Changing for Love Chapter 2

Changing for Love

Chapter 2

Thomas

In two more weeks I’ll finally be 18 and starting my senior year in high school.  I am so ready to leave this part of the country behind.  This time next year I’ll be in Annapolis, Maryland at the United States Naval Academy and all this will be a distant memory.  The only thing I like about living out here is being able to ride my horse Whiskey in all of this open country.  Whiskey is going to be the only thing I’ll miss when I leave, but I doubt either one of us will miss days like today when we are out here rounding up stray calves that broke through the fence on the back side of our property last night.

The temperatures out here have been hovering in the low 90’s for the past couple of weeks, so it’s very hot and very dry.  Most people think of Colorado as always cold and snowy, but here on the Roan Plateau, in late-July, it’s a whole different world. 

Whiskey and I left home about six a.m. this morning and we’ve been going at it ever since.  So far we’ve only rounded up about twenty-five of the forty or so missing calves that we are out here to find.   Its right at noon and both of us are tired and I’m still mad over the fight I had with my dad this morning before we left, so right here in this clearing is the perfect place to stop and rest for a while.  Those other calves should be just over the way a little at the small creek that runs down from the mountains.  There’s plenty of grass here for the calves and Whiskey to graze on while I take a short nap.

I climb down off of Whiskey’s back and loosen the girth strap a little and pull the canteen off of the saddle.  Whiskey won’t wonder far away from me at all.  He always stays within sight of me whenever we are out working like this.  He takes a few steps forward but that’s as far as he goes.  I find a nice place over near a huge rock to lean up against.  So I quickly take my shirt off and sit down in the grass.  I take a drink of water from the canteen, and lean back against the cool rock.  I take one last peek over at Whiskey and the calves then I tip my hat down over my eyes.  I think I’m going to miss moments like this too when I’m no longer here.  And then I drift off…

I hear the sound of a twig breaking and sit straight up in a shot.  My hat falls down on the grass and I leave it there.  As I look around everything looks like it’s supposed to.  Whiskey is about twenty feet away from me and the calves are about ten or fifteen feet in front of him pretty well bunched together.  I have the strangest feeling that I’m being watched but I don’t see anything or anyone other than the cows and one buckskin horse.  I scan the area a little more and the longer I look the more the hair on the back of my neck stands on ends and I get this real feeling that something is not quite right.  As my eyes scan the edge of the woods, just beside this huge tree I see eyes.  They are bright, golden, and feline.

All I can do is sit and stare.  As my eyes focus more I see more than just eyes.  It’s a huge cat of some sort.  It kind of looks like a cheetah but there is absolutely no way that a cheetah would be in or around the Rocky Mountains.  Must be where I am still half asleep.  I try to think rationally but that is really not working at the moment.  It’s just standing there staring back at me, not really in a predatory sense, but I don’t like the way it’s looking at me. 

Very slowly I stand up never breaking eye contact.  It’s just standing there not moving and not looking away either.  I know I cannot run because it will chase me.  I cannot draw its attention toward Whiskey and the calves.  I know I’ve got a rifle in the holder on the saddle but there’s no way I can get to it without causing major problems.  So I just stand there.  The longer I look into those golden eyes the more relaxed I feel.  I don’t think it’s going to attack me and eat me for lunch.  There’s something that feels like its drawing me to the cat.  I can’t explain it, I feel like down deep in my gut that this cat won’t hurt me that it’s as curious about me as I am about it.  It’s more than curiosity for me though. For some strange reason, standing there looking into these golden eyes my heart skips a beat.  I don’t know how long we stand there staring at each other, but it feels like forever.  Finally, it takes a step forward and I try to make a run for my gun.

Changing for Love, Chapter 1

Changing for Love

Chapter 1

Celeste

Freedom!! Today is my seventeenth birthday and am now allowed to leave the confines of these brick walls and gate. I love my family and friends but I have been looking forward to this day since I knew there was life outside of our community. There are twenty-five families living with in our walls. We keep to ourselves for a reason, a very good reason.

I hear footsteps behind me as I near the gate. There is no mistaking those overly large and loud steps. When I turn he is standing at his full height of 6’6” and looking very stern!

“You are not going with me.” I say as I look up into his black eyes.

Everyone else submits to him, but I will not. This is MY time and MY special day! He has done enough to ruin my life! I cross my arms to let him know I mean what I say.

He gives a low growl, “Celeste you will not be defiant with me young lady! As it so happens I came out to wish you well and remind you of the rules.” He turns and starts walking.

That is my signal to follow and keep up. He will talk now and I will listen if I ever want to get out of these claustrophobic gates. I practically have to jog to keep up with him since I am only 5’7”.

