Ren Series Boxed Set (Book 1 - 4)

by Sarah Noffke

  Chapter One

  “One never knows what a man can withstand unless put to the test.”

  – Olento Research Employee Manual

  One month later…

  Zephyr only saw the sun on his days off. Since the change, he had become nocturnal and therefore had taken the nightshift as a guard at a twenty-four-hour drugstore. Yes, as a retired Special Forces captain he could have gotten a job as a private contractor or anything more illustrious than catching college students stealing cheap bottles of vodka. However, he wouldn’t have access to pharmaceuticals in another job. It hadn’t been hard to steal the store manager’s keys and make a copy. He’d accomplished that on his first day, right after his interview. His speed and prowess made him the perfect thief. And his x-ray vision made it so he could find anything he was looking for, even those things hidden.

  Now every night that Zephyr worked he disabled the security cameras while the clerks played poker during the slowest store hour. He just knew there had to be a drug inside the locked pharmacy that would change him back, take the canine out of him. Make the strange dreams stop. But no matter how many pills he swallowed the attacks still came. Every two weeks the change happened. Twelve excruciating hours. For half a day Zephyr was stuck in the form of a man and a wolf. And although he had been fast and agile all the time, he was a blur of movements as a werewolf. He could do things that he’d only seen in movies. He had always associated these ridiculous werewolves with a full moon, but that rule didn’t seem to dictate his change. However, he had been an experiment, just like the eleven other men he’d escaped with. Often he wondered where they’d run away to.

  Zephyr stood in the shadow the neighboring house cast, watching and wishing his x-ray vision worked from this distance. He found that he needed to be ten to fifteen feet from whatever he was trying to see through. This skill had come on when the lucid dreams started. He half expected that he’d have super strength like Rio, but that hadn’t been the case. Instead, he could see through things.

  He smoothed down his black mustache and then the short hair on his chin, wondering what they’d done to him in that lab. He spent every night at the drugstore recalling the memories that were covered in images of syringes and bright overhead lights. And yet, none of the pieces connected. Zephyr didn’t know what had happened, but worst was that he didn’t know what he was anymore. One moment he’d been leaving his parents’ house, strolling to his car, and then he awoke to find himself imprisoned in the cell at the lab. His military training had been more extensive than that of a surgeon. Never had someone snuck up or attacked him without him being aware, but still…

  He shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. It didn’t matter how it happened. Whoever had taken him, changed him, it didn’t matter. Now he had to deal with it. He wasn’t under their thumb anymore. And the changes that happened every two weeks weren’t the greatest stress on his heart. It was the sight he was looking at now. A woman of around sixty smiled as she marched out onto the front porch. She shaded her eyes with her hand. “Hello, world,” he saw her mouth. This was what she did every day upon greeting the rising sun. Then she turned back to the open front door.

  “Are you coming?” she sang to someone inside the house. The woman turned her attention to the purse tucked under her arm and began to rummage through it.

  “You forgot your keys,” Zephyr said under his breath. “They’re on the kitchen counter.” A fond smile slid onto his face cloaked in shadow.

  The woman, who wore a salmon-colored sweater, turned again to the door. “Charlie, I forgot my keys,” she yelled.

  A man with silver hair, similar to Zephyr’s which was sprinkled with black still, walked through the door, pulling it shut as he did. He shook the keys in the air, ringing them like a bell. “You know I’ve got them,” the older man said.

  “Oh, what would I do without you?” the woman on the porch said.

  “I don’t know,” he said, handing the keys to his wife. There was a sadness in the man’s eyes when he cast his stare out to the sky and the rising sun. There was a loss in them.

  “Shall we?” he said to the woman beside him.

  She nodded and they continued to the car, to complete their daily errands as they did most days.

  Zephyr pushed the large sunglasses up on his face, also pushing away the yawn. He’d need to sleep now. Now that he’d completed his daily ritual of watching his parents living their lives without him. He could still live his life. He could do so much. However, he couldn’t be in their lives again. He didn’t trust the beast inside of him. This was as close as he’d allow himself to the people he loved.

