Escaping Death

Chapter 36

Kiss me you animal

I need to take you in real slow

Cause dying on your lips is how I wanna go

Connect with the sound you're making

Connect with my body, whoa

Kiss me you animal and don't ever let me go

Kiss me animal

.

Kiss me you animal - Burn the Ballroom

— — — — —

Hunter

There are few things in life that a hot shower can't make better. The dirt and blood has washed away and the aches in my muscles have been soothed, but the hole in my heart isn't any smaller. Sol skipped breakfast, and rather than come down for lunch I heard her rummaging through each of our rooms upstairs. But the majority of the day has been spent listening to the rain beat angrily against the roof and windows.

I've tried to leave her to her own devices, but I can only resist checking in on her for so long. Besides, she has to eat at some point. Ever since we were pups, Sol would get so focused on a task or activity that she'd work or play straight through meals. She once went 72 hours without eating because she "didn't have time" or she "forgot."

Whether she likes it or not we've been hired to watch over her, to take care of her, until the threats against her are eliminated. So, if that means adding feeding her to our list of responsibilities then so be it.

I'm not the chef of our pack, that's Dean despite how much we tease him otherwise, so it should come as no real surprise that I opt for take out. Pizza was such a rarity in the Grove that whenever Sol and I had the chance to sneak out we'd always get pizza. It was one of our guilty pleasures.

While my senses aren't as good as Ace's, or even Sol's for that matter, being the son of a Beta affords me some increased sense of smell and hearing. That's how I know Solana is trying her best to sneak down the stairs and snag some food without being seen. Unfortunately for her, her scent might as well be tattooed on my body. I'd recognize it from a mile away. Even her heat feels different from others, her warmth is distinct, the feel and sound of her flames is as unique as a fingerprint.

"You can't avoid me forever, Sol." I say to the seemingly empty living room.

"I'm not avoiding you," She says flatly, unveiling herself next to the coffee table and grabbing a slice of pizza from the box. "I'm strategically circumventing your location."

Her eyes flutter closed as she takes the first bite, reminding me of the way her face looked when we'd make love and I have to force myself to think about something else before I grow hard. She practically inhales the first slice and seconds later she's reaching for another.

"You don't have to stand there, you can sit down." I say to Sol but all I get for it is a scoff and an eye roll.

"I gather your day with Calla was as joyful as ever?" More silence. More looking anywhere but my direction. For sisters, they've never been particularly close. They share certain things but Sol is too much like her mother, happier doing things on her own and preferring to suffer in silence.

"Are you okay?" What an empty question. None of us are "okay." If we were, we wouldn't have ended up here with the Dogs of War as a pack of lost and haunted kindred spirits waging a war against our pain and the people who have perpetrated it.