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

In return, Lou mimicked, splashed and giggled. By the time he was wrapped up in a towel and escorted to his room, he was a complete mommy's boy, slobbering kisses all over his face, his arms wrapped around his mama's shoulders, and he even sung his twinkle twinkle song to him, which sounded nothing like the original as Lumen kept forgetting the lyrics and adding his own.

The room had shrunk drastically once Ember's bed, identical to Lumen's had been added. They were headboard to headboard, and the little shits kept climbing over into one another's bed, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing. Since sharing, Lumen hadn't ended up in our bed.

It still sounded beyond fucked up to refer to it as that, but then again, it was a struggle to come up with any other way to say it.

Chapter98