A Justified Kill

ACKNOWDLEDGEMENTS

For all my family and friends who have stayed after me to keep sending them new stories!

For the fans who have contacted me, telling me how much they love my writing and want to know when the next one is coming out.
It
makes all the crazy times worthwhile.

Once again I have to thank Sharon
Stonger
with I Smell Sheep, my wonderful beta reader
,
for keeping
me on my toes and tell
ing
me when something just doesn’t
make sense.

Dedicated t
o my husband, Patrick, for his loving support.

For the readers who have read No Remorse, Book One – Heart of a Wolf  Series: A Justified Kill is a pre-
qual
to No Remorse and goes into Amber’s life and the reasons she must determine if killing a human
would be A Justified Kill
. I touched briefly on her first kill in No Remorse but didn’t give you the details, now you will hav
e them…so you can be the judge.

For the readers who are just starting the series, A Justified Kill will give you a little more insight into Amber and why she makes some of the choices she makes in No Remorse…again, you get to be the
judge.

“B
reaking News, an out of control
animal
killed all the
patrons in
Ryan
’s Bar
a little after midnight last night...
” Amber
sarcastically
mimicked the voice of the news anchor she had heard that morning
, making up her own feature
d
report
. She couldn’t pull herself away from her tousled image reflected in the mirror.
Her
dark chocolate eyes swirling
with specks of yellow stared back at her. The pounding in her head would not ease and her body ached all over. If she were a human, everyone would tell
her to go to bed and rest, suggesting
she had the flu. But she wasn’t human.
And if she wasn’t careful, her joking statement
to her own reflection
would make headline news.

The
full moon was not
for another three
night
s
,
Ambe
r felt
it was safe to go
into work, no matter how much she hurt. Staying on the run from the Council meant she needed mone
y
and
had no choice but to work
. So she
left her motel room,
hopped into her
black
Jeep Wrangler and dro
ve two miles up the
winding
highway to
wards
the bar
where she had started waiting tables two weeks earlier.

Always on the move, the backwoods bar scene had become her way of life
after leaving the shelter
eight
years earlier.
Her wolf had stayed hidden and in the recesses of her mind.
However, f
or t
he past couple of mont
hs
things
felt like they were changing inside her mind and body
. S
he
was
experiencing insistent urges to ru
n
and
lived with the
constant
pain
which radiated
through
out
her body
. She
repeatedly
had to hide her eyes from the humans because she knew they would be alarmed if they saw the y
ellow
specks mixing
through the deep dark color of her
eyes.
Hee
ding the warnings
from
her mother, Amber was prepared
and knew, for the most part,
what to expect when she
made her first shift
into her werewolf form
, w
hich was
about ten years
overdue.

Each month
since her sixteenth birthday
, Amber had anticipated the change
and e
ach month she had been disappointed
.
She
did
n’
t understand why she had
n’
t shifted. All female werewolves changed around sixteen, but not her. Her mother
had always
told her she was
different
. Being born on the full moon
gave her special abilities
typical werewolves did
n’
t possess. But it didn’t make sense and Amber
began to wonder if she was
really a true werewolf
.
Or was she t
he mutt the girls at the orphanage
always called her
? After all, her grandfather had dumped her at
Moonlight Shelter
where all unwanted werewolves and mutts were sent or hid out.

This month
, the approach of the
full moon felt d
ifferent. S
trange sensations, something was
pulling and tugging at her mind
. S
he was having a hard time staying
focused and wondered if it had
anything
to do with the full moon falling on her birthday.
That
something
was
hopefully
her wolf
finally
making its presence known.

Clearing her mind
, she cut the engine to the jeep
,
allowed i
t to roll into the parking spot,
released the clutch
and pushed in the parking
brake
. Climbing out, she headed towards the entrance.
Walking into the smoke
filled bar
, the smell
of cigarette
s
assaulted her senses
caus
ing
her to wrinkle her nose in disgust.
She hated the smell.
The only reason she work
ed
in bars
was
because no one questioned why she only stayed a little while before moving on to the next. No on
e
checked up on her
if
she didn’t show up
for work
, they just h
ired someone else and moved on.

The locals were already gathering around their usual tabl
e
s
or bellying
up to their spot at
the
bar
.
The sharp pains clawing at the inside of her skull made her wonder if her head
was going to explode
. T
he noises from clinking glasses, loud conversation and laughter did
n’t
help it any.
Narrowing
her eyes against the pain
, she passed Catherine
on her way towards the back
.

“Evening Amber, you don’t look
so hot.” Catherine had a way of
pointing out the obvious.

“Thanks for noticing.”
Amber mumb
led
,
heading to the rest
room before starting her shift.

****

From the moment
the man
walk
ed
through
the door
, he
caught Amber’s
attention. There was
something about the way
he
swagger
ed when he walked, it
set her on edge.
Th
e impression she got
of him
m
ade her think
“
dirty old man
,
”
which caused
the
hair
s on the back of
her neck to stand
on end
.
With
her
heightened
hearing
,
she could filter out the usual noises of the loud club
and
hear conversations
clearly
.
Eaves
-dropping in on
interesting or funny stories
usually
kept her
somewhat
amused, but tonight the conversation in the corner was her main focus.
It wasn’t fun
ny or amusing.