Sneak Peak Exclusive:
Cursed Awakening
By Nikki Noffsinger
Author’s Note:
I had so much fun exploring the
story for this book. I hope you enjoy what you read. Nyx Wahpeton was fun to
create as was his world. I loved creating for him who I believe is the perfect
mate: a girl that’s going to give him a run for his money and who accepts him
for who he is not what. Thank you for taking the time to visit Doug Simpson’s
Blog and for reading an exerpt from Cursed Awakening.
Nikki
Noffsinger
Ivy was sitting on a large boulder
that was just inside a thicket of trees behind the pizza parlor. She had to
breathe because the memories of her own brothers and sisters were too much!
They were for the most part half brothers and sisters, but they had looked at
her as nothing her whole life. The only one of her sisters that had ever really
cared about her was her sister Danielle. Danielle was younger than her but they
had spent happy times together until Danielle got sick before she was ten years
old. Danielle suffered from leukemia and because of her commune’s belief’s she
was denied treatments and medicines that would have maybe saved her. When
Danielle died, her mother had blamed Ivy for her death because Danielle was her
mother and father’s favorite. Ivy wiped at a tear that streaked down her cheek.
She didn’t hear Nyx as he approached her.
“Ivy, I’m sorry I brought up
something unpleasant. Are you okay?” he said as he knelt beside her.
“Oh, it’s alright, really. I, I don’t
talk much about my family.” She said softly.
Before he could stop himself, he
reached up and caressed her cheek. His eyes were full of warmth and longing. Ivy’s breath
caught in her throat at his touch. Normally she would have jerked back from
such a touch but she found herself leaning into his palm. Nyx looked into her
sad eyes and the compulsion to kiss her was more than he could stand. He had
only just met her and she was everything against his very nature but he found
himself wanting her like no other female he’d ever wanted before.
Time
seemed to stop as they just sat there looking at each other. Finally Nyx stood
and offered Ivy his hand. She slipped her hand into his massive one and he
smiled and they walked back to the pizza parlor. Lorna and Xander were just
walking out.
“Ivy,
I would like to see you again.” He said softly. Ivy smiled she wanted to see
him too.
“I
would like that!” she said as she took out a piece of paper from her purse and
scribbled her number and address down. He took it and put it in his pocket.
“Hey,
where’d you get off to?” Lorna asked with a big smile on her face.
“Nowhere
particular, just had to get some air.” Ivy replied as she opened the van door.
Ivy
waved to Nyx and his brother as Lorna hopped in and started the van. Nyx waved
back as he settled his sunglasses back on his face. He watched the blue minivan
pull out of the parking lot.
“So,
I take it you and the female hit it off?” Xander said with a smile.
“Yeah,
sort of I guess.” Nyx replied.
“You
ready to take off or do you want to stand here and stare at the parking lot
some more?” Xander mused.
Nyx
slugged his brother in the arm and gave him a scowling look. They both headed
towards their bikes and headed back towards the Res.
Lorna and Ivy both sat on the couch. Lorna was
reading a book while Ivy sat watching the TV not really paying attention to the
show she was watching. Lorna put her book down and looked over at Ivy.
Something was definitely troubling her and Lorna knew all too well what it was.
Ivy was lost in thought as images from her past were running through her mind
as well as Nyx.
“Ivy, what’s going on in that head of yours
chick?” Lorna asked as she moved closer to Ivy on the couch.
Ivy sighed. “Nothing really Lorna, I was just
thinking about no matter how much I change I can’t wipe out the past. Then
there is that guy we met tonight. I mean that is the last thing I need right
now is to get all caught up in some guy.”
Lorna knew that sadness all too well! She grabbed
the TV remote and turned the TV off and took Ivy’s hands in her own. She waited
until Ivy looked at her and she had her full attention.
“Ivy, you’re right; you can’t erase the past and
I know how really difficult it is living with everything you’ve been through.
However, it will get easier! Trust me; it’ll get easier each day that you live
for today and tomorrow instead of yesterday! Bit by bit you’ll be able to let
go and look at how far you’ve come! You’ve made great progress! Don’t you think
it still doesn’t bother me about all twenty-six of my brothers and sisters? It
does but I have to live my life not the one I was born to live and you have to
do the same in your own time! As far as that hottie from the pizza parlor goes,
c’mon girlie that’s one fine guy right there and every single gal needs a friend
like that!” Lorna always knew the right thing to say.
