The Legacy of Kilkenny

By Devyn Dawson

Ireland has many secrets... this is one of them.

For sixteen years, my life has been normal. Piedsville, Oklahoma isn't the tourist mecca of the world, but it's where I live. It's my junior year and I've known everyone since Kindergarten, everyone except her, Pru Phelan. She walked into my English class, my heart stopped. I'd never heard the name Phelan before, so I Googled it and found Phelan means wolf. What I didn't know, she was a werewolf and soon my destiny would change.

This is the story about the prophecy of the Great Wolf and how it relates to me. I'm Abel Casey, and I am the Great Wolf.

The Legacy of Kilkenny is a young adult story about werewolves, friendship, family, and fear.

Other works by Devyn
The Light Tamer Trilogy
The Light Tamer - Book One
Enlightened - Book Two
Amber's Faerie Tale - Book 2.5

The Legacy of Kilkenny - Book One
Malevolence - Book Two
The Seduction - Book 1.5
The Great Wolf - Jan 2014

New Adult Book
Sapphire - A Werewolf Love Story

Adult Contemporary

Cry Me a River
Cry Me a River PG-13

"The Legacy of Kilkenny is a fantastic read. Devyn Dawson has created one amazing urban- fantasy world. The storyline is strong and fresh, with different werewolf packs, vampires, dream walkers, and seers—and that's just the tip of this awesome adventure." Debbie at I heart young adult books

"This book was such a fantastic read. I started and couldn’t stop. It had one of those storylines that got you involved right from the start and didn’t let go till the end." Book Reviewer

"I thoroughly enjoyed The Legacy of Kilkenny. Devyn Dawson created a fun and unique world with our favorite shifters..." Book Reviewer

"It was nice to see two main characters with their own storylines that cross into each other then watch the two of them grow and mature. A great coming of age story." Book Reviewer

• Language: English
• Publisher: Devyn Dawson
• Release date: Jun 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452409504

Devyn Dawson

I'll tell you a little about myself (yawn). I'm Devyn and I write paranormal YA books about the characters who live in my head. I love reading paranormal books and love hearing about new authors. I prefer young adult books, but will read grown-up books on occasion. I was always considered the ‘eccentric girl’ the one with the big imagination and colorful stories. I'm from Oklahoma City, a place I'll always call home. Right now, I live in the lush green and humid climate of New Bern, North Carolina. I was Goth before Goth was a style, I wanted to be Star from The Lost Boys and knew Keifer would one day find me and we'd fall madly in love.

Book preview

Chapter 1.

ABEL

Rolling over in bed, I pull the pillow over my head trying unsuccessfully to muffle out the alarm. Sailing across the room to bang my hand on my alarm clock until it is silenced, nice way to start my day. Not any day, my first day of my junior year. If things work out right, I’ll have enough money saved up to buy a car by the end of this semester. Until I have a car, I have to ride with my mom. Lame right? It’s six in the morning, usually I’d be dragging ass since I didn’t fall asleep until four, but the first day jitters have me amped awake.

Last night I was almost asleep, and then I heard the neighbors’ dogs barking, which kept me up. Not to mention, before that happened I saw the crazy lady across the street sneaking to water her lawn. It has been another dry summer in Oklahoma; a water rationing ordinance is in place. If anyone is caught watering their lawn, they are slapped with a hundred dollar fine. It is beyond me how she isn’t caught, being she is the only one with green grass on our street. Why risk a ticket for green grass? I never saw what caused the dogs to bark, but I was amazed that no one bothered shushing them. No lights. No yelling. Nothing.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I love the wonderful sounds of the broom stick banging on the ceiling, which happens to be the floor to my room. It is one of my mom’s wonderful ideas to make sure I am awake, it sounds like a sonic boom going off under the bed. I’m up! I yell down to her as I bang my baseball bat on the floor. BOOM! Mom, I’m up! Scrambling across the room to yell out from my bedroom door, I stub my big toe on my hand weight I forgot to put away. Shit, I grumble under my breath.

