Book
Title: Over
the Line (Novelette)
Author: K.C.
Stewart
Genre: Urban
Fantasy
Release
Date: February
2015
Hosted
by: Book
Enthusiast Promotions
The
truth is in the evidence. Follow your nose, keep an ear to the ground
and don’t believe everything you hear. Tyson Cartwright has always
known who he was and becoming the Adirondack Pack’s Enforcer was
the goal from the very start. He loves his job, but not today.
Someone in the pack isn’t who they say they are. It isn’t the
first time and it won’t be the last that Tyson has to rid the pack
of a spy. These are the people he calls his friends and family and
one of them is lying to him. His gut has an idea but is it just
because he doesn’t like the man his sister has taken up with or is
there something more to Jack Naughton? For Jenny’s sake he better
know for sure it’s Jack before dispensing justice because once a
wolf goes over the line, there is no coming back.
There
wasn't much that could put that look on Owen's face. In all their
years together as quasi-brothers, best friends and pack mates, Tyson
had only seen that particular look a handful of times and he knew
there would be no time off for him in the foreseeable future. As pack
enforcer it was Tyson's job to find the reason for the look on his
Alpha's face and bring justice. He was protector, detective, judge
and jury. His hands were bloodier than anyone else's in the
Adirondack Park and maybe even in the state of New York. Justice
often meant death because once a wolf went over the line, there was
no coming back. Tyson could see the line. He knew where it stood and
where those in his pack stood in relation to it. Being feared, and
often times hated, was just one of the downfalls of the job. Neither
of which bothered him. Owen was alpha. He was the most dominate wolf
in the pack and that meant he was the one they relied on. The one
they turned to for help. The one who would protect them with
everything he had. The pack was his family’s legacy but that didn’t
mean it was his birthright, he was just right for the job. When
someone was born to do something, nothing—not even being an
outcast, could stop them from being who they were meant to be. Tyson
was meant to bring justice and protect the pack. Owen was meant to
lead. "I can tell by your expression that you have good news for
me," Tyson strolled into Owen's office and took one of the seats
in front of the massive oak desk. Owen glanced up from the newspaper
he had spread out. Usually a remark like that would have gotten a
rise out of him but Owen was too far lost in thought to do much more
than show mild interest. Whatever it was had caused his best friend
to suppress the man and allowed the alpha wolf to take charge. "Just
tell me," he said this time. A snarl was just barely being held
back. "There was another one." For a guy who usually spoke
in low, soft tones he knew how to add venom when needed. Tyson
reached across the desk and turned the newspaper around. Another body
ravaged by animals. But it wasn't just an animal that had torn and
bit into the flesh of the dead man, it was one of them: a werewolf,
shifter, lycanthrope. The killing was a message, just not one the
human population could read. The message, like all the rest, was for
them. Humans
are fodder. Nothing more, nothing less. A
radical group of wolf shifters who liked to call themselves
"Canidae," believed that between the two halves of the
lycanthrope soul, the wolf is the stronger half and they should lean
towards the way of the animal. Their kind had evolved. At one point,
they had leaned heavily on the wolf side of their instincts but in
the world as it was today, they relied on the human instead.
"Canidae?" he asked but only for confirmation. "What
do you think?" That
would be a yes. “What
are you thinking, Owen? Obviously something if you called me in
here." "I haven't wanted to make waves with Canidae."
"I know." Everything Owen did, he did for the good of the
pack. Keeping his head down in this debate may have been seen as
submissive by some, but Tyson knew it had kept many of them alive.
"I've kept middle of the line even though I think they are a
bunch of ass sniffing dogs who only want a reason to kill freely.
This though," he tapped the newspaper, "this is their way
of telling me to pick a side. Three dead in the last month. We can't
have that. Many more and the police will start connecting the dots."
Government intervention was the very last thing any of them wanted.
The government knew about their kind, unlike the rest of the human
population. They had yet to do any more than make idle threats.
However, giving them bodies, gave them a reason to make nice on those
threats. "I think we have a mole. Someone is feeding Canidae
leaders pack information. I've been talking to the White Mountain
pack and they were having the same problems. Turns out, someone from
their pack was in Canidae and they were slowly gathering followers. I
don't want to believe any of ours would go against me like that
but..." "Yeah, but." Tyson saw just how honest and
honorable wolves could be. He had no doubts that there were some in
their pack that were capable of espionage and brutal human killings.
Owen folded up the paper and filed it in his desk, probably with all
the other articles from the past year on animal killings and attacks.
There was something else that was bothering him. Tyson saw anger and
exhaustion in Owen's face. Canidae was the cause behind the anger,
but he never lost sleep over it. "Everything ok?" His laugh
was half sigh. "No. Lee's on her kick again." "Jesus,"
he groaned. "After almost two years you'd think she would get it
through that thick doctor scull of hers that you love her."
"You'd think," he agreed. "I can't really blame her
though. I quell the gossip when I hear it but it always gets back to
her." "Those old hags can go fuck themselves. So she can't
have kids. It's not like it's the end of the world." "No,
just the end of my line." He wasn't bitter per say, but Tyson
heard the accusation. They had been dancing around their mutual
attraction ever since they were pups. Unable to have kids wasn’t a
deal breaker for Owen but it was always there between them. They
worked together as long as Lee couldn't hear the gossip. The clock in
the corner of the room struck with three long, deep gongs. Both of
them looked and waited for the sound to end. Tyson hated that clock.
He needed to be going anyway. Jenny was expecting him soon. "What
do you need of me?" He asked referring to the Canidae problem.
Owen looked him square in the face. "To do your job."
K.C.
Stewart is the self published author of the Hailey Holloway series
and most recently, the Adirondack Pack series. All her life she had
fantasized and day dreamed on a regular basis but it wasn’t until
she began writing flash fiction and that she made those fantasies a
reality. Now she has graduated to novels but still dabbles in the
occasional flash fiction and short story. Because of her love for
reading and the written word, K.C. is currently continuing her
education at Clarion University for Library Science. When she isn’t
taking photographs, studying or writing, she is supporting a very
real gummy bear habit. Currently, she lives with her boyfriend,
german shepherd and cats in central Pennsylvania.
