In the silvery waterfall of moonlight, Jonathan Aztec, my second in command, holding rank as Beta of the Northridge pack, was something to behold. His powerful shoulders seemed to carry the waning gibbous, and the shadows that devoured the vast grounds of Battleridge manor granted him a wide berth.
He was a superior specimen. He was a male worthy of the ranking he'd been bestowed. But like all creatures, he wasn't born perfect, and his character flaw was a fault that bled out into the night like a severed artery: Concern.
It charged the air between us, a thick blanket that settled against the lungs like a boa-constrictor's loving embrace.
"What did you find?" I asked. The perverse silence that had entombed the dilapidated courtyard, screaming so loud it rang through my ears like a twisted lullaby, was shattered upon his approach. His boots smacked against the waterlogged ground, echoing in a way that spoke of his failures before he'd even opened his mouth. 
"Nothing,"
.......
"Until I can figure out what's going on, nobody finds out about the boy. Understand?"
"Understood."
"You're not going to ..." The pause that followed dragged out. "He's just a baby, Sterling."
"You're dismissed."

The Littlest Light

Heart falling into an abyss, the seconds seemed like hours.

And then he spoke, his voice as clear and firm as always, as though every syllable from his lips were a sharply cut diamond: precious but precise.

/"What does it matter?/" From beneath his sneer, from beneath the ferocious burn of his almost black eyes, something flickered across his expression, gone before I could give it a name, but lingering enough that it didn't escape my notice. /"The reasons never matter, Johno. The only relevance is in the act itself./"

When it came to a lot of things, Sterling Grey was not wrong, but when it came to things that mattered, things that only hearts knew, things that only a heart could bleed, then he was wrong. He was wrong every damn time.

/"It matters to me,/" I whispered. Yet, did it really matter at all?

Chapter49