Afterlife Saga’s
The Forbidden Chapters
Part 1
By
Stephanie Hudson
Copyright
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the author, as allowed under terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Copyright © 2017 Stephanie Hudson
All rights reserved.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning:
This book contains explicit sexual content, some graphic language and a highly addictive Alpha Males.
Cover design by: © Blake Hudson Designs
Other books by Stephanie Hudson
Afterlife Saga
Book 1 Afterlife
Book 2The Two Kings
Book 3The Triple Goddess
Book 4 The Quarter Moon
Book 5The Pentagram Child /Part 1
The Pentagram Child /Part 2
Book 6 The Cult of the Hexad
Book 7 Sacrifice of the Septimus /Part 1
Sacrifice of the Septimus /Part 2
Book 8 Coming Soon.
About the Author
Stephanie Hudson has dreamed of being a writer ever since her obsession with reading books at an early age. What first became a quest to overcome the boundaries set against her in the form of dyslexia has turned into a life's dream. She first started writing in the form of poetry and soon found a taste for horror and romance. Afterlife is the first book in the series of seven, with the story of Keira and Draven becoming ever more complicated in a world that sets them miles apart.
When not writing, Stephanie enjoys chatting with her fans and spending time with her friends. Being with her loving family as much as she can, including her wonderful daughter Ava, son Jack and supportive husband and personal muse Blake, who is there for her no matter what.
"My Love and devotion is to all of my wonderful fans that keep me going into the wee hours of the night, but foremost to my wonderful daughter Ava...who yes, is named after a Demonic bird and my son Jack, who is also a beloved character”
Afterlife Saga is going to be 8 books in total plus spin offs, as some stories are just too big for one book, and at the moment she is working on Book 8
Warning!
This is not the next book in the saga!
Also…
This chapter’s book has been written by a UK Author with a mad sense of humour. Which means the following chapters contain a mixture of Northern English slang, dialect, regional colloquialisms and other quirky spellings that have been intentionally included to make the story and dialogue more realistic for modern day characters.
Thanks for reading x
Chapters Book
Intro
First I would like to thank all the Fans out there, who made this book possible. Without you asking to read these chapters they would still be stored away on my dusty old laptop, unseen and unread.
So, thank you for requesting their release into the world.
I can only hope that they don’t disappoint.
I thought it best to start this book by explaining what it’s all about and the concept behind it. When I first started writing this massive saga I had no idea it would be so big. I knew the story from start to finish, which I will call the spine but it’s all the middle bits, the flesh, that I had no idea would become so huge. And although you can try and plan these things out, writing to me is what I like to call, an organic process. Sometimes, things just feel right and I end up riding the Afterlife wave and seeing where it takes me.
Other times however, it ends up leading me to a place I don’t want to be or getting me there sooner than I would like. So, I ended up re-writing the chapter or sometimes cutting it out altogether. This breaks my heart a little as a lot of it was fun to write. Hence why I could never bring myself to cast it into the abyss I call ‘Cyber Death’ or better known as ‘Delete World’.
No, instead I squirreled them away like a dirty secret I am now happy to release onto the world as a collection, hopefully for you to enjoy. In this Volume, you will find all the ‘Secret Pages’ from Afterlife, The Two kings and The Triple Goddess. The next Volume will contain all the ones from the rest of the saga, something that will be released after the last book is out for obvious reasons.
So just to explain how this book works, some of these chapters you will recognise parts of, as they were pieces used in the original books. I have added these in so that you know where in the story we are up to. But for those of you who don’t want to go over old ground, I have created a break and added the word ‘NEW’ so that they can be found easily.
But mainly this book is a collection of whole new chapters for you to enjoy that I have added ‘Author’s Insight’, (that’s me) to explain some of the craziness that was going through my head at the time and reasons for the Chapters being ‘Cut’.
But don’t worry if you want to skip right to the good bits, instead of reading me waffling on, I won’t take it personally… ;)
Right well without further ado I give you…
THE LOST CHAPTERS OF AFTERLIFE…
AUTHOR INSIGHT.
BOOK 1
Afterlife.
First, we start off where it all began…
Now you will find that a large portion of this book is taken up with ‘Forbidden chapters’ from book 1 and the reasons for this are most probably down to it being my first book. I was torn a lot of the time in which direction to go down as I knew part of the strength of the story was the anticipation in getting our two lovers together.
