Excerpt. Anchored in the Moment is the first-ever Audrey prequel story. Set between Dowser 1 and Dowser 2 in the Adept Universe timeline, the short is available in Moments of the Adept Universe 1. In her illustration (below and in the eBook), Memo has captured the moment right before the pack princess claims the position she wants … in more than one way. 😉
Click here for the full reading order of the Adept Universe, including a downloadable PDF.
Anchored in the Moment
Moments of the Adept Universe 0.5
(Aka Audrey 0.5 )
June 2014.
Portland pack house.
Desmond Charles Llewelyn — Alpha of the West Coast North American Pack, and a cat shifter — was making me wait. Granted, I didn’t exactly have an appointment. But neither could he actually refuse to see me.
I was equal to Desmond in birth rank. But I’d also passed a letter of introduction to him via his enforcer Lara, who had greeted me upon my arrival. The letter was from his father. Lord Charles Llewelyn. And technically unnecessary by virtue of the fact that Desmond and I had grown up in the same circles, though I was on the East Coast and he on the West. When our parents intermingled at official Assembly gatherings and whatnot, so had we. Though I doubted whether we’d ever actually had a single one-on-one conversation.
I paced the living room section of the house’s central great room for the umpteenth time. Like most alphas, including my own father, Desmond conducted business out of his residence. As such, the current pack house for the West Coast North American Pack was a sprawling, austerely furnished mansion perched over Portland, with a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the wide river and its multiple bridges below. Wood dominated throughout, from the flooring to numerous built-ins, including the kitchen cupboards. Gray granite tile and countertops were the only contrast, with nary a casing or baseboard in sight.
The furniture was all oversized, including a thick-planked fir trestle dining room table situated between the kitchen area and the large leather couches and glass coffee table that I was currently pacing between. It all felt very male. And all very new. Completely contrary to the centuries of history contained in my family home.
Centuries of history that had been smothering me since my younger brother Justin had been killed.
The intent behind his murder had never been resolved. Not to my satisfaction, at least. And even as all that unfolded, my mother had been forced to choose between the pack’s beta position and her seat in the Assembly, in line with the Assembly’s recently changed rules. She had stepped down as beta.
My father had refused, as he had each year since, to let me step up.
I had just turned twenty-eight.
I was an adored, sheltered, pampered pack princess.
And I’d never felt so ungrounded, so unneeded, in my life.
– Excerpt from Anchored in the Moment (Moments of the Adept Universe 0.5)
Awesome excerpt. Really looking forward to it.