As I do every morning, I send a text to my sister Allie, telling her to get up. I know for a fact she sleeps with the phone by her head so she can see status updates as they come across the phone. We’re both insomniacs, so mornings always come too soon. I’ve been her personal alarm clock for the last year when our mom suggested I start calling her to wake her up. So, she gets to go away and I’m still responsible to make sure she is responsible. She starts her second year at college, and I’m stuck here to entertain the parents.

The silence after she moved out was deafening. In the beginning, I would get up and walk around my room trying to make my mind shut up and let me sleep. I would hear the mumbling of my mom and dad talking, or whatever it is parents do behind closed doors when they think their kids are sleeping. I miss having Allie just a wall away, now there’s no one tapping on the wall checking if I’m awake. I don’t miss her dramatic attitude, but I do miss her driving me to school. For someone who is 5’3" and weighs next to nothing, she has enough attitude to put Chelsea Handler to shame.

The kitchen still smells of fresh paint and sawdust from the recent renovation. I’ve logged hours and hours of being in home improvement stores, staring at colors of paint. Yellow apparently isn’t just yellow anymore, it is sweet buttery cream, not to be confused with buttery cream. I think it took my mom about a month to pick a color, just the other night I heard her talking about changing it. Argh. My usual backpack parking place is on the counter by the barstools…. not anymore. I might scratch the granite and I’ll be reminded how long it took her and dad to save up to have a nice kitchen. I drop my stuff by the back door for our frantic escape to get to school on time.

At breakfast, I watch mom pour herself a cup of coffee as her big mop of black curly hair flops from side to side. Sometimes it is hard to discern between freshly fixed up hair or morning bed-head. I know better than to ask. Mom is just mom, sort of on the weird side but strangely likeable. She isn’t overly fond of her given name of Natalie, she prefers to go by Nat. She is telling me something about the cost of eggs and how it only cost her five dollars to fill up her tank when she was in high school, blah blah blah. Another morning of her non-stop chatter, a good sign she had too much caffeine.

Is dad working tonight? I ask as I reach around her to grab a Pop Tart and napkin.

Abel, have you ever known your dad to miss a day of work? Mom says as she dabs at the coffee she dribbled on the table.

I dunno, maybe. Hey, I’ve got a FBLA meeting after school; I’m catching a ride home with Shane so you don’t need to bother with carpool today. Okay?

If it gets me out of dodging crazed high school drivers, I’m good with it, just make sure you’re home by six.

We probably should go, don’t want to be late on my first day and all. I shove another Pop Tart in my backpack as we both head to the car.

The car pool lane is moving so slow, move already! I can’t wait until I get a car; riding with my mom is so lame.

Don’t forget to call me when you get home, I’ll have my cell on me. Oh, in case I’m not home there are some enchilada’s in the freezer, just heat them up in the microwave. Mom reached in her purse handing me a fifty. That is lunch money, so be sure to give it to the cafeteria lady.

It’s all good. Bye mom, I’ll see you later. I hurried up out of the car before she started getting emotional like every year on my first day of school.

I look up at the picture perfect school. The architect must have modeled it after a story book, with its pitched roof, canopy covered walkway and crimson red bricks. Water rationing doesn’t pertain to schools, they want them to look pretty and inviting so the kids are proud of their school. I learned all that from my mom’s unquenchable thirst of news. The Daily Pied (pronounced pee’d) is her source of news that would never make it to the paper if it were one of the big hitters like The Oklahoman.

Catching up to Shane we fist bumped and strolled in as if we own the place.

You going to the meeting after school? Shane asks.

Yeah, is it still cool if I get a ride from you? Like he’d say no, I think to myself.

No problem. I gotta go, see you at lunch.

Second hour I’m sitting in English Comp III thinking about how this room didn’t make it when they were going for kids being proud of school. The prison cell gray cinder block walls have two windows that look out over the dumpsters. I see the secretary sneak out and huddle behind one of the dumpsters having a smoke, totally breaking the no tolerance rule. I turn my attention back to class when I notice everyone is whispering like a swarm of bees. Gossip. It is impossible not to turn my head and see what everyone is talking about.

