All Chapters of INSTINCTLESS: A Scentless Bloodline : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

My life had a soundtrack: a low, constant static. It hummed in the back of my teeth on the subway, spiked into a shriek at crowded bars, and settled into a menacing drone in every office I’d ever worked. Doctors called it anxiety. Therapists suggested mindfulness. I called it the proof that I was wired wrong, a radio forever tuned between stations in a world that broadcasted in perfect, clear signal. Tonight, it was a flatline. The silent kind, right before the crash. I was closing up the florist shop my third failed attempt at a “peaceful” job and the usual urban symphony was gone. No distant sirens, no psychic bleed-over from arguing couples in apartments above, not even the usual pull of awareness from passersby. Just the profound, ringing silence of an empty auditorium. It was more unsettling than the noise. I fumbled with the heavy deadbolt, arms full of lilies that were destined for the compost. Their funeral-sweet scent usually bothered me. Tonight, it was just a scent.

The silence was a hole in the world, and it was sitting in his penthouse.Rhydian stood before the wall of glass, his city glittering below. He held a glass of whiskey but didn't drink it. He was trying to feel something.He had replayed the moment in the lab a dozen times. The clarity of her grey eyes through the glass. The way his mind, usually buzzing with the pack's emotions, went quiet when he looked at her. He waited for the Pull. The deep, undeniable snap of the mate bond. The thing that guided every wolf to their other half.He felt nothing.Not a spark. Not a hum. Just… empty space. It was like looking at a star and feeling no gravity.This was worse than rejection. Rejection was pain. This was nothing. And it broke a law older than the city beneath him."Kellan," he said, his voice too loud in the quiet room.His Beta appeared in the doorway. He was out of his suit, dressed in dark clothes. He looked like a soldier, which he was. "The reports from Level 42 are bad. Focus is

My new room was a beautiful prison. Silk sheets, a view of the forest, and a door that locked from the outside. Marcus had taken my phone. My only company was the crushing silence in my head and the clock I couldn't see, ticking down the days of my life.I didn't see Rhydian. I saw servants who wouldn't meet my eyes. I felt the weight of the entire mansion pressing down on me, a living thing that hated my presence.On the second morning, the door opened without a knock. It was Dr. Thorne, with two serious-looking assistants carrying metal cases."Mr. Blackthorne has ordered a full physiological work-up," he said, his bird-like face sharp with a hunger that wasn't medical. It was the look of a miner who'd found a strange, possibly radioactive rock. "We have a mobile lab prepared."I was taken to a converted drawing room on the east wing. Elegant furniture had been pushed against the walls. In the center stood cold, gleaming medical equipment and a clinical examination table. It didn't

The silence after Kieran left was worse than his shouting. It was the silence of a battlefield after the declaration of war, before the first shot is fired. Heavy. Metallic. Full of promise. Rhydian didn't look at me. He looked at the space where Kieran had stood, his expression carved from stone. "Kellan. Double the perimeter guards. Activate the seismic sensors. If a rabbit twitches in the eastern wood, I want to know." "Yes, Alpha." Kellan's voice was tight. He didn't agree with the war. But he would fight it. "Thorne." Rhydian's gaze sliced to the scientist, who flinched. "You have forty-six hours. Not forty-eight. Your mobile lab is now a bunker. You will find a defensive application for her null-field, or you will design a containment protocol so perfect the Coalition will see it as a solution, not a threat. Fail, and you will be the first sacrifice I make to buy time." Thorne paled, nodded, and scurried from the hall like a startled rat. That left Selene, me, and him in t

The training in the garden lasted an hour. My head ached. Pushing the silence out was like lifting a heavy weight with my mind. But I did it. Rhydian’s bond held strong. He said I was getting better at touching just the edges, not tearing through.When we finished, he was breathing hard. "Good," he said. It was the first real praise I’d heard from him. It felt better than it should have.We went back inside. The mansion was dark and quiet. Too quiet. Kellan met us in the main hall. His face was serious."We have a problem," he said. "The sentry post at the east gate. They’ve gone silent."Rhydian’s whole body went still. "How long?""Twenty minutes. No response to calls.""Sound the quiet alarm. Wake everyone. Get them to the safe rooms," Rhydian ordered, his voice low and urgent. He looked at me. "You go with Kellan. Now.""What’s happening?" I asked, fear cold in my stomach."The Coalition isn’t waiting forty-eight hours," Kellan said, already moving. "They’re here."We heard it the