The End
Below is a sample chapter from one of my books
Finding Summer
A blast went off in a distance. Shook the ground and tore through flesh. It appeared as if everything was in motion and he heard nothing, saw nothing, and he couldn’t speak or move.
He drifted through a maze of light and darkness. Sometimes he would smile; sometimes a flash of a frown would rest on his youthful, unshaven face. The young girl brought in scissors to trim his light beard on her visits. After a sigh of accomplishment, she sat back and viewed her masterpiece. How handsome he appeared lying there immovable like a Ken doll, she thought.
“Lieutenant...can you hear me.” She called out to him but he didn’t answer.
And with the Ken doll she adored, she refused to desert the young handsome man lying helpless in front of her. She made time to visit him each morning, holding his hand, reading to him, hoping for a miracle. Noticing he had no visitors, she wondered why. Someone had to miss him. He must be someone’s son, husband, or father, she thought.
The young man lay in a coma for months.
Lying wrapped in clean white sheets, unaware of his surroundings and the world he inhabited, his eyes struggled to open.
When he finally broke through a wall, he woke. His blank, dark stare focused in the direction of a sound. A woman sat reading and holding his hand. He heard her voice; it was familiar and soothing. Perhaps it was his mother, but her voice and touch was not that of a mother. She could have been, had she not ignited a feeling of sexual pleasure as she read to him, a love poem. He heard the words before but his mind couldn’t grasp the author, or what was said.
He struggled once more, questioning and searching for familiarity. Where am I? His mind asked. Who am I? Who belongs to that voice? Why is she here? Why is he here, for that matter?
Fighting to open his eyes, he finally willed his brain to complete a difficult task. But with the help of the girl sitting and holding his hand and her soothing voice, his eyes opened, but through the imaginary light he came to another wall. One filled with darkness.
He shut his eyes tight. The girl wasn’t holding his hands any longer. He griped the railings on his hospital bed.
The reality of it—he was blind.
Chapter One
It was an attraction that could not be described in the usual way. The only way he understood it was that it was white hot. The kind of heat that smolders and appears to be cool but when you connect with it, it sears your skin, sears your bones, and then envelops your soul. It was like that for Jackson. He felt it when a bomb exploded near his body, and he felt it whenever the young woman came near his bed and touched him. His skin and body reacted to the cool, yet searing, heat of her touch.
Her touch was that of loving, caring, and kindness that he hadn’t experienced for a long time. Every day she visited him and read to him. And because of her he came back to the land of the living.
He couldn’t see her face, but he could imagine it just from her presence and the soft ease of her voice: he was in love with her.
He hadn’t known this feeling since he first met a girl in high school, whom he had been attracted to from the second he first laid eyes on her and obsessed about.
It was an alien feeling for Jackson because he was not the kind of guy who would fall for one girl, and beyond that one obsession, he had never been in love. Why would he? He was young, a football star, and rich.
Lying in a hospital bed in the veterans’ ward in Houston, where he had spent months in a coma caused by wounds inflicted from a blast, he was lucky because his magnificent body was intact, and this particular hospital specialized in wounded veterans. His mind and vision had suffered from a devastating trauma.
Knowing there would be more months of therapy ahead of him, he would have plenty of time to think and piece together the illusion of a teenage girl and the feeling he held in his heart for her.
Ever since he came out of the comma, he had searched his memory for her name and her face, but there appeared to be a black hole—only shadows with a blank face and blank eyes.
Maybe it was all a delusion and he had dreamed of this teenager. It had been years since he was in high school. But how many years, he questioned. All this was a bit confusing. His mind contained snippets of what he thought the young girl looked and felt like. It became a game to imagine who she was and why she appeared in his subconscious mind. At first he thought it was just a dream, or perhaps his imagination clinging to some wish for the perfect girl he might fall in love with. . . .
Was she real? He wasn’t certain because he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember who he was. He had no past. And, therefore, his future was in jeopardy.
