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

Melting away like suds down a drain, another scene, a harsh one that had struck so deep that the inside of my mouth bore a metallic taste from the way my teeth had done a number on my tongue, came to pass.

And what do you know? Another of the fuckers started up.

Except it didn't take long to realise that this one was different than the four others that had played out. For starters, my father—much to my relief—was nowhere in sight.

With the same inky hair and the same dark, dark eyes, topped off with a glare that was a dead-match, it wasn't until I saw myself from an objective point of view that I realised just how much I had grown to resemble my father. Yet, at the same time, the man in the scene in front of me . . . for as much as he looked alike, he looked nothing like him, and it had everything to do with the bright smile that worked his lips.

Chapter112