Winter's Gift

By Lou Grimes

In her search for answers, Louvette Blackwood has stuck her nose in the right place. Someone is out to get her. Can she survive long enough to find out who?

The Cursed world is back. The Northline pack has been compromised. Louvette Blackwood isn't sure who she can trust. The one thing she know is her pack and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Lou Grimes
• Release date: Jul 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9798869064400

Book preview

Lou Grimes

Winter’s Gift

Copyright © 2021 by Lou Grimes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Lou Grimes asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Lou Grimes has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

First edition

Cover art by Jeanette Barroso

Editing by Rose Green

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

Find out more at reedsy.com

I’d like to thank my husband, family, and friends that supported me from start to finish. I’d also like to thank my readers who help keep me going. Lastly, I’d like to thank my cover artist and editor who helped me turn my world into an actual book.

Contents

1. Chapter 1

2. Chapter 2

3. Chapter 3

4. Chapter 4

5. Chapter 5

6. Chapter 6

7. Chapter 7

8. Chapter 8

9. Chapter 9

10. Chapter 10

11. Chapter 11

12. Chapter 12

13. Chapter 13

14. Chapter 14

15. Chapter 15

16. Chapter 16

Thanks for Reading!

About the Author

Also by Lou Grimes

1

Chapter 1

Something dodged through the trees, its feet sure and soft on the earth, as if bound to it. Snow fell to the forest floor as the one moving through the trees knocked it off the branches. Twigs shifted under the runner’s feet, the sound almost deafening in the relative quiet of the forest. In the forest, humans and creatures alike always made noise, no matter how hard they tried not to.

An owl hooted, shattering the illusion of silence in the night, like crystal glass.

Night and day might as well have been yin and yang as far as the level of activity in the forest. While night was the more active time for many creatures, it was as if all the inhabitants followed an unwritten rule for survival instilled in them at birth by Mother Nature. Silence was the cornerstone of this rule book.

The grey moon illuminated the night sky as it reached its full peak. Stars of all colors twinkled noiselessly. The air was more still than a graveyard at night. Creatures moved about while attempting to achieve the absence of sound.

As the creature ran through the forest, the noises of the night all but paused. The other inhabitants who called the forest home shrank back or froze at the sound of the creature, as if they knew what made its way through the woods, closing in on them. Some quickly scampered away.

White fur blended with the snow patches when the creature stood still, but when it moved, it could be detected with little to no effort against the contrast of the bare spots on the mountain towering above the forest and all its inhabitants.

Fours paws ripped into the earth as the thing gained ground, though its destination was unknown to even the animal itself.

A ray of moonlight shone on a long snout and whiskers as the creature stopped. Two pointed ears flicked forward, listening. Its short body dropped a few inches while it readied itself.

After a moment, the wolf ran, chasing something through the darkness. With such a white coat, the wolf was almost out of place, like it should have been in a region a tad more arctic.

Before, the wolf had run with no direction. It was solely stretching its legs. But now, it scented a deer, and it cut off in that direction. The hunt was on. The wolf, having found a purpose now, was the epitome of complete focus, determination, and deftness.

The wolf skidded to a halt once the deer was within hearing distance. It lowered its form again, sneaking up on the creature in question. The deer crunched on some forest brush in a clearing. It was more in the open than any other hunt that the wolf recalled. Once the wolf reached as close as it could get without scaring the deer off, it paused, waiting for the deer to drop its head to eat some brambles.

The deer’s head rose as it chewed.

Lowering its body to the ground and camouflaged by the brush, the wolf prepared to spring. The second the deer dropped its head, the wolf sprinted toward it. The deer turned its ears straight forward, making them as large as possible.

The deer turned and ran. At first, the wolf lagged far behind, but it gained ground soon enough, flinging dirt behind it. The deer tried losing the wolf by weaving through the trees, but the wolf stayed only a few lengths behind. One wrong turn from the deer would be the end, for only a few feet separated the wolf from a successful hunt. The deer ran across a low gurgling riverbed. The wolf lost sight of it when the deer made it around a large boulder in the center of the river.

