FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

This is an exert from my actual novel, the one which is for sale at Amazon and Barns & Noble. I figure you all might want a sample to wet your whistles.

Chapter 01

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

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The sun was warm and a slight breeze blew all scent in an easterly direction. A large oak provided a favorable perch to look upon the flower filled field, the place where prey would eventually roam. Soft leather protected the hunter from chaffing bark, while the mind gnawed on itself in an effort to solve problems. This was normally a place to avoid such troubles, but there was no escape from that which currently lingered in the mind. The unpleasant possibility was now a looming inevitability whose deadline drew closer day-by-day.

There was a rustle. Movement. Patience had paid off. The prey, a treasure, entered the clearing, taking in the scents and colors. The head bobbed, looking left then right. It was not safe here, but the meadow was captivating. She let her guard down and stopped to smell the sweets.

She didn't see me, the hunter thought. They never see me. Slowly the predator drew the bow string to her ear and sighted down the shaft. The flowers were a distraction no little girl could resist. None but Selena, who adjusted slightly to the left, for wind, and let death arch forward with pitiless resolve.

The arrow plunged deep into a haunch. Selena cursed her foul fortune as her clumsy shot maimed the animal instead of taking it down. The mark stumbled then ran, forcing the hunter to drop from her vantage point. Two legs chased four. If the animal escaped she would suffer for days or months before being killed by another predator. The weak could not survive in nature, and the injured were soon disposed of as well.

They ran a mile through twisted terrain, marred by branches, bushes, and roots. Two legs were normally too slow, but the pain of wood and stone lodged in muscle and bone made it difficult for four legs to focus. The wobbly retreat led to a catch in the undergrowth, sending their owner sprawling. The arrow was driven further in, causing a pitiful whimper to slice through the hunter's mind. Selena saw the shot. Stopping suddenly, she braced against a tree, drew back another arrow, aimed for a scant second, then loosed it into the side of the exposed neck. The doe whined and fell back to the ground. She struggled as life slipped away, then twitched, and was still.

Slowly, Selena approached her kill. The neck shot came out neatly and she returned the arrow to her quiver. The haunch shot was messy. The feathered base slipped out, leaving the rest inside. This brought her count down to seven. Normally she would not allow her twelve arrow quiver to carry less than ten, but she had been distracted for weeks and it was affecting her judgment.

It had been coming for such a long time, but ignoring an unwanted marriage was easy when no one would have her. As it turned out, her father was much smarter and more dedicated to this cause than she gave him credit for. He knew there was no controlling her, but that would not stop an old hunter like him. An impossible task, like taming a wolf, intrigued him, and she inherited this trait.

Selena could feed and shelter herself without a man telling her how, but that was not how things were done in her village. For everyone else, the inevitable clamor to marry and settle down consumed their younger years. It was like marriage was the only thing that could tame the beast of youth and ensure the safety of the village. Marriage made girls into mothers and boys into providers who would then stop causing trouble, making them all good and wholesome.

The whole business sickened Selena. She had never been a good little girl and she liked it that way. Named for the fullness of the moon, who watched her birth of cries and blood, Selena was neither an obedient virgin nor a manipulative whore. Something was very wrong with her, or so the gossipers whispered. When faced with danger, her emerald green eyes would sparkle with a ferocity not seen in other girls.

Selena kept her red hair short and manageable, refusing to allow it to be long and proper. She was not afraid of the dark or strangers. She learned that boys bled just as much as her older sisters did when punched in the nose, and most scary things ran home crying when her bony knuckles blackened an eye. Nothing was as hard or invincible as they first appeared.

Recent carelessness was proof of her terrible thinking curse. It was not like when she was six and Auntie Sasha tried to scare her out of the woods with stories of Faeries and wolves. It was not like when she was eight and her favorite aunt was claimed by the forest. It was not even like when she was eleven and began to bleed with the turning of each new moon. No, this was more like last month when she caught her father in the arms of a new woman. The image of shame and disgust burned in her mind, not allowing her to move into the next day without shaking.

The doe was heavy. Most days it would have been easy enough to drag the corpse; today, the world was full of conspiring brambles and branches that caught and snagged. When she finally found the log where she had left her skinning equipment, she dropped her gear in a nook where it could lean without being dirtied or damaged. With some effort, the doe was hung by the head from a conveniently shaped tree. She drug her skinning knife slowly along the flat side of a boulder. Once it passed her inspection, she made two deep cuts and let the body drain.

The crimson river held her gaze and mind transfixed as it journeyed into the channel she had carved. Like sand through an hourglass, it would eventually run out. A warning of what was to come.

A snapping twig broke her reverie. The real world closed in fast and her reflexes took over. Her body spun, snatching up the bow and notching a single arrow into it. The string was pulled taught and aimed in the direction of the offending sound.