However, I would still find myself impatient enough to write this union sooner than I knew I should. In truth, there were many ways that I wanted the important factors of this story to happen, but with my imagination running wild, it was hard to choose. In the end, I presented the world with the version I felt was best and preferred personally.
To be perfectly honest the story came from a series of dreams (Very, very nice dreams, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) But as I had no experience writing anything before, I did so as more of a personal venture than thinking it possible to ever be published one day.
Thankfully, I made the brave decision to put myself out there and what we have now is seven years on from this point and the end of the saga is near.
However, book 1 will always have a most special place in my heart as it was not only the start of Keira’s epic journey but also the start of my own.
AUTHOR INSIGHT.
Chapter 20 – Book 1
In these next chapters, we see what life working in the VIP for Keira is really like, as my original plan was to have a few chapters that showed how Keira adapted to her new job. However, in the end I thought it took you from the flow of the story, so decided to have a rethink. That night I had a dream of Draven driving Keira back to her home after she hit her head in an accident. After this, it occurred to me that this would be the perfect opportunity for her to find the abandoned cabin.
This was done so that the reader could identify with a place where I always intended to have the big fight scene at the end. I think it worked better this way but this meant that
the concern Draven first shows at Keira hurting herself would have been overshadowed by her hitting her head.
And really, just how many times can a girl hurt herself before she is classed as a hazard to be around ;)
So, this next chapter should have been chapter 20 in the book. Now the other reason I chose to cut this chapter is because of what Keira is asked to do in it. After only a week, she finds Sophia asking her to do what she thinks is an impossible task. This includes being close to Draven at the top table and meeting his council for the first time. I loved the way this chapter went but in the end, I also wanted to make a bigger deal of her being at his table for the first time. Along with this I also wanted it to be when they had finally got together as a couple and to be introduced to everyone for that reason.
But I think you will agree with me, it’s a sweet few chapters showing Draven’s softer side when Keira thought he didn’t have one…not unless he was in her dreams anyway. So here is the first part for you to enjoy …
Chapter 20
Not a Request.
Book 1
NEW
After my first shift in the VIP things strangely started to resemble normality. Yes okay, admittedly I was still working in a place that wasn’t surround by the usual types you would have found in a VIP area of a nightclub. There were no businessmen toasting the success of a new business venture. There were no designer wearing celebrities or rich playboy types with scantily dressed beauties draped over them. There wasn’t even a single group that seemed to be there of their own accord, like a party or anything. No, strangely everyone in the room seemed to be there for one purpose only and that was to see the man who owned the room…literally.
The whole room and everyone in it seemed to be centred around the man seated above the rest, and what a man at that. Draven wasn’t exactly your typical ‘centre of attention’ type you would have expected from a man who owned all around him. He didn’t move from his seat and ‘work’ the room, as most businessmen would be expected to do. In fact, in the whole week I had been working the VIP, I don’t think I saw him even once approach another table, let alone speak to someone from it.
It was a bit confusing to be honest, as there wasn’t even a hint of what he was doing there. He didn’t exactly look as though he was living it up and having the time of his life every night, that was for damn sure. Nor did he look to be having a business meeting with the people sat at his table. But most importantly, well for me personally, I never saw him framed by a couple of beauties on each arm. Something I had to admit, I was most thankful for. And it wasn’t as if the choices were lacking as there were enough females dotted around the room to take anyone’s fancy.
No, the only people that I ever saw sitting next to him was his brother, Vincent and sister, the fabulous Sophia. And at least I had one person who seemed happy to see me whenever I turned up for my shift. Well, Karmun was always nice to me but he seemed like the type of guy that would have been nice even if my dragon of a Maths Teacher had turned up to wait tables. Speaking of which, this was something I was finally allowed to do after my first night.
Even though I was given the quietest section it was still a step up from collecting glasses. And even after I first approached the table as though they were going to eat me, they quickly put me at ease and seemed really friendly. They even asked my name and in return told me theirs. This was nice and welcoming but on the other hand I really hoped they weren’t expecting me to repeat them back at any point as most I couldn’t even say, let alone remember. One of them sounded like you needed a mouth full of water to even pronounce it, as I swear it was gargled.
But overall, it seemed quite normal, other than trying to condition myself not to keep looking longingly over at the living God that sat there like a king surrounded by his entourage. I tried, I really did but it was as though something in my head just snapped. I was drawn to him in a way that was bordering on the ridiculous and already beyond the realms of obsession. Each night I would watch the time ticking down far too quickly and the same thing would happen.
