The Reluctant Wolf: A Paranormal Romance (Werewolves and Shifters) (6 page)

Damon roared in victory. His voice echoed throughout night. Seeming Morgan was down and a bit fatigued from the toss, he approached him with confidence. He was sure he had his brother beat.

But Morgan wasn’t done yet.

He sluggishly searched for anything he could use to his advantage. From out of the trash, scattered around him was garbage. Food, cereal boxes, old gym shoes and school books. Uh oh, he saw something else. It did not come from the trash, but off the wall. Maybe it was knocked loose when one of the girls rushed across it. It was in arms reach, almost invisible from his antagonist’s angle underneath a box of Lucky Charms.

It was a brick.

Damon stood over his downed brother and said, “This is how your world will end. My face will be the last one you see.” He slurped once again. “After me there will be no other, and once your head is taken to our father I will be his only successor.”

Morgan said, “You’ll never be his successor,” grabbed the brick and bashed it upside his brother’s head with lightning speed and a thundering force.

Damon, blinded by his own blood, lashed out at Morgan, caught him off guard and left four claw streaks across his chest. Morgan screamed in pain. Then Morgan caught Damon off guard. He wrapped an arm around his neck and squeezed. He squeezed and squeezed until Damon fell limp in his grasp.

Back at home, finally, Morgan surveyed the damage. Needless to say the suit was in rags. So much for that $1500 investment, he thought to himself. The shoes were ruined too – covered in blood, mud… and who knows what that was? And as for the flowers, well, they were laying on the sidewalk back at the fight scene. Not a good way to end the day. But it could have been worse… at least Bailey wasn’t there when it happened.

He ripped off what remained of his dress shirt and tossed it to the floor. Pants, socks and shoes followed. He was standing in his underwear now looking at himself in the big bathroom mirror. was covered in scratches – bloody claw marks of different sizes covered his body. But a few were already healing – so that was good – he just needed time for the others to heal as well. He grabbed a wash cloth, wet it and dabbed at the worst wounds that covered his chest.

Wincing as he bent over, he found the alcohol and peroxide in the bottom bathroom cabinet, stood back up, opened them both and poured a bit of each onto the washcloth – then he began wiping at the largest rips on his chest. He wished they had some whiskey in the house but knew there was none so he made the best use of what there was available. Whiskey was the best for post battle first aid – for cleaning out the wounds and for drinking to forget them too.

After he had cleaned them all reasonably well, he walked to the kitchen and got a cold beer from the fridge – not whiskey, but he’d make do. His smaller wounds were almost all healed, but he was stiff and sore all over from the fight. It had been quite a while since he had last fought like that – and his body was letting him know it right now. But he knew he needed to hide the clothes, or the rags basically, from Bailey. She must never see them.

And then he looked down at the fresh wounds that covered his body. Some were fresh scars now, though some still looked really nasty and might take a few days to completely heal. How would he ever explain that to Bailey? There was no way that she would ever miss those. No matter how well he tried to hide them.

He slowly sat down in a kitchen chair only dressed in his underwear, still holding his beer, and tried to think what he should do next. If his brother had found him – his stupid, nasty, least favorite brother – then it was only a matter of time until the others did too. There was only one thing to do. He didn’t want anything to happen to Bailey – she was his main focus in life.

So he finished his beer, got up and found a pad of paper and a pen in the desk drawer by the living room and sat down and thought about what to write. After a few minutes he started writing. And then he was done. Once he was finished he folded it up and left the note on the kitchen table where it would be easy to be found. Lastly he sat his empty beer bottle on it as a placeholder. Then he headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

Later that evening, Bailey returned to an empty house. If Morgan had been joking about him not being there when she’d arrived, then she would have expected him not to. Feeling he’d abandoned her once again, she fell into her own grieving period. For what reason did he have to leave me, she thought. What did I do? Something must be wrong with me.

As she made her way into the kitchen, she noticed a piece of paper on the table. It was folded three times into a rectangle right under a empty beer bottle. She wondered what it might have said before she picked it up. When she picked it up she opened it and read the contents. She looked around like it was a joke. She couldn’t believe he had done it again.

But this time, at least his reason was a damn good one.

Did you like this book?
I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed being in the land of shape shifting Were’s, wolves and the like, if only for a few moments.

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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. In it the two sisters have some issues adjusting to pack life. Lynda, the older, more serious sibling, seems to be having more problems as she rebels from the pack mindset. 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 shapeshifting, 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?

