Hey, kittens!

My post for the Wattpad Block Party - My 5 Favorite Motivation and Productivity Tips + An Exclusive Sneak Peek - is up. The tips are to motivate you to write, but can be applied to other areas of your life, and the sneak peek is from the first chapter of a Contemporary M/M Romance (no, not part of the Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series). The link to the post is available in the first comment to this chapter, given as an external link and also in my last message to followers.

Also, I'm hosting a giveaway.

The prize?

A $5 Amazon gift card.

How to enter?

Click on the link in the first comment (also available on my Wattpad Bio/About Me and in my last message to followers).

The giveaway is opened internationally and ends on February 28th. Good luck!

And now: the new chapter.

The vivid green eyes stared at me unblinking, their owner perched unabashedly on the coffee table in my living room. I raised an eyebrow at him. He made no sound or motion.

"How did you even get in here?" I asked the Russian Blue. I had not opened any windows - I didn't want any of the cold night air to get inside my warm house - and my front door didn't possess a cat flap.

No reply. Not that I had expected one.

With a sigh, I moved further into the room, reaching for the animal once I was near him. Luca snaked his body away from me as if my fingers would spoil his glossy, silvery grey coat.

"Seriously?" I straightened up and crossed my arms over my chest. "Get down."

I was cast a look of superiority and Luca began to pointedly groom himself.

"By the Goddess, you are even worse than your owner."

A chuckle surprised me and I turned around, said owner leaning on the doorframe between the living room and the hallway, a plate with strawberry cheesecake on it in one hand and a small fork in the other.

"You are out of ice cream," Alec pointed out, cutting a small piece of cheesecake with the fork, then stabbing it and placing it into his mouth.

I pushed away the annoyance that he'd snuck up on me again - freaking vampire stealth! - and the realization that Luca must've gotten in along with his owner and simply concentrated on Alec's unasked for presence in my home.

"Inviting yourself in?" I let reproach seep into my tone.

"Obviously." He said evenly, helping himself to another mouthful of the cheesecake I'd both as comfort food.

"What do you want, Alec?" I asked, my foot tapping against the uncarpeted floor.

"This is a very rude welcome." His tongue darted out to lick the fork.

"Who says you are welcome here?"

Ignoring my question and cutting another piece off, he went on:

"And here I was going to ask you how our beloved Detective was doing. I was ever so worried about him."

At the mention of Callum, I deflated and dropped to the sofa with a thud. Luca paused to glance disapprovingly at me - I was apparently making too much noise for his consuming task of licking his front right paw - turned slightly sideways so he wasn't exactly facing us, but could still keep an eye on me, and continued grooming himself.

"You look so miserable," Alec said, making himself at home on my couch, "I have half a mind to offer you some cheesecake."

"That's my cheesecake in the first place, you food thief."

Alec's mouth twitched upwards, then: "You were out of ice cream. Stock up on some vanilla."

"Planning to stay long to look after Ollie, are you?"

"Trying to avoid talking about Callum, are you?"

"Trying to avoid admitting you are here to watch over Ollie, are you?"

"Trying to..." Alec began, but was interrupted by a brief, quiet noise that was something between a growl and a hiss.

"Luca is right; this isn't taking us anywhere." He resumed his consumption of the sweet food and with a huff, I got up and headed for the kitchen. There, I cut myself a slice as well and grabbed a fork before I rejoined the haughty young man and his even more haughty pet.

"You first," he said after I'd reclaimed my seat on the sofa.

"Don't wanna talk." I shoved a huge piece of my cheesecake slice into my mouth.

"Fine." He said in a tone that was supposed to show he didn't care either way and we ate in silence, me not really enjoying the treat I'd gotten myself from a 24/7 store when I'd driven back to Woodville.

"I'm surprised I caught you alone though." Alec said after he'd finished off his slice. His empty plate clanked as he put it on my coffee table, next to Luca. The cat lowered his head and his nose twitched as he sniffed where the cheesecake had been. After making sure Alec had not left anything for him, Luca stretched lazily and hopped off the table and onto the couch to lie next to his owner, not quite touching Alec's slim thigh.

"I'd expected," the boy continued, "that your brother, my dear Uncle Rhys and his oh-so-lovely boyfriend would be here to ask you about the Detective as well."

"Thought you didn't care if I told you what happened with Callum," I said in between chewing.

He shrugged. "I got bored at Everett and Lisa's."

"I suppose you would, now that Ollie is asleep."

He ignored the Ollie remark once again. Instead: "So? Where is everybody?"

"I told them I was tired and not to come, and that we'd talk in the morning." It was nearing 2 AM so technically, it was morning, but obviously, I'd mean the morning after I'd gotten some sleep. If I could manage that. I tried very hard not to think about leaving Callum on his own to be probed and tested, and not to worry about the reason for those tests. So far with no luck. It had been all I'd thought about on my way back tonight.

"You look like you want to talk about it now," Alec said, suddenly turning his attention to Luca and petting what looked like a very silky coat.

Having gobbled all of my cheesecake slice, I put my plate next to his, and then leaned back into my sofa.

"You look like you want to hear about it," I noted and Luca emitted another low sound, different this time, one that, if Luca wasn't a cat, I'd claim was a snort.

"Well... I am bored." Alec still wasn't looking at me.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" The tension of the day made me raise my voice. "Just admit that you want to know!"

Pale grey eyes fixed on me, Alec's mouth in a flat line, and then: "Fine. I'm curious. I want to know."

He'd stopped petting Luca, but the cat didn't seem to mind; his attention was also on me.

"And that you came to our grounds because of Ollie," I urged.

"Alright, that too," he admitted. "But now that you've asked so much, don't expect me not to press as well. Now: Callum."

