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Chapter 76- Undeserving
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Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 1 - His End
Chapter 1(The gossamer moon was the only sentinel to witness or tenuous beginnings.)-UnknownBrandon burst past a clump of trees, racing deep into the woods.A fine mist of droplets fell from the pine needles over head, down into his dirty blond hair. The water saturated him. Plastering the few dry strands left down onto his scalp, forehead, and temples. His wet clothes clung to him and made his thin cheeks and dark rimmed eyes seem all the more devastating.Brandon whipped away a cool droplet from his skin, fighting not to shiver and failing miserably. "Damn forest! It's freezing!!." He panted shallowly as he moved forward and asked himself. "Where
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 2 - New Smell
Chapter 2Ezekiel didn't know what exactly called him off the beaten path that night....but on instinct he had followed the soft breeze of the night. Now he stood and watched the mortal below him from the tree branches high above the intruders oblivious head.So close that he could smell nothing but thick coppery blood.It drenched the air, it bleed across Ezekiel's senses, tickling the beast inside of him. It growled dangerously coming awake in moments as if jolted from its rest.So strange. It was a curious scent, blood....and something else, laced along with it. It overpowered the smell of pine that had always been a part of his Clans forests.The smel
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 3 - Death
Chapter 3 - DeathWith a snarl, more beast then man, Ezekiel charged into the mortal.He clamped his hands around the mortal's smaller right wrist that was holding the blade, and slammed him back into the tree.The mortal screamed in agony, and Ezekiel smelled more blood rush into the air, but the mortal wasn't done in by Ezekiels attack.A fist, small, and hard cracked into the side of his head. Once, then twice.Ezekiel tottered to the side as blood blossomed inside his cheek and his hold on the mortal slipped. And then the mortal started rush him.Ezekiel quickly retreated. With his hands out to his sid
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 4 - Taking Stock
Chapter 4"What do I do now?" Ezekiel asked himself.In the deathly silent moments that passed after the mortal fell unconscious, this was the only question, out of the other hundred buzzing around in his head; which Ezekiel most desperately wanted to find an answer to.Still leaned over the mortal on the ground, Ezekiel felt harsh twinges of pain lance down his arm and across his collar. Reminding him that he had just in fact survived a deadly blow. Ezekiel took a moment to reassure himself that the stranger wasn't going to jump up and stab him again.Calling on the beast inside him, he felt warm energy flowing out of his core and into his eyes. With a slight sting, Ezekiel then felt his eyes slit, taking on the shape of a cats gaze.With glowing blue eyes, he swept his hands across the stranger's hips and ankles, searching for more blades. With the beast inside lending him its sight, the darkness melted away and for the most part Ezekiel could se
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 5 - Decisions
Chapter 5 - DecisionsAnd then there was a tiny thump. And then a few seconds later....a second thump. A weak heartbeat.Releasing a breath, Ezekiel pulled back. The cold dread ripping deep into his soul dissipated.He's alive...just barely...but seriously what do I do with him, now?Coming to a decision that the mortal wasn't capable of moving, much less attacking in his current sorry state Ezekiel decided to move off a ways and inspect the wounds that he had sustained earlier.And to think.With a painful hiss Ezekiel lowered himself into the pine needles beside the mortal and inspected his shoulder.Ezekiel quickly lifted up his shirt, biting back another painful hiss as he watched the blood flowing down his right peck from a giant, bloody gash two spaces to the left of his heart. The wound in his shoulder was clean and at least a few inches deep.As Ezekiel inspected it with his slit eyes in the darkness a small chill race
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 6 - Big Brothers
Chapter 6 - Big BrothersEzekiel could sense the eyes within the darkness as he neared the path that would take him out of the pine forest and into the perimeter of his home.Glaring, calculating and questioning, they burned into him, but more than him Ezekiel felt these eyes focused on his arms.Looking at the stranger that he bore like a broken, bloody, sack nestled against his chest.Ezekiel let the power of his beast take over and felt the power bleed into his eyes. He felt his pupils shrink sharply, until, darkness became more like light. Shadows gave way to him and there, not ten feet from him, Ezekiel could make out the shadows of three, very large, very animalistic outlines.Ezekiel blinked slowly, then looked down at the stranger in his hands. "So...." He began talking to the new arrivals. But he didn't use words to speak. No. He growled, hissed and roared out his sentences. Speaking the language of the Shifter inside of him. "So I guess I
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 7 - Powers At Play
