“Why were you even outside like...like that?” Beccy asked
Di sighed. “Pup, you’ll discover soon enough the incredible feeling it is to run free as a wolf. It’s something I can’t describe...like skydiving through a farmer’s market...but you’re in complete control. The rush to your senses is phenomenal...the things you can see, hear and smell... Anyway, I’m getting to that time of life where my periods are erratic, and I don’t know how much longer I will have this ability to change. So, when my period coincided with the full moon this week, I seized the opportunity.
“I was following the edge of the village and just as I neared Albert and Linda’s place, I sensed a couple of men. It was way past midnight, so I went to investigate and found someone trying to break into their house. I had to stop him of course. So, I thought I’d use the growl and stalk technique, and scare him off. The silly bugger ran screaming across the garden and wacked his head on a branch. Knocked himself out cold. I was going to chase the one in the van, Thomas, and steer him towards his brother, but he drove away like Lewis Hamilton on crack. I dragged the brother, Paul into the shed. I knew Albert would be in there first thing in the morning.
“I phoned Linda the next day, and she told me about the strange man they’d found in their shed, blood all down his head and babbling about monsters. They called an ambulance and sent him off to the hospital.”
The kettle’s shrill whistle interrupted them, and Di stood up to make another round of drinks.
“I guess Thomas came looking for him the next day?” asked Liam.
Di nodded. “Stupidly, I went out again the next night. After a few hours I sensed him following me. I tried to scare him off, but he threw something in my face that hurt like hell. In my pain and panic I bit him and ran off.
“I thought I’d lost him, I was confused and in the process of changing back, so my senses weren’t as good. But he followed me back here, found me in the cellar and tasered me. When I woke up, I knew I had to let you know somehow about our family’s legacy in case something happened to me. I found my phone but before I had a chance to tell you much he came in. He knocked the phone away but not before he’d overheard me tell you about the Manor’s attic. He got it into his head that I’d killed his brother and hidden his body in the attic. I think the bite had already started to affect his mind.
“After he made me write that stupid note, he dragged me up to the manor. When we were in the attic, he started to transform and ran out of there. That’s when you two showed up.”
Beccy leaned across the table and took Liam’s hand. “When we heard the commotion downstairs I was about to run down to help you, but Aunty Di stopped me, told me not to be scared and changed right in front of my eyes, breaking free of her chains.”
Di shrugged. “I had just enough left in me for one last transformation, and I could see how important you were to Beccy.”
“Thank you,” said Liam. “You saved my life and trusted me with your secret.”
“You’re welcome,” Di said and put two mugs on the table. “You do realise that means you have to marry Pup now. Keep the secret in the family.”
“Aunty Di!” Beccy snatched her hands away. Her face turned bright pink.
“Right, I’m going for a long hot soak in the bath. You two lovebirds make yourselves at home, and I’ll make lunch in a bit.” Di walked out of the room with a sly grin on her face. “One more thing,” she called from the stairs. “See the large rolled up document with the red ribbon around it? That’s the deeds to Sandborn Manor. We still own it.”
Beccy’s eyes widened.
She whispered, “Wow.”
They sat in silence digesting everything that had been thrown at them in the last hour. The only sounds were the creaks and thuds as Di moved around upstairs and the steady ticking of the kitchen clock.
Finally, Liam spoke. “All of that information and the thing you seem most upset about is marrying me?” He raised his eyebrows at Beccy.
“Don’t you start,” Beccy said shaking her head. Her face dropped. “Listen, I’ll understand if you walk away right now. I won’t blame you at all.”
Liam sat back and folded his arms. Beccy sucked in her lips and stared at him, waiting for his reply.
“Dammit, say something,” she snapped.
Liam stood up, walked around the table and took her hand, pulling her gently to her feet. He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her shimmering, golden eyes.
“If you think I’m walking away from you and this incredible adventure, you really don’t know me at all and...” Liam paused, then raised an enquiring eyebrow at Beccy. “You remember that fantasy we talked about? How can I turn down the chance to be an actual Lord of the Manor?”
Beccy smiled coyly. “You do realise I could turn tonight? I’ve just got my period, and it’s still a full moon.”
“Come on, Red.” Liam put his arm around her. “Let’s go and sit in the living room, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
As they walked out of the kitchen Liam kissed the top of her head. “How do feel about me keeping a cage at the bottom of our bed?”
Blank Slate
Erin Lee and LJC Fynn
CHAPTER ONE
James
Death surrounded me. I tried to look her in the eyes, but it was hard to hold eye contact when all I could see was the knife to her throat and the bulbous, greasy hands of her reaper. I could smell it too – the familiar coppery mix of blood and sweat. She rambled away like it would never happen to her; too concerned that I knew to check in with my parole officer twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays by noon. I wondered if it’d be an inmate who killed her. I wondered more why I cared. She was just another bitch in the system making a living off of tracking guys like me. Frankly, she was a pain in the ass and if I told the truth, I wouldn’t be surprised if I recognized those hands as my own.
Squinting, I tried to get a better view of them. There were no tattoos. It wasn’t me. I exhaled, nodding like I gave two fucks about checking in with another nark. His nails—they had to be the hands of a man—were cut too short. He wore a thick black ring on his right hand. The cuticle on his left thumb was bleeding. It didn’t stop him. Instead, he squeezed harder.
“You need to sign here,” she said, shoving the forms at me.
Grabbing a pen from her dingy metal desk, I quickly scrawled J.T. Maynard next to her babysitter-style ‘X.’ Pushing the paper back at her, I leaned back in my chair waiting for a lecture about not hanging with other cons, not going to bars, and signing up for the job program. It wasn’t like I didn’t know the drill. I’d been here before and I’d be here again. That bitch didn’t have my abilities, but she knew it too. All of it was quite monotonous.
While I couldn’t see my own fate, I was pretty clear on how getting out of this last stint in the joint would go for me. I’d give it three or four days before I was on the run again. Rules and check-ins had never suited me. It wasn’t that I minded authority. What I resented was people making assumptions about me.
It was a curse, this thing that I lived with. No matter how many shrinks, doctors, and specialists they sent me to see, they’d never really get it. Instead, they sent me off with one diagnosis or another. It was easier for them to write me off as a quack than to listen to my warnings and motivations for doing the things I did. It was funny how they never took note of the provocations but only the reactions. It didn’t matter. None of it did. It wasn’t like I could change things. If there was one thing I had learned about fate and death, it was that it comes for you no matter how you or a guy like me tries to change it. Still, it was impossible to avoid.