LOGINShare
Chapter 9 - Follow Through
Last Updated:
2022-04-11 21:49:42Chapter 9- Follow Through
"Mom...You have to promise not to scream...." Ezekiel whispered walking his mother up from the spiral staircase and down the long hallway of the third floor of their three story home. The dim light that glowed from the few candles lit in the early hours of the previous evening lent a welcome shadows that helped to hide Ezekiels anxiety from her.
After managing to not only sneak the mortal into their home without the world ending, Ezekiel had quickly realized that both of his parents had retired to their bed room for the night.
SafeWas what Ezekiel had thought to himself as they smuggled the mortal further into their home.Each of his brothers struggled slightly to juggle the mortal's limp weight and avoid the furniture in the front hall. But...Related chapters
Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 10 - This is Bad
Chapter 10 - This is BadRealizing that it was almost three am Ezekiel allowed her the necessary time to emerge from her sleep before he spoke."Ezekiel?" His mother gorged, raising her head, curls tumbling over her shoulder she pulled herself up on to her seat and stretched leisurely. Bright green eyes glowed in the dim lights. Slit like a big cat they contacted sharply as her eyes opened, and as she opened her small mouth to yawn, tiny fangs flashed in the candle light. Reminding Ezekiel that for all Shifters, sleep allowed the beast much closer to the surface then was possibly safe."Ezekiel? What time is it? Is something wrong?' his mother hissed softly, drawing her arms up into the air to crack her back, closing her eyes and rubbing them she slouched on the bed. Whe
Last Updated : 2022-04-11Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 11 - Team Work
Chapter 11 - Team WorkAll three of Ezekiels brothers shared anxious unsure looks.Then all of then leveled their eyes at him. As if to say "WE TOLD YOU SO!"But before Ezekiel could even think of the words his mother opened her eyes.Without a word she put a small hand to the mortal's chest. Then putting a hand to her own wrist she began silently counting the mortals pulse. Tight lipped and not sparing any of them one glance she bit off two words. "Explain this!"Ezekiel, and all of his brothers were grown men, although Ezekiel had only just turned twenty three, he was definitely not a child.He didn't fe
Last Updated : 2022-04-12Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 12 - Hell
Chapter 12 - HellSomeone was touching him.Brandon felt it all over his skin, no he sensed it. Eyes. Hands. Something wet and slimy spread on his flesh.His breathing was so slow that he couldn't hear anything but the thrumming pain spreading out of his stomach into every inch of his body.His skin was too tight, it was melting. It was popping. His eyes itched. Nothing felt solid. The earth rolled.The thoughts that tried to take hold slipped and ran away from him like spoiled eggs.And the cold......he felt the cold like thrones beneath his clothes. Grating on every nerve like nails. Ripping. It stabbed
Last Updated : 2022-04-13Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 13 - Disrespect
Chapter 13 - Disrespect"Dad wait..." Ezekiel began.Mantilo walked forward, snarled and pushed Ezekiel aside.Ezekiel stumbled to the side and let him pass as he bit his lip anxiously. He knew making a move to defend the man would only lead him to a worse fate.Mantilo went closer to the mortal's sick bed. He feared what his dad would do, but Ezekiel also knew that trying to stop the man was pointless."A mortal? Are you insane!?"He growled approaching the stranger in the bed. Mantilo looked over the feverish, slumbering moral and clenched his fists at his sides. Ezekiel could sense his anger and unease growing as he spoke. "Get him out of here! We n
Last Updated : 2022-04-14Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 14 - Off The Hook?
Chapter 14 - Off The Hook?"Haa ha.. No one can cut through the bullshit like mom." Nate breathed out happily with a bemused smile pointed up at the ceiling as he walked down the hall with his brothers.Their father Mantilo, his back wider and more rigid then any of theirs marched before them, leading them down the hall away from the second floor.They were finally leaving Glen with the mortal and heading back to the front door for all that Ezekiel could guess. Heading down the spiral staircase, which muffled their footsteps as thick brown carpet bounced beneath their bare feet."Yup..." Walter mumbled from far to the right. A rare smirk touched his grim mouth then was gone the next second.
Last Updated : 2022-04-15Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 15 - Guardians
Chapter 15 - GuardiansMantilo watched his youngest son steadily and let him stew in silence for a few seconds.Ezekiel like the rest of his sons was not a child.Ezekiel was twenty three years old and the youngest. Nate was right before him in age also in his early twenty's.Walter was the oldest of his sons at age twenty nine. And Lander came in just below him in age at twenty six years.But Shifters were different then Mortals in they way that they aged.Where mortals were known to age once a year, for Shifters, the first few years of life was the same as a mortals. But after puberty.....after the Shift
Last Updated : 2022-04-16Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 16 - His Pain
Chapter 16 - His PainSo he dreamed. Brandon couldn't move. He couldn't hardly breathe. He felt a great agony pounding at the base of his head, but all of this seemed so far away.So Brandon dreamed in that far off place just between sleep, unconsciousness, and death.Because he knew he was dying.Even in this foggy state of consciousness his heart whispered to him what his mind couldn't say. He was a goner. How much longer would it take? How long before the release was final? Or how long before he woke up and was forced to live underneath their thumb all over again?He didn't know. So he dreamed.Strangely enough dreaming was far t
Last Updated : 2022-04-18Tales of a Shifter (P1) - Meeting Chapter 17 - Unknown Agony
Chapter 17 - Unknown AgonyGlen struggled to ignore the intruder's screams as she moved along the hall walking away from his room.Ever since coming to her only a few hours ago, the mortal had been a bloody, emaciated, smelly, and now moaning bunch of agony. Glen had suffered through the first few hours because the mortal had kept his distress contained to a few pathetic drawn out moans and leg twitching, but in the last half hour his moaning had transformed into full throated screams. And try as she might to discover the source of the mortals agony she soon came to realize that this pain was purely mental. Spiritual.And try as she might to stay dutifully by her patients side as Glen knew all healers should....she just couldn't stomach that. It was too visceral. To fami
Last Updated : 2022-04-18
Latest chapter
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
