Not the coppery scent of it or the glide of it on my fingers.
I didn’t crave the screams or grunts of someone succumbing to my aura.
Those feral instincts were nothing but a faint hum beneath the surface, something that wouldn’t rise in a peaceful place like this. How could I want to murder someone when the only people around were my packmates and omega? They were all safe, and my soul… it was soothed.
Bettersoothed when I was able to snag a few hours of Crescent cuddles.
Sin had been so fucking possessive the last few days, and he didn’t let me join unless I snatched her when he wasn’t paying attention. The only reason I’d get time with her was because she’d soothe Sin and insist she wanted me to stay.
He’d chill, right?
This intensity had to be temporary.
Either that, or we’d have to use the alpha hook on him after all.
I hadn’t given much thought to the sigma stuff the rest of the pack had been looking into. Omega, sigma, didn’t matter. Sin was just Sin to me, but even I had to admit in the two weeks since we’d arrived at the cabin, he’d been acting more and more, uh… alpha?
That wasn’t quite right.
Duh, because he was a sigma.
But none of us knew what to expect from a sigma, and all I wanted was some fucking cuddles.
Wiping sweat from my brow, I stared up at the sky. Cloudless today, with a little nip in the air. My inhales didn’t bring the musty, damp air of underground, and, but for my panting, the silence… was truly silent. No distant screams. Only birds.
Realbirds.
We should get a bird feeder.
Sometimes things out here triggered vague hints of memory, and that was one. That barn, the one I’d drawn for Crescent with the mountain and the sunset, was situated by a house, I thought. Same kind of wood our cabin was built from, which was why I remembered it.
And the house had a bird feeder.
That’s about where my memories ended, but I’d drawn it all out. House, some bits smudged in graphite because I couldn’t parse out details, and that bird feeder, with—oddly enough—a barn owl perched on the edge. Pretty sure the owl should be in—you know—thebarn, but my brain insisted on drawing it on that feeder every time I sketched.
I’d finished another sketch of that house from my memories last night—I’d give it to her, like I’d given her all the others. I loved how she grinned over the constant little gifted drawings,and it felt right to show her my little snippets of memory from before.
Today, I had an important set of three sketches for her, too. I’d been agonizing over them since we got here. Had to make sure they were perfect before I showed them to her.
I’d planned to give her my originals, which I’d drawn in Anarchy, but they’d been kind of… well, bloodstained. Very stained.
So I’d copied them onto fresh paper, and it took a while to get them right again.
I’d finally felt ready this morning, but of course, when I tried to approach her she’d been wrapped in a Sin burrito and he’d barked a command for me to turn around and fuck off.
The command’s talons weren’t gripping me anymore, so it was time for another try.
I stepped inside to the sound of Crescent’s cheery tone filtering quietly out from the room she’d claimed as her nest. “Can I have hash browns?”
“Coming right up,” came Sin’s response.
I grinned. Perfect timing.
I crept across the cabin and slipped into the bathroom right next to the nest. Steam filled the room and Phantom was naked, scrubbing, and covered in soap, but when he tried to question me, I pressed my finger to my lips.
He got it.
We werealltrying desperately to get our allotted Crescent time.