No Remorse

PUBLISHED BY MARYLYNN BAST

www.marylynnbast.com

Las Vegas, Nevada

Printed in the United States of America

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
 

No Remorse, © 2012 by MaryLynn Bast. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher and author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

Cover done by graphic designer: Stephanie A. Fox

First Printing

Paperback ISBN
: 978-1470042226

eBook ISBN:
978-0-9834494-3-0
 

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my husband Patrick Bast for being there with and for me during the process of writing No Remorse. Your encouragement helped me continue following my dream of becoming a published author.

Linda Smith Lydia, Mary Sawi
c
ki Freeman and many other Facebook friends, thank you for your continued encouragement for me to continue writing and to finish this story.

Peggy Kuykendall, thank you for sitting for hours chatting with me while I worked through different scenes and for reading the story over and over again.

Most of all, thank you Sharon Stonger for her excellent beta reading skills and Elizabeth Kolodziej for working with me through the process of publishing and encouraging me to continue writing.

CHAPTER ONE

T
he wind howled as she ran through the heavily wooded forest. Or was the howling the beast that haunted her? Amber knew she should keep running, but stopped in her tracks. She was tired of always running from the darkness that followed her everywhere. She gave in to the hot searing pain, falling to the ground, quickly shedding the clothes that bound her to the human world. Throwing her head back, screaming when her flesh crawled and her bones began the painful cracking and popping. Rain poured through the trees while Amber clawed at the wet soggy ground, her head feeling like it woul
d explode. The flashes of light
ning, followed by the loud rolling thunder, swallowed her howls of pain. On all fours, Amber panted, the transformation was complete. She was alone in her own world of nightmares.

Bright yellow eyes rimmed with black peered out from the dense trees, the silhouette of the large wolf illuminated in the storm as the lightning lit up the night sky. Amber’s sensitive ears heard the drops of rain falli
ng through the trees and bushes
, landing on the bed of leaves and wet earth around her. At the sound of rustling leaves, the wolf whipped her head in its direction. Something scampered from tree to tree, before stopping dead in its tracks, feeling the presence of danger. The rat’s beady eyes stared into the menacing yellow glow, its body stood motionless. The only thing moving was the twitching of its whiskers as the rodent quickly sniffed the air.

She was hungry, but not for the rat. Amber rose from her hunched position on the sodden leaves. Turning away, she could have sworn the rat gave a sigh of relief as it scampered away. Moving deeper into the woods, Amber knew exactly where she needed to go.

∞∞∞

She had spotted the lone camper a couple days ago when scouting the area. It had been almost too easy. Even in her human form, Amber could smell the camper through the dense woods. He did nothing to hide his scent. On purpose, she had made enough nois
e to alert the man to her presence. When he heard the commotion, he came to investigate.

Being a young pretty woman, Amber knew most men would not feel threatened by a lone female. Her five foot six frame was slender, but toned and well defined. With werew
olf genetics, she stayed in excellent
shape. Long black haired flowed gently down the middle of her back in soft waves. Almond shaped chocolate brown eyes, fringed with long lashes, were alluring, and she had soft, full naturally pouting lips.

The man had been mesmerized by her beauty and was quick to offer her a bottle of cold water, which she took with a sweet smile. Being talkative, Amber quickly learned that his name was Andrew Small. He was a small firm accountant working a couple of towns over. Snickering at an inside joke while winking at her, he boasted that money was no object. Andrew went on and on,
bragging
about how he would sneak away a couple times a year for extended vacations, like he was now because he was burned out and needed some alone time. He told Amber of how he had discovered the extremely secluded, wooded area on previous camping trips, and he planned on being there for a couple weeks.

During the course of their mostly one sided conversation, Andrew informed her that this campsite was his own secret hide away. His family knew he was camping, but he never told them where so no one would show up out of the blue. It was the perfect secluded area with no cell phone or Internet coverage so he could get away from the family and a hectic job.
Which was all the better for her--no one to hear his screams.

∞∞∞

Amber allowed her wolf’s senses to guide her through the darkness. The storm was slowly passing. Lightning was seen less and less, and the rain had nearly come to a stop. She glided throu
gh the forest, seen only by the other creatures of the night. The woods were silent when the wolf padded quietly to the edge of the tree line. Amber could see Andrew’s shadow through the thin material of the tent every time he passed by the lantern hanging inside. From where she sat, her sensitive nose smelled the small fire that burned beyond the tent, but most of all it was his scent that held her attention. Ears perked at his high pitched whistling, she watched him move around inside the tent.

Heart pounding in her ears, Amber could almost taste his hot blood now. She had to be patient. Her wolf’s teeth and claws were sharp enough to tear through the tent, but she had learned that lesson when she had first turned.

Attacking through the wall of the tent had given her first victim a chance to fight back. She remembered the searing pain of the knife stabbing into her side, slipping along her ribs. Luckily, that first camper hadn’t gotten a good hold on the knife when she had attacked. Amber knew she would have been dead if the blade had pierced her heart.

Her mother had explained that the change would be uncontrollable in the beginning, but she never expected anything like what actually happened. She still had a lot to learn about being a werewolf. Once the realization of her first kill and the shock of being stabbed set in, Amber was not able to hold her were form long enough and changed back. As a werewolf, Amber would have healed quickly, but as a human, she did not. Luckily, the knife didn’t go very deep, so there was no real damage, but being stabbed had been very painful and the thin scar served as a reminder for her to plan ahead and she had learned that lesson well. At the time she had bound herself the best she could and, to her horror, disposed of the half mutilated body. She was stronger than a human was, but i
n her weakened, shocked state, she had considered burying the body. But there were too many variables that led to the possibility that his body would be found and they would know he had been attacked by a wolf, a werewolf. Thinking quickly, she set the tent ablaze with the body inside, burning the evidence of an attack.

Amber was brought back to the present as the shadow moved, reaching for the tents flap. Drawing back on her haunches, she prepared herself for the attack. Her mouth filled with saliva, pooling and dripping down the side. Her sensitive ears heard his slightest movement. Andrew’s heartbeat was strong and steady. The zipper was loud when he pulled it slowly down, allowing the tent flap to fall open. Andrew stood with a beer bottle in his hand, nothing more.

In the dark of the night, the storm seemed to be renewing in strength, while Amber’s large black wolf readied itself. At the bright flash of lightning she pounced, knocking Andrew back into the tent with her strength. She heard his frightened gasp, his eyes wide as he stared in terror at the yellow eyes glowing down at him. She drew in a deep breath, savoring the smell of his fear.

Amber growled deep in her throat, baring her sharp teeth. Suddenly, she smelled something and in the part of her brain that retained human thoughts, she knew Andrew was urinating himself. The animal in her wanted to laugh, but her vocal cords were tight and it came out as a low growl instead. She could hear his heart pounding erratically in his chest, his blood singing loudly to her as it swished through his veins. She had to have it.

Andrew was not a small man by any means and he fought hard, pushing and shoving with hands and feet, but his human strength was no match for Amber’s powerful jaws. He screamed loudly when her sharp canines sank effortlessly into the soft skin of his throat, his blood trickled into her mouth. He thrashed around trying to push her off. She was too strong, her grip tight. With a quick shake of her head the thin skin of his throat shredded, allowing the coppery sweet blood to flow free, to stream warmly into her mouth. Andrew’s garbled screams and now feeble attempts to fight ceased after only a few moments.