Before the Dawn

By Courtney Rene

Seventeen year old Abby can’t shake the darkness that continues to haunt her since her escape from the Hunterz. She can’t let it go. Questions continue to circle. Questions no one will answer. Who are they, really? Why do they hate the wolves so much? The answers could be found in a young boy named, Sam. He may be from the Hunterz, but he smells of wolf. Derek wants to believe her, and tries to help, but Abby still hasn’t learned how to accept help from others. Her relationships with her mother and father continue to deteriorate, but Derek is a puzzle. Some days he’s exactly what she wants and others he is all that she despises. Being a shifter isn’t as simple as she thought it would be. The wolf part is easy. It’s the human side that needs a little work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
• Release date: May 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781624203251

Book preview

Before the Dawn

A Howl in the Night Book Three

Courtney Rene

Published by Rogue Phoenix Press for Smashwords

Copyright © 2017

ISBN: 978-1-62420-325-1

Electronic rights reserved by Rogue Phoenix Press, all other rights reserved by the author. The reproduction or other use of any part of this publication without the prior written consent of the rights holder is an infringement of the copyright law. This is a work of fiction. People and locations, even those with real names, have been fictionalized for the purposes of this story.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter One

What are you doing?

I marked my spot in the book I was reading and looked up at Derek as he stood over me. His shadow was cool against my sun-warmed skin. Seriously? Considering it was easy to see that I was sitting in the shade up against a tree, at the entrance to the forest, with a book in hand, reading, I think he could have figured it out.

Now, if the stupid question was in order to get my attention, he didn't need to have bothered. I could smell him the moment he hit the backfield. Derek had his own personal sent of woodsy, manly, and clean. His wide chest and cut arms under the tight black t-shirt didn't do him any harm either. That didn't even get you to his dark eyes. What man has the right to have eyelashes that long? It simply wasn't fair.

Still not in the woods I see, he replied.

Don't need to be. I'm happy right here.

Really? Cause it's been almost a year since you ventured into the woods, he said as he plopped down next to me in the grass.

No, it's been about eight months. I still have a few more to get through before it's been a year. I shook my hair over my shoulder and made a point of getting back into my book.

Derek gently, but possessively took the book from my hands and set it next to him on the ground, away from me.

Hey!

Wait, before you get mad. I just want to talk to you.

I could have fought. I could have yelled. I had been dealing with Derek for a while by then, so I knew either would be a waste of my time and energy. It would be faster to just hear what he had to say. Fine, what?

And, as Derek had apparently been dealing with me for a while, he let my snarky attitude go as well. He could be smart sometimes. He nodded in the direction of the forest. Are we ever going to discuss this?

What's to discuss? I'm working on it.

How? By sitting right outside of it, instead of going in? Sitting outside looking in? Do you think your fear of it will go away by osmosis? What, Abby?

I'm not afraid of the forest, Derek.

Yes, you are.

No, I'm afraid of what is inside that I can't see. It's not the same thing.

That can be said for anywhere, though. The street out front. The Mall. The Grocery.

I know, but nothing ever happened to me at the mall or the grocery. I was abducted in the forest where I felt safe, where I thought I was strong and invincible.

Derek stood up and held out his hand to help me up. Come on. Let's go in together and see what happens.

I let him pull me up. I even let him retain possession of my hand. I looked from his handsome face to the forest. It was still early in the day, so the sun was bright where the trees let the light shine in to make shapes along the ground. The green of the leaves was so bright, being that it was the heart of summer. It looked cool and inviting, but the browns appeared menacing. The dark felt darker. I shivered and started to pull away from Derek, but he held on to my hand, tightly almost painfully.

Try. You can do this, he said. He used his big brown eyes against me. He knew they were magical with their powers of persuasion.

I took one step then another. I felt the air cool as the shade of the forest enveloped me fully.

You are doing just fine, he said.

I took another step.

I will keep you safe. I will protect you. I won't let anything hurt you, he said.

I halted right in my tracks. I was instantly sad to realize, he didn't get it. He didn't understand at all. I moved to back up.

He held fast to my hand, tightly almost painfully. Wait. Come on, you were doing fine? Look nothing happened.