Ivy still was feeling anxious about giving him
her phone number. “Lorna, I wish I could be as strong and as confident as you!”
“Listen to me Ivy, you are strong and you are
confident! Besides, with a guy like that Nyx…I bet he could show you a few
things to help that confidence issue along!” Lorna teased while wagging her eye
brows up and down. Ivy slapped at her shoulder and turned beet red.
“You are so bad, Lorna!” Ivy mused.
“Oh you have no idea Ivy! I’m completely wicked!”
Lorna shot back.
Both of them fell into laughter as Lorna turned the
TV back on. She slung an arm over Ivy’s shoulders and gave her a gentle
squeeze. A little after midnight, Ivy climbed the stairs to her room. She
showered, brushed her teeth, and brushed out her hair. Ivy took her pill that
helped her to sleep and snuggled under the patchwork quilt that Lorna had given
her. The only reason she loved the quilt was that it was sewn with neon colored
pieces of fabric and zebra print. Nothing in Lorna’s house looked anything like
the old antique stuff she’d grown up around and she loved it like that! The
last thoughts she had in her mind were of Nyx. She wondered if she would hear
from him again and wondered what it would have felt like to kiss those full and
powerful looking lips of his.
Nyx
was making a run through the eastern glen around the perimeter of the
reservation. He and his clan protected the people of the New Hope Reservation.
The people there knew of the protectors that kept them safe. Seventy years ago,
nearly half the reservation had been slaughtered from a pack that had been
living up by Canada. The truce was forged especially when Nyx’s older sister
Khloe had found her mate with the Beta of that pack, Cinjin. Cinjin was just as
respected as the Alpha of the pack and they resided in South Dakota. However,
there were other enemies that Nyx’s pack protected the gentle people of the Res
from. One of those threats being the Chupacabra. Their attacks had been less
and less over the years but then again the packs from all over North America
had united in their eradication. The current and most immediate threats were
from local rednecks that lived to raise hell with the Native American people
living there and it was up to Nyx and his clan to whip some serious ass of any
one that came within a mile of the reservation with those kinds of intentions.
Even
though Nyx was in his wolf form and running the perimeter, he still couldn’t
get Ivy off his mind. She was tall, nicely built, curvy and soft in all the
right places and those big bright eyes that burned a hole into his chest was
all he could concentrate on! He wondered what she was doing and if she was
safe. It took every bit of self-control he had to not break out of his pattern
and go and find her to check on her. Suddenly just as he was debating on it, he
felt a sharp nip at his hind quarter. Nyx yelped and turned around on the fool
that had decided to get the drop on him.
“Yeah come on little brother! You’ve been running
around in a complete circle and acting like some pup that’s in need of his
mother’s teat!” Bodhi barked that almost sounded like he was
laughing.
Nyx rolled his eyes. His brother Bodhi made it
his life’s mission to pick fights with him. Actually all his older brothers
did. That was okay though because out of all of them Nyx knew he was the
fastest, the most cunning, and the strongest of the pack. “I think you’re
the one that’s never latched off of his mother’s teat!” Nyx retorted.
Bodhi crouched and bared his teeth and Nyx did
the same. In a split second Bodhi was pouncing on his younger brother. It
wasn’t in a fighting or defensive way, but a playful one. They’d snarl, claw and bite here and
there but that was how male wolves played. Bodhi’s gray and silver fur shone
brightly in the moonlight while Nyx’s jet black fur made him almost invisible
in the night except for his blue eyes that seemed to glow like two blue flames.
He was eerie! Their grandfather had the same blue eyes and black fur as Nyx. It
was an uncommon color. Most wolves had either yellow, copper, or brown eyes.
Nyx’s grandfather was full blooded Sioux and shaman on top of being a wolf.
“Are you two Scoobys done yet or would you like
me to find you a rubber ball to chase?” Caleb taunted as he came upon
his brothers.
“Scooby? That’s the best you can come up with
brother? I was thinking I was more of a White Fang or at least Rin Tin Tin.” Nyx
said in total smart ass fashion.
Bodhi growled, “Why do you get to be White
Fang? More like Black Fang. Hey Caleb, what are you out doing, playing bitch or
something spying on others?”
Caleb phased back to his human form and laughed
at his brothers. “You’d know more about being a bitch than I would, Bodhi. Naw,
I was coming to find you guys. Gramps needs us back at the house. Something is
up.” Caleb said casually as he reclined against a tree.
