Animal Instinct

by Noelle N

  Before I could even blink, he took a step closer to me. Tentatively, he eased towards me until I was trapped between the counter and him, his hands on either side of me as he braced his arms on the counter. It didn't feel stifling. Quite the opposite, in fact, like having him surround me was an aphrodisiac to all my senses, and I found my head tipping up so that I could meet his gaze squarely.

  The apprehension on his face was crystal clear, his expression unguarded, as he slowly brought a hand up. But his eyes were dark just as they were curious, and he hesitantly slid his fingers gently across my cheek until his thumb was brushing my flushed skin, his long fingers threading through the wayward strands of my hair. He exhaled, breath unsteady on my lips and I shut my eyes when he drew even closer. For a few seconds, I heard nothing but the unsteady beats of my heart.

  Then he kissed me.

  I was breathless from the moment his lips touched mine. It was a good kind of breathless, the kind that sent your head spinning and stomach tightening with a desire that was impossible to fight. His lips were feather light on mine for a moment or two and then, with a tentativeness that seemed to border on vague curiosity, he let out a quiet exhale and shifted his lips, testing, catching my bottom lip between his and nipping quickly.

  It sent an involuntary shiver through me and I instinctively slid my hands up so that my fingers were latched tightly around the fabric of his sweater, holding him firmly in the only place that he belonged – with me. He leaned in closer, a quiet groan resonating low from the back of his throat when he felt my hands slide up, until his chest was brushing against mine with the most delicious friction, and his lips slanted across mine in hesitant, experimental kisses.

  It was a struggle not to pull him towards me and deepen the kiss, but I somehow managed. This was a kiss at his pace and I was more than happy to let him take the reins with this one. Letting a soft whimper escape my lips, I yielded; my lips pliant beneath his as I returned his kisses, only to pull away when he did and meet him halfway when he leaned in again, kissing me over and over again until I was breathless.

  Finally, and all too soon for my liking, he pulled back and I reluctantly opened my eyes. He was gazing at me through heavy-lidded eyes, even as the green intermingled perfectly with the black in his irises, and he seemed perfectly satisfied.

  Then he ran his tongue across his bottom lip quickly, sending another rush of desire surging through me because it seemed like he was once again trying to recapture my taste on his lips. Then he let out a quiet breath, lips tilting up faintly at the corners in a perfectly sated smile. "Hi." His murmur was a response to the greeting I'd said earlier, and his deep voice was tinged with a faint huskiness this time.

  I felt a shiver gloss down my spine when I heard it and let out a soft laugh. "Hi."

  18

  GHOST

  I felt empty when Jed had to leave.

  A part of me wondered if werewolves felt the same or if, like Lorraine had once told me, they felt worse because their human and animal emotions were amalgamated and they felt doubly what we usually did. And if that was the case, I understood the expression on Jed's face perfectly – the way his eyes scanned my features like he was trying to ingrain my image in his memory, and his evident reluctance as he lingered by the doorway of the hotel room.

  "She'll be fine, Alpha." Katya brushed his worries off with a casual wave of her hand. She was one of the best fighters in the pack, according to Adrian; and she, Giles and Spike were here on Jed's orders to make sure that I was safe while he was away. "We won't let anything happen to her."

  Jed's eyes flickered to me for a moment before he eased back with a quick nod. Adrian was already waiting out in the hallway, and I watched as Jed slung his bag over one shoulder and headed off with him. Giles was about to shut the door when I stopped him, placing a hand on the wooden surface as I squeezed my way out.

  "Hey, wait up!"

  My feet were propelling me forward before I could even register it, but I knew it was no supernatural mating pull that was making me feel this way. It was a deeper pull than that – something along the lines of how I really wanted Jed to be with me. Always. To never leave. To be safe. You didn't need to be a lycan to feel that way about someone.

  Jed quickly turned at the sound of my voice and his eyes widened when I stepped closer to him. I smiled, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear and feeling rather self-conscious all of a sudden, especially when Jed glanced down, amusement flashing in his eyes when he realised that I wasn't wearing any footwear.

