Carys Weldon Blog
Friday, December 29, 2006
SexcerptOkay...this is either gonna make you say I GOTTA READ THIS BOOK or steer away from it. Brandon saved Sandy from dying after she was gang raped. He fell in love with her at first sight, but she's the daughter of his father's enemy. He can't go to her without getting killed by the very men that attacked her.
So, he sits alone in his line shack, drinking, thinking, trying to figure out how he can see her again--mostly feeling awful about not crossing the boundary lines earlier--thinking he might have been able to prevent the rape. Thinking the whiskey isn't deadening the pain enough, he takes some swigs out of the silver flask that contains Raven's Mischief--the addictive potion that saved her life on the night of the rape, and bound them together with magic.
His drinks make her flask vibrate, and make her crave the liquid--just a sip--and to see him. Except, she slides through some space/time continuum thing and comes out in her crinos form on the other end--because she's so angry over all that's happened to her. This is the first time it happens.
Warning: (Okay, I'm laughing over this. Sorry, I have a bad, bad sense of humor.)
She bites him down below. He lets her. It hurts but he sort of masochistically thinks he deserves all she dishes out. So, if you can't imagine ever being so angry at a man that he deserves getting his cock bit, you probably won't wanna read this. LOL
And then, one night, late—near the time that he’d saved her life, he decided to try it again. Just a sip…to chase the whiskey he’d been drinking. But, then, after he took a sip, he thought, “I need a real drink.”
The next swig warmed him all the way through and the one after that blurred his vision. That was about the time he noticed the flask vibrating. Seconds later, the interior of the cabin distorted.
Something furry leaped through some miracle, the distortion of time and space, knocking him from the chair. Pouncing him with unerring accuracy. A werewolf! A crinos female with claws that slashed through his clothing, scraping into his chest. She took him so much by surprise that he could do nothing but hold her at arm’s length—the second he realized she was going for his jugular.
That made him angry. He crinosed and rolled her, pinning her beneath him, asking, “You like that, bitch? I’ve got—”
He was going to say fangs and claws, too, but suddenly he recognized her by scent. Instantly, his whole demeanor changed. “Baby, baby…how did you get here?”
Before she could react, he started kissing her. A hundred little baby kisses all over her face. And licks. A thousand tender ministrations from a wolf man in love. In terrible, horrid, desperate love.
At first, she dodged his lips and tongue, her whole body tense, anger at being held down so intense that she sweated the endorphins from her pores, but he ignored it. He kept whispering, “Baby, I won’t hurt you. Just let me love you. Relax…it’s okay, you’re with me. Gaia, I’ve been so worried about you!”
She growled repeatedly, but he ignored that, too, sensing her softening beneath him. Was she giving in because he wasn’t letting her up? She wasn’t fighting any more.
When he realized how he had hold of her, he forced himself to relax his grip. His fingers loosed their hold on her wrists—how he’d pinned those above her, he didn’t even remember. He didn’t care. What he cared about was that she’d come to him—however she’d done it. He didn’t even care how that had happened.
Sandy was back, and all he could do was make love to her. But her shock and docility and stiffening didn’t last very long. The minute he eased his grip, she rolled him to his back and angrily screamed, “Do you know what happened to me?”
“Yes, baby, but it’s gonna be okay.”
“No! It’s not!” She sat up, straddling him, and pounded him a couple times on his chest. “I’m pregnant!” And then she started crying, and rolled her back to lay her head on his chest.
Brandon could do nothing but wrap his arms around her. She was pregnant? From the rape?
Gaia, was there any end to the pain of Raven’s Mischief?
All the joy that she’d come to him was swept away in the anguish of that. He rubbed and patted her back, and dropped kisses on her head. When he found his voice, all he could do was mutter, “It’ll be okay, Sand. It’ll be okay.”
“No. It won’t.” She thumped him again. “Sh.” Was he hallucinating? She wasn’t really in his shack, was she?
Had he fallen asleep? Was this his best dream turned into his worst nightmare?
Brandon whispered, “If this was a dream, we’d be making love. You wouldn’t be crying.”
He received another punch for that. Her anger was the thing that forced him to believe it was all real. It filled the cabin, and the scent of her was unmistakable. No matter how many times he blinked, the whole thing didn’t disappear.
“How…how did you get here?”
“Oh, I don’t know! The flask vibrated and,” she sniffed, lifting her head, “And I drank because I was tired of hurting.”
Lamely, he asked, “Why were you hurting?”
She got right down in his face and screamed, “How could you forget?!”
“I didn’t. I didn’t.”
Sandy wasn’t listening. She scooted back, and undid his pants and looked down at his bulging manhood…with such fury on her face that it seemed confusing, in contradiction with her actions. She took a hard grip on it.
He had no control over it. She aroused him. He couldn’t help it. But, at that moment, he felt ashamed of his physical response.
She squeezed—which didn’t lessen his ardor. It did nothing but arouse him further.
“Don’t,” he said, forcing himself to shift back to his human form. He didn’t mind the firm hold. What bothered him was her expression, the anger. “I’m not the one you’re angry at.”
Controlling a shape-shift beneath her was a major effort, but he’d be damned if he let himself go. They’d end up rutting like uncontrollable dogs, and she’d hate him all the more. He had to keep his brain on a civilized keel.
“Stop!” The minute she realized he was morphing, she pummeled him again.
