Table of Contents
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10.
BONUS BOOKS
Bear Shifter Romance
Highlander Time Travel Romance
Alien Romance
Dystopian Romance
Billionaire Romance
Time Travel Romance
Dragon Shifter Romance
Wolf Shifter Romance
MC Romance
KODHI
LOST CREEK SHIFTERS
Novelette 5
Samantha Leal
Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Leal All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Introduction
Thank you so much for purchasing my Novellete. All of my stories also contain bonus stories, so please take a look at the other stories I offer here. They are grouped by type in the Table of Contents for easy navigation. We have some Billionaire, Highlander, Shifter and Biker tales. Take a look! Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter for updates and free books!
The Lost Creek Shifters series is a collection of novelette length standalone Bad boy romances that fit together to tell the longer story of the ancient tale of the bear and wolf shifters in a small mountain town. Enjoy!
The Lost Creek Shifters are:
ARLO (Book 1)
SCAR (Book 2)
BLU (Book 3)
BODHI (Book 4)
Also be sure and check out my Novella length MC Romance series:
The Forsaken Riders:
King (Book 1)
Lynx (Book 2)
Steel (Book 3)
Gunner (Book 4)
Hawk (Book 5)
Bull (Book 6)
Stag (Book 7)
Stick (Book 8)
Decker (Book 9)
Ax (Book 10)
Hunter (Book 11)
Rocket (Book 12)
Diesel (Book 13)
Breaker (Book 14)
Flash (Book 15)
And we would also love it if you would
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Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
BONUS BOOKS
Bear Shifter Romance
Highlander Time Travel Romance
Alien Romance
Dystopian Romance
Billionaire Romance
Time Travel Romance
Dragon Shifter Romance
Wolf Shifter Romance
MC Romance
1.
Alyssa wrapped her arms around herself as she stared at him from across the table. Simon’s face was cold and completely void of emotion. It was as if he had already shut down and was just waiting for her to finish her pleading.
He sighed and looked off into the distance. All around them, people were carrying on their normal day to day activity, and they were totally oblivious as to what was happening right there in front of them. Alyssa just wished she could have the same blissful ignorance.
But this was her life.
And it was her it was happening to.
Simon was kicking her to the curb.
“I just don’t know what else to say,” he blew out his cheeks and rolled his eyes. “I mean, I think I’ve been pretty clear on it all… I can’t see how you’d still have questions.”
Alyssa felt the rage bubbling inside of her, but she wouldn’t let him see it.
“You don’t see how I could have any questions?” she snorted as she clenched her fists together. “We’ve been living in each other’s pockets for the past sixteen months, what makes you think this is in any way normal for you to just drop me like that?”
She was determined not to cry, even if her insides were screaming otherwise. She tried to match his cold exterior and scowled at him, but she knew she was on the verge of breaking.
Just like Simon was breaking her heart.
“I haven’t been in it for a while,” he sighed with a shrug. “I didn’t think it would come as a surprise.”
Alyssa tried, in that split second, to cast her mind back to everything that had happened in the previous months, but the majority of her memories were good, and she struggled to piece together what he was referring to.
“I mean, come on, Alyssa,” he said. “When we started this, it was fun… But it was never going to be forever.”
The way he was looking at her was making her blood boil. She had been nothing but loyal and devoted to Simon. And now she was seeing him for what he truly was.
A coward.
A liar.
And no doubt, a cheat.
“Is there someone else?” She fixed her eyes on him, waiting for the tell… And sure enough, a certain look flashed over him, and she shook her head and ran her hands through her hair. “I thought as much.”
She rose to her feet and glared down at him, but to her disgust, all Simon did was smirk.
“You’re a real piece of shit,” she said as she swiped her purse up from the edge of the table. “But at least I got to find out now and not further down the line.”
Simon shrugged and looked away from her.
There was so much she wanted to say, and so much she wanted to blast him with, but at the same time, she knew it was futile.
Simon was a jerk. She had always been wary of it, but she had always looked past his shortcomings and focused on his positive traits. Now, he was just confirming what she had feared all along.
Deep inside, he was rotten to the core.
“Goodbye, Simon,” she said as she turned on her heel and strode toward the door of the coffee house. “I’ll box up your stuff and leave it in the foyer.”
She didn’t look back over her shoulder, she just kept walking until she was sure there was enough distance between them for her to stop and take a breath.
She felt the tears welling behind her eyes, but she had to stay strong. Simon wasn’t worth the heartache, even if, right in that moment, it felt as if she would never smile again.
