VAMP RISING (By Moonlight Book 1) Read Free

ass off. She should try coke and heroine and make passionate soul-quivering love to the hottest man she could find. That’s who she was deep down, wild at heart and willing to take risks. But she had taken all the wrong ones. All her life she spent risking her future by working too hard in the present. It was time to get reckless, time to seize the day, and with that stark revelation Gwen decided she would get the hell out of the Cascades and make some goddamn memories so that she could die knowing that she had lived, and lived fully if only for a few months.
                  Because goddamn it, Gwen Keller wanted to live.
                  Before she knew what was happening her feet came into view in front of the mountain backdrop then her elbows smacked against gravel. It took a second to process that she was sliding down the cliff, but when she realized she began clawing backwards and trying desperately to fight the landslide that had taken her with it. She was plummeting with shocking speed, as grit and gravel scraped her bare legs, her elbows and forearms, kicking up dust to the extent that she could no longer see. The cliff face had to be at least two hundred feet and she prayed that she would reach the bottom unscathed, but all of a sudden her boot clipped a sharp rock, sending her careening head over heels. Reflexively, Gwen’s hands braced out to protect her head, but the momentum was too extreme. Her head struck the hard earth with a crack, causing her body to go limp, and she tumbled violently down in somersaults, hitting her head, back, butt, and legs over and over again until she had no idea which way was up. Gwen was a blur of breaking bones and searing pain with every revolution, as her body flailed for what seemed like an excruciatingly  long time, when without warning, she suddenly found herself free falling. At first she was relieved to not be tumbling, but her relief was quickly replaced with stark panic as she realized she was plummeting towards the ravine floor. She only had time to gasp. Her eyes pinched shut reflexively and her hands whipped up in front of her face, but neither could save her.
                  She struck the ground hard and lost all consciousness.
    *              *              *
                  The sun had begun to set, lowering slowly behind Mount Rainier and casting the most beautiful shades of orange across the sky by the time Brandon Scott was finally leaving The Cascade Sanctuary & Wildlife Preserve after a long day’s work.
                  It had been a long day. He’d gotten up with the sun as always, made it in to the Sanctuary slightly late, which was expected (he’d set a precedent with the Administration long ago that his version of being on time would amount to rolling in just shy of twenty minutes late), and checked the board for his territories. He’d been assigned Cascade Creek, the perimeter around Hollis Lake, and Evergrove, the campsite on the eastern side of the mountain.
                  That’s where he’d seen the woman. Ordinarily, Brandon would’ve been annoyed to have been assigned Evergrove. The campers bothered him in general. They were so human , so dependent on their modern conveniences like radios, television, and electricity. It blew Brandon’s mind the way they’d haul themselves deep into the wilderness then complain they couldn’t hear the game because their radio signal was all static. Joseph had assured him the campsite would be vacant so combing it for injured and sick wildlife would be painless, but Brandon had been skeptical. He’d obliged, however, grumbling his way out the door and into the warm morning sun.
                  As soon as he’d seen the woman, he was glad to have been assigned the territory. She amused him. The way she’d struggled through pitching that tent had been a virtual comedy of errors. She’d maneuvered