Never Forsaken (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 5) Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Social Links

  Series List

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Authors Notes

  Review Remarks

  SECRET STUFF AT THE BACK

  Wechselbalg Future

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  This book is a work of fiction, All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright (c) 2016 Michael T. Anderle

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Cover art by Michael T. Anderle

  Version 1.1

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  The email list will be sporadic with more ‘major’ updates, the Facebook group will be for updates and the ‘behind the curtains’ information on writing the next stories. Basically conversing!

  Since I can’t confirm that something I put up on Facebook will absolutely be updated for you, I need the email list to update all fans for any major release or updates that you might want to read on the website.

  I hope you enjoy the book!

  Michael Anderle - Jan 11, 2016.

  Series Titles Include:

  Death Becomes Her

  The Kurtherian Gambit 01

  Queen Bitch

  The Kurtherian Gambit 02

  Love Lost

  The Kurtherian Gambit 03

  Bite This

  The Kurtherian Gambit 04

  Never Forsaken

  The Kurtherian Gambit 05

  Under My Heel

  The Kurtherian Gambit 06

  (Feb 2016)

  Kneel Or Die

  The Kurtherian Gambit 07

  (Late Feb / Mar 2016)

  (There are more,

  but I’m not sharing the titles yet.

  Looking at you Marvel Studios.)

  CHAPTER ONE

  Germany

  Underneath the snow and ice the stone was centuries old. Carried into the small valley on the backs of slaves whose bones had long since turned to dust in the countless massive graves surrounding the castle. For hundreds of years, the trees stood silent as living headstones and the undergrowth covered the only physical remains of lives used up as self-serving expedients without a thought to the people who died to make this fortress.

  David hadn’t cared about humans then, he cared even less for them now. Walking into the massive room beneath his castle, its size, over twenty feet wide and thirty feet long, rising over twenty-five feet in the air was an immense effort of time and lives, effort and lives he couldn’t be bothered to remember. He stopped, staring at the hermitically sealed container in front of him, rage infusing his countenance, his eyes red, his voice full of anguish and hurt, voice barely above a whisper that could still be heard to the four corners of the room.

  “Father, father. Why did you bring me to this? Instead of being locked up in this holding cell, you could be taking your rightful place at the head of our new order. You would have been the prince these cattle would have recognized and followed. Now, I am stuck with Anton, that degenerate mind-fuck and the lives of the Nazi scientists he has extended. Their pitiful existence needed to continue their research on recreating the serum.” David stepped to the glass. “Why you sacrificed others to destroy the effort in Japan is beyond me. We were finished, we were complete. We had the answer in our hands, and your American lackeys destroyed it all in the inferno of their Atom bomb. All of our priceless research gone. All they left me was but a few samples to try and reverse engineer.”

  David, a tall aristocratic looking man with dark widow’s peaks on either side of his forehead started walking back and forth in front of the copper colored rectangular metal and glass container. The iron anchor bolts holding it steadfastly and solidly to the bedrock beneath it.

  “Now, I am forced to kill another sibling. Stephen has annoyingly decided that living is a better solution than just fading into the sun. I will have the blood of another brother on my hands. I’ve despised myself since I sent Hugo to the eternal sleep and now Stephen is forcing me to end his life.” His voice became harder, “This time; however, you are to blame. You brought this new woman into existence, and she pulled Stephen back from his final rest. Stephen’s blood will be laid at your feet, his death on your head. Your Bethany Anne is causing all sorts of trouble for Anton and Stephen is now beyond being a simple annoyance.” He stopped and considered his next steps, “Unfortunately I cannot allow his continued interruptions in my European plans. Eventually, he might impede the progress of projects which are critical. So, I tell you this and you may grieve in advance knowing your choices have already led to so many of our race dying… DYING!” David slammed his palm against the copper exterior, a deep ringing bouncing off the wall.

  He drew himself to his full height, “Do you know how many have died since she was brought forth? DO YOU? Honor is what you preach, but she is the most dishonorable of all. She treats humans as having value, werewolves deserving of respect. This filth she teaches cannot be allowed to spread; cannot be allowed to take root in any more minds than it already has. She has affected far too many of my plans.” His voice stopped, dropping to little more than a whisper. “As powerful as she could become, it is with little happiness that Anton will have to kill her. She would be a supreme choice to become the new leader of our race.” David paused, envisioning a future that could not be, “Of our existence. Compared to her, even you pale in consideration. The cattle would form a line and the sheep would bleat out their willingness to sacrifice everything just to feel her touch.”

