On the other side, Brandon shared their silence not because he have insight into the Ghouls motives, but because their motives were all that he understood.The Ghouls had come for him, plain and simple.But aside from their appearances, and their hunting style and the potential threat that they poses to other living things he knew very little about the beasts that had been chasing him. He had learned more from Mantilo and Nate in that moment then, what felt like a life time of running, had ever taught him.How can those things be Rats....? How can they be Shifters?Brandon asked himselfThey are taller and longer than most men and they....they don't speak...they can't speak...They are nothing but monsters.The idea confounded him. But honestly what didn't confound him?Brandon didn't understand himself. . He didn't know why he could nearly taste energy on his tongue. He didn't understand the world that he traveled aimlessly through. A world that held Shifters, and Clans and Dragons an
Ezekiel suddenly heard Brandon breathing behind him, tight sharp gasps.....like he couldn't quite catch his breath.Taking a moment to step back out of the circle that his brothers had formed around their father and Nate, Ezekiel turned to Brandon and was struck by the emotions swirling across his face and in his eyes.He had expected to see irritation because of Mantilo's refusal to listen to him. (Something Ezekiel was privately relieved about.) But what Ezekiel saw there on Brandon's enchanting face wasn't anything as simple as irritation or even pouting.What Ezekiel saw was an intense mixture of pain and shock. His cool green gaze was slightly widened and his gloved finger tips were clawing into the narrow arms of his chair like he was holding onto the seat in a turbulent sea that only he could see.Only he could feel. And it was tearing him apart.Moved by his obvious discomfort Ezekiel went to the side of his chair, leaned on it and playfully waved his hand in front of Brandon'
Chapter 76Against Ezekiel's will, the Leopard inside urged him to follow Brandon.Ezekiel simply clocked his exit instead, watching until Brandon had completely disappeared from sight, leaving behind the overpowering scent of his alluring blood on the air.Mantilo easily ignored his abrupt exit and as everyone turned back to discussing the information that their Father had returned with....Ezekiel found his mind lingering, as it often did, on the meaning behind what Brandon had uttered moments ago.You and those ugly beasts don't scare me....Is what he had said to Mantilo, but that snide remark uttered in passing seemed deeper to Ezekiel. It had Ezekiel pondering silently.So what the hell IS he afraid of? What is Brandon's story?Ezekiel asked himself.And for some unknown reason the idea of the answer to that question unsettled Ezekiel even more. And he wondered why someone he thought about this much...was still little more than a stranger to him. And why a sickly unwanted Reaver
Chapter 1(The gossamer moon was the only sentinel to witness or tenuous beginnings.)-UnknownBrandon burst past a clump of trees, racing deep into the woods.A fine mist of droplets fell from the pine needles over head, down into his dirty blond hair. The water saturated him. Plastering the few dry strands left down onto his scalp, forehead, and temples. His wet clothes clung to him and made his thin cheeks and dark rimmed eyes seem all the more devastating.Brandon whipped away a cool droplet from his skin, fighting not to shiver and failing miserably. "Damn forest! It's freezing!!." He panted shallowly as he moved forward and asked himself. "Where
Chapter 2Ezekiel didn't know what exactly called him off the beaten path that night....but on instinct he had followed the soft breeze of the night. Now he stood and watched the mortal below him from the tree branches high above the intruders oblivious head.So close that he could smell nothing but thick coppery blood.It drenched the air, it bleed across Ezekiel's senses, tickling the beast inside of him. It growled dangerously coming awake in moments as if jolted from its rest.So strange. It was a curious scent, blood....and something else, laced along with it. It overpowered the smell of pine that had always been a part of his Clans forests.The smel
Chapter 3 - DeathWith a snarl, more beast then man, Ezekiel charged into the mortal.He clamped his hands around the mortal's smaller right wrist that was holding the blade, and slammed him back into the tree.The mortal screamed in agony, and Ezekiel smelled more blood rush into the air, but the mortal wasn't done in by Ezekiels attack.A fist, small, and hard cracked into the side of his head. Once, then twice.Ezekiel tottered to the side as blood blossomed inside his cheek and his hold on the mortal slipped. And then the mortal started rush him.Ezekiel quickly retreated. With his hands out to his sid
Chapter 4"What do I do now?" Ezekiel asked himself.In the deathly silent moments that passed after the mortal fell unconscious, this was the only question, out of the other hundred buzzing around in his head; which Ezekiel most desperately wanted to find an answer to.Still leaned over the mortal on the ground, Ezekiel felt harsh twinges of pain lance down his arm and across his collar. Reminding him that he had just in fact survived a deadly blow. Ezekiel took a moment to reassure himself that the stranger wasn't going to jump up and stab him again.Calling on the beast inside him, he felt warm energy flowing out of his core and into his eyes. With a slight sting, Ezekiel then felt his eyes slit, taking on the shape of a cats gaze.With glowing blue eyes, he swept his hands across the stranger's hips and ankles, searching for more blades. With the beast inside lending him its sight, the darkness melted away and for the most part Ezekiel could se
Chapter 5 - DecisionsAnd then there was a tiny thump. And then a few seconds later....a second thump. A weak heartbeat.Releasing a breath, Ezekiel pulled back. The cold dread ripping deep into his soul dissipated.He's alive...just barely...but seriously what do I do with him, now?Coming to a decision that the mortal wasn't capable of moving, much less attacking in his current sorry state Ezekiel decided to move off a ways and inspect the wounds that he had sustained earlier.And to think.With a painful hiss Ezekiel lowered himself into the pine needles beside the mortal and inspected his shoulder.Ezekiel quickly lifted up his shirt, biting back another painful hiss as he watched the blood flowing down his right peck from a giant, bloody gash two spaces to the left of his heart. The wound in his shoulder was clean and at least a few inches deep.As Ezekiel inspected it with his slit eyes in the darkness a small chill race