You are the Answer {boyxboy} ✓ (Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series, Book I | Riley)

Chapter 37

A/N: Not much twitter support* for YATA for the Wattys, but your support on wattpad got it to #37 on the What's Hot List. Thank you so much for that! I'm so excited to have amazing fans like you!

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We observed silently as Clifford took in whatever emotions the white wolf had left behind. Throughout the whole time his eyes were closed. After a couple of minutes, his eyebrows knitted.

"This is a very complicated person."

I opened my mouth to ask him whether he could tell for sure that it had been a shifter and not a real wolf, but I closed it without a word; after all, it was probably best to save the questions for when the Sentinel was done with his examination of the training grounds.

His hand moved back to the branches.

"Very complicated indeed," he noted without opening his eyes, then added something which replied to another question that was going through my mind:

"It is more difficult to pick up on secondary emotions when someone shifts to their animal form, but with this person, it is difficult to comprehend even the most dominant ones."

His eyes opened and he got up, putting his glove back on in the process.

"So it was a shifter?"Keri voiced my question.

"Yes," Clifford certified. "Your kind feels... bifurcated, but at the same time cohesive."

"Two fancy words in one short sentence." Johnathan whistled under his breath. His partner went on as if he had not heard him.

"It is as if I'm trying to understand the emotions of two creatures but at the same time they feel as one."

"Welcome to our world." Keri smiled a bit crookedly. "It is always as if we have two hearts to feel with. But enough of that. What did you find out?"

"Not much," the Sentinel admitted. "A lot of you have passed by here and that muddled this shifter's emotions with the ones from your pack. Also, this boy's fear..." He turned to me, his eyebrows furrowing again. "You said they were not aggressive; why did you fear them so?"

I shrugged and looked at the ground. Rhys immediately came by my side to hold my hand. His warm and gentle touch reassured me to go on and I took a deep breath and looked at the Sentinel.

"They just felt very dominant and intrusive. They were gazing at me as if I was a toy."

"Good instincts." Clifford nodded. " A sense of superiority is one of the things I picked up on. Confidence. There was some form of desire, but it wasn't a sexual one, it wasn't romantic; I wouldn't say it was a desire to harm you either. There was also curiosity and something else I can't quite make out."

He closed three of his fingers into a fist, the thumbs and index fingers sticking up, his hand taking on the form of a gun, and brought them under his chin.

"Entitlement." He finally uttered. "There was definitely a sense of entitlement."

"But no malicious intent?" Rhys wanted to make sure.

"No."

"And their interest in Riley - can you tell us more about that?" My boyfriend's grip tightened.

"Not from here." The other man shook his head. "Riley, show me where they stepped when they saw your mate coming."

I let go of Rhys and walked towards where the wolf had turned around before leaving, thinking how the Sentinel kept calling the intruder 'they'; apparently he could not define the genre with his ability, at least not in the present situation.