Caleb was tall and
unlike the rest of them had a head full of curly brown hair. It hung just past
his ears. Bodhi was like Xander, he had golden blonde hair but other than that
he was all native with deep brown eyes and tawny skin. Nauru and Dakota looked
the same seeing as they were twins. They were identical in their appearance but
their personalities were night and day! Nauru was all business and had little
room for “fun” and Dakota was forever irritating the death out of all of them
being the clan’s “clown”. Bodhi was a lot like Dakota but his version of “fun”
was usually being wrapped around some female or wolf swan. Bodhi definitely
lived for the carnal pleasures in life and relished in being the male ho that
he was. He wore it with a badge of pride. They all phased to human and dressed.
They couldn’t go through the reservation as wolves. No, they had to resume
their human forms. Their grandfather’s house was right smack in the middle and
even though the elders knew of what they were; they still had to keep their
secret. It was a matter of keeping the people of the Res and their own pack
safe from those who would do harm.
“Where’s Xander?” Nyx asked Caleb.
“Now brother, where do you think he’s at?”
Caleb snickered.
Nyx raked a hand through his hair, of course he
knew where Xander was and if his father caught Xander not doing what he should,
there would be one unhappy wolf tonight! Xander had fallen for a wolf swan named,
Jacee Redwood. Jacee and her mother had joined the pack about five years ago
when their own pack had been killed off by the Chupacabras. Their pack had gone to give aid
but it had been too late except for Jacee, her mother, father and her two
brothers. Xander was head over heels for her. She was great though and Nyx
couldn’t have approved more of their relationship.
Jacee
was petite and had dark hair that reached below her waist. She was Navajo but
she had golden-amber eyes. Xander like the rest of the boys were supposed to
spend the nights running the perimeters but here lately Xander had been
dividing his time between guard duty and Jacee. She was going to college and so
naturally being a bonded male, Xander was going to college too. Nyx took online
courses only because he didn’t much like the complications and distractions of
the busy modern world. He liked his freedom and the quiet of the woods that he
called home. While he was thinking about how free he felt he began thinking
about Ivy. Her friend had said that Ivy had been through a lot of suffering and
that disturbed him. He knew in that instant that he would tear someone to
shreds if anyone even thought about making her suffer now! He was going to ask
Xander for a big favor when he got home. Well considering Xander was there at
all!
Ivy
tossed and turned in her bed. For some reason her medication didn’t seem to be
working! She kept seeing the faces of the commune and Papa Paul looming over
her as she was being purified. She had snuck off the grounds to go see one of
those baby doctors and maybe get a picture of her baby. When she had come back
home he had been waiting for her. It didn’t matter that she had gone to the
doctor or had a picture of their six month old baby son; she had defied him and
the punishment was purification. The terror of what would be done to her was
nothing; the fear for her unborn child was everything!
Ivy
sat straight up in bed covered in sweat with her mouth open as if it were
screaming but no sound was coming out. She felt a rush of heat flood her body
and Ivy bolted from the bed and ran to the bathroom across the hall. She barely
made it to the toilet where she heaved. Lorna was there in a matter of moments.
Lorna held her hair back and grabbed a wash cloth off the shelf and got it wet
with cool water. Lorna crouched next to Ivy and waited for the heaving to stop.
When it did she wiped Ivy’s clammy face and put the rag on the back of her
neck. Ivy was breathing in ragged breaths. “Was it the dream again?” Lorna
asked truly concerned.
Ivy
nodded her head up and down unable to speak. Lorna pulled her into her side and
rubbed her arm with her free hand. She laid her head against Ivy’s and
whispered reassuring and soothing words to Ivy. Ivy shook for a while and even
let her tears fall. Lorna sat there and let her roll through the emotions she
was having. There really wasn’t anything that Lorna could do. Ivy had been
having terrible nightmares and had even been diagnosed with PTSD which was not
unusual. Lorna had gone through a similar experience when she first had left
the commune.
Cursed Awakening is now available through XoXo
Publishing.com in E-Book format and through Amazon.
About the Author:
Nikki Noffsinger is a newly published author who has always
had a passion for writing as well as for books. She is a mother of two and
lives in the same small town she was born which is also noted for being the
birthplace of James Dean. A lover of many different genres, paranormal romance
is one of her favorites and she loves fantasy because of the freedom it allows
her to create her stories.
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