Topher Lydon

The game is moving, and we're starting to see how Merrick intends to use Jason as leverage against Will. It's enough to cause whispers. Inappropriate things with his ward, grooming... whispers that if they got back to Avery-Woods would shatter Will's reputation and trajectory. It doesn't need to be true, it just has to look like it's true. The problem is Jason's past, which he's telling Marcus all about. It's his shameful thoughts. It's all fuel for the pyre being built beneath Will's feet. Once built, all Merrick needs is to hold a match. Image is everything.

This is a good peek behind the curtain at how I write though I'll write the base chapter... let it sit and move on to the next... coming back as I need to and add scenes to build up the chapter. I think the Andrew in court scenes were written first, then the Peter and Andrew apartment scene, with the hockey scenes later, much of the Marcus plot being inserted last. Ideally this chapter should have been the Court scenes and the Peter/andrew scene alone, and the rest in a seperate chapter... but again, I had five minutes to fix things because I was a dumbass and had already hit the publish button on the first half. Ahh well, it all works, just a little longer than usual. The main point is Darius knows what's happening with Marcus/Jason, the photos and Merrick, and is getting a warning to Andrew.

Yes, I was sleepy while typing this, and Darien is a familiar shape when you lack coffee... I'm not a dumbass I swear... I didn't realize I had only published half the chapter when reviewing... and so had to put the other half in without my usual editing pass... which left it a little messy. (been having a couple of days of 'mess') I apologize, I will do better.

HA bad habits die hard, Darius... not Darien... fixed it.

Tiny hiccup, turns out I'd split this chapter in my files when it was supposed to be one. My bad, fixed it now.

The ache in Andrew's shoulders was a dull, persistent throb that no amount of coffee could touch. He rolled his neck as he walked through the marble lobby of Commerce Court West, feeling the protest of muscles he hadn't known existed until Dimitri had introduced them to the concrete floor at seven o'clock Saturday morning. Footwork. Stance. Weight forward, never back. The lessons blurred together now—the mitts, the combinations, the brutal repetition of movements that felt nothing like

Poor Buzzcut is busy rocking the cubical on the third-floor, trying to work out why his porn feed recommendations are suddenly very weird.

Ronan's just a kid with an over-active pheromone gland, and all the over active insecurities that come with being a little different. While standing next to the pressed and perfect Declan that won the genetic lottery and doesn't drive werewolves nuts because they think he's in heat all the time.

This is a minor corrective piece which I sort of consider the same chapter, just told from a different perspective to help with the slightly rushed feel of Chapter ten... I hope it is ok.

There, it's taken me all day, but that should stabalize chapter ten, and make things a bit easier to follow.

11 The interior of the Volvo XC90 was an exercise in pristine, Swedish-engineered silence, but the air inside the cabin was thick enough to choke on. It smelled of rich, conditioned leather, spearmint chewing gum, and the overwhelming, suffocating musk of a teenage werewolf having a quiet nervous breakdown. Marcus Draven kept his hands at a relaxed ten-and-two on the steering wheel, his eyes on the manicured suburban sprawl of Oak Creek rolling past the windshield. He reached over with

I do like the weaponization of an over active pheromone gland, the only problem is, it doesn't work on Andy, he's only affected by Lucas's.

TBH I could have used a bit more time on it, just felt the time crunch today. I think it does show a bit, I tried to cram a bit too much into the chapter and the pacing suffered.

strapping local lads doing me a favour. all of respectable ages, so I don't feel like an old perv staring at them while they tackle what has rapidly become a jungle in my back garden. They started yesterday, but only got half way, so they are coming back... ahhh Community service, sweaty shirtless young men, and friendly smiles while I make them cups of tea, and try not to melt down. Gotta love weekends in the summer.

sorry for the early release, possibly about to be invaded by hunky gardeners... so you know... need to sit in a lounger like I'm Stacy's mom and direct.

10 The history classroom at Oak Creek High School smelled distinctly of floor wax, adolescent anxiety, and stale chalk dust. To Andy “Cooper”—formerly the Scourge of the Carpathians, currently a high school junior for the thirty-seventh time—it smelled like a prison. Andy sat perfectly rigid at his desk in the third row, his vintage leather jacket meticulously adjusted over his shoulders. He was entirely motionless, a predator trapped in a diorama of mundane teenage existence. Two row

Merrick knows exactly what he is doing.

Will does, eventually, learn to balance it with his own needs. But he has a pattern... and it takes the people around him to build a support structure for him. Lisa, Jared and Peter caring for Will the way he cares for them.

Jared gets it. good morning

The backyard was a postage stamp of neglect—cracked paving stones heaved by frost, a broken washing line trailing its dead arms toward the grey November sky, weeds pushing through every seam like they owned the place. Will Carter sat in a plastic lawn chair that had definitely seen better decades, wrapped in a parka that made him look like a marshmallow with an English degree, nursing a coffee that had gone cold twenty minutes ago. He needed air. He needed silence. He needed five fucking m

25 days.

He feels more like the Andrew we know from later in the series. The seeds are there and he's evolving, which is something I really hope I nail with this book.

Early stage, all will be revealed.

<.< >.> hmmm interesting choice(s)