Animal Heat: A Paranormal Romance (The Animal Sagas) by Susan G. Charles

Chapter 1
    An unsuspected knock came to the door of their cabin. It wasn’t an outrageous “beat-your-door-down” knock, but it was loud enough to startle the sisters from the relaxing comfort of a peaceful breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, and tall glasses of milk, all from their livestock. Curiously enough, the meal came from their livestock that had also been mysteriously vanishing throughout the month, slowly but surely, without a trace.
    The sisters’ eyes bulged as they gazed at one another in unison. Since when has it been that they’d received a visitor in the beginning hours of the day? The roosters had just first crowed not long ago. Who could it be at this hour of the morning and what could this person on the other side of that door possibly want? Maybe it was their farm animals’ predator, or a wanderer that was lost in the woods that crossed their path by chance and perhaps might be injured and needing assistance.
    Linda tapped her slimming index finger on her lips three times before whispering, “Not yet,” to her sister and focused on Sonya’s sparkling, blue eyes. The young ladies then broke their intense three second eye contact and separated about the room. Linda sprung from her seat with a twist toward the bedroom and tiptoed through the dining area, over the hardwood as if it were on fire, en route to the door.
    Sonya’s blond hair repetitively swayed from felt to right, the blues of her sightseers rummaging about the two-level bungalow out of control and she quietly moved about the room. She cautiously looked out all of the windows, the two in the living room the one behind her, and the one at the end of the hallway, trying not to be seen by the mysterious stranger on the other side of the front door. She looked to the ones upstairs as if the visitor was not alone and wishing to do them harm.
    What was it that she’d searched for? Nothing, only her thoughts rambling, searching for the right words to utter, or what words their guest might speak once the door is finally opened. Sonya franticly moved back to her usual seat at the table. No, she didn’t sit down, not entirely. She only made it half way there before she heard another knock to the door. This time the knock was louder and much stronger.
    This time it sounded more like maybe a serious ‘Police’ I’m-going-to-take-you-to-jail kind of knock. In fact, to her it sounded almost like a shotgun blast – not the bomb of the shot itself, but the thud of the impact when the ammunition hits the target. She crouched as low as she could possibly go to the hard>

Chapter 2
    It was the beginning of a new day. Both sisters stood over the pieces of glass just outside Lynda’s room window, her trusty pistol-grip pump laid up against the cabin logs.
    “Why couldn’t you just go out the front door before you took the shot?” Sonya asked her sibling.
    “What… and take the chances of him getting away?”
    “He still got away didn’t he?”
    Lynda shook her head and began carefully picking up the shards of glass.
    “So how do you know it was a he?” Sonya asked.
    “What do you mean? It was a hunter. I had to stop him before he got to the chicks. What are we gonna do without food?”
    Sonya said, “I didn’t mean it like that… but what about the window?”
    “The window is replaceable,” Lynda growled at her younger sister, still aggravated by the events of the previous night.
    Sonya gazed off into the woods surrounding their cabin. She scanned through the trees and all about where the eye could see. Unlike her sister, she was frightened, and always had been. It was Jonathan that made her the way she was. He was a wanderer who appeared out of the blue, years ago. He had fancied her as if she was the only woman that existed in their region, and he craved her forever beauty. Her scent was his desire. But his hunger was not shared in the same likes. Her thoughts and wonders took her eyes south, and that’s when she’s seen