Free Shadow Falls: A Sensual Werewolf Romance (The Wolves of Shadow Falls) by Mary Andrews

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Preface
     
    “ For where thou art, there is the world itself, And where thou art not, desolation” ~William Shakespeare
     
      My name is Connor McKnight and I live in a place called Shadow Falls. I was born in the skin of a human but I am a werewolf. The beast that I am resigns when I let it but when I can no longer pacify him he emerges and whatever is left of my humanity is gone. I found my mate, Aislen and I loved her even before we met. I thought she and I were alone but we soon learned that I was wrong. Terribly wrong! Now our lives have been caught up in a web spun centuries ago, I must account for the moments leading up to where we are now. To this moment that I have the fleeting hours in which to write, so that I can save the two beings I love more than my beloved…
    ***
    2009

    The town of Shadow Falls was once stuck in time and a dismal reminder of what life was without the advent of television, internet and the cell phone. Now the people had evolved and a new life entered peeling away the scar tissue of the old landscape to reveal a more modern society. The wolves of Shadow Falls have now come into dangerous view. A new mayor had been elected, his ambitious nature made him capitalize on the fears of the people. Mayor David Raymond had lived in Shadow Falls his entire life and harbored his own personal account of wolf sightings. His face bore a history of scars that he claimed were inflicted on him as a child by his parents. As a child he was known as a modern day adaptation of the ‘boy who cried wolf’. From the tender age of six, he claimed that while riding his bike along the road one afternoon, he saw a large black wolf-like creature mauling a woman on the edge of the forest. His parents at the time thought he was crazy and subjected him to years of cruelty. Jim and Kate Raymond never wanted a child and when David came along, they took out their aggression on him, from the moment he was born. But David hid his pain well, no one knew of the terror that was being visited upon him by his parents. When they died 20 years later in a mysterious fire, David was never even considered a suspect. David spent most of his adult years reading up on lycanthropy. He became obsessed with the idea of killing werewolves. David spun his campaign based on his obsession, educating the people of Shadow Falls on lycanthropy and in time revealing to them our weaknesses. But killing us was easier said than done since catching us and surviving long enough in the woods to take a fatal shot was where the real challenged lay.
    A silver bullet can kill a wolf the instant contact is made with his heart or head in human form. Should the bullet pierce any other part of his body, the poison would course through his veins slowly, merely crippling him until he shifts. If he can morph back into wolf before the deadly venom liquefies his insides, only then is there hope. The violent transformation would force the poison out of the vessel before it became fatal. A tiny bullet becomes the Achilles heel to such a strong and magnificent creature.  The thing that made a wolf as weak as a human was his heart. It’s always a human heart, whether he is wolf or werewolf, the organ that pumped blood through his veins was just a fickle human heart. Suddenly the town of Shadow Falls had purpose, had mystery and was now attracting outsiders like moths to a flame. It was known as the town of werewolves! A little unknown town at the turn of the millennium had transformed overnight to a worldwide phenomenon. The creatures that were once only alive in the novels and made visible through the cinema screens, now were as real as sunlight.
    Until now, the seasons and pleasure triggered the change, there was simply no other way to shed the human skin and run free as a wolf. Imprinting on another wolf was impossible if it was not born in the same season; the binding act that can only take place while in werewolf form in the heat of passion. The fact that we