Spring Showers Box-set

by Avell Kro

  called a breakthrough.”

  “I think so. How does that feel?” I know how to play therapist.

  Franklin considers. “Literally like a breakthrough. Like it broke this barrier that’s been inside me

  forever. And now I have all this energy rushing around.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Good? It’s fantastic! I can use the energy. And I intend to. There are so many people out there like Mary Hull. People whose truths need to be told. I want to write their stories. I want to act their

  stories.”

  Franklin is on fire, inflamed with the energy. He’s speaking loud, and people nearby are starting to

  notice. I don’t care. I’m thrilled to hear him talk this way.

  “It’s like The Bard said,” he proclaims, sounding now like an actor whose wandered into the lobby.

  “‘All the world is a stage.’ And I have so many, many parts to play.”

  He finishes with a flourish, spreading his arms as if to embrace the world. People near us break out

  laughing and applauding.

  I join them.

  Franklin bows.

  Author’s Note

  Ghosts of Tamgrove Hall is the second of Abby Renshaw’s published adventures. You can read all

  about what happened to Abby in Florida the previous summer in the novel, Ghosts of Bliss Bayou.

  Many thanks to my copy editor, Kelly Hartigan of XterraWeb.com, and to my stalwart beta readers,

  Marilyn Massa and John W. Kelly.

  If you enjoyed this story, please consider posting an honest rating and review on Amazon,

  Goodreads, or other sites. The algorithms of the publishing business make these reviews

  extremely valuable to authors.

  I love hearing from readers. You can connect with me at

  Web: triskelionbooks.com or jackmassa.com

  Facebook: Facebook.com/AuthorJackMassa/

  Twitter: @JackMassa2

  HALF A DOZEN WOLVES

  Jaxon Reed

  Copyright 2017

  Susan gasped, out of breath. She slumped against a tree trunk and sucked in a deep lungful of air.

  The snarls and snorts of her pursuers drifted closer through the trees. She had no time to rest.

  She forced her back off the trunk and urged her legs forward. They felt like rubber, and her sides

  hurt from panting.

  The snarls drifted closer. Susan ran.

  She weaved her way in and out among the trees. Branches thwacked her eight-year-old face in the

  dark. Thorns and briars scratched her skin as she ran through them.

  The snarls grew ever closer.

  Her mind drifted back, to earlier that morning when she’d escaped the holding pens. The lupines

  kept a handful of untainteds for food. Susan had been born in the pens. It was a hardscrabble life,

  one of dust and dirt and cornmeal twice a day.

  Mommy had loved her, and took care of Susan as best she could. Susan could not remember her

  Daddy. Mommy said the lupines took him shortly after she was born. Talking about him made

  Mommy sad.

  A flitting memory wiggled its way to the top of her consciousness. The lupines came for Mommy a

  few days ago. She heard Old Jones say the Alpha wanted her. And the Alpha always gets what he

  wants.

  Wanted her for what? she wondered. To eat her like they had Daddy and so many other untainteds?

  Susan didn’t know, and on a certain level she didn’t want to know. She was afraid to find out what

  could be worse than being eaten alive.

  She screamed when the two wolf men dragged Mommy away. Old Jones and his wife held her, kept

  her from trying to stop them. Saved her life.

  Old Jones and his wife took her in, fed her, tried to console her. Over the days that followed her grief turned to anger. She was going to do something, she said. Old Jones told her she would be

  foolish to try anything. There’s nothing a little girl can do, he said.

  But when the gate was left open during the first feeding this morning, Susan slipped out of the pen

  unnoticed by the guards. She ran.

  Now that darkness had fallen, and her legs slowed despite every ounce of her will pushing them

  forward, she knew she had made a mistake.

  Four legs are faster than two, and nighttime favored the lupines. They were faster, they could track

  her scent, they could climb trees and swim rivers. They could see in the dark. There would be no

  escaping them now that night had fallen, even with her big head start.

  The snarls grew closer.

  Susan’s legs burned as she climbed up a slight rise, then she burst through a wall of brush and into

  a clearing. She skidded to a stop before a massive dark shape.

  Before her stood the largest wolf she had ever seen. He towered above her, his mass of black fur

  blotting out the stars and casting a moon shadow on the ground.

  “Get behind me.”

  His deep voice rumbled, and carried through the night like rocks rol ing downhill. Susan quickly

  obeyed, a small corner of her mind relieved that the monster had not eaten her on sight.

  She scurried behind the giant wolf and plopped down on the ground, exhausted. Her feet and legs

  throbbed, and her side ached. She looked around the dark clearing, trying to make out details in the

  moonlight. Susan had never left the pen before. Everything she saw and heard and smel ed

  seemed new, though so far she had had little time to notice much, running for her life all day.

