Watch The Dark
sixteen

"Daddy! Daddy! Look at this, it's the best thing ever. Blake helped me make it. Look!" Sincere squealed as she ran into the room, holding up a paper splattered with all different colours of paint.

Tana had been lounging on Declan's couch because he refused to let her out of his sight and he had work to do after his impromptu meeting with Lionel and Richard. Sincere, however, was free to do as she pleased. As long as she could be heard by either Declan or Blake.

"That's really pretty, Sincere, but daddy has a lot of work to do," Declan chided, smiling as he took the painting from her and propped it up on his desk, earning grin from Sincere.

The pup had been quite rattled by what had happened. Even more when she had figured out that one of the scouts that had been killed trying to keep the Blood Wolves out of the territory was a former den mother of hers. But, within a day, she had seemed to get over it. But Declan was gentle with her anyway.

"Ok. Tana where's Devon?" Sincere asked suddenly, hopping up onto Tana, staring Tana right in the face as she asked. Maybe the Blood Wolves appearing had jogged Sincere's memory of Tana's best friend.

Devon was not a Blood Wolf. He was the son of the alpha of the Riverstone pack. It was an originally small pack that had been forced into an alliance with the Blood Wolves because of some dirt that Talon had on Devon's father. That pack was just as miserable as the Blood Wolves themselves.

"Devon is working really hard right now," Tana said simply. There wasn't much else she could tell the pup in a way that she would understand.

"And he'll come visit soon?"

"Maybe."

"Stop saying maybe!" Sincere huffed, whacking Tana in the chest, drawing a small growl from Tana.

Sitting up, Tana snatched the pup's wrist. "Don't hit me, Sin. And watch your tone. You're being very rude," Tana replied lowly, but Sincere only raised her other hand and hit Tana in the shoulder.

"You can't tell me what to do! You're not mama. I want mama!" Sincere yelled, continuing to hit Tana in the shoulder.

"I told you, mama is gone," Tana hissed, but trying to stop the pup only seemed to make her angrier.

"You killed her! You're bad! You're a bad wolf!" Sincere snarled.

Tana looked up suddenly, glaring right into Sincere's eyes.

But what she saw wasn't Sincere at all.

Her eyes were the same gleaming red that Tana's had been, but seemed to glow brighter the angrier she got. But that wasn't possible. She had done everything to keep Talon away from Sincere. There was no way he would have been able to inject her with the serum.

"Sincere, stop," Declan finally broke in, but when he moved to grab her, she whirled around and sunk her tiny fangs into his hand, causing him to recoil with a small growl of surprise.

"Bad wolves! Bad wolves! I want my alpha!" She screamed. Tana could barely stop the flurry of tiny hands flying towards her face before Declan managed to grab her by the waist and drag her away.

"Stop! Stop it! Stop!" Sincere kept yelling, but Declan managed to get her out into the hallway with Tana close behind. He set her down in her room and shut the door just as Sincere slammed against it with a growl.

"Great Aurora, what the fuck was that?" Declan breathed, holding the doorknob so that Sincere couldn't get out.

"I don't know. I never let him near her; there's no way he could have gotten to her. None! I don't- I don't know how he did this," Tana said, running her hands through her hair.

"What if he did it to Tuk, too? What if all three of us are just ticking time bombs?" Tana asked.

Declan seemed to contemplate it for a moment but shook his head.

“He said he needed you. Why would he do it to them? He doesn’t need them. It doesn’t make any sense,” Declan said. Tana let out a snort.

“It makes perfect sense. All of this is a game to him. He wants me to go back. He’s using them against me,” Tana said.

While she was under Talon’s thumb, she hadn’t had much time with Tuk or Sincere. It was for the best, anyway. If he knew they meant that much to her he would have manipulated her with them even more than he already did.

No matter what she did, Talon always seemed to be ahead of her. He always seemed to be able to outsmart her. Tuk, who was once a happy and sweet pup, turned into the shell of the wolf he once was. He was demoted to omega, had been stripped of any kind of humane treatment, and was constantly kicked while he was already down. Both literally and figuratively.

“Tuk is fine. I mind linked him just now and told the wolves who are patrolling with him to keep an eye on him and to report anything out of the ordinary,” Declan assured her, looking quite frazzled himself.

“We can’t attack yet. We don’t have the numbers or the strength. For now all we can do is wait it out and hope that the effects of that serum wear off soon. I think Sincere ran herself ragged and passed out. I can hear her snoring. I’ll have a guard posted out here just in case she tries to run again. For now, I need you to just relax. I actually have something I meant to give you earlier,” Declan said, beckoning for her to follow him back to the room, where he disappeared into the closet after instructing her to wait on the bed.

“Close your eyes.”

“Why? Is the surprise that you’re going to kill me?”

“Just do it, for Aurora’s sake, Tana,” Declan huffed. Tana snickered slightly but shut her eyes anyway.

A small weight appeared on her lap. A furry weight that started moving as soon as it was set down.

“Ok, you can look now,” he said, looking like a pup with a wide, eager-to-please grin on his face. Looking down, the kitten she had seen in the barn a few weeks ago was wandering around on the bed, peering around curiously. It was bigger than it was back then. Fluffier, too.

“You can name him whatever you want,” Declan told her, plopping himself down next to her, his eyes flitting to the work on his desk briefly before he turned back to her.

“Hm. I don’t know what one names a pet. What do you want to name him?” Tana asked, cocking an eyebrow at Declan, who tipped his head thoughtfully.

“Sam. It’s short and easy to remember,” he said, scratching the kitten behind its ears and getting a purr in return.

Tana tentatively reached out to pet the cat, accidentally bumping her hand into Declan’s. She quickly pulled away, only for her wrist to be caught in the same hand she had bumped into. When she looked up, his once joyful gaze was more focused and very, very serious.

“You’re beautiful,”

“You don’t have to flatter me.”

“I’m not flattering you. You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on,” he breathed, suddenly much closer to Tana that he was originally. Not that she minded, anyway.

“I don’t believe that,” Tana replied, her voice coming out shaky and breathy. She was never this nervous. Why was she so nervous?

“I guess I’ll have to show you,” he said suddenly.

“Wait, wha-“

But before she could finish, he had pulled her closer by her wrist and had pressed his lips to hers, igniting a flame in her core that she hadn’t known existed.

But when he touched her, she no longer saw Talon.

All she saw was him. Declan. Her mate.

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