Another Teaser

Hey guys! I'm hoping to have More than a Human out at the end of this week, so here's another teaser for ya. This is all of Chapter 1, still unedited so don't judge. Get excited, everything is about to change for the Shifty ladies:D

More than a Human

By Sara Summers 

Chapter 1

I was a human surrounded by shifters. They told me it was impossible to become like them, they said humans were humans and shifters were shifters, and that was that. They lied.

            Of course, that’s not the whole story. It all started with one car ride.

“Yep, you get to play with the boys when we get there.” I peeked back at Emma, my two-year-old, sitting in her car seat and sucking on her barbie’s arm.

            “Ty?” she pulled the toy out of her mouth, making a big sucking noise. “Play Ty?”

            “Ty will be there too.”

            “And Jowd?”

            “Yep, Jordie too.”

            As hard as I tried to be happy for her, I couldn’t hold back a sigh. Emma told me almost every day how fun Ty was, how fun Grant was, and how much fun she had with Leah’s twin boys. I loved to hear that she had fun with them, don’t get me wrong, but it hurt too. It hurt to know that Emma might never have a dad of her own.

            And that was because of me.

            What she couldn’t understand was that Ty, Grant, Jordie, and every other man she interacted with were shifters. The animal aspect of being a shifter wasn’t important to her, but the soulmates portion? There was no way for me to explain that to Emma. How was I supposed to tell my daughter that there wasn’t a man on the planet who could be for me what those men were for my friends?

            I shook my head and sent the thoughts spinning away with the movement. There was no way for me to become a shifter, so there was no point hoping or wishing. I would just have to make do with what I’d been given the way any other human on the planet did.

            It didn’t take much effort to get the two of us to Leah and Sav’s houses. I’d driven down that dirt road a hundred times in the past year and a half, so it was easy to get lost in my thoughts while driving. My mind merged with the music and I let Jack Johnson’s soft music pull me back to reality.

            As much as I wished I could be a shifter, I knew that I was lucky. I had a healthy, beautiful daughter, a steady job and income, and the greatest friends in the world. I didn’t need a man to make me happy. Sure, a soulmate or husband would be nice, but even if that wasn’t in the cards for me I knew that I would love my life.

            “Mommy!” Emma screamed. I was used to her screaming, so I didn’t slam on the breaks or anything.

            “Inside voice.” I reminded her.

            “Ouch! Ouch!” I glanced back at her in the mirror and saw that she was pointing outside, freaking out. “Help!” she pleaded.

            “Okay.” I hit the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road, then finally had the chance to see what had her so afraid. There, on the side of the road, was a wolf. It was lying down, bleeding from multiple cuts and trying to clean itself.

            “Stay inside, Em.” I told my daughter, unbuckling. The wolf obviously needed help, but I didn’t want her to get hurt if it happened to be rabid or something.

            I hurried around the car. Emma started yelling for me as soon as I left her, but sometimes a good mother has to ignore her screaming two-year-old. It was better for her to be upset than to have to go to the doctor for a rabies shot.

            The wolf lifted her head when she saw me. She studied me, and though she seemed aware of the threat I may pose to her, she let me approach her.

            “I just want to help you.” I raised my hands, then slowly knelt beside her. Her eyes bore holes into my soul, analyzing my intentions. Hearing the voice of my screaming daughter in the background probably didn’t help relax her, but strangely, she didn’t growl or push me away.

            “Can I see your paw?” I gently tapped the top of her paw and then held out my hand so she’d understand what I was asking. She was scratched up in a lot of places, but the reason she was lying on the ground was her broken paw. It took her a moment, but she finally lifted her paw up the two inches into my hand. “Thank you.” I smiled tenderly at her.

            Now, I wasn’t a nurse or a veterinarian—not even close. But I was a mom, and that had to count for something.

            My mind raced through ideas, options to help this wolf be able to walk until she could find a safe place to sit down and heal with her pack. The only thing I could think of was to make some sort of a splint, to keep her leg straight while it healed.

            “I’ll need two sticks, and something to tie it all together.” I nodded to myself, and began scanning the nearby area. There was a straight stick just a foot or so to my right, and a mostly straight one a few feet further. They would work well enough, I figured. I’d never made a splint before so it was just a guess.

