Lone Wolf

By Michael Newton

A werewolf contends with love and hunger while fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War in this romantic fantasy.
 
Graham is on the run. Running from a civil war that he was forced into, from the beast that lies hidden within him, and from the curse that keeps him from leading a normal life.
 
When Graham meets Eliza, a mere human, he falls deeply in love. But could she possibly love him once she discovers his ability to transform into the beast? Can Graham tame the beast inside him and live a normal life, or will his secrets tear apart the growing love between he and Eliza?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781639843176

Michael Newton

Michael Newton, PhD, held a doctorate in Counseling Psychology, was a certified Master Hypnotherapist, and was a member of the American Counseling Association. He was also on the faculty of higher educational institutions as a teacher while active in private practice in Los Angeles. Over many years, Dr. Newton developed his own intensive age regression techniques in order to effectively take hypnosis subjects beyond their past life memories to a more meaningful soul experience between lives. He is considered to be a pioneer in uncovering the mysteries about life after death through the use of spiritual hypnotic regression. He trained other advanced hypnotherapists in his techniques. Dr. Newton is the author of three best-selling books, Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, and Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression. Dr. Newton has an international reputation as a spiritual regressionist who mapped out much of our life between lives experience. He appeared on numerous national radio and TV talk shows to explain our immortal life in the spirit world. For information about Life between lives Hypnotherapy (LBL) and how to arrange an LBL session please contact The Newton Institute for Life Between Lives Hypnotherapy at http://www.newtoninstitute.org

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Lone Wolf

By

Michael Newton

Lone Wolf by Michael Newton

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.

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  This is a work of fiction. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect that of the publisher.

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Published by Pen It! Publications, LLC in the U.S.A.

812-371-4128  www.penitpublications.com

ISBN: 978-1-63984-087-8

Edited by Dina Husseini

Cover Design by Donna Cook

Table Description automatically generated

Chapter 1

Graham was having a troublesome time fighting the beast within him as the smell of blood soaked into the soil of the battlefield in Bentonville North Carolina. He had not seen that many casualties on a battlefield for a while. Even though the ones from the past were still fresh in his memory.

No matter how hard he tried to block all the deaths he witnessed, his mind had been playing the recurring images. He could not remember the last time he slept throughout the night without waking up from his nightmares. 

It was normal for all the men that fought.

He had enough of the fighting and could no longer be a part of so many senseless deaths. If the rumors were true, and the war was getting closer to being over, lying on the ground among the dead was going to be his only chance to escape the war and to escape his family. He had been forced into joining the confederate army by his father, hoping it would break him down and he would give in to his animal instinct to kill. Graham had been with his regiment since he had turned eighteen.  

At twenty-two, he had witnessed more deaths and destruction than anyone should. He refused to take the life of a human. None of the deaths were by his hands. He learned during battles that there was enough commotion that no one noticed that he always fired his gun at an upward angle to be sure not to hit anyone. 

Born the son of an alpha male and female, had never been easy. He had always been a disappointment to his father and mother. All he ever wanted was to live his life as a human. Or at least as human as possible.

Henry and Clara (his parents) hated their human side. They hated even more that they had to live their lives in secret or risk being hunted down and killed. It was the opinion of Henry, Clara, and the rest of the pack, that humans served only two purposes: slaves to the wolves and/ or food.

He could never understand why the pack would choose to kill and eat a human when there was plenty of wildlife. According to the pack, human meat was more tender and sweeter than that of wild game. Even though sometimes the smell of blood made it difficult to resist, Graham had never killed a human. He would never join the pack to feed on one.  

He also realized that in many ways humans were no better than the wolves. Like the wolves, many humans felt it was okay to enslave, harm, and even kill other humans. Graham was not okay with any of it. Born on a plantation in the small Louisiana town of Burrwood, he had seen firsthand the way the slaves were treated. Humans could be just as unnecessarily cruel as the pack could be. As much as he despised the war, he hoped that one good thing would come from it: to set all slaves free when it ended.

The moment had come for him to make his move. He was afraid if he waited much longer, the burial party would arrive.

Quietly, he crawled on the ground, found a soldier that looked about his height. It wasn't an easy feat as very few men were six foot one, like himself. The soldier’s face had been shot, which would make identification nearly impossible. He removed the soldiers' belt and found inscribed on the back of the buckle the name, William Alexander.

Quickly, he removed the soldier’s clothing, then his own. He took a last look at his belt buckle which had inscribed, Graham Davenport.

Once Graham dressed in the dead soldier's uniform, he then dressed the dead soldier with his. He hated that William Alexander’s family might not ever know if he was dead or alive. There were already so many soldiers who were buried without being identified.     

Graham had little time to ponder the soldier and his family. In the distance, he could hear horses pulling wagons. The burial party was on their way to the battlefield, which was his invitation to get farther away. As much as he hated the beast, it gave him heightened senses which he appreciated, especially now that he wanted to avoid being caught.  

After what felt like an eternity, nightfall arrived. Even though, Graham was tired, his plan was to sleep during the day, stay hidden in the evening, and travel during the night. He was glad when he had finally reached the forest area without being seen or caught. Once he felt he was far enough away from civilization, it was time to transform into the thing he had spent his entire life running from. However, he also knew once he changed into a wolf, he could travel faster and further than he would ever be able to as a human. It would also benefit him when it was time to sleep and hunt for food. 

