Todos los capítulos de When the Alpha Howls: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 13

Blocking someone is supposed to feel clean. A boundary. A line in ink. A door shut with a firm click.But the next morning, I woke with the taste of it in my mouth anyway. Metallic and sour, like I’d swallowed a coin and it had lodged in my throat.The house was quiet in that particular way that only happens after crying hard: the air feels rinsed, and you feel wrung out. My eyes were puffy. My head ached. I moved through my kitchen like I was borrowing someone else’s body.Kettle. Tea. Sugar. Too much sugar. My hands remembered the routine even when my heart didn’t want to.Out in the garage, the thrush blinked up at me, alive and unimpressed by human drama. Her little chest rose and fell with steady determination. When I offered food, she pecked like she meant it this time, sharp and purposeful.“Look at you,” I whispered. “Healing like a little champion.”She flicked her beak as if to say, Obviously. I checked her wing wrap an

Colton held the second snare up in the porch light to show proof.The wire glinted pale, moonlight’s cruel twin, looped and ready to cinch around anything warm blooded and unlucky. My stomach rolled as if I could already feel it tightening.I opened the door only after I’d checked the lock twice, because my body was stubborn that way. Colton stepped inside without a word, boots leaving dark prints on my porch boards.His gaze moved past me to the garage like he could see through walls.“The fox?” he asked.“Sleeping,” I said, throat tight. “I sedated him lightly.”Colton nodded once, approval flickering in the set of his jaw. Then he looked down at the snare in his hand, and something hardened in him, quiet rage packed tight.“How many?” I asked.His eyes lifted to mine. “Three on your side of the treeline. One closer to the road.”My breath caught. “That’s.”“An over kill, I know,” he finished, voice low.I turned and led him into the garage, because the fox was there and the thrush