🐺 17. The Dinner of Wolves

Snow falls. Knives stay sheathed—for now.

Elena, Kaia, and Dax sit at a table set for control, each one hiding a motive sharper than the cutlery. The mission’s changed. The Source is growing impatient.

And tonight, silence will not protect them.

They’re not just planning an operation.

They’re choosing who survives it.

✨This episode is part of the book

"What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”

Book available on Amazon. Get your copy

Thanks for listening—visit me

Podcast available on Amazon and Apple Podcasts

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Chapter 16. Mistral Dinner

Thanksgiving at Tammy’s house brings new rhythms: laughter, shared food, and the unfamiliar comfort of being included.

But for Lily and Steven, the tension between them only deepens.

A kiss in the maze, old memories, and a house full of warmth—they’re learning how to want something more than progress.

And neither of them is ready for what that could mean.

✨This episode is part of the book

"What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”

Book available on Amazon. Get your copy

Thanks for listening—visit me

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While MIT sleeps, Lily and Steven steal time in the lab—calibrating simulations by day, kissing like it’s data by night. But when Thanksgiving pulls Lily into Tammy’s vibrant, chaotic family home, she’s faced with something stranger than love: being wanted.

Laughter, dumplings, karaoke... and Steven Price at the dinner table.

Some families choose you. Some variables defy control. And sometimes, home is the place you never expected.

✨This episode is part of the book

"What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with

Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”

Book available on Amazon. Get your copy

Thanks for listening—visit me

Podcast available on Amazon and Apple Podcasts

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Before Chapter Fifteen, Tammy and James sit down with DT Martin to talk about the heartbeat of What Thunder Left Behind: why this story was written, how Lily connects to real life, and what care looks like for survivors. You will hear simple grounding tools, reflections on writing safely through old pain, and a clear message: what happened was not your fault, your healing belongs to you, and you are not alone. No graphic detail. The conversation stays gentle, practical, and hope-forward.

We close with a smile and a family nod: “The Nothin,” a short piece inspired by grandparents and a song that still lights the room. All Episodes are available on 11/10/2025 so Enjoy the short story!

Content note: mentions of childhood sexual abuse and recovery.
Resources: please reach for trusted local and national support in your region or campus counseling.

✨This episode is part of the book "What Thunder Left Behind"

For the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”

Books available on Amazon.

Thanks for listening—visit me: DT Martin

Podcast available on Amazon and Apple Podcasts

MIT, thunderstorm, Fibonacci, romantic thriller, podcast fiction, women in STEM

🎬 Previously On — What Thunder Left Behind

(for Chapter 13: Lightning Without Sound)

Previously, on What Thunder Left Behind…

Five days have passed since Lily kissed Steven — five days of silence, skipped meals, and code that refuses to balance. In the lab, avoidance becomes an art form; every breath is measured, every glance withheld. The memory of that single kiss loops through Lily’s mind like corrupted data, collapsing every equation she touches.

When Professor Hachette intervenes, his warning cuts through the static: Fix it, or I’ll break the team. Under threat of separation, Steven finally breaks the silence. He confesses he wanted the kiss too—but insists they treat it as an experiment.

In the soundproof room, theory dissolves into heat. What begins as a clinical test becomes a confession written in touch, not code. Steven kisses her once—soft, deliberate, searching—and again, deeper, until every hypothesis fails.

The result?

A spectacular failure.

And neither of them would undo it.

🎧 Spotify Chapter Description – Chapter 14: Cognitive Recalibration

Steven knows better. Logic over emotion. Control over chaos. But when a kiss becomes a variable he can’t quantify, the entire system begins to slip.

With Lily, the lab finds its rhythm again—until that rhythm turns into something more.

They call it science.

But what’s unfolding is anything but theoretical.

And outside the lab, not everyone is blind to the shift.

✨This episode is part of the book "What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”Book available on Amazon.

Get your copy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/2jOGEOR⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Thanks for listening—visit me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sites.google.com/view/dtmartin/home⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Podcast available on Spotify, Amazon and Apple Podcasts

MIT, thunderstorm, Fibonacci, Carter, Rowan, romantic thriller, podcast fiction, women in STEM

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🎧 13. Lightning Without Sound
Previously, on What Thunder Left Behind…

Jeff’s phone blinks at 1:14 a.m., a square of cold light in a quiet room. The text reads like pulp and still tightens his chest: “Sublevel 3. Stairwell behind Killian. Come alone.” He paces, then chooses motion. Hoodie. Side gate. Night that tastes of wet metal.

The service stair breathes warmth from the old bones of the building. At the base, a rust-flecked door waits with a keypad that hums blue. Six digits rise through his fingers. The lock clicks on the last number. Air shifts across his face.

Inside, a narrow corridor extends beneath low pipes and silent server racks. Fluorescents hum an uneven rhythm. Heat gathers along his spine. A warped EXIT sign struggles to hold its color.

They wait at the junction.

Elena Vos sits on a steel crate, posture calm, a black folder balanced on her wrist. Her pale blouse keeps its cool in the heavy air. Beside her stands Dax, broad and still, chewing slow, eyes steady.

Jeff tries a joke about boiler rooms. Elena lifts her chin a breath and opens the folder. A translucent sheet catches light. Gold-thread circuits sketch resonant structures, feedback harmonics, bandwidth curves that echo Lily’s work.