Julie Tidsdale, the one girl who drove most everyone crazy, is sitting directly in front of me. Julie is the queen of girls at school, and you can almost see her back arch and her fangs come out as she notices the girl who walks in. Mrs. Horn comes over and introduces the class to Prudence Phelan.

Please call me Pru, she says with confidence. She pulls on the hem of her navy-blue shirt and smoothes it down.

Her red hair and grey eyes give her an alluring look. I knew at that moment what my dad meant when he said a girl who has everything you could ever dream of was trouble… and trouble just walked into my English Comp III class.

My next class is US History, my least favorite subject. The teacher is new to the school and looks just like Jack Black. Actually, he looks so much like him I practically died waiting for him to talk. Sadly, he isn’t J.B., I think to myself. After a few minutes of him talking in his monotone voice, I start to fall asleep.

~~~~~~

The woods were so thick, I could hear them gaining on me. She kept telling me to go left and I’d eventually hit a clearing that leads to a hiking trail. I was getting hot but I had to keep going. I lost whoever was chasing me at the clearing. I pause for a moment to listen for the leaves to crunch under the weight of their steps. I hear a warning shot, so I hunker down to blend with the trees. I hear the brush moving behind me and my heart picks up speed. Her voice, I hear it again (in my head), Run! There is a cave close to where you are. She was talking but I could see the image of what she was telling me. It sounds like Pru. Damn! The devil’s thorn is thick and growing over the path, I feel like I’m bleeding but I can’t stop yet. That voice again, hurry, get in the cave, they won’t see it, you’ll be safe. I’ll be there soon. Don’t move. I jump over two fallen trees and climb into the cave in time to hear the hunter stop, I peered out, he doesn’t see me… but I take a mental picture so I’ll remember his face. I lay down, the ground was cool and I was so hot. I need water.

~~~~~

I feel someone shaking me, I jump sitting straight up. Whoa! What the? I turn to see everyone looking at me. I hate it when I fall asleep in class. Thankfully I didn’t drool all over myself.

During lunch, I see Julie trying to take pictures of her and Pru. I notice Julie is the only one making the kissy face, Pru looks bored out of her mind, which I admire. Every time I look in their direction, Julie has her arm stretched out as far as it will go taking self portraits. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the point. I mean seriously, is it really necessary to document your look, minute by minute?

Girls in high school have their own set of rules. One, keep track of the competition, from what she wears to who she knows. Two, what does she drive? Three, who has she done? Four, who are her parents? The list goes on and on. Guys, well we don’t get that deep, we just want to know what’s for lunch? I’m not what you’d call the ladies man, sad but true. I haven’t had a steady girlfriend since eighth grade and I’m not totally sure if two weeks is considered a steady relationship. Our school is so small that we are environmentally friendly, relationships are frequently recycled yet Julie Tidsdale isn’t worth recycling to me.

Hey Shane, did you see Julie trying to get the new girl to be her new bestie? I say as I shove a French fry in my mouth.

She’s just dumb, I can’t stand that girl. I can’t believe I’m friends with someone who had their lips on that pain in the ass, Shane says as he digs frantically through his backpack. He pulls out permission slips for his home economics class.

Being you’re the only guy in school who hasn’t made out with her, don’t hate. It was eighth grade; I’ve raised my standards since then. Is that a home ec slip? I ask pointing at the paper in his hand.

"Oh, don’t hate Abe, I’m sure not taking cooking classes from my mom, if you know what I mean?" Shane says as he laughs to himself.

Even though I agree with him about his mom’s cooking, I’m not going to admit to it. I’ll see you at the meeting. I’ve got to stop by my locker before math so I’ll catch you on the flip side.

There are only a few of us in The Future Business Leaders of America club, most of us joined just to put it on our college application. Shane and I signed up last year, thinking it would get us out of class; just to learn it is an after school club. I sit next to Shane and wait for the teacher to send around the signup sheet.

We’re in our meeting for about five minutes when the door to our annex opens and Pru walks in, without Julie thankfully. I look up in time to notice her staring at me. I look over at Shane and he plays it off like he doesn’t notice. I think to myself ‘don’t sit behind me, don’t sit behind me, don’t sit behind me’. Of course she does. I pray my deodorant is still working. She sits down I get a whiff of a sweet smell, the light sugary smell of cotton candy. I close my eyes and say a silent prayer that I don’t smell like gym socks. She doesn’t look like she has to worry about college applications, she probably comes from money. Our group leader Carrie introduces her, of course we all know who she is, but we all say our hellos and finish making up a class schedule.

