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
"I need to make contact with Silas. But it shouldn't come from you. I need answers to a few things." She could have stayed silent and not told him anything. After all, that's what he did.But, this was her. And she didn't want his actions to change her. He was surprised she shared anything with him. His eyebrows nearly reached his hairline before he masked it."Why? Has this happened before?"He conveniently let go of the 'it shouldn't come from you' part. If it had, who was looking out for her then? Even younger, even more, innocent Vanessa. Possibly Silas. He didn't like that. “No. Silas was there for me when my parents weren’t. I need to make sure I don’t hurt someone like that again.” She looks disappointed in herself. He outlined her profile then, her hands fiddling with one of his large t-shirts and boxers. His clothes make her look smaller, and he was happy she would smell like him. The happiness is short-lived. “Do you know what you did? When you thought you hurt your fath
‘Father’. If he didn’t care for theatrics, he’d be gritting his teeth. No way was he giving into Rourke Abel forcing things out of him he didn’t want to speak about.His father was making his way down the hill. His age tenuously weathered the large build. Few years ago, maybe when Noah and Mikhail were twenty, that force would’ve made them shrink. Despite his rebellion, Noah never got over how easily his father had dismissed him from his life. He knew pack first policy, had it ingrained in him. But his father always cared, just not enough.So this prosaic personality now looking at them with squinted eyes and slightly aged bloating near his face, didn’t make him break out in a sweat or make a typical reactionary out of him. Both Mihail and Riyas are out of there, traitors that they are. He knows they dont fear him. But they respect his privacy.“I heard you are wheedling Desmond.” Rourke Abel says in the way of greeting. His big lips and blunt nose, courtesy of aging, have left nothi