"You need to clean up. I am not running you baths anymore." She sauntered to the door. The sway of her hips exaggerated. He knew it was for him. "Do I have to say please for a coffee?" The smug smile confused her. And she always made his coffee. "Why are you smiling?" She was the one alluring him this time. Wasn't she? "On a scale of one to ten, kitten. How wet are you?" He smirked. His sense of smell was a seduction arsenal now."Besides," he made a show of stretching his arms, "I am content with my mark on you." She harrumphed and walked away, his laugh making her smile all the way to her own room. Moments later Gregory Flynn was sitting across from Noah Abel, expecting to lose a surmountable time locked in battle of wills. The one that started with staring into eyes to intimidate and then some uncomfortable information spread on the distance between them to show who knew what about the other person. Apparently, Noah didn't like to waste time. Gregory's only relief was Noah d
Noah got up, rounded his table to sit on the corner near Gregory Flynn."So he isn't the one behind driving clans to inhospitable forests?" When he was this close to figuring it out, things slipped away. But he could see Gregory was positively green in the face now. "I didn't think it was repetitive enough to become a sequence. Rudiger believes someone blamed his clan members for something they didn't do and he hasn't figured out who?" "Yes. I told him I could find out. And I will." Caustic certainty coated Noah's words. He continued,"But until I do. I need him to cast his doubt on Desmond." "Yes. That can be done. About the deals. Communion is investing a lot in studying DNA and mapping it to genes, inheritance. That sort of thing." Gregory paused to let them soak it in but it was a no shocker to either boy. Well then."They have announced it as a way to treat illnesses. Mental or otherwise." Rehabilitation and treatment was a well endowed farce. All the mercenaries were promis
Vanessa recoiled into herself at his stare. He was her parent, her support system, that had crashed and burned. They were close for two and half years when she was a toddler. If she hadn’t been privy to his kind, nurturing self, she wouldn’t long for it now. Instead of shutting him up, she asserted the same politeness. “I work here.” “That's the best you can do?”, his snide was ugly.“If you had taught me how to become a pathological liar, I could lie. But this is the truth. You forget, we have a debt to pay.”Gregory drew back as if she had slapped him. He didn’t want to think of the debt, he was working his way to even more powerful creatures, way up in the food chain by whose mercy, the debt would’ve been wiped off entirely. No debt to begin with. Vanessa thought the debt was monetary. It was his fault for keeping things from her. He himself was unaware of the nature or the extent of it but his instincts told him money stood no chance against the demands of repayment. ‘Noah us
“Vanessa has never mind linked with anyone except three people in her life. Me, Carmen, and Silas. She was just six, an innocent child when I decided we were better off as rogues. I don’t wish to rehash history you both know so well,’’ Noah was quiet, “and she saw some things on the run. I… it was difficult. When we came here, we weren’t part of this pack. For a long time, she refused to speak to anyone. By the time she was twelve, she had other problems, and from there on stayed isolated. She can cut off links with ease because she isn’t used to them. She never allows herself to be vulnerable with them.”Noah’s abhorrence alone would've strangled the man sitting there, accepting defeat like he couldn’t have changed things. All wolves knew linking left the chambers of the brain wide open, it was the ultimate form of trust put on a pedestal by the patience, understanding, and care it required to form into a full-fledged bond. Be it family or other pack members, which is why rogues did
"Lost? As in lost in the jungle?" The kid shrugged his soldiers, and started biting his nails again. A habit born of anxiety. "Stop that." Evan regretted saying anything when he saw the tears well up in his eyes. Shit. He didn't have experience with kids, none at all. And his reprimand came off more harshly than necessary."Okay Ian. I'll find her okay? I promise. She won't be lost. Between you and me, we are not going to fail her, are we?" Ian shook his head, bouncing the curls all over which a minute later were in between Evan's fingers. He thought of one person who'd know where she always was. 'Noah''Evan. What do you need?' He didn't mind Noah's curt tone. 'Do you know where Vanessa is?' 'She went for a run. Why?' An arctic chill overrode Evan's sensory inputs. Did Noah not like that he was asking about Vanessa or he was worried about her because something had happened?'Why do you ask Evan?' This time, it was a command. 'She is not okay. She is not in danger but she shoul
Her ambiguous report on Vanessa ruffled him the wrong way. He wanted her to do more, know more. Know better. But he can’t command them anything. Like rogues, healers were born, not made. Their healing qualities were a sum of genetics, experience and years of learning. This was one race wolves lagged in, they never felt the need to experiment, study clinical trials because their pack healers could find faults, diseases, benign or cancerous . They spent their strength on healing wolves by rejuvenating the cells. Being an Alpha made no guarantees of all that he knew. Healers, all across the world, never talked much about how they healed wolves. It was no guarded secret, they just didn’t expect others to understand. ‘How is she?’ Evan. Again.He had talked to him three times already. He was still with Ian who had fallen asleep in Vanessa’s room apparently because he was too stubborn to go to his room. Poor Evan was scared of a child. Noa h knew then, to not force the matter. ‘Fine. Sh
Noah noticed her eyes not moving from their hands so he kept stroking. Her knuckles were slightly scraped. “What happened Vanessa?” his wolf refused to give her any more space.“I hurt my father. You saw what happened.” She was being deliberately obtuse. He saw her chin angled in rebellion. She was his kitten. The same spitfire. It relieved him but spurred him on all the same. This is what they did. She ran, he chased, knowing he had the vehement impulse to conquer her, he forgot himself and the fictions of the day in order to have her. But that had to stop. He pinched the bridge of his nose so acutely, she knew she had to be getting on his nerves. Serves him right, she thought. Why should she tell him everything? Or anything. “You are going to tell me what’s wrong with you. Or so help me God Vanessa.” His fury wasn’t directed at her but she was very sensitive now for some reason.All her bravery and spine to face Noah Abel and his deceptive world lay husk like. She gulped, and h
How delusional was she? He wasn’t to be tamed with a few ‘pleases’. She was hurt. And he hurt her. That didn’t give her the right to draw a wedge between them. His wolf battered away at his head but Noah, the human half, knew how this worked. Still, he didn’t know why he couldn’t follow Mikhail’s advice and cut himself clean, no strings, and walk away. How could he?Noah had demanded, ordered, chastised, going lax only when her defenses were down. But now he coaxed her. Not with his tongue alone. He looked different. The poignant look he had perfected slipped away like an old visage. He was feeling something. Something he couldn’t speak about. She had never pitied him before, and she wasn’t going to now. But she can assume how lonely it had to be. She was lonely too.And her wolf was content, lapping up the steamrolled expertise of his wolf. Noah didn’t let her do much work. Dictating how they angled their heads to how long they can survive without air. Well, her. Because she was pa