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Chapter 19
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Eliza didn’t need to open her eyes to know where she was. She shivered from the cool pre-dawn dew that settled thick on her bare flesh as she slowly sat up. Although not as horrendous as the month before, sledgehammers steadily banged against the interior of her skull as her surroundings slowly came into focus. Her mouth was so parched that it felt like it was lined with sandpaper. She struggled to produce sufficient saliva to moisten it enough for her tongue to move freely.
“Not again,” she moaned as she slowly got to her feet.
There were bits of dried blood on her chest. She could feel it on her neck as well. She quickly inspected her body for injuries. To her relief, she found none. The blood wasn’t hers. Or, was it? Remembering how well the Epsom salts bath had healed her the month before, she wondered if she showed no signs of hurt because she’d bathed in an Epsom salts bath just before going to bed
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Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 20
Viviane pursed her lips while she scraped a heaping pile of scrambled eggs next to the sausage on the plate that she’d set in front of her husband.“I don’t know,” Arthur reluctantly said as he leaned back in his chair to avoid having his body hinder his wife’s serving progress, “I hate to accuse the girl.”“I could tell by her breathing that she was awake,” Viviane said. “Her shoulder was showing from beneath the covers. It was bare. It’s time we say something.”“I think she’s the one taking our livestock and not the fox,” he mused.“It would explain why your traps aren’t working,” she replied.Pounding his fist on the table so hard that his plate jumped and bits of scrambled eggs danced about on it, Arthur spat, “I hate this!”“I was hoping it would skip us,” Viviane said.&ldquo
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 21
Humiliation was only one of the myriad of emotions that plagued Eliza as she watched tiny tears trickle down her mother’s cheeks while she leaned down to kiss her forehead. Shock, disbelief, fear, and anger were also in the mix.Arthur was clearly uncomfortable as he barked, “You’ll be safe here, daughter. It’s best this way.”“We can’t have you roaming about,” her mother gently explained as she exited the cage. “There are hunters searching for your kind on the mountain and we’re much too close to it. This is for your own good.”Eliza said nothing as her tear filled, chocolate colored eyes watched her father chain and padlock the door to the antique, iron barred cage that had been handed down from generation to generation. He’d kept it hidden in the part of the barn that she’d never been allowed to enter. Now, she understood why.They’d taken her cl
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 22
Brett’s gut was so twisted that he could barely make the shift with ease. It had been a long time since he’d sensed a newly awakened curse in the area. This was the first time that he’d picked up on one who was in need of help. What kind of help remained to be seen. He suspected it was big though, since his gut was rarely wrong.He waited for his entire pack to shift before he allowed his own transformation to take over. His pack was a mixture of man wolves and full wolves. While most pack masters would govern over one type or the other, Brett allowed all in need of a pack to join. His only requirement was that they all get along. Since man-wolves tended to be far more aggressive and ornerier than a full wolf, he often needed to remind them of this rule by force.He was one of the rare ones who had the ability to shift either partially into a man wolf, which was basically a human’s body with a wolf&rsquo
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 23
“Wake up, brother!” Richard bellowed as he sauntered into Oliver’s camp during the hour where the moon had retired but the sun had yet to wake up. “I have a surprise for you.”Oliver groaned as he rolled onto his back. With his arm over his eyes, he sniffed the air for the scent of coffee, but there was none.“No coffee?” he grumbled as he pushed his body into a sitting position.“This is better than coffee,” Richard eagerly said. “I’ve brought someone with me. Get up lazy bones.”Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Oliver pulled on his pants and boots before crawling out of the small camping tent. Still not fully awake and the sun not yet risen enough for good visibility, he didn’t react to the woman standing next to Richard.Accustomed to waking up with coffee ready and waiting, his need for the brew was surprisingly overwhelming. Walking to t
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) The Curse of the Werewolf
The werewolf originated in the times of ancient Greece when their gods reigned supreme. During one fateful festivity, Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, was in need of a meat to serve. Too lazy to go hunting for wild game or to slaughter a lamb, he served the Greek god, Zeus (who was the ruler of the sky and of all gods and mankind), a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. This severely enraged Zeus. As punishment, the angered god turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves. They were to be looked upon by the rest of humanity as something to abhor.Zeus’ lover Selene (who was the goddess of the moon) took pity on Lycoan’s family. She felt it unfair to make them pay for a sin that they had no part of. After much effort, she convinced Zeus to shorten the curse and allow them to enjoy humanity until they were of age to wed and breed. (This age, at that time, was their early teens when their hormones took over and a g