My palms would sweat and I found my heartbeat would kick up a notch because two things would happen. The first was that I would cruelly convince myself that tonight was the night like the first, he would approach me and we would actually have our first official conversation. And the second would be the only definite thing that I had to hold on to. Because there was only one way I could walk out of there and that was past his table. The second night I did so trying not to look but thanks to Sophia, it didn’t play out this way. Thinking about it, it never turned out this way as every night I walked past she would shout my name.
My reaction was the same every time. I would blush, bite my lip and look up enough to give her a little wave allowing my eyes to meet Draven’s for a split second. But the look of disdain I would receive back had me lowering my head quickly so that it could barely be classed as a look at all. I didn’t know what his problem was with me, but he was making it perfectly clear, that was for damn sure!
Some nights at home in my bed, doing something mundane like brushing my hair, I would be free to daydream it went differently. At first it was just a simple smile or even a wink as I walked by, but then my imagination would get the better of me and that wink would morph into him pointing a finger my way. I would do the whole ‘looking around dramatically and mouthing the words, ‘who me?’ back at him’. Then with a brief nod he would motion me to come to him with his finger, pointing it then to his side.
Of course, I would go to him and once there he would hand me a drink and ask me to join them. This was the part of the fantasy that usually turned slightly sexual as there was never a seat empty for me so it meant me sitting on his lap. Once there, his hand would wander but looking at his stern face you never would have suspected. I would gasp and wriggle against him, feeling the evidence for myself what he would rather be doing. Usually, it would just end there with him whispering a single word in my ear…Mine.
But then on a rare occasion he would tip my head back, pulling it slightly to the side so that he could look at me. His fingers would linger by my cheek before pushing them back through my hair, gripping it tightly in his hand before crushing his lips to mine. Then I would get lost in his kiss, uncaring about the room full of people watching us. I found myself asking how I knew his kiss would be dominating the way I always pictured it.
Actually, that wasn’t completely true as the answer was blatantly obvious with just one look at the man. And tonight was no different. He wore a tailored navy, three-piece suit, white shirt and blue tie looking as though he was born to wear it. But he also had that old-world warrior look about him. You could just see him wielding a sword fitting better in his hand than that of a briefcase. Personally, I didn’t know which side of him I found sexier.
I reached the bar, placed down my empty glasses, and released a sigh I didn’t release I was holding on to until a voice spoke.
“Surely, it’s not that bad, unless you’re thinking about History class today that is.” I smiled and turned to face Sophia.
“Well it was brutal, and that’s just Reed with his assignments, not the French Revolution we were being lectured on.” Sophia laughed and she could have brought men to their knees with just one wink, given the way she looked. She wore an A-line halter neck dress patterned in big black, lace flowers covered in shimmering sequins. Her hair was swept back to one side in a loose bun with a few curls escaping, and her makeup was classic sixties style, with large black eyeliner flicks over each eye.
Cute sandal heels completed the look. My look however, was as far from glamourous as you could get. No, tonight I was rocking the hired help look, with black trousers and a black top that had long, wide sleeves. It had a scooped neckline that showed only a hint of the ample breast size I was hiding beneath it. To be honest, other than a plain black shirt that tied at the back, it was the only other smart top I owned. However, wearing this meant a hot night for me as thanks to the bell sleeves I had no c
hoice but to wear my fingerless gloves underneath for fear that someone would notice my scars.
As always, my long hair was tied back in a twist with the shorter bits framing my face, bits that I constantly would push behind my ears. Something that I found myself doing right now.
“Looks like a quiet night,” Sophia said nodding to my half empty section.
“Yeah, it is, I guess that…Uh, Sophia?” My intended sentence trailed off and ended with a question thanks to the smirk she was giving me.
“We are a girl down at our table, so I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind filling in,” she said looking back over her shoulder at the top table, and the source of my main focus in life. I looked to Draven and it was as if he knew because he turned his head to us both at the bar. Then he knocked his drink back in one and turned his harsh stare elsewhere.
“Uh…I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” I told her, keeping my response mellow, not the screaming and freaking out I felt myself doing inside.
“Sure it is,” Sophia said smiling and I choked on a laugh.
“That look said anything but. Trust me on this one Sophia, I think the last person your brother wants to see working his table is me,” I told her honestly and hated the wobble in my voice for how much the truth hurt.
The Forbidden Chapters Part 1: Afterlife Saga Page 1