Challenge by Montgomery Mahaffey

stood and turned her back to
him. She strode with an even gait to her camp, the moon shining
upon her. The Wolf could scarcely breathe from the fury and
loathing coursing inside him. But he had no choice. He ran along
the western ridge of hills above the valley, away from Ella
Bandita. He howled as he went. The Wolf was certain his grief would
destroy him every time he thought of his stolen heart and his lost
manhood.
     

 
     
     
    About the
Author
     
    Montgomery Mahaffey is a
fantasy writer who has told her stories all over the country.
Alaskan winters shaped Mahaffey as a writer, and her work is built
off of the myriad of personal and collective experiences formed
underneath that mystical landscape. Born in the south to a family
of storytellers, Mahaffey has developed her own voice that is
suffused with the temperament of the wanderer instinct. Set in a
world where magic is at once subtle and pervasive, her novels bring
to life symbols and stories of the old fairy tales told with wry
humor and passion. In 2005 she was granted the Individual Artist
Project Award from the Rasmuson Foundation in Anchorage,
Alaska. Ella Bandita and the
Wanderer is her first novel.