Bri Two weeks later, I slipped around the cameras in the house and into my father’s study. My feet worked the floorboards by the window, until I found just the right one. I pried it gently up with a butter knife from the kitchen. Beneath it was a small pile of books, some of my dad's prized trinkets including his chain watch, and some books on magic he insisted I hide before he died. I had adhered to his every last wish, all that remained was revenge. He had said when the time came, they would make sense to me. They had sat here for 10 years waiting for this day. The day I refused to be their pawn and their property. They had a contract in blood I was not consulted on or asked about, nor did my blood adorn the scrap of old parchment willfully. They had held me down and stolen it. I was 14 then. My mother kept it under lock and key, hidden somewhere inside her apartment upstairs. After the night of being confronted about Andy’s kiss, everyone backed off except for my new little messe
BriAs the sun rose golden beyond the thick canopy of Spanish moss-laden cypress, the nocturnal creatures laid down to rest. I spent that day pushing the small boat around fallen logs and trees through thick patches of marsh grass, lilies, and duckweed in the shallows and paddling through deeper channels. The familiar sounds of my bustling home in The Big Easy were gone now as the buzzing of insects and the drone of cicadas filled my ears, the occasional calls of birds sounding off in the distance. Telltale disturbances disrupted the murky expanse of the stagnant waters as gators, frogs, and slithering things moved within its depths. It was impossible to know what exactly lay beneath the dark brown water below, it was void of light. The biggest gator ever recorded was a behemoth of 19 feet. That one must have inherited some prehistoric DNA. My father used to tell me stories about all his dramatic encounters as a boy growing up in Cajun country, and though I'm sure there were many exa
Bri My darkness settled over the onyx water becoming a mist of dark fog ready to strike at the next intruder of my mind. ‘Fuck you Silas! Good luck getting through that Asshole!’ Beneath the water lurked creatures of this world and of others laying in wait, ready to strike. The light of my power rose above it like the full moon overhead, resting in my chest as my breath staggered to slowly rise and fall. While once my mind had looked like the fine beauty of the glossy and lush gardens and mansions of New Orleans those; buildings were now dilapidated, sunken, and overgrown. Crumbling as the darkness of the swamp took over so that the light could shine above it. A memory distracted me at the sight of it. "Without darkness Brianna there could be no light,” my father had once said. “Without evil, we would not know goodness,” he had schooled me. “Without hardships, you could not appreciate the joys in your heart.” He had taught me as I sat beside him when the sickness had begun to take
Unknown POVAs I’d entered the swamp tonight a sense of eerie anticipation had hit me and as I stalked through the bayou in my other skin I could feel a power pulsing, old, older than the swamp, ancient. It scented pure and clean, its owner had no ill intent, not even an ounce. As I made my way through the stink of stagnant water I felt the others following using the shallows and sandbars to try to keep up with me, their leader. Thankfully they were not cursed like me to stalk the swamps in the full moonlight as a monster. I could be The Beast whenever I wanted any other time, but beneath the light of that full bright moon that taunted me, he owned the power over me to be present, and he would not recede.I rested at the back of his mind with little more than a suggestion to sway him. My other form, the wolf, was as equally a part of me as the man. But The Beast was separate, he had his own mind and presence. He sensed something bright in the darkness, he could smell the goodness seep
Unknown POV As I’d entered the swamp tonight a sense of eerie anticipation had hit me and as I stalked through the bayou in my other skin I could feel a power pulsing, old, older than the swamp, ancient. It scented pure and clean, its owner had no ill intent, not even an ounce. As I made my way through the stink of stagnant water I felt the others following using the shallows and sandbars to try to keep up with me, their leader. Thankfully they were not cursed like me to stalk the swamps in the full moonlight as a monster. I could be The Beast whenever I wanted any other time, but beneath the light of that full bright moon that taunted me, he owned the power over me to be present, and he would not recede. I rested at the back of his mind with little more than a suggestion to sway him. My other form, the wolf, was as equally a part of me as the man. But The Beast was separate, he had his own mind and presence. He sensed something bright in the darkness, he could smell the goodness se
I watched from the doorway, as Wyatt with shaking hands, gingerly stripped the slip of a woman of her wet clothes. Finishing that, he then attempted to dry her brown hair and tucked her into his bed. His actions were uncharacteristically strange. We didn’t bring women home. Wyatt veered away from them at all costs. He was always afraid of the monster within him. Was that what the trembling was, his strain to hold The Beast back? The way he held and cradled her to his chest as the monster was off, The Beast meant no harm to the girl, if anything he was more gentle than I had ever seen him with anyone. The suggestion to ferry her in the boat with one of the boys had fallen on deaf ears. I couldn’t be sure but I swear The Beast had purred as we made our way home tonight. Then I saw it as he gently brushed the hair from her cheek, tracing the gaunt features of her undeniably beautiful face. There was something special about her. I had seen the light emitting from her and the wolf in me
Beau And she, this girl, this woman had evidently been claimed by him. Forged under his protection in a way, his oldest friend and confidant had no compass to navigate whatever stewed inside. The light of her had beckoned to all of us and we simply obeyed. This was what I questioned because what could sway The Beast that hunted foul magic? Nothing but the purest, I was sure. Yet, in the past, we had been too friendly, not cautious enough. It had cost us dearly. It had cost us my sister. The first red wolf female to be born in 75 years. She had been an even rarer, omega, a demure female coveted by Alphas. Heredity had put a target on her back even as our numbers dwindled making us weaker. Not even Wyatt’s father’s Beast made us strong enough, and we were not powerful nor big enough in numbers to save her. I still had a thirst for the Greater Plains Pack’s blood. I don’t think I could ever quench it. If I ever found out what happened to her, I knew my brother would have my back. I co
Bri Before my consciousness returned I had a vision of my father’s death again but this time I could hear his words clear as day. In translation, his words were ‘Find The Beast that is your heart, seek out the protectors of the swamp, they will vow to protect you my Bri.’ When I woke, I listened to the two deep voices just outside the space I was in. Groggy, I had trouble focusing on their words. My newly amped magic reached out testing when the massive presence of the dominant one stilled, caressing mine. I felt something rise within him, feral but non-threatening, protective even natural, and beautifully ancient. My energy and his swirled around each other. Testing and pulling, like flames licking at each other’s potential measuring and feeling the othe out. Within moments the pulsing waves were caressing each other, like cat leaning into an open hand, intent on fingers running through their coats. My brain flickered the memory of wet fur, and hazel eyes with flecks and rims of o