All was tension. Muscles coiled, arm locked, arrow ready for its journey. Green eyes scanned the wood line as ears strained, listening to the silence. Silence? All was quite. How had she not noticed? Had her mind been so loud?

Silence... breath... silence... heart beating fast... silence...

Is that you my blue eyed wolf? She wondered as her extended arm began to complain. Her first kill had gone to the blue eyed alpha and his amber eyed pack three years prior. The wild gaze spoke of admiration. The recognition of a fellow hunter filled her with strength and courage. The offering of her first kill to the only entity to acknowledge her was an honor.

"Selena?" Her big sister's voice called through the trees. The rustle of her passing reminding others that her prey did not live in the forest. "Are you there?"

"Here, Valora," Selena answered, her body relaxing slowly, the arrow sulking back into its quiver. "How did you find me?"

"Where else would you be?" Her big-sister stepped into the clearing, drawing a long brown strand of hair back along one ear. "There are only so many places for you to do men's work without getting caught."

"Does that mean this was the first place you looked?" Selena scoffed, retrieving her knife and returning to the kill that was now only dripping every few seconds.

"The third," Valora admitted with a sheepish grin. "Father's had all day to get good and furious with you."

"Lucky me." Selena's knife bit too hard and cut a jagged hole in the deer's skin. She cursed, spat, and repositioned for another place to insert her blade.

"Always the lady," her sister mocked.

"Don't you have an inn to run?"

"Fredrick won't run it under in just one day."

"Father didn't ask you out here to find me. That would be unladylike."

"Yes, well, he ranted at Thomas first."

"Poor Melissa." Selena smirked at the thought of her perfect sister's perfect husband and their perfect home being disturbed by the rage of their father.

"Poor nothing! She's the oldest! Let her pick up the pieces for once like the oldest should! Do you know what she did? She brought him to my inn. My business! Not only did he chase away two of my regulars, but then he set to eating himself a good lunch on the house! Then, he decided to dirty a perfectly clean room with a nice long nap!" The change in Valora's demeanor amused Selena in ways she would never admit. It was the proof that her older sister was just as rebellious as she. It was one of the few things that hinted at them being family.

"So, you had to get away?" The crimson face, with its pox scars and freckles, dimpled as the deer's skin pealed neatly.

"You know how he gets."

"Oh, I know. You forget I still live there."

"Sleep there is more like it."

"Well, you know what he's like," Selena said in imitation of her sister. "Fredrick's a lot older than you."

"He was lonely and owned an inn," Valora said as her trademark smirk began to unconsciously form. "I think my new life suits me just fine."

Selena smiled. Her sister was a predator, just like her. Only her prey owned property and her weapons were the shapely curves of her body. "Father's gonna marry me off."

"Who would have you?" Valora asked with a touch of sarcastic spite.

"Brutto."

"Tailor Two-Toes?" Selena nodded. "Well... I guess it's a good match. You with your hunting and skinning and he with his tailoring. You could be the husband and he the wife. Plus he's all chinless, so you should be safe. I doubt he has enough sense to know what to do with your girl parts."

"And Fredrick does?"

"Hey... older men know things, Selena," Valora's eyes danced and her sister flinched at their meaning.

"Eww."

"Oh, darling little Scarlet," Valora said in the patronizing way of older sisters that made the youngest sibling's blood boil. "Someday you'll understand."

"I'd be howling mad to let that happen."

"Good idea." Valora's tone suddenly turned bitter. "You should just stay out here. Wait until Luna's eye is full and bright. You can stare at her all night and maybe catch a bit of her lunacy. Might fix you of this crazy talk!"

The sisters locked gazes. It was an ancient game of dominance played by all predators throughout time. Selena felt her gaze slip so she looked back to her kill, cut the last bit of deer skin, and thrust one warm and bloody side of it into her sister's hands.

"Here, make yourself useful." Valora flinched but did not drop the skin.

"You're going to carry the rest of that bloody mess in your hands?" the innkeeper asked as she and the hunter began to fold the hide.

"Only the sinew, I need more arrows."

"Wasteful."

"The rest is for the wolves." Selena's gaze was far away again. Her sister noticed and shook her head.

"You really are a loon, attracting wolves like that."

"At least wolves don't fight their nature."

"Oh no," Valora scoffed as her sister gathered her tools, "they know exactly where they stand."

*****

A stiff silence lingered between the sisters as they passed the Virga's farm. The Potter's and Miller's farms did nothing to budge their stubbornness either. It was not until their feet touched the well trodden clay of their village that Selena began to walk a little closer to her big sister. Suddenly, she stopped.

"What?" Valora asked, having stopped a few steps after.

"Asagi," Selena said, then she took the skin from her sister and turned down a different path.

"Oh no you don't," fumed the older sibling. "You're not running away!"