Yes, something did happen. Look at me, Derek.

I am looking at you, he said.

Then you need to listen. I don't want you to have to protect me. I don't want you to have to keep me safe. I want to be able to do that for myself. I want to be confident that I can take care of whatever comes my way. I want to know that I am safe because I am strong and capable. I don't want you to have to be with me twenty-four seven in order for me to feel safe! I felt my blood getting warm as my anger grew. I wasn't really mad at Derek. I was mad no one seemed to understand what I was going through. Or understand what I needed. I needed to have faith in myself and that is what I was lacking. Until I could work though my own lack of confidence, I was never going to feel safe anywhere, let alone back in the forest.

I yanked my hand free of his and turned to pick up my book from the ground where it lay.

Don't wimp out now, Abby, he said.

I shook my head and turned to face him again, You aren't listening, Derek. You don't want to hear what I am saying. I waved a hand in his direction and said, I've got to go anyway. I'll see you. I headed back to the house.

It's been too long now, Abby, you need to deal with it. He was shouting at my back as I walked. Do you realize how much time has passed?

I know what day it is, Derek, I shouted back over my shoulder. My birthday was three days ago, not that any one of you remembered.

Silence greeted my response. Crap, I said under my breath. I hadn't wanted to act like it was a big deal, my birthday I mean. It was to me, but I didn't want any of them to know it. Juvenile? Maybe. I couldn't help it though. I was seventeen after all. The world was supposed to revolve around me. Right?

I began to jog toward the back of my house. Actually, my grandfather's house, but as I had been living there quite a while by that time, it was home. I took the stairs two at a time up to the back door and entered into the kitchen where I came to a direct stop as my grandfather was standing right there almost at the door.

Woo, I almost took you down, I said.

Not quite, dear, he said.

I dropped into a chair at the little table just off the kitchen and asked, What's up?

My grandfather was kinda hot. I mean for his age. The first time I saw him, I thought he looked wicked and scary, but over time, I realized his straight back and firm face was all for show. He was a handsome man. His hair was thick and almost completely white, but he wore it well. His eyes were piercing blue. The corners carried evidence of happier times in the wrinkles that bracketed them. His mouth although almost always set in a firm line, was softening, around me at least. I had even been known to make him smile, and once or twice in the months I'd been around, laugh. I think he was hard on the outside, but soft and gushy on the inside. I was making my way into the gush.

Was he different when my grandmother was around? I liked to think so. The marks around his eyes gave evidence of it.

Your father called while you were out, he said.

I groaned.

He wanted to know when you would be coming round to see the baby. It's been several weeks now since he was born, and you have only visited once. He made the statement, but it was also a question. Why had I not been to see the baby more? He was after all my brother. Yes, yes he was.

The reason? It was complicated, which with my family, every single thing was complicated, but this even more so. My relationship with my father was getting a little better with time. Not great, but we didn't end up screaming at each other every time we were in each other's company anymore. We still got into wicked fights, but not every time.

My relationship with my mother was not grand, either. When it was just she and I, my entire life up until I turned sixteen, we were as close as you get. My mom and I were two of a kind, and I missed her, that mother. With my father back in the picture and his wolfy pheromones that played with her human side and nature, my mother was a bit off. She was singularly focused on him and it icked me out. She was not the mother I was raised by. She was colder. She was less interested in my needs or wants. I know that sounds selfish, but I was still a child, sort of, and I would always be her child, but she didn't seem to give a hoot about me like she had all the years before and up until the very second my father walked back into the picture. It was a little hard to take the instantaneous separation we went through, and I seemed to be the only one to feel it. I knew she still loved me and cared in general about me, but it was way different than it was just a year ago.

Add in a new baby, and well, as I said, it was complicated.

You haven't been round much either to see your new grandchild, I said turning it right around on him.

My regal grandfather merely lifted an eyebrow at me in answer.

Fine. I'll go over this afternoon. It's summer break after all, what else do I have to do.

Will you take the forest path?

Oh, such a simple question, but it was a veiled question asking a whole lot more than it seemed. Why is everyone so worried about my forest visits lately?

