by Tia Wylder
Chapter Six
Axel
I should have died on that stretch of road in the middle of nowhere, but I didn’t. The bullet they shot me with was pulled out, and when they patch me us they decided against putting another one in my head. Instead they offered me a choice: rot in jail for the rest of my life, or take on an impossible mission.
If I somehow pulled off their mission, they would let me go back to my family. I would have to go deep undercover behind enemy lines. It would take a year, easy. I was part of a team, all of whom posed as immigrants defecting from the states. We had military training, but they didn’t know that. We all had different stories; some of them even had a fake family to go with their fake names.
I was a loner before, and I was going to be a loner again in this new life. It wasn’t too hard to fool them. They expected a bad boy with an attitude problem and an issue with authority. That’s exactly what they got. I almost didn’t make it over the border, spent some time in a holding cell after taking a few swings at a military man, but it was worth it. He was an asshole, and my cover was more believable than ever.
I was assigned work at one of their factories producing weapons and ammo on an assembly line. It was mindless work, but they had me steal small samples on a weekly basis. It was never enough to really cause a problem, but enough for them to get a leg up on the enemy. That, of course, wasn’t my ultimate mission.
No, I was just biding my time until the real target showed up: the General of the EOF, chosen by representatives of its countries. The brains of the operation as it were. He was due to tour the factories at some point during my stay. It took almost a year before they gathered us all in the main hall and announced that the glorious leader of the EOF would be coming to tour our factory.
I didn’t sleep a wink that night. The mission involves killing the General, but that was just the beginning. Once it was done, we had to get out on our own. That way, if we’re captured, they could deny involvement. We were all draft-dodgers, but now, we were all going to do this together.
The phone rang in my one-bedroom apartment on the morning of the tour. I picked it up with a shaking hand.
“Oh-four-seven-two-six-victor-Charlie-Zulu, checking in,” I said.
There was silence on the other end for about ten seconds. I thought I heard someone’s breath crackling in the speaker.
“It’s just us,” a voice said.
“Sir?”
“Don’t ‘sir’ me, none of that matters anymore. Blackwell, they’re all dead.”
If everyone else was gone, that left myself and our squad leader, Patterson. He was undercover as a bodyguard for the General. Another of our agents was supposed to get a job catering the event, and still another was supposed to sabotage aspects of the plant to create an accident. We had multiple options for taking out the target, but now we were down to two: Patterson could kill the general himself, or I could try and come up with another plan.
“How do we proceed?” I asked.
“Report to your shift like usual, I’ll be at the General’s side. We’ll just have to improvise.”
I put the phone down and went through my usual routine to get ready for the day’s work. I was at my post, ready and waiting when the bells rang and the lines started up. The equipment they used was outdated and the items we were assembling were volatile. Other men have died on the line because of a misplaced firing pin, a loaded clip, or a botched grenade.
The door to my section of the factory swung open and a loud voice declared the arrival of the General. We were told to keep working like it didn’t matter. We had to showcase our skills to him and ensure that everything was being done properly. Despite the grinding metal gears and the hum of the machines, I somehow heard every single footstep, moving to the beat of my heart.
I made brief eye contact with Patterson. He eyed me with a glare as if he expected me to have done something by now. As the General approached from behind, I deftly assembled a grenade and placed the trigger pin beside it, as per protocol.
“Excellent time,” the General said.
I continued working as if he hadn’t said anything. He walked past me, along with Patterson. When the next grenade came, I assembled it, placed the trigger pin inside, and then pulled it out. The timer started. I threw the pin at Patterson. It hit him in the back of the head as the grenade slid down the assembly line. He spun around and looked at me as the General continued walking.
I pointed to the assembly belt and Patterson immediately understood. He dove away from the General just as the grenade detonated in a massive fireball. Smoke rushed past me as I was thrown to the ground. The factory alarms blared all around us as I struggled to climb onto my feet. Patterson appeared and helped me stand. My ears were ringing and my vision was blurry.
“That was some quick thinking,” Patterson said.
“Yeah, now comes the hard part.”
From within the swirling smoke, the General emerged. His face was burned and charred. I could see shrapnel protruding from his legs. He lurched toward us and grabbed Patterson by the neck. They tumbled to the ground as Patterson struggled to push him off. I reached down and pulled the pistol from the General’s holster.
He was growling words that I couldn’t understand. His lips could barely move.
“Blackwell, shoot! Do it now!”
I aimed the gun at the smoldering General, but I had trouble pulling the trigger. This would be my first time killing someone.
“Do you want to see your family again?” Patterson asked.
I pictured Jackie and Jacob. That I was all I needed. I squeezed the trigger and put two rounds into the General. Patterson stood up and took the gun from me.
“Hesitate again and I’ll leave you behind. Let’s go.”
We left the factory in all of the commotion. The military was moving in from every angle. The place would be on lockdown in mere seconds.