A creature roared. The wolf twitched its ears as a large hulking body came toward it.

The wolf could see the deer’s white tail in the distance. It had been quick enough and had the right timing to make it past the bear standing between them. The wolf whined at the loss but was not about to challenge a bear on its own.

Though it was a hard thing to do, the wolf abandoned its chase and turned away. The bear bellowed a furious roar after the wolf. It hadn’t gotten the pound of flesh it was owed for being disturbed.

Once the hunt was forsaken, the wolf continued its progression. Miles blended together. Now, the wolf found direction once more as it turned south.

The trees that had once been close-knit grew apart. The stars and the moon had claimed more than their share of the sky as the density of the trees decreased.

Stopping before the last line of trees, the wolf scanned its surroundings before taking another step. As it lifted its paw, a bone broke. More followed, as if someone had stepped on every single twig in the forest.

Fingertips formed from the paws. Claws shrank to fingernails. The wolf’s spine elongated. A snout shrunk to a human nose. Fur faded into skin as the transformation took place. Curly auburn hair grew out of the wolf’s head as it stood on two feet.

Fabric clad the wolf’s new body before it was fully formed. Denim jeans nearly burst from the size of the wolf’s thighs before returning back to normal. A black hoodie enveloped the wolf’s upper torso unnaturally.

Never once did the wolf break its stride.

A young woman stood straight and walked out of the forest as if every cell in her hadn’t just reconstructed itself.

In the center of the clearing where she had paused before, a silhouette of a lodge stood illuminated by only the porch light she had left on herself before leaving for her run. The comfort of a good night’s sleep was something which had eluded her that night, so a quick hunt offered a different kind of satisfaction.

Slipping inside quietly to avoid waking her mother, the one-of-a-kind aroma of the house deluged her as she stepped through the door. The smells of her home were ever-changing, but some usual aromas remained in the Blackwood house, like fresh wood, leather, and last night’s dinner. She headed upstairs after she turned off the porch light. She had only made it to the stairway when she heard footsteps.

Louvette? Is that you? a woman’s groggy voice asked from the door of the kitchen. She stopped short like a burglar who had been caught holding the family jewels.

However, this wasn’t some disgruntled homeowner; this was her mother, Sarah Lynskey, after a graveyard shift of waitressing. Her mother could be worse than a furious homeowner if she wanted to be.

I couldn’t sleep. I’m sorry if I woke you, Louvette said, hoping her mother hadn’t heard the back door close. She wasn’t privy to the fact that her daughter enjoyed prowling in the night in a wolf’s skin. That secret was Louvette’s choice, in an effort to protect her mother.

No, I was getting a drink and heard you, her mother offered, moving to her.

Yeah, I was just finishing the laundry since I don’t have anything better to do, Louvette explained in a manner that would give her a reason to be coming through the back door, which happened to connect to the laundry room.

Thanks honey, but try not to stay up too late, her mother said before returning to her room.

I’ll try, she replied, watching her leave.

Louvette could barely stop herself from exhaling out of relief as she went upstairs to her bedroom.

A log cabin-style bed waited for her return. This bed was a luxury to her because it was one of the nicest ones she had ever slept on, and because it was hers. It wasn’t some worn out old bed, pre-furnished like all the apartments they had lived in before. It was not the culprit of her lack of sleep.

No, the perpetrator was her own thoughts. She crawled into that bed with muscles that ached from the exertion of her run. Her mind was anxious over what tomorrow held for her, but finally, her worn-out body forced her to sleep.

***

The feeling of falling, as if to her death, was becoming excessively familiar, and Louvette hated it. As her feet left the ground, she only fell for a few seconds before landing hard in the dirt.