  Chapter Two

  “We do not help others because it’s honorable. We do it because it’s our responsibility. Seeking honor only leads to ego and that only leads to mistakes.”

  -Lucidites Employee Manual

  Adelaide’s hair couldn’t be described as dark auburn. Or chestnut. Or warm ginger. No, she had loud, orangey-red hair. She favored the shade of her hair, unlike most redheads. It was one of many things she’d inherited from her father, whom she missed increasingly every day. The ache was supposed to go away. The desire to see him walk through the door and tell her to “fuck off” was supposed to wane, she thought. But it never did. And more and more, she found she needed his counsel. Ren Lewis was an ornery jerk who gave people life-saving advice while insulting them. He was also British like Adelaide and therefore, in her opinion, a lot better humored than the lame Americans she worked with every day, who usually didn’t get her dry jokes. She’d also inherited her father’s Dream Traveler gift of mind control, which she was better at using than in months prior. And the only thing she didn’t appreciate that she inherited from Ren Lewis was his gift of telepathy linked to touch. It had ruined every single intimate relationship she’d ever had. Knowing what other people think was never a gift.

  The voluminous file of papers stared back at Adelaide, the brackets on the front appearing like little eyes that were scowling at her. She pressed her fingers into her own eyes, feeling the stress burrow deeper in her head, making her jaw tense. When she opened her eyes the wish she’d said in her mind hadn’t come true. The folder still sat in front of her. It hadn’t self-destructed or been stolen by the creature who took her socks.

  “You’re a real worthless piece of shit,” she said to the inanimate object, which made zero reply.

  With a sigh the girl flipped open the folder, her eyes scanning the files she’d studied countless times. She felt that she was the worthless piece of shit, projecting her own feelings on the gigantic file. There were dozens of reports in there, but they didn’t give any clues about where to look next or how to proceed with this case. Her father would have known what to do. Ren Lewis would have flipped through this file and known exactly how to handle the werewolf case. But for as similar as she was to her father, she didn’t have his experience. He’d warned her before he died that agents working in the strategic department for the Lucidite Institute needed experience before working high-level cases. However, he had given her the level five werewolf case, telling Adelaide that she was the best one for the job. Maybe he just wanted her dead from a werewolf attack so she could promptly join him in the afterlife. But probably not, she thought. Her father wasn’t the sentimental type. He gave her this case and expected her to solve it. And she had to because failure wasn’t an option.

  Adelaide tossed the most recent report to the side. It detailed a sighting of a werewolf-looking man roaming the streets in San Diego. That didn’t help. She couldn’t put surveillance all over the streets. Firstly, she didn’t have the resources for such a thing. And secondly, that was the loser approach. Ren always told her to be efficient in her methods. Work backward from the end. What she needed to do was round up these twelve werewolves. She knew that was how many would be out there based on her father’s notes. Twelve men of varying backgrounds and ages had been taken around the same timeframe. Her father had pulled pieces of
random information together and threaded them with what others saw as unrelated evidence. The abductions had happened at around the same time on the same day. Twelve men, all with curious backgrounds, vanished from different parts of the country. Some were ex-military, previous police officers, high school dropouts, rehab graduates or ex-inmates. The common thread was they’d all quit something and were in between life choices. Most wouldn’t have connected this thread, but Ren Lewis didn’t think like most. He was holistic in his approach.

  Of the men abducted, some were thought to have had something horrible happen to them. Others were dismissed as having purposely gone missing, based on their records. And since there was no sign of struggle, no eyewitness testimony, the cases were pushed aside. The authorities hadn’t even connected that the men were abducted together, but the Lucidites were able to run reports on crime news and link together similar cases that happened in close proximity and time.

