The Victorian Wolf Effect (Book III)

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - Brogan Law

The following morning, Timber woke up early. She was wide awake and alert as soon as she opened her eyes. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was four in the morning but she knew that there was no going back to sleep. Henry was sleeping soundly and she had no desire to wake him. It was their first night at home in months and she did not want to disturb him. She crawled out of bed slowly, grabbed her workout clothes that she had laid out the night before, and crept out of the room without noise.

Timber took her human form, went into the half bath on the first floor, and changed. She left her pajamas on the floor, went into the living room, and got ready to do her pre-workout stretches. Henry would not be awake for an hour and Timber did not want to wait to start. She got out her mat and rolled it out. She got down on the floor and took a deep breath, ready to finally get into a routine again. 

While she stretched her back, she thought about what she would need to do over the next week. Her onions would be ready to harvest and braid and hang in her pantry to cure for three weeks. She made a note to start the next day. She also noted that she would have to finish gathering leaves to add to the mulch box she built from recycled pallets. She also wanted to start building the greenhouse later in the week. She wanted the garden ready for expansion in the spring and she had the winter to get it ready for three new planter beds, a greenhouse, and a chicken coup.  

She heard rustling in the backyard. She sensed no danger so she assumed it was a raccoon. She had not gotten around to getting repellant for them yet but they hated onions so they avoided her garden. She sat down and began stretching her legs.

She stretched for ten minutes as usual before going to the kitchen to heat up water for tea. She filled her clean teapot with water, put it on the gas burner, and turned on the heat, thinking the whole time how happy she was to be home. She missed the convince of modern cooking, though she was simply looking forward for a day off. She and Henry were going to sit on the couch and binge watch movies all day and snack on chips and candy and soda all day and order pizza for dinner.

Timber still had mandatory things to do before she could relax. She decided to check on her garden and to try and shoo away the raccoons before they started digging through the trash can looking for food. She opened up the backdoor and stepped out onto the back deck.

She was suddenly grabbed by a pair of hands. She screamed for Henry but her mouth was covered in an instant. She bit down hard and the right hand let go for a brief second. She screamed again. She heard Henry's feet hit the floor. She tried to Turn but she found she was unable to. She fought the best she could but she was forced down by four hands that were stronger than her and, despite her best efforts, she was gagged.

Henry came around the corner with his sword drawn. Timber looked at him and she felt hope until something small and shiny flew by her ear. Henry froze. He had been shot in the abdomen and Timber watched in horror as he bled out. Again, a shot from a gun with a silencer from far off behind her rang out quietly but it echoed in Timber's ears. He looked at her with a look of shock and sadness before falling to the ground. Their orb fell from his hand and rolled across the floor. It stopped just inches from her. She screamed and sobbed toward the orb as loud as she could, trying desperately at the same time to get to her husband.

Timber struggled as she was bound and dragged inside. She was thrown carelessly onto Henry's body. She looked at him with tear-filled eyes. She sniffed, looking for life but he was gone. The men who bound her were masked and heavily covered in various odors to hide their natural scent. Timber could not identify them.

"Now what?" asked one of the men quietly in a voice Timber didn't know.

"Kill her however you like," said the second voice. "We get paid as soon as she's dead."