Nocturnal Prey: Nocturnal Awakenings, #0.1

By Amanda S. Green

Three years ago, Mackenzie Santos' nightmare became reality. The world learned shapeshifters really do exist. Since then, Mac has worked hard to do her duty as a cop, as an alpha and as a mother. Now those duties all come spiraling together as she becomes the hunted. If she isn't careful, not only will her life be forfeit but so will the lives of her daughter and all those she cares for.

 

Nocturnal Prey is a prequel short story set in the Nocturnal Awakenings universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hunter's Moon Press
• Release date: Mar 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781949901450

Amanda S. Green

I’m older than twenty and younger than death and that’s all you’ll get from me about my age. After all, it’s not polite to ask a woman her age. I’m a mother, a daughter and was a wife. I’ve spent most of my life in the South and love to travel. The only problem with that is my dog always thinks I’ve abandoned him and it takes weeks to reassure the poor thing. Then there’s the cat who resents the fact I came back before he could figure out a way to kill the dog and hide the body. My house is haunted – it really is. I swear it. What else explains the table that plays music and the light that comes on by itself? – but it’s mine and I love it. Okay, I’m a little strange. But that makes life interesting.

Book preview

Nocturnal Prey

Nocturnal Prey

A Nocturnal Awakenings Prequel Story

Amanda S. Green

Hunter’s Moon Press

Copyright © 2020 by Amanda S. Green

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover image: Dangerous Beautiful Woman With Guns, Action Hero by mrbigphoto

Cover element: Color portrait of Jaguar/leopard looking forward on a black background by AnastasiaOsipova

Cover design by Amanda S. Green

ISBN: 978-1-949901-45-0

Contents

Welcome to the world of Nocturnal Awakenings

Nocturnal Prey

Request from the Author

Sneak Peek at Jaguar Rising

Also by the Author

About the Author

Welcome to the world of Nocturnal Awakenings

Mackenzie Santos has seen a great deal as a Dallas cop. She thought she’d seen it all. Then she learned the world was a much different place than she believed. Shapeshifters are real. She comes from one of their oldest and most powerful bloodlines. It was difficult enough learning to deal with the fact she now turns furry. Making matters worse, the world now knows about their existence and not everyone is happy about it. . . .

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Nocturnal Prey

Once upon a time. . . .

Those words usually signal the beginning of a child’s fairy tale. You know the stories I’m talking about. Stories of good and evil, where the boy gets the girl and everyone lives happily ever after. Okay, there was usually some lesson our parents wanted us to remember that’s driven home along the way. But even as kids, we knew those stories weren’t true and the monsters didn’t exist.

After all, our parents told us there were no such things as monsters and we believed them.

How I long for those days of innocence. You see, our parents were wrong. That’s a lesson I learned the hard way. Monsters really do exist. They live among us. They might be your co-worker or your next-door neighbor. They might be the barista at the corner coffee shop or the checker at the grocery. They might even be your child’s favorite teacher.

I know because I’m one of them.

Don’t get me wrong. Real monsters have always existed. They are the murderers and other predators who prey on those weaker than themselves. Each day our newspapers and media broadcasts are filled with stories about them. Those are the monsters I signed up to fight when I joined the Dallas Police Department more than a decade ago. I was one of the good guys and damned proud of it.

Now, through a twist of genetics and what some might call really bad luck, I’m one of those creatures people think of when things go bump in the dark of night. But I’m still a cop and it is still my sworn duty to protect the people of Dallas from monsters—human and arcane.

My name is Mackenzie Santos and I am a shapeshifter.

The day started like all too many others. The clock next to the bed read 0337 when Dispatch called, telling me to respond to a crime scene. I’d almost told the dispatcher to contact someone else. Not only was I not on call but I was brass. I didn’t get called out in the middle of the night without a damned good reason. But Dispatch knew that and that was enough to have me dragging myself out of bed and into the shower.

Less than an hour later, I knew why I’d been called to the scene. The main room of the abandoned warehouse not far from downtown looked like something