Eyes Like a Wolf Read online

  Eyes Like a Wolf

  Evangeline Anderson

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Evangeline Anderson Books

  Eyes Like a Wolf

  A Stepbrother Romance

  Copyright © 2015 by Evangeline Anderson

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Author’s Note #1: To be the first to hear about new e-book releases, join my new newsletter. I promise no spam—you will only get email from me when a new book is out for either preorder or for sale.

  Author's Note #2: This story was originally published with another publisher and then I got it back and did some rewriting. I have gotten a LOT of mixed reviews with this one, I must say. So let me warn you, dear reader--While Richard and Rachel have no blood ties and their relationship is consensual, some readers, particularly those with a history of abuse may find this story disturbing. This book includes pseudo incest and sex in shifted form.

  Okay--you have been warned. Please don't buy or read if you are easily offended or triggered. I want all my readers to be happy with my work. If this is not the book for you, please know your limits and leave it on the shelf.

  Thank you. Hugs and Happy Reading to you all!

  Evangeline Anderson 2016

  Table of Contents

  Part One: Separation

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part Two: Reunion

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

  Preview of Claimed: Book 1 in the Brides of the Kindred

  PART ONE: SEPARATION

  Chapter One

  The rock whistled through the air and sliced the tender skin just above my right eye. I cried out and dropped my library books on the sidewalk, putting a hand to my forehead where a wet trickle of warmth was starting to flow.

  “Freaky eyes, freaky eyes—Rachel's got the freaky eyes.” The voice belonged to Todd Jenkins, the meanest boy at Wayne Hills Elementary. I turned to see him laughing at me, his grubby fists filled with stones. Behind him were Stevie Coltrain and Jaycee Murdock, boys that followed him and did whatever he told them to. They were all older than me and several grades ahead—by rights, I should have been beneath their notice. But Todd made it his business to notice and persecute anyone who was different, as I certainly was.

  “Leave me alone!” I yelled at them, wiping the stinging blood out of my eyes. It wasn't my fault I looked strange—everyone in my family had the same slanting pale green eyes that could see in the dark as well as the light.

  I never should have told that I could see in darkness, never should have let the girls at Priscilla Waverley's slumber party know there was anything more unusual about my eyes than the way they looked. But I wanted so badly to be special, to fit in with the popular group. She and the other girls had turned on me, spilling my secrets to the school at large, and now I was known as “Freaky Eyes Kemet,” a name I hid from the rest of my family, especially my older brother Richard, in shame.

  “Freaky eyes, freaky eyes,” Todd taunted, and his followers took up the chant as well.

  I tried to remember my father's words. We are the Amon-kai—that means we're different, Rachel my darling. We'll always be different, and the world doesn't like people who don't fit in. When they laugh or tease you, just ignore them.

  Bending to pick up my library books, I did my best to ignore the taunts and jeers. But then another stone hit my back, and a third hit my shoulder. I looked up to see all three of the boys advancing on me, lobbing stones as hard as they could. When a fourth stone hit me just under my left eye, I gasped and dropped my books again. They weren't just teasing me now—they really wanted to hurt me.

  My nerve broke, and I ran stumbling down the sidewalk, feeling the stinging stones raise welts and bruises on my unprotected back. The wet warmth was getting in my eyes again, blinding me. Even eyes that can see in the dark can't see through blood. I fell, skinning my knees and palms on the sidewalk, crying with the fierce pain—the pain of rejection as much as the physical agony of the sidewalk erasing my skin.

  The boys behind me laughed at my fall and pelted me with more rocks and sharp gravel. I felt one cut my ear, and another raised a lump on my scalp. I got up and ran on, desperate now to reach the shelter of our cool, ancient, Victorian mansion at the end of the street. Only there would I be safe—safe in my brother's shadow. Richard was actually my adopted brother, but no blood relation could have been more protective or caring. He could and would protect me with his life, I knew.

  “Freaky eyes! Freaky eyes! Only dogs and cats can see in the dark—you're an animal!” Todd Jenkins yelled behind me.

  I risked a glance back and saw that they had almost caught up with me. Their hands were still half full of stones, and there was malicious glee on their piggy faces. If they catch me, I thought wildly. Oh, if they catch me! It was then that I knew I was running for my life.

  “Animal eyes! Freaky eyes!”

  I turned my head, not wanting to see the look of hatred on their faces, and ran headlong into my older brother's chest. The wind was knocked out of me, and I would have fallen if he hadn't caught me and held me close.

  “Rache?” He used his nickname for me, peering into my face worriedly. He must have seen the smears of blood on my face and the hot tears I felt in my eyes because his face hardened immediately. He pushed me behind him and turned to face my tormentors.

  “Freaky eyes! Freaky…” Todd Jenkins's mean voice trailed off as Richard advanced on him and his cronies. Richard was twelve and in middle school. He was already filling out, getting the size and strength the men of the Amon-kai were known for.

  “What did you do to my sister?” Richard's voice was low and menacing. It hadn't changed yet to the bass rumble it was sure to become, but it was deep enough to frighten a schoolyard bully like Todd.

  “She's a freak,” he said defiantly, as if that answered Richard's question and excused his own actions at the same time. “You're all freaks—my old man says so.”

  “So that makes it okay to hurt us?” Richard advanced on the three of them, and Stevie Coltrain and Jaycee Murdock backed up uneasily. Rocks, the evidence of their guilt, dropped with a clatter to the sidewalk before them. Todd, trying to look brave, puffed out his chest and held his ground.

  “She's a freak,” he said again. “She went to that party at Prissy Waverley's house and Prissy's dad was makin' hamburgers, so your freaky little sister asked if she could eat hers raw—not cooked or nothin'.”

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