Shane and I are walking out to his car when I hear Pru calling out my name. This girl is planning on giving me heart failure before the day is up.

Hi, you’re Abel right? Pru asks with one hand-held out to me and the other pulling down her hair, letting it flow over her shoulders.

Uh, yeah, I say, trying my best not to sound special needs.

I’m Pru, I was hoping I’d get a chance to meet you today. You’re Shane, right? She holds her hand out to him and they shake hands, all the while she never takes her eyes off me.

"You hoped you’d get to meet me all day?" I ask and watch as she smiles broadly.

Well, yeah, she stammered. In English class I thought your eyes looked like you’re nice. That girl Julie told me a little about you, so I thought you’d be a cool person to know.

Alrighty then, Shane said, bumping his shoulder into me slightly.

I moved here from out near Choctaw. Sounds lame right? I know it isn’t that far away, or as glamorous as Miami or Vegas, but it is still a big change. As she talks, I’m thinking about how perky she is for someone suffered through their first day in a new school.

We talk for about 20 minutes until Shane says he has to get home. We say good-bye and get in the car…. not before noticing the car she is getting into… a 2011 white with inferno orange racing stripes SS Camero! Only the coolest car at school: clearly blowing away Shane’s 2005 mustang.

I no sooner get in the car when my phone starts blowing up with messages from everyone in FBLA. I don’t usually get texts, but when the new girl in school actually walks up and introduces herself to you and everyone else wishes it was them, that makes for good gossip.

After dinner, I sit with my mom watching some dancing show where they have three judges and men wear tight glitter costumes. I don’t know anyone that will be caught dead in those outfits. Who comes up with those clothes?

Mom, I think this show has stolen part of my soul. I have some reading for English class and a math paper to do. I grab my backpack off the couch and casually head to the stairs. I pause and say, Oh, we have a new girl at school, her name is Pru, she moved here from Choctaw, I think. I am trying to play it off as nonchalant as I can. My mom starts the Spanish Inquisition if she thinks I’m interested in a girl.

Pru? That’s an interesting name. Is she pretty? mom asks. She hits pause on the TV so she can give me all of her attention. She wouldn’t want to miss my expression in case I show some interest in someone.

Here we go with the twenty questions.

I didn’t really seem to notice one way or the other. Look, I just told you because you always ask if anything happened at school today. Well, we have a new girl, and that is about the most interesting thing to happen here in Piedsville in about a month. Oh, and George got braces over the summer. I turn back to head up to my room.

You can get your attitude in check, she snaps. I only wanted to know if she is pretty. Go read, she starts the show back up and I ran up the rest of the stairs.

I take the stairs two at a time trying to reduce my speed before I get to the landing at the top of the stairs. My ‘toxic waste’ sign tilted sideways on my bedroom door, I flip it with my finger straightening it until my door closes behind me and skews it again. I slip my I-pod into my docking station and pick up my required reading. I chose The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. We have a list of books to read, with a book report due once a month, throughout the school year. I wish they had let us read something cool like Harry Potter; at least I wouldn’t be bored to death with this dumb assignment.

I ran downstairs to grab a snack. I hear my phone buzzing on my nightstand when I get back to my room. I pick it up and see there is a missed call from an unknown number. I listen to voicemail, recognizing the husky voice as Pru asking me to give her a call. Now this is an unexpected turn of events. I dial her number and on the third ring she answers.

Pru? This is Abel, um, you called?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

PRU

Well, my first day at Piedsville High School is finally over. It was probably the worst day in the history of first days ever. Someone played a horrible joke on me by giving me Julie-the-imbecile. I thought I was going to physically strangle her by the end of the day. Her delight in taking self portraits was about to render her knocked out, if she took one more picture of us. I never even agreed to have my picture made in the first place, but she kept snapping them. I couldn’t make a scene so I did what Oakley said to do, suck it up. I did just that…. all day! Every time I thought I’d get a chance to go over and introduce myself to Abel, there she was, rambling about every single aspect of her life. Just shoot me already.

