hiding place and the house crumbled around him. A sharp pain went though his head , and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out . T he combination of smoke, dust and heat choked him. Stavros felt himself slip into blackness and thought this was the end of his life. Only thing left was silence as he welcomed the darkness.
* * * *
Pain, Pain, Pain … He didn’t know if it was the sensation or the thought that woke him. Still , he was pulled out of the dream and he sighed gratefully while he lay in bed. The dull aching throb of his left side let him know he was still alive and kicking. If you could call what he was doing living.
A year later and he was not completely healed. He’d spent week s in his shift , hoping it would help him heal him more quickly. But even after that was accomplished his body was scarred : down his left arm, burn s on his face and thighs and shrapnel marks all over his back. He was a broken man, not good enough to be a soldier and too weak when he was in his beast form. He longed to see the face s of his friends again, but he couldn’t stand the thought of them pitying him or taking care of him.
A tiger that can no longer hunt goes into the wild to die . The words echoed in his head and that was what he’d done. He ’d got ten into the desolate woods of Alaska and rented a cabin. Each night he went out in his shift and waited for the tiger inside him to give up and let them both slip into the afterlife. But his second side was stubborn as hell and each morning he came home.
A groan of pain escaped his lips as he rolled from the bed. He looked for the pain pill s and popped two , swallowing them without water , before he went to the bathroom. It never took so long for him to heal in his life , but a few cuts or a bullet wound was nothing compared to what his body went through in that house. He shouldn’t have even survived to crawl away and shift, but somehow he did. Being found in tiger form by Russian mercenaries was another miracle. Luckily there was one in the group of armed men who thought a white t iger would make a good pet , and they carried him back to their boat and worked on taking the pieces of metal out of him.
In the weeks that followed , as they floated across the vast expanse of water, he was in and out of consciousness but to o weak to shift into human form. He heard them talking, a few of them teased about skinning hi m for a coat. St avros doubted that he could have stopped them if they had tried. Over the intercom he heard the captain call out that they were crossing into the Bering Sea close to Alaska. He wanted all guns and any illegal drugs taken from Afghanis tan secured.
Stavros got out of the small room they kept him in and leap ed into the ocean. He would rather drown that live in a cage for the rest of his existence. But fate intervened once again and he found himself on the Alaskan coast, alive. He could hear his father’s voice in his head urging him to give up with a sickening laugh. Maybe Stavros didn’t want to die , o r just the thought of shoving in to his father made him move , but he got up on four shaky legs and move d inland.
He found an old fisherman’s shack and some clothes , and when he had more strength he made his way into a small town and accessed hi s hidden bank account . That was where he ’d met Amari, a beauty that made him her personal mission. She noticed instantly he was injured and found the little cabin he’d bought. He’d even bought a broke n down little truck and drove it back to the cabin. She was a nurse at the small clinic in the little Alaskan town outside Dutch Harbor. And it was because of her that he made it. Amari wouldn’t let him give up.
He bought a cell phone, and opened it up and fixed it the way Camden had show n him to make the phone and the SIM cared untraceable. He ran his fingers over the buttons of the cell and punched in a number that was imprinted in his memory.
Two rings , and the
* * * *
Pain, Pain, Pain … He didn’t know if it was the sensation or the thought that woke him. Still , he was pulled out of the dream and he sighed gratefully while he lay in bed. The dull aching throb of his left side let him know he was still alive and kicking. If you could call what he was doing living.
A year later and he was not completely healed. He’d spent week s in his shift , hoping it would help him heal him more quickly. But even after that was accomplished his body was scarred : down his left arm, burn s on his face and thighs and shrapnel marks all over his back. He was a broken man, not good enough to be a soldier and too weak when he was in his beast form. He longed to see the face s of his friends again, but he couldn’t stand the thought of them pitying him or taking care of him.
A tiger that can no longer hunt goes into the wild to die . The words echoed in his head and that was what he’d done. He ’d got ten into the desolate woods of Alaska and rented a cabin. Each night he went out in his shift and waited for the tiger inside him to give up and let them both slip into the afterlife. But his second side was stubborn as hell and each morning he came home.
A groan of pain escaped his lips as he rolled from the bed. He looked for the pain pill s and popped two , swallowing them without water , before he went to the bathroom. It never took so long for him to heal in his life , but a few cuts or a bullet wound was nothing compared to what his body went through in that house. He shouldn’t have even survived to crawl away and shift, but somehow he did. Being found in tiger form by Russian mercenaries was another miracle. Luckily there was one in the group of armed men who thought a white t iger would make a good pet , and they carried him back to their boat and worked on taking the pieces of metal out of him.
In the weeks that followed , as they floated across the vast expanse of water, he was in and out of consciousness but to o weak to shift into human form. He heard them talking, a few of them teased about skinning hi m for a coat. St avros doubted that he could have stopped them if they had tried. Over the intercom he heard the captain call out that they were crossing into the Bering Sea close to Alaska. He wanted all guns and any illegal drugs taken from Afghanis tan secured.
Stavros got out of the small room they kept him in and leap ed into the ocean. He would rather drown that live in a cage for the rest of his existence. But fate intervened once again and he found himself on the Alaskan coast, alive. He could hear his father’s voice in his head urging him to give up with a sickening laugh. Maybe Stavros didn’t want to die , o r just the thought of shoving in to his father made him move , but he got up on four shaky legs and move d inland.
He found an old fisherman’s shack and some clothes , and when he had more strength he made his way into a small town and accessed hi s hidden bank account . That was where he ’d met Amari, a beauty that made him her personal mission. She noticed instantly he was injured and found the little cabin he’d bought. He’d even bought a broke n down little truck and drove it back to the cabin. She was a nurse at the small clinic in the little Alaskan town outside Dutch Harbor. And it was because of her that he made it. Amari wouldn’t let him give up.
He bought a cell phone, and opened it up and fixed it the way Camden had show n him to make the phone and the SIM cared untraceable. He ran his fingers over the buttons of the cell and punched in a number that was imprinted in his memory.
Two rings , and the
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