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 1
It felt like someone was swinging a hammer against the inside of Eliza’s skull. The early morning dew caused a damp muskiness on the earth that blended with the mold and dust that burrowed beneath the thick layer of leaves where she lay her aching burden; assaulting her nose and adding to her misery. Her chocolate colored eyes felt pinned shut, but her hearing was abnormally acute. By the sounds around her, she sensed her surroundings were familiar ones. If she was correct, she was near the small cave that was nestled in a knoll that began the acres of woods at the far end of her family’s farm. It was a place that she’d discovered at a young age and had frequented whenever she required alone time. Her surroundings weren’t the greater mystery. How she got there was.As her faculties returned to normal, she sat up and realized that how she got there wasn’t the biggest mystery after all. It was superse
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 2
Feeling a little more like herself after cleaning up, Eliza took her time descending the narrow turn of the century farmhouse staircase. Her slender fingers absent-mindedly played with a small section of torn wallpaper as she stopped for a moment to listen to the faint words of her parents’ as they floated up toward her. They were whispering, but in a loud, argumentative way that made their words clear to someone with the abnormally good hearing that she possessed.“We need to tell her,” her father hissed.“I don’t know, Arthur,” her mother adamantly replied. “It could upset her. Don’t you think having that nice doctor Rosenthal die and losing her job has upset her enough? She was very fond of that man and her work. We both know that moving home wasn’t something she wanted to do. Besides, we have nothing to prove it’s true. It skipped you. Perhaps it skipped her too.”
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 3
Reba leaned against the edge of the opened door and cocked her head to the side while looking Eliza up and down. “What happened to you last night?”“What do you mean?” she asked.“You disappeared from the club,” Reba replied. “At first, I thought you’d taken off with that yummy fella you were dancing with, but he was looking for you too.”Eliza’s brows furrowed in thought. “What yummy fella?”The redhead’s blue eyes went wide with surprise as she stepped away from the door to allow Eliza to enter her studio apartment. Taking a fistful of her thick coppery shoulder length locks, she twisted her hair into a bun and secured it with a hair tie as she asked, “Are you serious?”Following her friend into the oversized room, Eliza closed the door behind her as she said, “Promise you won’t make fun if I tell you something?”Re
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Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 23
“Wake up, brother!” Richard bellowed as he sauntered into Oliver’s camp during the hour where the moon had retired but the sun had yet to wake up. “I have a surprise for you.”Oliver groaned as he rolled onto his back. With his arm over his eyes, he sniffed the air for the scent of coffee, but there was none.“No coffee?” he grumbled as he pushed his body into a sitting position.“This is better than coffee,” Richard eagerly said. “I’ve brought someone with me. Get up lazy bones.”Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Oliver pulled on his pants and boots before crawling out of the small camping tent. Still not fully awake and the sun not yet risen enough for good visibility, he didn’t react to the woman standing next to Richard.Accustomed to waking up with coffee ready and waiting, his need for the brew was surprisingly overwhelming. Walking to t
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 22
Brett’s gut was so twisted that he could barely make the shift with ease. It had been a long time since he’d sensed a newly awakened curse in the area. This was the first time that he’d picked up on one who was in need of help. What kind of help remained to be seen. He suspected it was big though, since his gut was rarely wrong.He waited for his entire pack to shift before he allowed his own transformation to take over. His pack was a mixture of man wolves and full wolves. While most pack masters would govern over one type or the other, Brett allowed all in need of a pack to join. His only requirement was that they all get along. Since man-wolves tended to be far more aggressive and ornerier than a full wolf, he often needed to remind them of this rule by force.He was one of the rare ones who had the ability to shift either partially into a man wolf, which was basically a human’s body with a wolf&rsquo
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 21
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Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 20