            I lowered her paw back to the dirt and leaned over to grab the sticks. It took a bit of stretching, but I made it without even getting up. That was a win in my book.

            “Alright.” I nodded as I settled back down in front of the wolf. “Now, to wrap it…” It was somewhere around the end of fall, the middle of October if I remember right. We hadn’t had any snow yet, but there was no doubt it was coming soon. This wolf would need a way to keep her leg from freezing, since she couldn’t use it.

            I looked around the forest again, then the wind caught my scarf and blew it in my face. That was an easy sign. I unwrapped the scarf from my neck—it was in infinity scarf, so it didn’t have any annoying ends—and then looked for the last piece of the splint. Something to tie it all down.

            “MOMMY!” Emma screamed even louder. I shook my head; I was fairly soft spoken, how did my daughter have such a strong set of lungs?

            “Just a minute!” I called back. As I reached up to scratch my head, I remembered that my hair was tied up in a messy bun. Without a second thought, I pulled the bun out, letting my dirty-blonde curls fall back into the afro that I could never control. Tugging the hair-tie around my wrist, I looked back at the wolf in front of me. She whimpered as I picked her paw back up.

            “This will be fast.” I smiled at her, holding the sticks to her leg and wrapping the scarf around them. I had to wrap it a whole bunch of times, and as I wrapped, I made sure it was on tighter at the top. With only one hair tie, I figured it was more important to secure the bottom of her broken leg. Was I correct? I have no clue.

            I tied it all into place with the bright orange hair tie, then set her foot back on the ground. She lifted it, then whimpered again.

            Slowly, she managed to get back on her feet.

            “MOMMY! MOMMY!” Emma sobbed. Clearly she thought she would be scarred for life after being left alone for five minutes, the cute little stinker.

            “I’m coming.” I shook my head again as I replied. My words sent her into a wailing fit.

            The wolf tested out the splint I’d made. When she was satisfied that it would at least hold, she nuzzled my knee with her nose. Without waiting even a second, the wolf turned to the forest and ran off. She limped a little, but somehow was still able to run.

            I watched her go until Emma screamed my name again. Turning to make sure she wasn’t throwing toys or cheerios out the window, I glanced back at the car, then looked back to the wolf one last time. When I looked back, however, she was gone.

            I stood up and frowned. How had she gotten away so quickly? Even after looking away for a second, I should’ve been able to see her. It was like she disappeared.

            “Oh well.” I brushed it off, not having the energy to wonder what had just happened. She’d probably just turned to go another direction or something. “Emma.” I chastised my daughter, who kept crying even after I sat down. Turning in my seat, I gave her a stern look. “I was helping the hurt wolf.”

            “Oh.” She stopped crying. Her eyes were puffy and her stuffed racoon was soaked in tears. “Sowy.” She sniffled, then looked down at the coon. Her little eyes filled with tears again, and I had to bite back a laugh. Coonie, as she called the toy, was her favorite. She hated when he got wet or dirty, though she took him everywhere so he was wet and/or dirty just about every minute of every day.

            “Coonie’s going to be fine.” I reached back to squeeze her little hand.

            “Ouch.” Her tiny frame shook in the beginning of a sob.

            “Here,” I used her blanket to dry him a little. “All better! Should we listen to disco music?” I distracted her with disco, which was, for some reason, her favorite.

            “Yes, yes!” She clapped her hands and smiled.

            Kennedy made the mistake of turning on disco once in the car, and Emma had loved it. Since the disc-tastrophe as Kennedy and I called it, disco was the easiest way to cheer Emma up. I don’t know why she loved disco so much, but it cracked me up.

            I turned on her favorite song, and Emma swung Coonie around as she wiggled with the music. She didn’t have much wiggle room in her car seat but somehow, she made do.

            I pulled back onto the dirt road and started toward Leah and Sav’s houses. As far as I was concerned, everything was fine. I had no idea that my entire life was about to change course dramatically. Then again, who ever does?

 Are you excited? :) 

Don't forget to vote in the poll! I'll be writing a short story about whichever shifty girl wins, you have until August! 

-Sara Summers

P.S. Feel free to comment below or shoot me an email at sarasummersbooks@gmail.com

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