Busy howls and yowls, shapeshifter lovers.
Yep, that is the constant theme of my life: BUSY, TOO BUSY. But no, I'm not alone since that's obviously true for most of us in these times. Chilly today on the tame prairie, but not wintry, which is a very good thing!
Anyway, I got major revisions done on the first chapter of WAITING FOR A FILLY GIRL. However, one hitch is, this chapter introduces the hero, Drev Zander. Fine, but I don't think it entices many erotic romance readers. So, I'm thinking of how to create a first chapter that will, hopefully, be more enticing. After all, Keina and Drev's love story is passion-flaming hot, hot, hot.
Tagline: Ex super-soldier boy meets winged filly girl. Will they live happily ever after? In Wolf Peak territory anything is possible. ~A Paranormal Erotic Romance~
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Wolf Peak Territory, Montana
Before Thanksgiving, November 2015
Chapter One: White-Winged, Pale Purple Horse
Drev Zander aimed his hunting rifle, alerted by the telltale gobbles of a wild turkey. He followed the sound of rustling inside the densely woven wall of brush and branches.
As the young tom, knowing he was prey, broke into the clearing, Drev targeted the emerging flurry of wings.
About to the pull the trigger, his jaw dropped instead.
The rifle fell from his line of sight. "What the 'f'?" left his mouth as clouds of steam.
First, a giant burst of light struck his eyes. Next, a white-winged, pale purple horse galloped between him and the only turkey he'd been able to track for days.
Like mist, the beautiful ethereal creature vanished from view. Yep, gone in a twinkling flash. But not before Drev caught the scent of lilacs and musky equine.
The mix of enticing fragrances lingered. Staggered, he scanned the immediate area.
What the freaking hell had he just seen? Was the winged horse real? As in flesh and blood real?
Or was the delicately built horse, some ephemeral vision...or a strange, inter-dimensional intrusion into his reality. Mothman came to mind, given some believed the flying monster was from another dimension.
Damn, Drev glanced around again—a three-sixty degree spin. He wasn't a drinkin' man, except for a couple of brewskies during the weekly poker game at O'Malley's Gin Joint. And the malty Scottish ale he indulged in on Saturday night at Duff McDuff's old-fashioned tavern.
Nor was Drev into the dug scene. No way, no how. The enhancing drug concoctions used on him during his time as a super soldier had been devastating physically and mentally.
So yeah, Drev reasoned, this was Wolf Peak Territory, home of the shapeshifter crowd, and other assorted supernatural beings. A number of shifters were his close friends. He also knew about the Circle of Witches, the vampire dance partners at the supperclub. And, there was at least one cat goddess, and an Egyptian demigod.
But a purple tinted Pegasus who could obviously appear and disappear?
The local rumors about a nude purple fairy, Drev considered to be town lore. Hell, was he wrong?
With his advanced training kicking in, he re-ran the mystical-like event in his mind. He magnified every detail. That didn't help.
In stunned mode, Drev clutched his gun tight as he'd conditioned himself to do in any dangerous circumstance. Instinctively, he faded into the mid-afternoon shadows of the deep forest, a life-saving ability he'd fine-tuned while a special-ops soldier.
Yeah, before being hijacked into the super soldier program. That is, after he'd been dishonorably discharged from the military. Not following orders did that to a man.
As it turned out, no sweat off his brow. Drev had no stomach for killing the innocent, or collateral damage as they euphemistically called it.
Looking in the mirror was no problem either.
Still as stone, he waited, on watch for more high strangeness. His hunter's honed intuition buzzed like a swarm of pissed off bees. Or as his late Irish granny said, it was the "Sight."
Drev figured a conversation with dear gran on the other side was long overdue, given his flash-glimpse of a Pegasus. Not that she'd ever mentioned a winged horse.
Sure as the laughing devil himself, though, his gran had delighted in telling him *scare the hide off you* stories about the Kelpie, a horse shifter, and about the Each Uisge, a Highland supernatural water horse.
Waiting for the buzz to simmer down, Drev replayed the paranormal happening in his mind. Again. Yes, there had been hooves softly crunching on the frost-saturated leaves.
With his curiosity on fire now, Drev silently moved toward the huge thicket. His keen eye searched for hoof prints.
Dane, his mentor, who was a mountain man and a puma shapeshifter—and a longtime inhabitant of the surrounding territory—had taught him how to track any animal.
Currently, he and Dead Aim Dane, as the puma shifter was affectionately known, were partners in keeping Wolf Peak's animal life in balance. They also supplied fresh meat to Dante. The alpha werewolf owned the subterranean complex known as the Interspecies Pleasure Club, and his customers were always ravenous for wild game.
Hunkering down, studying the first hoof impression, Drev felt the rapid throb of his blood. Damn, excitement surged through him.