Jackson was eighteen then and an arrogant young football jock in his senior year of high school when he first met her. A star quarterback and the richest teen in San Francisco.
End of sample chapter for Finding Summer
Insatiable: A Werewolf’s Wedding
By Rachel E. Rice
Copyright 2014 by Rachel E. Rice
Chapter 1
The sun rose and set, a month passed, and the snow still fell hard and soft, preventing Adrienne, her babies and Lycell from returning to the ranch. The twin pups were strong now and well fed with the help of Lycell. Adrienne didn’t recognize him. The once demanding, indifferent, and excessively sexual Lycell had materialized into a loving and caring uncle if not a potential mate. He fought a fierce werewolf who threatened to make her his sexual slave. He came to Adrienne’s rescue when she needed him the most.
Where was Wilder? Where was the lone werewolf? The father to her pups, who had convinced her that she could do this. That she could love his brothers and birth all their pups. Had he abandoned her when he realized that he didn’t want to share her?
Adrienne finally convinced herself it was like being a surrogate, but more intimate. Now she was committed to this life.
“I think they are strong enough to travel to the ranch. Spring is approaching and it’s time to go,” Lycell said placing the pups in the bed and covering them with soft fur pelts. He walked and lay beside Adrienne to keep her warm, holding her in his arms, gazing at her, his love deepened and intensified with each movement of her body.
“Why can’t we just stay here a little longer?” Adrienne said looking into his deep brown eyes. “I’m not ready to go.” She never imagined she would want to remain in that cave, and with Lycell. Adrienne glanced at him lying near her with her head laying on his warm strong chest. Moving closer, the fire ignited in Adrienne, her mind conflicted. How did she come to feel this way? She questioned herself.
Lycell’s movement in the bed excited her skin causing chills to rise. His chiseled face, hard and beautiful. His body cut with muscles in his arms and chest, the likes of Wilder, yet her body received a different signal from Lycell. A raw, rough sensual presence, which could break erotic barriers and cross all sexual boundaries.
Time passed and both she and Lycell changed. Once a callous young girl thinking of makeup, her next boyfriend, and now look at her. A woman with children or pups. It didn’t matter what they were, she loved them and she loved the father and uncle to the pups. Lycell turned facing Adrienne drawing her closer into his strong muscular warm arms. Eyeing her every movement and her body, thinking about what will be. Adrienne’s fingers trailed along his chest. Their mouths came together like magnets. One positive, one negative.
“We can’t, we have to get back. Drayton must be catching hell with Wilder. I left the ranch without explanation because I was crazed, out of my mind because that werewolf abducted you, and I was afraid he would do things to you before I caught up with him. I didn’t have time to tell Drayton where I was going,” Lycell said, passing his hand over Adrienne’s flowing hair pushing it to the side, then holding her face in his hands tentatively gazing in her eyes.
“He had to have known that you were looking for me,” Adrienne said stretching and hoping the pups would s
till sleep until she and Lycell talked. All they did that day was smile and kiss. This was something new to Lycell. He didn’t know how to act. He wasn’t himself. Hell he didn’t know who he was anymore.
A human, a werewolf?
Pressing his body to Adrienne, Lycell made a sigh. Then gazing at her he said, “I want you. Is it safe to be with you? I don’t know about such things. I don’t want to impregnate you before you have a chance to know me. I want to take you places and show you my world.”
Who is this person? Adrienne found herself wondering and thinking. She was afraid when they left the confines of the cave, her whole world would change, and she would lose him as she had felt the loss of Wilder. She was eager to see her beloved lone wolf again but she was also enthralled with Lycell. Who would have guessed that this could happen? Certainly not Lycell.
“We had better get started now before the twins wake,” Lycell said preparing to stand. Adrienne reached for his arms and drew him to her, where he felt the warmth and softness of her. His manhood throbbed from the need and desire to claim her. She felt him eager and erratic as a summer storm thundering and overpowering everything in its path.