Abel is cute, like a little puppy you want to grab and snuggle. From the surveillance pictures, I expected him to be shorter, but he has to be almost six feet tall. His chestnut brown curly hair was long enough to cover his big brown eyes and bushy eyebrows. He is adorable for an awkward 16 year old boy. If my mom heard me call him an awkward boy she would have a heart attack. She’d probably tell me it was blasphemy to say something like that about him. I tried telling her over and over, he is just like us, regardless of his destiny, he is still human….mostly. Of course I’d never talk to my parents like that; it would not go over well to disrespect my parents. It took me forever to get them to agree to let me even do this assignment. At first, they were going to send someone else in, but I swore I could do it, and I am. I graduated early so I could take this assignment and train Abel for what is written. I wasn’t going to let something or someone like Julie get in my way. I figure if I can get close to him, I’d try to make friends quick. I knew he didn’t have a car so I felt that would be my ‘in’.

It isn’t overly complicated, or maybe it is slightly - I’m in charge of his death. My entire life has prepared me for my encounter with Abel Casey. He is a boy that has no idea how special and important he is, a boy that is so special; his life is in jeopardy if anyone finds out who he is.

I am Prudence Phelan, daughter of General Ernan Phelan and Dolina, General and Dolly as their friends call them. My father is one of those strong quiet types, when he tells you to do something, you better do it, and do it right. Mom is the nurturing type and incredibly protective over us, that is us as in our pack. I’m biologically the only child of my parents, everyone else in our pack are mostly adopted in. You’d have to be mental to mess with my mom. If she doesn’t serve your head on a plate, I assure you if one of us gets there first, we’ll be the servers.

We have a farm on the edge of Oklahoma County, in a small town called Choctaw. We have the largest vegetable and herb farm in the county. Everyone in the pack works it daily without complaint. We have been fortunate enough to be successful at what we do. We’ve been selling jellies, jams, and canned vegetables to the local markets since the 1950’s when my grandfather tilled up his first acre for vegetables. We eat well, and mom is a great cook. We are big into giving back to our community so we donate fresh fruits and vegetables to the homeless shelters and the local families that have suffered due to the economy. We respect the animals that become ‘pets’ and we drool over the animals that feed us well.

I really enjoyed the FBLA meeting, everyone was super cool and it sounded like we would actually learn something about business. Being homeschooled my entire life, it is my first school club. I’m the first person in the family to go to a human school, it felt a little strange not having one of my adopted brothers around. I feel like a spy, especially when I’m creeping on Abel like a stalker. I hope I don’t scare him off before I get to be his friend.

I finally ditched Julie by telling her I was going straight home. She tried to talk me into trying out for cheerleader. What a laugh that would be, I could just see me punching out someone on a football field. I’d never live it down if I were a cheerleader. I laugh to myself at the thought of it.

After FBLA I stood outside talking to Shane and Abel, I loved the way his eyes sparkled as he squinted against the sunlight. When we were talking, I could sense he was nervous, his scent was a little musky with a hint of designer cologne. He fidgeted from foot to foot, rocking heavier on his left one. He wiggled the change in his pocket, probably unaware he was even doing it. It’s going to be fun being friends with him, and the good part is…. he will be more willing to die in the hands of a friend.

Chapter 2.

I know it sounds all mysterious and blasé, but there really isn’t too much of a mystery. My family and I are shapeshifters, werewolves, lycanthrope, or therianthropy as many people like to call us. Movies always make us out to be ugly and mean. I hate that! Fables come from humans taking snippets of stories and stretching the truth to be more interesting. Thankfully, I don’t need to stretch the truth. Some of us werewolves have multiple attributes; I have the gift of sight, a shaman of sorts. It is important Abel stays in touch with his soul, without his soul, it can cause his rebirth as one of us to be useless. We’ve all heard about shifters that hadn’t been around other shifters so they didn’t know how to stay grounded. Some have been known to shift and never return to their human form; that would ruin everything! I can’t wait to start his training and the first task is to become his friend.