Chapter Seven - Power PlayEzekiel wasn't sure what to expect after his harsh words....but he should have known that there would be serious backlash."I think someone's forgotten who the hell he's talking to! Do you really think you've got what it takes to go up against any of us!" sneered Ezekiel's green eyed brother, Lander.With a brisk step he brushed past Walter and approached Ezekiel with eyes full of open aggression.Lander was Ezekiel's second eldest brother.He much like Walter had wide shoulders, but his hips were more narrow and defined by muscle and sinew. Defined but slimmer he was built for the Shift, the streamlined body made for hunt and k
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 8 - Die Now; Die Later
Chapter Eight - Die Now, Die Later"Fine, if this is to be the path you've chosen, then I do not see any of us persuading you to turn back...at least not with resorting to violence...." Walter suddenly rumbled. His burning yellow eyes piercing the misty darkness. The large shadowed figure of his largest sibling stoic and unyielding in the pale light of the moon."I will help escort the intruder to the house with you Ezekiel. But when we get there Im not leaving mom alone with this stranger. Got it?" As the Eldest his words held a lot of power over the other brothers.With no other recourse all Ezekiel could do was nod. Then Ezekiel looked at his other brothers and quirked an eye brow at them."He's gonna kill you fo
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Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 76- Undeserving
Chapter 76Against Ezekiel's will, the Leopard inside urged him to follow Brandon.Ezekiel simply clocked his exit instead, watching until Brandon had completely disappeared from sight, leaving behind the overpowering scent of his alluring blood on the air.Mantilo easily ignored his abrupt exit and as everyone turned back to discussing the information that their Father had returned with....Ezekiel found his mind lingering, as it often did, on the meaning behind what Brandon had uttered moments ago.You and those ugly beasts don't scare me....Is what he had said to Mantilo, but that snide remark uttered in passing seemed deeper to Ezekiel. It had Ezekiel pondering silently.So what the hell IS he afraid of? What is Brandon's story?Ezekiel asked himself.And for some unknown reason the idea of the answer to that question unsettled Ezekiel even more. And he wondered why someone he thought about this much...was still little more than a stranger to him. And why a sickly unwanted Reaver
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 75 - Good Intensions
Ezekiel suddenly heard Brandon breathing behind him, tight sharp gasps.....like he couldn't quite catch his breath.Taking a moment to step back out of the circle that his brothers had formed around their father and Nate, Ezekiel turned to Brandon and was struck by the emotions swirling across his face and in his eyes.He had expected to see irritation because of Mantilo's refusal to listen to him. (Something Ezekiel was privately relieved about.) But what Ezekiel saw there on Brandon's enchanting face wasn't anything as simple as irritation or even pouting.What Ezekiel saw was an intense mixture of pain and shock. His cool green gaze was slightly widened and his gloved finger tips were clawing into the narrow arms of his chair like he was holding onto the seat in a turbulent sea that only he could see.Only he could feel. And it was tearing him apart.Moved by his obvious discomfort Ezekiel went to the side of his chair, leaned on it and playfully waved his hand in front of Brandon'
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 74 - Divergent Needs
On the other side, Brandon shared their silence not because he have insight into the Ghouls motives, but because their motives were all that he understood.The Ghouls had come for him, plain and simple.But aside from their appearances, and their hunting style and the potential threat that they poses to other living things he knew very little about the beasts that had been chasing him. He had learned more from Mantilo and Nate in that moment then, what felt like a life time of running, had ever taught him.How can those things be Rats....? How can they be Shifters?Brandon asked himselfThey are taller and longer than most men and they....they don't speak...they can't speak...They are nothing but monsters.The idea confounded him. But honestly what didn't confound him?Brandon didn't understand himself. . He didn't know why he could nearly taste energy on his tongue. He didn't understand the world that he traveled aimlessly through. A world that held Shifters, and Clans and Dragons an
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 73 - Rat
Suddenly three new Shifters appeared in the door way of the day room.It didn't take long for Mantilo to notice, and with a smile, a warm smile that surprised Brandon he waived over the newcomers from the doorway.Brandon instantly recognized two out of the three that appeared and made their way to the rest of the group. One was Glen and the other Erin...accompanied by a third male, with blue eyes and black short hair. The male was almost three inches shorter then Erin, but as the two of them made their way into the room, he held her hand and on their wrists and hands Brandon spotted matching bands or tattoos around their wrists as well as the identical bands on their ring fingers.He guessed that like Mantilo and Glen Erin and the new arrival were a couple, but Brandon wasn't left to wonder who he was for long, because without any warning Erin's big hazel eyes locked on him and she rushed over to his chair, pulling the unknown man with her."Brandon, Oh no your face!?" Erin exclaimed