“How are we going to get out of here?” I asked.
Patterson looked around.
“Find cover, they should be here any minute.”
I followed Patterson to an outcropping hanging over a supply cache. Bombs started falling from the sky. The factory was awash in flames as we hid behind a stack of steel crates.
“An air strike? I thought they wouldn’t come for us?” I asked.
“Not until the job was done! The men on a suicide mission are the most desperate, and the most creative!” Patterson shouted.
“You knew?” I asked.
He nodded as he grinned. “Yeah, but I’m not a draft-dodger. Consider your sins absolved.”
I shook my head. Yeah, maybe one sin, but not all of them.
Chapter Seven
Jackie
Tyler was sweet at first, even loving. As time went on, though, he started to become angry. Ever since we made love, he became more distant. He seemed angry all the time, and he drank every night until he passed out. I hated thinking about it, but it seemed like he was acting for the past year. A part of me wondered if he only wanted to sleep with me, so he forced himself to be nice.
There were times when we got into arguments, and I was terrified that he would hit me. I wanted to say something to Lisa, but how could I tell my best friend that her older brother was an abusive asshole? Up until then, he hadn’t laid a finger on me, but I truly felt like he was one argument away from hitting me.
He loved going out to sports bars to watch the big games. Being a professional athlete, he was always dragging me out to the bar when his team was playing. He was too persuasive, so I usually went and hired a babysitter for Jacob. He was, after all, paying for everything. He loved to hang that over my head.
We were at the sports bar; sitting at a table, and Tyler was downing his fourth beer as he pointed at the screen and called out random player’s names. I watched him drink another, and another, and another, until the game was over. He paid his tab and we left the bar. He was too drunk to drive like most nights, so we walked home.
&nb
sp; About halfway back there was an alley that was largely deserted. Tyler grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the darkened alley.
“I can’t believe I never thought of this!” he shouted.
“What are you doing?”
“Take off your panties,” he said.
He started undoing his pants and I realized what he wanted.
“No, absolutely not! You’re drunk, we’re going home!”
That was the moment. He pulled back his hand and struck me across the face. Pain lit up across my vision as I fell against the wall. I was in shock, stunned, as he started unbuttoning my shirt.
I reached out to push him away, but he was too strong. He closed his fist and hit me again. My head shot back and hit the wall. The alley was spinning as I felt him undressing me.
“You should have listened,” he whispered.
I felt his dirty hands clawing at me. I wanted to fight back, but everything was blurry and the pain was unbearable. Tyler disappeared. I felt his hands leave me as he tumbled to the ground. I stood up from the wall and turned to face him.
Another man was lying on top of him. He sat up and started punching him repeatedly. I saw blood spewing from his nose with each subsequent hit. I ran over and grabbed the person by the shoulder.
“It’s fine, don’t hurt him!” I shouted.
The man turned to face me. It was Axel.
“You?” I asked.
He stood up. “Jackie, it’s me, I’m back!”
I threw up my hands and walked away from him. He chased after me. I felt his hands on my shoulders. They were rugged, but gentle at the same time.
“You think you can just show up like nothing happened?” I asked.
“Baby, it’s not like that. I don’t know who that asshole was, but please, let me get you out of here. I’ll explain everything.”
I wasn’t ready to welcome Axel back with open arms, but I didn’t want to go home with Tyler either.
“He knows where I live,” I said.
Axel’s eyes lit up. “He lives with you?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m sure it is. Here, I have a car. Let’s go home to Jacob and I promise I’ll tell you everything.”
“What about him, what if he comes for me?” I asked.
Axel laid his hand on my cheek, just like he used to do when we first started dating. I felt scars on his face. They were new and fresh, which made me wonder what he had been doing all this time. I looked into his eyes and I saw that love that we shared, burning brighter than ever.
“I’ll take care of him. From here on out, I’m going to protect my family, whatever it takes, I’ll never leave you again,” he said.
I smiled as he took me into his arms. I didn’t know why, but I felt like I could believe him. I loved him with all my heart. It was like he never left.
RIGHT BEFORE EACH BOOK TITLE:
RIGHT BEFORE EACH BOOK TITLE:
The Billionaire Wolf Shifter
By Bella Angel
Chapter One
I’ve often asked myself if what I am is a gift or a curse. The blood of the dire wolf flows through me; it is an extinct blood that has long been forgotten by the Earth and its people. I have the strength of humans and dire wolves without the weakness of either. Time has forgotten me, and all those I have ever loved have succumbed to death, yet I live on. I was truly alone in a world that no longer had need of me.
For countless decades I have roamed the halls of a castle that I built hundreds of years ago with my blood, sweat, and tears. Even with the help of my allies, friends, and fellow warriors, it took almost a lifetime to build. While their bodies wasted away, mine stood aside the flow of time. They didn’t know my secret, no one did. When the moon hung high in the sky, casting its white glow down upon the world, the blood of the dire wolf took hold.