  "I – " I paused, then threw a glance back to the room. Katya, Giles and Spike were all staring out of the door at us, matching looks of curiosity on their faces. But the moment they saw us looking their way, they quickly retreated. My eyes drifted over to Adrian, who was leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face.

  "Don't mind me." His grin widened, tipping a head back as he stared at us, with his arms crossed over his chest. "Carry on." But he hastily straightened when Jed threw him an unamused look over his shoulder. "Alright, alright," he mumbled, turning to head towards the elevator, "I'm going."

  When Adrian was far away enough, I turned back to Jed, feeling anxiety gnaw at me like a weary hole in my gut. "You'll be safe, right?"

  His gaze softened and he nodded slowly, but I didn't miss the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes at all.

  "Good. Just – " I exhaled, taking a step closer and pushing myself up on the tips of my toes. He barely had the time to freeze or react, and I was brushing my lips against his cheek the next second, my lips cool against his warm skin. His citrus aftershave and faint masculine scent was intoxicating and I shut my eyes, trying to memorise him, all of him, for a moment before pulling back, staring up into his dark eyes. "Just come back to me, okay?"

  He tentatively drew his fingers up, and I smiled when he touched the spot where my lips had been mere moments ago because it seemed like he was trying to memorise me too. Then he let out a quiet breath. "I promise."

  I fell a step back. "I'll see you tonight, then." He still seemed rather reluctant to leave and I offered him a reassuring smile. "Go on. I'll be fine."

  Jed nodded and started to walk away, even as he glanced back at me over his shoulder a couple of times. I watched until he and Adrian had disappeared into the elevator before letting out a sigh.

  I missed him already.

  * * *

  "So tell me again how you and Alpha met?"

  Katya was sprawled across the floor, leaning on her elbows and gazing up at me with blatant curiosity. It had been a relatively uneventful day so far – but, as Spike had said, boring wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because it kept us out of trouble. He, Giles and Katya seemed more than contented to spend the day just lazing around. I'd noticed earlier that the three of them were adamant on staying away from the bed, and a part of me wondered if it was because of Jed that they kept their distance, in fear of mixing their scent with mine – since I was, after all, Jed's mate. So I'd sat on the carpeted floor with them, feeling the soft wool sift between my toes and the warm spring sunlight sift through the windows.

  I bit my lip to hide an amused smile at Katya's question. "Jed didn't tell you?"

  "Jed doesn't tell us anything." She let out an inelegant snort, flipping a page of the magazine she was reading. "So that's no surprise. And I know you've told Lorraine, but she and Spike – " Katya now threw a pointed glare at Spike, who simply shrugged good-naturedly. " – refused to tell us about it. All they kept gushing about was that it was the cutest love story ever," she added, a melodramatic edge seeping into her voice, before shaking her head, "and that we had to ask you."

  "It's not our story to tell," Spike argued, looking adamantly firm on the matter before quirking a wry grin at me.

  I laughed. "There's not much to tell, really," I said, leaning back against the bottom of the bed. "I was walking home one night and then I met Jed in his wolf form," I started slowly, deliberately leaving out the part of him killing Claudius,
because I didn't see a need to repeat it. "Thought he was going to attack me, so I whipped out a knife and stabbed him with it."

  Katya's eyes widened and Giles pushed himself forward, letting the TV remote slide off his lap and onto the floor. "You stabbed our Alpha?" he asked in disbelief, looking like he wanted to laugh but seeming to hesitate all the same.

  "Kinda." I laughed and he eased back, a wide grin stretching across his face now that he knew I was okay with it. "It's instinct – you see a wild animal charging right at you, first thing you do is defend yourself against it."

  Katya chuckled richly. "I guess you can say it was love at first stab."

  Love?

