Kael didn't turn. He already knew the scent—smoke, old leather, and the metallic tang of suppressed rage. Elias. The alpha who had raised him, who had taught him that instinct without discipline was just chaos with teeth.
By Kind Nightmares
He stepped into the clearing. The grass flattened beneath his weight as though bowing. In the center lay the carcass of a stag—not killed, but undone . Ribs splayed open like the pages of a forbidden book, organs arranged in a pattern that felt almost ritualistic. His mouth watered. He hated that it watered. He knelt, fingers hovering over the warm ruin, and for a moment, he saw himself reflected in the black pool of the animal's unblinking eye. Instinct Unleashed -Chapter 9- By Kind Nightmares
Predator , the eye seemed to say. Not monster. Not yet.
Kael stood at the edge of the treeline, breath fogging the air despite the summer warmth. His hands were no longer trembling. That was the problem. For weeks, the tremor had been his anchor—proof that the thing inside him was still a passenger, not the driver. But now, stillness had settled into his bones like a second skeleton. Calm before the claw. Kael didn't turn
"Then call me leashed," he whispered. "Just don't call me broken anymore."
"Lena thinks I can save you," Elias continued. "Tobias wants to put you down. The others are too afraid to speak their minds. And you? What do you want, Kael?" The alpha who had raised him, who had
"You came back," Elias said. His voice was softer than Kael expected. Almost gentle. That was worse than any growl.
The rain had started to fall harder, slicking Kael's hair to his forehead, dripping into his eyes. He blinked slowly. When he looked up, his irises caught the fractured moonlight—amber now, where they had been brown.
The pack had scattered three nights ago after the incident at the silos. He could still hear the wet snap of Tobias's shoulder dislocating, still see the way Lena had looked at him—not with fear, but with the hollow recognition of someone watching a friend drown in slow motion. She had whispered, "You're still in there, Kael. Fight it."
Chapter 9 ends not with a howl, but with the absence of one. Because the loudest roars are the ones that never leave the chest. And Kael had finally stopped fighting the quiet.
Just Now
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