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

The sun was just whispering goodbye to the world, leaving behind a fading glow as darkness rushed to bid it fare-thee-well, when the site came into view.

Blackened and charred, the hardened ground still smoked, ghostly coils floating up into the chilly autumn air. The surrounding trees, mostly bare, had been singed, branches withered, and the air clung to the scent of death.

Good instincts were not needed to know some dark shit had gone down, only a set of working eyes and a shred of common sense. Fox corpses lined the floor in a row of three, skinned, and, if the scorched pot that sat skewwhiff on top of the makeshift, stone campfire was anything to go by, they had been drained of blood, too.

It would have been nice if that was where the series of fucked-upness ended, but that would have been all too easy.

Chapter100