Where is your head at today? Matt Bonesteel, her assigned torturer, asked as he stood over her prone body.

A bead of sweat that she had caused dripped down his red hair. His freckles were almost hidden from the exertion, leaving his face red and blotchy. Matt was her current sparring teacher because they were similar in size.

Every ounce of air felt ripped out of Louvette as she gasped for its return. If she didn’t get up within a certain time frame, Matt would yell, Dead! However, the last round had made her vision swim and her head spin.

It still hadn’t stopped.

Louvette was happy she couldn’t reply for a moment as she gathered her thoughts and breath. As of now, Matt hadn’t been included in the pending prison plans, and a gym full of Lupine ears wasn’t the right place to fill him in, anyway.

I can’t find it; I think you knocked it off, she shot back as dots threatened to take over her vision. Louvette made a show of searching around her, though between the dirt and Matt’s blow to her head, it was pretty futile.

It’s certainly not here, Matt replied, extending a hand to help her up. Louvette placed her own hand in his, and her naughty streak rose up in her before she could stop it. She yanked Matt’s hand, sending him crashing into the floor.

Matt grunted when his body landed with a thud next to her. The air whooshed out of him.

Nice one, he groaned out, trying to get his breath back.

I think I’ve had enough abuse for one day, Louvette said, standing up slowly. Louvette offered her own hand, putting more weight on her soles so Matt would have a harder time dragging her back to the floor than before. Matt didn’t pull her as she had done. Instead, he knocked her legs out from under her.

Louvette found herself on the floor again. It was happening too often in this sparring match for her to like. She believed it had happened more times than in her first lesson, which ended in her being Accelerated. Not something she recommended to any Lupine to have to experience, but it had been a necessary evil. An Accelerator was a spray that healed Lupines, something that was very necessary for Louvette because her mother would have lost it if her daughter ever came home covered in bruises.

I agree. Come back when your head’s on straight, Matt ordered, standing up. He walked away without glancing back.

He was right. Training was only wasting both their time. There was no point for her to be here today. She was too anxious about Cara and Ophelia’s reunion later today to learn anything.

Louvette lay on the ground longer than necessary, gathering her bearings, or what was left of them, anyway. Eventually, she dragged herself up and went to change.

***

Gold magic crackled, sprouting to life. The power emanating from it was like someone lighting a sparkler.

Louvette glanced up from the floorboards she had been staring a hole in moments before. Curls hung in her eyes. She brushed them away for a moment, but they kept returning, like there was a necromancer resurrecting them over and over again.

She was hardly dressed to impress. She hadn’t had time with all the cleaning and waiting. She’d thrown on a simple but warm maroon Whitefish Academy hoodie, along with a pair of ripped jeans. The white and black tennis shoes she wore earlier lay kicked off near her closet after a couple of hours had passed and Ophelia hadn’t showed.

The magic flared in the center of the frame of a cedar door that fit with the style of the Blackwood family lodge, intentionally left open for once. The door was normally used to enter and leave her room. However, tonight, it would have another function. This door was serving as a portal for Ophelia, Cara’s half-sister, to travel through.

Peeking through the bangs of her short auburn hair, she found her friend Cara Rivers sitting on the edge of a stool Louvette often worked off of when she had time for creating art.

Her wrists resting under her chin, Cara focused on the door as if she were too scared to blink her olive eyes. Her thin, wispy blonde hair splayed out on her cheeks and was cut sharply right below her neck. A black and gold tulle skirt flared out under the table, ending at her folded ankles, which were clad in short black leather boots.

This would be Cara’s and Ophelia’s first meeting ever. Cara had been hidden away from the world of magic, since she was the product of an illegal union. Her father was a Lupine and her mother was a witch.

Since their friendship had blossomed, Louvette had wanted to—and did—reveal to Cara that she was a Lupine herself. A Lupine was similar to a werewolf, except that unlike the Hollywood version, she transformed into an actual wolf. Against Cara’s father’s wishes, Cara now knew the truth about her friend.

