far from the towers. Far from Julian’s voice. Far from the version of himself he didn’t fully understand.

Every morning, Dante was up before dawn, chopping wood or fixing something that didn’t need fixing. He moved like he was made of sunlight and muscle, sweat shining across his shoulders. Aiden pretended to read, but his eyes were
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  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Pressure Points

    By morning, the city had opinions.Not unified ones. Not loud ones. But formed ones.Aiden woke to the low vibration of his device on the nightstand, the sound barely audible yet persistent. He didn’t reach for it immediately. He lay still, listening to the rhythm of Dante’s breathing beside him, the steady presence anchoring him in the quiet before impact.The bond stirred—alert, restrained.“Don’t look yet,” Dante murmured without opening his eyes.Aiden huffed a breath that might have been a laugh. “You felt it too?”“Yes. The weight changed.”That was the only way to describe it. The pressure hadn’t lifted after yesterday—it had redistributed. Settled into corners. Found new fault lines.Aiden finally picked up the device.Messages flooded the screen. Not hundreds—thousands. Not demands. Not praise. Observations. Questions. Confirmations.I was there too.That happened to my brother.They told us it was protocol.He locked the screen again before it could pull him under.“This isn

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   The Shape of Exposure

    The city woke already braced.Aiden felt it the moment he stepped outside—an undercurrent of anticipation that hummed beneath routine. People still went to work. Still moved through streets and stations and corridors of glass and steel. But they did it differently now. With awareness.Exposure had a shape.It was subtle, but it was everywhere.Aiden and Dante moved through the morning without urgency. Today wasn’t about speed. It was about placement. Julian would be watching everything now—not just Aiden, but the response around him.Dante glanced sideways as they crossed a wide avenue. “He’s going to try to control the frame.”“Yes,” Aiden replied. “Which means he’ll overcorrect.”The bond pulsed—alert, grounded, aligned.They reached the perimeter of the forum site hours before the scheduled start. Already, people were gathering—not crowds, not protestors, just individuals arriving early, lingering, observing. Some recognized Aiden immediately. Others didn’t.That was ideal.Visibil

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   When Control Slips

    The city learned faster than Julian expected.Not loudly. Not recklessly. But with a quiet, stubborn intelligence that unsettled systems built on compliance. Aiden felt it in the subtle changes—the way people slowed without stopping, the way officials hesitated before enforcing new rules, the way silence was no longer empty but observant.This wasn’t a rebellion.It was an adaptation.Aiden stood at the edge of a public concourse, watching the flow of people shift around him. No one mirrored him exactly. That wasn’t the point. What mattered was that they noticed the choice to move differently—and carried it with them.Dante leaned against the railing beside him. “He’s losing grip at the margins.”“Yes,” Aiden said. “And margins are where systems fracture first.”The bond pulsed—tight, alert, threaded with anticipation.Julian’s response came swiftly—but not where Aiden expected.By midday, the city announced a new initiative: a voluntary engagement forum, framed as a means of transpar

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Pressure Points

    The city didn’t return to normal.It pretended to.Aiden felt the difference immediately the next morning. Movement resumed, schedules held, transit ran on time—but the ease was gone. People moved with intention now, not habit. Pauses lingered where none had before. Every space felt aware of itself.Julian’s response had been swift and precise.Containment without acknowledgment.Dante watched the street from the window as Aiden sat at the small table, fingers steepled, eyes unfocused.“He’s isolating yesterday,” Dante said. “Reframing it as an anomaly.”“Yes,” Aiden replied. “But anomalies leave residue.”The bond pulsed—quiet agreement.They didn’t leave immediately. Visibility mattered, but so did timing. Julian would expect repetition. Expect Aiden to stand again.So Aiden didn’t.Instead, he waited.By midday, the pressure began to surface elsewhere. Notices appeared—revised pedestrian flow rules, new “safety guidelines” that encouraged movement, discouraged congregation. Nothing

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   The Cost of Standing

    The city pushed back.Not violently. Not yet.It resisted in subtler ways—through delays, quiet denials, procedural friction that wore people down without ever revealing a single villain. Aiden felt it the moment he stepped outside the shelter the next morning. The air itself seemed heavier, as though the city had decided to test how long conviction could last under pressure.Dante noticed too.“They’ve tightened the margins,” he said as they walked. “Everything takes longer. Costs more.”“Yes,” Aiden replied. “That’s deliberate.”Julian didn’t need fear to restore control. Fatigue would do.They moved through a neighborhood that had once been predictable—shops opening on schedule, transit humming smoothly. Now, doors open late. Lines stalled without explanation. People stood waiting, irritation simmering beneath forced patience.Aiden watched carefully.This was how systems punished without appearing to punish.A man ahead of them argued quietly with a transit official. No raised voi

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   The Weight of Choice

    The city didn’t explode into chaos the way people always expected after the truth surfaced.It adjusted.Aiden noticed it first in the smallest places—the way shopkeepers paused before answering questions they used to brush aside, the way transit lines shifted subtly without official announcements, the way people began to look at one another just a fraction longer than before. Awareness didn’t roar. It seeped.And seepage was harder to contain.Aiden and Dante moved through a crowded district that afternoon, blending easily into the flow. No one pointed. No one stared. But Aiden could feel the undercurrent—conversations stopping when they passed, glances exchanged when names were mentioned. The rumor had matured. It was no longer speculation.It was a choice.“They’re thinking,” Dante said quietly as they crossed an intersection. “That’s more dangerous than fear.”“Yes,” Aiden agreed. “Fear can be redirected. Thought can’t.”The bond pulsed—steady, grounded, threaded with unease.They

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