  The thought hadn't occurred to me until she voiced it out loud, but then I found myself momentarily freezing when I thought of the ramifications of her words. Did I love Jed? I hadn't questioned myself much before; just fell into this whole mating thing the way he did. It wasn't love at first stab, or sight. But it was slowly building up – the way I wanted to be with him, the way I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, the way I was open to him turning me when the time came for it…

  All signs pointed to yes.

  I relaxed and smiled. "Yeah," I said softly, "I guess it is."

  Katya opened her mouth to respond, but the sudden ring of the doorbell had us all stiffening. It was still midday, and Jed wasn't supposed to be back so soon. Spike was quick to sidle closer to me and Katya sat up. Giles held out a hand for us to remain where we were as he climbed to his feet, swiftly striding towards the door to check the peephole.

  "There's no one there," he said, after a long pause. Katya got up, her shoulders tense as Giles carefully unlocked the door, before stepping out. Moments later, he handed Katya a nondescript white envelope. "Give it to Luna," he instructed, still scanning the hallway intently, before taking a step out. "I'm going to see if I can track the person down."

  Katya closed the door behind him and stepped towards us. "It's addressed to you," she said, holding it out to me. The envelope was plain, with only the word 'Quinn' printed across in black font. But when I reached for it, she hesitated. "I should probably check to see if it's safe."

  I blinked. The three of them sure took their jobs very seriously, thanks to Jed. "Yeah, okay, sure."

  Without another word, Katya reached into her back pocket and drew out a knife. It was larger than the one I had, but made of pure steel. "Don't worry." She grinned when she noticed me staring at it. "I won't use it to stab my mate if I ever meet them."

  Spike let out a bark of laughter and I smiled, watching as she swiftly slid the sharp edge across the sealed part of the envelope. She peered inside for a moment, then handed it to me. "It's just a letter."

  I carefully removed it. Well aware that I needed my privacy, Spike tactfully turned back to face the TV, while Katya climbed to her feet again and opened the door to check it Giles had returned. Settling down on the bed, I tucked my knees under my chin and read the note carefully.

  Quinn,

  as promised;

  1)Prometheus will launch an attack on Titan soon.

  2)His full name is Mattheus Norvil.

  I knew at once who had penned this note. Even if Bianca hadn't signed off, I knew without a doubt that it was her. Just seeing the note gave me a huge sense of relief, because at least Bianca was safe. At least she was safe enough to find a way to contact me. A part of me wondered if she was still in the hotel, but I realised that if she'd left this on the doorstep, then she probably didn't want anyone to find her.

  But the contents of her note had left my heart beating in trepidation. I reached for my phone to send a quick text to Jed, copying the contents of her letter word for word, before nudging Spike, who was entirely absorbed in the current show on television.

  "Have you heard of him?" I asked, pointing to the name in Bianca's letter.

  Spike took it, confusion flickering across his features. "Not at all." He reread the letter a few times before glancing up at me. "Do you?"

  I bit my lip. "That was the man who captured me," I said quietly, swallowing hard when a sudden wave of memories flashed in my mind. Spike seemed equal parts angry and worried on my behalf, and I decided against telling him what had happened during my capture. There was only one person I was comfortable telling this to and one person who should know first –Jed. "What about Prometheus?" I asked, swiftly changing the subject. "Do you know anything about that pack?"

  "They're not exactly a pack," he hedged, a frown appearing on his forehead. "Prometheus has always been made up of bounty hunters. Most of these bounty hunters are rogues, they don't have an Alpha but they work well as a team of elite trackers."

  "To track down criminals?"

  "Pretty much. There's no common law enforcer among the packs, you see, so Prometheus has always taken it upon themselves to enforce the law. Most of the time, it works – let's say there's a criminal in the pack you want to get rid of, but the criminal's on the run. The Alpha of that pack puts a bounty on that criminal, Prometheus tracks the person down and sends him back to the pack to suffer the proper punishment."

  "There doesn't seem to be anything – flawed with their system," I observed at last, trying but failing to find where the danger in Prometheus lay.