There were better locations for such an important family reunion, but like the knowledge of Louvette’s Lupine status, the reunion of the sisters had also been forbidden by Cara’s father. The location had to be somewhere with minimal risks.

Louvette had offered her house right off the bat because the only other person who lived there, her mother, worked a graveyard shift, so it made being discovered less likely. Still, Louvette had cleaned her room just for this occasion.

Ordinarily, as an artist, Louvette liked a functional mess. However, she’d hastily made her bed a couple minutes before Cara arrived. She’d organized the table, which had been laden with art supplies, before Cara laid her elbows down on it. She had dusted her dresser, side tables, and full-length mirror. Dusting had only brought out the scent of the cedar more than before.

Cara and Louvette met each other’s eyes as the magic expanded like a firework blossoming in the night sky. It paused only when it was the size of a person’s head.

Lines of magic trailed out of it, constantly shortening and lengthening. They lacked any true form or pattern. Magic was wild and unruly, like many things in nature. The area just past the gold magic darkened as if Louvette herself had shaded around it with a pencil.

The fact that none of the magic escaped the frame seemed impossible to Louvette, as if any minute one spark would land on her hardwood floors and create a fire that would decimate the home which had been in the Blackwood family for generations. Not to mention the trouble she’d be in if her mother returned home from work to a smoldering pile of ashes. So much for the ground Louvette had gained in redeeming herself, since she used to be nothing more than a troublemaker.

The image of her mother with her hands on her hips, glaring emerald daggers at Louvette, flashed across her mind. Louvette’s actions would only be the cherry on top of her mother’s night after waiting on rude people all day.

They didn’t know how long they’d be waiting; they only knew Ophelia would come at some point. Earlier, when they first arrived, they had talked for hours, but the night had already flown by. Their talking trailed off in the mounting anticipation.

The magic fireworks show expanded again, this time to the size of a person. The magic brightness increased as the intensity did.

Louvette’s eyes hurt to stare at the magic after only a minute or two, as its brightness felt as intense as the sun’s. The dark shadows deepened around the edges, too. It was like the magic was sucking the shadows out of the room. The light in the room had an inverse relationship with the shadows, and grew as the shadows shrunk.

Dust fell to the floor as the walls shook from the power trying to grow inside it. The house groaned. Worry spawned in Louvette’s stomach as the integrity of the house was tested.

I hope this ends soon, Cara said, meeting Louvette’s worried eyes with scared ones.

Me, too, because I don’t think telling my mom a magic portal ate the house is going to go over well, Louvette commented.

Cara laughed like an evil witch because she knew Louvette’s mother enough to understand how that conversation would go.

The picture frames on her wall threatened to fall off in all the shaking. Soon, the windows rattled.

The two of them stood, uncertain whether the house could take much more. They could only make slow and deliberate moves, as if standing up quickly would finish off the house. They would have no way to stop it. All they could do was wait and hope the magic wouldn’t obliterate Louvette’s home.

Suddenly, one military-style leather boot with dark denim jeans tucked into it stepped through the door. The rest of the person they had been expecting followed. Magic snapped around her.

Their wait came to an end as a familiar dirty blonde-haired young woman with shining dark shamrock eyes stepped all the way through the sparking door. Her coffee-colored leather coat and white shirt billowed around her. Her clothes would have been a hit around a business office, but they were too formal for someone who only had a couple of years on them. The boots were the sole thing that was out of place.

It wasn’t hard to tell the Foster girls were different because Cara’s clothing was fashionable and Ophelia’s outfit was just functional.

Cara and Ophelia locked eyes with each other.

No one moved at first, uncertain of their current situation. Sounds became muted, save for the crackling of magic, which had reduced itself to a level no longer worrisome for the house.

Cara stepped forward in slow motion, as if Ophelia might get scared and run away.

Louvette followed her.

At first the witch appeared