Before Their After: State of the Union Prequel Novellas by Nelle Nikole

Author:Nelle Nikole [Nikole, Nelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Primal Instinct Publishing
Published: 2024-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

There was something to be said about Montana air. Even in chaos, it brought peace. Helped me strengthen my weakening facade. The world around me was undisturbed, beautiful, skies so blue and vast that it shut out all the pain and suffering that lay beyond our lands. It was why I came back after James. I could run, but I couldn’t hide from the love and safety I felt on our land. Without the horses I raised and the family I held dear, this was home. Always would be. Didn’t need much more than that.

A hawk soared above me, unusual since the change in climate we’d faced since the world ended. The usual frigid air had caused most birds to fly south permanently. It’d been rather warm lately. Well, warm considering the weather we typically got most days. Rolling hills closed in on the open sky as I lay back on Freedom, legs dangling over his broad back as he grazed lazily on the grass in the field.

I’d hated the name my sister had given our little runaway, but it’d soon grown on me after a late night of searching for him. Reina’s sing-song voice asking ‘Where’s our Freedom?’ as she helped me search and avoid our father’s wrath at the missing stallion had been one of my core memories with her.

Our father had warned me to fix his stall for over a week since he’d first gotten out. Despite chasing after him damn near each night, fifteen-year-old me had been too hardheaded to listen. Too stubborn for my own good. Always had been. James and Hunter told me I was on my own after the second night, but not Reina. Never Reina. She always had my back, regardless our differences.

“Can I interest you in an evening hunt?” Hunter’s voice broke the sound of nature as it cut into the walkie at my hip.

I reached down, unclasping it and bringing it to my lips with a smile. “Ain’t that something. Came out your room with daylight to spare. With you? No thanks, better off with Reina.”

“You say that like she’s not the best shot in the family.”

A clipped chuckle escaped me as I paused, considering my answer. “Yeah, don’t let her hear you say that, though. She’ll never shut up.”

Reina, for as much as she yearned for the city life, was terrifyingly accurate with a bow and arrow. Since she was a six-year-old, annoying little girl tagging along on our hunts, she’d bring in the biggest game. A fact that irritated our father, expecting more from his sons. Hunter and James had always been the better brothers, refusing to hang their head in shame over the fact that their little sister had bested them. Congratulating her as if our father wasn’t offering them a glare promising punishment later. It was fine. That glare meant little for them. They could get away with it. They weren’t the family disappointment.

“You know what?” Hunter said. The static picked up, muffling his words. “I’ll ask her instead.

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