“Yes,” she said. “I can. They’re coming this way. But how… how do they know?”
He pressed a hushing finger to her lip. “Shh… we mustn’t speak.”
She took his finger in her hands and kissed it softly. She looked him in the eyes and made her move within his tightening grip. A quick kiss before the others arrived was all she had time for. And then the hunting party was there with what seemed like hundreds of questions for the pair to answer.
But they had time for that now in the safety of the group, as the hounds bayed, the horses stomped and all the riders dismounted and surrounded them here to check Elizabeth’s safety. They had time for many things now, even though that mystery scent instilled a feeling of curiosity and foreboding in the pair at what it may be.
“Time will tell, my beautiful Elizabeth. Do not fear,” Henry whispered into her ear amid all the chaos of the group members return. She turned to him and smiled as her pulled her close and kissed her once again.
End Notes
Did you like this set of books? I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed being in the land of feuding and noble vampires, confused potion makers and otherworldly immortals, if only for a few moments.
Would you also like information on my upcoming books, surprises, and maybe even news when you can get my books for free? Just click the link here to sign up for first notice. Only takes a second.
And if you are looking for even more books by me, Susan G. Charles, please feel free to check out some of my other works below:
Animal Heat: A Paranormal Romance – the first book in The Animal Sagas series. In it little sister, Sonya is kidnapped, and Lynda, the oldest, must do her best to get her back – using any means possible.
Animal Nature: A Paranormal Romance – the second book in The Animal Sagas series. Sonya now lives safely within the Strongheart wolf pack with her sister Lynda. Still, she longed to hunt the mountainous woods of the pack’s territory all by herself.
Animal Secrets: A Paranormal Romance – the third book in The Animal Sagas series. The two sisters have some issues adjusting to pack life. Then another surprise comes the girls way, just as they are starting to accept their new family. Will a terrible secret from their family lines past now end their future?
The Animal Sagas: A Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance – the boxed set of all three books in The Animal Sagas series. Read all about the adventures of the Seron sisters, a pair of shape shifting, were-cougars, and their adopted werewolf family in this 3 part set.
The Master of the Hunt: A Paranormal Romance – Everyone in her family knew that one day Elizabeth Fox would make a fine horsewoman, and she certainly lived up to that and well surpassed all their expectations. But one foggy winter morning an ordinary ride turned into something completely unexpected as she encountered a handsome stranger and his small hunting party while out on the trail. Should she join them or not?
Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics – Who would ever have thought that a simple chain of events could have such an everlasting effect on a persons life? Now imagine if that whole cycle of events were based on a series of mistakes? But just what would be the outcome when an unexpected stranger came to purchase a potion and received the wrong one by mistake?
For the Little One’s
Toots and Poots in a World Full of Snoots: The Amazing True Story of One Boys Gas-tly Abilities – is the story of a kindergarten aged boy, Timothy Oscar O’Toole, AKA, Toots, with a talent for farting – a skill he obviously loves to share with all his friends. A great story for kids of all ages!
The ABC Book of Dogs: A Fun, Rhyming Dog Breed Alphabet Book for Children- is the ultimate animal book to teach your toddler the ABC’s and a few new dog breeds too, using short, sweet little rhymes.
For the most up to date information about the works of Susan G. Charles, please feel free to visit my facebook page, website or my Amazon author profile.
Free Chapter Preview: Animal Heat
I hope you enjoy this free Chapter Preview from one of my other books, Animal Heat: A Paranormal Romance:
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An unsuspected knock came to the door of their cabin. It wasn’t an outrageous “beat-your-door-down” kind of knock, but it was loud enough to startle the sisters from the relaxing comfort of a peaceful breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, and tall glasses of milk, all from their livestock. Curiously enough, the meal came from their livestock that had also been mysteriously vanishing throughout the month, slowly but surely, without a trace.
The sisters’ eyes bulged as they gazed at one another in unison. Since when has it been that they’d received a visitor in the beginning hours of the day? The roosters had just first crowed not long ago. Who could it be at this hour of the morning and what could this person on the other side of that door possibly want? Maybe it was their farm animals’ predator, or a wanderer that was lost in the woods that crossed their path by chance and perhaps might be injured and needing assistance.
