Heart of the Pride by Anaya Phoenix (top 10 novels to read txt) 📕

“Waitress!” He called, one of them coming to their large table. Izzy stopped and looked to him, her brow furrowing.

“Can I have two more order of chicken fingers and quesadillas?”  Izzy smirked, gave Zena’s plate one last look of longing then walked back to her seat. Nobody seemed to notice her at all as she sat back down and looked at him.

“You’re very smart, ya know that?”

“Eh, I’ve my days. You want the rest of my steak?” She looked at his barely touched steak and her stomach grumbled.

“No, it wouldn’t be fair.” She said even as she picked up her fork, stabbed the piece of meat  and lifted it to her lips.

“Eh, we’re sharing the chicken fingers, I’d say it’s fair enough.” The steak stopped just as her lips opened. She put the meat back on his plate and ripped her fork out of it.

“Yeah, I don’t think so buddy.” She said as she put the fork in her mouth and licked the juices off.

“You wouldn’t share your chicken fingers with the one you love?”

“Of course I would share with my dad and Ferris!”

“Boo yah!” Ferris said, pushing his hand in the air and munching on his burger. Which looked delicious to Izzy. Before Izzy could stand and do her best impression of James Bond chicken fingers were placed in front of her. She salivated and touched the piping hot piece of chicken then immediately put it down. She sent a scathing glare to the food and gave her finger to Timmy.

“The chicken hurt me.”

“Babe, it’s been dead for a while now, I doubt it’s capable of doing any harm to you.” He said, but still gripped her finger and kissed it softly, making her smile then douse her chicken with mustard.

“How can you stand the taste of that?”

“Don’t flipping worry about it.” She said as she popped the, still pretty hot, chicken finger in her mouth and moaned in ecstasy.

“I’ve got to, because I feel if I don’t you’ll destroy yourself.”

“A lot of intensity for Applebee’s.”

“That rhymed, slightly.”

“You rhyme slightly.”

“that didn’t make sense.”

“Your existence doesn’t make sense.” To that Zena fist pumped in the air.

After she’d engorged herself with as much food as she dared they drove to carvel where she totally and completely bullied Timmy into buying her a whole ice cream cake and then eating it all by herself. Sure her family members tried to take some… they ended up with either a slap to the head or a punch to the arm. There were just some boundaries that weren’t crossed, trying to take ice cream cake was one of them. She sucked on the spoon, trying to harness all the flavor she could and sighed deeply. She’d have to address what happened, there would probably be fighting or crying involved. This was her family she was talking about… she wasn’t going to downplay it. They were fucking crazy.

“What’re you thinking about so hard?” Cassie asked, sitting down next to her making sure not to touch her.

“About what’s going to happen when we get back…  and about this delicious cake.” Izzy sighed as she ate another piece of the cake. Cassie watched her with those wide brown eyes and nibbled on her bottom lip.

“Things… don’t go the way we think they’ll go. Honestly, there’s nothing we can do about it. So the best thing to do is to just grin, bear it, and don’t lose what little patience you’ve got Izzy.” With that Cassie got up and walked back to the other table where the others sat. Well, Izzy humphed as she stuck the plastic spoon into her cake, what the hell does that mean?

                She sat on Timmy’s lap and tapped her foot in the car, if she was hurting him he didn’t show it. She was tempted to tap her foot just a pinch harder… just a pinch. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her mid-section, pulling her closer to his chest.

“Are you trying to hurt me?” To that she kicked his shin, and smiled when he hissed through his teeth.

“Gee, what gave it away?” She asked lethally, crossing her arms around her chest and rolling her eyes.

“The kicking on my foot, that kinda gave it away. What’d I do this time?”

“What did you do this time!? Oh that’s just r-“

“Save it for the house!” Zena yelled, her wild hair flying around as she exclaimed. Izzy shut her mouth and humphed once, getting a sandal thrown at her.

“I said shut it.” Zena growled and pointed her cute little finger at Izzy in warning. Izzy sneered at her sister and looked away as soon as her head turned. She knew Timmy was smirking and it ticked her off to no end, so who was going to judge her when she had to wipe that stupid little smirk off his face? No one, that's who.

     When they returned to Timmys house they were quiet as they piled into the sitting room and sat down. Izzy stood, looking down at them all.

"Anybody wanna explain what's going on?" She asked, her patience being tested. When everyone merely looked around awkwardly she growled low in her throat and moved further in to the room. Whoa animal kingdom much?