  He turned around, looking up and into the distance from underneath so much ground. Up to where he imagined the sun must be shining, those rays which were too painful to see, to enjoy and spoke into the air. “Even for someone who would take us into such a glorious future, she must be sacrificed to the greater righteousness and make amends for the millions killed seeking our rightful place.” He paused imagining what would not be, “Pity that.”

  David walked towards the steps that would take him up to the castle proper, wrapped in his own thoughts, his anger from a minute before completely forgotten. He called over his shoulder before disappearing up the stone steps, “Do say your goodbyes for Stephen, h
e won’t be long in this world.”

  In the copper container a myst swirled from top to the bottom and back again, agitated. The pressure inside was too great for the myst to become a flesh and blood being, for a human form would immediately disintegrate. The myst had been in this container for a time which seemed an ongoing, never ending pain as its energy continued to fade. It had too much time to think, to listen to his child rail forth in rage and dishonor. Time for even a thousand-year-old being to consider the mistakes an unbreakable belief in absolutes might bring about. To realize his whole existence and knowledge had been laid low, his superior standards, broken on the anvil of reality. If the myst could weep, it would shed ten-thousand tears.

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem

  So, what are you saying is going to happen?

  Would a qualified ‘I don’t know’ satisfy you?

  Bethany Anne snorted, how TOM thought anything of the sort was beyond her. She was standing in front of the pod-doc in TOM’s ship. They had been going through the results on the German Shepherd’s medical review for the last fifteen minutes. Well, as much as ‘push this button… hmmm… push that button and slide that digital representation up… hmmm… not sure about this… push this….’ could accomplish. She was getting a little impatient with the alien symbiont inside of her.

  Ok, give me your unqualified best guess TOM. I’m getting a little impatient.

  Really? When did we start with patience so you could reduce it? I thought if a substance was lacking in the first place, you couldn’t lose what you didn’t have in the beginning?

  TOM, if it didn’t hurt so much, I would slap you smart.

  Good for me you can’t at the moment, hmmm? Wait, what was that?

  Bethany Anne grinned. TOM had become his own complete personality with idiosyncrasies she both enjoyed and deplored. She finally figured out the other night he could hear a copy of another trashy reality TV show that was vibrating down from the deck above and quickly went up and walked in on a group of Navy folks working in the kitchen.

  She looked at the TV, walked over and yanked the plug out of the wall, which got everyone’s attention. “See this TV?” Lots of heads shook up and down. She reached down while holding the TV with her left hand and then yanked the plug out of the TV with her right. “This TV was giving TOM all sorts of bad human ideas that I have to listen to all of the time. Now, any TV that is running in here better be family friendly or the next one goes overboard with the person who was playing it, capisch?” Lots of heads shook up and down. One or two were trying not to smile. Some of TOM’s comments had run through the grapevine and there was a small but growing cadre of TOM fans.

  It was driving her nuts.

  She quit daydreaming and got back to the task at hand.

  Never mind what I said, what is the diagnosis?

  We have our own version of the Six Million Dollar Mutt?

  Gott Verdammt! She was going to find John and slap the ever loving shit out of him. TOM asked about watching that deplorable old TV show after he heard a conversation between John and Frank and now fancied himself a creator of new and better versions of reality. Maybe she should slap Frank for good measure.

  Bethany Anne reached up and pulled aside the cover which allowed her to view inside and looked inside the pod-doc. ‘Oh, holy shit. I don’t remember him looking like that when I put him in there, TOM. What happened?’

  You’re talking to the air, again.

  “Shut up and just get on with it. Anyone inside this ship right now knows you’re in me.”

  There is no one else in this ship.

  There was a pregnant pause as Bethany Anne didn’t reply.

  Ok, got it. It seems the pod-doc decided to move forward after we put the canine in the medical doc.

  Why would it decide to do this? I was under the impression that we were just checking it out.

  Human error?

  How could it be human error, you ass! I was the only one who was setting it up, and we both know I don’t know shit about how to operate your machinery, including Bones here!

  Bones? Oh, Dr. Bones. Nice one.