"No, I'm just gonna give these to- aaaAAHHH!!!" Valora's practiced fingers pulled Selena back by her hair.

"No, you are going to face father, then you can go see your witch."

"But -ow- I just -ow- oh come on sis -OW!"

"No, no, and no! You're going to listen to your big sister, and go see him before he runs off any more of my customers!"

Selena wanted to tackle her sister and go down fighting, but her hands here full of heavy hide and they had both learned long ago that where the head went the body followed. Dragging was only required for a few feet until the red haired, beet faced, hunter followed her sister obediently. Once they could see the door, the grip on her hair was released.

"Selena!" Now, there was no escape. "There's my most ungrateful urchin! You think you can wait me out? I've been waiting a might bit longer and I know where you sleep!" Selena tried to think of a way to escape this lecture, but it looked as if he had gained three extra wrinkles and at least a dozen gray hairs since this morning and he was good and ready to unleash.

"Look at you!" their father bellowed, marching toward her as he spoke. "Blood on your hands and flesh in your arms. Brutto's going to love all the things you bring home. More meat than he's ever been able to afford and a wife who brings home materials. I'm sure he'll not even notice your roamings as long as you remind him you're married from time to time."

They were now face to face. Selena's eyes were wide and her feet were frozen in awe of her father's anger. She had not seen him like this since she stopped wearing dresses.

"What in the name of Faery Queen's fury did I do to deserve this? I don't ask much. Against all good sense I let you wear your pants and run through the woods and I don't lock you up the way some would. Why do you run away? You think it's gonna change this? I found the ONLY man who will take you and he don't need much. Just a pat on the head and maybe a meal from time to time."

He paused for a breath then leaned in close so only they could hear. "I'm sure you can control him like Valora controls her man. It's not a great deal but you'll be married and can own things. I'm sure that nitwit won't outlive you, so you can be an owning widow when he's gone. Please. Please, I beg you. Be reasonable."

"Reasonable?" Selena muttered as the word penetrated her paralysis and showed her the way to her voice. "How's becoming another man's property reasonable? If I wait a few years I'll be an old maid, then I can live in a hut on my own like Asagi."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah!"

"And who's gonna buy your hides? No one! You'll be a witch! That's what they'll say. They already don't trust Asagi, but her potions work so they let her stay. What can you offer that we can't get on our own? You're going to push them too far. They already scarred you once, I don't want you to be burned. I just want you to be safe."

"Safe and dead inside," Selena snapped back. "Even as Brutto's property... what if he wants children? I doubt he gets how that works and I'll be banished before I show him."

"You mule brained... he doesn't even look at women. What makes you think-"

"Oh he looks!" she cut him off as her chest heaved with angry breath and her face was the color of her hair. "You just don't notice. You never notice! I was invisible until I caught you! He leers like a freak and then-"

"Bunk," her father yelled over her, "and if he does, then maybe he'll make a woman of you. Teach you to be-"

"I am a woman, father." Selena stomped her foot, leaned inches from his face, and shook the skin in her arms at him. "I can hunt and feed myself! I don't need your house! I can make my own! You just wanna be rid of me!"

"What?"

"Yeah, you wanna be rid of me so you can marry that... woman!"

"What are you-"

"BELLA!!!" Selena screamed the name so hard she almost broke the blood vessels in her face. Her voice echoed in the air and settled on the big man's shoulders like a storm.

"Why do you hate Bella?" Her father's voice was more controlled, bewilderment had sapped some of his fire.

"I saw you! I know that you're like them! You cheat! You scoundrel!"

"Selena, your mother's been dead almost eighteen years. I'm allowed to move on."

"NO! I know! I killed her!"

"No you-"

"Yes I did! I killed her with these!" Selena slapped her shoulder, leaving a bloody smear. The hide was not yet clean and her lack of attention allowed it to leak onto her. "I'm too wide! That's why she's dead! That's why I was poxed! That's why everyone hates me!"

"Selena... I'm sorry-"

"Shut-up! Don't tell me what to do! You don't love me! You never loved me! I'm just in the way! Well, I'll just leave and then-"

A heavy hand struck her firmly across the cheek, knocking her to the ground. The blow sent her whole world spinning and disrupted her anger as well as her sight. When she looked up at him, it suddenly dawned on Selena that they were there... all of them... the whole village was watching.

"Never question how much I love you," her father's voice said in his usual even and controlled tone that could not be ignored. "Don't you ever let me hear you talking that way about yourself again."

The power of his love and the presence of everyone she had ever known washed away her ability to fight back. Humiliation fell over her like a rain of quills, piercing her belly like an upturned blade. Anger and hurt clouded her mind, dulling her wit.

"This will all make more sense to you some day," her father continued, "but right now you need to go to your room and sleep on things."