“If he can do that to you…” she whispered to herself, “then he is capable of anything.”
She rushed home in a daze and as she went up the elevator in her building and made her way to her front door, it was almost as if she were on autopilot. The world around her was moving and life was happening, but she was in a bubble, with only her thoughts to move her forward.
She shut the door behind her and closed her eyes. And it wasn’t until she opened them again that the gravity of the situation hit her head on.
Simon had broken up with her.
Her boyfriend of sixteen months had found someone else and had left her out of nowhere.
She slid down the wall and sat on the floor as she put her head in her hands. It all felt like such a bad dream, but she knew it was all too real. She wiped the tears from her eyes and begged herself not to cry anymore. Even though she had been holding it in, she knew the tears were about to come thick and fast, and she didn’t want to let them for fear that they would never stop.
She stayed on the floor looking up at her window until the sun went down and she was in darkness. Never had she felt so alone, but also more determined that this was her chance to finally get a hold on her life and t
o find out who she truly was.
“I’ll give you tonight, Alyssa,” she said aloud to herself. “After that, no more being sad. He doesn’t deserve the time in your thoughts.”
She dragged herself up from the floor and moped through to the bedroom. Once she was in there her bed seemed to shine like a beacon through the darkness, and as she flopped down on it and pulled the covers up around her, she couldn’t help but think of where she had gone wrong, even though she hated herself for even entertaining it.
“It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “It’s his… he’s the jerk.”
And even though she knew she was right, she still couldn’t help but feel worthless.
Simon had been her first real long-term relationship, and when they had settled into their way of life together, things had seemed relatively normal. They had never lived together, and they had never really put a label on what they were, but after seeing each other day in and day out for all of that time, she had assumed they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
By the sounds of what Simon had said to her earlier that day when he had shattered her heart in two, he had seen things completely different, though.
But we were just dating… his words came back to haunt her and she found herself lamely punching the pillow she had crunched up to her chest.
“Okay, Simon,” she said aloud. “Just dating for sixteen months and seeing each other pretty much every day.”
And as the words tumbled out of her mouth, she found herself laughing.
She wasn’t the fool in this situation, Simon was. If he could behave that way and tell her he loved her, and then drop her as soon as someone else caught his eye, then good luck to him.
He doesn’t deserve you anyway, she told herself. He was never good enough, and now, you’re free.
Free.
It hadn’t even occurred to her until then that she didn’t have to answer to him anymore.
Simon had always controlled her in one way or another, and now, she could do what she wanted, when she wanted.
She leaned up on her elbows and looked out at all the unfinished canvasses stacked up on the other side of the bedroom. Since he had come into her life it was as if her muse had disappeared. Her creativity had shriveled up and died.
She could no longer call herself an artist. She was just a twenty-something girl waiting tables until her dream was realized. But the truth of it was, she hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in over a year.
A surge of excitement and inspiration raged through her.
“All of these emotions,” she said. “I’m going to use them in the only way I know how.”
She felt a little smile creep across her face.
From the darkness, she could already see the light.
Her breakup with Simon would not all be bad for her. She would take those lemons life was giving her and make some goddam lemonade.
She was going to go back to doing what she loved.
She reached over to her purse on the nightstand and pulled out her cellphone. As she opened up the message to her mom, she already knew the path she had to take to ensure she was in the best frame of mind possible to make this work.
She began to type…
A: Is the cabin free? X
Within a second, she had a reply.
M: It sure is, Sweetheart… Why? X
A: I want to stay there for a while…. I need to get some work done and I’m feeling inspired… x
M: Well that’s what it’s there for
A: Thanks Mom, love you x
M: xxxx
She lay the phone down and smiled from ear to ear. She had never even been to the woodland cabin her parents had bought several summers before, but now, she had a good reason to and she couldn’t wait to get the hell out of the city and into a quiet town for a few weeks.
She rubbed her hands together and looked around her apartment. The way she was feeling, she didn’t even care if she ever set foot in there again.
“Just get up and go,” she whispered to herself. “Get the hell out of here with your paints and easel, and forget Simon the Shithead ever existed.”
She’d call work and make her excuses. It wasn’t as if there was any shortage of waiting jobs in the city, and she had never even felt as if she had fit in at the restaurant. It was as if she had suddenly been given a massive kick in the pants and she was no longer willing to spend her life doing something she either didn’t enjoy, or wasn’t bringing her love.
She rolled over and closed her eyes. It felt strange to be making such a big plan, but also necessary. There was no way she would just coast along anymore, or be taken advantage of.