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 72 - Ghouls
In the aftermath of the attack, nearly five minutes passed where Ezekiel and his brothers simply took the time to regroup and compare all of their injuries.And Ezekiel spent most of those scant moments vigorously scrubbing at the foul blood and torn flesh smeared all over his face, caught in between his teeth and clogged up beneath his nails.Using the shredded cloth from one of the tables that had been destroyed he cleaned away the blood as best he could.The Guardian also used that time to put the....rage back in its place. To wrap it up tight and lock it away. He had to. Ezekiel didn't dare let it burn out or dissipate, because for a Shifter like him....a Reaver.....there was no end in sight. The rage was bottomless once unleashed.Luckily Ezekiel had more than enough to focus his attention on, besides the burning need to smash and growl. To Ezekiels immediate and all-consuming relief everyone had managed to survive the attack mostly unscathed.Brandon still sported a few cuts fro
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 71 - Death & Anger
Chapter 71 - Death & AngerEzekiel had fought many fights over the course of his life as a Guardian. Both physical and mental. Some long, some short. Some meaningful, some prideful.And as the youngest boy in a family full of male siblings he had engaged in various battles for dominance ranging from playful to downright bloody....but he could only remember fighting for his life a hand full of times in his history.That split second to avoid tragedy. The rage, the blood lust.....the focus.He felt all of that in the few minutes that had passed since the moose killers, the olive skinned monsters, had appeared in all their horrible glory and began attacking him and his brothers in their own home.The beasts stunk of rancid meat and vicious black fluids ran from their jewels.....The scent of them was enough to turn Ezekiels stomach. It wafted off of them like perfume and for a moment Ezekiel realized that this smell was what had allowed the beasts to hide away from them so effectively. Th
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 70 - Prey
They were hungry...but they had already ate a feast of flesh.The beasts sat in the shadows....their thoughts not far from the darkness that surrounded them. The sharp cutting smell of pine and rotted mulch offended and agitated them as much as the healthy, willowy canopy all around them seemed to irritate them. Branches and thin sticks that trembled in the soft cool wind.The slight almost musical twinkle of the pine needles tumbling to the forest floor, seemed to disturb the hidden hunters making them even more jumpy and angry then they were normally.As though they were unfamiliar with such a thing as falling leaves or healthy air, their bodies twitched and saliva gathered at the edges of their mouths as they became more hot and bothered by the passing hour.But though clearly angered by their surroundings the beasts sat as still as sentinels in the night. Poised on the balls of their clawed feet.And although the pungent scent of horse intestines and blood wafted up from the shape
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 69 - Talk
For another two days after the Guardians returned Brandon was determined to stay in his room. Electing to skip out on patrols with Ezekiel and stay in seclusion...until the third afternoon came and passed him by.Needing to stretch his legs and knowing that the Mansion tended to be empty in the evenings Brandon finally came down to the parlor, turned about in the open area, taking a few moments to decide which direction he would go in. Weather a trip back up the steps to his room would be his choice....or if he would take a seat on the steps and just watch the sunlight glancing inside from the windows around the door?But his choice of activity was decided for him in the next few moments. Brandon nearly jumped out his skin when a slim arm wrapped around his and yanked him down the hall."Glen!" Brandon blurted in surprise as he stumbled. Along behind her small, but surprisingly strong and sure skip."Come on, hurry!" Glen cried. Brandon felt an urgency in her insistent pulling....but
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 68 - Unspoken
The jagged ill-fitting puzzle pieces of his mind came together by the next morning...so that no one would know Brandons struggles in the nights before.Emerging from his room, Brandon descended the steps the next night and just as he hit the bottom floor, the front door was thrown open and six tired looking Guardians shuffled into the front room. Leading their weary trek into the front parlor where most of the Shifters simply plopped down onto the carpet was Mantilo. All of them shoe-less and with eyes glowing and....claws out on their fingertips that looked sharp enough to gut a man. Instantly Brandon was gripped with....joy to see all of Ezekiels family returned safely after hours of hunting, but shocked and disgusted with the reaction Brandon shook his head and dropped the smile he felt on his face.Brandon tried to turn back, but he had barely shifted his feet on the steps backwards before a familiar and feminine voice was calling out to him."Brandon...sweet heart...?" It could b