"We aren't here to explain it to you, honeybun." Cassandra said, her hand twitching nervously on Darren's knee.

"We' re just here to help Timmy." Jaime said calmly. Izzy narrowed her eyes dangerously on the boy and moved closer to him.

"To help Timmy? Because he's the one that totally needs help in this situation!" She snarled at him, her fists clenching as anger surged through her.

"Izzy-" Timmy started but she turned, looking around and facing him.

"To you it's Isabel. Now tell me what the fuck your psycho mother did  to me and what the he'll is going on around here." She didn't raise her voice, she wouldn't allow herself to lose her temper and say it  do something she'd regret later.

"Well, you see it's not that easy to explain." He said sheepishly, reaching around and scratching the back of his neck. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she took a step back and let out a breath. She'd think rationally... even though she did have the unexplainable urge to just roar at him and scratch his face off.

"Explain it to me then." She said calmly, taking a seat on the couch next to Cassandra, knowing that if anybody were to keep her calm and level headed it would be her. She could feel the nervous looks that her family and friends sent forward her, her skin soaked them in and converted it into a balm that would serve to calm her.

"Well, it has to do with my family lineage. Back in the 1500's my grand father stumbled across a little gypsy girl. He took her in to his house, because she was injured. At the time the DeMarcos still lived in Italy, and my grandfather was a true Italian man. Strong, noble, and a proper gentleman. He wasn't too bad with the ladies either. He nursed the girl back to health, tending  to her wounds and taking care of her. The story gets a bit muddled after that. If you ask the gypsies what happened they would say that Antonio DeMarco raped and intended to keep the gypsy girl, but our family knows the truth.

     The girl had Stockholm syndrome, and she had it bad. Like I said earlier, he wasn't too bad in the ladies department. Almost every other night he'd return home with a different lover. And Analetta, the little gypsy girl, heard every single thing. The story goes that she loved Antonio, loved him with all her heart and couldn't stand the woman he brought home. She would hex the woman so that in the morning they'd have boils and blisters all over their faces and their beauty would never call to another male.

     That wasn't all she did though. Although she was no older than 15 Analetta was cunning, she knew that the noble Antonio would never touch her. She used a glamour  to turn her appearance into a beautiful young maiden, one that Antonio would never refuse and waited for him to come  to her. In the throes of their love making her glamour slid off, revealing her to be what she truly was. Antonio couldn't... stop, and he finished inside of her. He banished her from his bed chamber and sat in wallow and pity.

     Analetta had fully healed and, as  a man of his word, took her back to her home. Her parents and her people could sense the difference in her automatically, she carried Antonio's child inside of her. She was fated to be tied to another, the sale had already been made. It wouldn't do if her virginity wasn't intact, never mind if she was pregnant with another. Analetta knew this, in their eyes she could do no wrong. They knocked Antonio out, and cursed him and all of the males that would descend from him. Every third week of the month they would turn into an animal, a monster incapable of making humane decisions. Wolves were rare in Italy, the only thing that the chief could think of was a tiger. Tigers aren't native to Italy, they require a certain habitat and Italy's maritime climate is not that. The gypsies were trying to kill him.

     Antonio quickly recovered, although they had left and he had no way to track them down, he vowed to get his vengeance on Analetta and her family. That vow only thickened when he turned for the first time into a tiger. He was hunted out of his home town and was forced to live as  a rogue until he settled down, which he only did when he was sure he could handle the phases. He attained a wife who accepted him as he was, well that's a whole other story, and had three sons and a daughter. The curse caught all of the boys, like the gypsies had intended and life went on." He signed deeply and looked to Izzy who had gone stone still and only moved  to blink and breath.

"I think it's time for our story now, sweetheart." Her mom said, dragging Izzy out of her stupor.

"What?" Her voice cracked as she looked  to her mother.

"You... we were destined to mate animals. Well, it's more like we were cursed to do it. Our ancestors weren't exactly pure. Abigaille Diovante was promiscuous, and that's putting it lightly. One night she slipped up and had sex with a gypsy male. He wanted more, she didn't. He got pissed and cursed her to love  a beast, an animal who wasn't capable of loving anything, and that her childrens children would face the same hardship. It skips a generation. We weren't the ones that Antonio mated with but there are only but so many monsters out there, no offense." She said looking to Timmy.

"None taken."

"You are cursed, or blessed however you choose to see it, to be with Timmy, and your grand children will be cursed to be with another monster." Izzy Sat there, her mouth