An English teacher running from a murderous and haunting past finds herself on a collision course with the supernatural when she takes a teaching position at Stillwater Academy, the premier school for the children of elite supernaturals founded by i...
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Carson dropped the large branch he'd cleared from the back of his yard onto the pile of garden clippings by the road on his front lawn. Crews would collect the rubbish on trash day and put it in the compost area.
Carson knew that he didn't need to do all this work himself. The landscapers would take care of the property if he didn't feel like getting coated in dirt and sweat as he worked. His residence was on campus, after all. Yet there was something nice about doing the work himself. It gave him a sense of owndership over his own home. Besides, he was a wolf. Carson was born to be outside, but as he'd grown older, he'd learned that gardening was far more cathartic than barrelling through the forests in wolf-form like a madman...unless he found himself in a really bad mood.
Then running was the only thing that would clear his mind and calm him.
With a sigh, he pulled his towel from his back pocket and wiped away his sweat before grabbing his bottle and guzzling water. He'd already been out here far longer than he'd intended, but he was enjoying it. So he was working through the heat and sweat.
In the distance, he heard the hum of the electric golf cart followed by the roar of an engine that sounded like it needed the attention of a good mechanic. Smiling because he knew who must be arriving now, he placed his towel and bottle on a bench under the shade of a large elm tree before stalking over to the hedges and picking up his pruning shears.
It wasn't polite to stare, not even at your new neighbors.
Soon, he saw Kali round the bend on her golf cart, followed closely by the worn sedan he recognized as belonging to Dr. Sinclair. Carson pretended not to notice as the golf cart led the car to pull up to the house directly across from his.
The faculty and administrative residences were called cottages, although they were a bit larger than the mental image of a quaint English countryside home usually conjured by the term. The standard residences had three bedrooms, a garage, two bathrooms, and a living room that allowed for natural light at any time of the day. Most supernaturals preferred natural light to the harsh artificial lights developed by humans.
When he heard the car door slam, he grinned and snapped off a bit of overgrown greenery. After a few moments of back and forth between Addie and Kali, there was the sound of heavy boxes being moved and tossed to the grass, and the breeze carried scent of Dr. Sinclair and her excitement. When sensation of her presence brushed his awareness, he shivered.
Then, there was the sound of a seatbelt being undone and a young girl asking breathlessly. "This is our home, mommy?"
He couldn't resist looking any longer, so he turned and surreptitiously stared at the newly arrived pair standing next to Kali. Dr. Sinclair was stunning as always, using her one hand to shield her face from the sun while taking the hand of the little girl in the other.
"That's what Kali said. Do you want to see the house then start unpacking?"