  Bethany Anne had pulled the Star Trek series to watch with TOM and they had made it through season one so far.

  Well, Jim, it’s like this - I fucked up.

  Bethany Anne was pole axed for a moment, just letting his comment wash through her. She could feel his slight embarrassment through their connection. She straightened up for a second then bent back over and looked in the small window for thirty seconds and stood back up again.

  “TOM, buddy, that might be a small understatement. We put a normal if pretty aggressive German Shepherd into the pod-doc. What I have in there is an all-white monster sized German Shepherd with what I imagine are small knives for teeth and feet the size of horse shoes. I don’t know if he can eat a side of beef, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough cow on board for that dog. If the aggressiveness has been adjusted, I might have to kill it and that is a hell of a ‘thank you’ for helping me in the fight.”

  True and I would feel bad about that. However, on the positive side he isn’t ready to come out yet so we have a little time to discuss this situation.

  “Situation, yeah, that about sums up this SNAFU. Well, take your readings and set them to give it what we can. If we are going to change him, and that train has left the station, we might as well up the settings to 11.”

  Bethany Anne, the ‘settings’ don’t have an 11.

  Turn of phrase TOM, it means we turn them up past what others can turn their … You know, I’ll just have to let you watch an old movie called Spinal Tap.

  Ok, up to ’11’ it is.

  Five minutes later, she turned to her right and took a step to trans-locate through the etheric. She disappeared before putting her foot down.

  The Queen Bitch's Ship Polarus

  Bethany Anne completed her step when appearing inside her protected wardrobe. She unlocked the door and walked into her personal suite. Ecaterina was working at her desk. She was giving off a dissatisfied energy that Bethany Anne was able to almost feel, even if it didn’t touch her face.

  Jumping up on her bed, she crossed her legs and put her head on her palm, elbow on her leg. “What you got for me, Kat?”

  Ecaterina was accustomed to Bethany Anne appearing from any direction. Since her human senses wouldn’t register so much of what Bethany Anne could do, she tried to dampen her reactions honed from years out in the wilderness on the ship. A wilderness, she could admit to herself, she was missing.

  Ecaterina worked down the list of tasks.

  “The Weres are on their way down to Miami. They will stop and talk with Nathan and Pete and then Pete will bring them down to us. Bobcat will pick them up at the closest airport, not sure which one that is, yet. Nathan is working on a task with Frank and Lance up in Miami at the moment so he is staying there. Dan and the team are getting ready to have the meeting with the Weres. We have been able to track a little of what is going on in San Jose because of the newspaper and the reporter you guys helped. She has some sort of love-fest going on for you guys. Except, she suggests, her butt was pinched.”

  Bethany Anne retorted, “She wishes, it was a dart from my gun. I shot her to put her to sleep. We needed the reporter quiet at the time and it seemed the easiest solution, she’s freaking out like a little girl.”

  Ecaterina looked up over her laptop at Bethany Anne on the bed; she raised an eyebrow in question. “She is young, maybe not a little girl but certainly had enough guts to try and get the story, no?”

  “Yeah, ok. You might consider that rash, stupid, or any of a number of other items. I suppose you could attach bravery as an alternate possibility.” Bethany Anne said.

  “In my country, freedom of the press is permitted, but we still remember when it was not so easy to get the truth out. I appreciate her effort to tell the truth even if we don’t personally want it known.”

  “Consider me duly chastised. Her s
tories have helped us, at least the politicians aren’t trying to track us down. I don’t think we’ve gotten a single call in a week, right?”

  “That is true, so I consider her an asset. Asset, this is the right term, yes?”

  Bethany Anne thought about that. “Yes, she is definitely an asset; nothing she has done has hurt us. You’re right, she is a benefit.” There was more going on with Ecaterina than she thought. “Are you missing Nathan? He has only been gone a couple of days.”

  Ecaterina looked back up from her laptop and pursed her lips. She closed the lid on the laptop and made a frown. “Nathan is not happy that I want to do more and we have had a disagreement. I don’t like being stuck on the ship all of the time when everyone leaves to go on operations. He thought I would be happy for a while with the new sniper rifles, but it was a ruse. A ruse? Maybe that is the wrong term. I am not unhappy to be with you, and I will take however long I need to be a part of your ops team, I am ready to be more than just… this.” The waved her hand over the laptop, “More than one who manages people and things.”