My parents were told I was a shaman when my mom was pregnant with me. She had gone to see her spiritual advisor to discuss the happenings within our Pack and the advisor told her she was pregnant. She hadn’t known she could have children, so she was surprised by both the news of me and that I would be gifted. Within our society it is rare that a shapeshifter get pregnant by a shapeshifter, it is usually a human that will impregnate a shifter or vice versa. Although there have been a few full blood shifters, my father is one, they are very powerful with keen senses and stronger physical strength, and some have other gifts as well. They could be lightening fast, or abnormally strong, some could shift into different animals and some could be empaths. We also have shifters that obtain the virus, either by a recessed gene in both parents or by being infected by a shifter. Very few are the former, that is what Abel is, and his parents are not aware of his legacy. I was enlightened of his ‘condition’ when I was about three years old, I told my parents his name and said the words, great wolf has been born. Unbeknownst to me our kind had been waiting for The Great Wolf for hundreds of years. His life could be at risk if discovered by the wrong people so my father took it as his responsibility to train and prepare him for his reign over weres. It took my parents a few years to track him down, the internet wasn’t a household item when I was a kid, so they did it the old fashioned way, they hunted him. They felt it was fate that he was in Oklahoma.

Even though I possess the full-blooded attributes; my other abilities are still developing. With my gift of ‘sight’, I have dreams that have to be documented in a diary and then I see my mother’s spiritual advisor Josie to go over the information for the message. I was so young when I started journaling my mom actually did the writing for me. Although I keep a dream record for greater understanding, there are times I have no idea what they mean. Lucky for me I have Josie, she has a keen sense of what the subconscious has to say.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ABEL

Surprisingly, Pru and I talked that night for at least an hour. She convinced me that it would be easier to face another day with Julie if I actually rode to school with her. Usually it would be a little odd for a girl to pick up a guy before school, but hey, I’m a liberal dude, equal rights and all. Who wouldn’t want to hop in the coolest car, with its 440 horsepower, orange and black leather seats, and kick-ass stereo? Hell yeah! We spent the next few weeks hanging out and doing everything together. We aren’t dating, she makes me too nervous to even ask her. It is cool having the prettiest girl in school as your friend, but it’s a little unnerving too. Shane and Tim constantly ask me if I have kissed her yet, and daily I tell them ‘no’ we are JUST FRIENDS. I’ve concluded it is some compulsive obsessive habit they have acquired.

Their curiosity has nothing on my mom and dad. Mom will make little comments, "So, Pru and you are going to the movies? Do you want to have her over for dinner?" Day in, day out, until they got bored with my answer and quit pressuring me about it.

It’s already been a month and I still have no idea if she likes me or not. We’d decided to go to the movies and see the latest vampire love story. I hate to admit it but I read those books and I really liked them, nothing like a little blood, and violence with a hot girl to boot.

Pru pulls in the driveway, I watch as her long legs emphasized by the skinny jeans and Chucks come strolling to the front door. I don’t think she ever wears all that war paint girls put all over their face. It would be a shame if she covers that pretty skin with all that goo.

Hey Abel, you ready to get scared by the vampires? she grabs me by the shoulders pulling me in like she was about to bite my neck.

Yeah, be careful or I’ll bite you and we’ll see who’s scared. I nudge her shoulder with mine. Ah oh, she smells good.

We pulled up to Quail Springs Mall with its fancy restaurants and name brand stores. A perfect example of the cookie cutter life. Its huge movie theatre is incredible with the fancy sound system and stadium rocking seats. Walking dogs keeps cash in my pocket to pay for things like movies and popcorn. It drives me crazy Pru won’t let me buy her ticket, I’ve tried a few times but she refused to accept. My stomach rumbling from the smell of buttery popcorn I tell her to grab us a seat and I’ll get the drinks and popcorn.

After the movie, Pru is really quiet. I can’t help but wonder if I’d done something to make her mad.

Hey, is everything okay? I ask.

"Yeah, I just have a little bit of a headache. Do you think we could go over to the lake and just walk around? I can