  "It's not," Spike shrugged, but then his expression turned serious. "Until about a year or so ago, when Prometheus had a change of leadership. The packs haven't heard much, because Prometheus makes itself so rarely seen, and the leader has never been seen. But then there were stirs – we've heard that they were recruiting rogues, and forging alliances with packs while making enemies out of others. They conduct raids on smaller packs; Aitne and Euanthe were razed to the ground because of them."

  "Then why doesn't anyone stop them?"

  "Because it's not in the packs nature to interfere. Any pack has the right to expand and infiltrate into other pack's land, if they want to. Titan used to do that. Ganymede swallowed plenty of packs to become the giant it is today."

  "And now Prometheus is hunting Jed," I clarified, feeling my chest tighten in worry for him.

  "Now they're hunting Jed." Spike sighed. "We're guessing it has to do with Jed taking over as the new Alpha, but it's ridiculous. This is Titan's affair, if Titan doesn't have a problem with a change in leadership, then there's no reason that Prometheus should."

  "What about Prometheus?" Katya's voice broke our conversation and we glanced up. She was strolling over with Giles in tow, the latter of whom looked rather defeated.

  "We couldn't find that person," said Giles, sounding somewhat annoyed, settling down on the floor next to Spike. "I asked to review the cameras and all I saw was a hooded figure dropping the envelope off and leaving right after."

  I took a deep breath and made a quick decision. "Well – that's okay. Because I know who the person is."

  "What?" Giles stared at me with raised eyebrows, and the expressions on Spike's and Katya's face mirrored his. "Who?"

  "Bianca."

  The silence that reigned for the next three seconds was tense, and I didn't miss the way Katya and Giles exchanged glances. Spike seemed hesitant, but he didn't radiate the hostility that the other two had on their faces – not quite directed at me, but at the subject of our conversation.

  "Bianca?" Katya repeated, looking like she could hardly believe her ears. "Are you sure?"

  "Absolutely," I affirmed, gesturing for Spike to pass them the letter. The two of them studied the contents in silence, but the expressions on their faces remained doubtful, if not even a little suspicious.

  "This is rich," Giles let out a sharp laugh at last, but it sounded almost sardonic. "She's telling us that Prometheus is going to launch an attack on Titan, when she's been the one leading the missions all this time? When she's been the one hunting down our Alpha?"

  "She doesn't do that anymore – " I started, but this time, it was Katya who cut me off.

  "Luna, you can't be serious. There is no way werewolves switch loyalties that eas
ily, much less to the enemy lines." Katya shook her head. "It doesn't mean anything just because you saved her. She could be playing you, passing wrong information your way as a smokescreen."

  I thought about the way Bianca had been when she first tried to capture me, but that image was quickly replaced with the one of her trapped in the room, bloodied and barely breathing. "Bianca wouldn't do that," I said at last.

  "Bianca would. She's a rogue who joined Prometheus. Letting her recuperate at Titan was already a stretch too far." Katya's voice was resolute. "Letting her go without any punishment whatsoever was far worse. And now you're choosing to trust her? Honestly – as Luna, you should know better."

  I couldn't help it – I flinched, and the way Spike glanced at me quickly made me realise that he hadn't missed my involuntary action at all.

  "Katya – "

  "Forget it." She ignored Spike and climbed to her feet, striding quickly towards the door. Moments later, we heard the door slam shut.

  Giles cleared his throat awkwardly and set down the paper. "I should – " He uneasily got to his feet and shot me an apologetic look. "I'll go get her. Sorry, Luna, Katya's just a blunt sort. She doesn't mean any harm when she says that."

  "It's fine," I assured him with a smile, watching as he went out of the room in search for her. But when the door clicked shut, the silence in the room was almost painful. All I could hear were Katya's voice echoing in an endless loop in my head.

  Honestly – as Luna, you should know better.

  It was a statement that meant no malicious intent, but it hurt because it hit too close to home. All my fears were piling on at once, fears that I'd long ago kept at bay because I was so involved in getting over my nightmares and getting through to Jed that everything else could wait. But now here it was.