He didn’t care. He was not like the animals that had gotten hold of her. And he couldn’t let the instincts that ruled in that form take him over.
Brandon grabbed hold of her wrists. “Baby…just shift. We’ll talk about it like reasonable—”
“I don’t want to be reasonable! I want to scream and bite and….”
“And what?” She tried to jerk out of his grasp but he didn’t let go. He saw it in her eyes. He felt it in the stiffness of her body. “Show me how much you hate men?”
“Yes!”
When she yanked her arms the next time, he let them go. “Okay.”
If she needed someone to let her anger out on, it could be him. He wanted to cry for her. He wanted to do something to help. And short of starting war by killing Miff’s guardians, this was probably all he could do.
He’d reported the incident but his father and the Shaman, who had been his only audience, had decided to keep it to themselves. They didn’t seem surprised. And he had left them with the distinct feeling that, maybe, Raven’s Mischief was behind it all—and perhaps Amaguq and the old wise man were stirring things a-purpose, inviting Raven’s hand. There was no secret that Amaguq and Miff went way back as enemies. A grudge over twenty years or more. But what that was, no one seemed to know.
Never before had he questioned the alpha who ruled his pack, but, as he’d left, he got angry. Was he a pawn in their game? Nothing more than a beta worth losing? And making fun of behind his back?
That thought had returned many times since his confession about the night Sandy had been raped—that he had, indeed, succored their enemy, and crossed the territorial lines, starting a fight.
It was odd that there were no repercussions. Just him waiting for it to come. The worst type of anticipation. Surely, some day soon his punishment would be revealed.
Was this it? This painful experience with Sandy—more of Raven’s Mischief? They had both partaken from the flasks again. Was this his penance for choosing to do it?
Her angry grip on his cock had him closing his eyes. He didn’t want to answer her anger with more of the same. He didn’t want Raven’s Mischief to rule their relationship, such as it was. But…if that’s what she needed to work through what had happened, he was a willing man. Maybe it would make his guilt over the night go away.
“Gaia, Sand.” He took a deep breath and let it go. “You could come to me every night, angry, and I would willingly take whatever you gave me.”
In his head, he prayed to Gaia for patience and the strength to endure.
For that, he got his cock twisted. “Like this?”
Was he a sadist, and she a masochist? Because…the answer was yes. He surrendered his will to hers. Brandon nodded.
“Ah!” Disgusted, she slid downward. “And this?”
He opened his eyes when she took hold of his shaft again, her fangs pending over the top. She wouldn’t bite him, would she? She could, as angry as she was, bite his head off quite literally.
But then he’d bleed to death and be at the end of his torture. “Give it your worst,” he said.
So, she bit him. But, she didn’t separate any piece of him from another, except maybe his heart. What had he done to deserve this?
“Gaia,” he said, his cock hurting.
“Shift. You’ll fucking heal better.”
Had he said something like that to her?
“I’ll bite you again.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m angry and I want you angry and—”
“And what good will that do?”
“Together, I think we can take those bastards.”
Ah. That was it. Raven’s Mischief extended to murder, ambush. While part of him wanted nothing more than to confront Miff’s guardians, he didn’t want to do it with her possibly in danger.
He had to admit to himself that he thought, in her present mood, she might just be right about the two of them taking the others. But, he had to ask, “When did you find out?”
“What?”
“That you’re pregnant.”
“You mean…when did I start puking my brains out? That night, don’t you remember?” She frowned. “Or when did the clawing in my belly start?”
Brandon hadn’t thought of that. Was that what she was going through?
She had conceived in crinos. There was no mercy for that. The babes would be born monsters, and likely put down.
“You want…” He hated to suggest it, because he loved life, and had never considered the possibility before. “You want me to take you to Anchorage…for an abortion?”
Author's note: I am anti-abortion, generally. One of those--your choice is conception or contraception sort of people. However, rape is the one time that I say...a woman has to do what she needs to survive the ordeal. While I would prefer adoption over abortion every time, in this case, I think I can see my way to letting an abortion happen. THEY'RE GONNA BE MONSTERS. ;)
And for the record, I have had many friends who had abortions and then told me after the fact. You'd be surprised at how many find that I'm the one most sympathetic after the death of their baby. I am no judge. What I care about is people surviving life and its worst experiences with a little joy. I am big on working past things, especially guilt. The past is over. I want desperately to move on, and look forward. (Easier said than done--says the dog who is always chewing on an old bone.)
Raven's Mischief is a therapeutic book that really works through anger, and the concept of letting the bad things go. There is a strong sense of a need for revenge, and a surprise on how that comes about...without making things worse for Sandy and Brandon. And it does have a Happily Ever After ending--which in the publishing world is referred to as HEA.
If you see HFN, that means Happy For Now. That, too, should give you a good feeling at the end of the book...but maybe a boding for the sequel. (See Chaos had a HFN ending which did not bode well for the couple when it slid into Leader of the Pack.)
However, if I put those books back out, I may rewrite them and surprise you with new endings, and kill off other people in Leader...or something. I'll let ya know if I rewrite enough to give you more. I have a growing urge to give some HFN books of previous relationships some of those very cool alphas had. I mean, geez, who couldn't like reading about Jack some more?
1 Comments:
I am very glad this has a HEA. Can't stand a book that doesn't have at least a HFN lol
