TWISTED FATES BOOK 1: THE FIRST TWIST by Jacklyn Rogers (read after TXT) 📕

lay next to him. Taking a big swig of its contents, Devon relished the burning sting as it slowly streamed down his throat.

"This is all because of those fucking nightmares." He slurred to no one in particular.

He remembered how his nightmares were the reasoning for why he'd left his pack and didn't mark Sammie in the first place. In those nightmares, his marking her always led to her death. He chalked the nightmares up as pure paranoia at first, but the fact that he had experienced them continuously for a year was cause for concern; thus, he left his pack to try and get away from his own world. The nightmares, however, continued to haunt him even after he and Sammie moved away. It wasn't until their relationship had begun to hit a downward slope that the nightmares finally ceased.

Devon had made a couple of attempts to rekindle their relationship; each time, the nightmares would once again manifest themselves. He soon realized that his and Sammie's distance was the ultimate end to his nights of torment. Their strife was his liberation. He was finally able to sleep peacefully, free from the nightmares that foretold her death plaguing him over and over again. Obviously, the Moon Goddess was trying to tell him something. Maybe she had made a mistake. Perhaps he and Sammie weren't actually supposed to be mates. Why else would he be seeing her death because of his mark?

MATE ...

Devon was pulled out of his troubling thoughts.

MATE!!!

What's going on, Slade? What about Sammie?

Devon hadn't heard from Slade for quite some time, so hearing his anxiety over Sammie was cause for concern.

MATE IS HURTING. SOMETHING BAD IS HAPPENING. PLEASE STOP IT BEFORE ITS TOO LATE...

Alarms were going off in Devon's head with Slade's words. He was immediately sobered up as he sprang up and began to sprint back home. Unfortunately, Devon never made it there before he was suddenly overcome with a searing pain throughout his entire body, causing him to fall prey to the darkness that befell him.

Chapter 4

Sammie's POV

It felt as though my body was tumbling down an endless black chasm, almost like when you bungee jump off a frighteningly high building at night.

Not that I have, but you get the picture.

My eyes felt like they were open as I scanned the blackness sailing past me during my free fall, except somehow, I was still aware that I was unconscious.

When my body finally ceased the bungee simulation ride, sounds and colors began to trickle through, awakening my senses. I blinked several times to adjust to the bright strobe lights pulsating all around me until I had the sudden awareness that by some means, I was now standing in the night club where Devon and I first met.

Club Fang.

Surveying the club’s atmosphere, I noticed that the music struck me as a little dated. I wondered if maybe this was flashback music-theme night, but as my eyes caught the black and white satin banner draped over the entryway, I knew I was incorrect with my assumption. The banner was donned with a dancing Grim Reaper holding a silver sickle with the numbers 2016 printed on its blade. The reaper was dancing on a dirt mound. Atop the mound was a gravestone dated 2015.

Holy Back to the Future, Batman!

I wasn’t just at the club where Devon and I met; I was literally here on the actual night that we met over three years ago!

Let’s take a moment to soak all this in, shall we?

**********************************************************

“Hey – Beeotch, you in there?” I heard the voice of my BFF, Jay, as I felt someone elbow me on my rib trying to get my attention. I was still trying to shake off the unsettling nausea from my sudden epiphany when I automatically reciprocated the jab with a punch to the arm without even so much as a glance over at my unsuspecting target. Oops!

“Ow Slut! You know how fragile I am. No damaging the merchandise!” Jay scolded as he slapped my hand with a quick flick of his wrist and scowled while he massaged his left arm as if he had been severely beaten by yours truly. I almost choked when my mind, still reeling, was stricken by yet another blow; I now stood next to a ghost from my past.

Jay was really right here next to me at this moment and time.

Breathe, Sammie Breathe.

Cautiously, I turned to face Jay; tiny pools of tears began to form in the corners of my eyes quickly. I tried to hold them back behind my now glistening lashes, but I was so overwhelmed by Jay’s presence that it was quite a struggle.

Seeing Jay, whom I so fondly cherished, in front of me in all his splendor literally knocked the wind out of me. I regarded his svelte lean, and slightly tanned body, his gorgeous amber-colored eyes that had tiny flecks of gold, his signature pastel pink hair that he kept short and closely tapered in the back; while at the same time, his soft bangs swooped to the side and rested on his forehead right above his expertly trimmed and shaped eyebrows. Jay was exactly as I had remembered him.

"Eyebrows maketh the man," Jay would always preach, which is why his trimmed and styled brows were always flawless.

So true, my friends, so true.

I loved Jay. He was everything that represented extraordinary and then some. My eyes began to tear up even more as I recalled how much I missed having him in my life. He was my partner in crime, the love of my life, okay correction; he was the love of my life in a platonic way just as I was his. We had even made a blood oath in high school, solidifying our commitment to each other. In a nutshell, if neither of us ever settled down by the time we were 35, we would marry each other and have the best non-sexual, open relationship marriage EVER!

Hell, when Dasha came into