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122 – Instincts

Author: Polyana Leão
last update Last Updated: 2025-09-03 06:05:13

I was afraid to change.

The fear was not of pain, nor the loss of control itself. It was what would come later, when I could no longer deny to Naomi or the city that the monster existed.

That night, the cafeteria still smelled of cleanliness and cold coffee. The stacked chairs, the deserted street outside. Naomi gathered clothes, insisting on acting as if it were just another end of the day. But I couldn’t. My skin burned as if the wolf brushed under it, asking for passage.

"You’re shaking," Naomi said, glancing.

"I know it."

"Is it because of them?"

I shook my head, clenching my fists. "No. It’s because of me. I haven’t moved in days. The more secure I am, the harder it gets. The body snakes. The wolf snakes."

She dropped the cloth, walking to me. "Then change."

"It’s not that simple," I said. "What if I move in here? What if someone sees? Naomi, they already believe I’m a danger. If I turn in the middle of the city, it will be the confirmation you were waiting for."

She held my arm
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  • The Price of a Second Chance   227 – Naomi

    I felt before I heard. The air changed.The coffee was still hot in the cup when the car stopped outside. No door clapping, only slow steps on the wood of the balcony. I took a deep breath. My heart started beating faster, but I knew I couldn’t run. I couldn’t show fear. Lancelot slept in the room, breathing heavily, his body still recovering. Three knocks. Non-violent, but firm enough to make the skin shudder. I opened the door before he did."Casper." He was there."Will you invite me in?" he asked.He could have said no. He could have closed the door and locked it, feigning force. But with Casper, denial was just a different way of giving in. I took a step back. He came in. His smell dominated the air. He looked around with an almost cruel slowness.I went to the table, trying to look busy. The coffee was still steaming. He watched my every move. "Do you want some?""No. I’ve already taken it."The subtext was clear. He already knew where I had been and what I had done. "Are you a

  • The Price of a Second Chance   226 – Casper

    I always knew. From the beginning. They think they fool someone, but the problem of dealing with liars is that they believe their own stories. I don’t. I see what they’re trying to hide. Naomi’s silence, the way her phone was “unplugged” on the right night, and the blood disappearing in the forest perimeter. No one survives that ambush. No one, except an average wolf with enough stubbornness to challenge his own biology. Lancelot.I saw him almost die. I let him almost die. And yet he breathes. Naomi thinks she can hide him from me. This is what irritates me most: not the betrayal itself, but the presumption. She has always had this gift to think that love makes her invincible. But love is the most predictable of instincts.I heard from my men even before the body cooled on the forest floor. One of them appeared with a white face and a trembling voice. Said the wolf is gone. That there was blood, but no body. I could have killed him right there, just to maintain the hierarchy, but I f

  • The Price of a Second Chance   225 – Naomi

    Lancelot woke up before me. I heard the sound of the tap, the noise of the coffee being passed, the kind of noise that a short time ago would have meant a normal morning. When I left the room, he was already dressed, dark shirt, folded sleeves, still wet hair. It looked like a man trying to remember how to live."Are you going out?" I asked, leaning on the door."I want to see the coffee." It sounded simple, but the look said something else. It was as if he needed to prove something, for me and himself. I felt my stomach tighten, but did not try to stop."I’ll go with you."He hesitated for a second, as if he wanted to argue, then gave in. "All right. Maybe it’s better."We went out together, the sun already high, the cold wind cutting through the air. On the way, he kept his hands in his pockets, his shoulders tense. The city looked the same, but nothing else was familiar to me. People walked fast, avoiding eye contact. Maybe it was just an impression. Or maybe not."You should have

  • The Price of a Second Chance   224 – Lancelot

    The sun began to scratch the floor with orange, and Naomi slept with her face turned towards me, hair fallen by the pillow, a lock caught between her lips. There was a tranquility in it that I had not seen before. A simple, human beauty.Sat down slowly, careful not to wake her. The body still hurt, but the pain had shifted to a different location. It was no longer a reminder of the wolf. I got up, and each muscle responded slowly. The morning air was cold but good. I went to the kitchen, following the smell of coffee that was still left from the night before. My hands trembled a little when I held the bottle.The first cup fell almost in half, and I laughed alone. "You always sucked at coffee makers." Her voice came out sleepy and drawn and made my heart race. I turned around. Naomi was standing at the door, the blanket falling down her shoulders, her hair messed up in a way that looked like a work of art."And you always wake up when I try to do something right," I replied.She smi

  • The Price of a Second Chance   223 – Lancelot

    I wanted so much to kiss her and feel her skin. The phrase was caught between breath and silence. She still looked at me, hand on my face, touch light enough to remind me that I was alive. Her breath was too close, her heart beating fast enough to make me feel the rhythm in the air. I could pretend it was the sound of mine.But I couldn’t pretend. There was something inside of me that still pulsed differently—the beast, the shadow, whatever it was under my skin. Even so, when she leaned a little more, everything else ceased to matter. I felt her warmth before feeling the touch.The kiss came slowly. Hesitant. A touch of lips, the kind that asks for permission and at the same time grants it. For a second, the world dissolved. No forest, no chase, no fever. Just her. Her hand went up to my neck, and I held her by the waist, carefully, as if I feared that the simple contact could be too much. Her body reacted, and mine too, each recognizing the other with a precision that no word would h

  • The Price of a Second Chance   222 – Lancelot

    Woke up to the sound of cups. Small, domestic, impossible to confuse with anything from the forest. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. Then I realized that the smell of coffee was real and that the body, although still heavy, already obeyed better. The fever had passed. What remained was the pain.I opened my eyes slowly. The room was almost the same. The sun came in through the cracks of the curtain. Naomi was on her back, moving something on the table. The hair fell loose, messy."You woke up." She turned with a small, tired but true smile. She approached, bringing a cup. "Want to try a drink?"I watched the steam go up. "Is it coffee?""It is."She sat down next to me and handed me the cup. Her warmth in my hands made me realize how much they were still shaking. I tried to hold on, but some liquid spilled. She didn’t say anything. She just wiped with a cloth without taking her eyes off me."It’s bitter," I said, after a sip.We were silent for a while. The world seemed too sma

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