I hesitated as tension made way for anxiety and I contemplated winning myself some time by going to the kitchen under the pretext of getting more cheesecake. But then I figured that if Alec was determined, there was no avoiding this talk so I asked:

"How much do you know?"

"Just that you were both at the crime scene, he got a sudden, brief fever, you drove him out of town to the hospital wing of the Sentinel's quarters, and that they don't know what's wrong with him even though he'd been there all day."

"Then you know everything," I said.

"They have no clue what's wrong?" He narrowed his eyes.

"None. But they are pretty sure it's not a disease."

"Hmmm..." His eyes narrowed even further, his gaze unfocused as he thought. "What was he doing when this happened?"

"Nothing. We'd just entered the bedroom where... The girl died." I didn't wish to go into the gory details; I had enough on my plate worrying about Callum. "He'd been there before so... Well, I wouldn't say he was used to it, but I guess he wasn't shocked at the scene."

He hummed again, fell silent for a few seconds and then his eyes darted to me.

"What were you doing?"

"Me?" I asked surprised. "What's that got to do with Callum?"

"If Callum wasn't doing anything, maybe something you did..."

"How would I affect Callum?" I cut him off, half laughing at the preposterous idea.

"You are his mate."

"Humans don't feel the mate bond," I recited, turning my head away from him under the pretext to be looking out the window, realizing too late that the curtains were drawn. I wanted to close my eyes and cover my face, but I wouldn't show such weakness in front of Alec.

"So? Your kind keeps bragging about this magical, wonderful," his voice grew sarcastic at the last word, "bond, but you don't know much about how it works, right?"

"But we do know it doesn't work on humans," I said quietly.

"Fine then." From the corner of my eye, I saw him waving a hand dismissively. "Not the mate bond, but it could've still had something to do with you."

"Alec..."

"Maybe the Sentinel doctors didn't find anything because whatever happened, took place because of some external stimulus that wasn't present during the tests. Or maybe a combination of stimuli..." He paused for such a brief moment, I had no time to butt in, and then continued: "You said that he'd been to the crime scene before and you two have met before, obviously, but what if seeing you at the crime scene somehow triggered... Something. Something supernatural. If the doctors are right and this isn't a disease, then it's got to be supernatural."

I stared at him, gaping. In ten or so minutes, he'd come up with an explanation that sounded more logical than anything my mind had conjured since Callum's sudden fever yesterday morning. But... But why would my presence at the victim's house affect Callum?

The other part of Alec's suggestion - something triggering Callum in the morning being absent during the tests - sounded reasonable, but... I couldn't be that something. I'd been to the crime scenes of the previous murders and even though they had not been as savage - the violence had obviously escalated in the last one - they hadn't been anything pretty to look at either. And Callum had been fine with me being there. Well, annoyed that I was 'butting into his investigation', but no fever. Not even a hint of it.

"I'm tired," I said, rising from my sofa and to my surprise Alec and Luca followed suit. "I trust you can let yourselves out."

I bent down, picked up the empty plates and headed for the kitchen. As I was washing them, I heard the front door close and thought Alec was being purposefully noisy this time. Drying my hands on a small towel, I locked up and checked that each window in the house was properly closed. I doubted the murderer would try to sneak in, but if their violence was escalating, maybe so was their courage or recklessness. Just because they'd stuck to humans until now, it didn't mean they wouldn't attempt to get someone from the pack.

I went upstairs and took a shower, hoping it would help me relax after the tiresome day I'd had, but no such luck. Alec's explanation of what could've possibly triggered Callum was constantly on my brain while the warm water fell over my skin, as I wrapped a towel around me, as I dried up, as I dressed into my pyjamas, as I lay on my back in bed, still awake at four in the morning.

Me at the victim's house.

If we took me out of the equation, then it left the house. Or something in that house. Something in the bedroom.

I turned to my side, my mind made up: with no other theory, I'd look into Alec's. I had to find out what could've provoked Callum. I had to return to the crime scene.

It was the wee hours of the morning during my first and hopefully the only night I ever spent in the hospital wing of the Sentinel's HQ and I was annoyed, tired, and fully awake.

Why was I even still here?

I'd given them so much blood to examine, it was a miracle I hadn't passed out.

I shook my head at myself. I was exaggerating.

But a whole day full of tests - some scientific, some supernatural - and no results.

It annoyed me majorly and it had worried Keri, which only annoyed me further.

She'd stayed as late into the evening as they let her, keeping me company and trying to cheer me up and convince me not to take my irritation out on the staff, but I could see that she worried about me. Flattering, yes, but it also made me feel guilty. Thanks to the feelings I'd realized I was developing for her, a small part of me was almost - and I was ashamed to admit this - happy that she fussed over me, but honestly... What was I thinking?

All of me should be put off by her concern, not be glad about it.

And these doctors... How long would they keep me here?

Would they let me go after the morning tests?

Would they have any results from the older examinations?

I scowled.

Either way, I could not stay here. It would drive me insane. I had a killer to catch for crying out loud! They were wasting my time. They already had my blood, they didn't need me here too. And what I needed was to get back to work. Maybe I missed something in the files. Maybe I missed something at the last crime scene.

It took me such a long time to write this chapter, but I think it turned out alright; what do you think?

Do you agree with Alec's explanation of what happened?

Or more like why; they are still not sure what happened with Callum.

Are you surprised Alec went to Keri's and that he asked after the Detective?

Do you think Keri should go to the crime scene again?

What about Callum?

What could be waiting for them there? A new clue or another dead end?

Please support this chapter with a VOTE if you enjoyed it and have a great time wattpadding!

Also, check out my Wattpad Block Party post for the sneak peek (second part of the post/bottom of the post); since a lot of you are into M/M, I think you'll enjoy it. And there's always the tips (first part/top of the post)... And the giveaway. 😉