Abigail, he said.

I held up a hand and interrupted him, which I knew he hated, but I didn't want to hear another argument about how silly I was being. No. I'm taking the car today. I have a few other stops to make as well.

As you wish.

What I wish is for everyone to leave me alone about the forest, I mumbled under my breath.

You have a responsibility to live up to, he said, apparently hearing me just fine. Wolf abilities. I always seemed to forget I wasn't the only one with fabulous hearing.

What responsibility are we talking about this time?

You are the last female of your age. You have a reputation to live up to, and you need to appear strong, not weak.

I fumed in my seat as he continued, What about this upcoming school year? Are you going to continue with the two schools? You need to be decisive.

It's July. I'm not worried about the next school year yet. I don't understand why the clans still have two anyway. They are the same school.

This is how it's done.

Well, it's stupid.

Abigail.

I reined in my temper as best I could. First, Derek giving me crap about the woods, and now my grandfather. What was up with people? I thought after the whole Hunterz thing last year when I was kidnapped and the two clans came together to help me, they would see how we were stronger together as one clan, but I was wrong. They were just as determined to stay separate as they ever were.

The two clans had worked together to get me to safety, but as soon as I was free, they went right back to their separate worlds and ways, as if it never happened. Look, until the clans can come back together and unite, I'm going to go to each clan school so that I can be a part of the whole. You all refuse to end this power struggle, and I'm not taking part in it. I will be a part of all the shifters, not just the Greys and not just the Statons.

And what about Derek? he asked.

What about him? I knew where he was going. I hoped I was wrong.

When will you choose him officially? Your mate needs to be settled.

Nope, I wasn't wrong. Grandpa...we have been through this. I am seventeen. That was a hint that apparently went right over his head. I am not going to chose a mate until I am at least in college and most likely not until I have completed college. Yes. I know you did it differently back in your day. This is not your day. This is mine, and I will not be a brood mare, happy to be barefoot and pregnant for the next twenty years.

That's not what I...

Yes, it is, I snarled and stood up. It was the same conversation we had been having for months.

He was silent as he watched me. Maybe I was finally getting through to him.

You will be happier if you are settled with a mate chosen.

I sighed. He couldn't get passed his own experiences and see into mine. I'll go over and visit with my father and mother tonight. Tomorrow, I'm going to go and spend a few days with Lady Lilly. I think the break will do us some good.

I meant a break from my grandfather as well as from everything else. This included my father and my mother and Derek. They were making me nuts.

You just returned from Lillian's home, he said.

No, I've been home several weeks. The full moon is in a few days, and I like being with her when it comes.

You haven't been to a gathering in months. Why?

Because it's weird being the only girl. Plus, since I am not forced into the change like the rest of you, I don't need the full moon party. And, I like her. That was really all the reason I needed. Being surrounded by everyone that didn't exactly hate me was one thing, but being around someone who actually enjoyed my company, that was all the reason I needed.

I glanced at the clock on the wall over the door. It was almost lunchtime. Well, as I now need to add a stop over at my parent's house to my day, I better get moving.

After doing a quick freshen up and tying my hair in a ponytail, I headed off to my mother's house. One of the good things that had occurred the past year was that I had gotten my driver's license. Nothing like a bit of fast freedom in the form of a car; to make up for my year from hell that included finding out I was a wolf shape shifter, and add in surviving someone trying to kill me and almost succeeding.

I drove across town to my parent's house. I pulled up to the curb and stepped out. The house was the same on the outside as it had always been. It was a little two story brown house that had been just perfect when it was only my mother and me. Yeah, a lot had changed in the last year.

I reached the door and made to let myself in, but I hesitated. I started to chide myself and make myself just go in, but my pride and my fear of being rebuked over rode it. Instead, I took a deep breath and knocked twice on the wooden frame of the screen door.

The door opened immediately, and my mother was shushing me before I could get a word in. 'Shh, the baby is sleeping!" she whisper yelled.

I... I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to apologize as how was I supposed to know the baby was sleeping? But I also didn't want to start off another visit in anger either. So, I snapped my mouth shut and stepped quietly inside.

The