  The men went missing right after a series of wolf massacres happened. Then some key research was stolen from the Lucidite labs. After that, everything went silent. All leads dried up. Even the news reporting department at the Lucidite Institute turned up zero clues related to the werewolf case. News reporters were the team of clairvoyants who used their powers to find tragedies in the future so the Lucidites—the crime fighters of future events—could intervene if necessary.

  However, the news reporters didn’t see anything that could help Adelaide. And just when she thought her first big case had dried up, maybe gone away, one of the news reporters discovered an upcoming werewolf attack. However, the reporter hadn’t been able to supply enough details for Adelaide to determine where the attack would happen. Then it came to pass; a woman was mauled in a mall parking lot in Los Angeles. But the security cameras had been disabled, almost like the beast had planned it. Stalked his prey and ensured that there wouldn’t be any evidence. The woman passed away on the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance. But before she died, she kept repeating one word: “Werewolf.”

  Adelaide withdrew the map from the file. She circled Los Angeles. Then, pressing the marker firmly into the paper, she circled San Diego. And there’d been one other eyewitness report, this one in Utah. A boutique owner reported seeing a homeless man digging through her trashcans in the back alley. When she yelled to him, planning to offer him real food, a man with wolflike features turned around. He then sprinted in the opposite direction before scaling the side of the shop’s brick walls until he was on the roof. Adelaide pulled the pen up to the top of the map and circled Salt Lake City.

  This was all Adelaide knew about the case and it wasn’t enough. It didn’t tell her where to look next. Her father had been right that all the initial clues led to the creation of werewolves, even though no one had believed him. And now these beasts were loose on society. But she didn’t know why. Who created them and why would they let them free? That was the one intelligent conclusion she’d been able to make about any of this. These men were free. That was the only reason one would be rummaging through a trashcan.

  She slapped a palm to her forehead. Adelaide expected more from herself. She was a Dream Traveler, the race who could travel to any place and time with their consciousness when they slept. This power also lent each Dream Traveler a gift. She’d inherited her father’s gifts and he was the most powerful Dream Traveler to ever live. And working as an agent for the Lucidite Institute, she had incredible technology and resources at her disposable and yet she remained stumped. With more force than necessary she slammed the file shut and threw it across the room. I’m going to fail, she thought. The one thing my father trusted to me, and I’m going to fail with it.

  Continue reading Alpha Wolf, which comes out May 15, 2017. Preorder it here: http://amzn.to/2lDYNPp

  Acknowledgements

  Writing this series took just over fourteen months total. However, I have a lifetime of people to thank. The first thank you goes to Kelly for encouraging me to write Ren’s books and loving them even though they weren’t always pleasant. Every writer needs a Kelly in her corner, pushing her to do her best to entertain the readers. You, like me, are a nerd girl and one of my favorites.

  Thank you to my notch squad who makes so much of my current production possible. Steph and Jess, I can’t do what I do without you. Seriously. You two astound me with what you do for me on a daily basis. Mentally and otherwise.

  And a huge thank you to first chair, Colleen, for making me sane. That’s like the biggest and hardest job ever, but you do it. I can message you and it’s like I get a Zen moment. And thanks for the early feedback and cover help. Like seriously, are you a figment of my imagination? Too good to be true at this point.

  Thank you to Christine LePorte, my editor. Haha! I made you tear up! Mission. A. Complished. Thanks for making me a better writer.

  Thank you to Andrei Bat. Well, we did it again. I cranked out another story and you put up with me. Thank you for making my visions come true. I know I’m a pain in your ass. Join the club.

  Thank you to the readers. You all matter more than anyone else, however, I need everyone to make this happen. Still, I don’t discount a single message, comment or post. I read everything and I appreciate it more than you know. I wasn’t supposed to be writing novels. I’m supposed to be in a dead end job that sucks out my soul, but you all are making my dreams come true, over and over again.

  Thanks to the beta team: Kelly, Melinda, Heidi, Colleen, Steph, Jess and Anne. Wow! How did a gal get so lucky to score you all as beta readers? If my books are any good it’s because of your help and support.

