Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 60

While the deisre to be had hadn't subsided, I could once more think around my urges as my inner beast had more pressing matters to focus on. Every sound, every smell, it was like starting over from the beginning with the urge to pounce on whatever moved. 

The humidity sent my senses into over drive, making my mouth threaten to water with the copious scents of animals surrounding us. We hadn't gotten to spend much time outside the city, entering more rural areas caused a sudden, deep, sharp ache in the pit of my stomach. My wolf wanted out. 

I could almost feel Alpha's response, telling me to hold, refusing to allow me to slip out of this mortal form and into a feral frenzy. My skin felt as though it'd been consumed by flames, my body overly saturated in heat and my skin clammy. Yet, I was shivering. Attemtping to hold myself together, struggling to get a breath for even letting air out of my lungs might let the creature rip through me. 

Shifting my eyes to Verando, I know he feels for me. I can see the tension in his jaw as I take another breath and feel the creature hit the mental cage concealing it under this unworthy flesh. Getting into the large van, I put Verando close to the window so that I could bury my nose into his sleeve. His scent was a quick dose of morphine, conflicting my wolfs drive for freedom. 

Arriving at Tyler's parents, it was a chance to settle in before our children arrived in the coming days. I hadn't realized I'd need it, but Verando's insistence suggested he was concerned about my control. I'd been good, so good, it was easy to forget how tightly wrapped we kept our exposure. I was still fresh, so new to this life.

 Legardo would travel with Pascal and Steffan, bringing the children behind us on a separate plane should we have been intersepted or met with a hostile greeting. Thus far, it seemed as if the sleepy state was none the wiser we'd arrived and it would be my responsibility not to reveal us with a lycan melt down. We could not afford anymore publicity.

Tyler's parents owned a large expanse of land, surrounded by the blue hue of misty mountains that faded in and out of the fog. The 'Smokey' Mountains as they were called, the air slightly damp though different from the dewy mornings of France. The breeze was almost hot, layering on in a way that baked the incoming scent of farm life deep into my pores. I could taste prey animals in the back of my mouth, feel the flood of desire rush into my veins and threaten to trigger the creature beneath.

My lycan side rolled uncomfortably in my skin, causing me to flinch and wrap my arm around my side as if to keep me held together. "You need to find his name." Verando tells me, lowly. "You can't control him if he doesn't have a name."

My wolf scoffs. He was not like the others, he was not a being forced into my body but a creation from a piece of a demi god, injected into my body and mingled with magic. What was a name to a beast that was all it's own? He was the worst part of all my personality traits, my lust, my jealousy, my hunger for individuality in the shadow of my siblings. "Dog." I seeth, flinching as Verando chuckles.

"Play nice." He sighs, kissing the top of my head. I take another hit of his scent, pressing my nose into his sleeve. I finally found the meaning behind the pressing, the desire to be claimed but not in a sexual way. I wanted to feel every inch of him against me, as close as I could stand, melting into his person so that he could ground me to this plain. I relied on him, taking on his calm and succumbing to that which I couldn't control. It was a submissive behavior, a grounding and a check in all in one maneuver that brought me a moment of peace. 

The dialect of the man who shuttled us to the farm was hard to understand, much as he struggled to understand us. I thought Tyler had an odd accent, Helen had explained once that he was southern though I hadn't quite understood what that meant until now. The fact that Tyler could communicate so freely with these people made me wonder if I would ever master the English language. Focusing on that, I take slow deep breaths as I attempt to reel in my inner predator.