Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Damnit, damnit, damnit,” Dustin cursed on his way to the closet to get his heavy boots and weather gear. He closed and locked his storm shutters over his living room window, locked away his couple of patio chairs and mini fire pit in the shed, then turned off the gas just in case they had any lightning strikes.
Justice, the AZ, texted him to be sure he saw the warning and asked Dustin to protect the harvest as best he could, but most importantly, he told him to stay safe. The leader of the pack said that whatever happened, they’d be okay. Dustin shook his head as he shoved his cell phone back into his pocket. The Alpha Zenith and his betas were miles away visiting another pack, but Dustin and his hands knew what to do in his absence. Everyone that lived on the pack lands had a duty to fulfill, and none of them needed micromanaging to do it. Dustin flung his front door open and found three of his gardeners already standing on his porch.
“Boss, did you see that warning? The storm is coming right at us,” Jerry blurted, already panicking, and the weather wasn’t supposed to reach them until late tomorrow morning.
Dustin nodded and put his hand up to cut off whatever the other two were going to say. “I saw it. Like I said yesterday, it looks like we’re gonna get some wind and rain, but it appears we’ll be getting more than we anticipated.”
“Why can’t these damn meteorologists get the fuckin’ weather reports right? Isn’t that what they went to college for? Shit! They said Maine and New Hampshire were in the clear. Now, fourteen hours later, they say, ‘oops, our bad, take cover because it’s coming right for your asses,’” Mark complained.
Dustin wanted to chuckle at Mark’s anger, but he was too nervous himself. Outside, the air was humid, and the temperature had warmed considerably since he’d left the fields and gone home for dinner. Gray clouds drifted across the dark sky like shadows, moving swiftly as if the thunder and lightning couldn’t wait to make its entrance.
“Guys, calm down. We’ve been clocking this storm for days, and I know the news station said we were gonna be safe, but you know what I always say.” Dustin closed and barricaded his front door, then began to walk the distance to the fields and greenhouses at the edge of the property. It would’ve been a lot faster if they could’ve used the golf carts, but they were already secured inside the sheds. “It’s best to be prepared… and we are. So, let’s get the property ready the best we can and make our AZ proud.”
“Damn,” Jerry exclaimed after a moment, elbowing his brother, Joseph, in his side. “What if it’s bad, man? What if we have to start all over again like we did last year? I don’t know if I have the energy to repair a ruined land again, even with the magical help we had the last time from Adres and his brothers.”
Grrr. Dustin tried to not think of the attack that happened almost a year ago on the Volkov alphas by an evil force that had almost succeeded. It took all of them coming together and fighting as a pack, but Dustin’s fields and crops had suffered the most damage.
“If it hadn’t been for that titan and his magic, we would’ve never been able to rebuild as fast and as successfully as we did. We even added two more greenhouses after that to keep up with the overflow,” Joseph grumbled. “But that guy is long gone. It must’ve been a one-time courtesy.”
Dustin was silent while he walked with long strides, his wolf restless inside of him. He didn’t want to hear or speak about him anymore. About Notalus, the titan that had shown up in spectacular form and fought alongside his three brothers, shifters, and vampires to save them. He was a man Dustin couldn’t forget, no matter how hard he tried. And it hadn’t stopped the titan warrior from occasionally visiting him in his dreams. Vivid ones that made him relive the most intense, devastating… and erotic moments of his life.
No matter what he did or how much busywork Dustin used to occupy his mind, he remembered how Notalus had appeared before him when he’d been on his knees in one of the scorched fields, his fingers buried in the six inches of ashes before he could feel the disintegrated soil beneath it.
Dustin held in his need to scream and rage at the devastation around him as he struggled to breathe through the putrid smoke that’d settled over the entire pack land like a dense cloud. The ground trembled under his knees until he felt an approaching presence that was too powerful to ignore.