  The snarling grew closer. Her two pursuers, the same guards who had taken Mommy away, burst

  into the clearing. The first stopped abruptly, startled, looking up at the massive wolf. His partner

  ran into him, knocking them both down.

  The scrambled back to their feet and spied Susan. She shrank down into the grass, trying to

  become invisible in the moonlight.

  The first looked back up at the towering black wolf in front of her.

  “She’s ours.”

  The behemoth said nothing. He lowered his head and growled. Susan watched from behind,

  fascinated, as a line of saliva slowly dripped from his jaws.

  “We got no quarrel with you,” the other one said. “The Alpha wants his pets, that’s all. They’re not allowed to roam free.”

  From deep within his chest, Susan heard the giant’s contemptuous snort. It sounded like a

  thunderclap.

  He turned then, and stared her in the eye.

  “Follow the moon all night. In the morning keep the sun to your back. You’ll come to a big wall

  around a village. You’ll be safe there.”

  She fled to the other end of the clearing as the guards charged her savior. Newly rested, and with a

  fresh surge of adrenalin, she hurried through the night and far away from the blood curling sounds

  of wolves fighting to the death.

  The woods grew thinner. At first light she found herself in green grass on gently rolling hills.

  She could barely walk now, and the slight hills seemed incredibly difficult to climb. But her little

  legs kept going, up one and down the next.

  She crested the final hill with the sun high above her in the sky, and she stopped. There below: a

  tall wall made from trees trunks bound together, ends sharpened to a point. A pit stretched around

  the wall filled with sharp stakes pointed up. She saw people walking on platforms around the top.

  And beyond: buildings, and smoke from cook fires.

  She stumbled down the hill, doggedly determined to reach the gates looming in the distance.

  Soon she entered the clearing stretching out in all directions in front of the wall, and her
little legs

  gave out just as a guard saw her and shouted to the others.

  She stumbled and fell, her legs refusing to go further. She grabbed a tuft of grass and pulled herself

  forward toward the wall. Cuts and scrapes and bruises screamed in pain as she dragged herself

  along the ground.

  In the distance she saw the gates open and riders coming out on horseback. Then she passed out.

  -+-

  Susan raised her fist while gently pulling the reins with her other hand, bringing the stallion and

  the rest of her party to a halt.

  The sun had started its descent an hour ago, but they still had plenty of daylight.

  A horse nickered. She turned and looked back at the riders behind her.

  They were all good men. Bachelors, every one. She knew each had volunteered hoping to impress

  her. She had not yet chosen a mate.

  Twenty years old, she was past the typical marrying age. But so far no man had impressed her

  much. Four accompanied her today in an effort to be the first.

  Bartholomew clicked his tongue, bringing his horse alongside hers.

  “What is it, Lady Susan?”

  The title was an honorific, but one she had earned. The Settlement operated as a meritocracy.

  Despite the size of The Settlement, their numbers were insufficient to defeat the Alpha and his

  followers. The elders had convinced her of that. She had spent countless hours discussing the issue

  with them, individually and during formal council sessions. One wolf was worth at least ten

  human fighters. The numbers didn’t add up.

  She alone, among all in The Settlement, had spent time in the pens and escaped. Her experiences

  and the stories she told added to the elders’ body of knowledge. Even in broad daylight, there would

  be untold human casualties. Those not eaten would be turned, and in the end the Alpha’s pack

  would grow while The Settlement’s population dwindled to nothing.

  She obsessed over it, dreaming up schemes to destroy the pack without killing humans. Or at least,

  not too many humans. The older women suggested (among themselves, never to her face), that

  this need for vengeance kept her from marrying.

  She ignored the older women and their gossip. She mostly ignored the strapping young men who

  courted her, too. Except when she needed them for a scouting party. She was never short of

  volunteers, all hoping to impress the lovely Lady Susan.

  She dismounted and handed the reins to Bartholomew.

  “I will approach this area alone, and on foot.”

  All four young men protested. Bartholomew protested vehemently.

  “Milady, even in broad daylight it is not safe to be alone here.”

  “I did just fine as a little girl, Bartholomew, and I have ventured beyond The Settlement’s walls

  many times. What I am doing, I must do alone.”

  Begrudgingly, each young man gave their word they would remain. She walked into the woods by

  herself.

  Susan sat down in the middle of the clearing and waited. He would be here, somewhere. Several

  times she had found the clearing over the years, and she knew this was his territory. He had

  fought for her here, saved her life.

  The horses were frightened by his smel , by the urine he left to indicate his territory, by the tufts of

  black hair on thorn bushes. But she remained unafraid.

  Over the years she had caught sight of him a few times. Always a fleeting glimpse, usually of his

  human form. Other times, his dark lupine body faded into the greater darkness of the forest before

  she could get close.

  Susan knew he would be here. This part of the woods belonged to him.

  She jerked her head when a twig cracked. The noise had been made deliberately, to let her know he

  was near.

