Tuesday Teaser 12/11/18-Gina’s Wolf ??

Hello! It’s snowing out there tonight and I’m drinking tea from Paris called Noel a Pekin. It’s a black tea from China  with jasmine green tea, mango, passion fruit and pineapple. I’m not sure how that comes to be considered a Christmas in Peking tea, but there you go. It’s a good night to drink it and knit.

I do have a new snip for you tonight. It is shorter than I’d wanted it to be, but at least I have new words. Here is my Confession Is Good For The Soul statement. It’s true I’ve been very busy. Working full time and a little overtime at the day job 7am-4:00pm. And after work looks like this: Monday=Word Weavers, Tuesday=visit Mom, Wednesday=church, Thursday=SCA meetings, Friday=clean, laundry, etc., Saturday=sleeping late, visit mom, PLAY!!!, Sunday=church and knitting and reading. So actually I DO have some time available to write. Not a lot, but if I was more disciplined I could find an hour a day.  I will try harder to get myself back into the habit of writing. Thank you for being so patient with me.

My local critique group (we call ourselves the Word Weavers) has started a new format for our meetings. We will do critiques for only the first 30-40 minutes. Then we will do a timed writing sprint for 30 minutes. we’ll finish up with 15-20  minutes of talking about what we did during the sprint. I am loving it. Although last night my laptop battery died only 5 minutes in. I got my notebook and pen out and wrote long hand for about 2 minutes when my pen died. I couldn’t believe it!! I sat fuming with my knitting for the remaining 20 minutes. Gosh, it makes me laugh now but last night I was mad. 

So here is the little bit I managed to write the past week. I’m not sure it will make it to the book. But it can be re-written or moved around, or even just deleted if it doesn’t work. The important thing is I’m writing. You gotta start somewhere. Stephen King said that you can’t edit a blank page. So, here you go!

Cole cast one last look around the moonlit river bank before turning and trotting back toward Omaha. He’d seen no men hiding, heard not a hint of trucks or other traffic, and hadn’t caught any unfamiliar scent carried on the night air. His patrol was over. With his paws heavy with mud, and his legs coated with drying goop, all he wanted was to be clean so he could bask in his mate’s warmth.

He wished Todd would just turn his army around and go home. That wasn’t likely. The next best thing would be for him to just attack so this stupid little war could be ended. The initial attack this morning was only a feint, probably to test Omaha’s readiness. Well, they were ready. Ready to send Todd packing with his tail between his legs. Cole wanted to bring his sweet mate home to the den so they could start their life together and he couldn’t do that until Todd was dealt with.

Cole approached the wall of Omaha, careful of where he placed his paws so as to not leave paw prints leading to the small back gate in Omaha’s wall. He quietly woofed to let his cousin xxxxx (haven’t decided who yet) know he was ready to come back in, and the door opened just wide enough to let his furred body slip in.

Paint was there with XXXXX. “Anything?”he asked. When Cole shook his wolf’s head, Pain nodded. “Go report to your dad and get home.”

XXXXX shot him a sly grin. “You stink. Better wash before you wrap yourself around your mate.”

Cole wrinkled his nose in a snarl and ran down the street to the house designated as the eastern headquarters. He shifted to human at the steps of the building. It was one of those buildings from the Times Before that housed two families. One side was set up as the headquarters; the other was crammed with beds for the City Guard to sleep in when they weren’t on duty. Cole felt a tiny moment of regret for them. They would be away from the families for days at a time but he got to return to the Limit where his mate awaited him.

Naked,he went into the HQ side and followed his ears to the room which must have been a dining room at one time. His dad was there with Captain Dean Erickson,leaning over a map spread out on the table. Two pimply teenagers were there too, both using so many words to give their report that Cole could barely make out what they were trying to say. The boys stopped, mouths hanging open, when they saw Cole come in. They appeared to be either horrified or fascinated by his nakedness.

“Wolf,” one mouthed to the other.

Cole resisted the urge to show them his teeth. He gave his report to Captain Erickson, describing where he had gone and what he’d seen in brief, concise statements. His dad nodded approvingly.

“You have eight hours down,” he told Cole. “Then get back here.” He cracked a shadow of a smile. “And try to spend some of those hours in sleep.”

Cole bounded up the back steps of The Limit and paused just outside the mudroom to shake his fur out before shifting back to man. He was cold and muddy, so the shower he’d dreamed of would be welcome, but as he padded inside, he caught the faintest hint of his mate’s scent woven through faint aroma of soap. She had been here a few hours ago, maybe mopping the floor he was dirtying with his muddy feet.

Footsteps sounded from the kitchen and a hand flicked the mudroom light on. The young woman screamed when she saw him and fled back to the kitchen. He glanced down at himself. Why would she scream? He wasn’t that dirty. Oh. Maybe it wasn’t the drying mud caking his legs that scared her. Where were the jeans he’d left here before he followed his father out?

More footsteps came, and he looked up to see his mother, sister and Aunt Rose come in. The elderly woman who ran the house was with them. Her silver eyebrows rose as she stared at him.

“Oh, my goodness,” she said mildly, and disappeared.

“Colby,” his mom said anxiously. “Is everything okay?”

He was about to reply with when Ms. Mary came back, holding a towel.

“It’s a shame, really,” she said in her quavering old voice, “but I suppose you should cover up. I don’t know how I’ll ever fall asleep now, with my heart pounding like a teenager’s.” She turned her head to speak to someone behind her. “Such a handsome young man you have, dear Georgina.”

Gina passed through the opening the other women made for her. Ms. Mary handed her the towel with a wink. Gina’s cheeks were brightly pink, but she was smiling.From the very first moment he’d seen her pouring hot chocolate in that coffee shop downtown, Cole had thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Her face didn’t have the perfect lines of Mrs. Madison’s, and her body wasn’t the classic voluptuous hourglass like Aunt Amanda’s, but the color in her cheeks was enchanting, and the hint of a naughty smile on her lips as she came to him made him smile back.

Mine, said the wolf fiercely.

“Mine,” agreed the man happily.