True Calling

By B. L. Carroll

Raven, an intellectual, college grad takes a trip to her family's cabin to find both a new world and a new family history in the woods of the Adirondack Mountains. In this shifter romance, Raven needs to make the biggest decision of her life. Will she decide in time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. L. Carroll
• Release date: Nov 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393641360

B. L. Carroll

B. L. Carroll is a Western New York author of fictional short stories, novellas, and novels. B. L. has had a passion for writing since high school and if very lucky to be able to continue writing today. While she enjoys writing suspenceful stories, she also enjoys writing in science fiction and dystopian genres as well.  When she is not writing, B. L. enjoys music, reading, coffee, chocolate, and spending time with her family, friends, and fur babies. 

Book preview

1

Grandma’s cottage was full of mystery. It had been in the family for generations; four generations that Raven had known of, but she always assumed it had been in the family for much longer. She had always imagined that it was one of the first houses that the non-native settlers had built in the Adirondacks. The cottage was about a five-hour drive from Lockport, NY, where Raven lived, nestled in a grove of trees on the edge of the mountains. It was in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to hear at night but the babbling brook out front and the occasional wild animal noise. The closest town was a twenty-minute drive away.

Immersing herself in nature was just what Raven needed. No phone, no TV…basically no distractions. She had recently graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, but soon found that having a degree didn’t guarantee she’d find a job. She had worked through college at a fast food restaurant, but had a difficult time finding a real job. No one wanted to hire her without experience, but no one wanted to give her the experience that she needed in the first place. She felt so stuck and frustrated, probably like all other recent graduates. Raven put in for a week’s vacation and decided to think through everything, and went to her grandmother’s cottage in hopes to find who she really was deep down inside. She had hoped it might help her to have a fresh take on how to find a career. Maybe she was just going about it the wrong way.

Raven pulled her long, wavy brown hair back into a low bun. Unpacking her car in the summer heat was starting to make her sweat. The slight breeze on her neck after her hair was up was cooling her off. As soon as the car was empty, she promised herself that she would change into a pair of shorts.

The rustling in the bushes should have made her nervous after all of the warnings that her mother had given her about bears, but Raven felt safe here. She promised her mom that she would be fine. Her mother barely let her go, saying it was no place for a young woman to be alone. But Mom, Raven pleaded, I’ve never seen a bear there in all the times I have come out with you.

Still…be careful, her mother said as she helped Raven pack the car. I don’t want you going into the woods at night. Raven remembered giving her mother a look that said, I’m not that stupid. Somehow, that didn’t seem to ease her mother’s nerves at all.

Maybe she did have a point. This was the first time that Raven had gone on a trip away from home by herself. I don’t know why you can’t bring Kody. Her mother fussed about Raven not bringing her best friend to Grandma’s cottage.

Raven sighed. They went over this last week. "Mom, Kody just got a new job.