Tale of the Century Bride
– Many years ago, the tiny village of Dalmar successfully developed a harmonious resolution with the highest ranking and oldest living vampire in the region to protect their lands from all forms of conflict – but were the people of the village ready to pay the price he required?

Vampires, Love Potions and Other Immortals: A Collection of Paranormal Short Stories
– This paranormal romance fiction, a 3 book set, is all about the adventures of three completely different supernatural entities – ancient vampires, gifted potion makers and other mysterious immortals. Included are: Tale of the Century Bride (Book 1), Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics (Book 2), and The Master of the Hunt: A Paranormal Romance (Book 3)

For the kids:

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.

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I hope you enjoy this free Chapter Preview in my other book,
Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics
:

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The store now known as Henry Sister’s Potions, Tonics, and Magical Beverages had a long history of being a place to find help for all those situations that needed assistance outside the realm of ordinary, day-to-day life. If you needed something extra-ordinary, this was definitely the place to check. Almost a century ago this building was owned by a family of wiccans, after that it was a tattoo parlor for a while and then it sat empty for a long, long time.  So this particular building had a long and colorful past and seemed to draw to it people outside the realm of the ordinary.

But for now, the current owners were sisters, spinsters by best guess, who had a flair for the unusual – but most especially for their knowledge of medicinal and magical herbs, oils and their abilities to make the best potions in the state. In fact, on their business card it even stated the following, “Henry Sister’s Potions, Tonics, and Magical Beverages, The Best Notions and Potions This Side of the Ocean” all in a wonderful scripted font that was both beautiful, yet easy to read, at the same time. In fact, it was the girls dad who had come up with the ocean slogan. It made Susan smile every time she read it as it  so reminded her of her dad and his pride in the sisters small, yet unique, business.

And people did come from all over to purchase potions from the sisters. It was not uncommon at all to see all manner of cars with out of state license plates near the sisters small shop just about any day. Many had advised them to get their business online but they had not yet opted to do so out of a dislike for the impersonal nature of the internet.

But the sisters were also well known in their tiny little town for their long standing rule that all their potions and magical concoctions would only be made for the good of everyone – they would never make a potion to be used for negative reasons. So those hoping for something to harm another knew never to come here for help. No type of poisons or harmful elixirs would ever pass through their doors. To this one rule they vowed always to stay true and never to break.

Daily activities here overall were no different than at any other store you might frequent.  The main difference being that the products for sale here were hand crafted one at a time by a pair of gifted potioneers, not something pre-packaged in a colorful box that hundreds, or even thousands, had been made of at a faceless factory in another land. And the staff here were knowledgeable, helpful and freely gave advice as needed with their clientele. Not the same kind of atmosphere that you’d expect at your typical “big box” store at all.

When you first entered the Henry Sister’s Potions, Tonics, and Magical Beverages you would at once be overcome with the amount of shelves the store contained for it’s  intimate overall size – all filled with bottles, boxes and vials filled with every kind of herb, stick, twig, oil, leaf or powder that you might have ever thought of. And more. Many more.

And the smell inside, a hard one to describe due to all the products they had in stock, but needless to say it was very unique. And if the girls were brewing that day, in the tiny area in the back of the store, which they did almost every day, then there was no telling what smells you might encounter. But the fragrance was often compared to old libraries for some reason by their newest customers when described to others.

As it turns out this day was nothing out of the ordinary – Susan Henry, one of the stores  owners, carefully stirred all the contents of her enameled spell pot in the back of the store. The fragrant liquid she was currently brewing had the entire room smelling absolutely delicious. She was all caught up on orders and trying to restock the shelves a bit and noticed that she was low on love potions. One of her most popular items, she knew she did not want to run out so she decided to brew up a batch before she was completely sold out.

Now love potions in particular were always tricky to mix – that was just one of the tricks of the trade, so she always paid careful attention when making these in particular. Now some potions and elixirs she could mix up blind folded, left handed, hanging upside down and in the dark – but not love potions – they demanded a lot more time and attention to detail.

She had spent all morning adding just the right amount of ingredients to the one she was working on. As it turns out she had been distracted on more than one occasion while putting this mixture together so she felt she really ought to have been done an hour ago. At least that was what she had planned. But when you are dealing with customers you just have to work around their schedules and needs and that is just the way that it is.

But she was getting close to completion now, she only had three more items left to add to create the magic necessary to complete their own brand of popular love potion. “Red rose petals, gold shavings from a wedding band and purple violets.” Susan muttered the remaining ingredients to herself over and over as she rummaged through her incantation rooms reserves, quickly locating the items.