Linda tapped her slimming index finger on her lips three times before whispering, “Not yet,” to her sister and focused on Sonya’s sparkling, blue eyes. The young ladies then broke their intense three second eye contact and separated about the room. Linda sprung from her seat with a twist toward the bedroom and tiptoed through the dining area, over the hardwood as if it were on fire, en route to the door.
Sonya’s blond hair repetitively swayed from left to right, her blue eyes rummaging about the two-level bungalow out of control and she quietly moved about the room. She cautiously looked out all of the windows, the two in the living room the one behind her, and the one at the end of the hallway, trying not to be seen by the mysterious stranger on the other side of the front door. She looked to the ones upstairs as if the visitor was not alone and wishing to do them harm.
What was it that she’d searched for? Nothing, only her thoughts rambling, searching for the right words to utter, or what words their guest might speak once the door is finally opened. Sonya frantically moved back to her usual seat at the table. No, she didn’t sit down, not entirely. She only made it half way there before she heard another knock to the door. This time the knock was louder and much stronger.
This time it sounded more like maybe a serious Police “I’m-going-to-take-you-to-jail” kind of knock. In fact, to her it sounded almost like a shotgun blast – not the bomb of the shot itself, but the thud of the impact when the ammunition hits the target. She crouched as low as she could possibly go to the hardwood tiles. Her arms could have dragged on the floor but instead she held onto the table’s edge tight with her eyes just above her knuckles, her nose rested in between her hands.
Sonya resembled a young pussy cat, peeping out of a box at the mystery which lies ahead, and then from the first level of the cabin, less than twenty feet away, rushed up a furious Lynda, with a matte black pistol-grip pump action shotgun in her hands, on her way to answer the door.
Sonya bounced into the hallway, taking cover behind the wall, watching her sister as she reached the door. Lynda pumped the shotgun keeping a stone face. “Shick-chick!” Cocking that shotgun was one scary sound. She hoped that the person on the other side of the door completely understood what the sound meant! She put her ear to the door and shouted, “State your purpose here!”
From the other side of the door came a voice that seemed to be non-threatening and light in tone, a man’s voice. It could be someone injured or sick or weakened and fatigued. He also sounded as if he was right up on the front door when he said, “Please… I-I… I… I don’t mean any harm. If you could just open up the door and―”
Linda’s eyebrows sunk. She crunched down on her lip with her teeth, flung the wooden door open with a ferocity and speed surprising to the stranger on the other side of the door. Immediately she shoved the barrel of her black beauty to the man’s skull before even getting a good look at his face. She pressed the gun at his skin in an upward motion, bringing waves of flesh over the barrel’s steal, and the
man’s eyes widened, and then sunk just as fast.
Lynda’s teeth mashed together and ground as she said, “Didn’t I tell you to never show your face around here again?”
And there he was. He had scraggly brown hair that was flickered up at the ends in blonde highlights. His ears were pierced, and within the holes were four inch round black metal-like earrings. He wore a white button up shirt with a wide collar and ruffled sleeves with Onyx cufflinks.
His beige pants were sort of puffed out at the thighs like a jockey’s would be, but loose enough around the lower leg area to resemble Dickies brand work clothes with full pockets. The buckles on his black Durango boots shined, and his eyes were locked to hers as she held the pistol-grip pump shotgun against his head.
“Please, Lynda… what have I done so ―”
“Jonathan?” Sonya called, and revealed herself as she came from behind the wall.
“Sonya! Please, let me speak with you. I must ―” he begged, trying hard not to move his head, but raising it just a bit to project his voice.
“You the scoundrel that’s been stealing my chickens, Jonathan Anderson?” Lynda nudged the barrel forward just a tad more, her finger set to pull the trigger.
Jonathan grinned, but it was quickly hard-pressed in, like a debit card being shoved into the card slot. That’s what it seemed like when Lynda nudged him a third time with the cold, dark hole of her pump shotgun. The pressure compelled his head back a few inches. He stumbled away from her gun point and then voluntarily took a step out the doorway.
He said, “Stealing chickens?” within a snicker, as if he was unconvinced of their seriousness.
“Chicken, hog, hen, cows… are you?” Lynda raised the gun at her shoulders length and aimed, her eye trained at his chest. Her fingers rolled off the neck of her gun as if she was all that anxious to put an opening in him like a Dunkin’ donut.