  Thank you to BOD and all the bloggers and awesome reviewers who make my books successful. I love all of you and count your support as akin to gold.

  Thank you to BBC programming. If it wasn’t for you then I would have grown up watching mostly the Movie of the Week. However, you offered me something I could relate to. Something that spoke to me. I love the British!

  Thank you to my friends. Heidi, your support is always my saving grace. Thank you to my sister for believing in me and keeping me alive in those early years. Thank you to Linda, Fay, Nicole, Cheryl, Stacey, Erin and to the huge community who has continued to encourage my writing.

  Thank you to my Facebook community. OMG! Kris, Wendy, Tommi, Ashley, Molly, Shari, Anna, Melissa, Claudia, Michelle, Michelle, Patricia, Debra, Shelah, Danielle, Mary, Casey, Bec, Amanda, April, Beverly, Brandi and so many others. I cannot tell you how much your support means to me. Well, I hope I kind of just did.

  Thank you to my family Randy, Edie, Luke, Dad, Kathy, Bea, Anne, Marijo, Laura and many of the others who keep pushing me further and cheering me one.

  Thank you to all the musical artist who really inspired my heart and kept in grounded in Ren’s cold, dark soul. I couldn’t write without music.

  Thank you to Carole, my mentor, for constantly supporting me. Your advice is so valuable to me.

  Thank you to Glamour UK for taking a chance on Ren. To Locus magazine for showing your superbly awesome interests in the books. And thank you to Jeff for the inspiration.

  And my final thank you always and forever goes to my daughter, Lydia. You are my muse. The reason I started writing. The reason I’ll never quit. One day you’ll read these books and wonder why my vocabulary and vulgarity was so pitiful. However, I hope you see the genius that is Ren Lewis. If you do, then you’ll see me.

  Love,

  Sarah

  About the Author:

  Sarah is the author of the Lucidites, Reverians, Vagabond Circus and Ren series. She’s been everything from a corporate manager to a hippie. Her taste for adventure has taken her all over the world. If you can’t find her at the gym, then she’s probably at the frozen yogurt shop. If you can’t find her there then she probably doesn’t want to be found. She is a self-proclaimed hermit, with spontaneous urges to socialize during full moons and when Mercury is in retrograde. Sarah lives in Central California with her family. To learn more about Sarah please visit: htt
p://www.sarahnoffke.com

  Check out other work by this author here: http://amzn.to/1HBPLpb

  The Lucidites Series:

  Awoken, #1: http://amzn.to/1P4KriX

  Around the world humans are hallucinating after sleepless nights.

  In a sterile, underground institute the forecasters keep reporting the same events.

  And in the backwoods of Texas, a sixteen-year-old girl is about to be caught up in a fierce, ethereal battle.

  Meet Roya Stark. She drowns every night in her dreams, spends her hours reading classic literature to avoid her family’s ridicule, and is prone to premonitions—which are becoming more frequent. And now her dreams are filled with strangers offering to reveal what she has always wanted to know: Who is she? That’s the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. But will Roya live to regret learning the truth?

  Stunned, #2

  Revived, #3

  The Reverians Series:

  Defects, #1: http://amzn.to/1ZqA6UQ

  In the happy, clean community of Austin Valley, everything appears to be perfect. Seventeen-year-old Em Fuller, however, fears something is askew. Em is one of the new generation of Dream Travelers. For some reason, the gods have not seen fit to gift all of them with their expected special abilities. Em is a Defect—one of the unfortunate Dream Travelers not gifted with a psychic power. Desperate to do whatever it takes to earn her gift, she endures painful daily injections along with commands from her overbearing, loveless father. One of the few bright spots in her life is the return of a friend she had thought dead—but with his return comes the knowledge of a shocking, unforgivable truth. The society Em thought was protecting her has actually been betraying her, but she has no idea how to break away from its authority without hurting everyone she loves.