The Complete Bloodling Serial: Episodes 1-5

by Aimee Easterling

The two of us stood for a moment in the still forest while birds that had fled the strangeness of the oathbreaking aroma began singing once again. A squirrel complained from the branch of a nearby oak tree and I smelled a fox pacing toward us then fleeing as it caught a whiff of our predatory scents.

  I kept my stance calm, but I knew I was balancing on a knife edge. One slip and I'd fall to gut myself on the sharp blade...or rather, on Wilder's sharp teeth.

  Behind the other alpha's eyes, his wolf was even more rampant than my own. Which was saying something since I sometimes felt so lupine I wasn't able to string two words together. The animal growled and paced within his human skin, itching to tear into me with the only weapons he understood—fangs and claws.

  A smarter shifter would have reined in his own lupine nature to prevent bloodshed. But instead, I released my animal side entirely so I could speak to Wilder's wolf with my eyes. Calm, I commanded him, and the older wolf quietened like a high-strung horse responding to its owner's hand.

  The effects wouldn't last forever. They probably wouldn't last until dinner time. But it was all I could do.

  I didn't expect thanks from the older alpha, so I simply turned away, preparing to hike back to the pack that I knew was waiting a few miles to the south. And even though I'd made the right decision, my throat was still tight from melancholy.

  The trouble was, Wilder's dilemma hit too close to home. I just hoped that if I lost my grasp of the human world as I grew older that someone would have the sense to put me down before I turned into the grizzled old wolf who stood at my back.

  As I remembered the strengths of the shifters beneath my care, though, I realized I didn't need to worry. They'd stand for me and for each other. And if it came down to it, my pack would do what needed to be done.

  My mind was already running forward to the relief I knew would show on my best friend's face as I walked through our front door. To Tia's exuberance as she pulled me into her arms.

  To the enticing pack princess whose trail I'd lost in the city earlier that afternoon but that I surely could pick back up if I tried hard enough....

  But Wilder's final sally cut through my musings as efficiently as he'd intended. "You have my blessing, you know."

  Despite my best intentions to hightail it home before I got into even more trouble, I turned back around to face him. My opponent's wolf was once again quiescent, his human face coated with that unholy glee Wilder sported when he knew he had the upper hand and was looking forward to watching you dangle from the end of his hook.

  But this time I found myself smiling instead of shivering. "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "You know," Wilder answered. "Or you will know." Then he shifted into lupine form, his clothes puddling beneath him on the forest floor. And he loped away to rejoin his defense force.

  Wilder probably meant to shake me up, but this time I was the one left laughing in his wake. Because the older shifter was right. I did know.

  Terra was waiting out there for me to find and claim as my mate. She was terrified of my wolf and uninterested in being part of a shifter pack, but I'd find a way to reel her in.

  And when I did, I'd have her father's blessing.

  Well, at least I have that going for me. My tongue lolled out of my mouth in simple lupine pleasure as I abandoned yet another set of clothing to the forest. Tia would scold and Chase would grumble, but Blaze was our accountant now so I didn't have to worry about how to pay for a replacement. Instead, I'd just trust my bloodling nature and lean on my friends' shoulders as needed.

  It's good to be part of a pack.

  From the Author

  I hope you enjoyed the Bloodling serial! If so, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd consider writing a review (even of just a sentence or two) on Amazon or Goodreads. Your kind words help strangers decide to take a chance on a new author, and they urge me to keep on writing.

  What's next? Wolfie's adventure continues in the Wolf Rampant trilogy, told from the point of view of Wolfie's mate. The three novels Shiftless, Pack Princess, and Alpha Ascendant bring both shifters' stories full circle and give you many more glimpses of Wolfie's clan. You can also save a buck when you buy all three in bundle format.

  Meanwhile, the FREE anthology Beyond Secret Worlds contains a short story about Fen's teenage adventures as an outpack drifter. A spinoff series also featuring Fen is in the works, due to launch in early 2016. If you sign up for my email list at http://forms.aweber.com/form/35/528967935.htm, you'll be the first to hear about new releases and periods when my books are free or on sale.

  Finally, thank you so much for reading and for spreading the word! You are why I write.