Viviane pursed her lips while she scraped a heaping pile of scrambled eggs next to the sausage on the plate that she’d set in front of her husband.“I don’t know,” Arthur reluctantly said as he leaned back in his chair to avoid having his body hinder his wife’s serving progress, “I hate to accuse the girl.”“I could tell by her breathing that she was awake,” Viviane said. “Her shoulder was showing from beneath the covers. It was bare. It’s time we say something.”“I think she’s the one taking our livestock and not the fox,” he mused.“It would explain why your traps aren’t working,” she replied.Pounding his fist on the table so hard that his plate jumped and bits of scrambled eggs danced about on it, Arthur spat, “I hate this!”“I was hoping it would skip us,” Viviane said.&ldquo
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 19
Eliza didn’t need to open her eyes to know where she was. She shivered from the cool pre-dawn dew that settled thick on her bare flesh as she slowly sat up. Although not as horrendous as the month before, sledgehammers steadily banged against the interior of her skull as her surroundings slowly came into focus. Her mouth was so parched that it felt like it was lined with sandpaper. She struggled to produce sufficient saliva to moisten it enough for her tongue to move freely.“Not again,” she moaned as she slowly got to her feet.There were bits of dried blood on her chest. She could feel it on her neck as well. She quickly inspected her body for injuries. To her relief, she found none. The blood wasn’t hers. Or, was it? Remembering how well the Epsom salts bath had healed her the month before, she wondered if she showed no signs of hurt because she’d bathed in an Epsom salts bath just before going to bed
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 18
“I don’t know why you insist on being here,” Richard grumbled as Oliver walked up the narrow path to where he stood. “They’ll be gathering soon and I doubt you’ll be welcome. You should have stayed in town. What happened with that girl. Eliza, right?”“I couldn’t connect,” Oliver replied with irritation, “and I told you that I’m not quitting on you.”Richard gave a sarcastic chuckle as he asked, “What makes you think that allowing me to run with my own kind once a month without your interference is quitting on me?”“My interference, as you put it, has kept you alive on more than one occasion,” Oliver snipped between clenched teeth. “Or, have you forgotten all of the times I’ve prevented hunters from finding you?”Richard’s expression was thoughtful while he slowly shook his head and said, “I actu
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 17
One Month LaterOliver sat back in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck and cautiously sipped at the piping hot coffee he’d just gotten from a drive-thru a block away. He’d tried calling Eliza on multiple occasions but it just kept going into voicemail. He left a few messages but got no response. Then, one day the number was no longer in service.He’d been devastated to discover that she’d run away after Richard showed up. Although, he couldn’t blame her. She had no idea that they were talking about werewolves. From the tone of the conversation, she probably thought that his brother was a murderer.He emitted an ironic huff. What did it matter? One was as bad as the other, wasn’t it? Telling her that his brother was a werewolf would make him sound crazy enough to frighten her off as would saying that Richard was a murderer.Running
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 16
Arthur chewed on the mouthpiece of his pipe while slowly rocking in his favorite rocking chair on the front wrap-around porch as he watched Eliza’s jeep ease up the long drive and park not far away. He studied her movements as she slipped out from the driver’s side and planted her feet on the hard packed, grassy ground. It was clear that she was exhausted.The shadows cast by the setting sun, along with the fact that he was located near the corner of the house, made it so that he wasn’t immediately seen by his daughter as she slowly climbed the steps to the porch. Because of this she jerked with surprise when he spoke.“Long day?” he asked. Then, seeing her reaction, he added, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”“I didn’t see you,” she noted with a warm smile as she traversed the last step and leaned her back against the post that helped support the roof at the top of the steps so th
Eliza: The Awakening (Book 1) Chapter 15
Eliza cautiously inched away from the two brothers, hoping while she did so that they’d stay consumed with each other and not notice when she ran like the wind to get away from them. She was still confused by the topic of their conversation, but she clearly understood the words ‘killing people’ and ‘us or them’. That was all she needed to hear for panic to flood her body and the need to flee as quickly as possible to become overwhelming.Because her thinking was clouded with emotions, she ran in the wrong direction. Instead of heading back toward the trail, she rushed deeper into the wilds of the mountainside. The thick array of random foliage that grew between close growing trees made the going arduous, but the adrenaline in her veins helped her plough through with relative ease. So much so that she hardly noticed it.When she stopped to catch her breath, she could hear the faint, animated voices of Oli