  She stood and put her fists on her hips.

  “How come you never speak? Never in all these years! Come out here and at least share a few

  words with me.”

  He approached then, moving gracefully from among the trees and into the clearing. He stood head

  and shoulders above her, the tallest man she had ever seen.

  He wore no shirt over his broad chest, but thick black hair covered most of his skin. Even in

  human form he looked like a wolf.

  They stared at one another in silence for a long moment. After dreaming of this day for so long, all

  her plans and ideas and things she had wanted to say flew away.

  He spoke first.

  “I know what you want. It’s suicide to attack the pack. I’ve watched you scout their location since

  you were a little girl. I’ve watched you stake out every line, every approach, consider every

  possibility. But you can’t do it. You don’t have enough people. I suspect your elders have told you the

  same thing.”

  She broke eye contact then, staring down at the ground. He had cut to the heart of the matter in

  just a few words. She nodded in agreement.

  He took a breath, and spoke again.

  “I know you want to ask for my assistance. But I’m of no help to you. I’m just a lone wolf. The Alpha

  keeps his population down. He kills all the male pups and many of the females. Even so, their

  numbers are too many. One wolf is worth ten men in a fight, but I cannot stand up to dozens of others, even joining with your people.”

  Her mind churned as she turned the problem over, examining it from all possible angles. She had

  spent every day thinking of ways to defeat the pack, and had met with no success. His statements

  were the latest in a long line of negative ones from everybody she had ever talked to about

  attacking the Alpha and his pack.

  Then, inspiration struck. She looked up into his eyes and smiled.

  “How many do you need?”

  His thick, dark brows furrowed in confusion.

  “How many what?”

  “How many wolves? To help The Settlement take out the pack.”

  He considered the question carefully, adding up all he knew about both the lupines and the

  untainted.

  “I think half a dozen good wolves, combined with the entire population of The Settlement, could

  take down the pack. But you’re not going to find any more willing to fight on your side. There is

  just me. I’ve no love for the Alpha, but I won’t lead your people into mass suicide trying to take him

  out.”

  She smiled again, sweetly.

  “You stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  The men were greatly relieved when Susan exited the woods and made her way back to the

  horses. Bartholomew had already drawn his bow and looked ready to charge in looking for her.

  She spent an hour trying to convince them to leave. At first, they would have none of it. The sun

  continued its descent. Finally, she threw up her hands in frustration and walked back toward the

  trees.

  Bartholomew followed on horseback, continuing to protest. She turned and exchanged a few more

  sharp words.

  He sagged in the saddle, reluctantly accepting the fact that she would be staying in the wilderness.

  “I will be at the clearing’s edge near the gate in three days, Bartholomew, at noon. Meet me then,

  alone, and we’ll talk some more. I have a plan, and this is part of it. I won’t be living in The

  Settlement any more.”

  She turned her back on him and continued into the trees. His horse whinnied nervously. The sun sank lower in the sky. Reluctantly, Bartholomew turned and rejoined the others as they made their

  way bac
k home.

  -+-

  More years passed before the attack on the pack finally began. Bartholomew had become The

  Settlement’s leader, and that helped Susan’s plan tremendously. He had been the first person Susan

  convinced. Slowly, over the years as his influence in The Settlement grew, so did the popularity of

  her idea. The untainteds were ready to finally strike a blow against the lupines.

  Bartholomew sat in his saddle in front of The Settlement’s contingent. Everyone joined him, save

  the very young and the very old. They carried every knife, sword, spear, and arrow among them.

  He looked at his people and wondered how many would die today. Then he brushed aside the

  thought and considered how many more would die through the years ahead if they did not carry

  out Lady Susan’s plan today.

  “Where is she?” he wondered aloud. They had made their way through the wilderness at night in

  order to be here at daybreak. Susan was clear the fighting should occur during sunlight hours,

  giving the humans their best advantage.

  Someone pointed, and an audible gasp came from the crowd.

  A giant black wolf appeared, larger than any had seen before. Beside him strode a smaller she-wolf,

  strong and sure of herself. Even in lupine form, Bartholomew recognized Susan.

  Behind them, four more young wolves strode forward with confidence. They were large and dark

  like their father, and their faces showed the cunning intelligence of their mother.

  One of his men leaned forward in the saddle and said, “Half a dozen wolves. That’s what she said

  was needed, ay Milord?”

  Bartholomew nodded.

  “Half a dozen wolves is what the black giant told her he needed, along with everybody from the

  settlement. So she became one, letting him turn her. Then she became his mate and gave him a

  litter of pups. And now they’re grown. And now we’re ready.”

  He raised his hand in the air then jerked it forward.

  “Prepare to attack!”

  Jaxon Reed is the author of Thieves & Wizards, an epic fantasy available free through Kindle

  Unlimited. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVYA8CN/

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