He claims ignorance. Elena names architecture over object: a harmonic compiler, a recursive loop that brings signal into line with thought. Jeff says the names anyway. Steven. Lily.

Elena calls it extraordinary and inevitable. Omex wants the specifications first, complete and silent. Digital. Clean. Untraced. Jeff says they would notice. Elena speaks to the bruise he hides: years without spotlight, Lily at Steven’s side, his skill measured from the margins. Recognition carries weight. Integrity without witness fades.

Dax drops an envelope. Betting slips. Screenshots. A photo from Encore in Everett. Debt breathes in the heat.

Elena slides a matte black keycard within reach. One upload. One secure channel. No vows. Only access.

They leave. The EXIT sign sputters and goes dark. Jeff stands with the keycard warming in his palm and the envelope whispering against the crate. Choice presses close while the stairwell holds its heavy air.

Five days of silence. One kiss that won’t stop echoing.
Lily tries to code through the fallout while Steven keeps his distance—until the lab stops working, and Professor Hachette forces a reckoning. What starts as an “experiment” becomes something deeper, riskier, and far less theoretical.
Because some data can't be debugged. And some kisses can’t be undone.

✨This episode is part of the book "What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”

Book available on Amazon. Get your copy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/2jOGEOR⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Thanks for listening—visit me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sites.google.com/view/dtmartin/home⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Podcast available on Amazon and Apple Podcasts

MIT, thunderstorm, Fibonacci, Carter, Rowan, romantic thriller, podcast fiction, women in STEM

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Chapter 12 Humidity Rising

Previously, on What Thunder Left Behind…

Steven steps in without a word. He reads the open loop she has drawn, elegant and unstable, and leaves the quiet intact. The problem carries its own gravity. Lily passes him pages, her script tight and precise. Contact brushes fingers, then stills the room. He traces the margins and finds what will fail: she aims to stabilize before thermal load smooths. Feedback strain will break the crystal the instant it sings.

He speaks low. Stabilize a field that still flexes and you crack it. She already tried to flatten the array; heat burned the sync. He angles the schematic, splits the harmonic loop along a diagonal, duplicates the core logic, and routes the cycle across two lower-frequency cores in parallel. Integrity survives. Latency rises by eight picoseconds. She studies the pattern, guarded and curious, and says the sentence both of them need: You are not wrong.

Outside the lab, Carter waits near the bike rack with noodles and pliers. He teases Steven toward the Signal House party. James said Steven would not come. A benefit dinner or a mess with better company. Steven chooses the mess.

By the time he steps into the party, heat and bass saturate the walls. LEDs map sound into light; laughter knots in the hall; Rowan wears a cape that might be a curtain. Tammy dances under electric blue. James and Carter fold into a private joke near the kitchen, a soldered bet between them. A girl tries to pull Steven into the current; he declines. Rowan ribs him about costumes and family invitations he intends to ghost.

Then Rowan says the quiet part. Your girl is here. Not Tammy. The other one.

Lily holds to a back corner by the bookshelves, arms crossed, shoulders flinching each time thunder rolls closer. Three guys close in with drinks and practiced ease. Steven moves before she sees him. She is with me lands without volume and works anyway. He lifts the cup from her hand and sets it away. Tension tests the air, then slides off.

Lightning breaks open the sky. Thunder presses hard. In a maintenance alcove behind the house, Lily folds to the concrete with her hands over her ears. Steven crouches, asks permission, wraps an arm around her in small degrees until her breath can find a path. The storm softens its grip. She asks whether the sky can be alive. He says maybe it is a broken machine god with poor social skills. She snorts, almost laughs. Relief loosens her shoulders.

A quiet heat climbs between them. Her gaze drops. She closes the distance and kisses him, soft and quick, then shock returns and she pulls away with apologies that trip. She vanishes into the echo of rain and thunder, and he is left in the empty space she leaves, holding the knowledge that touch can steady a storm and still carry a cost.

A message at 1:14 a.m. Six digits. One door.
Jeff follows the pull into Cambridge’s underground—into heat, pressure, and the kind of deal you don’t come back from clean. Elena Vos isn’t here to threaten him. She doesn’t need to. She knows what he wants: recognition, relevance… revenge.
Now he has a choice—stay loyal to the people who left him behind, or steal the one thing that could finally make him matter.

✨This episode is part of the book "What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”Book available on Amazon. Get your copy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/2jOGEOR⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Thanks for listening—visit me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sites.google.com/view/dtmartin/home⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Podcast available on Amazon and Apple Podcasts

MIT, AEGIS trials, rooftop scene, thunderstorm, Fibonacci, Carter, Rowan, romantic thriller, podcast fiction, women in STEM

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Title: Chapter 11 — Collaborative Emergence
Late-night code hums like a heartbeat. Lily and Steven learn to breathe inside the same silence until legacy, thunder, and love collide. From the violet hush of the lab to the storm behind Signal House, this chapter builds a bridge between logic and mercy.
✨ This episode is part of the book "What Thunder Left Behind", for the full pulse begin with Chapter 1 “Solve for X.”Book available on Amazon. Get your copy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/2jOGEOR⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Thanks for listening—visit me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sites.google.com/view/dtmartin/home⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Podcast available on Amazon and Apple Podcasts

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