“What would I have to do with your livestock? I simply arrived to divulge my love to her,” he motioned his hand at the logs, knowing full well Sonya was somewhere on the other side of them.
“She doesn’t love you! Don’t you get it? She doesn’t care! Plus, she’s just a kid! Now get off my property or I will shoot you dead, Jonathan Anderson!” Lynda yelled.
Jonathan Anderson, now feeling a little cocky, nodded his head, winked at Lynda and backed away from the door.
Lynda said, “Come back again and I’ll kill you, Jonathan Anderson.”
“Sure you will. I’m sure you will, Lynda,” he said in a teasing fashion. And with that, he turned and disappeared into the night.
Lynda wasn’t entirely convinced he had gone, maybe he was just out of sight hiding somewhere she thought, so she stood on the porch for several minutes with her shotgun still firmly clenched in her hands, listening intently, hoping that he had gotten the message and had really left their property. After about 2 or 3 minutes she went back inside and carefully shut and locked the door behind her.
The sisters, still a bit uneasy about the whole encounter, settled back into their breakfast routine and finished their meals. Once they were done, they continued on about their regular daily activities firmly hoping that was the last they would see of that particular unwanted visitor.
Later on, in the midst of that same evening, Sonya was startled awake by an unfamiliar racket. It sounded like whatever it was that walked upon the earth outdoors, that it moved as if it was on a tightrope, with four legs, unless it was multiple persons out and about, perhaps hoping to sneak up and steal more animals that roamed about the sister’s clear farmland.
Whatever it was could not have been human, or if it were, how could one tell by only the light crackling sounds from outside? It could be the wind. Maybe only the trees outside. But if it were the wind, then it breathed really deeply, almost as if it could very damn sure well breathe fire in the stroke of an instant.
Sonya obviously was not the only person shocked aware at the sound. In less time than it takes for you to twist a door knob handle to the right, glass from somewhere in the first level of the cabin shattered, a shotgun blast lit up the night, and she covered her ears in total surprise. The sounds of their farm animals and every other undomesticated part of wildlife now in the area now called out into the night as if awakened from their dreams.
Lynda had sat up through the night, that night, looking for any intruders. With her firearm nestled safely in her lap she sat in a sandalwood rocking chair that she had positioned right beside the shattered window, staring out into the bleak darkness as the chair lightly swung to and fro. Just the perfect location to see, but not so easily to be seen.
The constant hoot of a nearby owl had been Lynda’s only companion through her long nights observations. Eventually the owl’s hoot became mesmerizing, as would the welcoming breeze of her rooms ceiling fan. It would soon come to be comforting enough for Lynda’s eyes to vanish beneath their covers. It wasn’t long after that before the chair ceased all movement and she dreamt the night away.
Whoosh!
A heavy gust of wind compelled the rocking chair to sway back and forward, its movement’s strength woke Lynda up almost instantly. She grabbed her gun and raised it with surprised eyes and a wide open, speechless mouth as she leaped up from her seat, into the air. The chair stopped moving as she landed in just the right place on the armrests, looking for a target outside the window with the gun following her eyes.
She snickered aloud before taking a seat, realizing it was just a figment of her imagination. “Watch it girl,” she whispered to herself with a grin on her face. Only the wind, she thought, before springing back into the air, landing on the hardwood floor and lowering her hind parts back into her guards post the right way.
Table of Contents
Preface
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 1)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 2)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 3)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 4)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 5)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 6)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 7)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 8)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 9)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 10)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 1)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 2)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 3)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 4)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 5)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 6)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 1)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 2)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 3)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 4)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 5)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 6)
End Notes
Free Chapter Preview: Animal Heat
Table of Contents
Vampires, Love Potions and Other Immortals: A Collection of Paranormal Short Stories
Preface
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 1)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 2)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 3)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 4)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 5)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 6)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 7)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 8)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 9)
Book 1: Tale of the Century Bride (Chapter 10)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 1)
Book
2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 2)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 3)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 4)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 5)
Book 2: Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Chapter 6)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 1)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 2)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 3)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 4)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 5)
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 6)
End Notes
Free Chapter Preview: Animal Heat
Table of Contents
Vampires, Love Potions and Other Immortals: A Collection of Paranormal Short Stories Page 10