He eased over her and placed his hands between her legs. The softness of her skin excited him and she slowly opened her legs, exposing herself to him, exposing her need for him. He explored her opening with his gentle strong hands and fingers. He felt the heat and wetness. The feel of her insides hardened his manhood and it pulsed. Adrienne felt all of him.
She reached unapologetic, taking it in her hand. He questioned with his eyes, but she guided it and he penetrated her deep until she felt full. His large manhood, hard, excruciatingly painful gave her intense pleasure. His gentle movements, belied who Lycell is on the outside. It was their first time. But it wouldn’t be their last. He knew it and she knew it as their bodies crashed together.
Lycell’s moans of pleasure, echoed from the cave, passed the mountain range, and settled in Wilder’s ears.
Chapter 2
Lycell and Adrienne turned looking back at the cave, which had been a safe haven for them and her pups. A place where they found each other. A place Adrienne remembered as her fondest and happiest time with Wilder, and now with Lycell. She never dreamed that she could feel anything for Lycell but indignation and outrage, but he was the one that excited her and intrigued her the most. He didn’t give in to her and she stood up to him, it was their stubborn determination that attracted them to each other. Now she had it all. Three of the most handsome rich werewolves, and they all belong to her. She would claim them as her own and have their pups as they wished.
“When are we getting married?” She asked.
“You can only marry one of us,” he said straightening her pouch on her chest where she held one of Wilder’s pups. Lycell carried the other on his back.
“You haven’t named the pups yet.”
“I want Wilder to do that.” She gazed at Lycell with a worried glance, “What will Wilder say once he learns that we have been together?”
“He won’t say anything. It was his idea to have this kind of arrangement. Had I met you first, there would be no way I would share you.” Lycell walked looking around checking for danger and checking to see if Adrienne was OK. He noticed Adrienne’s slow pace, she appeared listless and fatigued.
“We can stop at this stream. Let the boys run around a bit,” Lycell said to Adrienne waiting for her to catch up to them.
“When do they change?” Adrienne questioned trotting to Lycell, pointing to the twins.
“They are changing as we speak. Look at them. Humans take longer to walk. They are walking already.”
He stopped at the edge of the river and Lycell showed them how to drink from the river. To give Adrienne time to rest, he demonstrated how to catch fish. He hated fish but it saved his life, and then he strode to her and sat on a log.
“They’re not ordinary children. They began walking after two days, where the normal time for a human is nine months after birth. It’s possible for them to change in a month or two, or maybe in a few days when the moon is full, it’s not unheard of for them to remain human until their eighteenth birthday. I really don’t know. All I can remember is that I always ran on all fours and walked on twos.”
“Will it hurt them?”
“For a few months, then it will be a piece of cake, like riding a bike or driving a car,” Lycell said raking his hand through Adrienne’s hair. She took her eyes off the twins when one was sitting on the side of the lake twirling a stick in the water, and when she turned, the smaller of the twins pointed to the forest.
Adrienne jumped to her feet, sprinted and scooped up the blond haired twin. He looked just like Wilder may have looked when he was a child. The other twin had hair dark and curly like Lycell. “Where is he? Where is he?” she said turning in a circle. All the twin could do was make a grunting sound and point. She started running in the direction of the forest before Lycell could stop her.
She put her pup down at the edge of the trees. Lycell lifted him and raced after Adrienne yelling, “Don’t go after him. It’s too dangerous.” He caught up with her and she was standing breathing hard and screaming. “Lycell, go after him! Don’t let anything happen to him!” He handed her the child and held Adrienne next to his chest.
He tried to quiet her hysterical whimper by holding her tight. They both knew the dangers that lurked in the forest. He didn’t want to startle the pup with his mother’s screams and have him run further into the dense trees.
