First Instinct (A Diablo Falls Paranormal Short Story) by Tamsin Ley & Bite Club

Author:Tamsin Ley & Bite Club [Ley, Tamsin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950027149
Publisher: Twin Leaf Press
Published: 2019-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Tires squealing, Adrian rounded the corner onto a street crowded with small houses and useless, waist-high picket fences. “Shit shit shit.”

He hadn’t meant to bite Darcy, but when she demanded “harder,” his feline instincts took over. His mountain lion wanted her, wanted to make her his, regardless of what Adrian’s head was saying. He’d driven into her like a rutting beast, and his fangs had come out without a second thought. Now all he could think about was touching her again, tasting her again, holding her close the rest of the night. But that instinct wouldn’t last. He knew himself better than that, and he’d want his space again eventually.

God, I fucked up. He and Darcy weren’t meant to be. He wasn’t a social creature. He couldn’t take a mate. Having another person around all the time would drive him crazy. If the claim could be reversed, he needed to figure it out now, before her first change made it permanent.

He didn’t have a Pack or a Den or a Pride to turn to for advice like other shifters. Other than Randall, who he preferred to keep at arm’s length, the only shifters he knew personally were his parents. They were the last people he wanted to turn to, but he’d do it if there was a chance to protect Darcy.

He parked under a streetlamp across the street from their house, feeling exposed in the pool of light. His childhood home looked exactly as it always did during his random drive-bys over the years, with his mother’s blood-red impatiens along the concrete path to the front stoop and filmy lace curtains drawn across the big living room windows. What if they turned him away?

He hadn’t spoken to his family since they’d discovered he was a mountain lion and handed him over to the local lion Pride when he was fifteen. A “boot camp for wayward shifter teens” they’d called it. Fuck that. Pride or Pack, there was little difference. He wasn’t a savannah lion, he was a mountain lion, and his parents hadn’t even known the difference. After a few weeks of getting bullied by the Pride’s Alpha, he’d run away, hiding himself among the humans in another state until the power of Diablo Falls had pulled him home.

Taking a calming breath, he got out and walked stiffly toward his parents’ front door, stepping over the crack in the sidewalk he and his brothers used to pretend would curse you if you touched it. The inner door was open, and the scent of Mom’s hamburger casserole floated through the screen.

His hand hesitated over the door latch. This isn’t home anymore. He couldn’t just walk in unannounced. He didn’t belong.

A familiar silhouette moved into view behind the screen and his father’s voice scratched out, “Adrian?” Dad wore his police officer uniform, his hair a bit grayer but still the same neat trim he’d had as long as Adrian could remember.

Adrian’s throat tightened. “Hi, Dad.”

“You finally decided to visit.”

“I…” He swallowed thickly.

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