The land's subtle energies flowed inside Drev also, telling him more about her. Yep, the so-called mythical horse had to be a she, given her dainty structure, the refined shape of her head, and her lilac scent.
His split-second sighting of the Pegasus took over his mind's eye, and Drev realized the gorgeous creature's image had been burned into his brain like a brand—never to lessen or be forgotten.
On a tracker's intense high, he followed the outline of the winged horse's hooves. The length of her stride was longer than he'd anticipated, as if she floated.
Well hell, that made sense in a weird way.
About fifteen minutes later, Drev stood on the edge of a rock cliff that was miles above the autumn-gold valley floor. He stared into the magnificent blue Montana sky.
Scat! As Dane would say. Unless his girl Pegasus could transform into the one small puffy cloud...well dammit, she was nowhere to be seen.
Only her deep hoof prints remained in a soft layer of soil. Drev glanced down at the evidence of her existence—at the only sign she'd launched into the great blue yonder.
Winging where? he asked himself. Or had she merged with the very air?
Drev sighed and growled at the same time, his frustration sharp as a knife. He'd struck out twice today.
The wild turkey he hunted had been destined for his brother's Thanksgiving table. The young tom had been chased out of his flock, and now he'd likely be prime eatin' for a predator.
Drev stomped a boot on the rocky surface. With four kids and work sporadic these days, his brother and his wife hadn't been able to budget in the traditional feast.
Despite his live-off-the-land lifestyle, Drev could afford to help them out. However, there wasn't a Thanksgiving turkey to be found in the relatively new shifter town of Moonrise Lake. Certainly not an organic or wild game bird. Yeah, understandable, because no store dared offer carnivorous shapeshifters anything but high quality meats and poultry.
Drev slung his rifle over his shoulder. He surveyed the primal majestic scenery before him. This part of Wolf Peak Territory suited him just damn fine.
Keeping his ear to the wind, he listened for any sign of danger. Drev also tuned into the musical symphony of the forest, of the aspen-tree valley below.
Since arriving and deciding to stay, he'd come to understand this uncivilized enormous land reflected his character—what he was on the inside. Drev drew in great breaths of the cold crisp air, calming and energizing himself for the return trip home.
But dang it, he was worried about his brother, and his family. Not a week ago he'd trekked into the isolated town of Moonrise Lake from his mountainside cabin. Since Sean lived about forty minutes away, he'd arranged for boxes of groceries to be delivered.
These days Drev's only transportation was a snowmobile. And he liked it that way. Except in a helluva situation like this.
Yep, three strikes, he was out. And out of luck. As far as a holiday turkey dinner for his brother.
All because of a gossamer-like, winged horse most would consider to be mere hallucination...or a figment of their imagination induced by freezing your effing ass off out in the middle of the forest.
In Drev's case, his unusually rapid metabolism kicked in, and he stayed warm enough no matter the frigid temps. Oh yeah, he'd learned why—the hard, being-experimented-on way.
No thanks to the secret military's genetic scientists—funded by trillions of missing tax dollars—they'd traced it to his Celtic ancestors. Or the ancient lineage responsible for the legendary berserker warriors.
Double piles of scat! As Dane liked to say. Only God, and the denizens in hell, knew the soulless monster warriors his blood and tissue samples were likely helping to build. For that matter, had already genetically created.
Once, as he was being dragged back to a recovery room by two musclebound brutes—who believed he was still conked out—Drev had glimpsed row after row of nude men on hospital beds.
The usually barred door had been left open.
Using his peripheral vision, Drev mentally recorded the perfect soldier types, perfect because of their super-sized, GI Joe physiques. But shit on a stick, they'd looked like frozen corpses waiting to be animated.
Yeah, brought to life like sci-fi Frankensteins, no doubt they would obey orders without question, without sentient thought.
To clear away the nightmare-creepy remembrance, Drev shook his head vigorously. The moment he stilled, he felt invisible feathers caress his face.
Her wingtip feathers, the Pegasus girl?
Drev quaked inside. Could this be happening for real?
Paralyzed by shock, he felt the delicate sensation of feathers stroke along his cheek.
I am sorry, hunter, he heard inside his mind. I couldn't help myself. Her wingtip feather caressed him for several moments. Then. I didn't know you were feeding your family.
Whirls of air brushed his face, and Drev knew she'd gone. He was alone again.
For a split second, he had to ask himself if he was lock-me-away delusional. Yet the truth was he knew better.
When he and Dane hunted together, they often communicated telepathically—the ability a natural occurrence between them.
Drev burned inside like a son of a gun. The Pegasus girl was a had-to-solve mystery. Now.
Besides, she not only teased his soul with her unique feminine voice, but triggered every male atom of him. His cock swelled, quickly becoming ramrod hard.
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Wishing you love and passion on the wild side ~
Savanna
Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance
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