Lycans Series: Five Story Collection

Lycans Series: Five Story Collection

Chandler Dee

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 by Chandler Dee

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Dear Reader

Lycan's Sacrifice: Sanda

Lycan's Mate: Jurisa

Lycan's Love: Sanda

Lycan's Secret: Cami

Lycan's Promise: Sanda

Sample: Predator on the Rim

Dear Reader,

This collection of short stories centers around the life and love of Sanda, a young village woman sacrificed to the Cold Mountains werewolves. I didn’t know much about Sanda when I first started this series, but I’ve grown attached to her and several other members of this pack. Thus, a couple of the stories in this series focus on the exploits of other secondary characters that Sanda comes into contact with in the pack.

After finishing her story in parts, I decided to gather all five pieces into one collection. Readers buying this collection will end up saving two to three dollars over the cost of separately purchasing all five stories.

After seeing my scribblings, someone asked about the meaning of the Lycans Series title. Lycans is short for ‘Lycanthropy’, which is the process of transforming from human form into animal form. There is an interesting definition of this word from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica posted to WikiSource. I thought it was appropriate to Sanda’s experiences with the pack.

I started this series of short stories as an experiment. Many writers have gone the ebook route with their work and claimed some success with romances and eroticas. It took me about seven months to write five short stories totaling about 40,000 words. I’m a slow writer. Some of these stories have plenty of sex, and others have no sex at all. I didn’t worry too much about getting it in there, pun intended, just writing a romance that was open to sensuality. As I’ve completed more stories in the series sales have started building up. I’m far from being able to support a writing habit, but am earning a tiny profit. It’s enough to keep me going.

I hope you’ll find the sample preview of this story collection is enough to keep on reading too. At the end of the series is a short preview of another series I’m working on in the vein of erotic science fiction.

Chandler Dee

November 2012

chandlerdee.wordpress.com

Lycan’s Sacrifice

Sanda trembled inside, her willful body refusing to remain stoic in the face of death. If only she were a braver woman, or perhaps a little more ignorant of what was coming for her.

Presently, she knelt in the grass clearing of the sacrificial place where she had been sent by her people. She had been trembling forever it seemed, almost since the decision had been made, the decision for her to be the Lycan’s sacrifice this year. Sanda knew it was an honor to be chosen. Her death would stave off attack from the Lycans for another year. The circumstances, the result of cool bargain struck between humans and the Lycans hundreds of years ago. The Lycans have their high, cold mountains to the East and humans had the fertile valleys and temperate plains to the West. In exchange for annual sacrifices, the Lycan's blood thirsty temper remained in check.

She knew it was an honor. She felt happy to do it. Her family would receive congratulations, respect for their sacrifices. Even before she left, Sanda had noticed the change in way people treated them. Sanda serving as the sacrificed this year raised her family's standing in the eyes of the community. It would make things easier for her younger siblings when they sought work and families of their own. At the moment, the thought didn’t make her feel much better though.

She'd seen the same eyes extending unspoken sympathy along with congratulatory handshakes and gifts for her and them. The dark cloak she wore now was a gift from the town council. It served as a death shroud given to every sacrifice. Death at the hands of the Lycans was not pleasant. She'd heard stories ever since her earliest years around the hearth fires about how bloodthirsty Lycans ripped, shredded and disemboweled their victims. Sanda wished she had accepted the potion offered by the town leader that would make her senses dulled. At the time, she was filled with bravado and turned him down.

Now it made her queasy to think of it, and the trembling increased tenfold. She could not stop shaking. She could not sit still in the misty rain while she waited for death. If only Sanda could get a hold of herself. It would make it easier to believe she was at peace and ready for this fate. Her body had other things in mind, betraying her fear with its incessant movement. If only they would hurry up and get here and end this torture.

Sanda’s eyes flitted towards every sound in the darkness. She did not want to see it coming. She thought about pressing their hands to her ears to hide the sounds of growling and snarling she imagined the Lycans made on approach to their prey. The fear made her twitch at every sound, made her strain to hear it. She could not cut herself off completely from awareness by blocking her ears.

She would sit there, and listen for it. That at least could be something brave she could do.

Are you going to sit there all night? A voice asked next to her ear. Sanda screamed, toppling to her side and kicking out instinctively she encountered solid calves attached to long, muscular legs.

He did not move as she scrambled away from him, only watched through golden brown eyes. His form was obscured by a dark cloak made of deer skin, but he was tall and long limbed. His face was lean and angular. His lower jaw jutted forward and his lips pursed in observation. He paused to inhale slowly and forcefully through his nose, eyes widening as they looked down at her.

