The brand-new sequel to my first novel My Girlfriend Bites is coming out next week! Here’s another sample for you…
Aiden
Through the large kitchen window, I can see the freshness of a new day reflected in the Mayflowers’ backyard as the morning sun highlights a liquid glaze of dew that’s formed on the grass overnight. A couple of bees fly and hop over some bushes, looking for flowers.
A guy notices these things when he’s happy to still be alive.
I pour milk into my bowl of cereal while the Mayflowers enjoy their normal breakfast, cold deer ribs with orange juice and coffee. I’ve been living in their house long enough that the blood on their plates doesn’t bother me anymore.
Bree’s father picks a bone out of his teeth and sets it on the side of his plate. “Sounds like you did everything you could for that girl.”
Bree pauses. “Still wasn’t enough.”
“Proud of you though for trying.” Bree’s father eyes me. “Both of you.”
“They’re disgusting creatures. Always have been.” Bree’s mother sips her coffee. “Living off the blood of humans? It’s medieval. You would think after a few centuries they would have evolved. We’ve changed our ways.”
“It’s not our place to judge their ways.” Bree’s father bites into another rib.
“Yes, but it’s the twenty-first century. Everyone has changed with the times. Except the vamps. They hold on to their old, crusty ways like a bunch of grumpy old politicians. So what if the Demon Skins want to wipe them out? As long as it’s not us.”
Bree’s father pauses, but says nothing.
His daughter puts down her half-eaten rib. “There was a moment when I didn’t want to help the girl vamp either.” Bree stops and squeezes my hand, leaving a speck of deer blood on it. “But Aiden talked me into it.”
“He’s human. He doesn’t understand how things are,” Bree’s mother says, then flashes a smile. “No offense.”
“Lillian, we might need to re-evaluate our feelings towards the vamps. That’s if we want to survive as a species.” Bree’s father hesitates as his wife gives him a look. But the man continues, “We need allies. You’ve been on the online forums. You’ve read the posts. They’re slaughtering us. Mowing us down like cattle. We need help.”
Bree’s mother droops a little and shakes her head. “But from the vamps, Xavier?”
Bree looks at me. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Right, Aiden?”
“If they can help you defeat these Demon Skins, yeah.”
“There’s no way the other packs would sign off on an alliance with the vamps. They’d rather join a witches’ coven.” Bree’s mother puts down her coffee and picks at another rib.
Bree’s father grunts in frustration and pounds the table. One of the table leaves breaks off and drops to the floor with a thud. “Have enough trouble getting the packs to work together, let alone form an alliance with anyone. We wolves are too independent. Too proud of ourselves. All the alphas have egos the size of continents and are always suspicious of each other. We need someone who can rally us together against the Skins.”
Bree’s father notices the broken table and sighs. “Sorry, I’ll pick up another one at Home Depot.”
“Dad, you could rally us together.”
“I’m a bookkeeper, honey. Not a leader. Chevalier could have brought us all together. He was a smart wolf. A genius. A natural leader.”
“You learned a lot from Chevalier too,” Bree’s mother says. “You were his number one because he knew what kind of wolf you were.”
“You’ll bring us all together, and we’ll fight these things. Dad, we need to reach out to all the other wolves out there. Your friend Doubleday has that online network, doesn’t he? Surely he would help you form an alliance with all the packs.”
Bree’s father stops eating and cleans his fingers with a napkin before sitting back and thinking about it.
Bree keeps talking. “We should be on that network too and offer our home as a sanctuary for displaced werewolves.”
“No, that’s too dangerous. Making our home a sanctuary just puts a giant X on our house.”
“What’s this online network?” I ask.
“Remember Agent Doubleday?” Bree asks.
“That FBI agent?”
“Yeah, he’s formed this online network through social media. Packs have been using it to communicate with each other. And werewolves who have been separated by the attacks on their packs also use it to find new packs that have so far avoided the Demon Skins. It’s all under the radar.”
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept that werewolves are working at the FBI.
Bree’s father sips his orange juice. “Doubleday’s lucky the Skins haven’t found out about his network yet.”
“We have so much room here,” Bree’s mother says. “And the storm basement downstairs could be expanded.”
Bree’s father lets his glass drop hard against the table. “Both of you forget it. It’s a bad idea.”
Bree’s mother straightens in her seat. “We’ve been in danger ever since we left Colorado. You said that you didn’t want to run anymore. Well, if we want to fight, we need to make a stand somewhere, Xavier.”
Bree smiles at her mom. “And the more wolves we have, the better our chances. Especially since we know how to kill those awful creatures now. We can teach everyone else on the network.”
Bree’s father scoffs. “Our enemy could have hacked into that network and be using it to track us all down.”
“You don’t know that,” Bree’s mom says. “Besides, that network could be the only thing that keeps the wolves together so we can fight back.”
Bree’s father shakes his head. “Exposing ourselves on that network is a risk.”
“And it’s one worth taking to help our kind,” Bree adds.
“Doubleday is a tech-savvy wolf, Xavier. I don’t think you’re giving your friend enough credit.”
Bree’s father throws his bloody napkin on the table. “You do know that as alpha, my word is final.”
Bree and her mother shoot each other a glance. Their bodies wilt as the two women bow their heads in obedience.
“However, you both are too smart, and that makes it hard to ignore what you say.”
Bree and her mother release smiles.
“All right, if we’re going to have more guests in this house, we need to get to work on expanding that basement. Aiden, after school you and I are going to do man wolf’s work.”
I stop eating.
Man wolf’s work? What does that mean?
Pre-Order the eBook of My Girlfriend Bites Again on Apple, Nook, Kobo, and, Google Play, and Amazon for the special release price of $2.99.
Doug Solter 
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