My skin fell away as my bones shattered and reformed. My body was covered in a thick layer of matted grey fur as thick teeth erupted from my newly formed snout. I couldn’t control the transformation. It would come as it pleased and leave me a slave to the ancient instincts of a long dead race.
On those nights I would leave the castle, despite my many attempts to keep myself captive on those cold nights. I would chain myself to the wall in the deepest corner of my empty dungeon and wait for the wolf to take over. The chains did nothing to hold a creature without arms, and though metal bars sealed the exit to the chamber, the dire wolf would always find a way to escape. I would often wake up the following morning in my own bedroom with a vicious headache and a vague memory of the night before.
The dire wolf dug a tunnel beneath the door. The dire wolf found a loose stone and pried it free, thus compromising the outer wall. The dire wolf did what it must to be free and hunt as it had always known. Thought my memories of the hunt were always fuzzy, I relived parts of them in my dreams. My prey was anything that dared to roam the endless frozen forests outside my isolated home.
I tracked my prey with a precision unknown to today’s predators. The sensations were incredible; I could smell their fear just before the dire wolf attacked. There was a time, hundreds of years ago, when humans used to roam these forests. During those years, a legend was spread of a giant wolf that would devour explorers who ventured too deep into the woods on a night when the moon was full.
It was I they spoke of, I saw it in my dreams. They created stories, stories that came close to the truth, but still left many of the details unspoken. They called me a werewolf, that was the name I had been assigned. I was not a werewolf; I was a shifter, one of many. Still, humans had their stories to help their feeble minds comprehend something they couldn’t possibly understand.
For the longest time, I embraced the dire wolf and its need to hunt, but soon the humans realized that their murdered sons and husbands always seemed to be found near my castle. They came with fire and blades to kill me. They waited until the moon was gone from the sky, and they struck without warning.
Moon or no moon, the dire wolf would not be threatened by its prey. I lost control that night, hundreds of years ago. I still have nightmares of the slaughter. The dire wolf was a perfect predator perhaps that is why nature sought to balance the scales and kill off the entire species. I slaughtered countless people before the villagers were freed of their bloodlust by fear and fled back into the forest.
When I awoke the next morning, I was covered in their blood. It was then that I knew this gift of mine was a curse. I had spent so long secluded from the rest of the world, but it was clear that I could not hide forever. The dire wolf would not be subdued, and it would not permit me to take my life.
No, I had to seek control. I ventured forth from my castle and traveled across the lands looking for others like myself. There were those with the blood of a bear, a lion, a tiger, and many other powerful beasts flowing through them. Other shifters like me who also struggled to control their shifts. Most had simply succumbed to their animal spirit and became feral as both human and beast.
Others stayed isolated and moved from place-to-place seeking new refuge and a place where their transformation would not result in the deaths of innocent lives. Meanwhile, humans continued telling their stories of monsters that hid beneath their beds and sulked in the shadows. We shifters were creatures of myth and fear, used to control and subjugate the masses through a uniform terror.
After countless years I came into the presence of an ancient and forgotten tribe. They found me after a hunt, naked and freezing. They took me into their village and brought me to a shaman who lay on his deathbed. They clothed me and when I recovered, I spoke to the shaman. He told me that his people were among the first shifters. He had lived for thousands of years, but now death had found him.
He spoke of a future where our kind would be driven to extinction by humans who were too fearful to understand our place in the world. He told me that he had spent the last several decades of his life trying to create a formula. It was supposed to be a serum that would allow s
hifters to control their animal spirits and thus keep themselves hidden from the prying eyes of humans.
He was close, he knew it. He gave me everything he had and told me to finish his work. When I asked him why he had chosen me, he shook his head:
No, wolf it is not I that chose you, but you who have chosen me. Your journey is at an end, return to your home and save our people.
I returned to my castle and set about creating a means of saving our people. Countless failures only served as fuel for the fires of my resolve. When I finally perfected the formula, I found myself living in a brave new world where anything could be bought or sold at the right price. With my new formula in hand, I set about creating a business empire that would not only provide me with the means to save my people, but with the power to ensure that no human could stop me.
Chapter Two
Present Day
Humans liked to think they had total control over the world they lived in, that they were at the top of the food chain. In reality, many of the people they knew as leaders and celebrities were shifters that had achieved a mainstream lifestyle through my medicine, now labeled a drug by modern society. Weekly doses would ensure that a shifter could resist the transformation and choose to transform whenever they liked.
It was not a perfect solution. The voices of the beasts within them still called out, but their cries were reduced to a dull roar when taking my medicine. I never gave it a name, for the shaman that had bestowed it upon me never decided on one. The people who purchased it from me around the world took to calling it “Instinct.”