“Come on dad! Slow down so I can hear you talking instead of my own breath.” I slow down and am out of breath. He stops and I run into his back. I bounce back and land on my butt. Dad extends his hand down to help me up. When I look up he is shaking his head and I am blushing a few shades of red from embarrassment.

“Oh Celeste, are you sure you are ready? You have always been…..different than your brothers and sisters.”

“I am not!” I brush his hand to the side and leap to my feet. “Just because I want to go out on my own for a little while before being chained to a marriage does not make me different.” I look up to see his eyes blacken and hear him growl again. Oh Crap!

“Okay maybe that wasn’t the word to use. You are independent and set in your stubborn ways! You will not defy me in this Celeste. Papers were signed upon your arrival into this world. This marriage will happen!” He crosses his arms and puffs his chest out. “You stick to our land today and do not under any circumstances step foot outside of our boundaries. Remember there are others in our coalition out there so if you step one toe out I will know about it. Am I understood?”

“Yes father.” I bow my head in defeat……for the moment.

I run to the gate and look up at the twenty foot iron monstrosity. Will it open? I put my face in my hands and am about to cry, but then I hear the lock unlatch. I look up and see the gate start to open. When I glance back my mom is pressing the button to open the gate with my father standing behind her arms crossed and puffed chest again. She winks at me and I run out of the gate. I feel bad because I know she will receive a tongue lashing for defying him, but if anyone can handle my father it’s her.

There is no stopping me now! When I get to the edge where the flat land meets the Rockies I pause. I look up to freedom and then back to the confines of the past seventeen years. Half of my heart tells me to run and keep running. The other half loves everyone with in those walls and it would hurt them all if I did not return. We have a contract with another coalition in India. If I do not marry the leader’s son my father could be killed for breaking the contract. The Old Laws are so barbaric! My father and I may have our differences, but I love him. I shed my clothes behind a large tree and change. My long black hair turns into short tan fur with black spots and my hazel eyes turn golden. I go from 5’7” to 4’ and from two legs to four. It feels so good to change from human form to cheetah. I could stay like this forever. The strength and speed I have as a cheetah is phenomenal. It beats my human klutzy self by leaps and bounds. Once more I look back to our small community confined by twenty foot brick walls and gate. Then look up to the Rockies and take off as fast as I can, weaving in between trees and jumping over rocks. Before I know it I’m to the other side and looking down to my possible freedom. Can I keep running and sacrifice my father for my happiness? Am I that selfish? I let out a small growl and start running again.

When I get to the other side where the bottom of the mountains meet flat land I sense a presence. I slow down almost to a crawl and smell the air. It’s a musky smell and smells good. I take another deep inhale and feel a sensation in my stomach I have never felt before. That butterfly feeling brings me to dead stop right at the edge of our land. When I look beyond the trees I see him. It’s a human! I back up quietly and hide behind an enormous tree. It completely shields me from sight. I peek around to get another look. He is sitting on the ground with his back resting against a rock. The male isn’t wearing a shirt and has a straw cowboy hat resting over his face. He is very muscular which isn’t new to me. The males in my coalition never wear a shirt this time of the year because of the heat and they are all muscular. There is something different about this male though. I lick my lips, but have no idea why. The sun is shining down on him and I can see trickles of sweat running down his chest. Then there is a glare from a very large belt buckle so I look down further to notice he is wearing blue jeans and boots. He must be a rancher. I creep around the tree a little more and move a little closer. I take one step and my front left paw lands on a very large branch. It snaps loudly and he is now awake staring right at me. My head tells me to run, but my heart tells me to stay.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog site of Stephanie and Laura Books!

Hello we are Stephanie Leonard Wohnhas and Laura Paige Smith and welcome to our blog.   Together, we are the authors of a series of Young Adult Romance Novels.  Currently we are awaiting assessment of one of our novels!

We met at church a few years ago and began our friendship discussing The Hunger Games books.  We discovered over the course of book discussions that we had to have been sisters in a former life as we have so many of the same interests, likes, dislikes, tastes, etc.   We both have an extreme love of literature and shared that with each other in recommendations and many Facebook chats of what we were reading, also the many chats about characters as if they were real life people we knew.  We discovered that both of us have a love for writing, although neither of us had been brave enough to try it.  After much encouragement on both parts, we finally started writing and sharing our stories and our ideas with each other.  

When we are working on a book together, we are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other.  Usually our thoughts run along the same line, which works out really well.  Our writing pattern thus far has been for one of us to write a chapter and then the other will write the next chapter.   Or, one of us will take a main character and write the majority of plot and dialogue with that character.  It may be a little unconventional, but it really seems to work for us.  

The idea that we had with this blog is to share some short stories that we have written together with you.  Once per week we will post a chapter.  Then after the first short story is finished we will begin another. 

We value your opinion so feel free to comment on our stories.  

Thank you and enjoy!

Stephanie & Laura