She was going to head out to the mountains to paint and find herself. And only when she was done would she return.
She fell asleep with a smile on her face, which, considering the terrible way the day had begun, wasn’t such a bad way to end it.
2.
“I’m honestly going to be fine, you don’t need to worry about me,” she said with a half laugh into the phone as she held it against her ear with her shoulder.
She was busy folding clothes and stacking them in her weekend bags, but her mom wasn’t letting her off the hook so easily.
“I can’t believe he just did that,” her mother’s voice squeaked from the other end of the line. “He’s really done a number on you…”
“Yep,” Alyssa agreed. “But at least I can take a vacation. I really need it and I want to get back to my art. It’s been such a long time and I can only blame being with him for my loss of inspiration.”
“But the cabin,” her mom continued. “You’ve never been there and you don’t know the town. Are you sure you don’t want your dad and I to come out with you? Why don’t you wait until the weekend and we can all go together?”
“I need to get out of here today, Mom,” she said sternly. “I’ve already called in work and told them I’m sick, and I have no intention of moping around my apartment all day. I want to get out of this awful city and into the wilderness. Surely, you can’t be worried about me going to some quiet mountain town for a few weeks to seal myself off and work when I live in a huge city where people get killed practically outside my front door on a daily basis.”
She heard her mother gasp and she had to laugh.
“I’m being dramatic, Mom,” she said with a shake of her head. “But it does happen. I’m sure this sleepy little town that you and Dad have bought your love nest in can’t be in the middle of a war zone? I bet I’m going to be safer there than I would be going to bed here every night.”
Her mother sighed again and she could tell she had given up and was going to let Alyssa have her way.
“I know, you’re right…” her mom said. “I just worry about you, that’s all. You’re my only child… It’s my duty to keep you safe.”
“Well, then you’ll be doing just that by getting me out of this dangerous city full of murderers and heartbreakers, won’t you?”
“Call me when you get there, and every day thereafter, okay?”
“Okay, Mom, jeez. Don’t worry so much.”
“Of course, I worry,” she said. “And your father and I may come and stay for a few days as well, when you’ve settled in.”
“Sure,” Alyssa smiled. “It would be good to see you both, it’s been too long.”
“It’s been three weeks,” her mom laughed.
“Exactly, three weeks too long,” Alyssa said cheekily.
“When you were at college, we wouldn’t see you for months and months at a time,” her mother said with a drawl. “We couldn’t get you to let us come and see you, even for a lunch date.”
“I was in college,” she said. “I was too busy trying to look cool. Now, I couldn’t care less.”
“Love you,” her mom said.
“Love you too,” Alyssa smiled. “I’ll call you when I arrive.”
“The cabin keys are with the family next door,” her mom continued. “Mr. and Mrs. Sweeny, they’re lov
ely and they’ll help you settle in if you need anything.”
“I’ll call you when I get there,” she said. “I better go, I want to get out of here and I still have to pack up the car.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” her mom said affectionately. “Talk to you later.”
“Bye, Mom,” Alyssa said as she hung up the phone and sighed.
She had no idea if she was doing the right thing by escaping into the wilderness, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t stick around in the city with Simon just around the corner and her head full of heartache. She was ready to forget him and create. She was ready to begin a new life.
As she heaved her bags up onto her shoulders and looked around her apartment, she felt a small pang of sadness, but it was quickly erased by her excitement.
It had been a long time since she had taken vacation. And she had never gone it alone. It was almost like a rite of passage. She was an adult, she was discovering herself, and she was going on a spiritual and creative journey to make something important.
“And maybe I’ll even find some new friends along the way,” she smiled as she closed the door behind her and turned the key in the lock.
She had no idea what the town was like, but her parents had filled her in when they had bought the log cabin, and they assured her it was quaint, picturesque and very, very friendly. City life was lonely, and she was ready to have some real people around her again. She was sick of the fakers.
In the parking lot under the building, she opened up the trunk on her car and threw all her bags inside. She had never been on a road trip before and she barely even drove the thing, so it was sure to be an interesting day trying to navigate her way out of the state.
“But you can do it,” she coached herself as she slammed the trunk and climbed into the driver’s seat. “You are capable of anything you put your mind to.”
And right there and then, she knew it was the truth.
She drove for four hours before she started to feel the isolation creeping up beside her. The roads were becoming quieter and quieter, and when she looked at the clock, she realized she hadn’t passed another car for at least ten minutes. The sun was beginning to get lower in the sky and she cranked down the window to let in a blast of fresh air to wake her up a little.
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