Words from Day 5 - Lunar Wolves: The Unwanted

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With the completion of the first novel in the Lunar Wolves series, The Unwilling, I've started work on the second novel in the series, The Unwanted. In other news, the cover for The Unwilling has arrived and you can see it below. It was created by Jake at JCaleb Design, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for this book. The other covers are by Mihaela Voicu (on the left), and Moonchild Ljilja at Fantasybookdesign (on the right).

So, without further ado:

Starting Words: 7,229

Finishing Words: 13,329

Words Written: 6,100

Other Words: 0

Other Project/Project Aspects Advanced: 2

Excerpt: In which Oliver learns that he and Lewis may have leapt from the frying pan into the fire:

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His beta shot him a resigned look and then tried to turn away as the first strike fell. Oliver’s wolf rose and, this time, he welcomed it.

He roared directing the shift into his hybrid form…which was when he made his next unpleasant discovery.

Energy sparked in the bands surrounding his wrists and ankles and the shift halted. The electrical charge that followed left him gasping. The first guard to greet him snickered.

“We’re on a luparii world,” the man said. “You didn’t think we planned for shifters?”

He held up a small box and thumbed the button in its center.

The charge that followed was longer, and Oliver clamped down on a scream. From across the room came the rhythmic sound of batons on flesh. When he looked, Oliver could see Lewis hanging limply in his shackles and muffling cries at each new hit.

“Please stop,” Oliver whispered, and Lewis’s tormentors turned.

“There is a price,” the guard leader told him, and Oliver met the man’s eyes.

The price was easy to read in his expression, and Oliver nodded.

“I’ll pay.”

“No…” Lewis’s protest wheezed across the space between them.

“Yes,” Oliver told him. “It’s what an alpha…”

He grunted as the first blow fell, wanting to curl away from it and not able to. Gritting his teeth, he tried to stay silent, but then another hit landed, and bone cracked. He yelped, wondering exactly how far Carnelian would go to make sure his point was understood.

He’d thought Rennet’s World had the worst the universe had to offer. He’d forgotten humans ranked among the predatory races for a reason.

In the end, he closed his eyes. It didn’t stop him crying out as each blow fell, but it did mean he couldn’t see the blow coming. He wasn’t sure that was any better, but it was inevitable as the pain grew and his body slid toward unconsciousness.

It might…have been better, he thought, if we’d just asked the Hunt Master to pass us to Odyssey…

He wondered if it was too late to ask Carnelian to do exactly that, but something told him such a request wouldn’t get him the result he was looking for…and he owed… Lewis. He…was…Alpha…

It took Oliver several minutes to realize the blows had stopped, and then he wished he hadn’t. The absence of new pain, made the rest of it seem so much worse. He closed his eyes and tried not to move.

The sound of someone clearing their throat in front of him caught his attention, and he lifted an eyelid. The sight of a gloved hand reaching for his face had him flinching back, until Carnelian gripped his chin.

“Hmmph,” the man said, turning Oliver’s head so he could look into the wolf’s face. “You will run this mission for us, and we will deliver you to a safe place with three standard months non-disclosure…understood?”

Oliver closed his eye, slurring his reply, “…shtood.”

“And you will do nothing to draw the attention of those who seek you, or this…” and the broker poked Oliver’s bruised chest, drawing a whimper from the shifter’s throat “…will seem like a pleasuring.”

He poked Oliver, again, eliciting another whimper, this one touched by a groan.

“You may shift when released, but only to start the healing process. You will shift back when ordered.”

I’ll tear your throat out… Oliver thought, and electricity jolted through him.

When the current ceased, Carnelian leant into his face, “We’ve tapped your implants. Surface thoughts can be collected.”

Thanks for the warning, Oliver thought, and might have been all right if he hadn’t added, asshole.

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