Graham had to find a place to stash the uniform of the dead soldier. He hoped that someday it would be discovered and returned to the family. As he thought about the soldier and the guilt he was feeling, he stumbled across a hollowed log amongst some overgrown bushes. As he removed the clothing, he folded everything up and placed it far back into the log. 

Standing naked among the trees, he tightened up his fist and looked up to the moon as he prepared himself for the pain of shifting from man to wolf. He wanted to cry out as his bones and muscles changed. After about thirty minutes, the process was complete. Where there was a man, now stood a wolf with his silver-colored fur and yellow eyes shimmering under the crescent moon. 

His brain and thought process remained the same whether in human or wolf form.  However, with the transformation of the vocal cords while in wolf form he would only be able to bark, whimper, growl, or howl. The transformation could be done at will at any time. But the least painful happened during a full moon. The more transformations, the quicker and less painful it would become.  

With the time it took to shift; Graham decided he needed to start running to make up for the lost time. The tiredness he felt in human form had dissipated. He was overcome with new energy. He knew he had to be careful not to let his guard down. If seen by a human, they could very well kill him if they feared him or wanted to skin him for his fur. A dog would possibly want to fight or alert their human of a new dog in their territory. 

Henry had told Graham stories about the bloodsuckers or living dead. They also had a thirst for human blood. He described them as having canine-like teeth that they would sink in the neck of their victims.

According to his father, there were several groups of bloodsuckers in the United States, most of them living in highly populated cities like New Orleans and New York. Their scent was comparable to that of a rotting animal in the sun’s heat. The bloodsuckers were only a potential threat to the wolves if they were in their human form. Being dead, they were unable to smell the difference between humans from other beings. Henry had also warned of other beings that existed that could shift into different animals, very similar to the wolves, that could be identified by their distinct wet dog smell; a smell that was obvious even when they were in their human form.

Graham remembered his father telling him with the exception of a few most did not have the strength of a wolf, but they still should be avoided. As far as he could remember, the only being human or otherwise his parents feared was: Mambo Matilde.

Luckily for Graham, Mambo Matilde lived on a bayou in Louisiana several miles from the plantation where he was raised. He had no idea why his parents were afraid of her as they never told him.

He suspected that she might have known about them and could reveal them and the rest of the pack to the humans. The one thing he was sure of was that if he had run into any of these other beings that his father had told him about, he had been unaware.

There were only a few hours left before sunrise. Graham realized he hadn’t eaten anything. He had put enough miles behind him that he could take some time to hunt, and find a place to sleep for the day.

The good thing about the forest, there was plenty of game to choose from. He smelled a rabbit, nearby. Rabbit was his favorite. With very little effort he had a full stomach. Finding a safe place to sleep had to be a top priority. Graham came across a small entrance on the side of a bluff.

He walked into the entrance and was able to get far enough back into the small cavern where he knew he would be safe. As he lay down to sleep, he thought about the different areas of the country he had researched to start his new life. The area would need to be heavily wooded and densely populated.

No matter where he went, if his father and mother figured out he was alive and wanted to find him, they would find away. If his parents found him they’d probably kill him. Death would have to be better than going back to the physical and mental abuse of his father. He forced him to join the confederacy. Graham felt that no matter what he did once he signed that paper, he was a dead man. He Feared if the war didn't kill him, his father would have the pack do it when he returned home.   

The closest thing to love, Graham ever felt, came from his grandfather. Yet, it was not like the love that the others described when talking about their families.

Charles Davenport was Henry's father, the alpha male until his wife had died. Later, he fell in love with one of his slaves. Charles had fallen in love with his house slave Hany. Even though it was forbidden to ever fall in love or procreate with a human. He had tried to fight his feelings for Hany, but she was the only one there to listen to him and comfort him when he was mourning the death of his wife. He had loved and trusted Hany enough that he had even shared the family secret with her, about being a wolf.

The plan was to keep the relationship secretive, but Hany became pregnant. Charles knew there would be grave consequences if the pack learned the truth. Charles offered to give Hany her papers to freedom with money to start a new life and raise their baby in one of the northern states. Hany loved Charles too much to leave him, even though she knew that she could be sealing her and her child's fate.

As Hany continued working in the house, it became more evident that she was with child. Clara would question her about the father of her unborn child. She never gave Clara a satisfactory answer. Clara had a suspicion that Charles had fathered the baby and overheard a conversation that led her to believe she was correct but was unable to prove it until the child was born. The distrust quickly came to an end the day Hany had given birth to a baby girl. Charles and Hany were both questioned, and it would be during the birthing process that the truth would come out.  

Charles knew he would have to step down as a pack leader, because he broke a forbidden law among the wolves. Henry ordered some of the pack to tie Charles up and lock him in his bedroom.

Next, they went after Hany and the baby. Hany tried to put up a fight but was no match for the pack. They placed the baby in a burlap sack with a heavy rock inside. They placed a burlap sack over Hany's head and headed down to the bayou.

There were no emotions amongst anyone in the pack including Clara who stood back and watched with a smile on her face. She knew that her husband was now the alpha, making her the alpha, too.   

Exhausted, Graham decided he had to clear his head, if he wanted to get any sleep. He focused on a positive change in his life, to get as far away as he could from the past. Once he closed his eyes, he fell into a much-needed deep sleep.

Chapter 2

Eliza had just about finished finding the apples in the fruit cellar that her mother had preserved the previous autumn. When she looked down, she found a rip at the bottom of her dress. She had remembered when her mother