Sanda licked her lips. This man must be from a neighboring village. He was an idiot to be out here during the sacrifice. You should leave now, she hissed at him, The Lycans are coming.

His eyes crinkled and his pursed lips quirked up at the corners as if Sanda had just said something amusing.

Yes, I know. We've been waiting for you to move for some time now, he said, humor evident in his voice.

Sanda shook her head at him. She experienced too many highs and lows today to understand what was going on now, or what to think of the strange person before her.

We?

He nodded to the outer edges of the clearing and Sanda just noticed other dark forms facing them, all wrapped in dark deer skin cloaks. Blind fear and panic welled up in her all at once. The most horrible gasping sounds came out of her mouth as she tried to breathe and exhale at the same time. This was it. She was going to die now. Only the Lycans had decided to play with her a bit first, trick her with human forms before they turned wolf and devoured her.

The man before her squatted down on his haunches, hands out, palms facing her, eyes wide in concern.

Calm yourself. We aren't going to hurt you. We've come to take you home.

Sanda’s horrible gasping turned into great sobs as she thought about home, back in the village where it was safe and warm around the hearth fire. She greatly wanted be there right now. She did not want to be here, to die tonight. These Lycans were cruel creatures indeed if they're going to try and trick her this way.

He reached forward with one hand to touch her face, but Sanda scrambled further away still sobbing, begging now for her life. He stopped, pulled back to his original position.

We aren't going to hurt you, and he repeated, I won't hurt you. The man continued talking to her, muttering things softly while she cried and curled in on herself and wept until Sanda ran out of the energy to panic any longer. The day had been so long. The night before it even longer when she thought about her impending fate and could not sleep. This was too much. Her system overloaded itself and shut down and finally, Sanda felt that blessed numbness she had been seeking earlier. She felt drained, empty inside, and finally brave enough to die. Sanda found no longer feared the man-beast before her. Nor did she have the energy to provide even a token struggle as he eased his arms underneath her body, lifted her and carried her into the darkness.

Sanda woke to the sunlight hitting her face from a window in an unfamiliar room. She was tucked under several heavy blankets and felt quite warm with a crackling fire in the distance. The warmth made her boneless and easy. She could even smell a deer roast cooking somewhere in the cottage.

Squinting against the glare of the sun, Sanda turned her head and saw him, sitting in a chair watching her. His long fingers stroking the arms in a lazy eight pattern, mouth quirked up at the corners again. Last night's events all came rushing back to her and Sanda froze, trapped in his gaze.

Awake I see, he said, Feeling better?

Sanda didn't move. Adrenaline pushed lethargy from her muscles, readied them to fight or fly. He took in her silence with no noticeable change in humor, except for glancing at the ground. Sanda's gaze flickered to his mouth as a soft pink tongue darted over his bottom lip and felt an unwanted rush of heat in her belly. The sensation disturbed her and she forced it away by taking in the rest of the room. A small fire crackled in the fireplace next to him, the wooden floor was covered in a snow leopard's skin. The door, slightly ajar, stood opposite her feet.

I feel I need to say once more, I'm not going to hurt you.

He must have seen her eyeing the door, wondering how long it would take to jump from the bed and run for it. His face showed a mix of expectation and concern. This was not at all what Sanda had expected, what she had been told about the Lycans.

You're a Lycan?

Yes.

Sanda looked around at her lodgings one more time.

Am I dead?

He smiled, the skin around his golden eyes crinkling. No.

But you're a Lycan.

He studied her for a few seconds. Very slowly, as not to disturb her, he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. This brought his face into the sunlight and the yellow flecks of gold in his eyes flared.

I live in the cold mountains. I change. I hunt. On the full moon, I run wild with the pack. What do you think?

Sanda drew in a shaky breath, staring down at her feet under the snug blankets this man must have pulled over her after he tucked her into bed. Warmth, a bed, his calm demeanor. None of it was what she expected.

I... I don't know what to think. Sanda stared at her feet. She felt the side of the bed shift under the man's weight as he sat down. Gasping, she scooted back from him, pushing the covers down with one hand to get free.

Wait, wait. He pulled her hand into a firm grasp, smoothing his fingers over the tense tendons. You may not know what to think, but know that you are safe here, he said, massaging her hand with firm pressure until she was forced to relax her fist, turned her hand face up and applied those agile fingers to the center of her palm.

Sanda eyed the door once more. So far, he hadn’t harmed her. She decided to remain still and give the benefit of doubt for a few moments.

What's your name? She asked, watching his fingers leave trails of sensation over her skin. He moved to the flesh between her fingers. This was improper at the least.

He looked up from his