“I can’t go back to Wilder and tell him we lost our baby.” Adrienne felt a stream of tears fall on her cheeks. Lycell wiped then off with his hand.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find him. I have to change now so I can track him. I want you to take the baby to the ranch.” He saw the look of panic on Adrienne’s face. “You can do this. Just stay on this path and it will lead you to the ranch. Wilder will blame you but that’s because he is so much in love with you. All he talked about was you having his pups. I became jealous of your relationship with him and I acted coldly to you. I’m sorry,” Lycell said.
“Just find him.”
“I will Adrienne. I love you.” And Lycell shifted into a fearsome tall werewolf with black fur covering his body. He looked back for a second and then sprinted off into the heavy brush and disappeared between the pines.
Adrienne stood for a moment not wanting to face Wilder. How could she tell him what had happened?” But she was sure of one thing, that if it was at all possible, Lycell would bring her baby to her.
***
The huge ranch home with Samsa written on the gate, and a large S written on the steeple on the top of the stable came into view. She remembered passing through that gate hoping to leave the memories of the lone werewolf behind her, only to face him, and for him to leave her when she was pregnant. Now she had his pups bringing them home, but only one. Now she was excited. Now she was afraid.
Walking fast, still sore from lying around trying to heal, she made her way across the low frost grass. Lycell had made her some boots of fur and fashioned her a pair of leather pants. With the fur poncho she was warm and never as fashionable as she was this minute. When she heard dogs barking she knew it wouldn’t be long before someone would come to meet her.
She could see the stables now, and riding in her direction, she couldn’t make out who was astride the horse. The figure rode the horse hard. It reached her in minutes and then the figure came into view. It was Wilder.
Her excitement turned to panic. She sucked in the fresh morning air to give her strength.
He sat towering on the horse when he approached her. His body majestic. His deep blue eyes looked down at Adrienne and softened as if she was the most beautiful sight he had seen. He smiled. His bright full smile none threatening. She was clutching his newborn. He jumped from the saddle and rushed to her and hugged her. He stepped back. She unstrapped his son and handed him to Wilder. He began to smile, and his smile grew and grew. Pul
ling Adrienne into his hard body he held her close with tears welling in his eyes.
“I have a son.” He lifted her on to the horse with one hand holding on to the reigns, and one hand grasping his son. He walked to the house with his eyes never leaving his son or Adrienne.
Wilder never asked for Lycell nor did he ask what happened. Drayton had to have told him what happened that night. Maybe all he did care about was his pup? Adrienne questioned.
He led the horse to the front door and a young teen from town took hold of the horse. Wilder helped Adrienne down. Still holding on to the baby Wilder looked mesmerized by the tiny infant. “I will teach him to hunt in a few months,” he said looking at Adrienne, and opening the door for her. Never had Adrienne been happier as when she walked through the doors of the ranch.
“You can decorate his bedroom, come see the bed I made for him.” She glanced at Wilder and she didn’t want to ruin his happiness, so she didn’t say a word, but all the time she was thinking about when she should tell him. When should she tell him he has two sons?
They reached the stairs and he opened the door. “Oh, these are like the ones you carved in the cave.” Adrienne passed her hands over the beautiful carved bed post and dresser. Then he placed the baby into a bassinet. Adrienne sat on the small bed and looked at Wilder watching his son. “What are you thinking about Wilder?”
“I’m thinking about how pleased I am with you. What a woman you are.”
“I need to tell you something,” she said, her eyes searching around the room trying not to make eye contact with him. Trying to prevent tears from pooling in her eyes. Her hands and fingers, mingling, fidgeting with the other.
“Wait, let me finish Adrienne. You have made me the happiest werewolf alive. I never thought that I would meet a female...I mean a woman like you. You are everything I could want or ever want. I had a lot of time to think when I traveled and left you here with Drayton and Lycell. I expected too much from you. It was the same from my father with my mother. And you have the same spirit as my mother. I’ve made up my mind after seeing you and my pup that I will not force anything on you that you don’t want.” Wilder went to his knees.
Insatiable Box Set: Books 1-4 Page 11